New BBQ restaurant opening in Newton

Cheryl Owens/The Newton Record
The Newton Record

NEWTON Fri, May 16 2008

— Newton will soon be getting a new restaurant, but not your ordinary restaurant, this one will be a state of the art restaurant revolving around a sports theme with food and flat screen televisions to boot.
Cook’s Bar-B-Que will open at Northside Plaza next door to Piggly Wiggly within the next week.
“Cook’s Bar-B-Que is planning to open around May 12,” owner Ronnie Cook said. “My wife, Elizabeth (Dee Dee) my dad, mom and little brother have been working very hard since January to get the restaurant ready to open. We built everything by hand the chairs, tables and counters.”
Cook said the idea started about seven years ago when he and his dad were cooking in the Memphis in May competitions.
“People wanted to buy the bbq but we couldn’t sell it, the demand was so great I decided to open up a restaurant,” Cook said. “We will have six to eight employees and have already had about 250 people apply for the job.”
On the menu will be pulled pork sandwiches, ribs, bbq chicken, hot wings, bbq nachos and hamburgers along with baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad and fries with homemade banana pudding for dessert.
“We will sell pork by the pound and ribs by the slab,” Cook said. “You can dine in or dine out. We can also cater from 10 to 2000 people or as many that wants to eat.”
Cook says the menu will focus on taking care of the customer by concentrating on one particular item.
“I want to concentrate on the bbq and home cooking,” Cook said. “If you offer to much of a variety you can’t enjoy being with your customers, I just want to keep it simple.”
While dining in the restaurant you can enjoy watching the game on the flat screen while neon signs flash your favorite teams Ole Miss, Alabama, Mississippi State, Atlanta Braves among others. Placed around the room are footballs autographed by Archie Manning, Bart Star, Sylvester Croon, Bubba Smith and Jerry Rice.
“I have an autographed football signed by Bear Bryant that he gave to me in 1982,” Cook said. “We will also have jerseys, helmets and footballs scattered about the room as well from some of the local schools like Newton High, Newton County and Newton County Academy.”
Cook’s Bar-B-Que will be open Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for lunch from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
“We wanted to offer the people of Newton a different type of restaurant without having to go out of town,” Cook said. “We hope people will do business locally, that is what I have always tried to do.”

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