{"id":339905,"date":"2026-07-14T18:42:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/339905\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T18:42:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:42:06","slug":"how-one-stolen-smoker-tested-a-st-pete-family-restaurant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/339905\/","title":{"rendered":"How one stolen smoker tested a St. Pete family restaurant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before dawn on June 24, employees arriving to open McCall & Sons BBQ discovered one of the restaurant\u2019s most important pieces of equipment was gone.<\/p>\n

The trailer-mounted smoker, built by the late Grady McCall Sr. and used for the family\u2019s barbecue catering business, had been stolen from outside the restaurant on 49th Street South, near the St. Petersburg-Gulfport line. Known for serving a $3 breakfast of eggs, grits or grilled potatoes and a choice of meat, the family-owned breakfast restaurant and catering business suddenly found itself scrambling to stay open while searching for a piece of equipment that represented years of family history.<\/p>\n

Grady McCall III, one of three brothers committed to keeping the family business alive, discovered the smoker missing shortly after arriving around 4:30 a.m., he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in the process of trying to prepare food,\u201d McCall said. \u201cIt was just crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than waiting for answers, McCall spent the day collecting surveillance footage from neighboring businesses. The video showed someone arriving around 1 a.m., hitching the smoker to a small SUV and driving away northbound on 49th Street.<\/p>\n

After turning the footage over to detectives, McCall posted the surveillance video on social media<\/a>. The response was immediate, with hundreds of people sharing the post across Florida and beyond. \u201cIt went viral basically,\u201d McCall said. \u201cWe had hundreds and hundreds of shares.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few days later, someone recognized the smoker and called with a tip.<\/p>\n

McCall contacted police before heading to the location. After officers completed their investigation, he said, they allowed him to tow the smoker home.<\/p>\n

The St. Petersburg Police Department confirmed officers responded to the theft report June 24. Spokesperson Ken Wright said the agency could not independently verify the smoker was later recovered.<\/p>\n

Although the smoker was missing only a few days, McCall said the theft forced the restaurant to postpone a barbecue catering job while the family explored renting replacement equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely affected business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The theft came at a particularly difficult time for independent restaurants. In a recent interview<\/a> with the Catalyst, Roger Curlin, director of business growth and engagement for the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, said many locally owned restaurants are operating on razor-thin margins while facing rising food costs, higher insurance premiums, increasing rents and slower consumer spending. With profit margins often hovering around 3%, even a modest decline in customer traffic or an unexpected expense can quickly erase profitability.<\/p>\n

Those pressures become even more pronounced during the summer, when many St. Petersburg restaurants rely on savings built up during the busier fall and winter months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gather all of our acorns from October to Mother\u2019s Day,\u201d Curlin said. \u201cThen we spend all those acorns from Mother\u2019s Day to October, hoping to have one acorn left to do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCall said his family\u2019s restaurant has experienced many of those same challenges. Rising food costs, insurance, rent and operating expenses have forced the business to become more resourceful while trying to keep meals affordable for longtime customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe economy \u2026 it fluctuates so bad,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes you might win, sometimes you might lose. It\u2019s just trying to break even just to keep the customer happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of simply raising prices, McCall said the family spends more time comparing vendors, shopping for better prices and looking for ways to stretch every dollar.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to get creative,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to shop around, change vendors. You\u2019ve got to do a lot of footwork on the day-to-day operations just to keep things going.\u201d<\/p>\n

That commitment to affordability has helped build a loyal following over nearly three decades. The family\u2019s first restaurant opened on 22nd Street in 1996 before relocating to its current home in 2013. After Grady McCall Sr. died from cancer in 2023, his three sons continued operating the business, rotating shifts to keep the restaurant open six mornings a week while expanding its catering operation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their goal, McCall said, has remained the same: feed the neighborhood without pricing people out.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur cheapest meal is $3 plus tax,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just try to feed the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

That mission made the community\u2019s response to the theft especially meaningful. \u201cIt felt very good to know the community behind you,\u201d he said. \u201cIt helped motivate you to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

For McCall, the theft became one more challenge in a business that demands resilience every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard, man. It\u2019s really hard,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery day, staying consistent. Some days you\u2019ll be a little slow, some days you\u2019ll be busy. You just take the good with the bad, hold your head up high, stick your chest out and prepare to open up the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before dawn on June 24, employees arriving to open McCall & Sons BBQ discovered one of the restaurant\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-339905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}