Brooks' House of Bar-B-Q history

March 26, 1921, Roxbury Times- It is alleged that our poultry king, John McClelland is running his henery by the squad system, eight hours on and eight hours off by the use of his electricity, business goes on night and day.

She grew up helping her parents on their poultry farms and graduated from Stamford Central School in 1938.

Brooks' House of Bar-B-Q had its roots in a poultry farm: Griffin Brooks graduated from the Agricultural and Technical College at Delhi in 1940 with a degree in animal husbandry.

While at Delhi Tech he met Frances “Fran” McClelland, a 1941 graduate of Institutional Management, and married her on November 1, 1941, in Stamford.

October 28, 1948 Stamford Mirror-Recorder- Griffin A. Brooks heard a noise near the hen house Tuesday evening, came out, and scared away two men with a truck.

By the mid 1950's the Brooks family was catering local barbecues from April to the end of September.

In 1951, they started their first catering jobs with the local Rod and Gun Club and the Delaware Cooperative Farm Bureau Extension Service.

In 1952 Brooks was selling 800 Rock Red cross pullets, 200 New Hampshire pullets, and 200 White Rock pullets starting to lay and was shipping hatching eggs on the railroad.

In 1954 three hundred chicks perished in a blaze that destroyed a poultry house on the farm of Griffin Brooks; the blaze was attributed to a defective oil-fired brooder in the poultry house.

In 1958, the Brooks family began operation of a concession stand at the miniature golf and driving range connected with the Del-Se-Go Drive-In.

His grandparents dreamed of opening a restaurant, and in 1961, they adapted their catering business into what would become a recognized family-owned business—Brooks’ House of Bar-B-Q.

As the Brook’s were erecting a new restaurant the old building caught fire in November 1965 causing $25,000 in damage.

In 1975, Griffin and Frances sold the restaurant to their son John and his wife Joan.

Ryan grew up in the business and is a 1996 Restaurant Management graduate of RIT and Beth is a graduate of SUNY Oneonta.

In 2005 John and Joan sold the restaurant to their son Ryan and his wife Beth.