PEWEE VALLEY, Ky. — After restaurants suffered major losses in revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic, staff at a family-owned Oldham County restaurant said the support of the community was key in keeping the business afloat.
Jucy’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Q in Pewee Valley is the kind of place where the brisket is smoked for 16 hours and the apple cobbler recipe is a well-guarded secret.
As she pulled pork by hand Wednesday, Brooke Phillips recalled the fear of losing the nearly 25-year-old business when restaurant dining rooms were forced to close last March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was actually sitting in the garage and we were just crying and we were all texting each other back and forth like, what are we about to do,” she said.
Her father has worked at the restaurant for 17 years and recently purchased it, and Phillips and two sisters also work there with other staff, she said.
Around the time the shutdown was announced, Phillips made a heartfelt post on Facebook, saying the business wouldn’t survive without the community’s help.
This is gonna be long sorry. There's certain events in your life that restore your hope, when it feels lost. This is the...
Posted by Jucy's Smokehouse Bar-B-Q on Monday, March 22, 2021
“I woke up and it had like 50 shares and I remember I was like freaking out," she said. "I was ecstatic and then it had 100 shares, and then, you know, within a few hours it had like 2,000...The next day, we were slammed. We were so busy and it was just so exciting ...we had a drive thru line all the way around."
Phillips' father, Troy, said he could not believe the response.
“All three of my daughters, we all at the time lived together and worked here and you know, you just didn’t know what was going to happen, and through social media, it actually saved this business,” he said.
Phillips was overwhelmed by the kindness of the community and the restaurant's sales were actually better than the year before, she said.
Lou Cohn of Crestwood, who was eating lunch at Jucy's Wednesday, frequently ordered food from the restaurant, he said.
"Great location, great food and great people that work here," Cohn said. "We just wanted to see them survive."
This week, Phillips posted another message on Facebook, thanking everyone for seeing her family through.
"We get so caught up day to day with all the bad stuff, I feel like that goes on, and you forget, you know, that there is still humanity and that, especially in a crisis, people can come together and save you, and save your life, your business," she told Spectrum News.