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| ALABAMA |
CHUCK’S
BAR-B-Q
Chuck Ferrell
Chuck’s Bar-B-Q
905 Short Ave.
Opelika, AL 36801
(334) 749-4043
“I like to cook the product. I have some guys that work for me that can cook it just probably as good as I can. But for some reason, I just don’t think nobody can cook it as good as I can; so if I’m there, that’s what I like to do is cook.”
— Chuck Ferrell
Chuck Ferrell, along with his wife Bonnie, founded Chuck's
Barbecue in
Opelika, Alabama, in 1976. Most weekdays you will find him, shrouded in
woodsmoke, working alongside the block, jabbing a shiny metal pitchfork
in a pit filled with pork butts. Chuck's pate is balding and his neck
is creased by wrinkles, but his brown eyes flash. "The devil missed
out on one with a lot of practice," Chuck says when asked how a man
whose devotion to Christ is so profound he keeps a stock of personalized
religious tracts by the register came to wield a pitchfork for a living.
Chuck's father, who died when Chuck was six, worked as a taxicab driver
in Columbus, Georgia, forty miles east of Opelika. Chuck's mother, now
in her eighties, still works the register two or three days a week at
the Smoky Pig #2, just across the state line in Phenix City, Alabama.
His mother came into the barbecue business when, ten years after the death
of Chuck's father, she married his uncle, Buck Ferrell, who, in the early
1950s, opened the first Smoky Pig in Columbus. Turns out, Smokey Pig is
the origin point for much of the barbecue in eastern Alabama and western
Georgia.
Listen
to this 3-minute audio clip
of Chuck Ferrell talking about the menu at Chuck’s Bar-B-Q. [Windows
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NOTE:
What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited
for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click
here.
Subject: Chuck Ferrell
Date: September 28, 2006
Location: Jim Bob’s Chicken Fingers - Opelika, AL
Interviewer: John T. Edge
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John T. Edge: Chuck, for the record…your date of birth.
Chuck Ferrell: April 10th 1945.
Tell me about the beginnings of Chuck’s Bar-B-Q and how your
family came to be in the barbecue business.
All right; it started with my uncle, Buck Ferrell, who worked at a restaurant
and—and learned a barbecue recipe and cooked the barbecue for this
restaurant years and years ago in the early ‘50s. And from there
he established the Smokey Pig Barbecue in Columbus, Georgia.
And the gentleman in the place from whom he learned in Columbus, tell
us about that.
You know I really don’t know the guy; I just know it was a drive-in
type restaurant that—that was a very popular styled restaurant back
in the ‘50s where cars would drive in and they’d get curb
service and that kind of—that sort of business. But he was—he
worked there and that’s where he learned this recipe.
And the name of that place was—?
I think it was called the Clearview Drive-In on Victory Drive in Columbus,
Georgia.
And one of the things that makes barbecue in this area in Columbus,
Phenix City, Auburn, Opelika—so distinctive is a particular sauce
and did that sauce date back to the Clearview?
It did—it did; it—that’s where he learned it and from
there most of the barbecue places that stemmed in this area from Columbus
to probably 50-miles north or south or east of Columbus have some sort
of a root to the Smokey Pig Barbecue that my uncle actually opened up.
And what year did your uncle open the Smokey Pig?
I’m not certain but I know it was in the ‘50s. I’m not
certain.
And tell me about the—the inter-relatedness of all your family
members that have worked there because your uncle started it and then
your mother married into it; tell us about that.
Well my father died, which was my—Buck, that was his brother. He
[my father] died when I was six years old. About ten years later my mother
married Buck, who was the originator of the Smokey Pig Barbecue, and that’s
how our family really got into the barbecue business was through that
relationship with my mother and my uncle.
And the style of barbecue from the Smoke Pig and now from Chuck’s
is very distinctive. How would you talk about that style? What—what
distinguishes barbecue that comes from Smokey Pig or comes from Chuck’s
from others?
