By Cari Gervin
Community News Writer
Waycrazy’s Bar-B-Que —; the official restaurant —; is way long gone from Soddy-Daisy.
But the barbecue lives on, in the form of sandwiches at least.
Janet Waycaster, a Soddy-Daisy resident, said that she and her husband closed up shop seven years ago when their lease expired.
The couple planned to build a restaurant from the ground up nearby; unfortunately, Mike “Waycrazy” Waycaster was diagnosed with cancer shortly thereafter.
When Mr. Waycaster passed away five years ago, it was all his wife could do to manage her one restaurant on Signal Mountain, much less build a new one.
Still, Soddy-Daisy residents missed that hickory-smoked, hand-pulled pork. Eventually a few friends of Mrs. Waycaster convinced her to sell them barbecue to make sandwiches.
For the past two years, Shady Grove Harbor has been the closest place to find the meat that has been served to everyone from Laura Bush to Oprah Winfrey to Lee Greenwood to Hillary Swank to any number of NASCAR drivers.
Mrs. Waycaster said many people do make the drive from Soddy-Daisy up Signal Mountain to sample the full menu; however, many of her neighbors are happy to have the option not to.
Waycrazy’s has been around for 18 years on Signal, and the whole time, Mrs. Waycaster has lived in Soddy-Daisy.
“So many people told us we’d never make it, that we were crazy to open a restaurant up on the mountain when we didn’t live there,” Mrs. Waycaster commented. “We’ve been here ever since.”
E-mail Cari Gervin at cgervin@tfpcommunitynews.com
Waycrazy’s Bar-B-Que, 3720 Taft Hwy, Signal Mountain, is open from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Sandwiches are sold at Shady Grove Harbor (Soddy Creek Inlet, TN River Mile Marker #485-5), call 322-5613.
