I thought I’d been to all the Neely’s barbecue restaurants, but I was surprised when I recently saw Neely’s Interstate Bar-B-Que at 7209 Winchester Road.
It’s owned by Ken and May Neely. Ken is one of the sons of the original Neely’s founder, Jim Neely. Ken instantly greeted me when I walked in. I could feel the warmth.
I ordered a barbecue plate with barbecued beans as a side. The barbecue was delicious, and the beans were a pleasant surprise. The taste transported me to nostalgic backyard barbecues. They had a smokiness I’ve never experienced at other barbecue places.
Ken gave me a tour. A painting by Jamond Bullock depicts Jim and Ken with his cousins. Everyone pictured is or has been affiliated with Neely’s barbecue restaurants.
“The first one, of course, is Jim Neely’s Interstate Bar-B-Que,” Ken says. His dad still operates the restaurant at 2265 South Third that he opened in 1980.
Jim had been working in an insurance business in California before he moved back to Memphis and opened a grocery store on Third Street. “My dad found success in selling small sausage sandwiches. Chopped sandwiches that he would do and put into a hot box.” He then bought the adjoining space, which had been a juke joint, and opened the barbecue restaurant.
Jim was “always a good backyard barbecuer growing up. So, he just always had a knack for a good barbecue.”
Ken and his cousins, all of whom Jim raised, worked at the Third Street location until 1986 when the cousins “wanted to step out on their own and start their brand. And that’s how the Neely’s brand got started.” They all began opening their own Neely’s restaurants over the years.
Tony and Patrick Neely opened a Neely’s on the corner of Orleans Street and Madison Avenue, which moved to 670 Jefferson Avenue two years later. “The only thing different about that one was the sauce recipe. We make our own sauce recipes. My dad says, ‘I taught them everything they know about barbecuing, but I didn’t teach them everything I know.’ Both of them had to formulate their own slaw and sauce based on what they remember about my mother making the slaw and sauce.”
They later opened a second restaurant on Mount Moriah Road, and Patrick and his former wife, Gina Neely, went on to star in the popular Food Network TV show, Down Home With the Neelys.
At one point, two Neely’s barbecue restaurants were in the Memphis International Airport. In 2000, Jim opened Jim Neely’s Interstate Bar-B-Que in Southaven, Mississippi. In 2008, Ken and May opened their first restaurant, Ken Neely’s Hickory Bar-B-Que, at 7444 Winchester Road. “I always felt we needed to open up something out in this area, Southeast Shelby County.”
In 2016, they moved to the current location, which had been another Neely’s restaurant, owned by Jim and Tony.
The cooking process is the “common thread” at all the restaurants, Ken says. They cook with the same type of pit, which uses hickory and charcoal. The meat is cooked on a rotisserie, which gives it a smoky taste.
“I do all the cooking. I know how I want my food to come out, so I do all the cooking here,” he says. He’s a “hands-on” cook. “Attention to details. I pay attention to make sure I have ample smoke in my pit for the flavor of the meat.”
The meat is “rightly seasoned,” says Ken, borrowing the phrase popularized by the late Irene Cleaves of Four Way Grill fame. “One thing that I really specialize in doing is rightly seasoning my meat before I even cook it, and letting it marinate. Because that’s part of it. Too much seasoning is going to make it look like it’s burned.”
And those smoky beans? “The beans are made with brown sugar, molasses, and my barbecue sauce. More importantly, I cook them in the pit.”
His barbecued beans are “smoked,” he says. “Same thing for my greens and green beans.” Ken added the green beans about two years ago. “And I am the only location that does greens and green beans.”
All the Neely’s restaurants do barbecued spaghetti, but Ken says, “I’m the only location that does a smoked mac-and-cheese. I put it in the pit and get a little smoke in it.”
Like the other Neely’s restaurants, Ken and May sell the signature “Sock It to Me” cake. “It was originally started by my sister-in-law’s mother in California.”
Putting all the Neely’s restaurants together, Ken says, “We make one big beautiful family.”
And, Ken says, he sees his customers as part of that family. “I even go out to the table and I refer to them as ‘family.’ When you come here, you’re family.”
