Oak smoke saturates decades of family tradition in Tampa Bay’s barbecue scene. All over the area, stacks push out trails leading to a wealth of Black-owned businesses putting their spin on meats cooked over wood coals.
On a warm February morning in East Tampa, a pile of cured oak stood higher than a pick-up truck next to Big John’s Alabama BBQ’s massive chimney. A dozen or so people milled about outside, waiting for the restaurant to open. When the doors were unlocked, everyone was instructed to line up in a single file.
Big John’s cooks open-pit barbecue hot and fast with direct heat: spare ribs (thin ends are available), sausage, pork and chicken features, plus traditional sides like baked beans and potato salad. Macaroni and cheese and collard greens are billed as specialty items.
This is just one strain of the Tampa barbecue tradition, hailing from Eufaula, Alabama, via the late Rev. John “Big John” Stephens, who opened Big John’s in 1968.
Only family members work the pit at Big John’s, Stephens’ grandson, Corey Miller, said by phone one recent afternoon.
Michael Trigg of Konan’s BBQ,who is also Stephens’ grandson, said that most Black-owned barbecue restaurants in Tampa have some connection to Big John’s.
“In Florida, barbecue varies. We’ve got a lot of nationalities, a lot of people coming from different places,” said Terrance Reynolds, pitmaster and owner of Al’s Finger Licking Good Bar-B-Que & Soul Food in Ybor City.
April “Mamma” Moreno has been the pitmaster at BJ’s Alabama BBQ in South Tampa since she opened the restaurant in 2008. She is also Stephens’ daughter and learned the craft from her father at a young age. Moreno smokes the meat in front of the shop in a large barrel smoker, hauling the wood in a wheelbarrow and the meat in bus tubs. She’s been a pitmaster for decades in an otherwise male-dominated craft.
BJ’s menu is similar to Big John’s, with spare ribs (thin ends are available), sausage, chicken and pork. BJ’s offers more sides, like cabbage and green beans and yellow rice and candied yams. Instead of buns, guests can opt for a cornbread muffin with a combo meal. A sweet, robust red sauce comes with the plate.
Brandy Williams, the general manager at BJ’s and Stephens’ granddaughter, greeted many guests by name on a recent busy Saturday afternoon.
“Thank y’all, good to see y’all. Y’all are like family now,” she said to a party of four as they left.
When Trigg wants to eat barbecue that he didn’t cook, he said BJ’s is his go-to.
Out back at Konan’sBBQ in the Carver City neighborhood of West Tampa, Trigg opened the lid to a large barrel smoker and lifted a slab of spare ribs that were just about finished. A deep red smoke crust covered the slab, which was slightly charred at the thinnest end.
He pointed to the three sections of the slab: the center cut; the big end where the fattiest ribs typically are; and the tapered thin part of the slab where “thin ends” come from. Trigg smokes his meat with oak and pecan in large barrel smokers with indirect heat, keeping the coals in the middle of both.
Konan’s menu offers spare ribs (thin ends are available), chicken, Uncle John’s sausage and chopped pork with sides like macaroni and cheese and collard greens. Trigg said he offers a zippy mustard-based sauce to set his spot apart.
Uncle John’s, which you’ll find on a lot of local barbecue menus, is a smoked meat product from Brandon that’s cooked with hickory wood. It’s been made with the same recipe since 1974.
“The thin ends are champion around this town,” said Terrance Reynolds, the son of Allen “Al” Reynolds, the “Al” in Al’s Finger Licking Good Bar-B-Que & Soul Food.
Allen and Terrance Reynolds use a 30-year-old pit smoker for their barbecue. They smoke with predominantly oak, pecan and other fruit wood using direct and indirect heat.
Father and son both agree that the thin end is not the best part of the rib, but think people like it because it’s smaller and usually has less fat.
A native of Plant City, Allen Reynolds learned how to cook barbecue and run a business during the late 1990s at the now-closed First Choice Bar-B-Que in Brandon. Randy Scott Jr., also a former employee, opened BBQ Time in 2023 in the old First Choice location.
“I think we more or less have a Tennessee-style,” Allen Reynolds said.
Terrance Reynolds added: “More Memphis. I know people that come in the restaurant and they always tell us we remind them of Memphis.”
Al’s offers spare ribs (the thin ends are not separated), pulled pork, Uncle John’s sausage, chicken and turkey legs and breasts. Terrance Reynolds said they sometimes smoke briskets on the weekends. Sides include black-eyed peas and okra and tomatoes. Al’s offers a ketchup- and mustard-based sauce, one mild and the other hot.
In Pinellas County, you’ll find a lot of Southern-style barbecue in southern St. Petersburg, an area with a concentration of historically Black neighborhoods.
At 3 p.m. on a recent overcast Friday, a green truck arrived at an abandoned convenience store lot on the corner of 18th Avenue S. and Dr. MLK Street S. It was pulling a 500-gallon smoker loaded with barbecuing spare ribs, chicken and brisket.
Brothers Steven Johnson and William Delaine exited the truck wearing Hams “R” Us shirts, and in what seemed like no time, they began selling plates and sandwiches.
Their mother, Burma Delaine, set up almost a dozen different homemade desserts on a tarp on the front side of the smoker, facing the parking lot: banana pudding pound cake, pound cake, red velvet cake.
