While downtown parking spots were closed off for the upcoming Strawberry Festival Junior Parade on Friday, June 6, one spot was specially reserved for visitors that weren’t in town for the annual event.
Instead, America’s Best Restaurant film crew parked its van in front of J&C BBQ & Catering at 525 S Main St. to record an episode of its national show.
As community residents were beginning to claim seats on Main Street’s corridor for a parade that would happen five hours later, J&C BBQ owners Joe and Christina Poteet were offering a chair to Show Host Amanda Valentine and her crew.
The national media company travels across the United States highlighting good food and sharing stories of local, independently-owned restaurants as part of its “ABR Roadshow” broadcasted on multiple digital platforms.
Oftentimes they select restaurants based on nominations and reviews, but ABR Communications Specialist Suzanne Hale said J&C was selected by producers because the restaurant “caught their attention” and they reached out to see if the Poteets would be interested in being featured on the show.
“They have such an amazing story, particularly regarding their competition wins, and we knew their food was just off-the-charts good,” she said.
Valentine travelled from Cincinnati to try J&C’s barbecue offerings. It’s a job, she said, that suits her because she gets to try new foods, see different towns and hear different stories of family-operated restaurants.
“You get to see how they bring their whole family in and how they all work together,” Valentine said. “You think how with a lot of people in their jobs, their job takes them away from their family, but in a lot of scenarios with restaurants, how it brings their family together. I think that’s really special and it comes across when you’re eating everybody’s food. It’s almost like coming to someone’s house and their family is making your dinner.”
That’s exactly the kind of atmosphere the Poteets aim to provide. While Joe and Christina focus on cooking flavorful meats, their daughter Kaitlyn Poteet manages the kitchen and daughter Brittany Poteet bakes the desserts.
The family’s goal is to make J&C BBQ a destination restaurant, drawing in folks from a 50-plus-mile radius to experience a home cooked meal. People who travel from long distances to eat at a restaurant are looking for an experience, Christina said.
“We’re creating an environment. We’re creating an experience. We’re creating relationships. That’s where we’re going,” she said. “If we can bring people in, they’re coming in to escape the stress of home. They’re coming in to escape the stress of family. They’re coming in to escape the stress of work. They get to come in here for a moment and be a part of our family, and that’s kind of the goal, to refocus how we treat our customers and make sure they’re appreciated.”
J&C BBQ was born out of the Poteets’ desire to change course in their life.
Prior to operating a restaurant and catering business – as well as winning hundreds of barbecue competitions – Joe worked at a paper mill. Christina worked as a paramedic, but was eventually detoured from the job due to an injury. As Christina set her sights on returning to school, Joe began realizing he was “living to work versus working to live,” she said. Together, their paths converged into an idea to go into the food business.
The pair started in 2016 out of a food trailer in Sweet Home and, a few years later, moved into a brick and mortar location in Lebanon’s Main Street downtown. In 2022, the restaurant moved to the other end of Main Street by taking over Bigfoot Grille in something of a combined restaurant offering both a hamburger and a barbecue grill menu.
Since taking on this new path together, the pair entered into the growing subculture of food competitions. They have been entering barbecue competitions across the country and using the experiences to perfect their local menu since 2017. The Poteets compete an average of eight times a year, but this year they’ve already participated in 10 competitions and expect to have done about 15 by the end of 2025, Christina said.
With a recent rebranding of their business – essentially removing Bigfoot Grille because, according to Christina, it was causing confusion among customers – the family is trying to “get back to their roots.”
The family spends so much time at the restaurant, in fact, that they see their job as feeding customers the same quality of homemade food they would feed themselves, she said.
“We want to be proud of what we serve,” she said. “I want people to come in and eat, like, a home-cooked meal.”
And that’s exactly what they offered Valentine for the roadshow, which will feature some of J&C’s best menu items, including Texas Twinkies, ribs with coleslaw and pit beans, and brisket with potato salad, cornbread and the Smoked Jalapeno Bacon Mac N Cheese. Brittany also offered a specialty dessert for the show – and a nod to Lebanon’s Strawberry Festival – a giant strawberry sweet roll.
Valentine got to sample it all.
“It was amazing,” Valentine said. “For me, personally, it was the best brisket I’ve ever had.”
But, she said, if she had to choose between the brisket and ribs, it was the ribs that had a “slight edge.”
“It had a crispness on the outside,” she said. “The brisket was great, but I feel like having the real crunchy along with the juiciness was kind of what set (the ribs) ahead.”
Valentine also raved about the potato salad, jalapeno bacon mac and cheese, and honey butter.
While filming took place, locals and friends from hours away stopped in for lunch and to show support for the Poteets.
Show Producer Ashley Dawn said it’s not uncommon for a restaurant’s “super fans” to come a long distance to support good food and family business.
The film crew talked with Kaitlyn in the kitchen as she cooked up one of the featured menu items, then later sat down with Joe and Christina to learn about the family’s journey through the world of barbecued food, operating a food business and winning competitions across the country.
Recent awards include multiple first-place ribeye steaks with the Steak Cookoff Association and numerous Top 10 awards in the Kansas City Barbecue Society, Pacific Northwest Barbecue Association, Steak Cookoff Association and the Outlaw BBQ Association.
It’s not all about barbecue for the family, though. J&C is making plans to expand its next door location into a bakery (what they term “cakery and confections”) in order to showcase Brittany’s skills while also offering the community something it wants. Expected to open by summer’s end, the addition will be called Simply Crumbs.
Also, Joe currently has three rubs out in the market, and he plans to grow that foothold more through trade shows.
Christina said the experience with America’s Best Roadshow was “amazing,” and the film team made her feel comfortable throughout the process. She particularly enjoyed watching her “introvert” daughter, Kaitlyn, “come out of her bubble” while showing the host what she does in the kitchen.
The production team will need a couple of months to edit the show before it can be premiered on the restaurant’s Facebook page, ABR’s Facebook page, ABR’s YouTube channel, and ABR’s website (americasbestrestaurants.com). J&C BBQ’s Facebook page will announce when the show will premiere.
“The whole experience itself was a positive one,” Christina said.