Edley's Bar-B-Que

What Edley's Bar-B-Que does

Edley's Bar-B-Que operates a privately held, family-owned chain of 11 full-service casual barbecue restaurants founded in 2011 by Will and Catharine Newman in Nashville, Tennessee, under the legal entity Edley's Restaurant Group, LLC. The restaurants serve smoked meats (brisket, pork, ribs, chicken, turkey) prepared low and slow over Southern white oak, scratch-made sides, fried items, full bar service with craft beer and signature cocktails (notably the Bushwacker), and a proprietary Nashville Style BBQ line built around cayenne dry rub and habanero pepper sauce. Menu, hours, and location information are accessible through a Squarespace-built website with online ordering, a dedicated Edley's BBQ mobile app on iOS and Android, and listings on all four major third-party delivery platforms (Postmates, DoorDash, GrubHub, UberEats).

The company monetizes through four revenue streams: dine-in and takeout restaurant sales across 11 owned locations in the Nashville metro (7), Chattanooga (1), Gallatin (1), and the St. Louis metro via Illinois (2); corporate and social catering (corporate events, weddings, tailgates, private parties) ordered through a dedicated catering site; direct-to-consumer merchandise (signature sauces, dry rubs, apparel, hats, accessories) through edleysbbq.com/shop; and digital and physical gift cards. Customer segmentation spans individual consumers and families (primary), corporate clients (primary), and wedding/private event hosts (secondary). The Smoker's Club loyalty program, operated through email/SMS and the mobile app, runs three membership tiers (Insider, The Smoker, Chain Smoker) tied to qualifying spend.

Go-to-market is direct-to-consumer through owned physical retail and digital channels, with a single disclosed promotional partnership with Postmates positioning Edley's as the official Tennessee Titans gameday delivery partner. The company has no disclosed external institutional investors, no public financial reporting, and no AI/ML, API, or platform technology footprint beyond standard restaurant e-commerce. Brand equity is supported by six Nashville Scene Best Bar-B-Que reader's poll wins (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2022, 2023) and earned media features in Southern Living, USA Today, Garden & Gun, and CBS This Morning.

Name

Edley's Bar-B-Que

Legal name

Edley's Restaurant Group, LLC

Website

https://edleysbbq.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Edley's Bar-B-Que is a privately held, family-owned Nashville-style barbecue restaurant chain operating 11 locations across Tennessee and Illinois, serving scratch-made smoked meats, sides, and full bar service to consumer, corporate catering, and private event customers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Casual Dining Restaurants

NAICS

Full-Service Restaurants (722511), Restaurants and Other Eating Places (72251)

SIC

Retail-Eating Places (5812), Retail-Eating & Drinking Places (5810)

akta.pro primary industry

BBQ & Smokehouse Fast Casual (THAFABAH)

Keywords

• Barbecue restaurants
• Smoked meats
• Nashville-style BBQ
• Event catering
• Craft cocktails

Headquarters

HQ city

Nashville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices12 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Dine-in and Takeout Restaurant Sales: Core revenue from food and beverage sales across 11 restaurant locations including smoked meats, Nashville Style items, fried foods, sides, desserts, and full bar with craft beers and signature cocktails.
2. Catering Services: Corporate events, weddings, tailgates, and private event catering. Company offers delivery, pickup, and full-service options with bar packages.
3. Merchandise Sales: Direct-to-consumer sales of sauces, rubs, apparel, hats, and accessories through online shop and in-restaurant.
4. Gift Cards: Digital and physical gift cards sold through their gift card platform.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Edley's Bar-B-Que operates family-owned, Nashville-style barbecue restaurants serving slow-smoked meats (brisket, pork, chicken, ribs, turkey), made-from-scratch sides, fried items, desserts, and a full bar with craft beers and signature cocktails such as the Bushwacker. In addition to dine-in and takeout, the company provides full-service catering for corporate events, weddings, and private parties, online ordering via website and mobile app, the Smoker's Club loyalty program, and a retail line of sauces, rubs, and branded merchandise.

Product overview

Edley's Bar-B-Que is a family-owned and operated barbecue restaurant chain founded in 2011, operating multiple restaurant locations in Tennessee and Illinois. The company offers a unified product portfolio centered on its core restaurant operations, complemented by a mobile ordering app integrated with a loyalty rewards program (Smoker's Club), catering services for events of all sizes, and a direct-to-consumer retail line featuring signature sauces, dry rubs, and branded merchandise. The restaurant menu features smoked meats (brisket, pork, chicken, turkey, ribs), Nashville-style offerings, fried items, made-from-scratch sides, and desserts, with items also available for online ordering, catering, and retail purchase.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Smoker's Club Rewards Program: The company's loyalty/rewards program with membership tiers (Insider, The Smokers, Chain Smokers) offering various benefits to members.