Hams “R” Us is a pop-up family operation that serves rain or shine. They have been barbecuing on this St. Petersburgblock for 14 years, the brothers said.
Delaine, Johnson and their mother greet many customers by name as the parking lot became a Tetris-like drive-thru and customers walk up from all directions. They only accept cash, and keep a consistent menu of spare ribs, brisket and chicken with baked beans and potato salad as sides. Hams “R” Us offers hot and mild red and yellow sauces.
On this particular Friday, a large smoker seems to be set up every couple blocks along 18th Avenue.
“When we first started, there was no one on 18th Avenue,” Johnson said.
The brothers cook their barbecue hot and fast with direct and indirect heat, using mostly live and laurel oak with a little bit of pecan, they said.
“From beginning to the end, people like to come see the experience,” Johnson said.
A short drive away in Childs Park, Fatty’s BBQ & Soul Food sits at the end of a small shopping center.The spot has a counter window and a small waiting area, all built around a large pit smoker in the kitchen that’s over 50 years old.
Jesse Sapp, owner and pitmaster, opened Fatty’s in honor of his late sister, Kimberley Sapp, who died of breast cancer in 2021, he said.
The siblings always wanted to open a restaurant together, and shortly after she died, the Hogley Wogley BBQ restaurant was put up for sale by original owner George Baker, who opened it in 1975. Jesse Sapp took over the barbecue joint and Daryl Baker, George Baker’s son, taught Sapp how to masterthe large pit grill, he said.
While Sapp is the primary pitmaster, and he cooks all the sides himself, he likes to train his staff on the pit. Sapp cooks with direct and indirect heat, using oak and sometimes pecan wood. Fatty’s offers spare ribs, chicken, top sirloin and pork shoulder with sides like tuna macaroni salad and collard greens. There’s a mustard-based hot or mild sauce.
“We take pride in the way we clean our ribs; we mostly take all of the fat off of them,” Sapp said. “If you have the membrane on the meat, the flavor doesn’t get into the meat.”
Sapp cooks the ribs by color, smoking them until they reach a nice gold, then he wraps them so they can tenderize, he said.
Sapp sources a proprietary seasoning from a local Jamaican man known as Juggler, who grows, harvests and blends the mixture. Juggler also popped up briefly at Hams “R” Us that same day, providing fresh coconut waters to Delaine and Stevens.
“I put my care and soul into everything that we cook,” Sapp said.
Greedy Lee’s BBQ might be one of the newer barbecue joints in Tampa, just in the second year as a brick-and-mortar. But owner Kenneth Davis has carved a niche for himself by offering jumbo smoked oxtails on Saturdays and tomahawk steaks every day except Wednesdays.
“Oxtails are very common, especially here in Florida, because you have the Caribbean style … they’re stewed within a pot,” Davis said by phone. “I smoke them on a grill.”
Greedy Lee’s is in a small standalone building at the corner of N. 42nd Street and E. Osborne Avenue in East Tampa. While oxtails may be common in Florida, smoking them is not. Greedy Lee’s might be the only barbecue joint in Tampa to offer them consistently.
Davis’ grandfather did most of the barbecuing in the family, and once he died, Davis took over those duties. Between cooking at family reunions and cookouts, Davis eventually became a barbecue cook and pitmaster.
He worked at Konan’s BBQ with Michael Trigg for a short time, maybe a month, Davis said, before branching out on his own. Davis did catering gigs, worked the grill and learned some useful tips at Konan’s.
Davis cooks with direct and indirect heat, with predominantly oak, and some pecan and cherry wood. Greedy Lee’s offers ribs (thin ends available), Uncle John’s sausage, pulled pork, chopped chicken and turkey legs with sides like yellow rice, macaroni and cheese and collard greens.
The lot’s perimeter is lined with curing oak logs and a single-barrel smoker at the back burns bright, hot orange coals cooking sausage, ribs, chicken, pork and turkey.
Al’s Finger Licking Good Bar-B-Que and Soul Food. 2302 E. 7th Ave., Tampa. 813-956-0675. alsybor.com
BBQ Time. 10113 East Adamo Dr., Tampa. 813-709-8698. bbqtimetampa.com
Big C’s Chopped BBQ. 1039 Dr. MLK Jr. St. S., St. Petersburg. 727-498-7040.
Big John’s Alabama BBQ. 5707 North 40th St., Tampa. 813-623-3600. bigjohnsalabamabbq.com
BJ’s Alabama BBQ. 3423 S. Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa. 813-374-0219.
Fatty’s BBQ & Soul Food. 846 49th St. S., Gulfport. 727-623-1125.
Greedy Lee’s BBQ. 4020 E. Osborne Ave., Tampa. 813-750-9506. @greedylees
Hams “R” Us. 1811 9th St. South, St. Petersburg. 727-557-9544. @hams_r_us
J-New’s BBQ & Grill. 3320 22nd Ave. S., St. Petersburg. 727-417-6838. @jnewsbbqgrill
Konan’s BBQ. 1510 N. Hubert Ave., Tampa. 813-870-0404. konansbbqtampa.com
Outside BBQ. 6305 Gulf Boulevard, St. Petersburg Beach. 727-249-7594. 1613 East Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Tampa. 813-904-6644. @outsidebbq
Pibb’s Rib Shack, 8803 New Tampa Blvd., Tampa, 850-294-7427, pibbsribs.com