Big Bill's Bar-Be-Que

“East Memphis pit with the longest hours on Kirby”

Big Bill's Bar-Be-Que runs a locally owned smokehouse on Kirby in East Memphis, with a sibling store on Elvis Presley Boulevard in Whitehaven. Its edge is timing: the Kirby counter keeps unusually long hours, which makes it the answer when the destination pits have already shut down for the night. The cooking is hearty Memphis-style, built around a generous pulled pork plate of smoked shoulder, dry-rubbed ribs with real hickory, and wings smoked rather than fried. Plates land generous and the mac and cheese is the side regulars add without thinking. It is an independent room in a stretch full of chains, trading on portion, price, and a kitchen that stays open past the point most Memphis smoke has gone cold. For the late crowd on the east side, that timing is the whole appeal.