Sanders Announces the June Face of Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders today announced the seventh installment of Faces of Arkansas, a monthly series highlighting Arkansans whose portraits and stories are displayed at the entrance to the Governor's office as a reminder of who the Governor and her team serve every day: the people of Arkansas. The series was launched to keep the focus of public service rooted in the individuals and communities that make the state what it is.

Each month, a different Arkansan is featured through a written profile, portrait photography, and a short video, with their framed photo hanging inside the Capitol. Selections are based on individuals who make Arkansas function - whether by serving as the heartbeat of their local communities, overcoming obstacles to achieve their dreams, or playing an essential role in their industry.

This installment features 4th generation owner of Jones Bar-B-Q Diner, Mr. Harold Jones, in Marianna.

Jones Bar-B-Q Diner owner Mr. Harold Jones in Marianna. Photo credit: Will Newton.

Mr. Harold Jones - Behind the Smoke

A white sign with nostalgic black lettering is the first thing that comes into view when you arrive at what may be the best barbeque joint in the South: "Jones' Bar-B-Q Diner - Jones' Family Business Since 1910."

After turning into the drive, you're met with a modest white building tucked beneath a carport with a lone picnic table sitting underneath it. The concrete is cracked from decades of Delta heat and the weight of cars parked on top of it. Stacks of wood sit off to the side next to a faded blue Chevrolet truck and a small red metal building. Nothing about the place feels polished. And that's exactly the point.

Like most legendary hole-in-the-wall eateries, people don't return to Jones' for a luxury dining experience or carefully curated aesthetics. They come looking for something harder to find now: something real. Good food. Familiar faces. A place that feels like your grandparents' kitchen on a Sunday afternoon. Don't let the chipped paint or limited seating fool you. In a world constantly reinventing itself to chase attention with shiny branding, social media campaigns, and "new and improved" products, Jones' Bar-B-Q Diner has remained almost entirely unchanged for more than a century.

As Mr. Harold, the owner, said, "If it's not broke, don't be fixing on it." There's something special about a place that doesn't run ad campaigns, need seasonal menu drops, or constantly rebrand itself - and is still standing after 116 years. Jones Bar-B-Q Diner in Marianna is believed to be the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Arkansas and one of the oldest continuously operating Black-owned restaurants in the United States. Despite national recognition and visitors traveling from all over the country for a single sandwich, the little white diner on Louisiana Street still feels frozen in time in the best possible way.

Immediately upon stepping inside, you know you're in the right place. Red-and-white gingham tablecloths cover the tables beneath walls crowded with framed photographs, newspaper clippings, awards, and decades worth of memories. Lay's Classic potato chips are stacked beside shelves filled with keepsakes while matching curtains frame the serving window where the man behind the landmark stakes his post every single morning. Jones' instantly feels lived-in. Warm. Familiar.

Long before James Beard Awards and national attention brought food tourists to Marianna, Jones' Bar-B-Q began much more simply - with a pit dug into the ground. The roots of the restaurant trace back even earlier than 1910 to Harold's great-great uncle, Uncle Joe, smoking meat in a ground pit. Eventually, Harold's grandfather Walter Jones officially established the family business while operating fully out of their family home. For decades, the Jones family smoked pork beside the house and sold barbeque downtown on weekends.

In 1964, Hubert Jones opened the current diner location on Louisiana Street. Harold remembers crowds flooding in the day the doors opened. At the time, the building still reflected the realities of the segregated South under Jim Crow laws, but one thing that brought everyone together: nearly everybody in Marianna grew up on Jones' barbeque.

People don't simply eat at Jones'. They inherit it. That rings no truer than for James H. Jones Jr. - better known simply as "Mr. Harold" - who began learning the craft at just 14 years old, even skipping school to help his father. "I've been doing that since I was 14," he said with a laugh, "and that's the only time you can get to skip school and you don't have to worry about getting a whipping." Decades later, little about his routine has changed.

Every morning begins at midnight. "12. I get up at 12," Harold said matter-of-factly. "Come down here and set everything up. Put the meat in the warmer there. Then come 7:00, open the doors up. Do that every day." By the time most of Marianna is asleep, Mr. Harold is already tending fires and preparing pork shoulders for the smoker. Jones' cooks around seven shoulders at a time until they eventually sell out - which they almost always do, especially on Saturdays.

The menu itself remains almost untouched after all these years: chopped pork sandwiches served on white bread with slaw and a thin vinegar-based sauce. No elaborate menu boards. No gimmicks. No reinvention. Just barbeque. And still, somehow, the little white diner in Marianna became one of the most celebrated restaurants in Arkansas. In 2012, Jones Bar-B-Q Diner became Arkansas' first James Beard Award winner after receiving the foundation's prestigious America's Classics Award. The diner was later inducted into the inaugural Arkansas Food Hall of Fame class and repeatedly named among the best barbeque restaurants in America.

But Harold speaks about those accomplishments the same way he talks about tending the smoker - humbly and matter-of-factly. When he traveled to New York City for the James Beard ceremony, the experience surprised him. "They even rolled out the red carpet," he said. But after spending five days in New York, Harold returned home and immediately went back to work. "They pulled into town and Mr. Harold said, 'I gotta go to Food Lion and get my meat.'" That steadiness is part of why Jones' means so much to Marianna.

In 2021, disaster nearly erased the landmark entirely when a fire tore through much of the restaurant, heavily damaging the building. For many Arkansans, it felt unimaginable that Jones' Bar-B-Q could disappear.

Before the smoke had even settled, donations started arriving. "Money started coming right then," Harold said. "Didn't use a penny of insurance money." Among those who stepped in to help were Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, her husband Bryan and a woman from Little Rock named Mimi, who donated another $55,000 toward rebuilding efforts. The fire revealed what Marianna already knew: Jones' Bar-B-Q isn't simply a restaurant. It's family.

Every Thanksgiving, people still bring turkeys, ribs, chicken, and Boston butts for Harold and his family to smoke for holiday dinners - a tradition stretching back generations. "Whatever you bring, we'll cook it anyway," Harold said. And despite the awards, national attention, and visitors traveling from all over the country, Harold still sees himself simply as an Arkansan taking care of people.

"I just try to take care of whoever come in that door," he said. "You think about what you do for folks. You think about what folks do for you. So, you know, it's a whole lot." That may be the real secret behind Jones' lasting more than a century. Not the smoker. Not the sauce. Not even the recipe. It's the feeling people leave with after walking through those doors - the feeling that, for a little while, they belonged there.

Jones Bar-B-Q Diner owner Mr. Harold Jones in Marianna. Photo credit: Will Newton.
Jones Bar-B-Q Diner owner Mr. Harold Jones in Marianna. Photo credit: Will Newton.

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