Follow the Pecan Smoke to Some of Atlanta's Greatest Pork Ribs

Atlanta's barbecue scene is full of different styles, but Wyatt's Country Bar-B-Que has been smoking some of the city's greatest pork, chicken, and beef barbecue out of a small spot on Atlanta's Memorial Drive for the last 30 years. Oscar Wyatt, a.k.a. Mr. Wyatt, has been making it all happen for even longer.

He gives me a rundown of the history when I arrive on a Monday morning. "I was working at the Hyatt Regency in the 70s and my brother had just retired out of the Army, so we decided to go into business for ourselves. The Mercantile National Bank had a building on Garden Road, and my brother was working for the owner. My brother and him were talking, and he said if we wanted to go into business for ourselves, there was a building at 2500 Garden Road, and 'you can go over and look at it. If you like the building, go ahead and clean it up.'" After inspecting the place, Mr. Wyatt and his wife, his brother and his brother's wife cleaned the place up together.

"I went down to the Hyatt Regency. [Neither] of us didn't have a whole lot of money. I went down and told the manager down in the food department that my brother and I were trying to open up a business, and we didn't have a whole lot of money. I asked, 'Do you have any old equipment or something that we could use to open up?' He said, 'Well, Oscar, you've been with the Hyatt for almost 20 years, so you go down and tell the engineer down there to give you the truck. You go down and get all the equipment you need, and take it over there and start using it. If you don't tear it up, bring it back, but if you tear it up just throw it in the dumpster.'"

The evening after they got set up, he began cooking ribs out in the back. "We just put up a frame of rocks and laid the grates across the rocks and started cooking ribs. That Friday, we made $75. That Saturday, we came back and made $150. Several people came by and said if our ribs were better than theirs, we'll be back to see you." The number of customers steadily continued to increase, and the rest is history. "That's where we first started about 45 years ago."

Today, Wyatt's Country Bar-B-Que is a family affair. Most of his employees are related to him in one way or another. "We opened this one up 30 years ago, and it's just been a success, a big success. My brother passed, and me and my wife and all my nieces and nephews, we just narrowed it down to this one spot and it's been a blessing to the whole family."

Danny Seals mans the pit using a mixture of pecan, oak, and hickory woods. He mops them with a vinegar-and-mustard-based sauce that will soon be available in stores. "I get here around 5:30 or 6 AM. On Saturdays, I get here at 5 AM. The line be out the door all day. "There's nine slabs in a case, so I do about 90 slabs on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and about 140 Friday and Saturday." He's been doing this since he was 14 years old.

Wyatt's has been making outstanding all-wood barbecue for 45 years, and 30 years in this spot, which has no signs of slowing down. Get there early.

Wanna see more of Wyatt's Bar-B-Que? Watch Action Bronson pay Mr. Wyatt a visit on the first episode of Fuck, That's Delicious, only on VICELAND.