Oklahoma Joe's BBQ Now Open in Vienna Area

PHOTO of Oklahoma Joe's Bar-B-Cue photo courtesy of restaurant

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FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA -- Oklahoma Joe's Bar-B-Cue is now open on Avenir Place near the Dunn Loring Metro.

Located at 2670 Avenir Place, the barbecue restaurant opened in early June. The menu includes barbecue sandwiches, ribs, salads and sides such as onion rings, okra, macaroni and cheese, cornbread and green beans. Desserts include cherry bread pudding with bourbon. See the entire menu here. The restaurant offers daily specials, a kids menu and catering.

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Here's a little bit about how the restaurant got its start, from its Web site:

Joe’s journey to being one of the greatest barbeque chefs of all time began over 25 years ago, when he saved up $2,000 and built 18 smokers that he took to the State Fair. After the smoke had cleared, he had sold all the smokers he made, and had orders for 200 more. Thus Oklahoma Joe’s was born.

With his passion for smokers naturally came a love of barbecue that led him to become a Master of Que, and compete in national competitions. From his first entry in the T-Town BBQ Cook-off in Tulsa to winning the coveted Grand Champion Overall Title at the Jack Daniel’s World Championship, Joe and his friends have gone on to take over 300 titles.

Joe continued to build smokers. In fact, he built over one million of them in the following years. But Joe wanted to be more than a smoker manufacturer. He set his sights on opening a restaurant. After much persuading, he finally convinced his good friend and cook-off rival, Jeff Stehney, to go into the business with him. The first restaurant was opened in Stillwater, Oklahoma in 1994. The Kansas City restaurant opened the following year.