NOVEMBER 20, 2008 Issue
Business Spotlight
Sledgehammer Charlie’s Smokehouse & Grill—Simple Food Done Well
Story by Sam Calhoun
When you’re driving up to Sledgehammer Charlie’s Smokehouse & Grill, located at 8146 Valley Boulevard in Blowing Rock, the restaurant’s exterior hints at the underpinning of a franchise.
Everything looks kept, the sign and architecture feature clean lines and the name hints at a theme-type atmosphere. But this is no franchise—in fact, it’s about as grassroots as it gets, according to Sledgehammer Charlie’s Owner Chase Luddeke.
“This is not a franchise; it’s family owned and operated. We take the time to do things right around here,” said Luddeke. “It’s real food and we take the extra steps to make it great. We cook on a real wood fire—no gas. And everything is homemade—sauces, seasonings, rubs. We put extra time into everything. It’s basically just good food, simple food, done well.”
Sledgehammer Charlie’s opened in November 2007. The restaurant seats 60 people and staffs 23. Sledgehammer Charlie’s features a bar with full ABC permits and flat-screen televisions, but the main focus is the homemade food.
The cornerstone of the menu is barbecue. Luddeke slow cooks the barbecue on the premises every day, taking any downtime to add ingredients to his line of barbecue sauces, rubs and seasonings. Customers can try the barbecue tastes on Sledgehammer’s pulled pork, smoked brisket, sliced brisket, baby back ribs, Ole Sledge burger, rotisserie chicken, BBQ fries or smoked wings.
Luddeke smokes his beef brisket for 12 hours before it reaches the plate, and he cuts all of his fries by hand from whole potatoes every day. Local hickory powers the flame beneath Sledgehammer’s grill that cooks the restaurant’s burgers. Luddeke uses premium ground chuck for his burgers, and forms it into patties by hand.
“This is not an assembly line like you get at franchises,” said Luddeke. “Everything is fresh.”
Sledgehammer’s jalapeño poppers, for instance, don’t come frozen or in a bag; they are real jalapeños stuffed with homemade stuffing and then cooked. Other appetizers include chicken quesadillas, nachos, queso dip and Hay Bales—smoked corn on the cob, cut into wheels, basted in butter, covered with lime juice and topped with crumbled feta cheese and Sledgehammer’s barbecue dry rub.
Not making the mouth water yet? Try Sledgehammer’s selection of salads, burritos or sandwiches, two of which feature fried baloney. And there is always Sledgehammer’s chili—the same that won the gold at the Blowing Rock Winterfest 2007 Chili Cook-Off, just days after Sledgehammer Charlie’s opened.
“We give everyone a lot of food, too. We make people leave full,” said Luddeke. “It’s great food in a chill atmosphere and we have a great beer selection—craft beers, local beers. We don’t make you wash down your homemade burger with a Budweiser.”
Luddeke moved to Boone when he was 10 and has grown up in the restaurant business. Luddeke’s family opened the Mellow Mushroom in Boone and the one in Blowing Rock while Luddeke was attending Watauga High School. After graduating from high school, Luddeke took classes at ASU and at Colorado College and worked at the Mellow Mushroom in Blowing Rock. Luddeke’s parents sold the Mellow Mushroom in Boone before Luddeke graduated high school.
Soon, Luddeke hungered to open his own restaurant and developed an idea he thought would work. His ideas for the menu, though, were rather diverse, so Luddeke created an imaginary character—Sledgehammer Charlie—and an imaginary story about that character to help explain the menu’s diversity of tastes. Read Sledgehammer Charlie’s full story by clicking to www.sledgehammercharlies.com.
Luddeke initially opened Sledgehammer Charlie’s in Lenoir. The restaurant opened there in 2006 and stayed open for about one year. The time in Lenoir was very successful for the restaurant, said Luddeke, because he was able to learn what works and what doesn’t and was able to consolidate the menu.
“I took this big concept of a menu and was able to shrink it smaller,” explained Luddeke.
Luddeke is at the restaurant every day of the week, doing everything from cooking meals to washing dishes. He sees all sorts of clientele, from construction workers to students, from tourists to downtown merchants, from drive-by customers to old regulars from Lenoir, Morganton and Hickory. He also has regular customers from the High Country, one of whom claims to have gotten into a fight last week with a friend over whether to go to Woodlands or Sledgehammer Charlie’s.
Luddeke plans to operate the restaurant in the High Country for the long haul. He will soon introducing dinner and drink specials, and by the end of the winter, Sledgehammer Charlie’s signature barbecue sauce will be available by the bottle at the restaurant and at select retail outlets.
“I hope people will come out and give us a shot. This is great food and we want to share it,” added Luddeke.
Sledgehammer Charlie’s Smokehouse & Grill is located at 8146 Valley Boulevard in Blowing Rock. The restaurant is open from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. For more information, click to www.sledgehammercharlies.com or call 828-295-9092.
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