VALDOSTA — It’s a Valdosta mainstay now, but there were moments of uncertainty during the early days of the Smok’n Pig.

In 2007, Pat O’Neal started looking into building and starting a barbecue restaurant.

O’Neal had been in the buffet restaurants business for years, and for years, his staff had been encouraging him to open a standalone barbecue place.

“I don’t think we knew what it would be,” said Ray Parr, general manager of Smok’n Pig.

When the first Smok’n Pig opened in 2008, it presented a challenge to the team running it.

“That first year, we thought we had made a mistake,” Parr said. “It was overwhelming for all of us.

“There were procedural things, mechanics. A lot of people don’t realize what goes into it, that to get that plate to the table, there’s a whole lot before and a whole lot after.”

“It was our first menu-driven restaurant and we had a pretty extensive menu,” said Jennifer Sumner, vice-president of O’Neal Restaurants. “We had to whittle it down.”

They also were managing a staff of 160, more than twice the size of the staff at their buffet restaurant.

The Smok’n Pig grew in popularity.

For a time, a second location was opened on Bemiss Road, but was closed when the company opened Mama June’s in 2012.

Also in 2012, the company opened a Smok’n Pig in Macon.

At the end of August last year, as Gondolier prepared to close, the owners of the Italian restaurant reached out to O’Neal to see if he’d be interested in doing something with the location.

Six weeks later, the new Smok’n Pig opened for business.

To get ready, Gondelier’s pizza ovens were dismantled and taken out. Smokers had to be added to the back of the restaurant.

The decor had to change.

“We pigged the place up,” Parr said.

“For years, we’ve had customers ask us about opening a Smok’n Pig in Lake Park,” Sumner said. “This lets us reach the southside of town, Lake Park and the Quitman area.

The menu stayed exactly the same, from the pulled pork sandwiches and fried shrimp to the ribs and beef brisket.

So did the cooking.

The pork and the beef brisket start in the smokers in the evening and cook through the night and into the morning.

It’s hard for Sumner and Parr to estimate the amount of meat the restaurant goes through in a year.

In an average week, the original store goes through 4,000-5,000 pulled pork sandwiches per week and about as many orders of shrimp.

Smok’n Pig is located at 282 Norman Drive.

It is open 11 a.m.-9 p.m., seven days a week.

More information: Call (229) 469-7416.

Stuart Taylor is a reporter for the Valdosta Daily Times.