Belle’s Smokin’ BBQ Origins
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From Nothing to Something
You always see those TV shows about small town family-owned businesses. Things such as general stores, clothing mercantiles, and ice cream parlors. I never thought we would be those people in small town Williamstown, KY, but here we are.
It was October of 2016, my parents and I had just moved into a new house with 14 spacious acres. To show everyone our new property, we decided to have a pig roast. Out of an old propane tank, my dad spent a few days out of the week welding it into a smoker. We went and picked up 2 pigs from a local slaughtering house to smoke overnight. As people started to eat the meat, they couldn’t stop talking about how good of a job we cooked the pigs, and how we could make a killing out of selling it to the public. One thing led to another and we have a business up and running.
6 short months later, we have our first event. On a small trailer we pulled the smoker, a homemade take-apart booth, and a couple coolers for canned drinks and cold stock. It was the Derby Day Festival in Williamstown, KY on May 5th, 2017. People couldn’t get enough of our food! We fell in love with running this business. Next thing we knew, we were booked every weekend for the summer of 2017 bbq-ing at local and state events.
The small trailer began to not hold enough supply for such a high demand. We were constantly running out of food and drinks, and we needed something that would give us more stability and opportunity. In September of 2017, we made the big decision of buying a food concession trailer. From here, everything took off. That winter we were able to go to more fall and Christmas events due to having an enclosure. All throughout the years of 2018 and 2019, we would work 6-7 days a week food trucking at street corners, business operations, and big events and festivals.
With more people wanting us for their festivals, events, weddings, and more, we were needing more space for everything, This is when we started looking for a building to create into a restaurant of our own. November of 2019 we closed on a building on Main Street in Williamstown, and within 2 short months later of hard work and renovation, our grand opening was January 3rd of 2020. Business was non stop until the unfortunate events in March.
The corona virus invaded the US in march of this year and shut us down to “take-out” only. When the governor of Kentucky announced the shut downs of the state, we were filled with fear. This business has kept a roof over our heads for the past few years and covered for most of our bills. We had to lay people off, change our whole entire system of serving customers, and constantly pray that things would get better sooner than later.
On May 22, the governor informed us that we could re-open for dine-in services. This is really when business popped. The locals took care of us and we thank God for that everyday. You would think that we would be hurting, but if anything, the pandemic spiked our sales and we’re continuously breaking our record sales each weekend.
Belle’s BBQ on Main St. in Williamstown KY is now the place to be on the weekends for live music, cold beer, great food, atmosphere, friends and family. It’s also the most raved restaurant for tourists visiting the Ark Encounter just down the road. We never imagined ourselves as restaurant owners but here we are rocking it.
-Annabelle Smith
~Boss of the Boss~