‘HOBBY GONE WILD’
Restaurant still Smokin’ along for Foody Friday
Nearly 25 years ago, the seed of what would eventually become Smokin’ In Style was born when Daniel Johnson bought his first smoker in hopes of becoming a competitive barbecuer.
“My late brother, Daniel, he decided he was going to get into competition barbecue smoking, and we went up and won our first competition ever,” Joe Johnson, owner of the restaurant, said. “We call it a hobby gone wild. … We just started cooking on the weekends doing competitions, winning competitions.
“Competition turned into, ‘Hey, man, you ought to sell this stuff.’ Well, then that turned into buying a trailer. We were going about 30 weekends a year to different festivals, and finally, in 2004, my brother said, ‘Man, we need to open up a restaurant, or we just have to go back to our day jobs, which one you want to do?’ And I said, ‘Well, we don’t know unless we try.’”
Johnson said there has been great support for the restaurant over the years.
“I was born and raised here. We know everybody, and we provide a product and it’s been great,” he said. “The restaurant industry is hard, and we’ve made it now 18 years — (from) just 100, 200 customers a day, it’s now, you know, sometimes north of 400 is what we have rolling through here a day.”
The loss of Daniel was tough for his family and the business, but having been involved from the start, Joe Johnson was able
to step in and keep things going.
“Kenny (Baker) and myself run the day-today operations, so I knew what to do to keep it going. I had to learn the office work and the different things like that, but it didn’t take long,” he said.
“There was a lot of folks kind of confused because, you know, they see me every day. They see Kenny every day.
“They knew my brother, but they just knew that nothing changed. You know, we kept it going the same; nothing changed. It took a little bit, six to eight months, for people to kind of realize, ‘OK. Well, this is all the same.’”
Johnson said all his crew stayed with him, noting, “No one left. We just kept opening the doors and kept giving it our all, and that’s just propelled us to where we’re at today.”
The food that comes out of the kitchen is not what has made Smokin’ In Style successful, Johnson said. It’s his staff.
“It obviously takes the customers, right?” he said. “I mean, you’ve gotta have the customers to come in and keep your doors open. But the secret and all that I feel like is my crew. … If they don’t work hard, and they don’t have pride and don’t believe in it, then the food’s not good. The service is not good. I mean, you can have all the recipes in the world, but if they’re not doing it right or don’t care, then you’re done.”
Most of the staff at the restaurant has remained the same since it opened in 2004, he said.
“We’re all a family, man,” he said. “Most of my employees have been with me for 15-plus years. Man, I take care of them, they take care of me, and I think that’s the secret, honestly, to our success is just having a good crew that believe in us, and they care about what they’re doing every day.”
Q&A with Joe Johnson
The following are excerpts from the interview with Joe Johnson, presented in a question-and-answer format:
Q: Favorite food?
A: Wherever Brian Johnson’s at, the hickory smoked rib-eye that he does is my absolute favorite. I just love the hickory smoked rib-eye. It’s on point every time. I would buy it every night if my wife would let me.
Q: Go-to comfort food?
A: My wife’s chicken chili soup. I love it. I come home and smell it in the Crock-Pot, and the other night I couldn’t even hardly wait for the chicken to get done.
Q: Favorite restaurant?
A: There’s plenty of great restaurants in Hot Springs, but the two I frequent the most is Lost Creek Grill and Bleu Monkey Grill.
Q: Favorite thing about the Hot Springs area?
A: I love getting out and talking to folks. … Just sitting down and talking to those folks and the smiles on their faces. That’s what I love most, and helping the community. You know, we take a lot of pride in what we do, and I believe it shows.
Q: Advice for someone getting started in the restaurant business?
A: Have a good plan going in, and then be patient. Learn to adapt. We all saw that with the pandemic. You’ve got to work hard. You know, for two years, my brother and I worked seven days a week, and we had to be here. Just have a plan and be dedicated to have to work long hours and provide a good product and have great customer service, and I think you’ve got it made.