One of the Augusta area’s most popular food trucks will continue operating, but its owners have found a permanent location in Columbia County where they would like to house their business.
As the Augusta Chronicle first reported nearly two years ago, SmokeShow Southern Style Barbecue is interested in a property at 4275 Washington Road in Evans to open a full-service restaurant and serve its simple but delicious menu.
For about a week now, a “Coming Soon” sign for the restaurant has been hanging at the address.
One of SmokeShow’s three food trucks regularly parks at 4275 Washington. It’s the former location of Brown Feed and Seed, which owner Donnie Brown operated for 40 years until it closed in 2017. He still owns most of the land surrounding his old business, but in August 2023 he sold a 2-acre piece of his land for $750,000 to a limited liability company that has the same business address as SmokeShow.
The building that now stands on the property was the former Escape Outdoors before it moved to Furys Ferry Road in Martinez in 2021. Plans filed with the Columbia County Development Authority in 2022 called for a 5,000-square-foot restaurant with an outdoor patio.
But the biggest fans of the SmokeShow menu don’t keep coming back for the atmosphere around the trucks. They’re there for the barbecue.
The owners and operators of SmokeShow have been friends for a long time. Jermel Bennett, Will Dunaway and Jake Wood attended Lakeside High School in Evans together and stayed in touch even after they separated in adulthood. The idea of a food truck came to them in 2016 after they complained that too few restaurants in the area offered homemade barbecue.
SmokeShow started with just three items on the menu—pulled pork, baked beans and coleslaw—and opened a roadside stand at Pollard’s Corner in Appling. Early success soon required the purchase of the company’s first food truck.
The slow-cooked pulled pork or chicken sandwiches are delicious on their own, without resorting to SmokeShow’s selection of sauces – Sweet BBQ, Carolina Mustard, Mild Vinegar and Hot Vinegar. The tantalizing smoky flavor is reminiscent of a perfectly crusted pork shoulder cooked over wood.
The barbecue tacos (with pork or chicken) are served with homemade jicama slaw and a spicy mayonnaise sauce in a soft tortilla.
Sides include Southern barbecue classics like hash and rice, collard greens, baked beans and potato salad. Other sides are reminiscent of the family recipes the owners relied on to make their specialties, such as Momma’s Mac, the macaroni and cheese that is SmokeShow’s best-selling side dish.
To find SmokeShow, one must first check the company’s website. The locally owned food truck can be found at Pollard’s Corner, on the Augusta University campus, or even at the old BP gas station, which has been closed for several years, at 3299 Skinner Mill Road.
