By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA–A popular barbecue food truck known as Lazy Boy BBQ has made a name for itself over the past year and will be opening a new Helena restaurant the first week of December.

Lazy Boy BBQ plans to open Dec. 5 at 11 a.m. at 4161 Helena Road, and will offer a wide range of food including freshly smoked meats, made-from-scratch sides and desserts.

The food truck will also be open on Friday, Dec. 4, during Helena’s First Friday event.

The winter hours following Dec. 5 will be Wednesday-Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m.

Before purchasing a building, Lazy Boy BBQ operated via food truck and traveled to different functions, schools and private events offering their smoked meats, sides and desserts.

Both Tommy and Sherrie Pippin are natives of Georgia, and Sherrie said the idea for starting a restaurant came after Tommy became successful in barbecue competitions.

“Our barbecue is a very south Georgia style,” said Sherrie. “My husband started doing competition barbecuing as a hobby and doing well, and eventually people started asking for whole butts and racks of ribs and it just grew and grew from there.”

Both Tommy and Sherrie are Shelby County residents and have been operating their food truck business since May. In just a few months, people have already taken notice of how good Lazy Boy BBQ is.

Lazy Boy BBQ smokes its meat for 14 hours, and while Tommy is in charge of smoking all the meat, Sherrie is preparing all of the fresh sides and desserts.

Since all of the food is made fresh, once all of the food runs out that is it for the day.

As far as how the restaurant got its name dates back to the barbecue competitions.

“When Tommy was doing the barbecue competitions he had very small set up,” said Sherrie. “He had smoker, a tent and a lazy boy recliner. They would be out there overnight cooking and he would just sleep in the recliner. He would be next to people with huge rigs and set ups and he would place and he eventually got the nickname ‘lazy boy’ and that became the name of the business.”

As far as choosing a location, Sherrie said they love the Helena area and frequently visit Old Town.

“We are just people persons and we enjoy all the different people we meet,” said Sherrie. “We think Helena will be a great location because of all the events that go on near Old Town and Buck Creek. We are hoping it’s successful and can stay in Helena a long time.”

In addition to the food truck and the storefront, Lazy Boy also offers catering.

For more information and to view a catering menu visit Lazyboybbq.net.