El legado cocinado lentamente de Everett & Jones Barbeque en Oakland ● UPDATING

For Dorcia White, growing up in the barbecue business meant her friends rarely invited her to cookouts. They assumed she was tired of being surrounded by pitmasters and brisket, as the daughter of the legendary Everett and Jones family.

But at Roberts Park in the Oakland Hills, the family's sprawling gatherings allowed her the luxury of being a kid without a job. Barbecue runs through the veins of the Everett family in Oakland, embodying a history that spans from barefoot walks to school in Alabama to opening their first shop on what is now International Boulevard in East Oakland, and through the election of Barack Obama, when the family held a cookout to celebrate America's first Black president.

For the purveyors of the Bay Area chain, a cookout is not just a celebration; it is their mode of operation.

White, who now owns the downtown Oakland location, describes how her grandmother, Dorothy Turner Everett, instilled the values of "taking care of family, keeping tradition, and helping community" in each generation. This is why, as many regional barbecue family businesses have shuttered or relocated, Everett & Jones has remained a cultural fixture.

White recalls starting work for the family at age 14, remembering a time at Skyline High School when a classmate said they smelled barbecue. "I knew it was me, but I wasn't going to say.

I knew I had barbecue in my pores," she said.

Before becoming the standard for Bay Area barbecue, the Everett family lived in Mississippi, near the Alabama border. A family photo from around 1948-1949, which hangs in every Everett & Jones location, shows the family outside a schoolhouse in Westpoint, Alabama.

The children, boys in overalls and girls in white dresses, are all barefoot. Dorothy Everett, who would become the matriarch, was about 16.

The family migrated to Oakland in 1952 when White's grandfather got a job on the railroad. They were part of the Great Migration, as tens of thousands of Black families moved from the Jim Crow South to Oakland's shipyards and maritime industries after World War II.

When those families opened barbecue joints in the 1960s, they brought their regional recipes. White explains that her grandmother worked at Jenkins and Flint's Barbecue, both African American-owned establishments.

When Dorothy Everett and her husband split, she was left to raise nine children. Using her knowledge of the local barbecue industry, she secured a $700 loan from a friend and opened Everett & Jones Barbeque in 1973.

"It was rooted in a woman just really wanting to take care of her children," White said. The main draw was Everett's Special 'Que Sauce, a tangy, savory tomato-based sauce that became a uniquely Bay Area original.

The cooking process is slow and deliberate. Brisket cooks for 15 to 17 hours, ribs for 5 to 7 hours, and chicken less.

The meats rotate on an automated rotisserie grill smoked over oak wood, the same wood Dorothy Everett used when she opened her first shop. "It's not a fast process," White said.

"Like a really good relationship takes time. Slow, steady, that makes good barbecue."

At the Broadway location, a room called the "juke joint" features recycled doors and windows from Victorian homes in West Oakland. Portraits of Bay Area celebrities line the walls, including Dorothy King, the family matriarch who passed away in 2021.

A photo shows Golden State Warriors stars Steph Curry and Kevin Durant smiling with King. Concert posters from the restaurant's "Barbecue, Beer and Blues" festival feature artists like Little Milton and Bobby Womack.

Even the Raiders have a dedicated wall.

The family's most memorable cookout was on election night, November 4, 2008. Throughout the campaign, Everett & Jones served as an organizing hub for the Obama campaign in the East Bay, hosting phone banking and debate watch parties.

When networks announced Obama as the projected winner, the celebration spilled into the streets of Jack London Square. White watched from her home in West Oakland as she cared for her newborn son.

Now in its fourth generation, White's son has also begun working at Everett & Jones. This is rare in 2026, as many historic barbecue joints have closed.

Chinise Braviel, manager of the Laurel District location, notes that the pandemic and soaring beef prices decimated many East Bay barbecue spots. "I remember going to Flint's, going to Kinder's, going to KC BBQ," Braviel said.

"Now, we're like the 'Last of the Mohicans.'" Despite the Raiders and Athletics leaving and gentrification reshaping neighborhoods, the soul of Oakland's barbecue remains. "We've been here a long time, and we didn't get here by imaginary things," White said.

"It's real, built on love, soul, community, and that you can't bottle that up and make that into a social media post."