Smokin’ Jack’s goes big-time

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, May 5, 2004

While Al Roaker wasn’t there, it was still a recipe for success for Jacky Poole and his business Smokin’ Jacks’ Bar-B-Que. There was some confusion on whether or not Roaker was going to come down and interview Poole, well six people flew from New York to Demopolis, but none of them were Roaker.

Instead of Roaker and his show “Roaker on the Road” filming at Smokin’ Jacks’ there was Marlie Hall and her show called “Recipe for success.” Hall said the premise of the show is people that have life makeovers and ditch their regular day jobs to open a restaurant, bakery, or any other kind of eatery.

“My show is really one of talking to people who’ve taken that step to open a business-really it’s all about inspiring people to start their own businesses,” Hall said.

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Hall said the weekly half an hour show was still relatively new to the Food Network. She also said the program officially aired for the first time on Thursday April 1, 2004 and now continues to run every Thursday starting at 8:30 p.m.

“We follow the lives of those people who’ve dared to dream to open their own businesses, that’s why we came to film Jacky Poole because he is one of those dreamers,” Hall said.

She said her role on the show, as host is to guide the viewers through the challenges and triumphs of pursuing the dream of owning their own businesses. Hall is a small business expert as she holds a M.B.A. in management from Dowling College in New York City.

“The show is really required watching for anyone who wants to start their own business,” Hall said.

She said they came into Demopolis on Thursday night and started filming Jacky Poole and his restaurant on Friday morning. Poole said it was hard to get anything done during the first day of filming because they wanted to watch me do everything in my daily routine including his trip to the bank to get change.

“It’s a lot of work trying to feed all these people and trying to show the viewers at home everything I do while I’m at work,” Poole said.

Hall said they are going to be filming over the weekend also. She also said they will be interviewing guests that choose to dine at Poole’s establishment.

“This show will be seen on over 80,000,000 television screens and around the world,” Hall said.