Last year husband and wife Todd and Penney Carter took a huge leap of faith, opening a food truck and hitting the festival circuit with help from their daughter. One year later the family placed their trust in the Lord again, opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant, bringing their Holy Smoke B.D.Q. to a new permanent location in Chickamauga.
When I say they placed their trust in God, I mean exactly that. This is a family business built in the Faith of their Lord. Through Him all things are possible including serving the community delicious food made with passion and love.
Inside their restaurant the one big screen TV is tuned to Amazon Music’s Christian music station. There are several prayers mounted on the walls and the servers where T-shirts that say God’s Child. There are a few prayers printed right on the menu.
One of the servers I spoke with said they just opened the restaurant this past Wednesday. She said the owner started experimenting with various grills over the course of several years and has perfected his pulled pork.
She said the food truck was successful, but the owner wanted a permanent location. Their new location used to be a BBQ smokehouse, and the front of the house was basically turnkey ready. She said the owner installed a few new appliances in the kitchen and now they’re set on serving folks in the community.
The interior has a lodge feeling with wooden panels and ceiling, a fireplace in the corner, and metal paneling under the wood that has lots of patina making it looked aged. There are several dining tables, and everything was polished and clean.
Holy Smoke BDQ is located at 505 W 9th Street in the heart of historic Chickamauga and just one block off the main drive of Gordon Road. For the city of Chickamauga, it’s another new option to pick from. Railhead Station, on Gordon, offers a variety of sandwiches, sodas and beers. Droop Scoops is where you can get great ice cream. Los Potros offers Mexican cuisine. If you want pizza there is Domino’s Pizza. Soon there will be a new 1885 Grill on Gordon, but if you want great burgers, dogs, and Que (hence the B.D.Q.) you need to go to Holy Smoke BDQ.
Holy Smoke BDQ serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast is served up to 11 a.m. Their breakfast platters are served with grits or gravy and toast or biscuit. They have biscuit options, burrito options, pancake options, omelets, and breakfast sandwich options. Their lunch menu includes baked potato, fries and tater tot options, hot dogs, burger options including one called Diablo, a burger topped with pulled pork, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle and barbeque sauce. You can order a pork or chicken sandwich, chicken tenders, bologna sandwich, grilled cheese or a pork or chicken barbeque platter. Most come with your choice of one side which includes potato salad, slaw, fries, tots, baked beans or a bag of chips. They have a few options for complete take home meals and fried apple pie or banana pudding for dessert.
I went during lunch and ordered their BBQ pork sandwich with a side of potato salad. I also ordered a side of slaw.
Goodness gracious that was the juiciest, most tender pulled pork I’ve had. You could taste the hint of smoke, but it wasn’t overbearing. The bun was soft. I added some of the owner’s house made sauce and it gave the sandwich a mild sweet and savory flavor. I ended up topping my sandwich with the slaw and got that wonderful texture of crunch. The potato salad was perfect. The potatoes still had some firmness to them yet melted in your mouth.
Have faith that this family is here to treat you right and you’ll enjoy a lovely meal amid a polite and attentive staff and great food. I’m already thinking about going back and ordering their loaded baked potato topped with barbeque chicken.
Holy Smoke BDQ
- 505 W 9th Street, Chickamauga, GA
- (706) 375-7665
- facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575980214097
- $$ - $$$