The standard Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q day starts at 11:00am and ends at 9:00pm Sunday through Thursday, stretching to 10:00pm on Friday and Saturday. That is the pattern across most of the roughly 35 restaurants — but the more useful question is not when the doors close, it is when the smoker output runs out, and at a from-scratch chain those are two different times.
Standard weekly hours
| Day | Opens | Closes |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 11:00am | 9:00pm |
| Tuesday | 11:00am | 9:00pm |
| Wednesday | 11:00am | 9:00pm |
| Thursday | 11:00am | 9:00pm |
| Friday | 11:00am | 10:00pm |
| Saturday | 11:00am | 10:00pm |
| Sunday | 11:00am | 9:00pm |
Note what is absent: there is no breakfast service and no late-night window. Jim 'N Nick's is a lunch-and-dinner restaurant with full table service, which is why the biscuits arrive at your table rather than in a bag, and why the day is bounded at both ends.
Why the closing time is not the last useful time
Each restaurant hickory-smokes its own meat on site — no commissary, no trucked-in trays. A brisket takes most of a working day, so the kitchen commits to a quantity in the morning and cannot conjure more at 8:30pm. What that means in practice:
- Ribs go first. A Full Rack of Baby Backs ($33.00) is the most likely item to be gone on a busy Saturday night, and the Half Rack of St. Louis ($20.12) is the next to go.
- Brisket is the second casualty. The Brisket Plate ($18.11) is the priciest plate and the smallest daily batch.
- House-made sausage varies by day. The Smoked Sausage Plate ($14.12) depends on what the kitchen made, so availability is genuinely a question worth asking.
- Pulled pork almost never runs out. The Pulled Pork Plate ($14.12) is the safest late order on the menu.
The best window to go
Weekday lunch, between about 11:30am and 1:00pm. Everything came off the smoker that morning, the biscuits are being baked in batches rather than held, and the dining room turns over fast enough that table service is quick. The worst window is Friday and Saturday between 6:00pm and 8:00pm — the fullest rooms of the week and the point at which the rib supply is under most pressure.
A second-best option that regulars use: late Sunday afternoon, around 3:00pm. The lunch rush is finished, the kitchen is still fully stocked, and you can get a split full rack between two people without waiting.
Holidays
Holiday hours are set locally, and with a footprint this small there is no national schedule to point at. The reliable pattern across Southern table-service barbecue chains is:
- Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day — closed, or open only for a morning pickup window for pre-ordered smoked turkey. Details are in the Thanksgiving guide.
- Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve — usually an early close, often 3:00pm to 6:00pm.
- Independence Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day — normally open, and normally busy, because barbecue and those three days go together.
- Easter Sunday — varies more than any other holiday. Call.
Checking your location
Individual restaurants adjust hours for local trade — a mall-adjacent location may run later, a small-market one may close earlier on Mondays. Check jimnnicks.com for the store page before making a drive worth it, and if you are ordering ahead, the order-ahead timing guide explains how far in advance to place it. Prices for everything above are on the Jim 'N Nick's menu page.