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It's hard to see B&J Carryout as a fast food place.

Being a carryout that sells barbecue sandwiches, burgers, onion rings, fish sandwiches and ice cream — with only an outside dining area of several picnic tables with umbrellas — it certainly seems like a fast food place.

But with nearly every dish served inside the small lavender building with red and white awnings made from scratch using the freshest ingredients, it hardly tastes like one.

The barbecue is either slow cooked beef or B&J's signature North Carolina Dixie-style pork. The burgers and fish are prepared from beef and seafood that is delivered fresh daily. The onion rings are cut and coated with homemade batter; the fish and oysters are hand-breaded. And the ice cream — also used to make shakes, old-fashioned malts, brownie sundaes and the new Coffee Cooler shake and the Orange Dream — is premium

Sue Jones, who co-owns B&J with her husband Phil, said they only wanted the best ingredients for their fellow Accokeek residents.

"We do things like only use Canola oil because it's heart healthy. There's no trans fat in there," she said. "These are our neighbors we're feeding so we want to do what's right."

Business was slow when the Joneses bought the restaurant in 1991. Things quickly changed, though.

"The first thing we did was paint it purple and people came to see what was going on and they liked the food," she said. "I would say business has tripled since we bought it, and it did that right off, in the first couple of years. It's busy, always busy in there."

The restaurant originally opened in 1950 as Our Carryout, Jones said. The next owners were Bobby and Julian, hence its name, she said. The Joneses are the third owners. They moved to Accokeek and were customers who liked the look of the place and heard the B&J owners wanted to sell.

"It was perfect. We had little kids, and we didn't want to commute. It's been great for that," she said. "We're working right in the community where we live and we like that. Our commute is five minutes."

Jones, whose son is now one of four managers, said she tweaked the food, added dishes and made changes. Open from breakfast to dinner, popular dishes include the barbecue, burgers, steak and cheese sub, crab cakes, oysters, onion rings and the standout turkey club — made using meat sliced and pulled from a fresh 28-pound turkey roasted each day. The roast beef is roasted in-house, too.

Excluding sides, some of which are as low as 99 cents, the food items range from $3 to $16, with the majority ranging from $4 to $7.

Inside is a small speckled-floor space, bustling with customers filing in and out placing and picking up orders. Behind the counter near the ceiling are colorful signs with printed menu items — one boasting that B&J is the "area's finest carryout." Below the signs are items for sale, including gum, atomic fireballs, lollipops, candy bars, candy, chips and B&J T-shirts. It's a busy, friendly place, where regulars are apparent.

"Sometimes we'll see [a customer's] car at the light with the blinker on and we know what they want and we put their food on the grill and it's ready when they come in," Jones said.

B&J Carryout

15805 Livingston Road, Accokeek

Phone: 301-292-5631

Hours: 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday; 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday; 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday