When Shonnie and Brandon Lee opened their first brick-and-mortar restaurant in 2020, they were doing more than launching a business in the middle of a pandemic. They were continuing a journey shaped by faith, family, resilience, and a belief that food can bring people together.
HeavenLee BBQ began long before its doors opened in Spencer, Oklahoma. In 2009, the Lees began catering with a borrowed smoker, including events for Mustang High School. Those early opportunities gave them a place to learn, grow, and share Brandon’s love of barbecue with the community.
Over the years, the family faced challenges that could have caused them to put the dream aside. Among them was Brandon’s five-vessel bypass surgery—a life-changing experience that brought the importance of faith, purpose, and family into even sharper focus. Then, in January 2025, the family experienced the heartbreak of losing Brandon’s father, Pastor A.W. Lee. Rather than allowing difficult seasons and personal loss to define the end of their story, the Lees allowed those experiences to deepen the reason behind what they were building.…