Faced with a longstanding vacancy next to their Imo’s Pizza store in “LA” (lower Arnold), Eva Imo told her husband Frank that “we have to do something,” as in we have to do something, “a Starbuck’s, a donut shop, anything.” The result was the popular Smokee Mo’s, Frank’s BBQ joint that plays off the family name. A second location, literally a big barn, opens in Manchester in June.
How old were you when Imo’s Pizza got started? Frank: I was there when my parents opened the original store on Shaw and Thurman. Eva: Well, yeah, but you were three. F: My dad involved all the kids in the business almost immediately, but I was 10 before my first scheduled shift, rolling dough. We all stayed involved. E: Frank is what I call a living rule. If you lost every Imo’s recipe and manual, Frank could recreate it.
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Your son, Frank, Jr., just opened Imo’s 100th store. E: [Laughs.] I think he was in kindergarten when we first got Frank, Jr. involved. He’s now 38, and he owns two stores. Another son, Lou, manages one of our stores. It’s what the family’s always done. We have two stores as well, both in South County, one that I run.
Why South County? F: [Laughs.] What we like is not being any further than 20 minutes from our restaurants. When Eva said our new one was 22 [minutes away], I said, “oh, I don’t know.” (pauses and laughs) But if I speed, I can make it in 19.
Eva, how did you get started in the business? E: I have an Electrical Engineering degree from Wash U and my first job was at Anheuser-Busch, where my fellow engineers told me that I could make more money in the pizza business. I trained and worked at Imo’s for a year when I became interested in finding a computerized POS system for Imo’s, which they didn’t have at the time. I had been married to Frank for 10 years and we’d never had a store, but soon did.
So what happened? E: We installed Imo’s first computer system in 1992 at our store and almost immediately our sales increased by $500 per week because it reduced human error—addition errors, transposing delivery addresses, circling the wrong toppings, etc. That word got out quickly and all of a sudden I became Imo’s computer gal, eventually installing over 60 systems. Years later, I was the first to dabble with online ordering. Most stores have it now, and that has increased sales, too.
What’s something else people might not know about Imo’s? F: A lot of people use Imo’s original salad dressing as a chicken marinade. Well, I like the red wine vinaigrette even better, the one with Romano cheese.
What’s your favorite pizza at Imo’s? F: Sausage, onion, pepperoncinis. E: It’s hard to beat sausage and pepperoni, but sausage and bacon come close.
How and when did the barbecue business BBQ interest you? E: We own a strip center in Arnold and over the years have had trouble finding good tenants. I told Frank that we’d been losing money in this particular bay for years and we have to do something, by which I meant we have to do something—a Starbucks, a donut shop, anything. Frank said, ‘barbecue’s hot right now and I love barbecue,’ and that was that.
How much did you know about that business? F: A lot but not enough, so we took Myron Mixon’s cooking course —how to smoke, rub, serve barbecue—to round out my knowledge. I was most interested in the way he injects whole hogs with apple juice, salt, different vinegars and sugars. E: Barbecue is fun. For some reason, the customers are always in a good mood, having fun. And we want to have fun. That’s a lot of the reason we got into it.
Do people get the play on words, Smokee Mo’s? E: Most people do. And there was a side benefit. Some people tell us they’d heard that one of the Imos had gotten into the barbecue business, assumed it was going to be good, and were not disappointed, which feels good. Everybody wins.
Talk about Smokee Mo’s tag line, “& so on & so forth?” F: There was a family member who would end conversations with “and so on and so forth,” then the whole family started saying it. When I was putting up the Smokee Mo’s sign, I added it, because it fit, since you never know what’s coming out of our kitchen on any given day.
Describe the décor. F: If you have an old barn or access to a farm, chances are you can decorate a barbecue joint and it’ll look great—corrugated tin, old saw blades, minnow buckets—junk, but fun junk. It all works. In our case, we run old TV shows—like Green Acres and The Three Stooges—instead of showing sports or news.
