Jay Brown has been recreating his grandmother’s barbecue since 2013. She turned a passion based on her unfulfilled dream of opening a restaurant into a homemade food truck with a friend.
Granny’s Southern Smokehouse trucks rolled from Tampa to Melbourne and everywhere in between before moving to brick-and-mortar locations and finally landing at 818 Pennsylvania Avenue in St. Cloud. This building has been owned by him since 2019.
More than a decade later, Brown and his team, which includes a literal family, have won “Best Barbecue” awards multiple times, from Osceola County Best of the Year to the Orlando Sentinel Foodie Awards’ Critics’ and Readers’ Awards.
But on Sunday (May 17), Brown and his team will offer one last grandfathered sampler.
“Business owners, all we do is work,” Brown says. “I work every day. Even on my days off, I’m here doing cleaning, maintenance, etc.”
Brown’s reason for resigning is his family.
Not long ago, his 16-year-old son, Javian, was diagnosed with epilepsy. Brown wanted to be closer to her son and four other children: Gabby, 20, Jadence, 18, Jordan, 11, and Gracelyn, 9.
and his wife, Casey.
The two separated in 2024.
“The reason is because I’ve always been here,” he says. “70, 80 hours a week. I had to plan and make decisions.”
One morning, he and his high school friend Jose Martinez were spotted jogging side by side on the treadmill at the gym.
“I said, ‘If someone gives me the money this restaurant deserves, I’ll take it. Then I can spend more time with my family.'”
said Martinez, owner of Susana’s Cafe in Kissimmee. “Okay, let’s talk about it.”
In the months leading up to Martinez’s offer, Brown couldn’t refuse.
“Not only did I make money buying the building, but once the deal closed, I was able to spend more time with my family.”
Brown and his wife rekindled their relationship in January of last year.
“That’s one of the main reasons I’m doing this,” he says frankly. “So many restaurant owners end up getting divorced or having other issues because they’re always on the job. We got back together, ended up buying our own house, moving, working on our marriage, going to counseling.
“I realized that before I could become a restaurant owner, I really needed to be a husband and a father.”
The couple renewed their vows on November 10, 2025.
When reaffirmed that he was on the record, Brown stood firm.
“You might as well put all this in there, because it might help wake up others.”
With Granny’s closing and Martinez making plans for a new facility (still undetermined), Brown is looking forward to serving longtime customers one last time, but he has no plans to leave the barbecue behind.
In fact, he’s in the midst of a transformation into a source boss. He hopes to soon be able to sell his brand of barbecue sauce not only at local restaurants, but also at grocery and hardware stores in Florida.
“We’re in talks with our corporate office in Jacksonville,” he said, noting that a recipe customers have enjoyed for years was refined during the packaging process with IPAC, a Winter Springs company.
“They can cook much hotter than I can, and that’s really great,” he says.
My family agrees.
“They know I’ll be home more and we’ll work on the sauce together. And (my wife) is very, very happy and the kids are happy.”
Find me on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram @amydroo or the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com, and for more foodie fun, join our Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group.
