City Barbeque

City Barbeque started in Columbus in 1999 with a straightforward idea: competition-quality barbecue, cooked the right way, available to people who don't have time to stand in a contest line. Each location runs its own smokers on-site, burning local hickory and cooking low and slow — the method that built the brand. What began as a single Ohio smokehouse has grown into a regional chain, but the process hasn't changed: meat, smoke, time. The original East Main Street location in Columbus remains the flagship, the place where it all started. They cook barbecue the way competition pitmasters do, then serve it in a restaurant. It's a model that works because the fundamentals — the wood, the method, the patience — were never up for negotiation.