No wheels? No problem.

Mac Russell smiles big and shakes his head when he thinks about what he’s hoping to do at his new restaurant and market in Forest Park.

He wants it to be different. He wants people to feel the love.

And he wants to do some things that maybe don’t make sense at first.

But Russell said he hopes it’s a risk that’s going to be around for a long time. And he hopes it’s going to start a new kind of culture.

Russell, owner of Shindigs catering and food truck, will take that risk out of the old V. Richards space at 3916 Clairmont Ave. “hopefully by October — November is a must,” he said.

The name is still in the works, but the concept is fully formed.

“We want to make a culture that’s way more sustainable than anything we’ve been a part of before,” Russell said.

He said he wants the restaurant to be farm-to-fork food, but he also wants it to be a place where people can buy fresh food and meat, grab a glass of wine and end up in a casual conversation they never expected to have.

“We want it to be a little like Louisiana lagniappe — you come in maybe to pick up one thing, and by the time you leave, you’ve found a few surprises and made a new friend,” Russell said. “We want to know our customers and our employees and have this overlying culture of faith and love.”

It’s something that’s been in his blood for a while. When Russell was growing up in the Selma area, his grandfather would use almost anything as an excuse to get friends together and have food, he said.

“That’s how our catering business got the name ‘Shindigs’ — my granddad would have shindigs around almost anything from poker tournaments to deer hunts to whatever event we could make up,” Russell said.

Shindigs Catering will carry on making food and taking it around town, but he said he’s hoping the new restaurant and market will be a place where people can gather and stay.

And he’s hoping it will be a place where both employees and customers feel cared for, Russell said.

“It’s about the sustainability of the village,” he said. “We’re looking at it way more abstractly than just the food or the animals or the vegetables.”

But those things — the food, the animals and the vegetables — will still be very important, Russell said.

Food will be locally sourced. They’ll be bringing animals and vegetables from their own farms — the two big ones in Marion and Morgan Springs in Perry County and smaller urban farms in Cahaba Heights.

“We’ll have nice cuts that can go straight to the center of the plate, but we’ll also have cuts that can go to make very tasty fast casual dishes,” he said. “We want to have a culture of great food but good stewardship of what we have.”

Their bread will come from Big Sky Bakery, and their buns will come from Continental Bakery in English Village.

“We’re getting the best from all our friends and kind of throwing it together,” he said.

Russell said he has lots of friends in the food industry in Birmingham. Over the years, he’s spent time in the kitchen at Hot and Hot Fish Club and a number of other places, including Standard Bistro in the Town of Mount Laurel. 

“At our new restaurant, we’ll have breakfast and lunch, but we’ll also be a place we hope people will gather at night and come for date nights,” Russell said.

It will feature what he calls an “ultralux” bar, and the food will be “solid and satisfying,” he said.

He’s doing heavy research into “really good coffee,” and he has extensive juice bar experience he plans on putting to good use, Russell said.

“We want to energize and bless others and make good food,” he said. “We’re starting small and taking this leap of faith for what we know is the most charming neighborhood around Birmingham. We want it to impact our village, and we would love it if it would spread to the city and maybe pour over into the state.”