The History of Ware’s Barbecue

In 1956 J.C. “Buck” Ware worked at Ed’s Superette in downtown Swainsboro, Georgia where he ran the meat market in the back of the store.  Buck was a man who knew his way around a grill and one day after many requests, Buck set-up a shelter just outside the store, made his family recipe sauce and started cooking his barbecue.  Around this same time Buck’s brother, Dudley Ware, opened a meat packing company on North Main Street.

 

Not long after opening the meat packing company, Dudley realized that there was something to this barbecue and began making it himself.  Both brothers using the same family recipe.  Whether they knew it or not at the time, Ware's Bar-B-Q was born. 

 

Such was the demand for their barbecue that Dud converted the back of his meat packing operation into a barbecue canning and packing plant, and Buck opened a sit down restaurant in the front room.  Buck’s original menu consisted of barbecue, brunswick stew, potato salad, and sandwiches.

 

After a few years of Buck and Dud operating out of the canning and packing plant, Buck was ready to expand and bought the building next door to the canning plant that today most people remember as the original Ware’s BBQ Restaurant.  Buck and his wife Opal ran the new restaurant while Dud managed the canning plant.

 

 In 1973 Buck's sons, Joe and Johnny took over running the canning plant, Ware’s Packing Company, and Dud moved over to Ware’s Restaurant.  In 1977 Blaine Burrell joined Joe and Johnny at the Packing Company.  Together they sold Ware’s Barbecue and Brunswick Stew to every wholesale distributor south of the line between Macon and Augusta and all the way down to the Florida line.

 

 The 80s and early 90s brought hard financial times to South Georgia and the Ware's Packing Company changed hands several times, always using the Ware’s Barbecue brand name and recipe.  In 1999 Joe Ware learned that the current owner of Wares Packing Company was about to close the company doors forever.  Joe hated to see the company his family started back in 1958 come to an end so he bought it back.

 

Joe convinced former employee Blaine Burrell to get back into the barbecue business, and they began a partnership.  In the spirit of how Buck Ware began all those years ago, they opened a small take-out BBQ restaurant located on Hwy 1 North in Swainsboro.  In 2004 Johnny Ware joined the partnership, and the business continued to grow.

 

Today, Ware’s runs Wares Bar-B-Q a take-out and drive thru restaurant on US-1 in downtown Swainsboro, a successful catering business, and most recently a sit down restaurant, Ware’s Old Mill Barbecue Restaurant on Hwy 80 East just outside of Swainsboro.  All proudly serving the same family barbecue and stew recipes that have made Ware’s Barbecue famous since 1958.