Jack Timmons has quite the LinkedIn profile, an eclectic resume that includes stints with Boeing, Paccar and nearly two decades in the Microsoft fold. In 2012, his passion for meats cooked low-and-slow led him to the Texas A & M’s Meat Science department’s summer barbecue camp.

That immersive experience got him fired up and when he returned home, he launched the Seattle Brisket Experience, spreading the oak-and-mesquite fired word like a Baptist preacher sermonizing on Sunday. Well, maybe not. Because there’s always Shiner Bock involved. Or a seriously smashing Old-Fashioned, a best-selling cocktail that features smoked oranges and brown sugar.

By 2014, he opened his first Jack’s BBQ in a former “dive bar” deep in a gritty industrial neighborhood, smokers set up in the parking lot out front. Lines were out the door from the get-go.  Now Jack has 8 locations including the brand new one on Bel-Red Road.