This popular Oakland barbecue restaurant plans to open in Fresno. Here’s where

Pitmaster. Chef. Owner of a popular Oakland restaurant. Edison High grad. Fresnan.

Whatever you want to call him, James Woodard is doing big things in the barbecue world in California – and he’s gearing up to do some more in his hometown of Fresno.

Woodard is the owner of Smokin Woods BBQ, a popular Oakland restaurant that the San Francisco Chronicle once named one of the best barbecue spots in the Bay Area.

Now he’s planning to open a restaurant in downtown Fresno serving brisket, pork ribs and all kinds of smoked meats. There will be lots of sides, too, like baked beans and his grandma’s recipe for collard greens.

It’s a second location of Smokin’ Woods, but won’t be your standard sit-down restaurant.

For starters, it will all be outdoors.

Smokin Woods restaurant, Fresno

Woodard and his Fresno family who will run the restaurant are taking over what is now an empty lot on Fulton Street in the Brewery District. Right now, it’s a paved parking lot surrounded by chain-link fence.

It’s a spot people usually walk right past when beer hopping between Tioga-Sequoia’s Brewing Co.’s beer garden and the building that houses Modernist and the 411 Rec Room. It abuts the wall with the long mural that says “Brewery District.”

Woodard hopes to open as early as September.

There will be tables made from wine barrels, planter boxes, table shades, and eventually trees.

“The outside space there is ideal,” Woodward said, noting that COVID-19 isn’t going away and many people would rather dine outside.

When cold weather hits, he expects to add heaters, and an awning to shelter diners from the rain.

“All that good stuff,” he said. “You’ll still be able to sit there outside” in winter.

There is a 1,200-square-foot building at the back of the property that Smokin Woods will eventually use, but not at first, Woodard said.

The kitchen will be housed in a 30-foot food trailer currently under construction.

“It’s pretty much a kitchen on wheels,” he said, noting that it will have a smoker on the back, an oven, everything.

Smokin Woods will also have the controls to the multi-colored lights that shine on the black-and-white Brewery District mural, said Nora Monaco, who owns the property, along with several others in the district.

Smokin’ Woods seemed like a good fit for the district, she said.

“They know what they’re doing and they have great food,” she said. “I’ve met his mother. They’re a family business. Good people.”

Family and food

Woodard is a 1998 Edison High grad who played football. He left Fresno shortly after high school for the Bay Area, but has strong ties to home.

When he was a kid, he remembers downtown had the (now closed) Pep Boys, but Chukchansi Park hadn’t been built yet.

“When we were younger it was different than what it is now,” he said. “There wasn’t a lot of opportunity back in the day. People like myself just want to go back home.”

There’s enough siblings in this family that there are brothers available to run each restaurant location, and a sister who coordinates catering. And mom, who lives in Fresno, will be involved, too.

Smokin Woods does Texas-style barbecue – his grandmother is from Texas – but it will have tri-tip, a California favorite, too.

“We have to have to tri-tip in California,” Woodard said.

The restaurant is best known for its pork ribs and brisket, he said. Woodard is into using dry rubs, not marinating meats.

Expect “colossal” beef ribs and “juicy” boneless chicken thighs on the menu. There will also be salmon from the smoker.

He usually smokes over oak or cherry wood, though his favorite wood to smoke is pecan.

There’s a pecan tree in Fresno that he planted with his dad when he was a kid. It had to be cut down because it was getting into the pipes. But maybe when the Fresno restaurant opens, he’ll use some of the wood to smoke some meat here.

“It’s the best wood to smoke dried out,” he said.

Sides are not an afterthought here. Expect fresh Brussels sprouts and asparagus when they’re in season. Also: potato salad, baked beans, peach cobbler, pound cake, grandma’s collard greens and his mom’s mac ‘n cheese recipe.

Mom will probably be in charge of that mac ‘n cheese, he said. She’ll either make it herself or “make sure who’s making the mac ‘n cheese is doing it correctly,” he said.

Woodard is not the only well-known chef who left Fresno to do big things in barbecue.

Matt Horn (who Fresnans would also love to see open a restaurant locally) grew up barbecuing in his grandparents’ backyard in Fresno. He went on to open two restaurants in Oakland and earn numerous accolades.

Both men want to raise the profile of California barbecue, Woodard said.

“California is not known for barbecue at all. It’s known for tri-tip,” he said. “I want people to know that, hey, good barbecue does exist here.”