AUBURN - As they talked to The Citizen on their day off, the owners of Bear Bones Bar-B-Que & Grill turned away five parties within half an hour.

Considering the restaurant only began seating eaters June 30 - and has yet to advertise its opening - it's safe to say Bear Bones' barbecue cuisine was welcome in Auburn.

The new restaurant houses the seven-year-old catering service of childhood friends Rick Lupo and Mike Tarby, who hatched the idea for Bear Bones two years ago. Friend Chuck Boule bid on the Wall Street property, which was formerly Shirley's restaurant and Lucky's bar. Following a year of renovation that required an enlarged kitchen, a new ceiling and the installation of a smoker the size of a large closet, the restaurant was ready to seat. And patrons were ready to eat.

With Lupo heading up the kitchen as a cook and Tarby drawing on his knowledge of meats as a butcher, the pair is positioned to bring Auburn a delicious barbecue experience.

“We wanted something like the Dinosaur (Bar-B-Que),” Tarby said. “Something different in Auburn.”

The smoker is instrumental in filling the barbecue niche Lupo and Tarby imagine for Bear Bones. With hickory chips it can indirectly slow-smoke up to 200 pounds of sausage or 400 pounds of pork briskets at a time.

“The secret to everything is the smoker,” Lupo said. “It's like a big safe.”

After five hours of cold smoking and another five of higher temperature smoking, the pork is pulled, cleaned, “painted” with Lupo's patented barbecue sauce and re-cooked when prepared with a meal. Lupo refrains from mixing his sauce to be too spicy, though hot sauces are readily available for fans of hotter cuisine.

“A cook once taught me to learn to cook for everyone,” Lupo said.

The sauce and slow-cooked meats invigorate the entire menu, from the Cuban sandwich - pork, smoked ham and swiss cheese with pickles and mustard sauce - to the chicken club, which combines a grilled chicken breast with ham, cheese, bacon, lettuce and tomato. The menu encourages eaters to enjoy the fun of appetizers like homemade kielbasa and shrimp on a stick, then shout “Yaa Hoo!” with entrees like pulled pork and barbecue chicken.

“Barbecue food is messy and fun to eat,” Tarby said.

The light-hearted atmosphere extends to the restaurant's name, which Lupo imagined, and their cartoon bear emblem standing atop a pile of stripped bones, which Tarby's nephew created. Once they walk in, customers are greeted by the bust of Benni the Bear, who received his name by twin girls eating at the restaurant. A budding picture wall of past guests of honor found its first occupant in Blue Engelking, a 9-year-old actor featured in “The Invasion” and other films, whose grandparents live in Auburn.

The Bear Bones owners plan to expand their restaurant by serving alcohol when they obtain their liquor license, then hosting live music on their new patio when it's built this summer. Once a month, the restaurant will offer music-and-meal nights that combine a pig roast with a blues band or steak and jazz.

Tarby and Lupo will also continue operating their catering service under the auspices of Bear Bones. After working out of the kitchens of friends and Dutch Hollow Country Club, where Lupo worked at one time, the two now have a full restaurant of equipment to turn out full trays of pulled pork and kielbasa for parties and other affairs.

But for the full barbecue experience, there's only one place to go. Where there's smoke, there's Bear Bones.

“It's nice putting out a product that makes you proud,” Tarby said. “When someone really likes it and comes back.”

Staff writer David Wilcox can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 245 or david.wilcox@lee.net