After nearly three decades slinging barbecue and Cajun specialties, Jeff Fitter, the owner and pitmaster of Super Smokers BBQ/Papa’s Diner in Eureka, has decided to shut down the smoker. In an email announcement, he shared that the restaurant’s final day of service will be Sunday, December 14.
Reached this morning, Fitter acknowledged the obvious, saying that “2025 has been a tough year, for the big guys and the small guys like us.” He explained that the year started slowly, prompting the launch of Papa’s Diner to offset rising food costs and stabilize revenue, with hopes that barbecue sales would rebound in the summer. That uptick never came. With nearby Six Flags experiencing an off year, he said, Super Smoker’s saw corresponding declines. Catering and food truck sales—both major components of Super Smokers’ business—were also down in 2025, though catering saw a brief boost in September and October. “I don’t know the reason for that, but I’m glad it happened, or the decision to close might have been made sooner.”
Five weeks ago, Fitter returned to a former corporate job to help cover restaurant expenses, “as crazy as that sounds.” Even so, the past three weeks have fallen “well below break-even,” he says. “We’ve been fighting it and fighting it, but we can’t continue the fight. We’re measuring losses now not by thousands per month but by tens of thousands.”
The Backstory
Super Smokers was founded in 1996 by competitive pitmaster Terry Black and expanded to five metro area locations at one time.
Fitter purchased the remaining Eureka restaurant in 2017, adding Cajun specialties to the existing barbecue-based menu. After success with a food trailer near Five Mile Garden in Affton, he opened a location in the same shopping center in 2021, before closing it in early 2023.
In 2022, Fitter moved the Eureka restaurant to a much larger space. He then added Papa’s Diner in February of this year.
Fitter plans to continue operating Case & Bucks Grub & Pub in Barnhart, which he purchased in 2022, along with its food truck. He adds that Super Smokers gift cards will be honored at the Barnhart location and that some Eureka staff members will transition there.
Reflecting on his ownership, Fitter wrote that the business was “built on a love for great barbecue, good people, and the belief that a local restaurant could become a true gathering place.” He thanked the regulars, generational families, and guests who celebrated milestones there, saying, “You are the reason this place mattered. You are the reason it lasted as long as it did.”
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