Lonnie Smith Jr. enjoys life and the many opportunities it has to offer.
“Life is an adventure,” the long-time barbecue cooker professed in an interview last week. “I’m very good about not saying no. If somebody says, ‘let’s try something,’ if it doesn’t detrimentally hurt my family, I’m all about it.”
While the 62-year-old has numerous passions, at the top of the list arguably has to be his love for cooking barbecue, and that commitment has earned him a distinct honor. The Georgia Barbecue Hall of Fame has selected him to be a member of its second class, and he is to be inducted Feb. 8.
“Georgia’s contribution to barbecue on the national level is huge,” Smith prefaced. “Some of the best barbecue being cooked in the world is coming out of the State of Georgia.”
Smith has been entering barbecue contests since 2004, has been very successful and is now being recognized for his contributions.
“They organized the Hall of Fame in 2020,” he said. “They had their first inaugural class in 2024. I was blessed enough to be inaugurated in the second class. There will be three of us going in Feb. 8: myself as a pit master and grill builder; Tony Thurston out of Griffin as an organizer; and the Big Pig Jig as an event.”
Smith, who grew up in Houston County and followed his parents to Jones County in the 1990s, built his first grill in 1994 along with his son by a previous marriage, Lonnie Smith III, known as Lee.
“My son and I built my dad a grill on a trailer for his Father’s Day present,” the proficient welder recalled. “And so, I started building grills in the afternoon as a hobby, and I still build grills as a hobby.”
The Smiths connection with Jones County started well before that first grill. In the late 1960s, Lonnie Smith Sr. bought a lot on Lake Sinclair, and the family would use that property for more than one activity.
“For about 30 weekends a year, we would come to Lake Sinclair to either fish and play or be close to leased land in Jones County we deer hunted on,” Lonnie Jr. said before declaring, “Deer hunting is my second passion to barbecue.”
Smith met his current wife, Shannon, while Lee was playing rec ball in Jones County. Shannon’s sister, Julie Roberson, got them together when she made the comment to Smith, ‘You’re a single dad raising a kid, right?’
“I said ‘yes,’ and Shannon came to one of the games. We went out a week later, and 14 months later we were married.”
The two of them bought property on Moughon Road off Eatonton Highway and built their home there in 1999, two years after their marriage. Smith has two other daughters from his first marriage, and the couple now has a 13-year old daughter, Grayson, a student at Gray Station and cheerleader and golf team member.
Smith began building the grills while still working as a process engineer for what was known then as Weyerhauser. He retired in 2011 after 30 years with the company.
Once he started building Bubba’s Grills, Smith looked for ways to get the word out.
“We would go to barbecue competitions, pay the entry fee, and set up and cook 200 pounds of barbecue and give it away as a way to promote the grills,” he shared.
That changed in 2004, when his team went to Callaway Gardens and entered the barbecue contest as a way to promote the grills.
“We won the sauce that day and finished third in pork shoulders and fifth in ribs. We had a great day.”
Smith said that was the beginning of a long and successful run in the barbecue competition. His team has entered 225 contests with 64 championships to show for it. He pointed out that the various sanctioning bodies call for different types of entries.
Two of the well-known sanctioning bodies are the Memphis Barbecue Network (MBN) and the Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS). The former requires that the contestant cook a whole pig, pork shoulders, and ribs, while the KCBS uses chicken, ribs, pork shoulders and brisket.
Smith proudly showed off the banjos the team won in competition in Galax, Virginia.
“That is referred to as the home of old-time mountain music,” he commented, “and the banjos are custom-built by the Barr family.”
His team has won four of the prized instruments as championship trophies.
“They’re worth $4,000 to $6,000. We’re the only team that has won it more than two times.”
Barbecue competition requires a considerable amount of travel, Smith acknowledged. His team has cooked at locales such as the Houston, Texas, rodeo, one of the world championships, finishing in the top 10 in briskets.
“The KCBS association, we won a grand in Cincinnati in that. Our forte, though,” he declared, “is the Memphis Barbecue Network. In 2011, we were the ribs world champions, and last year we finished second at the world championships with the whole hog.”
It’s not like Smith and his team are competing against a few contestants.
“In Memphis last year at the world championships, there were 133 teams,” he recalled. “When we finished in the top 10 in briskets at the Houston rodeo, there were 310 teams.”
Smith added that the Pig Jig competition just down the road in Viennais the largest Memphis style contest east of the Mississippi River.
“They will have around 100 teams every year, and we have been blessed enough to win it three times and finish second three times.”
While Smith welcomes anyone who wants to and is willing to participate — and there have been many throughout the years — he does have a core team that is in charge of doing most of the work. Those include Shannon (“my biggest supporter”), Lee and Grayson, as well as friends Paul, Crystal and Brooke Davidson of Jones County.
“It varies,” Smith said of visiting participants. “Anyone who wants to come and play and be a part of it is welcome.”
He added that in Memphis in 2024, at the world championships, there were 31 people with the group.
While the teams clearly enjoy earning bragging rights, there are other rewards as well.
“When we won the championships in 2011,” Smith said, “we won $11,000. It is not uncommon in barbecue contests for the grand champion to win between $2,500 and $5,000.”
He was quick to point out that the expenses add up as well, though they do have sponsors, such as McCormick seasoning and Kingsford charcoal.
On the other hand, it is not just about the money by any means, Smith emphasized.
“To stand on the stage with your son and your wife and your family and be the world champion is very cool.”
Smith pointed out that being in the competition helps promote his Bubba’s Grills brand. He said he builds the cookers pretty much himself one at a time and listens to customers as to what they want in their product.
“They come here, we talk about it, and we design it from the ground up,” he explained. “We build it like they want it.”
Smith said he has built all sizes, including one on a trailer 28 feet long with five burners.
Smith puts his personal cell number on every cooker he builds. He said that the military has purchased several units from him and shipped them to the Middle East.
“On Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’ll get armed forces members from all over the Middle East sending pictures saying, ‘Hey, I just ate some turkey off a grill that you built. I saw your number; man it made me think of home.’ That’s just a cool thing for me,” Smith admitted, “to be able to tie them to home on a special day like that.”
Smith, who credits his mother, Betty, with her hospitality and love for preparing authentic Southern food, reflected on the early years of his grill endeavors.
“My brother-in-law, Joe Havard, Mike Hammock, and brother-in-law Danny Roberson, and all our children and families, we started traveling and doing the Bubba Grills thing, and it grew from that,” he recalled.
He said he and his family and team travel a good bit, but they pick and choose which contests they’re going to enter for various reasons.
“We go to Memphis because we enjoy Memphis, Tennessee, and the world championship,” Smith observed. “We’ve been blessed enough in different categories that we’ve walked the stage in Memphis seven times now. We’ve never been overall grand champion, but we’ve been really close a couple of times. One of these days we’ll luck up and win that thing.”
Smith, along with other family members, is an active member of Haddock Baptist Church, and he expressed special appreciation for the recognition he is about to receive.
“The Lord has blessed me with this barbecue stuff more than I can ever imagine,” he shared. “It has been a great run. Now being recognized for something you put your heart and soul in for 20 years with the Hall of Fame is amazing.”
