Big D’s BBQ

BBQ & Business:

DAWSON COUNTY STYLE

By Erica Schmidt eschmidt@dawsonnews.com

Big D’s came to Dawson County on a gamble and found community, loyalty.

When Darin Muenchow, owner of Big D’s BBQ, left the corporate world to open fast food franchise in the early 2000s, he had no idea what was waiting for him in Dawson County.

Muenchow, a North Carolina native, had plenty of practice making barbecue growing up. But until he opened the first Big D’s in Alpharetta in 2007, he never planned on making BBQ as a career.

“I’d cooked a lot of barbecue so it was just something I wanted to try, and when we did, people liked our food so we just continued with that,” Muenchow said.

Originally Muenchow planned to expand his Zaxby’s franchise locations, but because customers liked his barbecue so much Muenchow decided to sell his rights to Zaxby’s and focus solely on Barbeque.

Opening a location in Dawson County didn’t come until later, Muenchow said.

“A lot of our staff had called in one day so I was working in the kitchen,” Muenchow said. “And a real estate guy came in and asked if I wanted to open up a restaurant in Dawsonville. He left a business card, which has happened time and time before … and I’ve never called them back, but for some reason that day I called him back and we signed a lease two days later.”

Big D’s opened their Ga. 400 location in Dawson County in 2009 and despite being unsure what to expect, the new location thrived.

“We didn’t think the store would do much at all, but it did,” Muenchow said. “Dawson County opened us with open arms.”

In 2012 Muenchow closed the Big D’s Alpharetta location and opened a new location in downtown Dawsonville. More recently, in June 2019 the restaurant opened a new location in downtown Cumming.

Muenchow says that moving his business from Alpharetta to Dawson County has been one of the best decisions he’s made.

“It’s been one of the best moves we’ve ever done business-wise and we had no idea leading up to it how it was gonna turn out,” Muenchow said, “but

it was definitely a God-send. He’s looking out for us and the rest is history.”

Over the years, Big D’s has amassed a strong following of customers both from Dawson County and surrounding counties.

“Dawson County has been good to us - we have a loyal following in the people here,” Muenchow said.

The restaurant is what it is because of its employees, Muenchow said.

“We have some really long-term employees … some who have been with us for 10 or 11 years,” Muenchow said. “The customers like that because they get to know them, but it’s just a great group of people who have helped us grow.”

Giving back to the community is important to Big D’s culture, and Muenchow said he’s tried to give back as much as he can to police, firemen, schools and other groups in the community.

While Dawson County has been growing quickly recently, Muenchow says that his business has continued to feel the support of local customers and that he hopes it will remain that way in the future.

“There’s so many great businesses that were here long before the explosion of growth we had, and hopefully the people won’t forget about those businesses,” Muenchow said.