Cuz’s Uptown BBQ Is Still Going Strong in Southwest Virginia

Brash and opinionated Mike Thompson loved to cook and was the irreverent spirit behind Cuz’s Uptown Barbeque—a Tazewell County staple located in the old milk bottling building of the Thompsons’ farm. When he died in 2018, the easy play for his widow, Yvonne Thompson, would have been to shut the place down, move on with her life, and hang out with her grandchildren.

But she didn’t. She felt a loyalty to her customers and her employees—some of whom worked there for decades. She also realized how much she had come to love the place.

Chef and business partner Mike Oder proudly shows off smoked prime rib right from the smoke pit.

People Kept Coming

When Cuz’s opened in 1979, they had four tables and no illusions about their chances of succeeding. However, the food was good, the vibe was fun, and people kept coming. After those humble beginnings, the Thompsons expanded into the adjacent barn and, over the years, grew the funky restaurant into a destination dining spot, survived a couple of devastating fires, and became a local institution, as well as a reliable employer for their community. A pair of well-appointed hilltop cabins lent a lodging component to the enterprise.

Yvonne worked on the business side and brought, by her estimation, a more gentle approach. She knew well the challenges of operating a restaurant, particularly in such a remote location, and with Mike gone, she could have called it a day, satisfied they had created something so good for so long. 

Cuz’s had become, she says, “my life’s work.”

“If I can do it,” she says—approaching 70 and in good health—“why not keep going?”

Thompson now rises at dawn and sets to work in her home kitchen, baking pies and cakes for the restaurant. “My happy time,” she calls it. “It’s almost meditative.” She arrives at Cuz’s by mid-morning, delivering the homemade desserts and jumping into the fray of prep work. During a visit last summer, amid the hum of activity in the kitchen before the restaurant opened, Thompson was busily preparing stuffed squash blossoms, tiramisu, and tomato sauce for seafood lasagna, a dish inspired by her recent visit to Italy.

Cuz’s Pupu Platter, with cheese egg rolls, filet satays, and fried catfish mixes Asian cuisine with barbecue. Photography by Brett Winter Lemon

Quirky & Down-Home

Cuz’s is a delightful revelation in the middle of not much else on its stretch of U.S. 460: diverse menu, quirky décor reminiscent of a folk art museum, and an undeniable down-home feel. Even more unexpected is Thompson’s story of how she wound up in Southwest Virginia, her
life revolving around a restaurant set against a pretty mountain backdrop, featuring a brick silo and brightly painted concrete pigs stationed at the entrance. Cuz’s is more than 300 miles west of Richmond—and 8,000 miles east of Hong Kong, where Thompson grew up in a seventh-floor apartment.  

Thompson came to the United States as a teen to live with an uncle who operated a popular Chinese restaurant in St. Louis. Her interest, though, lay in writing rather than chop suey, a Chinese restaurant staple at the time, and in college she majored in journalism at the University of Missouri. Upon graduating in 1976, she packed her belongings in her light-blue Volkswagen Beetle, which she had acquired from another international student (the sale price included driving lessons), and headed to Virginia to work at the Richlands News-Press

She had no intention of staying more than a couple of years before moving to a larger paper, but an editor set her up on a date with Mike, and everything changed. Within two years, they were married and operating a restaurant, encouraged by a friend of Mike’s who went by “Cuz” and thought a restaurant could breathe new life into the old barn.

As Mike started cooking barbecue, word spread, and it became apparent fairly quickly that the four tables in the cramped, rustic bottling building weren’t going to cut it. The barn was gussied up, and Cuz’s really began to take shape. Over the years, two major fires—both laundry-related (the restaurant’s laundry facilities are now in a separate building)—shut the restaurant for long stretches, but Cuz’s bounced back both times, as it did after Mike’s death, and then following a shutdown during the pandemic. 

Cuz’s Uptown Barbeque

Community Anchor

“This is a very storied place,” says Gary Nease, who’s been eating at Cuz’s since the beginning. “It’s been kind of a symbol for our little community.”

On the evening we spoke, Nease had stopped in for dinner with his friend Tom Foley. “This is our place, man,” Foley remarks. Over the years, the two of them—Nease, a carpenter, and Foley, a mason—have been among those who lent their skills to help Thompson keep the place running. A few days earlier, Nease had repaired a balky backdoor. When the work was completed, Thompson asked, “What do I owe you?” 

“A meal would be nice,” Nease replied. 