Well we cook it over an open pit and we cook it fresh daily. We—we
start early in the morning and we sell a fresh product every day. We cook
it over that open fire and it—it really turns out via—it’s
not a smoker; it’s different from smoking barbecue which is a slow
process. We actually cook it fast over a hot fire.
And that’s one thing that I noticed in looking at the barbecue,
there’s a real char on the shoulders that you cook. You’re
cooking with a fairly hot fire and then you’re using a particular
cut of pork, too—right?
That’s right; we use a—what they call a CT butt. It doesn’t
have the strip of fat that’s across what—what’s commonly
known as a Boston butt. It is a Boston butt but that fat is removed from
it and that bone is removed from it. They call it a CT butt because it’s
clean and trim.
And that CT butt weighs—what—what does that chunk of meat
weigh?
The average weight—anywhere from two and a half to four pounds.
And when you cook it down you lose a good bit of fat, correct?
You lose a little over 50-percent.
So by the end to help people imagine what this looks like, you get
this—it’s almost like a charred hunk of—like a softball
almost; it’s—but it’s bigger than that?
Yeah; it’s—it’s bigger than a softball. I would probably
describe it maybe the size of a large squash or something you know. I
guess that would be—it’s about that size. They’ll weigh
a pound and a half usually—an average when they’re done.
And
once you get that—that char on that hunk of pork then you do a number
of different things with it. You slice it and chop it in a number of different
ways. Talk to us a little bit about that.
All right; we—we describe it differently to try to make our customers
realize exactly what our description is. We actually chop it up and we
actually call that sliced or chopped. And now some customers like it sliced
in bigger pieces and all we do is don’t finish the chopping process.
We’ll just slice it in longer pieces and our customers will ask
for it that way—sliced long. And then we also have it chipped on
the block where we chip it up finer and—and that makes an excellent
sandwich. That’s my favorite preference. But then we also have a
product called—just a regular chipped and that’s where we
marinade it in the barbecue sauce and keep it over an open fire and that’s
really the most consistent product we will have. It’s always the
same and it’s always tasty.
Talk—talk us through that; so you got this—this hunk of pork
and someone says I want the inside meat, I want the outside meat?
They—well it varies; different customers have different tastes and
so naturally we’re going to please our customers and so if they
have a request we’re going to fix it the way they want it. And if
they—some people don’t like outside meat at all and our barbecue
because of the way we cook it with the open fire does have a crust to
it. Many of our customers like it; I prefer that they get a mixture of
both because to me that’s what puts out the best product. But there
are many customers that don’t like outside meat for any particular
reason; maybe they—it just—they just don’t like the
taste of it but the inside meat is excellent for—for that and it’s—it’s
tender, it’s succulent and it’s really good and—but—and
then there are some that just like nothing but outside. And—and
so we can do it either way.
And so we’ve talked about the—the meat; we—you cook
it over wood, right? You cook it over a mixture of—?
Oak or hickory or—and we have cooked with pecan—pecan cooks
an excellent product too. Any—any of those three will turn out a
good barbecue and that’s the three Southern woods that we use. If
you go to Texas you might—they use mesquite wood out there but—but
here we use oak, hickory, and sometimes pecan.
And you’re cooking over live coals; these are not—you’re
not cooking down coals and then sliding them beneath. You’re throwing
hunks of wood beneath the pit right?
We actually cook over an open fire. The fire—the fire is hot; it’s
intense and it requires a lot of attention when you’re cooking.
And when you walk in the Chuck’s in—in Opelika you’re
likely to find you at the pit?
I like to cook the product. I have some guys that work for me that—that
can cook it just probably as good as I can but for some reason I just
don’t think nobody can cook it as good as I can, so if I’m
there that’s what I like to do is cook.
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And so you walk in and you find you at the—at the pit; you’ve
got a crew alongside who are chopping the meat and slicing the meat as
they come. The other component of this is there’s—there’s
side dishes and there’s—there’s sauces as well. Talk—talk
to us about the sauces.
