Featured Image: Martin restaurant owner Blake Stoker on “BBQ Brawl” season seven. (Photo provided by Food Network)
Blake Stoker, the owner of Blake’s at Southern Milling in downtown Martin, Tennessee, will appear on season seven of the Food Network show “BBQ Brawl.”
Stoker and his restaurant have received many awards and accolades since opening in 2022, including being featured in well-known regional publications such as Southern Living. While Stoker appreciates the recognition and the chance to represent Martin, what motivates him most is the community he serves.
“It is really cool to be representing Martin and hopefully making them proud, but from a personal standpoint, I can do with or without any accolade,” said Stoker. “I’m appreciative of them all, but they don’t necessarily drive me. What drives me is knowing people’s names here at the restaurant, knowing what they’re going to order and knowing where they sit at church on Wednesday nights and all those connections.”
Weakley County has always been home for Stoker as a Dresden, Tennessee native, and even though his restaurant is commonly mentioned alongside other food spots in cities like Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee, his love for the community is what keeps him in Martin.
“I’ve been to lots of places in the world. I love traveling to big cities: New York City, Austin, Texas, Chicago, you name it. And I love places like Nashville, but my heart, my home is in rural West Tennessee, and I think there’s a place here for this and for other great businesses around town and in the area,” said Stoker.
Stoker’s community-first mindset is evident in the way that he runs his restaurant. Ava Woods, a sophomore veterinary technology major at the University of Tennessee at Martin from Medina, Tennessee, has worked at Blake’s at Southern Milling for almost two years. According to Woods, part of what makes working at the restaurant fun is the family-style atmosphere among the staff.
“We’re all really close-knit there, and I feel like everybody knows everybody, and everybody works together to make it a good environment,” said Woods. “Blake’s a great boss too … he’s so personal with everybody. That’s what I love about it there. Everybody’s really like a family.”
Stoker’s appreciation for the community was evident long before the restaurant opened. The building that houses Blake’s at Southern Milling is a historic landmark for the city that dates back to the 1920s, and Stoker chose to preserve the history of the building while renovating it to fit the restaurant’s needs.
For Camille Noe, Marketing Director for the City of Martin, the historical charm of the building is part of what makes Blake’s at Southern Milling so special.
“My favorite part about Blake’s is that he took something that was already a historical building, an icon of Martin, and he didn’t tear it down. He brought it back to life,” said Noe.
Stoker’s upcoming Food Network appearance will bring attention to not only him and his restaurant, but also to the Martin community as a whole. For Noe, she’s preparing for the influx of interest by using Stoker’s success as a springboard to showcase everything Martin has to offer.
“We’re going to be heavily promoting this success, specifically the Food Network success, via our tourism efforts in the next coming months,” said Noe. “Because we see that once that airs, it’s going to just be like ‘what is this place?’ and people are going to be Googling it.”
For Stoker, his time on the show not only allowed him to get an inside look at how shows like “BBQ Brawl” are produced but also allowed him to get to know his fellow contestants and barbeque enthusiasts.
“I still talk to three or four of them every single day,” said Stoker.
The first episode of this season of “BBQ Brawl” will premiere on May 11, 2026, on the Food Network. The premiere will coincide almost perfectly with the four-year anniversary of the restaurant’s grand opening on May 14, 2026.