The variety of food at Cuz’s has broadened dramatically from the early days, when the primary offerings were barbecue sandwiches, country ham, and red-eye gravy. Now, barbecue represents a small part of the menu that features steaks (filet mignon, prime rib), seafood (catfish, salmon, oysters), and a slew of distinctive dishes, such as cheesy egg rolls and mac-and-cheese made “skanky” with blue cheese. Thompson jokes that Mike’s idea of a vegetable was chicken, so she has made a point of including more actual vegetables on the menu, including some that come straight from the extensive garden behind the restaurant. She also has added an Asian influence, including a stir fry, satay with Thai peanut sauce, and seafood curry.

“I’ve been coming here maybe 35 years,” says Charles E. “Fast Eddie” Counts II, sitting in a booth enjoying dinner with his wife, Melody, and their family. They regularly drive a half-hour over a mountain from their farm near Abingdon. “There’s just no place like it.”

Thompson is still running the place because, in part, she has a hard time imagining her life without it.

“I’ve seen old businesses go out, and it just makes me sad,” she said. ”Let’s just keep going and see what happens.”

Find Cuz’s Uptown Barbeque at 15746 Gov. GC Peery Hwy., Pounding Mill. Open March–November, Wednesday–Saturday. Cuzs.com

Yvonne Thompson

Disconnect and Dine 

Unplug at Cuz’s Uptown Barbecue

Cuz’s Uptown Barbeque sits dramatically against Deskin Mountain in the heart of Appalachian country, where diners can watch cattle roam the bluegrass meadows through the windows while they eat.

The farm embraces a true farm-to-table philosophy, with Yvonne Thompson and her culinary team tending gardens that yield fresh peas, squash, tomatoes, asparagus, artichokes, carrots, sweet corn, and pumpkins that eventually make their way onto the menu. Sunflowers and zinnias bloom throughout the property, creating a colorful landscape. 

For long-distance diners who want to extend their stay and soak in the mountain vistas and the area’s friendly vibe, the farm offers two handcrafted cedar log cabins built in 1995. Both come equipped with stone fireplaces, hot tubs, and air conditioning, creating a rustic and comfortable retreat.

While satellite TV is offered, the farm encourages complete disconnection from the digital world—no internet or phones, just rocking chairs and chaise lounges for true relaxation. Guests can fish the nearby Clinch River, unwind by the pool’s sandstone patio, explore the surrounding hills, or simply stroll to the barn for a terrific meal at Cuz’s.

Cuz’s is built into an old milk bottling building. 

10 Remote Virginia Restaurants Worth the Drive

Basic Necessities
2226 Rockfish Valley Hwy., Nellysford

Self-described as “off-beat,” the café and wine and cheese shop in the Rockfish Valley boasts local ingredients, meals made from scratch, and a European sensibility. BasicNecessities.us

The Bavarian Chef
5102 S. Seminole Trl., Madison

Sauerbraten, wiener schnitzel, and other hearty German fare at a family-run restaurant that’s been in operation since 1974 on U.S. 29, north of Charlottesville. TheBavarianChef.com

Chad’s Dad’s BBQ Plus
1051 General Puller Hwy., Saluda

Welcoming deli specializing in smoked meats,
sides and breakfast sandwiches. Facebook: fChadsDadsBBQ

Cul’s Courthouse Grille
10801 Courthouse Rd., Charles City

Southern cuisine served in an 1800s general store across from the Charles City County courthouse and steps from the Virginia Capital Trail. CulsCourthouseGrille.com

Edelweiss
19 Edelweiss Ln., Staunton

Authentic German food, selection of German beers, and occasional polka bands. EdelweissVirginia.com

Lakeview Restaurant
7830 Fancy Gap Hwy., Fancy Gap

Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Humble place, solid American fare, reasonably priced, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Lakeview.top

The Palisades Restaurant
168 Village St., Eggleston

Sophisticated cuisine in the charming ambience of an old general store in Southwest Virginia. ThePalisadesRestaurant.com

The Pink Cadillac Diner
4347 S. Lee Hwy., Natural Bridge

Classic diner food and ice cream, plus an old-fashioned jukebox in a pink building with an vintage pink Cadillac parked out front. Facebook: ThePinkCadillacDiner

Woodruff’s Café and Pie Shop
3297 Elon Rd., Monroe

Wonderful pies (and sandwiches) in a cozy, friendly, unpretentious atmosphere, outside Lynchburg. WoodruffsPieShop.com

Woody’s Serious Food
6700 Maddox Blvd., Chincoteague

A beach-themed food truck serving barbecue and smoked chicken, at the traffic circle just before entering the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Open seasonally. WoodysSeriousFood.com


This article originally appeared in the October 2025 issue.

Bill Lohmann
Bill Lohmann was an award-winning columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.