restaurantRestaurant: Impossible · Season 8, Episode 11 · Aired May 28, 2014
Big Jim's Bama Q
Hammondville, Alabama
Good outcome here: the business is still trading today.
On the show
Season 8, Episode 11 · May 28, 2014 · restaurant
episode title: "The Writing on the Wall"
What happened after
Active BBQ restaurant; recent Facebook ranking post and directory listings.
What happened on the show
Tucked along Alabama Highway 117 in tiny Hammondville, Big Jim's Bama Q had its eighth season episode as one more southern barbecue joint hoping Robert Irvine could reset its fortunes. The show gave Big Jim's its usual terms, two days of labor and a refit budget the network keeps to a few thousand dollars, with Irvine tasting the smoke, reading the operation, and pushing a refreshed room back out for a relaunch. Because the Wikipedia record holds no write up of this particular episode, the specific dishes and dysfunction Irvine confronted are left off this page rather than guessed at. What can be said plainly is that the pit is still lit: Big Jim's remains an active barbecue spot, even touted in a 2025 social post as one of the state's better smokehouses.
After the cameras left
Big Jim's Bama Q looks to still be running. A March 2025 Facebook post promoted the place as a top-three barbecue spot in Alabama, and directory listings corroborate an active business, though a direct load was not completed this pass and one platform blocked access, so we rate this a medium call. the likeliest read is that the Hammondville barbecue restaurant is open and still drawing regional notice for its smoke years after the makeover, but we stop short of a firmer claim.
Sources
Confidence: medium. Last checked 2026-07-19.
What is there now
Street imagery via Google Maps. Location approximate.