Hey Friends,

Jay started Jay’s Smokin’ BBQ almost eight years ago. We first opened in the Moorhead Center Mall. It was a cute and small little walk-up where you would see Jay and his parents, Jack and Rose, working hard to get you a delicious plate of food. In 2020 we survived and worked through Covid. Where you then saw the addition of Jay’s wife, Chelle, and daughter, Brianna. 2020 was also the year that we signed up to expand into our current location in Fargo. We then left the Moorhead Center Mall and moved into the Moorhead American Legion full time. Our Fargo doors officially opened for business in February 2021. Everything was so wonderful. We loved being able to expand and obtain new friends through our business. We also celebrated the marriage of Brianna and Chris. Our entire team was able to make it down to Florida and celebrate. It was such a fun time and memory. In April 2022, you were there for us when Jay had his heart attack. In such scary and uncertain times, you sent well wishes and prayers, attended our ‘Party for a Cause’ benefit, and continued to show up and show your support. It’s also the year we left our Moorhead spot, in hopes of being back to our hometown soon. In 2023, we welcomed the first grand baby of the family. And we’re sure he’s given you at least one menu or to-go box at some point and time. Later on we then expanded again and took over the kitchen for Tailgators. In 2024, we announced that we would be opening a small spot at The Clubhouse in Moorhead.

That now brings us to 2025 and our last post with a little bit of an update on our family. This year we found out that grand baby #2 is on the way! (EDD 01/07/2026). It’s also the year we learned that Chelle has cancer. Diagnosed as Stage 3C; borderline Stage 4. She has a great oncology team and had a great surgical team. We again are so thankful for the doctors and nurses at Sanford Health and Roger Maris Cancer Center. With these changes in our family we, naturally, shifted focus.

Our family will be taking a step back from the business. We don’t take this decision lightly. It’s been an emotional road of ups and downs to get here. We are in the process of handing the business off to someone else. The details are still being ironed out. Any catering jobs will still be going through as ordered. Any requests received through to today have been forward on to the new team.

We cannot thank you all enough for the (almost) eight years of support. Eight years of friendship. You have truly touched our family and we can never say thank you enough for that. There’s not enough ways or words to express our gratitude. We’ve loved getting to know each of you and seeing where life has taken you over the years. We’ve loved seeing your littles grow up, seeing some of you get married, some of you turn into grandparents and even great grandparents. We’ve enjoyed watching you celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and family around our tables over the years. Such special memories we will never forget. If you have any special memories or stories from over the years, please share them with us in the comments. We’d love to hear from you!

What’s next for our family, we’re not fully sure. We’re still figuring it out. But we have faith and know that what’s meant to be will be.

Thank you all so much for everything over the years. With all of our love and gratitude,

The Henrichs Family

*If you wish to help, we have started a Go Fund Me for Chelle. You can find that and her medical story here: https://gofund.me/4f5b9793c

You can also donate directly via Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/Bri-Hen-Arn
All funds raised will be given directly to Jay and Chelle to cover day to day living expenses.