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Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. If you would like to contribute to SFA’s oral history collections, please send your ideas for oral history along with your CV or Resume and a portfolio of prior oral history work to annemarie@southernfoodways.org.

< Back to Oral History project: Tennessee Barbecue Project

< Back to Oral History project: Rural Tennessee BBQ Project

< Back to Oral History project: Memphis Tennessee BBQ Project

ORAL HISTORY

Artrageous Cookers (2002)

Date of interview:
2002-01-01 00:00

Other Project Interviews

Interview

Whole Hog – A Slow-Smoked Story Cycle

Everyday the South's passion for the pig plays out in parts. Shoulders and skins, maws and middlins, ribs and lips,…

Interview

Tops Bar-B-Q (2002)

Tops. It's the best. The tops. That's what it means. It's simple. But still there's something else swirling around my…

Interview

Three Little Pigs Bar-B-Q (2002)

I see the pig he said I'd see and pull into the parking lot. On the side of the building facing the Blockbuster, the…

Interview

Scott’s Bar-B-Que (2003)

"I mean, I’m basically the only one [around here] that’s still in the old tradition way. And if I had to go to a gas or…

Interview

Rendezvous (2002)

The people that have taken barbecue, the art of cooking barbecue or the skills of cooking barbecue in a sense…

Interview

Payne’s Bar-B-Q (2002)

Bingo was here before us... his pockets bulging with balloons, his deft fingers drumming the redcounter, his eyes fixed…

Interview

Payne’s Bar-B-Q (Original) (2002)

Essay by Joe York Down the street the Lamar Theater is little more than a poster board for politicians. The windows are…

Interview

Papa KayJoe’s Bar-B-Que (2003)

We cook—everything that we cook is on hickory, strictly hickory coals. There’s no gas, there’s no ovens, there’s no…

Interview

My Three Sons Bar-B-Q (2003)

Barbecue is supposed to be on wood. If it’s cooked with gas or electric, all it is is roasted pork. You can put a smoky…

Interview

Marlowe’s Ribs and Restaurant (2002)

That we would find Marlowe's on our first trip to Memphis in search of barbecue art, was about as likely as Ponce De…

Interview

Little Pigs Bar-B-Q (2002)

She sits her pen down and walks out the front door. Around the corner, she slides the OPEN pig from its coasters, flips…

Interview

Leonard’s Pit Barbecue (2002)

It was raining pretty hard. I ran from the car to the awning where a large man and a small boy waited for someone to…

Interview

Joyner’s Jacks Creek Bar B.Q. (2003)

When I was young, growing up, my grandfather, this was the business that he came to buy his barbeque…I mean, it’s been…

Interview

Bill’s Bar-B-Q (2003)

I could go anywhere in the world, cook barbeque just like I do here, if you’ve got the hickory wood. I mean, it’d be no…

Interview

Interstate Bar-B-Q (2002)

Despite what we had come to expect of the Memphis pig... ordering you to order them, dressing up as chefs and cooking…

Interview

Hays Smoke House (2003)

In this area here, like in say a 30-mile area here, this is a hotbed for whole hog barbeque. And you’ll go out of…

Interview

Foster’s Bar-B-Q (2003)

[I flip the hogs] when they’re ready to serve. I do mine just a little bit differently. I’ll cook them with the skin…

Interview

Cozy Corner Restaurant

Family and the restaurant Raymond Robinson built are inseparable. Four generations of Robinsons work at Cozy Corner,…

Interview

Cozy Corner Restaurant (2002)

On this philosophy Raymond raised a business around his family and a family around his business, each so much a part of…

Interview

Corky’s Ribs and BBQ (2002)

Some historians put the number at around three hundred, others simply say he had a herd of them, but they all agree…

Interview

Bryant’s (2002)

Just inside the front door, the silly hillbilly hog has got one hand in his overalls and the other on the hay seed he's…

Interview

Brown’s Bar-B-Q (2002)

Essay by Joe York I walk in and wait in line behind the boy and the girl. They order and step back from the…

Interview

Bobby’s Bar-B-Q (2003)

We serve whole hog barbecue. We cook it the old-fashioned way over the wood coals, and it takes approximately 24 hours…

Interview

Big S Grill (2002)

"God gives everybody so much. If barbecue is yours, that's it."

Interview

Bar-B-Que Shop (2002)

On the door they're dancing, up on their hind legs, his hooves on her shoulders, hers on his. It is a scene straight…

Oral Histories

ORAL HISTORY

Artrageous Cookers (2002)

Other Project Interviews

Whole Hog – A Slow-Smoked Story Cycle

Tops Bar-B-Q (2002)

Three Little Pigs Bar-B-Q (2002)

Scott’s Bar-B-Que (2003)

Rendezvous (2002)

Payne’s Bar-B-Q (2002)

Payne’s Bar-B-Q (Original) (2002)

Papa KayJoe’s Bar-B-Que (2003)

My Three Sons Bar-B-Q (2003)

Marlowe’s Ribs and Restaurant (2002)

Little Pigs Bar-B-Q (2002)

Leonard’s Pit Barbecue (2002)

Joyner’s Jacks Creek Bar B.Q. (2003)

Bill’s Bar-B-Q (2003)

Interstate Bar-B-Q (2002)

Hays Smoke House (2003)

Foster’s Bar-B-Q (2003)

Cozy Corner Restaurant

Cozy Corner Restaurant (2002)

Corky’s Ribs and BBQ (2002)

Bryant’s (2002)

Brown’s Bar-B-Q (2002)

Bobby’s Bar-B-Q (2003)

Big S Grill (2002)

Bar-B-Que Shop (2002)

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Oral Histories

ORAL HISTORY

Artrageous Cookers (2002)

Other Project Interviews

Whole Hog – A Slow-Smoked Story Cycle

Tops Bar-B-Q (2002)

Three Little Pigs Bar-B-Q (2002)

Scott’s Bar-B-Que (2003)

Rendezvous (2002)

Payne’s Bar-B-Q (2002)

Payne’s Bar-B-Q (Original) (2002)

Papa KayJoe’s Bar-B-Que (2003)

My Three Sons Bar-B-Q (2003)

Marlowe’s Ribs and Restaurant (2002)

Little Pigs Bar-B-Q (2002)

Leonard’s Pit Barbecue (2002)

Joyner’s Jacks Creek Bar B.Q. (2003)

Bill’s Bar-B-Q (2003)

Interstate Bar-B-Q (2002)

Hays Smoke House (2003)

Foster’s Bar-B-Q (2003)

Cozy Corner Restaurant

Cozy Corner Restaurant (2002)

Corky’s Ribs and BBQ (2002)

Bryant’s (2002)

Brown’s Bar-B-Q (2002)

Bobby’s Bar-B-Q (2003)

Big S Grill (2002)

Bar-B-Que Shop (2002)

WORKING TOGETHER

WE CAN CULTIVATE PROGRESS.

Let’s Stay in Touch

Sign up for the SFA newsletter to have the latest content delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up for the SFA newsletter to have the latest content
delivered directly to your inbox.