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Owner of Zees Over Yonder Zollie Keebler and his staff behind the bar of the new restaurant in Verbena. (CAREY REEDER | ADVERTISER)

Owners of the Holy Spotted Cow Boutique Heather McCary, left, and Anna Lambert opened their business on May 31 in Verbena. (CAREY REEDER | ADVERTISER)

Zollie Keebler in the kitchen at Zees Over Yonder. (CAREY REEDER | ADVERTISER)

The Chilton County Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Holy Spotted Cow Boutique in July. (CHILTON CHAMBER | CONTRIBUTED)

The Holy Spotted Cow Boutique has a wide range of clothing and accessories for women, men and children in their inventory. (CAREY REEDER | ADVERTISER)

The Chilton County Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Zees Over Yonder in July. (CHILTON CHAMBER | CONTRIBUTED)

By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

Two businesses, Holy Spotted Cow Boutique and Zees Over Yonder, are bringing back life to the Verbena community with an eat and shop location right in the heart of town. Anna Lambert and Heather McCary of Holy Spotted Cow and Zollie Keebler of Zees Over Yonder have come together to create Over Yonder at De Vena Plaza to bring both shopping and food to Verbena.

In May 2023, Lambert called McCary with the idea for the two to start their own boutique. Within five hours, the two came up with a name, created their Facebook page and ordered the business’ first inventory. The name, Holy Spotted Cow, comes from the mesh of Lambert’s love of cows and McCary’s love for animals with spots.

“Next thing I know, (Heather) was coming up with vendor spots, and we started doing them all in Wetumpka, Prattville and all over Chilton County,” Lambert said.

The 2023 Peach Jam Jubilee was the first vendor event the boutique attended, and they did very well. The boutique started by selling just Myra handbags, but its inventory grew quickly to include cups, clothing and other accessories as the business partners chose things to include that they wanted to own themselves.

While the boutique blossomed, Lambert and McCary were running it out of the back of their SUVs. They grew into a trailer, then a bus and eventually outgrew the bus. When Holy Spotted Cow came to vendor events, the entire inventory was brought to showcase and not just select items.

“We had to do something because it would take an hour and a half to set up and an hour and a half to break down,” McCary said.

As more customers asked about their storefront, and their partners Bo Grantham and Jordan Lambert offered their recommendations while helping Lambert and McCary setup and teardown at each event, the time came for the business to expand even further.

“It was a true team effort by all of us,” Lambert said.

Lambert and McCary, who are from Verbena and have children that attend Verbena High School, started looking for buildings in the town and looked at others before getting to the building at the corner of U.S. Highway 31 and County Road 59. The building was everything the two wanted, a phone call was made, they toured the building and a month later signed papers to own the storefront.

While the building itself was the perfect size and fit, the location in Verbena made Lambert and McCary hesitant with how little traffic comes through compared to other places in Chilton County. However, the two met the owners of 36seven50 Boutique in Maplesville, and they explained how with no other boutiques in the town, all of the business for those types of goods go directly to the same place each time. It would be the same way in Verbena, a location without a boutique, and residents in the area would prefer to go to a place five minutes down the road rather than travel out of town.

The Holy Spotted Cow Boutique opened on May 31, exactly one year after Lambert called McCary with the idea to start the business.

“We were looking at Prattville, Wetumpka or Clanton to open a boutique, but then we thought ‘Let’s see if we can open one up in Verbena because there is not one there,’” Lambert said. “We never thought in a year we would be where we are today. Dreams do come true.”

The boutique has a wide variety of clothing and accessories for women, men and children. It is also size inclusive, offering sizes from extra small to four XL in most of their options.

The building that houses the Holy Spotted Cow also has a restaurant style establishment connected to it, and Zollie Keebler took the opportunity with the vacant space to continue his culinary journey. Keebler is an 18-year veteran in the kitchen and earned his degree in culinary arts in Virginia in the 2000s. He returned to Alabama after his studies and opened a restaurant in Sylacauga before moving back to his home area in Shelby County. Most recently, Keebler opened Zee’s Soul Street Café in Prattville earlier this year, but after some bumps in the road after opening, the location is now temporarily closed.

Keebler was looking for a new spot when he found the restaurant building in Verbena and connected with Lambert and McCary. He reached out to the two, got the papers signed and Zees Over Yonder was established in a town that was in desperate need of a local restaurant.

“I have had some different attempts and failed a couple of times,” Keebler said. “I may have failed a couple of times, but I did not fail. We learned from our mistakes, learned from different concepts we have tried of what does and does not work and took all the positives and brought them here. It is working.”

Keebler felt like the location of Zees Over Yonder in Verbena was a great one with the high school and local businesses nearby. The restaurant gives people working in the Verbena area a place to have lunch without driving 15 minutes away on their 30-minute or hour breaks midday.

“I felt like the location we are in, we will bring life back to a place that is a staple here in Verbena,” Keebler said.

The idea for the restaurant was a meat and two or three sides style of eatery with Keebler bringing home cooked soul food to the menu. However, within the first few weeks open, the customers have loved his street food so much like the burgers, stuffed turkey legs and other interesting food concepts he has created. The menu is changing daily to see what style will best fit the new location, but for now, much of the street food is what is popular.

With the restaurant in such close proximity to VHS, they are creating a Devil Dog that will be a smoked sausage hotdog inspired by the Red Devils. Some of the VHS volleyball players are coming by before the school year starts to choose the toppings for the hotdog. Zees Over Yonder will also have a tip jar at the front counter for donations to the VHS athletic department as a way to give back and connect with their new community.

“We are planning some great things for Verbena, and we hope everyone comes out and keeps us busy,” Keebler said.

Along with Keebler, Lambert and McCary are hopeful both businesses can start the revitalization of the Verbena community. The group is hopeful to bring back public events in the town, such as Trade Days where a portion of County Road 59 was blocked off from the railroad tracks to Verbena United Methodist Church and people set up tables to sell and trade goods. The town has not held the event for over 12 years.

“Verbena used to be a very happening town,” McCary said. “We want to start that back and actually get the heart of Verbena back, and that is our goal.”

The Holy Spotted Cow Boutique is open 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and closed on Sundays. Zees Over Yonder is open the same hours throughout the week and closed on Sundays.

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