Products and services

• Edley's Bar-B-Que Restaurant Dining Family-owned Nashville-style barbecue restaurant service across 11 locations in Tennessee and Illinois, offering smoked meats, scratch-made sides, fried items, desserts, and a full bar with craft beer and signature cocktails for dine-in, takeout, and delivery consumers.
• Edley's Bar-B-Que Catering Services Full-service catering for corporate events, weddings, rehearsal dinners, tailgates, and private parties, providing pickup, delivery, and on-site serving options with optional bar packages to event hosts across the company's Tennessee and Illinois markets.
• Edley's BBQ Mobile App Native iOS and Android mobile application for placing Edley's Bar-B-Que online orders, enrolling in the Smoker's Club loyalty program, viewing specials, and participating in giveaways, available to consumers in the company's restaurant markets.
• Edley's Bar-B-Que Sauce Edley's signature 16 oz bottled barbecue sauce balancing heat, sweet, and tangy flavors, recommended for pork, brisket, turkey, and chicken, sold direct-to-consumer online and at restaurants.
• Edley's Bar-B-Que Rub Edley's signature barbecue dry rub seasoning packaged for retail sale and home grilling applications.
• Edley's Rib Rub Specialty dry rub seasoning formulated for ribs, packaged for retail and home grilling.
• Edley's Hot Chicken Rub Dry rub seasoning inspired by Nashville hot chicken featuring cayenne and spices, sold as a retail grilling product.
• Custom Edley's Sauces and Rubs Pack Customizable bundle pack letting customers select their preferred combination of Edley's signature sauces and rubs for grilling, sold direct-to-consumer.
• Edley's Bar-B-Que Merchandise Branded Edley's Bar-B-Que merchandise including t-shirts, long-sleeve shirts, trucker caps, bandanas, and accessories, sold direct-to-consumer online and in restaurants.

Quantifiable outcome

• Best Bar-B-Que award winner for 6 years (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2022, 2023) in Nashville Scene Reader's Poll

Named customers1 record

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• PostmatesminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 11 November 2020Postmates partnership where Edley's BBQ is featured as Tennessee Titans official mobile ordering partner for gameday deals throughout the season. Edley's is available for delivery through Postmates platform.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves12 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• 12 Bones BBQ: Asheville, NC-based craft BBQ restaurant known for smoked meats and scratch sides. Comparable Southern craft BBQ concept with strong local brand and similar dine-in/catering structure.
• Central BBQ (Memphis): Memphis-based award-winning BBQ restaurant with multiple locations and national media recognition. Comparable heritage-driven craft BBQ concept competing in the Southern regional BBQ category.
• Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q: Legendary Alabama BBQ institution (founded 1925) with multiple restaurant locations and a championship-winning competition reputation. Comparable heritage-positioned Southern BBQ competitor with similar scratch-made, white-tablecloth-adjacent offering.
• Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint: Nashville-based whole-hog BBQ restaurant group with multiple locations and a similar family-owned, heritage-positioned concept. Direct regional competitor in the same Nashville BBQ market as Edley's.
• Peg Leg Porker: Casual Nashville BBQ restaurant owned by chef Carey Bringle, focused on dry-rub ribs and competition-style BBQ. Comparable single-region BBQ concept competing for the same Nashville customer base.
• Memphis BBQ Co. Multi-unit Memphis-style BBQ restaurant group with locations across the Mid-South. Direct competitor in the regional Southern BBQ category with similar smokehouse menu and catering offerings.

Broad incumbents

• Shane's Rib Shack: Atlanta-based fast-casual BBQ franchise with locations across the Southeast. Comparable counter-service BBQ concept competing in the same casual Southern BBQ space.
• Sonny's BBQ: Florida-based BBQ chain with 90+ company-owned and franchised locations across the Southeast. Established regional BBQ incumbent with similar dine-in, catering, and to-go offerings.
• Mission BBQ: National fast-casual BBQ chain with 140+ locations across 20+ states founded by military veterans. Larger scale incumbent serving a similar BBQ-with-patriotic-positioning customer but operating as a multi-state franchise model.
• Dickey's Barbecue Pit: Largest BBQ franchise in the US with 500+ locations, founded in 1941. National incumbent offering slow-smoked Texas-style BBQ via franchise model — comparable end-product but very different ownership structure.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/edleysbbq
• TikToktiktok.com/@edleysbbq
• Facebookfacebook.com/EdleysBBQ

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Edley's Bar-B-Que