In Real Barbecue, the definitive guide authored by Vince Staten and Greg Johnson, Staten recalls taking one date to Brother Jack’s and telling her to wait in the car while he went in to get a couple of sandwiches. One popular stunt was taking a sorority-girl date to Brother Jack’s after a big dance, cautioning her about getting the sauce on her gown as you drove back to campus with a sack full of pig burgers. Just as getting drunk on prodigious amounts of beer at the Roman Room was a rite of passage, so were experiences at Brother Jack’s. The proximity and the hours led to the place becoming popular as a late-night must for students. or so.īrother Jack’s was on University Avenue, only about a mile from Fort Sanders and its population of UT students–but on the wrong side of the interstate. First, there was no sign telling the seeker that he had found it second, the food was to-go only and third, the place was open until 3 a.m. And it was capital-H hot.īut the limited menu was not the only distinguishing aspect of Brother Jack’s. When Jack, a large black man, took your order, he would smile and say, “You want that hot, don’t you?” And then he would sauce it from a squeeze bottle, the contents his own recipe.
The meat could be had with chips and a cold soft drink.
There were ribs and pulled pork, to be sure, but also on offer were pig burgers, hand-made ground-pork patties, grilled and stuck between two slices of white bread. Though Brother Jack specialized in barbecue, it’s probably more accurate to say he created food products made from pig parts. Grady was discerning when it came to food, whether it was fresh-picked corn “found” in a field in south Knox County, chili slaw dogs at Dis & Dat on Chapman Highway, or barbecue from Brother Jack’s. When the time came–2 a.m.–he would stop by my spot on the copy desk with a “Wanta scoff some grease?” When I was working at the Journal in the late ’60s, my usual guide was cohort Grady Amann, who seemed to be a regular at every dark-of-night hangout in Knox County. One of the many necessities required by those working late into the night is knowledge of where to find great food after 2 a.m.
0 kommentar(er)