Okay, our barbecue sauce like I said earlier, my uncle actually was the
first one to have this recipe from—from a restaurant experience
that he had, but this is the sauce that we use and it’s made mostly
of ketchup and mustard and vinegar and several other products that we
combine together to create our own special unique flavor. And it’s
a very, very popular flavor in this particular area—varies from
different states as what—what sauce they might use but ours is probably
called a mustard-based sauce because it has a little bit more of a mustard
taste than a sweet taste.
And you also use that sauce and mix that into slaw as well?
Uh-hmm; we do—we call it barbecue slaw or we put it on our sandwiches
unless you tell us not to. And most people know that we put it on our
sandwiches; there’s very few people in this area that doesn’t
like it on their sandwich but if you don’t like slaw on your sandwich
you have to tell us not to and we call it barbecue slaw because it’s
mixed with barbecue sauce. It’s just chopped cabbage mixed with
barbecue sauce; it really makes an excellent sandwich.
Another thing you find on a plate here is Brunswick stew, as well,
yes?
That’s—that’s correct; one of the most popular items
we have—well the two most popular items is our chopped pork and
our Brunswick stew.
One of the things I noticed when I was eating there today is people
will come in and out and sometimes ask for some chopped meat on top of
their stew.
That happens about two or three times a day; anybody that knows we do
it or somebody that just likes their meat a little bit more—their
stew a little bit more meatier they’ll—we’ll add a little
chopped meat into their bowl of stew.
And that’s another thing in what you do that points the way back
to Smokey Pig, too right?
That’s right; most everything I do I learned from my uncle at Smokey
Pig Barbecue. We’ve probably adjusted some of the sauce according
to the taste in our community or just—we listen to our customers.
If—if we think they’ve got a legitimate change in mind that’s—that’s
going to enhance our business we’re open to that. But most of it
originates from Smokey Pig.
And there are—there are two Smokey Pigs existing now right—one
in Columbus and one in Phenix City?
Well there—that’s correct. The first Smokey Pig was—was
started in a backroom of an Amoco service station and had a couple of
picnic tables in there but—you could go there at lunch and there
would be people lined up out the door for hours—at least from 11
to 2 every day and they did a—a tremendous business out of that
little station. And now they’ve got a nicer place that they’ve
opened off of Linwood Boulevard and there’s one in the neighboring
town across the river, Phenix City that my mother still runs.
And your step-brother runs the one in Columbus; your mother runs the
one in Phenix City and your mother at this point in 2006 is getting up
in years, isn't she?
Yeah, my mother is probably in her 80s but she’s very bright and
very—has a—has a really good mind—working mind and—and
she looks more like my sister than my mother.
Describe the shirt that you have on now to us—the t-shirt that
you have on now.
The
shirt that I’m wearing now has Chuck’s Barbecue across the
front and on the back it has a scripture reference. It’s Jesus the
Bread of Life, and—which is a very important part of my life—as—as
looking up to Christ, my Savior.
And you see part of your ministry coming through this—this restaurant,
yes?
I do very much so; I—the Lord gives me opportunity to mentor a lot
of young men that have worked for me through the years and—and I—my
customers see that—that our faith is not a religion but a relationship
with God and it’s been very effective in our community.
I remember one of the first times I came to Chuck’s one of the
things I noticed was a religious track alongside the—alongside the
cash register. Talk to us about those and—and how you’ve developed
those over time.
Well I developed them really out of a passion that I have. I didn’t
grow up in a Christian home and so my—I had no affiliation with
religion or church but when I did come to the saving knowledge of Christ
I had a very unique experience through the ministry of the Holy Spirit,
who Christ himself promised to us. This was a rising in my heart that
was an undeniable act of God. And because of that rising in my heart I
knew that it was real. It was not a figment of my imagination; it wasn’t
religious; it was—it was Him revealing Himself to me just like he
promises He will in the Scripture. That made everything about my life
change. I—I really desire for others to experience Him; my prayer
every day is that—that I will be a light for those that don’t
know Him and an encouragement to those that do. And He answers that prayer;
He’s very, very faithful.
