Charlie G’s BBQ brings heart and smoke

Magic is hap­pen­ing at the cor­ner of Winchester & Cleveland Roads. As you pull into the park­ing lot, framed by bil­low­ing smok­ers, you can already sense some­thing deli­cious is wait­ing. Charlie G’s BBQ is not only a won­der­ful place to get your bar­beque fix, it’s also home to a source of com­mu­ni­ty sup­port, per­se­ver­ance, and a qui­et resolve to make the best bar­beque around. 

Upon enter­ing the estab­lish­ment, I was greet­ed by a man who seemed equal parts Father Christmas and cow­boy, car­ry­ing a hefty sam­ple plate of the day’s offer­ings accom­pa­nied by a gen­er­ous smile. As my spouse and I sat down to tuck in, Charlie joined us at the table shar­ing a bit about his tech­nique, his his­to­ry, and why he opened the restaurant. 

Charlie G’s BBQ was estab­lished on November 7, 2025, and has seen more folks com­ing in over the past few months. 

“It’s been a total god­send,” said Charlie about open­ing his spot. “I didn’t even have a real smok­er when I got the build­ing; our equip­ment is all secondhand.” 

One of the first things the team at Charlie G’s did upon receiv­ing a full-sized smok­er was team­ing up with Maka Mia Pizza to feed the home­less on Thanksgiving. This gen­er­ous spir­it is felt through his food. It tastes like love. 

“We love every­body here. We want folks to know they’re safe here,” Charie said while help­ing his staff box up lunch orders. The lunch rush was steady, and the team greet­ed every per­son com­ing through the door like family. 

Charlie’s sto­ry is unique; he hails from Texas and moved here in 2001. After spend­ing many years work­ing for large com­pa­nies, he found he ulti­mate­ly hat­ed work­ing in man­age­ment and want­ed to return to his ear­ly love of bar­beque as he retired early. 

When he’s not fir­ing up the smok­ers in the wee hours of the morn­ing, he’s focused on car­ing for his staff and our com­mu­ni­ty. From pet sit­ting for a staff mem­ber who was under­go­ing chemo, to expand­ing his com­mu­ni­ty out­reach with the Maka Mia team, it is obvi­ous that his heart is in the right place. 

Charlie has cho­sen to grace us with his tal­ents and his com­mit­ment to qual­i­ty. He does not offer DoorDash order­ing on prin­ci­ple. His focus is on straight­for­ward ser­vice, fair­ly priced bar­beque with rotat­ing sides, spe­cial fea­tures, and deli­cious fla­vor. Not only has he won BBQ com­pe­ti­tions across the south since get­ting his start in 1996, but he’s also pass­ing his tal­ents on to his staff. By rais­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of pit­mas­ters to promi­nence, Charlie is invest­ing in pre­serv­ing the cul­ture and help­ing women learn the skills of the grill. When his staff expressed inter­est in learn­ing how to use the smok­er, he began con­sid­er­ing how to pass on his knowledge. 

The fla­vors craft­ed by this team are unique and frankly unpar­al­leled. They use inter­est­ing spice blends in their rubs, and the smok­ers are run on most­ly oak and hick­o­ry, sourced from a farm close by. They are not tied to any par­tic­u­lar meat ven­dor, cit­ing qual­i­ty over cost as their main rea­son for being selec­tive in their sourcing. 

One offer­ing that stood out to me was their pulled pork. I am not usu­al­ly impressed by pulled pork as it is often very dry or heav­i­ly sauced to com­pen­sate for over­cook­ing. At Charlie G’s the exact oppo­site is true. 

I watched a slow nod and a know­ing grin wash over his face as I asked how he got his pork so ten­der yet so fla­vor­ful. “Good bar­beque doesn’t need sauce,” he said in a way that took me back to my time liv­ing in Texas. It’s a mantra across the Lonestar State, and Charlie absolute­ly backs it up with every bite. “I’m a bit of a per­fec­tion­ist. I’m not gonna serve it unless it is 100% right.” 

There’s rich juicy pork fla­vor at first, but some­thing unique­ly bold and bright on the fin­ish where the fla­vor real­ly shines through. By using a cush­ion cut instead of shoul­der, they’ve found a way to avoid any stringi­ness, just deli­cious per­fect­ly smoked pork. 

The same can be said of their ribs, which are tossed in a dried apple spice rub before hit­ting the smok­er. It is tru­ly a fla­vor not seen here, and one of the more inter­est­ing takes on smoked ribs I’ve had in ages. As a com­pa­ny that proud­ly “sup­ports the lit­tle guy,” those who like a lit­tle sauce can select from sauces by Grumpy Dad, Saven Grace, or their house sauce. I sam­pled them all and loved the ones from Grumpy Dad as the fla­vors were play­ful­ly bright and built up nice­ly with the pork. It’s refresh­ing to see a bar­beque place that wel­comes sauces made for and by the com­mu­ni­ty they are a part of. 

I would be remiss to not shine a spot­light on the brisket. 

It is fan­tas­tic. It’s no won­der they’re smok­ing a dozen or more per week. I was impressed by how ten­der it was, even with less time on the smok­er than a lot of oth­er BBQ joints in the region. There were famil­iar notes of black pep­per and oak smoke, but also the rich­ness of the beef remained right on the tip of my tongue with every bite. As I looked over to the counter to see it sliced fresh, each carve of the knife was like but­ter, glid­ing through the meat with lit­tle effort. Whether order­ing a plate or a sand­wich, this is a fan­tas­tic val­ue for the price. While I try to be unbi­ased in my reviews, I can­not say enough good things about the beef at Charlie G’s. 

As Charlie watched me shov­el my last bite, he men­tioned that they do a prime rib steak sand­wich as a spe­cial every now and then. I can­not wait to try that next time. Just when I thought I couldn’t han­dle any more good news, one of the servers brought out their smoked bologna which was absolute­ly per­fect. If there’s one thing to high­light about all their offer­ings, it is that this team has mas­tered how to deliv­er the per­fect bal­ance of form and flavor. 

After wip­ing my face with a few dozen nap­kins, I asked him about the busi­ness side of things and what it’s like being a small busi­ness own­er in this day and age. 

“Everybody is tired of get­ting beat­en up in Hamburg. The moms-and-pops are com­ing back.” 

He stat­ed with con­vic­tion, “There is no love in cor­po­rate food. We need real good qual­i­ty restau­rants. I’m not in this to be rich, I’m in this to have fun . . . This is my hob­by, my pastime.” 

Given the recent big chains clos­ing in Hamburg and the pres­sures from devel­op­ers to tear up the few remain­ing green­spaces along the Winchester Road cor­ri­dor, I find myself agree­ing with his sentiments. 

For those of you drool­ing after read­ing, go check out Charlie G’s BBQ at 4300 Winchester Rd. Open week­days 11–6 with rotat­ing sides and spe­cials post­ed on their social media. If you’re look­ing to feed a team, reach out to them direct­ly for catering.