Correction: This article originally said that Strouderosa is located near the intersection of Skillman St. and Abrams Road. Strouderosa is located near the intersection of Skillman St. and Audelia Road.
After an explosion at the Greenberg Smoked Turkey Facility in 2020, thousands of families were left wondering what they were going to serve on Thanksgiving.
In the Lake Highlands Mom’s Facebook group, one mother posted that she was looking for a smoked turkey. Matt Stroud’s wife, Trisha Weaver, responded, offering a turkey from her husband’s smoker.
“Then I have 32 moms messaging me because of that one comment saying ‘I can do one for you,’” Weaver says. ”And then they were like, ‘what do you do for sides?’ and we’re like, oh, no, we’re not like a business. But we don’t know when he’s going back to work, so we added that last minute and we had half the people add green beans and rolls and gravy and stuff. And then once Thanksgiving was over, they were like, ‘what are you doing for Christmas?’”
Stroud had been furloughed from his job as a welder on the Keystone Pipeline. After steady business from Christmas and Thanksgiving, he and Weaver decided to start selling “meals of the week” out of their L Streets home’s kitchen.
Business was good, and the couple began thinking about their future.
“By the end of 2021,” Weaver says. “We were like okay, well what are we going to do? Are we changing this? Are we staying to do this food? Or are we going to go ahead and open a restaurant?”
Leasing a space near Skillman Street and Audelia Road in 2022, the Strouds spent months on needed renovations before eventually opening in May of 2023. To their surprise, the strong Facebook following they’d enjoyed didn’t translate into foot traffic. Stroud admits he was close to calling it quits.
“I told her I am done throwing money at a dead horse,” he says. “Absolutely done. I don’t want to do it anymore. And she finally agreed with me, she would always fight me tooth and nail.”
A flurry of positive Nextdoor recommendations instantly revived Strouderosa’s fortunes. It was a Wednesday when business started really picking up, and both Stroud and Weaver were out of the shop for the day.
“They called us,” Weaver says. “They’re like ‘we’re busy, we can’t do this by ourselves,’ and we’re like, ‘wait, what’s happening?’ We’re looking at the cameras and every table is full. There’s a line of people standing here and they’re either waiting for a table or to place a to-go order.”
Since then, Stroud and Weaver say Strouderosa has become a popular spot in the area, often packed.
Serving platters of traditional cuts like brisket, ribs, pulled pork, turkey and smoked sausage, Strouderosa’s menu has all the fixings of a traditional BBQ joint. Meats are available in an assortment of portions, and riffs on BBQ sides like Mac N Threeso, candied carrots and jalapeno cream corn are all available. Sandwiches, a customer favorite, come with either brisket or pulled pork.
Past BBQ joint staple meals, Strouderosa’s kitchen cooks up bar-esque creations like brisket nachos, tacos, enchiladas, smoked wings and a ten-ounce “Spuderosa’’ piled with meat, all of which can be enjoyed with a domestic wine or beer.
For dessert, customers can choose from an exclusive banana pudding cupcake from Smallcakes or peach cobbler served with churros.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s just different enough to get you thinking about it, like churros and peach cobbler,” Stroud says.
Stroud’s jalapeno BBQ sauce can be found throughout the store. The bottle features a logo illustration of three jalapenos, originally designed by Stroud’s father for a salsa he had made with his family. Cooking and smoking meats is a family tradition for Strouds, a tradition which has manifested itself in Strouderosa.
“It’s what I did with my dad,” he says. “Yeah, I mean this is all an homage to my dad, her dad. My dad passed before we even thought about doing a barbecue place.”
With an eye on a bigger space, Stroud is looking to bring more people to the family’s table.
“All we did was bring our backyard indoors,” he says. “It’s all my family recipes, a lot of them I made with my dad, my meemaw and stuff like that. I tweak them a little bit here and there, but you know, not much has changed from me feeding my kids to feeding yours.”
Strouderosa, 9090 Skillman St., strouderosa.com, 469.954.3333