And you’ve—you’ve shown that to people through some
of your writings as well. Would you talk to me a little bit about that?
Yes; it was called—I wrote it about six months probably after I
come to the saving knowledge of Christ myself. I had such a passion for
other people to know Him that I wrote a little pamphlet called Something
Better than Barbecue. Most of the people that come in my establishment
are barbecue connoisseurs; they love barbecue and they try it and they
like it and—and I really want them to know this part about my life
also that through my experience it’s my prayer that they will pick
up one of these tracks and if they don’t know Him it’s my
prayer that they will see He is not just a religious symbol—that
He is God in the flesh.
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Talk to me a little bit about how you came to be in the barbecue business.
Well my wife and I actually worked in the mill when we got out of—when
we finished school or dropped out of school I might say. But—and
my uncle was in the barbecue business and he—he approached me one
time; a manager of his quit and asked if I would help him out. And so
we actually started working with him and grew into a desire to go into
business for ourselves and 30 years ago we did open and established Chuck’s
Barbecue.
And so that was 1976 you opened your first Chuck’s?
Actually we opened the first one in 1974 in Valley, Alabama. And then
we opened in Opelika, Alabama two years later in 1976 and we’ve
been here ever since.
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And what drew you to if you opened in Valley—what drew you to
Opelika?
Well the place in the Valley that we opened it just—it didn’t
take off and it—so we decided that we might—originally we
wanted to go to Opelika to start with. We just kind of got sidetracked
to the Valley. But when it didn’t work out we then started pursuing
a store in Opelika immediately and two years later we wound up here and
when we opened Chuck’s Barbecue in Opelika it was a big success
from day one. We had people lined up out our door and down into our parking
lot for hours at a time just about every day for several years.
And
one of the ways you’ve built that business is through community
service. You were talking to me about some of the work you do with the
schools in Opelika?
We have an opportunity every year to go down in three different school
systems now. We go to Lee County which is our home school system; we go
to Russell County which is where I grew up and came from; and we also
go north of it to Randolph County and we—that started sixteen years
ago and it really began more with a passion of mine just to share my experience
that I had with Christ and it—it flowed over into the school systems
through John Painter the Superintendent. I asked him could I do this and
we do it—we feed all the teachers free every year; it’s about
2,000 school teachers—just for the sake of encouraging them in their
faith. And it’s very effective and very well received.
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It’s—this idea that a restaurant is more than just a place
you eat it’s—it’s kind of a community center. You see
that in—in your place of business that—that people have a
sense of ownership on it. I saw people walking behind the counter. I saw
people you know coming to use the phone. I saw all these things that tell
me that—that they care about you and you care about them.
That’s true; we—I do have a very open and loving relationship
with my employees. It’s—I’m thankful for them; they
seem to be thankful for me. It’s people like to gather there and
meet and rub shoulders together and—and it’s—it’s
very encouraging. It’s encouraging for me and it’s also encouraging
for my customers.
To keep a barbecue restaurant going you have to have great employees
but you also have to have some raw materials too. Finding wood, I mean
talk to me about your source for wood and the family that’s brought
you that wood for a while.
All right; a guy named Flem Wilson, who owns Wilson Wood Products, he
and his family have been in the wood business here for just about as long
as I’ve been in the barbecue business and—and through—he
sold mostly to homes but when we started the barbecue business they also
popped up all around time and so now he—he sells wood to every barbecue
place up here. We don’t have to worry about wood; they just—they
see that we need it and they bring it to us and he also sells wood to
most of the community—that have fireplaces in their homes. It’s
a very lucrative business he has.
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And one of the things that—that we talked about earlier, it’s
been an evolution in the things that you serve in the restaurant. You
started out simpler than you are now—less menu ingredients than
you have now.
That’s true; demand I think—there’s so many other restaurants
and when we first started there just wasn’t a lot of places to eat,
and so we did have a very limited menu and was very successful with a
limited menu. All we had was barbecue, the barbecue slaw, and Brunswick
stew; that’s all we had on our menu. But through the years with
competition rising and—and so many other people eating out and groups
of people eating out they like a little more variety so we’ve kind
of added like a ham sandwich, a turkey sandwich and barbecued chicken
and—and salads. And hopefully that’s all we’ll ever
have to add—that’s enough menu for everybody and—and
our customers really seem to be happy with that.
