BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Pulled pork, brisket, mutton, and more. These are just a few of the tasty treats you will find in the new West Kentucky Barbecue Belt. It’s a new campaign designed to attract tourists to the area to try local barbecue restaurants.
The Bowling Green Area Convention and Visitor’s Bureau is one city featured in the new campaign. It points tourists toward barbecue restaurants in the western part of the commonwealth.
Sherry Murphy, the executive director of the Bowling Green Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, said, “It’s just various restaurants, non-chains, the in the western Kentucky area.”
Using the new website, wkybbq.com, barbecue lovers can get a barbecue passport to check off the restaurants they visit while on their mission for mutton.
Murphy said, “You can see all the different areas that are featured.”
When enough restaurants are checked off, people can claim prizes, including stickers and mugs.
The BBQ belt includes 18 cities,including Paducah, Bowling Green, Madisonville and Owensboro. There are over 40 restaurants to visit. One of them is Smoky Pig Bar-B-Q.
The restaurant, according to owner Phill Huffer, has been a classic barbecue staple for the Bowling Green community for over two decades.
Huffer said, “The last 24 years, it’s been good, and it seems to be getting better all the time.”
Scott Huffer, a cook at the restaurant, says campaigns like this will help get even more publicity not only their restaurant, but to all the local barbecue restaurants.
Scott said, “I’m glad that we’re getting recognized and all the other mom and pop places are getting recognized. It’s a good thing for all of Kentucky.”