Warm and welcoming are words that describe the atmosphere at the newest restaurant to open in Broadway, “Townes Homemade BBQ”. Owners Dwight Townes & Donetta Frye Tarwick have created a comfortable dining experience and welcome their customers like family. “We not only love to feed people, but we want to be a source of encouragement to everyone, especially those that need it most”.
From Friday through Sunday Dwight and his Pitmaster Rodger work tirelessly to prepare beef, chicken, and pork on the two large outdoor smokers beside the restaurant. As anyone who has ever made authentic bbq can attest it’s a true labor of love. It’s not easy to produce consistently good food using wood and charcoal, that’s why so much care is taken by the folks at Townes.
The origin of the now thriving business was humble and began at the Broadway Farmers Market only a few years ago. Deciding to “give it a try” Dwight and Donetta brought their grill from home and a few boxes of chicken to test the waters. With an overwhelmingly positive response they quickly knew they would need to scale up to meet demand! And began investing in the tools and required to cook for more people.
Moving into a small food stand in the nearby town of New Market Townes Homemade BBQ worked on perfecting its craft and menu. That time proved formative and allowed the two BBQ entrepreneurs to learn what worked well and what did not work as well in the food business. All the while building their reputation and customer base keeping an eye out for just the right spot to open their indoor dining restaurant.
When they learned of the space on Rt. 42 here in Broadway, they made an appointment to view it and where certain “THIS IS THE PLACE”. However, much work was still to be done before their dream of having a real restaurant could be realized. Building repairs, modifications and other preparations posed challenges to the dream but in the end where no match for the determination of Dwight and Donetta!
We here at the Chimney Rock Chronicle encourage you dear reader to help us keep our local economy strong by buying and shopping local whenever you can.
