Feb. 17, 2021

Bone Daddy’s Smokehouse has closed its kitchen in Canton but plans to eventually open its own restaurant or a food truck.

Owners Randy and Vanessa Ragatz started serving food out of Bushwhackers Bar & Grill in Canton four months ago. They created Bone Daddy’s a year ago, operating out of The Phoenix Lounge in Harrisburg. They ran both for a short time but closed the Harrisburg kitchen in January to focus on the Canton location, where they served food Friday nights through Sunday afternoons.

“We decided it would be best for our business to go into our own space,” Vanessa Ragatz said. “We decided to come back in the next year and see what we can find when the economy gets better.”

She said they’ll consider opening a restaurant in a community such as Canton, or “we’ll maybe see about getting a food truck started up and then travel around to the small towns.”

In the meantime, they’ll continue to do catering and keep working at their full-time jobs. He’s a owner-operator truck driver, and she works in health care administration.

For now, Bushwhackers will go back to selling pizza on the weekends, owner Scott Pearson said.

“We’re going to just see what our options are, if we can move someone else in there.”