Captain John's Bar-B-Que

Collierville's hot-pit classic, cooking since 1981

Captain John's Bar-B-Que is a barbecue restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee.

Captain John's Bar-B-Que is a Collierville mainstay that has run since 1981, on a site that smoked as Coleman's back to 1974. Guided for decades by the Johnson family, it is an unhurried hot-pit joint, the type Memphis Magazine files under Classic Dining, where the cooking method has outlasted every trend that passed through the suburb.

The menu is plainspoken and built on the pit: hot-pit pulled pork and slow-smoked ribs cooked the old-fashioned way, plus plate lunches that anchor the midday crowd. The smoked BBQ bologna is the thick-cut slab regulars order by name, and sides like slow-cooked, smoky beans round out a tray that has not chased reinvention. This is one of the oldest barbecue addresses in Collierville, still hot-pit smoking after four-plus decades, cooking for a suburb that never asked it to change.

• Style: Memphis Style
• Price: $
• Neighborhood: Collierville
• Serving since 1981

What to order

• Pulled Pork Plate
• Ribs
• BBQ Bologna
• Beans

How it scores — 7.8/10 overall

• Smoke: 7.9/10
• Bark: 7.7/10
• Tenderness: 7.8/10
• Consistency: 7.7/10
• Value: 8.1/10
• Atmosphere: 7.3/10

Visiting

• Address: 106 US Highway 72 E, Collierville, TN 38017
• Phone: (901) 853-8004
• Website: https://captainjohnsbbq.com/

Hours: Mon–Sat 10am–9pm, Sun closed

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