Local News

Big Woo’s Meat Revival food truck opening brick and mortar restaurant in Lisbon

LISBON - Mark Wooten along with his wife Susan and daughter Ava are preparing to open their new Big Woo's Meat Revival at the former location of Sip Taproom, 127 N Beaver St., Lisbon, the with a soft opening planned for Aug. 17.

The family started Big Woo's as a catering business in December 2024 and a food truck business this past March.

The family, originally from Mississippi prior to relocating to Lisbon for work, has always had a love for cooking for people.

"That's my love language; I cook for people," Mark said. "I love on all of our family, all of our friends. So, when we moved up here it was just our way; cooking for friends. Then it just kept growing and growing. It's something I really enjoy doing."

Even though the family is opening the restaurant, it will be a slow process, doing it in phases during the weekdays so they can continue with the food truck on the weekends. Sarah is currently working the construction of a 32-foot barbeque trailer.

Mark said he decided to open the restaurant because it was previously owned by his friend and former supervisor Dylan Beech when he worked at Ergon. When Beech was promoted to the corporate office and went back to Mississippi, Mark didn't want to see the place sit and decided to lease the location for a year and try his hand at running a restaurant. If everything works out after a year, the family plans to buy the building to keep the restaurant going and invest in renovations.

Mark said when word got out, it seemed like everyone got excited about a new restaurant, so their original plans to use the building to service the food truck changed and they decided to open the restaurant through the week and continue the food truck on the weekends.

Opening of the restaurant will be done in phases with limited hours to start out with.

Big Woo's Meat Revival will initially be open for lunch Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. They will challenge their equipment, systems and skillset and get staff in place before they expand business hours.

"We are going to look at slowly and deliberately building our team," Mark said. "We are huge on community, huge on smiling faces and huge on culture, so we are being a little bit of a stickler on who we hire, and they fit the image we want to have. When people leave here, I want them feeling like they just left their aunt and uncle's house. I want them feeling like this is home.

Once the restaurant is established, Mark said he and Susan want to travel with the food truck to events all over Ohio and promote the restaurant and bring people into Lisbon.

Susan is hopeful that people who buy from the food truck at events and learn about the restaurant will decide they want to come to Lisbon to eat at the restaurant. She noted it was a goal of the couple to bring people into the community.

The restaurant will offer weekly specials along with testing out items they also want to include on the food truck such as a possible fried catfish with crawfish over rice dish. Mark noted that while he enjoys doing BBQ he doesn't want to be known just for BBQ, which is why the restaurant's name is Big Woo's Meat Revival and not Big Woo's BBQ. He said he wants to revive food.

He will be offering a variety of meats including brisket, pulled pork, pulled chicken, sausage and more. The menu will include BBQ plates, signature sandwiches, burgers, sides, breads, desserts, a children's menu and more. Some of the recipes on the menu are the family's recipes such as Susan's white chocolate bread pudding and Ava's macaroni and cheese dish.

Once the hours are expanded, it will also include a breakfast menu. After they expand to serve breakfast. The final phase will be to expand into the evening hours. They will also be looking into entertainment for the patio stage.

Mark said he also wants to incorporate into the restaurant community wide crawfish boils.

The restaurant will offer dine-in inside or out on the patio, delivery or pick up. Mark notes the delivery is done by himself, but he might expand into utilizing food delivery services later on.

"Everything we do, we just want to do it with our hospitality and a love for food and family," Mark said.

The restaurant did well on their inspection by the health department on Wednesday. After they are opened, they will apply for a beer and wine license. They won't be serving liquor.

"I don't want to be known as a bar that serves good food, I want to be known as a restaurant you can enjoy," Mark said.

Susan said she is looking forward to the restaurant becoming a place where they can love on everyone and everyone gather and become family and be comfortable.

"We are not about glitz and glamour," Mark said. "We want to be none for our hospitality, our stewardship and be known for our community outreach. We want this to be the community's restaurant. We want people to have birthday parties here and have a table full of old men sharing wisdom and drinking coffee.

The Wootens will also continue to provide catering, which is how they got started in the food business and in the future add event rental space. The patio and the warehouse space could be event rental spaces. For catering or event information, email eventsatbigwoos@gmail.com.