Feature
Family Recipe
The Smith brothers have turned slow-smoked mastery into a Saturday ritual—where the meat melts, the smoke lingers, and the friendship never disappoints.
- Kyle Martin
- Fred Lopez
You see the smoke first—a thin gray wisp curling into the sky above the steady Saturday traffic on Avalon Road. Then comes the scent, rich and unmistakable, a mix of slow-burning wood and sizzling meat that stops drivers in their tracks. If that’s not enough of a signal, the long line snaking out from Bo’s Boys Barbecue seals the deal. Something special is happening here.
“It was the smell that first grabbed us, just driving by,” says Sheetal Thakur, a longtime Bo’s Boys customer, as she waits for her order. And the aroma doesn’t lie. “It’s so tender and smoky,” she says, already anticipating that first bite.
Talk to anyone lucky enough to find a parking spot and join the line, and they’ll tell you the same: the pork ribs fall clean off the bone, the chicken quarters burst with flavor, and the mac and cheese and collard greens round out the magic.
Owner Jimmie Smith will take your praise … only after you’ve gone through a few napkins.
But at Bo’s Boys, good food comes second.
“It’s people first, then barbecue,” Jimmie says. “We want to be known as nice guys who made some barbecue, too.”
The “we” includes his younger brother, Jeremy Smith, and, in spirit, their father, Jimmie “Bo” Smith Sr., who passed away in 2007. Without Bo, the Smiths might have remained backyard barbecue hobbyists, firing up the grill just for family and friends. Instead, his legacy fuels every slab of ribs, every brisket, every perfectly smoked chicken quarter.
“He would be proud to see where we’re at today,” Jimmie says. “He would be proud of the name we’ve built, the consistency. He would be smiling.”
The Bo’s Boys Blueprint: Consistency and Craft
A plate from Bo’s today tastes just about the same as it did when Jimmie Sr. was tending the fire. His son has made a few tweaks to the rubs and sauces, but there are enough locals — particularly around Apopka — who can testify this is as close as you’ll get to authentic Bo’s.
The brothers grew up watching their father barbecue not just in their backyard and West Orange County, but beyond their neighborhood. Competition cooking took Bo all across the Southeast and even as far as the famous motorcycle rally in Sturgis, North Dakota.
As high schoolers, the brothers (just a year apart in age) had the typical distractions that kept them out of the smoke. But they learned enough of the fundamentals — the color of the coals before adding the meat, how to gauge when the meat is tender, even how to control the oxygen when opening the smoker lid to avoid a painful backdraft.
What they didn’t absorb as teenagers they learned from their older cousin Fred Adams, who was paying attention to Bo and used those lessons to run a barbecue restaurant called BBQ Boyz. They spent 10 years after their father’s passing perfecting their craft before opening Bo’s. Pork ribs and beef brisket remain their top sellers, with chicken leg quarters, pulled pork, turkey legs, wings, and drummettes right behind them. Sides are the staples you would expect: macaroni and cheese, collard greens, corn.
Barbecue is fiercely regional, with certain areas like Memphis, Kansas City, and North Carolina all claiming their own unique qualifiers. Jimmie isn’t sure there’s a unique barbecue trait for Florida beyond cooking over open flame instead of an offset smoker.
As for “controversial” topics like vinegar v. tomato-based sauces, Jimmie ignores the chatter and just focuses on following the same taste test recipe week after week that brings customers back. From his perspective, good ribs should stand on their own anyway without sauce.
Jeremy backs him up: “Our rub is unbeatable.”
Another customer, Maria Cotton, considers herself a Southern barbecue connoisseur and she’ll boost Bo’s any day of the week. Bo’s brisket sits at the top of her favorites, but the chicken is a close second.
“It’s the consistency, the quality, the price,” Maria says.
And consistency runs deeper than food in this story
Before there were Bo’s Boys, there were the Boyz.
From left: Uncle Willie Fred Adams Sr., cousin and mentor Willie Fred Adams Jr., and Jimmie “Bo” Smith Sr.
