Homemade in Homewood

The orange rolls served at The Club are a 60-plus-year tradition — and their most famous one, at that.

“If they find out you work at The Club, orange rolls come up,” said 34-year staff member Betty Starks.

The Club serves them at every meal, provides them as wedding guest favors and always makes sure to bring along a few trays for tasting events. As executive chef James Riles puts it, “They won’t let us in the door” without the rolls.

“Miss Jessie [McMickens] makes about, I’d say, between [40,000] and 70,000 rolls during the month of December,” Riles said.

The story of The Club’s orange rolls dates back to 1951, General Manager Brian Green said. The original recipe was lost when one of The Club’s early pastry chefs left, but kitchen staff member Essie Johnson figured out her own recipe. Johnson and Starks were part of a team of three to make the orange rolls, which at the time were closer in size to a large cinnamon roll.

They would arrive at 12:30 or 1 a.m. so they didn’t have to fight for space with the other pastry staff for oven space, but “once you get your body trained for it, you look forward to it,” Starks said.

“I’d stay up all night so I wouldn’t miss my ride,” Starks said. “It was worth it because you got a chance to eat them.”

Johnson handed down the recipe to McMickens, who has been making orange rolls for 21 of her 24 years at The Club. When she started, McMickens said she knew little about baking and had to be taught each stage of the process, including baking fresh dough every morning.

McMickens is now the sole maker of The Club’s orange rolls, though the kitchen now has additional ovens and her shift starts much later, at 6 a.m. Her batches can range from about 500 per day in the slow season to 2,000 a day in December, along with cornbread, cookies and cinnamon rolls.

“I enjoy making them because it teaches me how to go home and make regular rolls for my family,” McMickens said.

After more than two decades, McMickens is deft and efficient in the kitchen. She’s responsible for everything from making and rolling the dough to baking and glazing the final rolls. There are two essential parts to the rolls: the filling — made from coconut flakes and orange zest — and the glaze, which McMickens blends from orange juice, powdered sugar and food dye.

“We’re proud to be able to showcase them,” Green said.

McMickens, on the other hand, demurs when any compliments to her abilities come up.

“It’s only by the grace of God that I’ve been doing as good as they say I’ve been doing, because it can be tiresome. It can wear your body out sometimes,” she said.

People around the area may seem unable to get enough of the orange rolls — McMickens has had days where patrons in The Club’s restaurants eat them faster than she can bake them. But inside the kitchen, she said, the luster can wear off over time when you’re making thousands per day. McMickens doesn’t eat many rolls herself, though she said breads have never been a favorite food of hers.

“The thing about being at The Club, you don’t want to see another orange roll when you go home,” Riles said. “I ate one a day for the first six months I was here, and after that I was done.”

The recipe for orange rolls has changed in small ways over the years, Riles said, altering its texture more than its taste. When he arrived in the executive chef position about 18 months ago, it was one of the first topics to reach his ear.

“I went out to the dining room, and all the older members told me the orange rolls weren’t right. So I started digging and digging and digging,” Riles said.

He got in touch with Johnson, now in her 80s, and had her walk him through the original process. The rolls McMickens makes today go back to their roots.

“She helped us get back to the original recipe,” Riles said of Johnson. “When I got here, it was basically a yeast roll but with icing on it. Now it’s more like a cinnamon roll texture.”

“It hasn’t changed dramatically, but we want it to be like the original,” Green added.

The “longevity” of the rolls is what has made them so iconic in Birmingham, Riles said. They’ve stayed steady through the different chefs, building renovations and other changes The Club has seen over the years. 

The Club has shipped their rolls as far away as Texas for an event, but they’re also still available for anyone to pick up a box to take home or to the office.

“In 66 years, the orange rolls have survived everything. Lots of changes have taken place, renovations. One thing has remained constant: the orange rolls,” Riles said.