J. Render’s Southern Table & Bar is slated to make its television debut with an appearance on Big Bad BBQ Brawl on Tuesday, Oct. 31. The show is set to air at 10 p.m. on The Cooking Channel.
When Ren and Gwyn Everly, co-owners of the BBQ joint, received an email asking if they were interested in being featured on the show, they initially thought it was a scam.
“I checked into the show and found out it was real,” Gwyn Everly said. “We did a Skype interview, and they liked us and asked us to be on an episode.”
The show is hosted by Shannon Ambrosio, who started out with a BBQ Food Truck in Brooklyn. Ambrosio now travels around the country visiting local BBQ restaurants and challenging them to compete against him on a specific dish to be tested by a panel of local judges. The panel of judges included Jeremy Ashby of Azur (Lexington) and Anthony Lamas of Seviche Restaurant and Maurice Day of Moe-licious BBQ (both in Louisville).
The J. Render’s episode was filmed in early August, at the restaurant and on location at Keeneland.
“Our ‘brawl’ consisted of us both putting a BBQ spin on the Kentucky Hot Brown,” said Gwyn Everly. “We filmed for one solid day at the restaurant and then the brawl actually took place and was filmed at Keeneland.”
“It's exciting to have national exposure and we can't wait to see the finished product,” Everly added.
In celebration of its national television debut, J. Render’s will host music from Trippin’ Roots from 7-10 p.m. on October 31 before tuning into the episode at 10 p.m.