And one of the things that’s happened too is the kind of combination
of a salad and barbecue.
Yes, that’s something we kind of created as far as this area. We—we
started the garden salads with putting the chipped up barbecue on it and
then we’ve added chicken breast, if you—so you can have a
choice of breast—chicken breast or pork on them but they’re
very popular and we sell a good many of them every day.
If someone walked in your restaurant who had never been there before,
how would you explain what to order, what to eat? They—they sometimes
seem confused—yes?
They do and our menu is very confusing but—because of the technique
that we use as far as chopped and chopped on the block and chipped and—and
barbecue is an experience in different areas. So if people are used to
eating barbecue in Tennessee it may be different when they come in our
place, so we—we kind of walk them through it the best we can and
I’ll always—if it’s their first time in there I’ll
try to establish how hungry they are and if they’re hungry a barbecue
plate is a—is a good meal. It’s a healthy meal—I mean
a hefty meal; it’s about a half pound of barbecue and two sides
but if they’re not quite as hungry I’ll usually recommend
a sandwich plate, but I always recommend they try the Brunswick stew and
the chipped on the block sandwich which I prefer.
And take me through those different options—the chipped on the
block, the chopped—and just talk to me and say the chopped is X
and—because I think people would be really interested in that.
The chopped is actually what we call bite-size pieces of pork. We take
one of those CT butts and we’ll put in the board and we’ll
chop it up in bite-size cubes or maybe not cubes but little chunks of
meat and that’s what we call chopped. And that’s what we’ll
sell you if you just asked for chopped or sliced unless you ask specifically
for something sliced with a little bit more bit to it. If you want it
that 
way
we will recommend that you get it sliced in long pieces, which is no problem
to do. And we have a few customers that prefer it that way. And then other
than that we have a chipped on the block, which is just a little bit finer
than the chopped. We go ahead and chop it up with the knife a little bit
finer and that’s my personal preference. I like that; it’s
a good mixture of—of outside and inside meat and then we have what
we called chipped pork. Now that’s—that’s chipped meat
that we take and we chip it up and we take the butt and chip it up pretty
fine and then we will mix our barbecue sauce with it ‘til it’s
just the right texture that it makes a good sandwich that will hold together
easily and we keep that over our fire. We marinade it in that sauce over
our fire and that’s a really popular sandwich there and it’s—we
sell it a little bit cheaper because the sauce enables us to get a little
bit more out of the product by mixing it with the sauce.
And that sandwich is especially cheap one day a week?
Every Saturday we buy—we have a buy-one get one free with that chipped
sandwich and that’s a very, very popular day. It’s—it’s—it’s
not uncommon—it’s not uncommon for us to sell 2,000 sandwiches
on that day.
We talked a little bit about how you continued on this tradition that
you inherited from Smokey Pig but other people have also been inspired
by Chuck’s.
That’s true; I’ve helped a lot of my friends open barbecue
places—one in Albany, Georgia; one in Hampton, Georgia; one in LaGrange,
Georgia; one in Eufaula, Alabama; and there may be even be a few more
that I don’t even remember. But—but there’s been a lot
of people open barbecue places; I’ve had employees go and open them
here. We’ve—we’ve got several barbecue places in—locally
now that they either worked for us or had some sort of root back to the
Smokey Pig Barbecue in Columbus, Georgia.
And you know barbecue can be a very insular business; it can be very
competitive and not a lot of people are willing to share their secrets
or techniques. Why—why would you?
Well I like to see people do good and—and be prosperous and I really—I’ve
never been threatened—I’ve never felt threatened by other
restaurants. I’ve always put out a good product and I’m going
to put out a good product and I just—I’ve just never worried
about it. It’s a big world and I just—and I enjoy helping
people.
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