Jelly Roll’s Nashville restaurant, “Rollin’ Smoke BBQ,” has reportedly gone an entire week without a single paying customer, according to sources close to the establishment. The empty dining room marks a stunning reversal for the popular barbecue joint, which previously served over 800 customers daily and had a waitlist for weekend tables.
According to investigative journalist Joan Berro, who has been camping outside the restaurant’s locked doors since Tuesday, the boycott began organically after a Facebook post suggested that Jelly Roll’s political views had “tainted the meat.” “People are genuinely afraid to eat here now,” Berro reported, gesturing toward a group of protesters holding signs that read “Don’t Tread on My Brisket” and “Keep Politics Out of My Pulled Pork.”
Restaurant industry analyst Reno Borja called the boycott “unprecedented in its speed and ferocity.” Borja noted that the restaurant’s Yelp page has been flooded with one-star reviews from people who have never visited, including several from accounts created that morning. “One review said the ribs tasted like ‘liberal tears,'” Borja explained. “Another said the cornbread was ‘too woke.’ These people are reviewing political opinions, not food.”
Constitutional scholar J. Baron Roe, interviewed at the Nashville Golden Corral while his ferret conducted an independent review of the buffet’s macaroni and cheese, calculated the economic impact of the boycott. “If you take the 800 daily customers lost, multiply by the average check of $24, divide by the number of people who actually know Jelly Roll’s political views—which my research suggests is 12, and they’re all journalists—you get a revenue loss that could only be sustained by someone who actually has other sources of income, like, say, a successful music career that exists outside of barbecue politics.”
Jelly Roll has not commented on the boycott, though sources say he was spotted buying a smoker from a closing Chili’s franchise, suggesting he may be “taking the show on the road” or “just really likes ribs.”
