Brenda’s Smoke Shack

Beattyville barbecue joint brings the heat

Story by JEN CALHOUN

Brenda Combs likes to get to the point. After all, she’s busy. On any given day, you can find her at Brenda’s Smoke Shack in Beattyville cooking the food, serving it and wiping down tables for crowds of hungry people.

On a recent day, she ended up preparing 48 dinners by herself in a two-hour time period. “My husband helps, too, but sometimes he’s out making the deliveries,” she says with a wry chuckle. “They really hit me hard that day.”

But it’s that same hard work and determination that’s brought Brenda her success — well, that and her fresh, homemade menu items, many of which come from her late mother’s prized recipes. In just a few years, Brenda’s Smoke Shack has grown from a single smoker parked on a used car lot to one of downtown Beattyville’s favorite restaurants with an extended following that brings in travelers from all over the country.

Humble Beginnings

Brenda’s Smoke Shack got its start in the summer of 2017 when Brenda and her husband bought a smoker off of a traveling food vendor. “He was selling ribs and stuff,” she says. “It was pretty good, but the sides weren’t homemade, and I knew it. So, my husband said, ‘See if he’ll sell that smoker.’ He ended up selling it to us, trailer and all.”

From there, the pair set up shop on a used car lot, and Brenda’s food soon developed a growing following. “They kept asking us to get indoor seating,”

Brenda says. “So, eventually, this building in Beattyville came open in 2018, and we’ve been here ever since.”

The restaurant seats about 40 people. But since the COVID-19 pandemic, many customers choose to get takeout or ask for delivery. That works just fine for Brenda, whose children were her primary staff until school activities started taking precedence. “When we first opened, we had our daughter and granddaughter and both our sons helping us, so there were six of us. Then, after a little while, they started dropping like flies,” she says with a laugh. “Currently, we’re just down to me and my husband.”

Homemade Goodness

The lack of staff hasn’t hurt the food, however. Brenda serves all kinds of smoked meat, including her popular pulled pork. “I don’t use pork butt like most do,” she says. “I use pork loin, so there’s no chance of bone, less fat, more meat and just a better quality.”

She also makes her own barbecue sauce, which she describes in stages. “It starts off as kind of a normal barbecue sauce, but then you taste a little sweetness, and then there’s a little bite. It all kind of rolls with whatever meat it’s on. It’s different with the pork, different with the ribs, and then you can dip chicken strips in it, and it tastes a little different.”

Other popular menu items include smoked hamburgers made fresh with a particular type of ground beef. Everyday sides include baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw, baked potatoes, corn and broccoli. “I don’t get any food off a truck,” Brenda says. “I go every week and get the ingredients fresh myself.”

Her daily specials also tend to bring in the crowds, she says. She’ll make turkey dinners with stuffing, yams, mashed potatoes, green beans and a dinner roll. Or, she’ll whip up homemade lasagna, rib-eye steaks and other treats. “Our portions are really big, so we don’t usually make desserts anymore,” she says. “People were too stuffed to buy them.”

Growing A Name

Brenda doesn’t worry too much about getting the word out about her restaurant. It’s already happening, thanks to the internet. In a city of a little more than 2,000 people, the Smoke Shack’s Facebook following hovers around 4,800. “We had one picture of mashed potatoes that had something like 40,000 views,” she says with a laugh. “For a picture of mashed potatoes!”

Out-of-towners have found her, too, including a Corvette club from Michigan that winds its way through the country. “They only eat at barbecue places,” Brenda says. “Out of all the ones they’ve been to, they ranked us second — and that’s all the way to Texas and back up.”

She also sees her fair share of rock climbers from the Red River Gorge, along with travelers from Louisville and Ohio. “They’ll just take a day’s drive and come down to eat,” she says. “I don’t think I could have ever imagined this when we started.” 