By Riley McCoy
For The Register-Herald
Beckley — Seven years after he launched a barbecue food truck, Kevin Shumaker opened Cast Iron Smokers’ first permanent restaurant Thursday.
The ceremony represented the latest step for a business that grew from a food tuck into a brick-and-mortar location after months of renovating a former gaming building along Robert C. Byrd Drive in MacArthur.
The Beckley-Raleigh County Chamber of Commerce marked the opening Thursday with a ribbon cutting while Shumaker celebrated the move to a more permanent settlement.
Shumaker said the physical space combines slow-smoked barbecue with a sports bar atmosphere designed for both families and crowds on game day.
“We’re creating a new concept called sports barbecue,” Shumaker said. “It is barbecue, but it’s also a sports bar but it’s also somewhere you can have your families.”
The celebration also marked a new chapter for the former Venus Lounge, which Shumaker leased in February and spent months renovating into the restaurant’s new home.
He said the building’s owners gave him the flexibility and time needed to completely remake the space into his vision.
“They’ve given us a lot of liberties and given us time to try to get it fixed up the way we wanted to get it from where it was to where it is now,” Shumaker said. “They’ve been very patient and very understanding about some of our obstacles.”
Shumaker spent months doing “a complete remodel” to make it more appealing and closer to the style he envisioned for the new spot.
Chamber officials welcomed the barbecue business as one of the area’s newest attractions during Thursday’s ribbon cutting.
“We’re so happy and excited to have a new business, Cast Iron Smokers, here in Raleigh County,” Robby Moore, president of the Chamber’s Board of Directors, said. “We are so appreciative of you becoming a member.”
For Shumaker, the restaurant’s sports focus is not just a theme for the walls or televisions. It grew out of two decades spent coaching and supporting young athletes.
“Before I got into cooking, I coached sports for 20 years,” Shumaker said. “I’m very passionate about local sports and supporting little league teams and high school teams.”
Shumaker coached football and wrestling at Oak Hill High before launching Cast Iron Smokers into a food truck, catering business and now a permanent restaurant. He said he still wants the business to stay connected to local teams.
“We want to get established,” Shumaker said. “We want to connect with community.”
Cast Iron Smokers is located at 1652 Robert C. Byrd Dr. in Beckley’s MacArthur area and their hours of operation are from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.
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