Birmingham is known as a foodie town. That can mean barbeque or dinner at a James Beard Award winning restaurant. But, the Magic City also has a history with the humble peanut. The Cassimus family settled in Birmingham after leaving Greece in 1907. Soon after, D.J. Cassimus was selling fresh roasted peanuts on downtown’s bustling Morris Avenue. Now, you’ll find boiled peanuts there, too.
The heavenly scent of fresh-roasted peanuts fills the air along downtown Birmingham’s historic Morris Avenue.
Just as it has for nearly 120 years.
“Smell is a powerful memory, and of course, my first memory is the smell of roasting peanuts,” says John Cassimus, whose late grandfather, Greek immigrant D.J. Cassimus, started roasting and selling peanuts here in 1907.
Morris Avenue was the epicenter of trade in the Magic City in those days,
“We had A.C. Legg Spice Company, we had Dixie Coffee, we had a chocolate manufacturer, we had a fish house, had a grocery business,” John says.
His grandfather’s shop was originally called the Terminal Candy Kitchen – so named because of its proximity to the old L&N Station downtown.
“They made confections, and they made candy and the peanuts,” John says. “People started buying the peanuts just as roasted peanuts. And that's when he kind of decided, you know, I'll just do peanuts.”
A name change was in order.
“Terminal Candy Kitchen, that was his business partner, who he bought out, I think, in 1922, and when he did, he renamed it, and it officially became the Peanut Depot,” John says.
Alex Cassimus – John’s uncle – took over the family business after he returned from World War II. A few years later, he moved the Peanut Depot about 100 feet from its original location into its current spot at 2016 Morris Ave.
After John’s Uncle Alex retired in the mid-’80s, a series of owners continued the Peanut Depot tradition.
But when the last tenant moved out in 2016, it looked like it might be the end of an era on Morris Avenue.
John couldn’t let that happen, though.
“There was about three weeks where the business was closed,” he recalls. “I showed up one Sunday and kind of made an attempt to roast peanuts, and there were people coming by, knocking on the windows and wanting to come in. I had to explain to them what had happened. I came home that night and told my wife, ‘You know, I'm going to keep it going. This is just too cool to let it die.’”
A metallurgical engineer by trade, John ran the business for about a year and a half. Then he met a young entrepreneur and fellow peanut man named Jaime Thursby.
“Believe me, I had a lot of knuckleheads that wanted to buy the business, and Jaime was perfect,” John says. “He's already a peanut man, and how many people were peanut men in Birmingham? Maybe two? Me and him.”
Jaime’s parents owned an antiques shop in suburban Bluff Park. And as a side gig, he and his brother-in-law, Darrell Graf, started selling boiled peanuts on weekends.
“We sold out within like two hours, and I was like, well, maybe we have something,” Jaime remembers. “So, every Sunday we started doing boiled peanuts in the market at my antique shop.”
Word spread, and Jaime began hosting peanut pop-ups around Birmingham. Eventually, his accountant connected him with John Cassimus, and Jaime moved into the old Peanut Depot in 2018. He rebranded the business the Alabama Peanut Company.
“When everything just started happening, it's like the story was written,” Jaime says. “Things just happened so quick.”
Jaime equated taking over the legendary peanut shop to being handed the keys to the Grand Ole Opry.
“Moving into an iconic space like the Peanut Depot, I knew there was gonna be a lot of eyes on me,” he says.
First, John had to teach him how to operate those century-old cast-iron peanut roasters.
“He definitely was a stickler about making sure I understood the roasting process,” Jaime says.
Since the old shop only had roasting equipment, John had to put his engineering skills to work and helped Jaime design the stainless-steel pots for boiling peanuts.
These days, the peanut shop has become as popular for its boiled peanuts as its roasted ones.
Chase Johnson works with Jaime to develop all the flavors for the boiled peanuts, which rotate daily. They have about 100 in their repertoire, including dill pickle, jalapeno-lime and Bloody Mary -- as well as classic salt.
Other flavors highlight Alabama food brands, such as Wickles Pickles, Dreamland Bar-B-Que and Dale’s steak sauce.
Since taking over the business, Jaime hasn’t just preserved a peanut tradition. He’s grown it.
In 2024, he opened a second Alabama Peanut Company shop in downtown Tuscaloosa’s bustling Temerson Square entertainment district.
That led to a statewide retail distribution deal with the Birmingham-based food and beverage distributor AlaBev. (Coincidentally, AlaBev also traces its roots back to 1907, the same year D.J. Cassimus began selling peanuts on Morris Avenue.)
“After I opened Tuscaloosa, we were approached by AlaBev,” Jaime says. “They wanted to carry our roasted peanuts as a distributor for the state of Alabama.
“So that was a really great, positive thing that Tuscaloosa spring-boarded for me. So now you can find our roasted peanuts at Piggly Wiggly (locations) all across Alabama.”
For Jaime’s efforts growing the Alabama Peanut Company brand, the Alabama Retail Association named him a 2025 Retailer of the Year.
Back on Morris Avenue, Ashley Gray fills a cardboard box with small paper bags of roasted peanuts. They’re for a wedding, she says.
“I'm a peanut sender, so I give all of the people their peanuts that they need,” Ashley says. “It’s all peanut love here.”
Ashley grew up on these peanuts.
“I do remember getting peanuts from here,” she says. “My grandma used to come. She loved peanuts, so every time they had them fresh roasted, she was down here.”
The smell of those fresh roasted peanuts brings back memories.
“You can't describe it,” Ashley continues. “It's something that is nostalgic . . . like a comforting feeling. It just smells like home.”
Just as it has since 1907.
