We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joshua Booth. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joshua below.

Joshua, appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

Opening this business was a huge risk. I was in Austin Texas working for one of the top BBQ restaurants in the state, but always wanted to have my own restaurant. I have done nothing but working in restaurants my entire life, from dishwasher, to executive chef, to area director, and so on. But I felt like God was calling me to do something else. I got the best news of my life and found out we were pregnant, and decided then and there I wanted to go into business for myself, make my own hours, so I could be a part of my little boys life and watch him grow in a great community. So we packed up, and moved to Oxford. I opened this business in April of 2024 and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. The risk was huge because I had to take out a double mortgage on my house, move three states away, open a business all while raising a little baby, but it was well worth it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Joshua Booth and I started working in restaurants when I was 15 working at dominos pizza in Batesville MS. Once I graduated from South Panola high school I moved to Texas in 2001. From there I worked as a dishwasher, cook, fry cook, saute cook, grill cook, you name it. I started to move up until I became an executive chef and ran a kitchen of my own. Then I moved on to become a general manager, and area director. One day we got lunch at the restaurant I was working in from a local Texas BBQ place, and that day changed everything. Once I tasted True Texas style brisket I was hooked. I started working for Coopers Old Time Pit BBQ in Llano tx and trained to become the general manager/pitmaster of a restaurant they wanted to open in downtown Austin TX. It took me a year of cooking on the pits before they let me open the aistin location. We opened in 2014. I opened and helped open several other BBQ restaurants for Coopers in Texas, before eventually moving on to Terry Blacks. Once we had our baby I knew if I didnt start my own thing now then it would be too late. So I packed up and moved to oxford to start Booths Barbeque and Yard. I think what sets us apart is the style of cooking we do. Mississippi has a lot of BBQ but nothing like what we are doing. We want to be the “fine dining” of BBQ. We focus on beef with our brisket and beef ribs, and I dont think there is anyone around doing what we do. I am most proud of the team of employees I have. They have learned and adapted what they know of restaurants to fit this style and have made this place stand out. We like to say we are Texas BBQ with a Mississippi soul.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When i first wanted to open Booths Barbeque I did not want to add pulled pork to the menu. In Texas we dont do pulled pork. We have chopped brisket, and if you order pulled pork at a barbeque restaurant in Texas they just kind of look at you funny. So before I opened it was talking to my cousin about the idea and he asked if I was going to have pulled pork. I said no and he told me I was crazy, and without it, we wouldn’t even get off our feet because MS bbq is pork. So I thought about it and everyone I talked to said the same thing. When I sat down and talked to my partners they agreed and I had to learn how to cook pork so that we could start with something that people recognized. We added it, and im so glad we did. When we first opened it was BY FAR the best seller of all of our meats we offer. But over time, and after 1.5 years brisket has taken over in a big way. We are selling more brisket that pork now by a long shot. But it helped me get a leg up, and offer something that people were familiar with.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

The first summer here in oxford was a close call. And I have good partners that helped me as well, but when we first opened, we got through the baseball season and we missed our opening deadline by almost 3 months waiting on construction. So that ate a lot of the starting budget we had. So when we opened, I was relying on sales to pay back all of the loans and construction and signs and expenses. And baseball season was pretty good, but I had no idea what was about to hit with students gone for the summer. I didnt know how seasonal oxford really was. And when we lost the big sales and still had all of these looming bills I had to put my head down and work. It was 14 to 18 hour days everyday because I couldnt afford anymore help. I leaned on my managers and partners and we all had to fund it with our personal money. There was a time about 6 months after we opened that we all had to have hard conversations. Resilience was key. Just keep doing what you know and believe in it. And sure enough we got back to baseball season and we were almost doubling sales. Then summer came again and it was a little easier. Now football season is here again and it is really good. It was the best investment I’ve ever made, but if we all didnt have resilience we would have given up a whole ago.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Boothsbarbeque.com
• Instagram: @boothsbbq
• Facebook: Booths barbeque and yard
• Yelp: Booths barbeque and yard

Image Credits

Joey Bryant