The old schoolhouse that was converted into Colonial Steak House and closed its doors earlier this year is reopening as a haven for barbecue lovers.
The restaurant at 111 W. Eighth Ave., now named Underground Backyard Barbecue, is operating Friday for a soft opening. Restaurant operators Tony and Dalaia Bitten will serve a limited menu of Texas-style barbecue entrees from 11 a.m. until the final item is sold.
“We’re honored to be in this building. We know it’s a lot of history here and we’re succeeding people who came in here and did pretty good,” Tony Bitten said.
“We plan on bringing good food and great customer service,” Dalaia Bitten said. “I think this world has gotten away from having great customer service, and we want everybody that comes to the door to feel like family and be satisfied in their bellies.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Colonial Steak House, which was founded in 1974, operated at the location from 1987 until its closing on July 15.
The grand opening for UBQ, as it’s known in short, is set for 11 a.m. Sept. 30. Regular business hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, when a “Sunday’s Best” menu will be offered.
“It’s the same menu, but it’s like what most people call a Thanksgiving meal,” Dalaia Bitten said, mentioning turkeys, mashed potatoes, black-eyed peas, greens and cranberry sauce as added items.
“And stuffed turkey legs, which will be stuffed with mac-and-cheese,” she added.
UBQ will bring to Pine Bluff a type of barbecue much different from the Memphis-style fare of the Mid-South, specializing in slow-cooked beef with sauces on the side. Tony Bitten’s favorite is the smokehouse brisket.
“I just have a love for barbecue and grilling on the weekends and just watching YouTube videos, basically,” Tony Bitten said. “It’s the style. The technique is what I really fell in love with. I’m not about fast and charring and grilling. It’s a low and slow technique using a live fire in an offset smoker. That’s what I fell in love with, just taking time and doing it slow and doing right, how tender the meat will be. It’s real simple: It’s just fire, salt and pepper, garlic and onion powder, just a real simple seasoning, and it’s slow.”
Dalaia is originally from Chattanooga, Tenn., and Tony hails from Birmingham, Ala. They have been together — “businesswise,” they said — for about 25 years, going back to their days living in Atlanta, and got married 13 years ago in Newport Beach, Calif. They’re parents of eight, ages 11-31, some of whom help Tony and Dalaia with the family business.
Not too long ago, after running establishments near Los Angeles and in Peoria County, Ill., Pine Bluff moved into the Bittens’ consciousness.
“You know when? When we lived in Illinois, where it’s cold and snowy,” Tony Bitten, 56, said. “I said, ‘We’re going back to the South.'”
Tony Bitten had built a career in medical project management from his days in Georgia, and Dalaia Bitten has been a stay-at-home mom with experience in the cosmetics industry. They learned about Pine Bluff after watching an episode from YouTube content creator Afro Angie, who has posted videos about the city in recent years.
“We were looking for cities to move to that were Black, that were good for Black business owners, and we ran across her,” Tony Bitten said, adding there’s a sector of businesspeople in the city that wants to build a new Black Wall Street community.
“Come see us. We’re here,” Tony Bitten said. “We’re family now. We don’t plan on moving anywhere or going anywhere.”