| Industry | restaurant |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1910s |
| Headquarters | Marianna, Arkansas |
| Products | barbecue |
Jones Bar-B-Q Diner is a barbecue joint in Marianna, Arkansas, US, that has been open since at least the 1910s. According to business guide Black Business, it is believed to be the country's oldest black-owned restaurant. In 2012 it was recognized by the James Beard Foundation as an "American Classic".
The smoking business was first started by the current owner's grandfather's uncle, Joe. [1] The exact year it opened is disputed; Garden & Gun specified 1910 when naming it to their Barbecue Bucket List. [2] The Beard Foundation said it had been open "since at least the 1910s." [3] According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, it "is perhaps the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Arkansas, as well as perhaps the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the South owned by a black family." [4] According to Oxford American , it is "the oldest black-owned restaurant in the South, and, perhaps, one of the oldest family-owned black restaurants in the nation." [5] According to business guide Black Business, it is "believed to be the oldest black-owned restaurant in the country." [6] According to Southern Foodways Alliance, "there are some people who believe it's the oldest continually operated African American-owned restaurant in the South." [7] According to The Chicago Tribune, "Food historians say it may be one of the nation’s oldest restaurants owned by an African American family." [8]
Joe's nephew, Walter Jones, originally served barbecue on Fridays and Saturdays from the back porch of his dogtrot house. [3] Walter's son recalled in a 1986 interview that the first pit setup was "a hole in the ground, some iron pipes and a piece of fence wire, and two pieces of tin." [3] [4] [9]
The next owner was Walter's son, Hubert Jones. Hubert's son told Saveur that his father's original place was called The Hole in the Wall, because "that's what it was. Just a window in a wall where they sold meat from a washtub." [5] [9] Hubert moved the business to its current location in 1964 and changed its name to Jones Bar-B-Q. [4]
The next and current owner is Hubert's son, James Jones, and his wife Betty. [10] In 2010 James Jones told Oxford American that his son, a local coach, was not planning to continue operating the business. [5]
In 2017 James Jones shared his recipes and permission to use the business name with Kevin Arnold, who opened a Jones Bar-B-Q in Jacksonville, Arkansas, about 100 miles (160 km) away. [11]
The Marianna diner is located in a white cinder block two-story shotgun house on a corner lot at 219 West Louisiana Street. [5] [9] [12] Hubert Jones and his wife lived upstairs when they operated it. [5]
Jones smokes 10 to 12 pork shoulders over oak and hickory in cinder-block pits for at least ten hours three times a week. [8] [9] He simmers the cooked meat in sauce in a slow cooker. The sauce is thin and vinegar-based and contains paprika and cayenne. [5] [13] The menu offers only chopped pork, either by the pound or as sandwiches on white bread such as Wonder [14] or Sunbeam, [13] with or without a mustard-based coleslaw. [4] [13] As of August 2019, sandwiches were US$3.50, a pound of meat US$7.00 and a pint of sauce US$3.00. [8]
The diner opens at 6 a.m. six days a week and closes whenever it sells out, often by 11 a.m. [4] [10] According to The Chicago Tribune, "On a summer Saturday, that could happen before 10 a.m." [8] There are only two tables, [15] providing seating for at most ten. [8]
As of 2010 the restaurant offered smoking service to hunters who would bring their catches in. [5]
In 2012 the James Beard Foundation named it one of America's Classics, [12] making it Arkansas' first [16] Beard Award winner. [1] According to The Chicago Tribune, University of Mississippi academic John Edge "helped nudge the Beard Foundation" to consider the diner. [8]
In 2017 it was inducted into the inaugural class of the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame. [17] In 2019 Food & Wine named it the best barbecue in Arkansas. [18]