“HAVEN’T HAD ONE FIGHT SINCE WE BECAME A BARBECUE JOINT,”
Steve Connor told me after recommending the blackberry cobbler.
I remember this place when it was a backwoods juke joint called “The Sundance.” I was a counselor at a nearby summer camp and was warned not to go there, but if we did, we best not talk to any of the women there. “You just might get a pool cue upside your head, or worse.” Needless to say, we went.
It was everything a juke joint should be. Pool, beer, local talent on open mic with a loud, good-timey crowd.
Twenty years later the beer, pool tables and cigarettes are gone. The only thing smoking in this joint are the hams and ribs. In its place is a clean, well-lit, family-style establishment. Sue Connor just got tired of the hassle.
“Been there, done that,” she says.
Steve used to work for the Department of Transportation, where he was an animal trapper for the twenty-one counties of Northeast Georgia. He may be retired from the state, but he still is the man to call if you have bear problems.
“I’m well known around here and get calls at all hours. It is against the law to kill a bear in Georgia [unlike North Carolina, which is fifteen miles up 441]. So me and my dogs just run them off.” (Image 53 and Image 54)
Image 53: Oinkers Family Restaurant 2253 Highway 441 S • Clayton, GA 30524 • (706)782-7010
Image 54
Calling this a “family-style” joint would be an understatement. Son Neil, manages the back. He is the ’cue master. Before he was shooing flies at the pits, he was shoeing horses and laying bricks. His wife Beth manages the front. There are also grandkids who have the run of the place.
Sue tells me, “This is much better. It seems like all the stories at the Sundance involved guns and knives. Now it’s all good. My favorite story from this place happened one evening. It was crowded and I was helping seat people. We have a couple of long benches, and when it gets crowded, I just have to put people where I can find space. I put this one guy at an open seat and he looked at the guy across from him, and he noticed that he looked familiar. The other guy had the same reaction. It turns out they were old Vietnam War buddies and had actually tried to contact each other over the years, but couldn’t find each other until they came here.”
The sun may have set on the Sundance, but its soul lives on in Oinkers.
STEVE CONNOR OF OINKER’S BARBECUED BEAR (YES, BEAR)
Image 55
Cook bear meat in a slow cooker with water for 6 hours on high heat. Drain water and then cut roast into chunks. Put back slow cooker with barbecue sauce and cook for 2 more hours on low heat. (Image 56)
Image 56