{"id":194946,"date":"2025-09-02T20:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T20:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/194946\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T20:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T20:03:09","slug":"jacksonville-community-saddened-over-closure-of-beloved-jenkins-barbecue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/194946\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville community saddened over closure of beloved Jenkins Barbecue"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 For generations, the smell of smoked chicken and ribs has drawn people into Jenkins Quality Barbecue.\u00a0But after nearly seven decades, the Jenkins family said they\u2019re turning off the smokers for good.<\/a><\/p>\n

For many longtime customers, Jenkins is more than just a barbecue restaurant \u2014 it\u2019s a tradition. For that reason, the news of its closure has left the Jacksonville community saddened and disappointed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate it. I hate it. Especially about the sauce,\u201d Lisa, a longtime customer, told News4JAX.<\/p>\n

According to a Facebook post<\/a>, the beloved restaurant will close its three locations at the end of the month due to \u201crising costs of food and labor, shifting consumer trends and chain issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 68 years of serving our Jacksonville community, we look back not with heaviness, but with our hearts brimming with gratitude. From all of us, we thank you. We appreciate your loyalty over the years, and we will miss you!\u201d the restaurant wrote.<\/p>\n

RELATED | <\/b>This Jacksonville barbecue institution has been serving ribs, chicken for more than 60 years<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

The business was founded in 1957 by Melton Jenkins Jr. and his wife, Willie Mae. <\/b>It is considered one of the oldest Black family-owned restaurants in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

Catherine, another longtime customer, said going to Jenkins was her \u201conce-a-month treat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI found out about it online, and then my son texted me and told me about it. I\u2019m sad. This is my once-a-month treat. Sometimes it\u2019s twice a month. So I am sad,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Jenkins family will also be closing down their barbecue sauce online shop, and they asked customers to place their last orders for the sauce by the end of the day on Sept. 21.<\/p>\n

Another customer, who did not want to be identified, said Jenkins was his go-to lunch spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, rib sandwiches all day, medium sauce, curly fries with the sauce on the fries. So we need to do a petition or something to keep these guys open, because I\u2019m going to be I\u2019m going to miss them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While the family may be closing its doors, its legacy will continue to leave a mark on Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

Those with gift cards are asked to use them by Sept. 30.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 For generations, the smell of smoked chicken and ribs has drawn people into Jenkins Quality…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":194947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,718,3188,723,990,7310,108610,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-194946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-food","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-jenkins-quality-barbecue","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}