MENO—What started out as a cookout for friends and family transformed into the idea of feeding hungry travelers along U.S. Highway 412.
Joseph Hladik Jr., known to his customers as Joe, opened Bohemian Joe’s BBQ and More inside the building that once housed the Harvest House with his wife, Charlotte, whose first job was working at the Harvest House as teen growing up in the Meno area.
The couple, whom wed in 2009, opened their restaurant in May 2019. Joe previously had owned All-American Smokehouse in Hennessey, serving his famous barbecue to the public from 1999 to 2001 using his custom-built smoker.
A Hennessey graduate (by default, he added, since the Lacey school consolidated into Hennessey) who grew up on the family farm south of Drummond, and is in fact of Bohemian heritage, Joe returned to farming with his brother and working on farming equipment after closing his Hennessey restaurant.
But that didn’t stop him from smoking meats in his custom smoker nor sharing them with friends and family.
“When I turned 40, I started having annual birthday parties,” Joe said. He and his sons would prepare the food and invite everybody; sometimes those people would invite other people Joe said he didn’t even know.
He continued this trend every March, even after he married Charlotte. In fact, she interjected, he so enjoyed smoking meats and hosting these shindigs, the year they married they held a second one that September at Joe’s halfway mark of being 55.
The idea permanently stuck, so now the Hladiks host these barbecue birthday parties featuring meats from his custom smoker twice a year, either at their farm or at the café.
Joe claims that’s what spurred him to consider trying a go at another restaurant.
When the old Harvest House building came up for sale, the Hladiks bought it. However, it took them four years to remodel and reopen.
The property didn’t just house a restaurant, it had a grocery store and a barbershop, Charlotte said. They had to reconfigure each space, including opening walls and making it suitable for their needs.
Plus, Joe added, he was still farming outside of Ames and working on farm equipment; he couldn’t just drop everything and focus on the café.
Not to mention the first custom smoker “was toast,” Joe said, so it was time to build a new one for the café.
Secret’s in the sauce
Over the years, based on friends’ and family’s comments, Joe has perfected his barbecue specialties and side recipes.
For example, his original barbecue sauce consists of half a dozen spices and three rubs, he said. His barbecue ribs are marinated in what he calls “a meat wash”—to which his wife cringed and chastised the use of that terminology—and his sweet tips are pork tips soaked in a custom sweet broth.
His sides include smoked mushrooms made with a special marinade, mashed potatoes, cream of peas, and baked beans. The latter two are duplicates of what his mother used to cook at home—without having a written recipe to follow.
The cream of peas is an unusual add to the menu, but extremely popular, Joe said.
“It’s plum crazy,” he commented. “I was trying to duplicate my mother’s recipe, doing it until it tasted right. [Charlotte] said it won’t ever sell. But people will order it as a side order instead of fries!”
Joe said it took forever to find the blend of ingredients for his mother’s baked beans, but he feels he finally nailed it.
As for the barbecue “and more” part in the restaurant’s official name, Bohemian Joe’s serves up daily specials such as meatloaf, poppyseed chicken, and a Mexican-style casserole. Steaks, both ribeye and chicken fried, are always available to order too.
Homestyle breakfast is served until 10:30 a.m. Friday nights mean seafood night with fried catfish, fried and grilled shrimp, crabcakes, and hushpuppies. Saturdays equal fried and smoked chicken.
Ready to retire
Joe always figured one of their blended family of six children would take over.
“When we started, I wanted to run it until I was 70,” he said, “and then was hoping one of my kids or her kids would run the place.”
His birthday wish doesn’t look like it’s going to come true. Joe turns 70 this March; all of their children have better paying jobs than running a local café, he lamented, so as such the place is for sale, a ready-made restaurant space for someone else.
“It’s time for someone else to run it,” Joe said, adding a restaurant typically makes money when open at least six days a week versus the four he and Charlotte have been doing. They used to serve food on Tuesdays, but often times no one would show up, and Wednesdays are super slow compared to the weekend crowd.
The pandemic nearly ended them barely a year after they opened, Joe stated, commenting the patronage Bohemian Joe’s had prior to March 2020 has never quite recovered.
Additionally, “we’re just tired,” he said. The Hladiks have employees who help out, but both spend long hours at the restaurant and they’re not getting any younger, Joe said with a smile.
He dreams of returning to perfecting his farm equipment projects and inventions upon retirement. He designed and copyrighted what he named the Sly Fox Garden Hoe, which is a multipurpose garden tool with the image of a fox head at the base that he hand-builds and sells for $50 each. He’s also built customized smokers and fire pits for others in the past as well as customized farming implements.
As a former dairy farmer, Joe said, “necessity is the mother of invention. I built it and used it. Maybe someone will see it and want to manufacture it.”
Keep on smokin’
Nevertheless, for now, Joe and his wife intend to keep on cooking.
They have their regulars, too. People drive near and far to eat breakfast at Bohemian Joe’s.
“I’m tickled people from Enid drive here,” Charlotte commented. There also are frequent rural customers who hail from Goltry, Fairview, Cleo Springs, Helena, and Ames. A ladies group comes from Okeene nearly every Saturday.
On Friday evenings, a musical customer voluntarily offers free live entertainment for the patrons.
While most eat in the main part of the café where the buffet is, there is a more quieter side room with its own entrance called the overflow room. The Hladiks said anyone can “rent” it for class reunions, baby showers, club meetings, wedding parties, and more.
“There is no charge if you eat here,” Charlotte said. They keep a calendar and will allow reservations only for the days they are normally open.
They don’t cater, but they will prepare food to go for parties of 25 or 30 people.
Bohemian Joe’s is open Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted on the door. Because they believe in supporting local, sometimes they close early and encourage customers to attend and eat at area functions and fundraisers. Call (580) 776-2555 or check out their Facebook page @BohemianJoesBBQ.