Welcome regains a barbecue restaurant while one closes in Arcadia
Candy Martin, co-owner of Jimmy’s Smoke House, stands at the entrance of the barbecue restaurant on Old U.S. Highway 52 in Welcome. {Vikki Broughton Hodges/Davidson Local}
Candy Martin and James Sink Jr. have recently opened Jimmy’s Smoke House at 6043 Old U.S. Highway 52 in Welcome in what was Café 71 Smoke House BBQ.
Café 71, which closed in late January after only being open about four months, had replaced Rick’s Smokehouse, which closed in April 2022 after being in business seven years.
When Martin and Sink found out the Café 71 space was available, they decided to take a leap of faith when the opportunity was presented.
“I always wanted a restaurant,” Martin said. “I love making people happy with food.”
Martin, who said she has been cooking since she was a child, began cooking professionally at K&W Cafeteria in Winston-Salem while she was still in high school. She worked in a family business for many years but returned to cooking when she joined the cafeteria staff at Morgan Elementary School in Clemmons for several years.
Martin and Sink have kept some of the kitchen staff from previous barbecue restaurants, including Glenn “Speedy” Holbrook, a longtime cook at Rick’s and other eateries.
Jimmy’s Smoke House, which is named in honor of Sink’s late father, still offers the same pit-cooked Lexington-style pork barbecue for which the restaurant has long been known. Weekly specials include brisket on Wednesday, ribs on Thursday and barbecued chicken on Friday and Saturday.
Martin said she has been trying out new specials, such as meatloaf and mashed potatoes, on Tuesdays to see what customers want. She has also added a lot of new sandwiches, such as bologna, tenderloin, fried chicken, an all-beef hot dog and hand-patted 8-ounce hamburgers. “People love the burgers. I didn’t want it to be all about barbecue.”
The interior of Jimmy’s Smoke House is much the same as it was with the addition of a couple of televisions and a life-size cutout at the entrance of Martin and Sink’s son, Payton Martin, a West Forsyth High School baseball standout who went straight from there to playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers. “People actually take their pictures with that,” she noted.
Jimmy’s Smoke House is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Curb service is offered.
In other barbecue news, Southern Fire Pit Barbecue & Home Cooking at 8000 North Highway 150 in the Arcadia community closed in mid-March.
Owner Toni London announced the closure on the business’ Facebook page: “Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are closing the restaurant. With the lack of routine maintenance through the recent years the cost of all the repairs was astronomical!”
London opened Southern Fire Pit in September 2022 in the former location of Arcadia Q, which closed in August of last year. London had been the manager of Arcadia Q when it closed.