“It’s people first, then barbecue. We want to be known as nice guys who made some barbecue, too.”
Discipline, Legacy, and a Little Yacht Rock
Any entrepreneur will tell you—the grind of building a business is relentless. Bo taught his boys that, too.
“You know what you have to do, so get it done,” was his mantra. It’s a lesson Jeremy still hears in his head when the alarm blares before sunrise, when August heat climbs past 100 degrees before 9 a.m., when hours of seasoning and smoking stretch ahead.
“Having that discipline keeps the business growing,” Jeremy says. The payoff takes many forms.
They’ve grown to serving more than 60 slabs of ribs, 60 pounds of brisket and over 100 wings on a given Saturday, way beyond their origins cooking a couple slabs of ribs on a small barrel grill in 2017. Catering has taken their barbecue beyond Winter Garden, and they sell out at special events like the Ocoee Music Festival and the Zora! Outdoor Festival of the Arts in Eatonville. They actually packed extra food the second time they went to the music festival and they still sold out.
“The vendor next to us couldn’t do anything but laugh,” Jimmie says.
The word is getting out, well beyond Winter Garden’s borders. A survey by Bo’s Boys uncovered about 35% of their traffic comes from word of mouth. Anecdotally, that tracks for Jeremy who will find Bo’s Boys fans in conversations deep in urban Orlando.
“When someone’s heard of us far from West Orange, it’s a good feeling,” he says.
The slow reward of seeing a business grow is balanced with the immediate joy of interacting with customers. Jeremy is more front of house than Jimmie (as much as a shade tent can be “front of house”), and knows the regulars by face, if not always by name.
They’ll field broad questions about cook times for ribs and how the smoker works. And as often as not the regulars start to develop genuine relationships with the brothers.
There was one gentleman who would sit on the tailgate and tell stories of his Tampa childhood for hours, keeping them company while they worked. Another man texts his order at 11 am on Saturdays so it’s ready for pick up at noon. Yet another made a point to bring his son when he was visiting from out of town so he could make introductions — and pick up wings for the Super Bowl.
“I really appreciate the personal relationships,” Jeremy says.
It’s the food, Jeremy says, that serves as a universal language and connects folks from all types of backgrounds.
“There’s something about coming together over food and just relating. It makes you think about childhood and family. It’s a great way to connect cultures,” he says.
While neither brother claims the level of charisma of Jimmie Sr., they proudly adopt his commitment to customer service.
“Every person he met gained a new nephew or friend,” Jimmie says.
Saturdays typically keep Jeremy parked in front of the smoker, dipping under a shade tent now and then to cool down with a Polar Pop. Easy listening yacht rock spilling from his pickup keeps the mood upbeat while whoever was tapped that week to help out takes orders and hands over food. It’s a rotating cast of nephews, cousins, and a sister who assist, and the brothers are quick to credit cousin Dion Sanders specifically, who pairs long experience in the food industry with the famous family hospitality.
On the rare times when business is slow, family keeps the chatter going with good-natured ragging and teasing. Bo is there in spirit. When someone goofs off or makes an easy mistake, Jeremy will lovingly chastise them with their father’s go-to phrase: “What are you doing? Use your mind.”
Long-term, Jimmie has his sights on a physical location where they can expand their offerings beyond once a week. He also has plans for franchises and putting his products on supermarket shelves. It will be years still before he hangs up his apron, but he’s already training the next generation of Bo’s Boys to see his vision.
“The growth is going to come if we can touch people more than once a week,” he says. “We’ve been busy enough. The rest will take care of itself.”
Regardless of where Bo’s Boys lands in the coming years, those key lessons from Jimmie Sr. will remain their north star. Act with integrity. Do what you say you’re going to do. Provide excellent customer service.
“Just making sure what we produce and serve is the best we can do,” Jimmie says.
And as long as there’s smoke in the air and a line stretching down Avalon Road, it’s safe to say Bo’s Boys is doing just that.
“There’s something about coming together over food and just relating.”
