Sticks N' Stones just marked its first anniversary at 5852 Elsie Road in Hoover. Co-owners Trice Green and Lynnie Harrison-Green opened the cocktail bar and short-menu kitchen without prior bar-shift experience. The pair, both lifelong Hoover residents, say they approached the business the way a regular customer would rather than as industry veterans learning the trade on the fly.
According to Hoover Sun, Green graduated from Hoover High School in 2007 and played college basketball at Virginia Union University, while Harrison-Green works as a physician assistant. Neither had prior bar-shift experience before opening, but Green has said the owners approached the business from the patron's side of the counter rather than the staff side. That outsider's perspective shaped a concept the two had been developing for roughly five years before the bar ever opened its doors.
The timeline tracks back further than the anniversary alone. Co-founders Green and Harrison-Green met with developers of Knox Square four years before opening, selecting their commercial lot when the Elsie Road corridor was still unbuilt terrain, according to Bham Now. The bar officially opened over the weekend before the July 22, 2025, article, and the name itself carries personal meaning: Green has said “Sticks N' Stones” draws from the old nursery rhyme about resilience.
A Bar Built With a Mentor's Help
To fill the gap in hospitality know-how, the Greens leaned on Jesus Mendez, the Birmingham restaurateur behind Salud Taqueria, Adiõs, Unos Tacos and The Louis Bar, per Hoover Sun. Mendez collaborated directly on the drink program, and Green has said the owners relied on mentors like him to build their expertise rather than going it alone. In Birmingham's dining scene, the downtown lounge Adiõs has earned recognition from the James Beard Foundation, Tales of the Cocktail, Food & Wine and Eater, according to a video posted by the Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau.
That mentorship shows up on the menu. Sticks N' Stones serves a 14-ounce ribeye, a red wine-braised short rib and roasted wings in three flavors, paired with cocktails like the Grayson Pecan Old Fashioned, the Knox Square Margarita, the Leech's Martini and a gin drink named the Ginnie Hendrix. The space includes a dance floor and is designed, per Hoover Sun, as a spot for celebrations that combine a serious meal with a proper night out.
Knox Square's Growing Foot Traffic
The bar's location is doing plenty of the marketing for it. Sticks N' Stones sits inside The Village at Knox Square, a 7-acre mixed-use development from Terra Equities with 48,000 square feet of Phase 1 commercial space and 160 planned residences, directly across Elsie Road from the Hoover Metropolitan Complex, as Hoodline previously reported. That sports complex isn't a quiet neighbor — between October 2024 and September 2025 it drew 785,000 visitors and generated $101 million in total economic impact, an 11% jump year-over-year, with the complex active on 45 of 52 weekends during the fiscal year, Bham Now reported.
Knox Square has filled in around the bar, with businesses including Ashley Mac's, Taziki's Mediterranean Café, Farm Bowl + Juice Co. and Tap Ins Golf Bar and Lounge along the same stretch of Elsie Road. June Coffee was also planning a second Knox Square location, with no opening date confirmed.
Staffing Through a Tight Labor Market
Running a bar in this climate hasn't been without friction. Sticks N' Stones has faced post-pandemic hospitality staffing challenges, per Hoover Sun's reporting, a pressure point that has squeezed bars and restaurants nationally since the industry's slow recovery. Green has said the business prioritizes hiring people who genuinely care about hospitality culture, and the bar employs career hospitality workers who want to stay in the industry long-term rather than treat the job as a stopgap.
Beyond pouring drinks, the bar has carved out a second identity as a civic meeting spot. It has hosted an Alabama Women in Business networking night. A Hoover Democrats meeting was scheduled at Sticks N' Stones for April 21, according to the Alabama Jefferson County Democrats. The venue also took part in Birmingham Restaurant Week 2026, running July 30 through August 8, offering promotional menus that showcased its kitchen and bar program to a wider metro audience.
Today Sticks N' Stones is open Tuesday through Sunday, with hours that vary by day, and the bar does not accept reservations, according to its own listing at sticksnstoneshvr.com. A year in, the owners' original bet — that a bar built by patrons, for patrons, could hold its own with help from a mentor — appears to be paying off as Knox Square keeps filling in around them.
