Fullservice BBQ coming to area
Anthony DiFranco III, a 1998 Farragut High School graduate and Karns resident, is bringing his barbecue business to the greater Farragut area.
DiFranco, owner of Fullservice BBQ, is converting the former ConocoPhillips gas station, located at the corner of Kingston Pike and David Lane in Knoxville, into a barbecue restaurant.
“After the plans and permits are approved, it will take six to seven weeks of work before [the store] opens, if nothing goes wrong,” he said.
The location will accommodate drive-thru and picnic-style service for outdoor dining.
“We will have outdoor tables underneath the canopy,” Di-Franco said. “We will have seating for about 55 to 60 [customers].”
The former gas station building will house one big kitchen.
Fullservice BBQ will carry pulled pork, pulled chicken, smoked sausage and St. Louis-cut dry-rub ribs and all the fixings to go with them.
“We have some of the best beef brisket in the country,” DiFranco said. “We cook barbecue correctly, so we have exclusive wood-fired smokers that don’t use gas or electricity. We produce our own smokers in house.”
The David Lane location makes his third store.
“We’re making a triangle around Knoxville, so, we have south, west and north, and they are all 20 minutes away from each other,” he said.
DiFranco came up with the concept for the restaurant in 2008 and opened his first store in a gas station in Maryville in 2009.
“That’s where the name [Fullservice] came from,” he said. “I’m a restaurateur. I was renting the location in Maryville with the intention of opening a burger restaurant. Due to construction issues with that property, I had to abandon the burger idea and chose something I could cook outside, so I taught myself how to cook barbecue.”
DiFranco opened his second location at 104 Cedar Lane in 2015. Now, he has chosen to add his next location at the former ConocoPhillips station because, he said, “Gas stations usually end up at high-traffic locations with intersections and they are outparcels — they are not part of a strip — and that’s where I wanted to be.”
For more about the restaurant, go to fullservicebbq.com, on Facebook or by calling 865-981-4414 in Maryville or 865-247-7316 at Cedar Lane in Knoxville.
