FAIRHOPE — No fanfare, balloons or a grand opening celebration was needed to sell out Ben’s Jr. Bar-B-Que’s opening day.

After a five-year wait, Ben's customers witnessed the day on Dec. 21. The smokers were smoking, the door was finally unlocked, and a line wrapped around the building.

But how did they know Ben’s was open? Word of mouth spreads quickly in this small, hungry town.

Opening day was so busy the kitchen sold out and had to close around 2 p.m. An apology was posted to the Ben’s Bar-B-Q Facebook page that read:

“Today we got overwhelmed, and unfortunately, we are the first to say it didn’t go well. We are shutting it down today and will start new tomorrow with a better understanding of the demand. We appreciate your patience and sorry to let some of you down today.”

The post received 159 comments, which mostly congratulated the team on reopening and a lot of excitement from people making plans to check it out. Some comments came from people who managed to get inside and sample the food.

Carol Therrell, of Fairhope, commented, “I think it went great with flow and your workers are awesome! Food was amazing, too…keep up the good work. We appreciate all you have done to revive Ben’s Fairhope tradition. Just make more food tomorrow. What a legacy Bubba left.”

Brittany Lawson said, “We had a great experience today. Give yourself some grace.”

Niko Whitson, of Foley, said, “So glad you’re back! We were some of the lucky ones! We had excellent brisket, tater skins, hamburger, steak fries and collard greens!!! It was all so good. Great job!!”

Gulf Coast Media was unable to get a comment from chef Jeremiah Matthews on how the opening days went from his perspective.

Have you been to Ben’s yet? What did you eat, or what are you looking forward to eating? Email melanie@gulfcoastmedia.com.