The planets must have been aligned when Harry Harrell and Gary Torrence met. The two were roommates and fraternity brothers at Florida A&M in Tallahassee almost 30 years ago. Today they are business partners and best friends, running Tom Jenkins' Bar-B-Cue in Fort Lauderdale, famous for oak-smoked meats, fried catfish with hush puppies and homemade lemonade.

After college, Harry worked as a computer programmer and Gary taught middle school math. They remained roommates and cooked together, using family recipes and concocting a barbecue sauce they now sell.

Eager to cook for a living but aware that most new restaurants fail, they started out peddling barbecue in 1989 from a mobile trailer alongside Federal Highway, juggling day jobs and barbecuing on weekends.

Seven years later, with a solid customer base to rely on, they got a loan, bought a building across the street and renovated it, putting in a huge brick oven with racks above it where meats smoke for 8 to 10 hours before being finished on the grill.

Named for Gary's favorite uncle, Tom Jenkins' Bar-B-Cue has a homey feel with oversize picnic tables and a soulful soundtrack of James Brown and the like. There are additional picnic tables for al fresco dining out back, shaded by a huge mango tree.

They get oak from tree trimmers, paying them with barbecue lunches. The wood is dried before it's burned to coals in the underbelly of the oven. Air vents scent the surrounding area with sweet smoke.

Customers line up the minute the doors open at 11 a.m., and all walks of life rub elbows at the ordering counter. Meals include a corn muffin and two sides with choices like seasoned collard greens (with no pig parts), mac and cheese, potato salad with pickle bits, creamy coleslaw, fries, sweet baked beans and corn on the cob.

'Cue lovers should go with the baby back combo with ribs and a quarter chicken. There are also pork spare ribs and half-pound portions of chopped brisket or pork, all with soul-satisfying flavor and a reddish-pink blush from the long smoking.

Save room if you can for sweet potato pie or peach cobbler.

Linda Bladholm's latest book is Latin and Caribbean Grocery Stores Demystified.

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