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TENNESSEE |
“I think West Tennessee has always been known for some of the best barbecue you can ever put in your mouth. And we have people that travel through all the time that always say you can't find it anywhere—any better than what it is in West Tennessee, and these are people from South Carolina and Kentucky, just all of the adjoining States, you know. They all say that you can't beat what you find in West Tennessee.” – Joe Joyner
Jacks Creek Bar-B-Q
10 State Route 22A North (Crossroads of Hwy. 100 & 22A)
Jacks Creek, TN 38347
(731) 989-4140
www.jackscreekbbq.com
Interesting things usually happen at crossroads. The site where Tennessee highways 100 and 22A meet has been serving up barbecue for over sixty years. Breath and you’ll miss the tiny community of Jacks Creek, which seems to have just one building: Jacks Creek Bar-B-Q.
Joe Joyner is a man devoted to barbecue. Needing more free time for himself and his wife, he sold his ownership in the Jacks Creek barbecue location but stayed on as full-time pit-cook. It could be his love for pork and smoke, for pleasing customers, or it could be the mysteries of the crossroads.
We first visited Joyner’s Jacks Creek Bar-B-Q in 2003 as part of our initial foray into documenting rural Tennessee ‘cue. Visit the original Joyner’s Jacks Creek Bar-B-Q page.
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: Joe Joyner
Date: July 9, 2008
Location: Jacks Creek Bar-B-Q – Jacks Creek, TN
Interviewer & Photographer: Rien T. Fertel
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Rien T. Fertel: This is Rien Fertel with the Southern Foodways Alliance. It is just after 1:30 on July 9, 2008. I’m at Jack’s Creek Barbecue with Joe Joyner. This restaurant is at the crossroads of Highway 122A in Jack’s Creek, Tennessee just a couple miles east of Henderson.
Joe Joyner: Seven miles.
Seven miles east of Henderson; I’m going to introduce Mr. Joyner. Please state your name and birth date.
Okay; my name is Joe Joyner. My birthday is March 6, 1961.
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We [the SFA] interviewed you back in 2003 when you owned the place, and you recently sold it. Can you tell who you sold it to?
Sure; we—we sold the barbecue pit the first part of May of—of this year ’08. My wife was to the point of wanting to do something different, so we—we made the decision to let her get out and enjoy her life a little bit you know [Laughs]. And I stayed with it but we—we did it for 11 years and she felt like it was time for her to do something else. So far it’s been good for me. It’s cut a few hours back; I don't have the—all of the burden of the everyday things that—that go on along with keeping up with the books and things of that nature associated with running a—a sole proprietor small business. So it’s been good for me.
And tell us the name of who you sold it to please.
Jo—Jo Hilton; her and her husband, Jo mainly—Jeff is actually a Pharmaceutical Salesman, so he’s in and out occasionally but it’s Jo and myself. She’s the boss; I’m—I help manage.
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And from what I understand it was a long-time barbecue restaurant at this location at the crossroads of the two highways?
Right, right; there’s been barbecue sold her for many, many years. My grandfather—this is where he used to come whenever we were little kids so there’s probably been barbecue—I’m not for sure the number of years but we’re—we’re at least looking at 60 years-plus. … Yeah; this is the place. It’s always been across from the 22A and 100 where—where he would come. As far as the name of the place I don't really actually remember it ‘cause I was relatively young. But it’s—it’s always been known as Jack’s Creek Barbecue. I think the prior owners it was called World’s Famous Jack’s Creek Barbecue and it may have actually been—been called Crow’s prior to that but I’m really not sure. But of course when my wife and I bought it we called it Joyner’s and now it’s reverted back to being called Jack’s Creek Barbecue.
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I’d like to ask about where are you from exactly in Tennessee—you’re from Tennessee?
Well I was born in Kentucky. My—my dad was in the military and I was born on a military base but since I were approximately, I’m going to say seven years-old, we’ve lived in Chester County, which is—we actually live in Mifflin which is where we’re from, and it’s about eight miles north of Henderson.
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Did your father or mother perhaps barbecue or cook pig?
Well yeah our exposure to it was family get-togethers, community get-togethers. We would cook three to four hogs a summer and it was just a community type thing. We’d get together, about five—six families and—. … Basically holidays; sometimes we just—if they’d get a whim and say wow, let’s cook a hog you know we—we always had access to pork. And my dad raised feeder pigs some when he retired. And we always had access to—to a hog when we wanted to do it.
So he would slaughter his hogs that he raised?
Yeah; well generally that’s the way it is. It would be one of my dad’s or one of our neighbors would have one. Back then it was fairly common to have a few hogs running around you know.
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And can you—I mean without giving away secrets, can you describe your sauces? Do you have a mild and a hot?
Yeah; we have—we have a mild and a hot and we have an extremely hot that—that like the hot, the really hot stuff. But it’s—it’s a tomato-vinegar based style sauce; it’s got sugar in it, so it’s—we try and sweeten it up to the point where it’s more attractive. It has a little bit of a vinegar twang to it, but it’s very good on the barbecue. We even have people that—that buy the sauce and cook meatloaf with it; you know there’s so many things you can do with this type of barbecue sauce.
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Why do you think barbecue is so important to this area of Tennessee? What does it mean to the people?
I think West Tennessee has always been known for some of the best barbecue you can ever put in your mouth. And I—we have people that travel through all the time that—that always say there’s—you can't find it any—anywhere—any better than what it is in West Tennessee and these are people from South Carolina and Kentucky, just all of the adjoining States, you know. It’s just—they—they all say that you can't beat what you find in West Tennessee.
Do you think being a rural area—we’re surrounded by farms; does that come into play?
Maybe—maybe it did 15—20 years ago but now there’s just not a lot of hog raisers around here. I think there was probably an eight—eight-year period, about eight years ago—six to eight years ago there was a period where the price of pork just got so dirt cheap that it run so many of the little people out you know and it’s all big corporations now and some of these big time hog farmers. That’s the only ones you see that have them now.
And now families, like your father, don't have two or three pigs?
Oh no, no; it’s—it’s a thing of the past.
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To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.
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