Dacula BBQ Owner Stricken By COVID Just As Restrictions Relax

DACULA, GA — Fat Cap BBQ looked as if it was going to be one of those lucky restaurants that survived the pandemic.

Started in 2017 as a side hustle by former Gwinnett schoolteacher LeAnn Robb, she and husband Steve made it full-time in October of 2019 when they opened a storefront in Dacula. Even though much of their business was takeout, LeeAnn Robb told Patch that “our tables were always full.”

Business was good for a start-up, but five months later the COVID-19 pandemic struck. That was March of 2020 when the Robbs decided to ride it out.

By March of 2021, the pandemic was beginning to subside, restaurant restrictions were being relaxed, and Fat Cap was still open for business.

Then Steve — almost 55 years old, with no pre-existing conditions and “healthy as a horse,” according to LeeAnn — caught COVID-19. And it wasn’t a mild case, either.

The coronavirus put Steve in North Georgia Medical Center in Braselton twice, at one point collapsing a lung and giving him pneumonia so severe that he still struggles to breathe.

Complicating matters was that neither LeeAnn nor Steve had been vaccinated — not out of reticence, but rather because they started looking for shots about the time Georgia opened vaccines to all adults, making appointments hard to come by.

COVID-19 also put Fat Cap out of business indefinitely by incapacitating Steve — the pit master and heart of the operation — and forcing LeeAnn to care for him.

“We were so proud of the fact that we made it through the height of COVID,” Robb told Patch. “And then this.”

Fat Cap was the Robbs’ only source of income, and hospital stays don’t come cheap. To help, customer Becky Turner set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the Robbs. By Wednesday afternoon, it had reached almost half of its latest goal of $30,000.

Meanwhile, Steve is taking “baby steps” toward health, LeeAnn told Patch on Wednesday.

“My hashtag is we will be back, capital letters,” LeeAnn said. “We don’t know when, but preferably sooner than later.

Visit the GoFundMe page for the owners of Fat Cap BBQ in Dacula.