By Andy Warrener
The Laker/Lutz News Correspondent
Those driving by the corner of Livingston Avenue and Sunset Lane have undoubtedly seen the interesting entrance to Hot Rod’s BBQ & Grill.
The gateway and façade strike up ideas of a backwater eatery hours from civilization, but in reality, the heart of Lutz is just moments down the road.
Hot Rod’s is a family-owned business established in the late 1990s. It was started as a country store on the parcel where the current gas station sits on the southwest corner of Sunset and Livingston.
In 1997, current owner and founder Rod Gaudin and wife Helen bought the parcel next door and turned it into an eatery.
“I’ve always wanted to own a restaurant, and all I knew how to cook was barbecue,” Gaudin said.
Thus, Hot Rod’s was born.
The restaurant evolved from the humble eatery, building an outdoor porch area in 2007. Later that year, Gaudin built what he referred to as The Swamp, a huge outdoor venue with some seating, but highlighted by a music stage and a giant fish pond.
“We had all kinds of stuff in there (the pond),” Gaudin said. “We had crawfish, catfish in there. We named it Jimmy’s Fishin’ Hole.”
Jimmy Curtis is the husband of Gaudin’s daughter, Debbie. Jimmy is also part of James Taylor Curtis and the Silver Eagle Band, a local country act that plays nationally and regularly at Hot Rod’s.
The live music nights brought so much business that the pond had to be filled in to accommodate more seating and standing room.
It was sort of a shock when Gaudin, fresh off a bout with pancreatic cancer, came back to the restaurant to find his precious fishing hole gone.
“I came back from treatment and the place was all tore up,” Gaudin said.
Gaudin flexed his grandpa muscles and kept the shack front of Jimmy’s Fishin’ Hole, the Out House, the Sugar Shak and Gaudin’s Garden Gallery, which are all mementos of different phases of Gaudin’s life in Lutz, but said goodbye to the pond.
Hot Rod’s has countless décor items on the walls, but everything has a story.
Gaudin grew up on a 400-acre farm near New Orleans, which helped form the backdrop of Hot Rod’s.
“Cajuns like their food wet and hot,” Gaudin said. “We found out that’s not what people like in Lutz, so we had to change to the taste buds of the community.”
Gaudin started cooking barbecue ribs and wings, and things started to take off. To this day, Gaudin claims his specialty to be ribs and steaks.
“I hope when I die I’m wearing an apron barbecuing,” Gaudin said.
His barbecue menu evolved to include catfish, pork butt, gator, mullet, rabbit, duck, turkey and ham.
Just about everything on the menu at Hot Rod’s is a product of the imagination of the restaurant’s owner.
“We have autonomy with not being a big corporate restaurant,” Gaudin said.
Diners can enjoy dishes like the all-American burger, a 20-pound monster, 16 inches across, or maybe da pig, a barbecue sandwich with five pounds of pork and an entire pound of coleslaw. It’s free if you can finish it in one hour.
You might also want to try the redneck prime rib, which is Spam grilled and glazed with honey.
Hot Rod’s features several family-style meals that accommodate more than two eaters. There’s the hillbilly foursome and the meatfeast.
Gaudin uses oak wood, but also some citrus for smoking his steaks.
“Beef loves orange flavor,” Gaudin said.
Hot Rod’s is open Wednesday and Thursday from 11a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Gaudin said they stay open “until the beer runs out” on event nights.
For more information, call (813) 948-7988.
