After eight years missing from the Scenic City’s barbecue scene, Sportsman’s BBQ is coming back.
The family-owned “Chattanooga-style” barbecue restaurant – which dates back to the late 1940s – will open at a new joint at 3874 Hixson Pike sometime later this month or the beginning of April, if everything goes as planned.
David and Deborah Johns, owners and operators of the old Sportsman’s BBQ on Signal Mountain Road, are behind this installation as well, coming back to their sweet and savory roots after a stint working in the corporate food world.
“It’s in our blood,” said David Johns on Monday, “and just ever since we left, we’ve had an outcry from people wanting us to get back in the business.”
Sportsman’s BBQ originated with Johns’ grandfather, Dee Sweeney, who started a barbecue joint on the old dirt road Highway 58 in 1949, with barbecue recipes he had collected while working in northern Alabama.