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October 27-28, 2023
Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶
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October 27-28, 2023
Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶

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 info@southernfoodways.org.

< Back to Oral History project: Mississippi BBQ

ORAL HISTORY

James Roy Reaves

After a thirty-year career installing glass in high-rise buildings in Memphis, James Roy Reaves decided it was time for a change. With the help of a relative who owned a barbecue restaurant in McKenzie, Tennessee, James Roy and his wife, Verna, already locally known for her delicious cakes and pies, opened Westside Barbecue in 1988. Roy and Verna crafted their restaurant into a true family establishment, employing almost all of their family members and making sure the restaurant was family-friendly, complete with tables James Roy hand-crafted and a toy train that runs along the ceiling. Despite almost being destroyed by a fire in 2006, Westside continues to serve the people of New Albany, as well as neighboring towns, who come in search of good barbecue—and cake.

Two interviews, James Roy Reaves and Verna Reaves, are featured for this establishment.

Date of interview:
2010-07-16 00:00

Interviewer:
Meghan Leonard

Photographer:
Meghan Leonard

Download Transcript Download Transcript 2

“

There's always been a few places like we are. You just have to find them. They’ll be in small towns, out on the side of the road somewhere. But if somebody likes to cook and likes to cook barbecue, and he's got a good barbecue, people will buy it. They'll find you. You just have to hang with it. You can't give up and go home. You've just got to stay with it. ~ James Roy Reaves

I think it's all in knowing how to cook it, what temperature, how long, when to take it off, when to know when it's done, not to overcook it. I think we've perfected that here in all these years. They know exactly how the meat is supposed to be just by the feeling of it. ~ Verna Reaves

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