Roger Sharp is back in Gnaw Bone, and he brought his Original Gnaw Bone Tenderloin with him.
He’s set up in the red brick building at State Road 46 and Old 46 where he once ran a go-kart shop. A temporary sign out front reads, “Now open, the original Gnaw Bone Tenderloin.”
His old customers are as happy to see him as he is to see them, he said.
“They come in and they just got the biggest smile on their face,” Sharp said.
Sharp first started serving his tenderloin in Gnaw Bone in 1996. He has stepped back from the business twice but never completely away.
For the past three years, he has continued to run both a food truck and catering business under the name Gnaw Bone BBQ and Original Gnaw Bone Tenderloin, he said. He has traveled the state, going to festivals, and has often had people ask if he was going to bring his restaurant back.
Sharp said he waited to allow the new owners of the Gnaw Mart next door, where he first began serving the tenderloin 20 years ago, to have a chance to get established.
But after so many requests to bring his tenderloin back, and missing the customers he loves, Sharp began renovating the red brick building about a year ago.
When he sold the Gnaw Mart in 2013, he had been putting in 100 to 110 hours a week. It was just too much.
This time he’s taking it a little easier, serving from 10:30 a.m to 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and until 6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
He also has some help: Emily Cash, whose mother worked for Sharp at his old store.
Why close at 6 p.m., just as most people are getting ready to have dinner?
Sharp said he’s found that if he has a product worth buying, people will make it there when he is open.
He declined to give away any of his secrets for what makes his tenderloin so good, but he did talk about the first time he made a tenderloin, when he threw away 12 cuts of meat before he found the one he wanted to serve.
In addition to tenderloins, Sharp is serving hand-breaded chicken fingers — more like boneless fried chicken than what is normally presented as chicken fingers — shrimp, fish sandwiches and pulled pork.
And that doesn’t even touch on all the sides, which include homemade potato chips.
Sharp tries to bring his smoker out to the restaurant at least once a week, more often if things are selling well. When the summer comes, he expects to be doing ribs and briskets on Fridays and Saturdays.
He is also considering setting up a covered seating area on the side of the building.
Customers can either walk in or call ahead to make an order. No order is too large, so long as he has enough stock to fill it.
In fact, the only thing Sharp has found himself short of so far is parking, he said.
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Hours: Tuesdays to Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Pickup orders: 812-603-9208
Online: facebook.com/GnawBoneBBQ
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