Several restaurants have been located here over the years. The old Billy’s Restaurant sign appears to date to the 1950s or thereabouts. It was most recently Hawk-Eye Bar-B-Que.
Billy’s Restaurant, Tifton
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Tag Archives: Georgia Barbecue
Armstrong’s Barbecue, Summerville
The first time I came through Summerville, on a mission to see Paradise Garden, it was lunchtime and I stopped at this place. It was packed to the rafters and like a step back in time. None of the interior has been updated since it was built, likely in 1965 when the business was established, but the place was warm and welcoming. And I loved their pepper-based sauce. A jar was purchased and guarded until the last drop was used. I wish I’d bought a dozen jars, because it was closed when I passed through a few weeks ago. And judging by comments online, it’s a real roll of the dice to find it open. Locals obviously love the place, too. I don’t know anything about their hours or why they’re so rarely open, but I do know that they have some of the best barbecue sauce I’ve ever eaten. If you’re lucky enough to be in Summerville when they’re open, make sure to stop by.
Paul’s Bar-B-Q, Lexington
According to almost anyone you ask in Lexington, or any of the myriad barbecue “experts” out there, Paul’s was one of the best barbecue restaurants in Georgia over its long history. [I’ve eaten at many of the “best barbecue in Georgia” joints and very few have impressed me. My favorite remains Armstrong’s in Summerville and it’s not even on many of those lists. They seem to have issues with their hours, though]. Online reviews raved about the perfect vinegar-based sauce, the thick Brunswick stew and sweet tea better than your granny’s. Paul’s was only open from 9:30-2:00 on Saturdays and on Independence Day. They finally shut their doors on 4 July 2016, a day which made many people sad.
Luckily, the good folks at the Southern Foodways Alliance interviewed the owners in 2008 and recorded an oral history of the business. It began in 1929 when Clifford Collins started cooking and barbecuing whole hogs in Lexington. He and Fudge Collins sold their product under the shade of a Mulberry tree on Main Street for the next forty years. With the advent of health regulations, the business moved inside this building and they began smoking hams instead of whole hogs. Clifford retired when he was in his 90s and passed the business on to his nephew, George Paul, Jr. George was a farmer with no restaurant experience but he quickly learned the ropes. He and his son Jimmy operated the business from about 1979 until 2016, with George smoking the shoulders on a pit at his farm and Jimmy making the Brunswick stew.
Poole’s Bar-B-Q & Pig Hill of Fame, East Ellijay
A favorite with tourists and locals alike, Poole’s Bar-B-Q has become a world-famous attraction in the mountain town of East Ellijay. Oscar and Edna Poole opened the restaurant in 1989. It started in a roadside shack but now occupies this building, known as the “Taj-Ma-Hog”.
Pig cut-outs, arranged in the shape of a pig, adorn the hill behind the restaurant known as the “Pig Hill of Fame”.
Pig-related names abound.
The Pig Hill of Fame started with just 300 cut-outs but now features over 3000.
Poole’s Bar-B-Q probably doesn’t need to advertise, but these crazy cars do a good job. The pig kitsch is a lot of fun. Like the old saying of eating everything but the squeal, Poole’s uses decorative pigs in every possible way.
Vanna B-B-Q
Dairy Lane, Sandersville
This unassuming building is home to one of the most successful restaurants in Georgia. Hudson “Hut” Avant opened Dairy Lane as a summer-only business in 1953, after twice being turned down for a Dairy Queen franchise in Sandersville. It became a year-round business in 1957 and hasn’t slowed down a bit ever since.
Though it changed hands in 1995, it never lost site of its mission to be a gathering place for its community. It serves the standard fare: hamburgers, hot dogs, shakes, barbeque and fountain drinks, but that’s where it’s similarity to almost anywhere else in the region ends.
To someone who’s never been, it’s almost hard to believe how busy this place can be, especially on weekends. A number of people have commented that it’s a must-stop for people traveling through Sandersville en route to Georgia games from all over South Georgia, and there’s a good bit of football memorabilia displayed throughout the restaurant.
If you’re in Sandersville, you really don’t want to miss the Dairy Lane.
Jimbo’s Log Kitchen, Homerville
The Steedley family has operated this landmark, from tavern to restaurant to catering business, since the Great Depression. I don’t believe the restaurant is still open but it was famous far beyond Homerville. Travelers passing through this isolated town on busy US 84 depended on its good food and friendly atmosphere for generations.
Hillsboro Masonic Lodge, Circa 1910
I had an interesting conversation with an 85-year-old resident who had returned to Hillsboro after spending much of his career working on fishing boats on the Georgia coast; he noted that this was the Masonic lodge, but throughout its history had also served as a general store, and as the signage indicates, more recently a barbecue restaurant. I would guess it was built in the 1880s or 1890s but I’m not sure.
Old Clinton Bar-B-Q, 1958, Clinton
For generations, Old Clinton Bar-B-Q has been among Georgia’s best-known roadfood shrines. As soon as you walk through the sawdust under the low-hanging porch into the unassuming interior, itself a nod to a simpler time, you’ll feel very welcome. Though terms like “best” and “world-famous” can be found on nearly every barbeque joint’s shingle, you’ll find few locals who would dispute this claim. Features in Southern Living, USA Today, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Washington Post have cemented its fame to non-locals. Clinton native John T. Edge, the leading food writer of the South, describes the barbeque in his book Southern Belly: “Sweet, smoky meat hacked to shreds, perfumed with a sauce tasting of vinegar and pepper, maybe a hint of tomato; Brunswick stew, thick with chicken, fresh pork, and corn; milky coleslaw, rich with mayonnaise. To this day, I don’t think I’ve tasted a meal that satisfied me so.”
Roy and Mittie “Lady” Coulter opened the restaurant in 1958 after the four-laning of US Highway 129 forced them to close their general store, across the highway on Greene Settlement Road. When Roy passed away suddenly in the restaurant’s kitchen in 1962, Lady took over the operations and remained chief cook until her death in 1996. The Coulter’s son Wayne is the proprietor today and he’s changed very little about the place. He did make one welcome change about twenty years ago, though: My mother never air-conditioned the place…and we had a big pit inside the restaurant where the smoke would sweep across the room. We’d have to open all the windows to air it out. We put in a wall that covered the pit in the ‘90s, got a new smoker, and finally cooled the place down a little bit.
If you’re using GPS, use this address: 4214 Gray Highway, Gray, Georgia 31032. You probably won’t need it, though. Once you see the little white pig and the wrap-around Coca-Cola signage, you’ll know you’ve arrived. There’s a new location on Highway 441 in Milledgeville, as well.
C. J.’s Bar-B-Q & Stew, Woodville
