Barbecue is in Joe Dixon’s blood. It’s why he’s opening his first restaurant venture, Dixon’s Smoke Co., at 3664 Forest Park Ave., in Midtown, as first reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Dixon said his new barbecue concept was a continuation of his mother’s work; she owned Charlie’s Barbecue in Berkeley, Missouri, until 1999.
“Basically my whole life she spent in barbecue, barbecuing for churches and catering,” he said. “After she let it go, I wanted to pick up where she left off.”
The restaurant, located in a row building that once housed a Jimmy John’s, will offer 15 to 20 seats and eventually the same number outdoors, too. Dixon said he hopes to turn a brisk carryout business. The menu will offer the usual barbecue suspects, including pulled pork, beef brisket, ribs and chicken, along with sides like baked beans and potato salad. Dixon said he is looking at a late June or early July opening.
“We’re going for more of a St. Louis-Kansas City style-barbecue,” he said. “All wood fire, no pellets, no gas. We use our own rub, our own sauce. It’s all from scratch.”
That rub will soon make appearances on retail store shelves, too. Dixon’s “peppery, savory” I-55 brisket rub and the sweeter I-70 pork rub will first be available online following the completion of the restaurant’s website. Dixon hopes sales of the rub will help drive crowds to the highly trafficked Midtown and Saint Louis University area. “That,” he added, “and good smells of barbecue in the air.”
This article appears in May 2015.