Carey Bringle: Peg Leg Porker & Bringle's Smoking Oasis (Nashville, TN)

There's no getting around it. Smoke is in Carey Bringle's veins. He grew up in Tennessee and developed a love of barbecue at a young age, and he still remembers family gatherings at iconic places like Bozo's Hot Pit Bar B-Q and Lewis' Store. At 17, he lost a leg to cancer, but recovered from the disease, and after success for years on the competition BBQ circuit, celebrated his second chance at life by naming his restaurant Peg Leg Porker when it opened in Nashville in 2013. His Peg Leg Porker sauces and rubs, another restaurant, a new line of professional-grade home smokers, and Peg Leg Porker Tennessee Straight Bourbon Whiskies have expanded the bbq into a full-fledged brand, but Carey has not lost sight of building community over a great plate of barbecue cooked low and slow in the heart of Nashville, TN.