Joshua George Co-Owner Smokin J’s BBQ: Joining in the fun of Mama’s Day

By JP Emerson

Mama’s Day features unlimited tasting from the participating culinary partners a new participant to the event is Smokin J’s BBQ, who just open its doors to its third location in the Gaslamp quarter last summer and wants to become more involve with the community and what best way to do so then to get involve with Mama’s Kitchen special food driven event to support and let folks try some of their delicious food. We spoke with Co-Owner Joshua George to get to know Smokin J’s BBQ and why it is important to join in support of Mama’s Kitchen.

Please tell us about yourself and how you got involved in Mama’s Day?

Smokin J’s BBQ is an endeavor that my brother, Jeremy, began back in 2017. With the help of his wife, McKenzie, and eventually myself, we turned a mobile food business into our first brick and mortar restaurant in Poway in 2019, featuring slow-smoked brisket, pulled pork, chicken, and ribs. My brother, sister-in-law, and myself were lucky enough to open our third restaurant, Smokin J’s BBQ and Tap House in the Gaslamp Quarter last summer. We smoke some mean BBQ, but we have been in our new neighborhood for about 8 months now and would like to become more involved in the community. A representative of Mama’s Kitchen, looking for partners for this year’s Mama’s Day, reached out to us to be a part of the event, and it seemed like a perfect way to accomplish our goals. Mama’s Kitchen has an amazing mission and by hosting Mama’s Day on the waterfront downtown it gives us an opportunity to help their mission and be part of a fun event supporting the community we are now a part of.

Tell us about the importance of being involved in events like Mama’s Day?

There are a number of great reasons to be involved in events like Mama’s Day. Other than being a fun way to spend the evening, it is an opportunity for the food and drink community to come together and do something fun for the community (sampling bites from restaurants around the city is always a good time), and to hopefully entice people to donate money to a worthy cause.

Can you give our readers a heads up on what they can look forward to at the event?

Quite honestly, I don’t even really know what to expect at this event. This will be our first Mama’s Day and we are excited to spend an evening serving some tasty treats. Guests at our stand will get to sample our house-made hot links and fresh baked cornbread, so we plan on seeing at least a few smiles as people come visit us.

Can you explain the importance of organizations like Mama’s Kitchen?

Food can be used as a tool to accomplish a myriad of objectives. While we at Smokin J’s BBQ use food as a tool to bring people together to spend quality time laughing, chatting, and sharing a rack of ribs, Mama’s Kitchen understands that food can be so much more than that. Food can play an incredible role in treating diseases, and in aiding in the recovery of traumatic experiences, however it is often underutilized due to a lack of nutrition education, energy, or funds. Mama’s Kitchen solves these problems for countless people, providing nutrition education through their dieticians, and encouraging more holistic healing by stressing the importance of food alongside other therapies their clients are using. They remove the barriers that prevent many people from incorporating nutrition into their healing processes.

How can people follow you? 

People can follow us by visiting our website SmokinJsRealBBQ.com, joining our newsletter, or following us on Instagram @smokinjs_realbbq