New restaurant opening on Signal Mountain

Young chef's eatery to feature more than his food truck's barbecue

Owner Ray Kazlaskia takes a customer's order inside the Double Barrel BBQ food truck Tuesday, June 9, 2015, in front of the former Pepperjack's Restaurant in Signal Mountain, Tenn. Kazlaskia has bought the restaurant and is renovating it to open as The Double Barrel on July 1st.
Owner Ray Kazlaskia takes a customer's order inside the Double Barrel BBQ food truck Tuesday, June 9, 2015, in front of the former Pepperjack's Restaurant in Signal Mountain, Tenn. Kazlaskia has bought the restaurant and is renovating it to open as The Double Barrel on July 1st.

A blue sky with fluffy clouds is painted all over the Double Barrel BBQ food truck as it sits next to the late Pepper Jack's Grill on Signal Mountain. Truck owner and chef Ray Kazlaskia seems as serene as that sunny painted sky when he talks about managing the truck and the restaurant - both of which he recently bought.

He plans to reopen Pepper Jack's in July under a new name: Ray's Double Barrel.

"I plan to offer more than the food truck's barbecue," he said. "I'll have desserts, crab boils, fried catfish and other dishes."

Kazlaskia grew up in Hawaii, working in a Chinese restaurant owned by his family. One of his relatives was a Thai-Laotian kickboxer who taught Kazlaskia how to cook the sophisticated and luscious cuisines of Laos and Thailand.

After attending college in Colorado, Kazlaskia spent years running Amplified Power & Gas, an electricity and natural gas start-up which proved quite successful. He and wife Vanessa were charmed by Chattanooga's beauty and moderate winters on vacation trips here.

And besides, Kazlaskia couldn't stand another day working in the New York energy industry, which he says is "filled with wealthy hogs and sleazy sharks who want to destroy competitors and make life hell."

So he and his business partner sold the energy company last August for such a good price, "I was able to pay cash for my food truck last year and I used the money to buy Pepper Jack's Grill this year," Kazlaskia says. "I'm hiring all-new staff for the restaurant and my food truck."

The restaurant's low-slung gray frame building, which sits on Taft Highway, features a long, narrow porch and outdoor deck shielded from the sun by a metal roof. The previous management of Pepper Jack's rented the building, but Kazlaskia bought it. He, Vanessa and their two small children moved here last summer, looking at "about 100 houses." They finally bought one on Signal.

Kazlaskia parks his air-conditioned food truck in the lot while he works to get Ray's Double Barrel ready for opening. Since March, he has taken the truck to the parking lots of Julie Darling Donuts in North Chattanooga and A.C.T. Business Machines on Dayton Boulevard in Red Bank. He serves Kazlaskia family recipes for rubs and sauces - Tennessee whiskey-flavored Old Faithful, for instance - handcut french fries, fresh-squeezed lemonade and homemade sides such as baked beans, cole slaw. The centerpiece of his kitchen, though, are the meats, which include homemade bacon, pulled pork, barbecue brisket, pork butt, turkey legs, pork belly and pulled pork and pork belly sliders, all served on sweet Hawaiian King Bread rolls.

He had two 10-foot smokers custom-built in North Carolina so he could prepare the meat he will sell in both the truck and the restaurant. But Kazlaskia was shocked by the condition of the restaurant when the owner first unlocked the door about a month ago.

photo Owner Ray Kazlaskia, left, hands a sample of pulled pork to customer Richard Urban outside the Double Barrel BBQ food truck Tuesday, June 9, 2015, in front of the former Pepperjack's Restaurant in Signal Mountain, Tenn. Kazlaskia has bought the restaurant and is renovating it to open as The Double Barrel on July 1st.

"It looked like sabotage," Kazlaskia says, still sounding a bit shocked. "Someone used a hacksaw to cut through a water line. The kitchen floor had a hole hacked into it like someone had gone after it with an ax then got bored and pulled a mat over it.

"All the microwaves were pulled out of the walls and stolen. The knife sets for the cooks were stolen. Even a 42-quart boiling pot was stolen. The owner seemed surprised. We don't know who did it. But he spent $10,000 to repair the floor and I've been working hard to get the kitchen back in shape."

Pepper Jack's opened in April 2012 serving meat-and-3 platters, draft beer and live music. It closed in November 2013. Five Signal Mountain businesses, including Pepper Jack's, closed that year, and it makes some residents wonder whether the mountain is a risky location for a restaurant.

Michael Pennella, general manager at Rafael's Italian Restaurant, says there were lessons to be learned after the restaurant opened three years ago on Signal.

"We learned we should close at 8 p.m., not 10 p.m. after keeping staff on duty late with no customers to serve," Pennella remembers. "We found out breakfast is popular with residents here. It's one of our busiest meals. It more than made up for what we may have lost by closing two hours earlier at night."

Pennella also credits Rafael's cooks, the friendly servers and everyone's ability to adapt quickly to residents' preferences.

But other places haven't fared as well. Taco Bell came and went, so did Way Crazys (which was located in the Pepper Jack's/Ray's Double Barrel building). Several pizza places have opened and closed and Seventeen Ninety, a fine dining spot run by the folks who own Southern Star restaurant in Chattanooga, didn't make it.

Still, some Signal Mountain residents welcome a new restaurant's arrival.

"Anything with good service and good prices would be welcomed on the mountain," Lisa Whitten Hanson wrote on the Times Free Press Facebook page.

"Folks come up here and open restaurants without knowing the community," says Maricela Mardi Leonard. "People will pay for good food as long as it's reasonably priced."

Brenda Engle says she would be glad, after a long workday, not to have to drive back down the mountain for dinner, but she's had bad experiences at Signal Mountain restaurants.

"Way Crazys and Pepper Jack's were both good but too expensive and the service wasn't all that great," she says. "I constantly heard arguments in the back between the workers. It's not something I care to hear, especially when I eat."

Chris Neal says anything except a barbecue joint would work and he wishes for a meat-and-3 place. That response may have been cancelled out by Christy Elliott Holliday, who says she misses having a restaurant in the Pepper Jack's location and longs for a new owner who will bring "good food and decent service."

"Bring businesses with staying power close to home. Surely there are enough folks on Signal and nearby to help them get through the slump months," says Carolene Grossnickle Perry.

Kazlaskia remains confident. And he's even beginning to think of himself as a Southerner.

"I haven't been to Hawaii in 16 years, but in Hawaii you grow up loving pork barbecue as much as they do here," he says. "I love it here in Chattanooga. I don't ever want to leave, so I want my restaurant and food truck guests to be very happy with what I make for them."

Contact Lynda Edwards at 423-757-6391 or ledwards@timesfreepress.com.

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