Meet the barbecue pit master who has the oldest Black-owned car dealership in Manatee
The first day Darryl Fields started selling barbecue to the public eight years ago, he sold only two chicken sandwiches.
He and his family ended up having to eat a case of ribs.
But he continued to return each week, and gradually, word got out that Fields was selling astonishingly good and tender barbecue.
He built a loyal following — one rib, one drumstick, at a time — through word of mouth.
“It’s real food like it used to taste,” Fields, 60, says as he turns chicken quarters and slabs of ribs on a giant cooker in the parking lot of Ward Temple AME Church at 520 Martin Luther King Drive W.
But as good as the barbecue is, his business journey and accomplishments may surpass it. Fields also has the oldest Black-owned used car dealership in Manatee County.
After first earning money as a kid picking fruit for extra money and helping get jobs for the family car repair business, he now hopes to inspire others achieve the American dream.
Going pro with barbecue
Smokin’ D’s Old School BBQ sets up shop at 11 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays and stays open until Fields is sold out of food.
If you’re in the vicinity, you might not need GPS. Just follow the smoke.
What’s his secret? Years of cooking experience. With nine children he had to cook, he said.
Friends and relatives who enjoyed his barbecue encouraged him to go pro, certain that his barbecue would be a hit.
With that encouragement and the help of his older brother, Paul Fields Jr., who manufactured Smokin’ D’s over-sized cooker, Darryl got into the food business.
“I would never have been able to afford to buy a cooker like that,” Fields says.
Ross Peterson was one of his first customers on a recent Friday and ordered leg quarters for $5.
“I had to turn my truck around because I smelled the smoke,” Peterson said.
Randy Johnson stopped by next and also ordered chicken.
“I found out about them and I don’t go anyplace else,” Johnson said.
Fields has a friendly and relaxed style, joking with his customers about how good Smokin’ Ds ribs are: “Man, if you try them, your mouth won’t know what to do.”
There are plenty of choices: a four-bone rib sandwich for $12, a rib dinner with two sides for $18, a half chicken for $10, a chicken dinner with two sides for $15 and a whole slab for $30.
Garratt Brannic bought food at Smokin’ D’s twice that day. On his first stop, he bought chicken quarters and then returned for a slab of ribs.
“He’s good people. I’ve been knowin’ him all my life,” Brannic said. “Once they get one taste of his barbecue, it’s over.”
‘We try to look out for each other’
Fields was born in 1961 in Manatee Veterans Hospital, the predecessor of Manatee Memorial Hospital, attended Bayshore High School and Southeast High School and earned his GED.
His family, who originally worked as sharecroppers in South Carolina, found out they could make a better living in Bradenton.
His father, Paul Fields Sr., got his first job in Bradenton at Montgomery Ward department store, which was located near present day Cortez Road and 14th Street West.
Paul Sr. later started an upholstery business in his backyard. A friend who owned an auto body business, taught him how to paint cars.
“Although he was illiterate, anything he could learn, he could capitalize on,” Darryl said. And capitalize he did by eventually owning an auto body business.
From the time he was a small boy, Darryl worked in the family business, and when he was a little older, he would drum up business by visiting used car lots and pointing out paint and body defects in paint that could be corrected, and help the dealer fetch a better price.
As a kid, when he needed extra money, he would hop on a farm bus and harvest oranges and tomatoes for 30 cents a pound.
Twenty five years ago, he opened Darryl Fields Used Cars with just two cars. Today, it is the oldest Black-owned used car dealership in Manatee County.
A car dealership seemed like the best career choice for Fields because cars was what he knew best. He also knew his clients and who would be a good customer regardless of what their credit report or personal finances might indicate.
“We help a lot of people who have been disenfranchised,” he said. “There are 5,000 people in this town that I know and we try to look out for each other.”
“You pretty much sell cars during the income tax season, and then the rest of the year, not so much. I would do odds and ends the rest of the year,” Fields said.
Fields recently renamed the business at 1116 First St. E., Bradenton, Fields Auto Sales LLC because he wants to get his family more involved.
He has an undeniable nose for business, and a work ethic to match.
Albert Cumming Jr., owner of Cummings Mini-Mart, 720 Martin Luther King Ave. E., says he has known Fields all his life.
“His dad had the body shop and my dad had the store and gas station. Darryl Fields is a very hard worker. That’s all we did was work,” Cummings said.
Making it a success
Asked about his secret for success, Fields names a long list of mentors and others who inspired and helped him.
“I stand on the shoulder of giants,” he said.
Among those giants are his father, Paul Sr., his brother Paul Jr., Albert Cummings Sr., Albert Cummings Jr., and Dave McCarter, who did demolition work.
“Those are men who made a way out of nothing. They couldn’t even vote until 1965,” Fields said.
Fields is also grateful to his sisters, Jeanette Williams and Kathy Yarn, who consistently encouraged him to “do things that I didn’t think I could do. If I fall, if I waver, they are there,” he said.
What Fields didn’t mention is his own work ethic, his drive and his business acumen.
But others recognize those qualities and seek his counsel.
“I stop what I am doing, and what I tell them is that we need is people like you — we need people who want to do something, that have spunk,” Fields said.
“I tell them that if you want to do something, you have to want it bad enough. I ask them what is it you want to do? What do you need? If you want to start a pressure cleaning business, I tell them to get a pressure cleaner. I tell them to get business cards and leave them at places that look like they need pressure cleaning,” he said.
No doubt about it, starting a business is a challenge and it takes a lot of work.
“I love a challenge. There are a lot of things that you can do, You just need to see what people want. It’s called supply and demand,” Fields said.
Black-owned business
In October, the Manasota Black Chamber of Commerce and the Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance co-sponsored a forum at State College of Florida to foster the growth and creation of more Black businesses.
One of the guest speakers, Veronica Valdez, a vice president of Enterprise Florida, talked about the importance of small business in America, the role that it plays in creating jobs, and in building generational wealth in families.
She also noted that out of more than 30 million small businesses in the United States, only about two million are Black-owned. Small businesses are a key to realizing the American dream, she said.
To that end, Darryl Fields, Paul Fields Sr., and Albert Cummings Sr. and Albert Cummings Jr. are Black business pioneers in Manatee County.
At this this stage of his life, Darryl Fields stays busy with his businesses, but he also wants to watch his grandchildren play, and to make others happy, to do for them what they cannot do for themselves.
“Things are a lot better than in the old days, and getting better every day. We’re working toward that creed set out in the nation’s founding,” he said.
In spite of tragedies and setbacks like the recent racially motivated shooting in a Buffalo supermarket, Fields says there are more good people than bad.
“You’re not born mean and hateful. That stuff is learned. There is just one race — the human race,” he said. “When it comes to their kids, people aren’t that much different than one another. We’re working toward a better world. I never thought I would see a Black president until Barack Obama, and that changed my whole outlook.”
“Life is a struggle, but it just makes it better when you succeed. If you set your mind on a goal and you achieve it, your appreciation is much greater than if someone gave it to you.”
