For the last several years, Jon Elfrink has impressed Montgomery County residents with his funnel cakes.

Now, he’s showing he can make good barbecue, too.

Elfrink has been operating his new business, 7 Fires BBQ and More, at the parking lot of Canna Corner in New Florence for a month. He serves a menu that includes pork steaks, BBQ meatball subs, pulled pork sandwiches and BBQ spaghetti.

“After we get going a little more, I plan on offering all of that on a daily basis, but for right now, probably in the fall is when we really start having a more extensive menu,” Elfrink said. “Right now, I’m doing two or three different items a day.”

The business is currently held in a trailer. It runs seven days a week from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. and will open all year round.

“Truth be told, I built this trailer because eventually it will probably end up at the data centers,” Elfrink said. “Until they say you can come out, I worked out a deal with the guy who owns Canna Corner to sit here.”

The restaurant opened on June 16 with a small menu of pulled pork sandwiches and BBQ nachos.

“One of the days the following week, I tried opening at 11 am and actually started serving at 10:30 a.m. and sold out at noon,” Elfrink said. “I tried to sell out between 1 and 1:30. The next day, I made more food and sold out at 1.”

The New Florence resident said his BBQ stand has attracted many workers in the New Florence area, including the ones who are building the Google and Amazon data centers off I-70.

“I’m getting more and more construction workers and a lot of locals, too,” Elfrink said. “Growing up in Montgomery, there are still a lot of people who know me and they patronize me, which is wonderful.”

Elfrink is also the owner of Joe’s Funnel Cakes. He took over the business just four years ago after his brother, Joe, retired. Joe’s Funnel Cakes is celebrating its 41st anniversary this year.

But Elfrink has plenty of experience in making barbecue.

“I had barbecue places in Pilot Grove and Boonville about 20 years ago,” Elfink said. “So when I moved back home about three years ago, I was looking to do something and the trailer was probably the most cost effective and low overhead weight to get into the game again.”

Elfrink said 7 Fires came into his mind two years ago when he was thinking about opening another barbecue stand.

“7 probably came off one of the Fletch movies, so 7 has always been one of my numbers,” Elfrink said.

Seven Fires BBQ will not be open during Montgomery County Fair week on July 20-25 because Elfrink will be running the funnel cake trailer.

The business will be closed the following week because Elfrink plans to go to Iowa for a funnel cake event.

“By mid-August, we’ll be back to being every Monday through Friday for lunch,” Elfrink said. “We’re looking to do some evenings later on as well.”