Georgia Boys aim to spread some South north

LONGMONT — The invaders came from the South. Fueled by black-market sales of their highly addictive product, they captured Longmont and Frederick, and in their eighth year of occupation now have set their sights on cities to the north.

If the crowds at the two Georgia Boys barbecue restaurants are any indication, the conquered populace seems quite glad they’re here.

Their two eateries have been featured on the Travel Channel and Food Network, and their success has sparked plans to open three more locations in the next three years.

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The Georgia Boys are Nick Reckinger and Matt Alexander, fraternity brothers at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, Ga., who have fond memories of Dixie cuisine.

“One of the things we do down there is drive around to different barbecue spots in the South. It’s sort of a weekend tradition,” Reckinger said.

After graduation, they went their separate ways, but the fates would reunite them in Colorado.

“I came out to design and install solar systems, and Matt came out in a job transfer for U.S. Foods in 2009,” Reckinger said. “But back in ’09, you’ll recall, there was also a minor depression. I got laid off in December 2010, and so did he. We were roommates out here in Boulder because it’s expensive and we knew each other, and we already had our ski passes bought for the year, but how are we going to get gas money to go up in the mountains?”

The answer came to them every time they got hungry.

“Every barbecue joint we went to out here was just no good — not what we’re used to in the South,” Reckinger said. “So we bought a little backyard smoker. We’d smoke meats on Tuesday, make cold calls and take it to businesses around Boulder. We eventually had a little cult following. We developed some relationships with breweries around that time as well. We’d sell barbecue in the Left Hand Brewery parking lot in Longmont on Saturdays in March and April 2011, and sell until we were sold out, and then during the week we’d do brown-bag delivery around Boulder.”

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If you go

250 Third Ave., Longmont
720-999-4099
141 Fifth St., Frederick
303-833-3140

georgiaboys.com

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The bubble burst when “we got a notice from the health department that said, ‘You guys aren’t a licensed business. You can’t do this anymore.’”

So Reckinger and Alexander found a little century-old house at 237 Collyer St. that already had a commercial kitchen. They shared the house with Robin Chocolates before that business moved to its current location at Airport and Nelson roads.

“So we raised $14,000 through friends and family to build out the restaurant and get a 100-pound commercial smoker,” Reckinger said, “and then we had $500 left, just enough to buy food. We had one picnic table we borrowed from a paint shop down the road.

“So we opened the doors on July 1, 2011, had a line all the way out into the street and sold out in three hours. We sold out in four hours the next day — and we’ve been grinding and reinvesting in the company ever since.”

He said prior residents of the little house would come through and exclaim, “This was our bedroom!”

The pair opened a second location in Frederick in January 2014 with 1,600- and 1,000-pound smokers. But they knew they needed lots more room in Longmont, so when the OUR Center, a social-services nonprofit, wanted to move out of a building on Third Avenue, Reckinger said, “we bought that building and rented it back to them for a cheap rate that helped them raise money to move across the street to the building they’re in now.”

With 1,600- and 500-pound smokers and a 2,500-square-foot kitchen, Georgia Boys opened in its new space last August.

Today, the Longmont location retains its “fast-casual” counter-ordering approach and can seat up to 130 diners including on a patio in good weather. The Frederick location features full table service and can seat up to 200.

Customers are lured by the aroma of the meats being smoked on apple and hickory wood, and homage to Reckinger’s and Alexander’s southern roots.

“The pork and brisket take the longest,” Reckinger said. “If you come in today, the brisket you eat was started three days ago. The smaller meats — ribs, chicken, turkey, hot Italian sausage, links — have a lunch and dinner smoking cycle.”

Sauces available on the tables include an original, Georgia-style concoction. “Georgia being so close to the Carolinas, it’s got tomato sauce, apple cider vinegar, molasses and spices we get from the Savory Spice Shop in Boulder,” Reckinger said. Also offered are a more vinegary Carolina sauce, a mustard sauce more common to South Carolina and a ghost pepper sauce “because people like hot stuff, so we got one for ‘em,” he said.

“But most importantly, we serve the sauce on the side. That was one of our big disappointments out here; everybody else’s restaurant was covering up their meats with sauce. We like to say our meat’s got nothing to hide; that’s why our sauce is on the side.”

The hungriest diners might want to tackle the “Barnyard Challenge”: more than four pounds of assorted barbecue sandwiches, with melted cheese and bacon on every layer, stacked atop six exceptionally hot ghost wings and served in a big cast iron skillet with a side of fries.

“They have one hour to eat it all and they can’t leave the table or ‘lose’ any of it,” Reckinger said. Those who can do it eat for free.” Anyone who tries gets their photo posted, either on the Wall of Fame or Wall of Shame.

Side orders such as collard greens are another example of the boys’ labors of love for the South.

“It’s a pain in the butt hand-breading the fried okra, but it’s worth it,” Reckinger said.

Then there’s the Brunswick stew. “It’s a country stew, tomato based, real hearty,” he said. “It has lima beans, okra, corn, chicken, pork — and if we have other meats left over, they’ll go in there as well. Pretty much every barbecue joint in Georgia has it, but nobody out here.”

Now, Reckinger and Alexander are anxious to spread some of that southern love to other parts along the Front Range.

“We have a very ambitious goal for five total locations over the next three years,” Reckinger said. “We’re working on a deal in Loveland to open up downtown. We like downtowns, and helping to revitalize them.

“Our next goal is up in Windsor, and up to Cheyenne after that. Then we’ll start looking south, and then out of state. But I really don’t want to deal with traffic; that’s a big reason we’re going north.”

The Rocky Mountain West will never quite be home for the Georgia Boys, but they’re doing what they can.

“There’s a lot more trees back there, a lot more water,” Reckinger said. “Life’s a little more laid back. There’s genuine Southern hospitality. People meet eyes and say hello. Everybody waves at everybody.

“That’s what we’re trying to do at the restaurants, too — make them like a second home. Make them like going to Grandma’s house for a big southern feast.”