On some weekends, Whatcha Smokin? BBQ + Brew draws more people than the entire population of Luther, Iowa — just 125 residents in this tiny town north of Madrid in Central Iowa.
Customers start lining up at 10:30 a.m., sometimes earlier, waiting for the doors to open at 11 a.m. Cars, trucks, and motorcycles pack the gravel parking lot, spill into the one next door, and eventually line the streets.
Inside, diners gather around tables in the garage-style dining room, where rolled-up doors and mosquito netting let in fresh air in the warmer months. Others grab seats at the small bar to catch a game on wall-mounted TVs. Outside, picnic tables on the shaded patio beckon, or customers wander over to the overflow seating, and orders are taken from a grain bin turned counter. Many leave with carryout boxes of central Texas-style barbecue that makes Whatcha Smokin? a statewide destination…