JD's Smokehouse sets standard for barbecue excellence in Rutherford College

Walk into JD’s Smokehouse on Malcolm Boulevard and you immediately feel the family atmosphere that has been hand-crafted by owners Debbie Hawn Goare and Jim Goare. 

The staff has that good ole Southern charm and they  treat you like a guest in their very own home. 

The Goares pride themselves on owning a family-centered establishment, with just good food, friends, and fun. No alcohol is served but you can get (in Jim’s words) a sweet tea because, “sweet tea is a barbecue joint margarita.” 

This famous barbecue restaurant, which has drawn media attention from across the state,  has been open since 2013. The Goares did very well during the COVID-19 pandemic and last year opened a second location in Gamewell.

Debbie’s son Matt runs the Rutherford College location while the couple is in charge of the Gamewell location. 

Sitting in a booth at the restaurant, Debbie and Jim walked a listening reporter  through each step of their journey with stories upon stories of how they got to where they are today. As the interview progressed, they took a few breaks to chat with old friends, customers, family members, and their granddaughter Ava. 

The beginning of JD’s

The origin of JD’s story is one that the Goares can talk about for hours. With each step in the process, there may have been some setbacks, but the universe always seemed to provide  them with  solutions. 

The two are Morganton natives and Freedom High School graduates who have two sons, Matt and Chad. 

When the children were younger, the Goares moved to Georgia and resided there for 24 years. 

“Jim’s history in the early years of his work life was all in the food business. He was the youngest food and beverage director in the history of Holiday Inn at 18 years old,” said Debbie. “We were married young, had children young, and did the food business for a while.”

Jim later changed career paths so they both owned a cleaning and restoration business for around 20 years. He had always said they would move back to North Carolina and he would return to the food business. 

He kept his word when he announced they were going to have a barbecue restaurant. They sold the businesses and started to hunt for the perfect location. From Georgia, South Carolina, and finally back home in Burke County. 

“I had an idea of what I wanted the restaurant to look like, but the real estate (at the time) was crazy expensive,” said Debbie. “We ended up coming to visit family and looked around here, but didn’t find anything and were heading back home. We were going to tell our niece and nephew goodbye when our nephew said, ‘Well have you thought about this building here (the Rutherford College location)?’”

Debbie had been eyeing the location but didn’t say anything to Jim since it was an older building. They found out the building was for sale, but it was under contract. 

Their nephew Greg called the next day and said the deal fell through. After a bid was sent in, the building was finally theirs.  

Over the next two years, they would be renovating, building furniture, perfecting the menu, hiring staff, and creating the well-known barbecue place that it is today. 

The project was all hands on deck from family, friends, neighbors, and community members. 

“A good friend of ours that I worked for when I was kid, he owned a restaurant that had been moved out,” said Jim. “He was the landlord and they had some chairs. He asked, ‘Do you need these chairs?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t think those will work for us.’ He said, ‘Well, I’ll give them to you if you want them.’ So we had about 87 or maybe 100 chairs that we went and picked up.”

They would put out those chairs each day to sell for $5 so they could pay for their meals. To this day, people will come in and say they still have that chair they bought. 

Opening day

 Before the long-awaited opening day, the Goares, JD’s staff, and anyone who helped during the two years came together and celebrated by having JD’s barbecue. The meals operated in shifts so everyone could at one point sit down and enjoy a well-deserved meal. Over 40 people have helped since the beginning days of JD’s. 

Debbie had spent that previous Sunday and the beginning of the week prepping all the food for opening day. 

On March 21, 2013, JD’s was open to the public. Jim, being a numbers person, projected that there was enough food and space to last the whole day. By the end of lunchtime, all the food was gone. 

“We had run through all of my prep for the week. We had my mom, my dad, his sister, his niece, everybody and anybody who was willing to come in and help us,” said Debbie. 

Mark Smith, pastor at Crosslink Church, offered the neighboring church parking lot to JD’s customers. 

“He was standing out front and he called me over to him. He said, ‘Debbie, you don’t have enough parking over there. I want you and your employees to start parking over here from now on,’” said Debbie. “That was a god-sent because Jim had worried about that. We were just trying to make it work. We didn’t know what we were doing.” 

Jim said that first weekend, they had around eight food deliveries come on Saturday with the sales manager driving the truck. 

The married couple said throughout the interview that God has been with them each step of the way from buying the building, renovations, and opening day. The way they see it, it is all part of His plan and brought them to where they are now. 

Beating COVID 

During COVID, it was hard to adapt at first, but the JD’s crew was able to make it work by converting the parking lot into a drive-through and turning their dining room into a multi-stationed delivery area. Picture the Chick-fil-A line, but bigger. 

In the beginning, they used iPads to take orders because they thought it would be faster and easier. Debbie said that the amount of orders they were getting, technology literally slowed them down. 

JD’s later used golf carts to get around faster with their ticket orders. “I had to borrow two golf carts and buy one golf cart. I almost wrecked a golf cart trying to fly and get the ticket around. Going on two wheels and having two iPads slide off. That was a lot of fun,” said Jim. 

Any tips would be split among all the staff instead of only the servers. Throughout the pandemic and opening back to regular dining towards the end of 2021, they only had to layoff one employee. The employee returned shortly after the restaurant went back to regular operations.

“I’ll tell you one thing when COVID hit, we changed our business model every week. At the end of the week, we would say, ‘Well, that didn’t work. Let’s try this instead.’ For the first six weeks, it was always different. It was a new concept. You would never know what you were going to get,” said Jim. 

Along with running the Rutherford College location, the Goares were renovating the Gamewell location. They had sealed the deal for the new property just a week before the state was put on lockdown.

An eight-month project turned into a two-year project, said Jim. He did say that their opening day definitely went smoother a second time around than it did in Rutherford College. 

Open arms

The Goares are thankful that both Rutherford and Gamewell are very accepting of their barbecue business. Without community support, they aren’t sure where they would be.

They are also thankful for the loyal staff they have had over the years. “It’s been a good ride. We have enjoyed the community here, it’s really been excellent. I love these people here,” said Jim. 

Debbie has loved seeing her younger employees grow up and is one of her favorite things about this business. 

“When they come home from school and help out on holidays, it’s like they’re coming back home. I claim them, I say they’re mine. To me, it’s one of the best things. You develop those relationships and you get to see them grow up and have their own families,” said Debbie. 

Their days now are busy with their family and running the restaurant. They eventually want to retire and spend time with their grandchildren. 

Patrons can visit the Rutherford College location at 500 Malcolm Blvd. and call them at 828-522-1227. Or go to the Gamewell location at 2731 Morganton Blvd. SW and call them at 828-737-2227.

Both locations are open from Thursday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

Saydie Bean is a general assignment reporter for The Paper. She may be reached at 828-445-8595.