Love burgers and steak? This Huntsville restaurant/meat market is for you

In the beginning, they were going to make their food truck “a meat market on wheels.” A mobile business where married couple Marko and Jennifer Palazon sold cuts of meat he butchered at a local commissary. Those plans, like many others, were changed by the pandemic. The company Marko ordered a glass meat display case for their truck that went out of business.

The Palazons decided to pivot. They kept the business name they planned to use, Southern Wagyu Meat Market. But now it would be a more traditional food truck, albeit one with an elevated menu comprised of items made from the high-quality beef Marko was getting. They took money they were going to spend on the meat display case and put it towards a menu board instead.

The Palazons launched their food truck in 2022. They did frequent lunch services at Redstone Arsenal. They’ve also served at everything from local festivals to private events to Orion Amphitheater concerts. The goal, Marko says, was to “get out to the community, get some awareness” for their brand.

In late summer 2024, Southern Wagyu Meat Market made the leap to brick-and-mortar. It’s at 2827 Hwy. 72 E. and connected to the commissary that Southern Wagyu and other local mobile food businesses use to prep and cook at.

Back in spring 2023, when the previous owner decided to sell the commissary, the Palazons bought that business. Later the commissary’s biggest tenant, bakery Little Dipper, moved out to a brick-and-mortar on Whitesburg Drive.

Jennifer says, “When she got her own brick and mortar, it was like, OK, we can either scramble and try to fill this place with a bunch of tenants, or we can try our hand and see what happens.”

When they opened the restaurant in August 2024, Southern Wagyu’s initial space there was about the size of a one-car garage. They had seating for just 16 guests. “We’re doing this by our bootstraps with as little debt as possible,” Jennifer says.

At first when they opened because they couldn’t afford new tables, they used metal tables from their commissary for Southern Wagyu guests to sit at and eat.

For a while, the business saw “really slow, organic, quiet growth,” Jennifer says. “And then a boom happened out of nowhere in January [2025].”

The upturn timing was encouraging. January is one of the restaurant business’ slowest months, because consumers have less disposable income after December holiday expenses.

Southern Wagyu decided to expand their physical location. They can now seat 49 guests.

They’re going to need the extra seats and space because the food here is awesome. The menu is the same as their still-busy food truck, which operates around 150 days a year. Recently at the restaurant space, I gave two Southern Wagyu signature items a go.

The “classic steaked potatoes” kind of blew me away. Priced less than the monthly cost of ad-free Netflix, the dish boasts a succulent mix of sliced tri-tip, ribeye and filet mignon. Topped with bacon, sour cream, scallions and cheese sauce, and served over a bed of golden steak-cut fries. If you like steak and potatoes, it’s Valhalla in a bowl.

Burgers are listed at the top of Southern Wagyu’s menu and for good reason. Their “classic burger” is built around a melt-in-your-mouth Wagyu ground beef patty, dressed with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, American cheese and tangy sauce, served on a fresh, dream-soft bun. If the Big Mac had a hotter and classier cousin, it would look and taste like Southern Wagyu’s classic burger.

Southern Wagyu also offers steak items like a butcher’s cut, steak sandwich and steak salad. The menu is just one page, always a promising sign. Better to be good at several dishes than meh at many.

Marko still processes all the beef in house. Since going brick-and-mortar, Southern Wagyu has been able to incorporate their original food truck plan. At the physical location, in addition to ordering from the food menu, customers can purchase meat to take home and cook.

These cuts of meat are big enough to make Fred Flintstone blush. “What I specialize in is the whole tenderloins and the whole rib eyes,” Marko says. “Those are like seven to 10 pounds. I just had a gentleman come in and buy 14 one-inch-thick steaks to cook for his whole crew.”

The Palazons both come from entrepreneurial families. Marko grew up in Key West, Tampa and Miami, where his family had restaurants and businesses import-exporting crab meat and mass-producing conch fritters.

After high school, he moved to New York where he worked at notable spots like Gramercy Tavern. Marko later returned to Miami, doing personal chef work for celebs including movie director Michael Bay, the singer Marc Anthony and three U.S. presidents, he says.

Meanwhile in Huntsville, Jennifer’s parents owned and operated a dental lab. She worked for them as a dental technician and then in a human resources capacity. At Southern Wagyu, Jennifer handles administrational tasks, including HR, accounting and marketing. “I’ve got kind of a rounded view of all that,” Jennifer says, “from growing up around my parents.”

Jennifer’s prior restaurant experience was just a short stint as a Waffle House waitress. She was a longtime baking afficionado, though. Now she makes Southern Wagyu’s desserts, including a goat-cheese cheesecake. Her layered, “midnight” chocolate cake is Marko’s fave. “It’s phenomenal,” he says.

Marko moved to Huntsville a while back after a service industry headhunter recruited him to work in local celebrity chef and entrepreneur James Boyce’s restaurants. Later on, Jennifer saw an opportunity in the Huntsville food truck market and suggested to Marko they do one.

Away from work, Marko and Jennifer have two kids between them, including their four-year-old. Jennifer’s hobbies include putting together puzzles. Marko likes to play disc golf. The couple first met via online dating in March 2020 amid the pandemic.

“They shut everything down like two weeks after we started talking,” Jennifer recalls. “And then we did what people were not supposed to do, and we decided to just brave it. He came over to my house one night.” That night, they hung out and watched movies. Jennifer jokes that for all she knew, Marko “could have been a serial killer, but he was a chef.”

In April, Marko is going back down to south Florida to help his family open a new 200-seat restaurant near golf resort Trump National Doral.

After that, he plans to leverage his seafood connections for Southern Wagyu. Bring in stuff like black grouper, yellowtail tuna, mahi, octopus, and crab cakes .

With seafood added to their restaurant and market, Jennifer says, “We’ll be doing something very unique and wonderful for Huntsville.”