The 2025 Georgia Tour – John Tanner’s Barbecue Blog

Wow!   Now that’s what a barbecue sandwich should taste like!

That was exactly what I said to myself after the first bite of my sandwich at Fresh Air Barbecue in Jackson, Georgia. Fresh Air is actually well southeast of Jackson at 1164 GA-42, away from the side toward which Atlanta is metastasizing. The restaurant is actually midway between Jackson and Flovilla, but Jackson works. Fresh Air has been there for 96 years now, and has spawned outposts in Macon and Athens. I wanted the original, and I am so glad I did!. Here ’tis.

Now doesn’t that look like a place with good barbecue? There’s some outside seating.

Inside, things are pretty quiet at 9:00 am as you walk up to the counter, but the stacks of plates and towers of plastic containers foretell a busy Friday.

The menu is off to the side and yes, those are current prices. Honest. The ravages of inflation have made the price of a sandwich soar all the way from $3.79 to $3.99.

There’s table seating opposite the counter, and more seating in the room beyond, with another dining room beyond that, and maybe more all the way to Tennessee. Way down at the end of the building there’s a larger dining room that fills the brick addition. Fresh Air is huge, but the dark wood maintains the warm rustic feel throughout.

After chatting with the lady pictured above who is, by the way, a delight, I ordered a small sandwich, slaw, and Brunswick stew. I think they accept credit cards, but you won’t need much cash in any event.

Here’s my order as it arrived.

And here’s the pork sandwich.

You can see that the pork came between two slices of white bread, and I’ll pause to note how surprisingly fresh the bread was. It used to be that commercial bakeries dotted the landscape (and smelled delicious) and supermarkets sold fresh bread every day. The bakeries themselves had a side space that sold “day old” bread for half price. Today supermarket bread is loaded with preservatives and lasts for weeks, but it never, ever tastes really fresh, not even on the day it’s delivered. This bread was perfectly fresh, and the difference in flavor and texture was remarkable. The same was true at Vandy’s.

Back to the pork, the star of the show. It tasted, as I said at the outset, the way barbecue should. It was freshly cooked and chopped with bits of outside meat, and it had that exceptional richness that you can only get with direct heat. One of the best sauces around lightly dressed the meat. Fresh Air has two sauces on the tables, Mild and Hot, and both are vinegar based with terrific seasonings. I bought a bottle of each, which I hardly ever do. The really odd thing is that Fresh Air cooks hams rather than the fattier shoulders or butts, and I honestly don’t see how they keep the meat so, well, succulent. My experience with ham barbecue, even in a wonderful restaurant, has been unfavorable. The Fresh Air ham was right up there with the best. Amazing.

The Brunswick stew was the co-star of the meal.  There was a freshness to the vegetables in it, and to the meat as well, that gave it a lively feel, if that makes sense. I added some hot sauce on the recommendation of the wise lady at the counter, and that took it up near the Platonic ideal of Brunswick stew.  

Be sure to order some slaw. It was fresh and refreshing, delightful, really. It’s right up there with the great slaws of North Carolina. 

Fresh Air definitely is a Top Place. No question. Put it on your To Eat list and start making plans to go there. Order the pork, Brunswick stew, and slaw, and get ready to go back for some banana pudding or pecan pie.

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