About us

CONTACT US – BARE KNUCKLES BBQ

SALISBURY – 5/617 Toohey, Road, Salisbury, Qld, 4107

CARINA – 1396 Creek Road, Carina, Qld, 4152 (Corner of Creek & Zahel St)

Postal Address: 5/617 Toohey Rd, Salisbury, Qld, 4107

Phone: There is no monitored phone at either location, messaging on socials or email is best.

* For Bookings at Salisbury: Preference is to email 24hrs prior: info@bareknucklesbbq.com.au – if shorter notice, we’ll do our best, but there’s obviously no guarantees… thanks.

* We don’t take bookings for Carina due to small size and limited seating

A BIT OF BKB HISTORY

Jamie joined the Royal Australian Navy in back 1988 and spent 12 years as a chef cooking on Submarines, military bases and occasionally every so often, a grey target (Ship/Boat). His service was mostly on Oberon Class Submarines – Qualified on HMAS Oxley, Otway Port Crew (Onslow) and then decommissioning crew of HMAS Otway. Jamie did go to South Australia to work on trials crew for what was then the new Collins Class submarines, he did a few trips onboard HMAS Collins and was part of the first commissioning crew of HMAS Farncomb.

Upon leaving the Navy in 2000 he began a career in IT, lasting 17 years, on and off. Going through the occasional redundancy as you do (3 in total). During one of those redundancy’s he opened up a Kustom Kulture Shop (Chops’s Place) in Mt Gravatt (Motorcycles, Hot Rods, Rockabilly, etc), with his amazing wife, hosted 5 national vintage motorcycle/chopper shows (Dirty Love Show) and released 8 issues of his very own styled motorcycle/chopper magazine (Dirty Love Magazine).

Around 2013 his interest in Low N Slow BBQ started to grow, with amazing exposure from people like JR’s Smokehouse (a mobile setup) and the Stockpot Kitchen which was back then in Bangalow (years later moving to Lismore) but what really put him over the edge was a BBQ competition he came across at the Bangalow Showgrounds whilst visiting family down there, it totally blew his mind and taste buds.

In 2017 Jamie created Bare Knuckles BBQ. Quitting his IT Career and jumped back in to cooking, working in the BBQ industry for a year or so. With the support of his family and some great friends he purchased his first smoker trailer – an amazing Radar Hill Smoker (named Betty) and went to work operating a mobile BBQ pop up. a permanent Thursday Lunch thing out the front of Aussie Hobbies on Beaudesert Road, add to that, Pop Ups at most breweries and bars around Brisbane, add to that, plenty of catering.

Whilst doing the mobile gig Jamie continued to think about putting a roof over the business so was constantly on the hunt for something suitable and local to his now very popular sell out Thursday thing. After watching/following/stalking the Lads at Black Bear BBQ (Sydney, NSW), he knew he wanted an old commercial cafe’, something bordering the industrial side of things but close enough to residential.

Eventually finding our Toohey Rd, Salisbury site, which funnily enough he’d been driving past for the last 2 or so years and never knowing it was there as it was overgrown with trees/plants and shade cloth. After a quick visit, Jamie became very excited about the possibilities, the site was found in February 2020, but due to some extreme abuse by the previous tenant it took nearly 7 months working with the landlord to get the place sorted and the power back on.. but, by September 2020, we were good to go.. with Lines down the road ! Add to that, the site was found, worked on and opened during the peak of Covid, so some weeks we had people eating, other weeks, just takeaway, whilst keeping our distance. It was an experience.

Thankfully that finally settled down and we worked out how to do things smarter, not harder. For the next 4 years we continued to build the business up, do more catering, less pop ups and taking on some great staff/work family. We expanded in to the back shed within the first couple of years allowing us more room for more smokers, more toys, more work!

Then for some strange reason Jamie thought he’d add to the chaos by opening a second store. So we opened Carina in March 2024, it’s a great little store that’s added some amazing new staff and supporting a community we ourselves live in.!

Oh.. We now also proudly own five Radar Hill Smokers.. the best there is..!

THE BOSS

THE BIG BOSS

THE MEAT MAN

THE TEAM