Bustling restaurants. Crowded streets. Salty air. Ocean City, Maryland in the summer time. A large portion of vacationing consists of cuisine and dining out. As many tourists flock to the shores of our small beach city, we should recognize the efforts the locals put in through our restaurant, hotel, and many other summer jobs.
One of those restaurants being Smoker’s BBQ Pit in West Ocean City located along Route 611. Pulling up to Smoker’s, you and I will have vastly different but similar experiences. I have been an employee at Smoker’s BBQ for six summers now. When we pull into the driveway along the pebbled road, our nostrils are filled with the telltale aroma of BBQ sauce and smoky air. While customers usually will park in the front, I will park in the back in the employee parking. I will walk in the back door and be greeted by the smiling face of my boss Denise, while you will order at the front counter with the smiling face of Denise. (If there was an Ocean City’s Best Boss award, she would win it.)
As an order gets taken the line cooks prepare the food — grilling and frying and occasionally singing. Then the food gets wrapped and bagged and then sent off to you, the customer, when your playing card gets called and your order is rung up. And in the back of the restaurant there will be a dishwasher ‘hopefully’ hard at work, the boys breading the chicken and fish and preparing and smoking the meats – rib, pork butt, and brisket – and the girls making and preparing the sides, salads, and cornbread.
Smoker’s BBQ is more like a family then a set of employees. Most of us have been working with each other for a long time; most of us come back year after year. It is a fun environment, we all get along, and to top it off we run like a well oiled machine at this point. So head over to Smoker’s BBQ when you want some family style smoky barbecue or a dose of Southern comfort.
