Last week, we shared the smokin’ hot news that Marcus Stokely, owner and pitmaster of the popular Wells Station BBQ food truck, is planning a brick-and-mortar restaurant. The location: 1617 N. Central St. next to Mid Mod Collective and Wild Love Bakehouse, just north of Happy Holler.
Wells Station has built a devoted following through pop-ups, farmers market appearances and catering gigs, and now fans will finally have a permanent place to find Stokely’s smoked meats and scratch-made sides.
Yesterday I met up with Stokely to see inside the 4,300-square-foot space and learn more about his vision for the restaurant.
A Texas-Style Lunch Counter
Lunch will lean into a Texas-style meat market model, with customers ordering directly from the cutting station and choosing exactly how much, or how little, they want.
“You come up and you’re not that hungry, but you just want a slice of brisket,” Stokely explained. “You can do that versus some places where you have to get half a pound or a quarter pound.”
Customers will be able to mix and match meats and sides, with the whole operation visible from the counter. That customer interaction is important to Stokely, who missed it when Wells Station graduated from a pop-up tent to a food trailer.
“When I did the tent, everybody could see everything,” he said. “That was a big change when I moved to the food truck because people couldn’t see anything.”
He wants the restaurant to feel similarly open, with guests asking questions, watching their orders being sliced and even getting occasional tours of the pits.
“I’m a very open book when it comes to sharing things,” he said. “I truly believe, if you need something to pass down through generations, you have to share it with someone.”
A More Elevated Dinner Menu
Dinner will give Stokely more room to flex the fine-dining muscles he developed long before Wells Station existed, using fire as an element that can move through an entire menu.
“The plan isn’t necessarily fine dining, but to use fine-dining techniques to create more composed, plated dishes with some kind of smoked, charred or grilled element. It doesn’t always have to be meat. It could be vegetables or even a smoked dessert, something like sticky toffee pudding with toasted-marshmallow whipped cream.”
Oil and vinegar can be smoked to bring an element of depth to a dish. Stokely has even smoked crème anglaise before turning it into ice cream, a play on s’mores ice cream dish at Blackberry Farm.
“I want to play around and expand people’s ideas of what barbecue can be,” Stokely said. “It’s not necessarily a style of food; it can be an ingredient or simply a way of cooking something.”
Stokely describes his barbecue as a hodgepodge of regional influences: “Texas inspired, Tennessee soul.” The brisket leans Texas, seasoned simply with salt and pepper, while the pork draws more from Tennessee and Carolina traditions.
His roots are Southern but he also enjoys playing with international flavors, especially Asian ingredients, so expect those influences to find their way onto the menu as well. “I do cool fish caramel sauce that’s really good on wings,” he said, “and I plan to do some crispy pork belly as a little appetizer.”
Stokely’s Path to the Pit
After culinary school, Stokely went to work at Blackberry Farm, a pioneer of the farm-to-table movement, for a little over three years under chef Joseph Lenn. He later moved to Atlanta, where he expanded his education and experience at upscale Buckhead fine dining restaurants Atlas and St. Cecilia. In those kitchens, he recalled, standards were punishingly high. He eventually returned to Knoxville to help Lenn open J.C. Holdway.
Then Stokely and his wife started a family.
Restaurant hours and restaurant benefits were not particularly compatible with the life they wanted to build, so he stepped away from professional kitchens and moved into information technology. He has worked in IT for about seven years, a career that allowed him to support his family and be present for his two kids.
Then came COVID. Stokely, who admits he’s not good at sitting still, bought a smoker made by Knoxville-based TMG Pits and started experimenting at home.
Barbecue hooked him because it refused to be perfectly predictable. A steak can be cooked with relative consistency, he said, but brisket is affected by everything from the smoker temperature to the fat and collagen in that particular piece of meat.
“Chasing that was very addictive,” he said.
He began selling barbecue from his house, as many pitmasters do in their underground infancy, until somebody reported him to the health department. The complaint forced a decision: give it up or make it legitimate.
Stokely chose the latter.
Building Wells Station
When he announced he was taking the operation public, Hi-Wire Brewing invited him to stage some pop-ups. He’d arrive about six hours early with everything loaded into his truck, then smoke ribs, sausage and turkey, heat the sides, and assemble the entire operation beneath a tent. The community response was enough to convince him that Wells Station might have legs.
He spent two years hauling the tent setup around town before commissioning a custom food trailer from TMG. The trailer made life considerably easier and opened the door to regular appearances at the Market Square Farmers Market, whose locally minded shoppers were a natural audience for a chef shaped by Blackberry Farm.
But a food truck still has limits. A Dopo co-owner Brian Strutz, a fellow Blackberry alum who is also a partner in Potchke and its new French bistro Au Bon Coin, offered his support if Stokely wanted to open a brick-and-mortar. Stokely felt ready.
They were not initially focused on this stretch of North Central Street and, originally, came close to signing a deal for the former Sweet P’s location downtown. That fell through, which Stokely now considers fortunate as it opened the door to a different opportunity over on Central.
Finding a Home in North Knoxville
Mark Heinz of Dewhurst Properties tipped them off that they had a space available, and Stokely toured 1617 N. Central St. in January. The building, formerly an auto garage and more recently a workshop and storage space for Mid Mod, will need an overhaul but was already perfect in a lot of ways: roomy with lots of indoor-outdoor potential, an already-covered area for the pits, and a blue-collar feel.
The neighborhood quickly won him over. “One thing I really like about this neighborhood is it’s very community-driven,” he said. “People walking around, wanting to hang out, family oriented.”
Barbecue, he said, is fundamentally about gathering and communing over food, and the area felt like a natural fit. Wells Station will include a patio and other activated outdoor spaces that Wild Love can benefit from as well. There will be a couple TVs for football and whatnot, and Stokely imagines live music outside once or twice a month.
The restaurant community is already enthusiastic about his plans. Stokely expressed gratitude for Strutz’ partnership in the endeavor and pointed to friends and fellow chefs at Chismoso, Potchke, The Plaid Apron, DSB Provisions and other local restaurants who have reached out to offer help.
“A lot of us are super close and worked at Blackberry at some point in time,” he said. “The restaurant scene is growing rapidly in Knoxville, but behind the scenes we’re close-knit. We all want to see each other succeed.”
Plans are still working their way through the city approval process. Once construction starts, Stokely has been told to expect roughly a six-month buildout. His best guess is a spring opening.
In the meantime, you can get your Wells Station fix at the Farmer’s Market on Aug. 1 and 29. Stokely also offers catering for fall parties, weddings, tailgates and private events.
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