William Hardy trained as a cook in the Army, did a stint in New York as a model and eventually worked for 30 years as a hairdresser in Athens â the last 14 years of which in the location his restaurant now occupies.
Hardy, also known as Mr. B.J., runs Dawg Gone Good BBQ on West Hancock Avenue. In January 2020 after years of building a business that operated seven days a week, Hardy began closing on Sundays, he said.
In 2020, the combination of COVID-19 and racial justice movements in Athens changed the course of decades-old restaurants, including Hardyâs and Dexter Weaverâs.