Ayden Museum puts town's barbeque roots on display

The exhibit highlights the town’s most notable barbecue restaurants, Bum’s Restaurant and The Skylight Inn. The town’s annual “Kings of Q” Barbeque Festival and Cook-off is held in honor of Latham “Bum” Dennis, who runs Bum’s Restaurant, and the late Pete Jones. The two families are descendants of Skilton Dennis, who is credited with opening the first commercial barbecue business in the United States in Ayden in 1830.

Philip Barth, an artist and the museum’s lead exhibit designer, moved to the area from Philadelphia about 10 years ago and recalls church members recommending that he to go to Bum’s when he first arrived.

“I remember one of the first things the ladies asked me when I went to church was if I had tried Bum’s barbecue yet. The towns down here are all about barbecue,” he said.

Barth was responsible for creating the barbecue exhibit, which features large timelines of the two restaurants’ history. The display was created from donated materials from a local tobacco plant. Barth stated he tries to use recycled material whenever possible and it adds sentimental value to the display.

For the rest of the exhibit, Barth painted a wooden hog cut-out and added it to other staple items like an authentic butcher’s knife and chopping block set, a bottle of Bum’s barbecue sauce, a copy of Sam Jones’ Whole Hog barbecue cookbook and many photos of the two families.

The event gave the uninitiated a chance to learn more about the town’s barbecue roots and explained why it was selected as the focus of the new branding campaign.

Holly Akin, the chamber’s director, said the organization plans to host Business After Hours events every other month to keep members engaged.

“One thing that I have found as I have been talking with our members is that they would really like to see us do this as much as possible because of the networking opportunities,” Aiden said. “We’re also looking into organizing luncheon events so they don’t have to go out in the evenings after work.”

The next chamber event is scheduled for May 7 and will feature a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Welcome Waggin’ Animal Hospital.

The Ayden Museum features other exhibits detailing the town’s history of tobacco farming, past schooling, an exhibit honoring veterans and more. It is located at 554 Second St., and is open every fourth Sunday from 2-5 p.m.