MARIANNA -- A stalwart barbecue restaurant opened Thursday, almost three months after it was damaged by a fire.
James Harold Jones, 76, the owner and pitmaster of Jones' Bar-B-Que Diner, said he'll be cooking on a new portable barbecue grill until he gets a metal building finished around his barbecue pit behind the diner.
A fire on Feb. 28 destroyed his wooden barbecue pit structure and damaged the diner building, which was constructed in 1964.
Jones said he was cooking pork in the pit behind the restaurant when fat dripped onto the coals and caused a flame that shot up and caught the roof on fire. Jones had gone inside the diner. By the time he noticed the fire, it was out of control.
"The fire was getting up on that roof over the kitchen," said Steve Higginbothom, a former state senator from Marianna, who rushed over that Sunday when he heard about the fire.
Jones' Bar-B-Q is "one of the oldest African-American-owned restaurants in America," according to the James Beard Foundation, which honored the diner with a America's Classics award in 2012.
"In the Delta town of Marianna, not far from the Mississippi River, Jones' Bar-B-Q Diner is a beacon of community pride and continuity," the foundation said in a news release at the time.
Since winning the James Beard Award, Jones' Bar-B-Que has diverting more and more adventurous travelers from Interstate 40 in Forrest City and getting them to drive the 20 miles south down Arkansas 1 to the Lee County seat of Marianna.
When asked if the fire made him think it might be time to retire, Jones said the thought never crossed his mind.
"I'm going to stay here until I get old as black pepper," he said.
Jones said he's waiting on one last metal section to finish the new pit building. This structure won't be flammable like the old one was.
Jones said the diner was "totally redone inside and out" but it still looks like Jones' Bar-B-Que.
According to Jones' Bar-B-Q's Facebook page: "Hours are 7 a.m. until the food runs out. There is NO MENU. All Jones BBQ Diner serves is a pork BBQ sandwich on Wonder Bread."
The sandwiches still will cost $3.50. Soft drinks are $1.