You might guess that a singer with the stage name “J. B. Jr.” would be borrowing heavily from the James Brown songbook. You might be right. A native of Richfield, NC, JB grew up idolizing and emulating his musical hero. Making his home in Boston since the mid-60’s, he has spent a lifetime on and off the road, at various times bringing his act to the stage as an opener for such legends as The Blue Notes, Wilson Pickett, Millie Jackson, Maurice Starr, Sam & Dave, and yes, the “real” James Brown. His energy is infectious, whether doing the Camel Walk across the stage, or splits in the middle of the dance floor; the whole audience will just have to “git up, git on up”!

Big Jack Ward, a Cambridge native, will be joining us this Saturday to play a few tunes. Ward comes from a family of musicians and has been playing since he was 10 years old. You might know him from “Five Guys Named Moe” or “The Magic Rockers”, both bands he has played with.  Jack will be joined by Karl Bryant on the sax and Bob Abruzzi on bass.  We’re excited to see what they can do.

On Friday, Shirley Lewis will be taking the spotlight while playing with Jack, Bob and Karl.  Shirley has never let us down and with the combination of these two forces you can bet that won’t be changing anytime soon.

We’re celebrating Father’s Day ( June 15th, just in case you forgot ) the only way we know how, with a nice big plate of smoked prime rib. This special dinner also includes baked potato, choice of collard greens, green beans, or spinach sauteed in garlic, plus a side salad. All for $21.99. Available all day but only for one day. And of course our regular menu will be available too. See you soon.

Angela Warner made her Boston debut at Smoken Joe’s on July 6th.  Direct from Philadelphia, Angela brought her version of blues soul (and comedy) to Brighton.  Smoken!   We hope she come’s back soon.

Business has been very good and we need more servers. Call at 617-254-5227 or drop by if you’re interested. Here is an application (.pdf) you can print out and drop off: 

Application for a Job at Smoken’ Joe’s 

Rock & Blues artist Alizon will be performing some “Smokey Blues” here at Smoken’ Joe’s on June 18th.  Alizon is a  Boston Music Awards winner, who has worked with, among others, Lavern Baker, Mighty Sam McClain and Laurie Sargent as well as being a founding member of top New England bands Girls’ Night Out and The Love Dogs.  Stay tuned for more information on this exciting new booking.

Alizon - So What About You

Smoken’ Joe’s was the happy host of the first meeting of the A/B Bike Group. Here’s what the Allston Brighton Community Blog had to say:

The meeting on Tuesday of Allston/Brighton bicyclists was a great success. Arriving a few minutes late, I could tell it would be a good meeting because of the many bikes on the sidewalk in front of Smoken Joe’s on Washington St. Inside I found 40 people filling the restaurant enthusiastic about making Allston and Brighton a better place for bicycling. There were some familiar faces like Alex Selvig and John Quatrale… Read More>>

Chris Ditunno, who has recently joined the team here at Joe’s, has organized a meetup here at Joe’s for local bikers. She asked that we post the details here to help spread the word for the event. Here are some of the details:

You are invited to join us for our first meeting on Tuesday 5/27/08 at 7pm at Smoken Joe’s BarBQ 351 Washington Street, Brighton Center. Please RSVP to cditunno@gmail.com if you plan to attend and… pass along to others who may be interested!

Our first meeting will be informal…

Proposed agenda: introduce ourselves, brainstorm, collect contact information. This meeting will be about 30 minutes, with time afterward to hang out for some refreshments /networking/socializing about bike issues in our community. (We expect to meet regularly with a more structured agenda in the future.)

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

We tried getting a mailing list going a while back but it was just too buggy to make it.  We’re giving it another shot.  Hopefully it’ll work a little better this time around.  You can subscribe to our newsletter below or subscribe to our RSS feed.

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We’ve decide to post the top 5 most ordered food items on our menu to help out anyone having trouble deciding what to order or for anyone else who might be curious.  Here are the top 5 most ordered items from the last month:

1.  Pulled Pork Platter
2.  Pulled Pork Sandwich
3.  Half Rack of Ribs
4.  Beef Brisket Platter
5.  Burnt Ends Platter