An all-new construction Mission BBQ restaurant for Cross Keys Road Sicklerville is set to open mid-December in a brand new small strip of stores located next to the Shoppes at Cross Keys.
Mission BBQ is a fast-growing national chain of rustic themed quick casual BBQ restaurants featuring delicious “in-store” made barbecue chicken, pork, brisket, turkey and more… As well as delicious sides… all at a very fair price.
And the key underlying “mission” of Mission BBQ is in supporting first responders. So far the restaurant brand has donated over $20 million dollars to national and local charitable organizations who support soldiers, firefighters, police officers, first responders and more.
The combination of a delicious product at a fair price, while also helping those who help us… has really connected with the community. In fact it seems that every time I visit the existing Deptford location there’s always a large number of customers in the dining room.
This is another exciting restaurant for Cross Keys Road which just this year has seen the opening of First Watch (with bar!), Dave’s Hot Chicken, Asad’s Hot Chicken and Johnny Longhots!
Continue to read on for more on this new restaurant… but I’ll slip in now that the solid (but tentative) opening date is set for December 17th. This date comes from several local charitable and first responder organizations who have recently shared they will be participating in the opening day celebrations!
Mission BBQ – Sicklerville
For the upcoming Sicklerville location, 42Freeway first broke the news on it’s plans two years ago, and then last year we announced the start of construction.
As mentioned this is an all new construction building with Mission BBQ as an anchor tenant on the right side, closest to the property entrance.
The location is in Gloucester Township between the Shoppes at Cross Keys and TD Bank. The Patient First Urgent Care and Creanies Ice Cream are across the street.
While this project is a new development it actually is a smart reuse of the property which originally was a church (on the right) with a large parking lot to the side (on the left).
That large parking lot allocation on the left half of the property was needed when the building operated as a church… to support the large congregation.
With the former church building now a Dialysis center, that large amount of parking allocation was no longer needed… which caught the interest of a savvy developer.
To facilitate the construction of the new building, as part of the conversion of the church building to it’s lower-traffic medical use, a completely new dedicated parking area was developed in front of the former church building, in an area that previously was an undeveloped “front yard”.
This completely freed up the left portion of the property (unused parking lot) for the development of a small strip of retail stores at the back.
When this project moved through Planning Board there was a second identified tenant… a dental office was expected to be developed on the left portion of the building. Those plans for the dental office did not move forward.
With that being said, I don’t have any knowledge regarding additional tenants in the building. According to the online marketing website for the building, all of the other units are still available for rent.
I stopped over at the construction site this morning (Saturday) to see that the exterior of the building is basically finished with the Mission BBQ exterior signage in place.
This Sicklerville Mission BBQ will also feature an outdoor patio area with covered roof.
I peeked through the windows of the upcoming Sicklerville Mission BBQ to see that it looks pretty much ready to go inside, with all of the tables and chairs in place as well as the soda machines and televisions. The televisions were operating and showing a Mission BBQ promo clip.
Overall I would say the Sicklerville dining room is smaller than Deptford, but Sicklerville has a larger outdoor patio dining space.
While there are also now locations in Marlton and Hamilton, I’ve only ever been to the Deptford mission BBQ.
The interior decor typically features a rustic wood and corrugated steel design, with a significant amount of interesting decor elements and photos highlighting the first responder and military aspects of Mission BBQ.
As mentioned, all of the food is made in house and every location has massive smokers developed within the building so they can make the necessary large quantities to the support of customer base.
The key meat items are brisket, pulled pork, sausage, turkey, pulled chicken… which can be ordered as an entree or a sandwich.
In their Smokehouse Signatures category they offer baby back ribs, chicken, salmon, smoked cheeseburger and a variety of specials.
For many customers the sides at Mission BBQ are as big a reason to visit as the entrees, with incredible Maggies Mac and Cheese, Baked Beans, Coleslaw, Green Beans (with bacon) and more.
Each table has a centerpiece of six different barbecue sauces ranging from Kansas City to Memphis and more. Delicious!
A variety of drinks and lemonade are offered with the big deal being the American Heroes Cup. For $4.99 you get a special cup that you get to keep… and $2.00 of that purchase is donated to charity. The next time you return, bring that cup with you and you can get a refill for only $0.99!
I’ll be back in two weeks for the opening!
Links and Location
Mission BBQ Sicklerville (Opening December 17th)
601 Berlin-Cross Keys Rd
Sicklerville (Gloucester Township), NJ