Page 32 - South Mississippi Living - July, 2021

DINING
LININGS
Pandemic Gives Birth to Successful Barbecue Pop Up
story and photos courtesy of Daddy’s BBQ
James Edward Bates grew up watching his dad’s passion for barbecue in a small, out-of the-way rib shack in Jayess, Mississippi. Today, Bates has found a new way to share his own love for barbecue closer to home, using
the “Pop Up” restaurant concept with his popular Daddy’s BBQ events here on the Mississippi Coast.
Bates is perhaps best known for his decades of work as a photojournalist and photographer, homeless advocate and disaster relief volunteer with Operation BBQ
Relief and the Giving BAK Foundation.
But one of his greatest passions is
bringing mouth-watering barbecue to his community, a lifelong love sparked by those times spent with his family at the Bates Bar-b-que shack.
“My dad worked hard at his ‘day job’
during the week, but he lived for the
weekends, when he would fire up the
smoker and slow smoke some really
amazing ribs, chicken and more. Mom
worked the register, my grandmother made the pies. There was a lot of love there. He loved that
those recipes made anyone who wandered in, happy.” In 2007, Bates began bottling his late father’s dry rub
seasonings (and for a time, his sauces), wholesaling them through markets in Atlanta, Dallas, New York, Washington and San Francisco as the “Daddy’s BBQ” brand, winning several national awards along the way. “It was a way to keep that connection with my dad, to keep his dream alive.”
Using proceeds from the seasoning business, Bates purchased an Ole Hickory smoker a few years
later and started smoking meats for his family and closest friends, honing his skills and
bringing back what he learned, as well as
his dad’s favorite recipes, for fun. Word of mouth spread and before long he was getting requests to cook for ‘friends of friends of friends.’ “At that point, I thought the time might have come to consider doing this for real with a shack of my own.”
So with eyes set on opening a small restaurant somewhere locally, Bates started putting all the necessary ducks in a row – and
then the pandemic hit.
32 | July 2021
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www.daddysbbq.com