When Jamie and Kelly Arrington fire up the smoker before dawn in Moreland, the day begins the way it always has for Jamie, surrounded by the scent of hickory and oak and tending to meat the way his grandfather taught him decades ago.

“I’ve probably been doing it for 30 years,” Jamie said. “My grandfather and his brothers would do whole hogs and make Brunswick stew in black pots. We would stay up all night flipping hogs, chopping them and cooking the stew. That is how I learned.”

Those lessons stayed with him. Jamie spent years competing in backyard barbecue contests around west Georgia, refining his recipes and reputation.

Eventually, he and Kelly bought a trailer, launched a food truck and began hearing the same question everywhere they went: “Where is your restaurant?”

A name and a l

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