When Rebecca Miller and her husband Jim Jacobs returned to Six Nations from Nashville where they’d resided for several years, they brought something with them which they are now sharing their barbecue dreams with us.
Nashville not only produces some of the world’s greatest country music, but is also famous for its authentic southern style cooking and hospitality which the couple are now offering to the Six Nations community.
Miller and Jacobs have combined their love of southern-style barbecue ribs, pulled pork, pulled chicken and their love for people in a new venture called Big Jim’s xxxxxxx.
“This was all Jimmy’s idea,” says Rebecca. “I just kind of added in here and there.”
While the couple lived in Nashville pursuing a music career, Jim started helping some of his southern friends cook and present real southern barbeque cooking as part of a traveling competitive BBQ team that competed in the Jack Daniels’ World Barbeque Championships at the Houston Rodeo.
His buddy Jeff, originally from Texas, took Jacobs under his wing and began showing him some of the trade secrets of competitive BBQ cooking.
After helping Jeff out on weekends, Jacobs was hooked and he began going to restaurants in the Nashville area, nosing around the kitchens and talking to authentic southern-style cooks, as he soaked up as much of the culinary culture of the deep south as he could.
Upon their return to Six Nations, Jim and Rebecca were encouraged by friends and family to open their own eatery.
Eventually, they took up the challenge, locating in the Log Cabin Plaza on Highway #54, beside iC computers.
“It’s pretty big down there ” he said of the barbecue circuit in the south. ” I wanted to see how it would go up here.”
If early signs are an indication of things to come, Big Jim and ‘Becca are going to be busy well into the future.
“We had a very good response the first week and are getting repeat customers this week,” Jacobs comments, while adding more Hickory wood under the cooker.
“We were filled up at lunch and supper and there were lots more delivery orders.”
“We just want to bring something different to the area, something other than burgers and fries,” he adds.
That being said, Big Jim’s barbecue also serves up a monster burger cooked over that same Hickory smoke to give a whole new flavour, even to the basic hamburger.
Between pulling barbecue pork, turning ribs and flipping massive burgers, Jacobs and Miller are still pursuing their first love – the one that lured them to Nashville in the first place – and that is their music.
Both Miller and Jacobs have brand new solo CD projects in the works, and they peck away at them whenever they have time to do so.
But judging by how busy they’ve been at the eatery, those albums may be a little while off.
By Jim Windle
SIX NATIONS
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