Cole’s Smokehouse
Joey and Karen Cole opened Cole’s Smokehouse three years ago. It’s in the old Belmont Dixie Queen building, a local landmark right in the heart of Belmont on Highway 25. “I had run a grocery store in Tupelo for 26 years,” Joey told us, “and the store had a deli which I ran. We bought a smoker for the deli twenty or so years ago, and I got to be pretty good at operating it. A friend of mine’s brother had bought what was at the time the Belmont Dixie Queen and opened it back up, but he soon decided the restaurant business was not for him. He asked us if we were interested in buying it, and that’s how we ended up in Belmont.”
It turns out that running a barbecue restaurant is right up Joey’s alley. His years of experience in buying large quantities of food and his particular knowledge of smoking meats allowed him to hit the ground running. “The biggest thing we do is pulled pork barbecue,” he said. “That’s our big seller. We also have brisket, smoked chicken, smoked boloney, smoked sausage, pretty much every kind of meat you can smoke.”
Although the menu at Cole’s Smokehouse is heavy on meats, Joey does use some produce, and he says he tries to use locally-grown produce “when we can come across it. We mainly use lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers. The trouble is finding enough to fill our needs here at the restaurant.” And Joey says he’d love to be able to buy more locally-produced meats, but there are some obstacles in doing so. “I think restauranteurs in this area would support local meat processors if the quantity was available,” he said, “but in my case, I only need certain cuts of meat. It takes a bigger operation to offer particular items such as butts or loin, and for the smaller processors, it’s more profitable to process the whole hog at once. If I had to buy a whole hog, I’d have to reconfigure my menu, and that’s not feasible.”
Currently, Cole’s Smokehouse is supplied by a producer/wholesaler out of Alabama. We use them mainly because they have their own butchering service,” Joey said, “and I can get the specialty cuts I need. I’d love to get locally sourced meat, but the availability is just not there, neither quantity nor variety.” Another obstacle to buying from the small local processors is the cost. “There may be some smaller processors around who can supply individuals,” he said, “but they’re not ready to supply restaurants, at least not a prices that can make it work. There are some restaurants in Tupelo that can buy from smaller local processors, but these smaller processors have to charge more for their product, and in Belmont, I can’t charge what a restaurant in Tupelo can. The profit margin is just not there.”
In Joey’s experience, he has found that another problem for small producers can be the regulations with which they must comply. “If you try to raise your own meats and eggs and such, the certification process can be a problem. We had tried to raise our own eggs but selling eggs on a commercial basis requires certification, and there was a six-month backlog on getting certified. Of course, that was during Covid so everything was backed up. But maybe if the state could streamline the certification process it would help.”
Still, Joey hopes to one day use more locally raised meats. “I’d love to be able to buy local meats so I’d know where it’s coming from. But we’re cooking a case of brisket a week, four or five cases of butts, and a couple of cases of chicken, so we have to have a consistent supply. And we’re a small operation; I can’t imagine the demands for a big restaurant. But I would love to do Farm-to-Table. I can tell you from personal experience that having raised a hog, and processed a hog, and cooked that same hog, you can definitely can tell a difference.”
The Best of Tishomingo County Food Awards for 2023 named Cole’s Smokehouse the winner in the category of “Best Barbecue.”
- Cole’s Smokehouse is at 380 2nd Street in Belmont, Mississippi. Business hours are 10:00 a.m. –2:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and from 10:00 – 8:00 on Saturdays. They are closed Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.
- Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/colessmokehouse
- Also see: https://belmontdixiequeen.business.site/