The sign for the original 12 Bones brought people in, the ribs brought them back

When the fan club of your little BBQ restaurant runs the gamut from a former president and first lady to celebrity chefs, actors, comedians and the writer/performer of Copperhead Road, you’re living high on the hog. But for Angela and Bryan King, owners of 12 Bones Smokehouse since 2012, it’s the loyal locals and repeat visitors who have stuck with them through multiple moves and pandemic shutdowns that keep them going.

Their staff guides their operating protocol. “People tell us we’re crazy for only being open for lunch Monday through Friday at the River store,” Bryan says. “But when this place first opened in the River Arts District in 2005, no one came down here nights or weekends. Lunch during the week does well for us, gives our staff one service to work and weekends off. Why would we change that?”

Change was the furthest thing from the couple’s minds when they first took on the business started in 2005 by Sabra Kelley and Tom Montgomery in a little shack on Riverside Drive in a derelict part of town. “Sabra told us that when they first opened, they used to hope they’d get 100 customers going to and from the dump.”

Though he definitely wasn’t on his way to the dump, it didn’t hurt when then Senator Barack Obama came by for BBQ, greens and cornbread (and returned in 2010 as president with First Lady Michelle), or when Steve Earle developed a habit of picking up a rack of Brown Sugar ribs when he was performing in town.

In 2008, Kelley and Montgomery opened a second location in a former gas station on Sweeten Creek Road; that same year, Iowa-born Angela and Asheville-raised Bryan were living — and unemployed — in San Francisco. Because Bryan had a love for barbecue, and because the City by the Bay was definitely not inundated with smoked pig, they pondered opening a place there. Bryan’s dad suggested the next time the couple was in Asheville, they visit 12 Bones as a model for how to do it right.

Suitably impressed, the Kings inquired if the 12 Bones owners would consider a franchise in San Francisco and got a quick no, so Angela and Bryan flew back west, found jobs and resumed, as they not so fondly describe it, the rat race.

When Tom Montgomery reached back out a few months later and asked if the Kings would be interested in buying the Asheville 12 Bones, the initial response was no, then maybe, then, says Angela, “Let’s give it a shot, if it doesn’t work out, we can go back to San Francisco.”

They were perplexed why Tom and Sabra – culinary professionals – would want to pass their life work to two people with no restaurant experience. “Tom said it was because we were totally green, would not be coming in with preconceived ideas and he would teach us the 12 Bones way,” Bryan recalls. “He was right.”

They arrived in Asheville in November 2011 and spent the next several months learning all the positions, starting with the dish pit. Sabra showed Angela how to do the books, and in 2012, the Kings got the keys.

“Looking back, it was horrible the first three, four, five years,” says Bryan. “We were so ill-equipped; it was all learning on the fly. We didn’t touch a thing on the menu. It was our job not to mess it up.”

In 2016, they were told the City of Asheville was taking the 12 Bones building and the land it sat on by eminent domain, part of the RAD improvement project (the address is now the roundabout where Riverside and Lyman meet). In September, the couple signed a lease on a vacant, decrepit building on Foundy Street and started renovating, keeping the original store  open until they finished the buildout, opening the current Smokehouse River location in 2017.

In 2018, it was déjà vu all over again when plans were revealed to widen Sweeten Creek from two lanes to four, and the Smokehouse South restaurant would be in the construction zone. “We came across a property that was great, but massive,” says Bryan. “Way too big for 12 Bones.”

But just right for a brewery. “We sold a lot of other people’s beer in both stores,” Angela points out. “We thought maybe we could brew our own. My brother Dominic [Koh] had started a brewery in Colorado a few years before, so he advised us and we got a minority partner who knew the equipment.”

In 2019, 12 Bones Smokehouse South and 12 Bones Brewery opened in a 10,000 square foot building on Hendersonville Road.

From its inception, 12 Bones did not commit to a barbecue style – eastern NC versus western NC versus South Carolina — and Bryan suspects that’s because Tom and Sabra were not from the area and just did their own thing. The biggest thing turned out to be the Blueberry Chipotle sauce they created.

“One of their regulars submitted the sauce to a contest Good Morning America was doing – a nationwide Best Bite Challenge,” Bryan explains. “It came down to four finalists and 12 Bones won. It got written up in all kinds of magazines and just really became our calling card.”

The Hogzilla –- sugar bacon, homemade bratwurst, pulled pork and pepper jack cheese on a hoagie roll – gets a lot of attention too, for its size and catchy name.

Bryan brags on their sides. “A lot of barbecue places, it’s pretty obvious the meat is all they care about, and the sides are kind of an afterthought. We don’t see it that way. For us, it’s about the whole menu, the whole shebang.”

Smokehouse River is open 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and Smokehouse South serves until 8 p.m. but is closed Sunday and Monday. “We tried keeping South open Sundays, but Bryan and I need at least one day off together, when both stores are closed. And we want the staff at each location to have two days off.”

“It’s not all about the money,” adds Bryan. “We want everyone to have a healthy, good quality of life, including us.”

For more on 12 Bones, visit 12bones.com. 

— Kay West

Photos courtesy of 12 Bones