Wright's Barbecue Johnson

I've had a lot of great experiences at Wright's over the years and one bad one, today. One thing I'm certain of is that the owner is passionate about his business. He really cares. He advocates for his employees and he is quick to be involved on the ground when issues arise. Their online pickup process is more like a payment expedited drive through experience. It's more about helping them on the payment end and to moderately preplan orders. Do not expect a traditional curbside service, and in most cases I think there's a smaller banner at the top of their toast page that gives you a heads up this is how the process goes. Unfortunately that wasn't present on my phone, but you can see it on a desktop or most phone browsers. All in all, I did have a negative experience with an employee of the business today. This doesn't represent the overwhelming number of positive customer service experiences I've had over the years, though. It caught me so off guard, I was willing (and did) leave without BBQ. That's how unexpected and out of the norm it was. It was shocking. Most of that shock, though, was at the hands of so many years of positive experiences. You just come to expect things from places that do it right. In the end the owner went out of his way to make it right. He has a humanistic, passionate quality about his business and you can't find that much in our world, today. Give this place a chance. If something does happen that causes pause for concern or even seems out of the norm, email the owner. He's responsive and engaging. That's a lot of nuance for a 4 star post on Google, but it's worth noting that even the best shooters miss layups. That doesn't make them bad players.

1/21/2021 Update - Wrights BBQ is still the best BBQ you can get in Arkansas but unfortunately not as good as it once was. I used to eat brisket here almost every Friday, but now only go once or twice a quarter. It's not because of a lack of love for BBQ but just disappointed in the reduced quality as part of growing a restaurant to the size Wright's has become. I do think Jordan still tries to produce the same quality BBQ but it's not easy to scale something that good and he had the tough choice between always being sold out vs trying to produce enough to keep up with demand. I hope with time the new pit masters can continue to learn and get the quality back to what I know Jordan can produce and at that point I'll put that 5 star review right back.