Less than three years after she bought the Bar-B-Que Shack on Pembroke Road, owner Mindy Hargrove is expanding the business with a second restaurant.
Bar-B-Que Shack 2 at Knockum Hill will open Aug. 3 on LaFayette Road in the Herndon community.
“There will be a few variations but the staples will be the same” as the menu at the Pembroke Road restaurant with pork, chicken, ribs, mutton, burgoo and traditional sides, Hargrove told Hoptown Chronicle.
Devotees of Western Kentucky-style barbecue know the Knockum Hill location — it was home to barbecue pits and an eatery that Will Hargrove established in the 1970s. He later leased the property to Oscar Hill, who ran a barbecue business there for several years. Following Hill’s death in 2016, the restaurant closed briefly then reopened with Billy Campbell Jr. as proprietor before closing again. Mindy Hargrove (not related to Will) is leasing the property to expand her barbecue business.
In a March 2017 story for the Kentucky New Era, historian William T. Turner told reporter Jesse Jones that the LaFayette Road site was widely known. Its customer base included Fort Campbell pilots who occasionally flew helicopters and landed in a field near the restaurant.
Hargrove said she aims to regain some of the business from the Army installation. She believes the location will be convenient for “hail and farewell” parties that Fort Campbell units often host off of the Army post.
“We will have the pavilion available for parties and rentals,” she said.
LaFayette residents Jeremy and Tabitha Strader will run the new location for Hargrove. Most of the food served there will be cooked at Knockum Hill, she said.
Along with the two barbecue restaurants, Hargrove is also a partner in a pizza eatery planned in downtown Hopkinsville.
Knockum Hill is located at 11185 LaFayette Road just south of Herndon. The hours will be 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. The phone number will be 270-350-4522.
This story was updated to correct information about the original owner of Knockum Hill.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
