Woody's Bar & Grill: Offering 'elevated Southern cuisine,' barbecue

How does one go from restoring classic cars to opening a state-of-the-art restaurant? For Robert Elwood of Oak Ridge, owner of Atomic Speed Shop since 2010, it started with the pandemic.

At a time when most people were trying to keep their businesses from closing, Elwood found it to be the perfect time to plan a new kind of restaurant for the Secret City.

“I had a building not being used, within three-quarters of a mile from 10,000 workers, and less than a block from an intersection that sees 33,000 vehicles per day," he said. It makes us the perfect spot to stop for a beer on your way home from work, let the traffic thin out, then take a bag of barbecue home to the family for dinner.”

Woody’s Bar & Grill was born. It opened for business Nov. 11.

Elwood, who is also a nuclear engineer, said having the space wasn’t enough. He needed someone with special expertise to help him develop the menu and set up the kitchen.

“I hired two of the best chefs in East Tennessee to serve the best food we can find," he said.

Elwood noted, “We wanted a place where you can watch the games and talk with friends without loud music or karaoke.”

Elwood, who admitted that he loves to cook, too, as a hobby, said he especially likes making things like jambalaya and lasagna (not on Woody’s menu) that feed a crowd and that he believes in using only the finest ingredients.

Calling Woody’s menu “elevated Southern cuisine” and “barbecue with a Southern flair,” Elwood hired two award-winning chefs – local pit master Terry Hope and Knoxville chef Josh Brantley. Hope’s specialty is smoked barbecue meats and desserts, while Brantley provides special meals like blackened trout and salmon and “melt-in-your-mouth” steaks.

Hope, who has owned several restaurants in the Oak Ridge area, has also cooked for race car teams. He has won awards for his barbecue and desserts. Brantley, a University of Tennessee Culinary School graduate, holds a degree in food science. In 2019, his team won first place in the National Dairy Product Evaluations.

The barbecue at Woody’s is smoked in a special creation they’ve dubbed “Big Gurl,” which is a smoker Elwood designed and had built by Clint Lester, a fabricator at Atomic Speed Shop. The smoker, which sports two hatchets for handles, can hold up to 210 pork butts at a time. All smoking is done with cherry wood.

The two chefs provide creative appetizer offerings like “Deviled Eggs of the Day” and “Smokestack Nachos,” to burgers like The Big Woody, made from locally sourced Angus beef patties, and sandwiches like a Cuban or reuben made with Boar’s Head deli meats and cheeses.

Dinner ranges from barbecue platters to steak, ribs, salmon, and trout. The menu has four salads, a good selection of sides, and wet or dry wings. Desserts feature a pie of the day, pie bites, and white chocolate banana pudding. All food is prepared in-house and sourced from local vendors such as Benton (Sweetwater) bacon and pork bellies, Shelton Farms (New Market) cornmeal and Cruze Farm (Kodak) dairy products, all provided by A&B Distributors, which provides them with locally raised Simpson’s meats.

The restaurant has seven televisions and offers wood décor complete with a 25-foot-long, L-shaped bar made from 150-year-old reclaimed cypress. Two “knee” walls with stools on either side separate the bar area from the dining area.

“The knee walls provide a special place to talk to friends over a beer or a glass of wine,” Elwood said. The restaurant does not sell liquor, only beer for now and wine eventually.

The decorations in the room are an eclectic combination of celebrity photos, sports memorabilia, and a trip down Oak Ridge memory lane. Everything adorns the walls from autographed basketball jerseys to Manhattan Project photographer Ed Wescott's photographs. One corner is dedicated to veterans in memory of Elwood’s grandfather Charles Elwood, who died in World War II after the Battle of the Bulge. This area includes a “Fallen Soldiers Table.”

When weather is warm, the property features a one-acre beer garden outside with tables and corn hole. Elwood hopes to bring corn hole tournaments to the site. Inside, other bar games like shuffleboard, ring toss and foosball are available.

In addition to Brantley and Hope, Elwood’s son Reid works there along with 152 to 20 others who Elwood said are “some of the highest paid restaurant workers in this area.”

Woody’s is located at 114 Union Valley Road. Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Woody's Bar & Grill now open in Oak Ridge Tennessee