How’s your BBQ different? F: It’s traditional barbecue with an Italian twist to the sides and sandwiches. The garlic cheese bread has fresh garlic and cheese in it—Provel cheese, of course. We have marinated and char-broiled grilled zucchini with lemon and garlic. Mac and cheese with Provel. I make my own salcissia…
Talk about your famous sandwich, the Mangia Bene. F: The first week we opened, a drunk guy came in and noticed the words Mangia Bene—which means ‘eat well—on our chalkboard, so he proceeds to order ‘that moonja beanie sandwich.’ There was no such thing, of course, but he claimed he’d had it before, so instead of arguing with the guy, I put a half pound of brisket on garlic cheese bread with a squeeze of Mo’s white barbecue and served it to him. The Mangia Bene became our best-selling sandwich. If I ever see that guy again, I’ll buy him a beer.
Then there’s the Mostrami. F: I started brining and cooking my own pastrami and came up with the MOstrami STL. It works because In Italian, mostrami means ‘show me’, so added the STL.
How did you discover the new location? E: It’s hard not to like Manchester in West County, but none of the buildings we found were exactly right. We discovered a few adjacent pieces of vacant ground and I told Frank he should just build his own barbecue barn. Barns are super hot as event and reception venues, because the atmosphere is naturally relaxed and fun. Even though it’s in a more urban area, this location will feel more rustic than in Arnold and have more parking. Our corner has a traffic light, 53,000 cars a day pass by, it’s a stone’s throw from [Highway] 141, there’s not a lot of competition nearby, and we can put signage right on the street.
Why buy a pre-fabricated barn? F: Our barn is exactly what I think a barbecue place should look like in 2019. I researched a ton of post-and-beam builders, found who I thought was the best one, and Eva and I drove to the home office in South Dakota just to make sure. We were able to tour a building—a wedding reception venue—which was identical to the one we bought. They assemble the buildings there, tag the components, disassemble them, load it all up and ship it. Ours came in on six tractor trailers.
How did you customize it? E: We bought crystal chandeliers and wooden fans that look like windmills but honestly decorating is a challenge. We want people to have something to look at, but thousands of feet of new, knotty pine are too pretty to cover up. If we were using old barn wood like most barbecue joints, decorating would be easy. Here, our fear is that all that farm junk would literally junk the place up.
Is anything new on the new menu? F: Some friends and I raise Wagyu cattle, which will soon appear as smoked Wagyu brats and Wagyu burgers. E: We’re also adding a Skinny Hillbilly menu—entrees and sides, including vegetarian and vegan items, plus a burger that’s not a burger. E: No spoilers here, but I bet people will drive 50 minutes just to see what we’re doing.
Even Smokee Mo’s dessert program is different. F: The apple crisp, carrot cake, chocolate passion cake, and different cheesecakes all come from The Blue Owl. People stop by for carrot cake just to have with their coffee the next day. We also have an Italian gelato machine that does just as well with frozen custard: chocolate, vanilla, and smoked bacon maple. I candy the bacon myself. I’m also planting fruit trees on the side of building. I’d love to make our own cobbler.
You’re also a lover of whole hog catering. F: I learned from Myron [Mixon], the best in the world, and I got to be pretty good myself. I now own two trailers with smokers, one wasn’t enough. I smoke a 200-pounder on its back for 20-24 hours and let the cavity fill up with juices. Mix in a little meat in there and you’ll see why whole hog roasts are so popular.
Are there plans for more Smokee Mo’s? E: Frank’s a creative guy and I need to give him his sandbox, and this is a big one. When this sandbox makes money, we may find another one.
Any plans to retire? E: We’re both really good at doing restaurants. We buy the land, build on it, and operate what we built. Our kids are involved, we love the pizza business and the barbecue business. I spend more time in the Imo’s stores, Frank does the barbecue. F: Both businesses are crazy, but at Smokee Mo’s I get to yell Mangia Bene! all the time.
Do you have any hobbies? F: I’m not a gym guy, I cut wood instead. We burn 100 percent oak that my son and my grandkids help cut and split on our farm. Guys pay money to go to the gym and sweat. I pay no money and sweat, but I got a ton of wood!
Who came up with the name Smokee Mo’s? F: I asked my mom if I could use the Imo name for my barbecue place and she said no. So I came up with Smokee Mo’s.
How did your mom react? F: I believe she said, ‘Frankie, you’re killing me.’
