Harry Harrell and Gary Torrence’s mighty Southern pit-stop Tom Jenkins’ Bar-B-Q survived for 36 years on Federal Highway in the shadow of Fort Lauderdale’s ever-rising skyline.
But on Dec. 21, the longtime friends and pitmasters will permanently close their barbecue house at 1236 Federal Highway, known for heaping portions of St. Louis-style ribs, juicy chopped pork and smoky chicken, collard greens and mac and cheese, Harrell told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Thursday.
Calling their retirement “bittersweet,” Harrell, 65, said the tension of “skyrocketing” food prices, catering orders eroded by the pandemic, and the higher costs of labor and insurance convinced them to retire.
“Things have just gotten so much tougher,” Harrell said. “Two years ago, me and [my partner] Gary looked at each other and realized, ‘We’re about to turn 65 — how long do we keep doing this?’ We got to a point where we wanted to step aside.”
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Pitmaster Marquis Curry has worked at Tom Jenkins Bar-B-Que for 23 years. The restaurant on Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale will permanently close its doors on Dec. 21. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
This week, the barbecue duo posted their Dec. 21 closing date in goodbye messages taped to Tom Jenkins’ front door and cash register, which Harrell said triggered a flurry of “shocked phone calls” from longtime customers.
The message states: “After two years of careful planning … we have decided to retire and close the doors of Tom Jenkins Bar-B-Q. We want to thank all our customers for all these years of loyal support. … This has been a journey full of love blessed by God and we are certainly grateful.”
Harrell and Torrence, Omega Psi Phi fraternity brothers at Florida A&M University, at first picked careers that bore no resemblance to barbecuing. Harrell majored in computer science and worked at IBM for 13 years, while Torrence majored in electrical engineering, designing computer chips for eight years before becoming a middle school math teacher in Broward County.
That was until the pair decided to open a restaurant together. So in 1989, while still working their 9-to-5 jobs, they opened an 8-by-12-foot barbecue trailer on Federal Highway, in the parking lot of the Inn N Out Oil Change. In 1995, they crossed the street and transformed The Straw Hat, a country and western bar, into the 40-seat Tom Jenkins, named after one of Torrence’s favorite uncles.
Michael F McElroy / Sun Sentinel
Fort Lauderdale barbecue icon Tom Jenkins Bar-B-Que on Federal Highway will close its doors after 36 years on Dec. 21. (Michael F McElroy / Sun Sentinel)
“That was always the inside joke between us,” Harrell recalled with a laugh. “We had these STEM degrees working with electricity, and here we are now cooking with wood. Go figure.”
Over the decades, Tom Jenkins became a massive fan favorite for its three top-sellers — ribs, chopped pork and smoky chicken — slow-cooked in the restaurant’s 6-by-10-foot pit. And they became just as noteworthy for their sides, including potato salad, cole slaw, baked beans, corn on the cob, french fries and onion rings.
Harrell insists that the recent rise of nearby barbecue competitors — Fat Boyz Barbecue a half-mile north, Ukiah Japanese Smokehouse downtown and all-you-can-eat Gen Korean BBQ on Las Olas Boulevard — did not factor into his decision to retire.
“We were never concerned about competition, not to sound arrogant,” he said. “That’s our IBM training: Never disparage anybody else. We just want to present the best product we can, and we knew it could stand up to anyone else’s product.”
Tom Jenkins Bar-B-Q, at 1236 Federal Highway, in Fort Lauderdale, is scheduled to close on Dec. 21. Call 954-522-5046.
Sun Sentinel writer Phillip Valys can be reached at pvalys@sunsentinel.com or Twitter/X @philvalys