Johnson Barbeque

Barbecue restaurant in Plant City, FL

Address

1407 W Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Plant City, FL, 33566

Phone

(813) 759-0009

Website

johnsonbarbeque.com

About Johnson Barbeque

Y'all, this one goes back further than most family trees. Johnson's Barbeque in Plant City started life in 1954 as a gas station diner, when Elton and Evelyn Johnson began slinging cold-cut sandwiches to keep folks fed between fill-ups. By 1972 they'd sold the gas station and put their whole selves into the barbeque, and the Johnson family has been smoking meat on West Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard ever since. Today it's current owners Dwayne and Stacia Johnson keeping that flame lit, and being a Black-owned business isn't a footnote for this family — it's a point of pride they talk about openly, the same way they talk about the recipes handed down through three generations. Come hungry and expect the full smokehouse lineup: brisket piled high, ribs that pull clean off the bone, and ends so tender regulars fight over the last plate. The brisket tacos have become something of a signature in their own right, proof that a nearly 75-year-old barbeque joint can still surprise you. Open Monday through Saturday, 11 to 8:30, this is the kind of place where the pitmaster might remember your order before you say it, because chances are your parents ordered the same thing. That's what happens when a business stays in one family for over seventy years in the same neighborhood — it stops being just a restaurant and becomes part of how the community marks time. Grab a plate, pull up a seat, and taste what four generations of the Johnson family built one smoked brisket at a time.

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