'Pit Boss' passes the torch: Jacksonville restaurateur retires after building BBQ empire

At age 8, he was washing dishes and busing tables at his family's fine dining restaurant. He learned the nuances and realities of the hospitality business by working his way up from the kitchen to the front of the house and then management.

At 27, he bought a small hometown barbecue joint — launching what would become a national chain that sparked a second multi-state barbecue concept as well as seafood restaurants and led to the addition of a gourmet cookie bakery and a catering business.

Joe Adeeb III, who's best known for taking Bono's Pit Bar-B-Q from two restaurants in Jacksonville to locations from Florida to the Rocky Mountains, is passing the torch after more than 50 years in the hospitality industry.

Adeeb, whose business card bore the title, "The Pit Boss," officially retired on Jan. 1. He handed the reins of Bono's and other restaurants comprising his family-owned Home Team Restaurant Group to its longtime president, Josh Martino.

Adeeb smiled when asked recently if he's truly leaving the restaurant and hospitality business that has been his life since childhood.

"Absolutely! My wife deserves it [retirement] … And we're in good hands with Josh," Adeeb replied, conceding that he will miss the people he's worked with and met over the years.

Adeeb said that Martino has proven his leadership throughout his 17 years with the restaurant group. An attorney as well as a restaurateur, Martino joined the Adeeb family-owned company in 2006 as operations director. Martino was chief operating officer in 2014 when named president of the restaurant group.

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Named chief executive officer upon Adeeb's retirement, Martino continues to serve as in-house legal counsel for the restaurant group. In addition, he's Adeeb's son-in-law.

Adeeb, who turns 71 in April, intends to focus on family: Brenda, his wife of 51 years, their children and grandchildren.

The couple — who had their first date at the original Bono's in Jacksonville when they were both 15 — plan to spend more time at their second home in Colorado. Although he's a self-described "homebody," they also intend to travel. And there's a good chance he'll play a little golf, too, he said.

Nonetheless, he'll only be a phone call away. He noted that ongoing home renovations will include a small office for him as well as a workout room.

"We're going to miss the heck out of him. But I don't think he's going to go dark. I don't think he's going invisible. No one certainly wants that. We all want for his impact to still be felt," Martino said of Adeeb's retirement.

Restaurant legacy

Feeding an estimated 15,000 people a day, Bono's marks its 75th anniversary this year. The barbecue is easily the most recognizable of the Home Team Restaurant Group concepts.

Lou Bono founded the small, home-grown barbecue joint in 1949. Adeeb bought it in 1980 and over the next 43 years built it into a chain with 19 locations nationwide with most in Northeast Florida.

Next came Willie Jewell's Old School Bar-B-Q — debuting in 2009 in Charleston, S.C. — which has 13 restaurants from Florida to New Hampshire. Adeeb has credited the barbecue's namesake, the late Willie Jewell, who was a longtime Adeeb family restaurant employee and helped create many Bono's recipes, with teaching him 95% of what he knows about cooking and life.

Home Team Restaurant Group also has two seafood restaurants — Aiken Fish House & Oyster Bar in South Carolina and Peachtree City Yacht Club in Georgia. In addition, the group has a hybrid barbecue concept — Green Valley Smokehouse and Oyster Bar in Denver, Colo. — plus Pastiche Catering & Events and Reina Cookies, both of Jacksonville.

"Joe will forever be the iconic legacy holder of these brands," Martino said. "The soul of what we do is not going to change."

Adeeb says it is a team effort from the kitchen to the dining room and front office. And it's their customers whose support has been crucial over the years, especially during 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit followed by a fire that destroyed the longtime Bono's at 10065 Skinner Lake Drive off Gate Parkway near St. Johns Town Center.

Adeeb and Martino used the lessons learned from those back-to-back events to develop the streamlined prototype for future Bono's restaurants. It calls for enhanced drive-thrus, a larger takeout area and an updated dining room design. They unveiled the prototype design with the reopening of the Skinner Lake Drive restaurant in December 2021.

"COVID was very humbling in a lot of ways. One, it taught us how precious and volatile this business can be. It also told us what our customers think of us, the fact that they supported us so well in so many different ways as it evolved over a few years," Martino said.

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It also reinforced what Adeeb has learned during his career in the hospitality industry.

"We're smart enough to know that we're only as good as our last meal, too. It guts both of us [Adeeb and Martino] when we disappoint a customer," Adeeb said of their business philosophy. "You don't get to where we are with Bono's without the people being the best," Adeeb said.

Hospitality touchstone

People might know Adeeb as "the barbecue guy." But fine dining shaped his life in the hospitality industry.

His grandfather, Joe Adeeb, Sr., and father, Joe Adeeb. Jr., had the Green Turtle Restaurant on Philips Highway in Jacksonville and the Sea Turtle Restaurant in Atlantic Beach. Both were considered Northeast Florida's premier fine dining restaurants for many years.

"When you're in a family business, you're pretty much in it as soon as you can look over a dishwasher and wash dishes," Adeeb said of growing up in those restaurants.

The standards of quality and hospitality set by those restaurants remain touchstones for him as well as his two brothers — Barry and Scott — who have their own restaurants. Barry Adeeb owns Beach Diner, and Scott Adeeb owns Strings Sports Brewery.

“I’m always reminding all of our people why it’s called the hospitality business. … When you invite people over to your house for dinner, you’re nice to them and you’re hospitable to them. That’s the same thing we all need to do in our business,” Adeeb previously told the Times-Union.

Teresa Stepzinski is the dining reporter for the Times-Union. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @TeresaStepz or reach her via email at tstepzinski@jacksonville.com.

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Bono's Pit Bar-B-Q owner retires, hands off reins to new generation