The local barbecue scene’s game of musical chairs — and smokers and pits — will continue in upcoming months as popular local chain Fat Boyz Barbecue plans to shut its Deerfield Beach flagship and open a new Fort Lauderdale outpost in the former home of Hickory Sticks BBQ.
“I know there’s going to be a lot of upset people in Deerfield, but it’s a decision that makes the most sense for us,” says Fat Boyz owner Jarael Holston-Jones.
The Deerfield Beach location, at 204 S. Powerline Road, will close at year’s end when its lease expires, Holston-Jones says. He hopes to have the new location, at 899 E. Cypress Creek Road, open in January for a seamless transition. Hickory Sticks BBQ closed in May after seven years at the site.
Fat Boyz’ other locations, in Coral Springs and in Fort Lauderdale across from the Gateway Cinema, will remain open.
It will mark the second time in a year that Fat Boyz takes up residence in a shuttered Fort Lauderdale barbecue restaurant. In April, Fat Boyz opened at the former home of Red Cow, at the big bend of East Sunrise Boulevard and North Federal Highway.
Holston-Jones says high rent and other issues at the Deerfield Beach location, a cramped and aging double-wide mobile home, led to his decision, which he shared Friday in an interview with the Sun Sentinel.
He says the restaurant, which opened in February 2017, is his best-performing site, but that it needs major improvements, including a new wooden floor. Under his lease terms, he says he bears the entire cost of taxes, insurance, utilities and structural improvements.
Holston-Jones, a U.S. Army veteran and Ely High graduate, and wife Yolanda, a former postal worker, started Fat Boyz earlier this decade as a food truck after getting positive feedback doing barbecue fundraisers for their church.
Fat Boyz has expanded rapidly in recent years, with a fleet of food trucks leading to three brick-and-mortars: Deerfield Beach (February 2017), Coral Springs (July 2018) and Fort Lauderdale (April 2019). Holston-Jones and Yolanda also opened Crazy Cajun Crabs, a seafood restaurant, in Pompano Beach this year. Crazy Cajun Crabs recently debuted a food truck. Fat Boyz also still has one food truck.
Holston-Jones says he leased the former Hickory Sticks site earlier this summer at a good rate and intends to eventually make it his anchor location. He has a 3-year lease at the Fort Lauderdale/Gateway site, a notoriously tricky location because of the traffic flow. Red Cow, from the Be Nice restaurant group, lasted 5 years at the site.
Fat Boyz Barbecue (no relation and not to be confused with Phat Boy Sushi) specializes in Southern-style barbecue, with ribs, pulled pork, brisket, chicken, burnt ends, baked beans and collard greens. Its monster sandwiches featuring meats piled with mac-and-cheese have been popular and specialty items such as smoked pastrami and beef rib are also offered occasionally.
It has been a tumultuous few years for barbecue in Broward. Hickory Sticks is gone and Fat Boyz Deerfield is going. In summer 2018, Blue Willy’s on East Commercial Boulevard in Oakland Park, and Red Cow and Jack’s BBQ in Fort Lauderdale all closed. Blue Willy’s and Jack’s, on East Oakland Park Boulevard, remain vacant.
Holston-Jones says he will offer many deals and specials at the Deerfield Beach location in its final three months, what he calls “a thank you to all the loyal customers who supported us through thick and thin.”
