BY MARY LEE HYER
Barbecue is an art form, a delicate dance between meat and flame, seasonings and sauces, grill and grillmaster. Nobody knows this better than the self-taught pitmaster and barbecue guru behind JonesyQ BBQ Company, Jeffery Jones. As a boy growing up in the Delta, he would accompany his father – known affectionately as “Big Larry” – to compete in local barbecue contests. “I was bitten by the barbecue bug bigtime,” says Jeffery. “By barbecue, I mean the real, slow-smoked kind that requires lots of labor, patience, attention and skill.”
Jeffery’s love of barbecue and desire to learn from the best pitmasters out there led him to begin competing on the professional barbecue circuit with the Memphis Barbecue Network (MBN) in 2014. In JonesyQ BBQ’s first year on the competition trail, Jeffery was already making waves in the barbecue world, repeatedly making it to the finals in the pork shoulder, ribs and whole hog categories. “I never went into that first year expecting a win or a ribbon or anything,” he admits, “but there I was, earning the respect of seasoned pitmasters with every trophy coming my way.”
In 2015, Jeffery’s team qualified for “the Super Bowl of the barbecue world,” the Memphis in May World Cooking Contest. Destiny was still on his side in Memphis, where JonesyQ brought home third place in the ribs category. “I found myself on that enormous world stage, holding a third place ‘Best Ribs in the World’ Patio Trophy and looking around to see America’s most influential TV BBQ pitmasters and personalities – Myron Mixon, Melissa Cookson, Big Moe Cason, Mark West, among others – cheering for me! Humbled was an understatement.”
At this point, JonesyQ began causing quite a stir in the barbecue community. With all the buzz about Jeffery’s barbecue came buzz about the rubs and sauces he used. “Other pro teams and catering companies were asking for ‘my’ barbecue rub and sauce recipes to use in their competitions and events. Many were winning, and my recipes were gaining much notoriety,” he says. “I saw this as a business opportunity to start manufacturing my own line of award-winning rubs and sauces.”
And so, in the spring of 2017, JonesyQ BBQ Co. launched its line of barbecue rubs (accompanied by a line of eye-catching hashtags). Within a year, the company has had customers from almost every state, as well as Mexico and Canada. “From backyard pitmasters to professionals, the customer feedback has been incredible,” says Jeffery. “Social media has been very kind to the JonesyQ brand, and the word of mouth and sharing of reviews of the BBQ rubs has launched us to create our popular JonesyQ BBQ Sauces for retail sale this spring.”
Even with the success of his company, Jeffery hasn’t forgotten his roots. JonesyQ is still competing in the Memphis Barbecue Network and on the national level and has qualified for this year’s Memphis in May World Cooking Contest in the pro division. It’s impossible to escape the magical pull of cooking barbecue. “The woodsy aroma of outdoor cooking, whether on grill or smoker, inspires me. Those elements of flavor, the seasonings and sauces, mixed with the smoke – it’s a smell that rocks our dawn-of-man world,” he says. “Everyone gets weak in the knees when they walk up on a barbecue party, but in my opinion, the pitmaster is the one enjoying the best experience.”