John Mull’s Road Kill Grill: A Las Vegas BBQ Institution

Some Las Vegas restaurants feel like they belong to the city’s newest chapter. John Mull’s Meats & Road Kill Grill feels like it has been here through several of them.

Located in northwest Las Vegas on Thom Boulevard, this longtime family business traces its roots back to 1954, when John Mull obtained his first business license for a slaughterhouse and meat store. What began as an old-school meat-processing operation eventually evolved into a butcher shop, catering business and one of the most recognizable local BBQ spots in Las Vegas.

I first discovered Road Kill Grill more than a decade ago, and it has remained one of those places I think of when someone asks where to find barbecue with some real Vegas history behind it. So after a morning motorcycle ride with friends, we headed back for brisket, burnt ends, hot links, and a reminder of why this place has stayed on my list for so long.

History from Beyond the Grill

John Mull’s Meats & Road Kill Grill isn’t just another BBQ joint—it’s a Las Vegas institution with roots stretching back more than 70 years.

The story begins with John Mull, who was raised in the Dutch-Amish region of Pennsylvania and worked as a carpenter before moving to Southern Nevada with his wife, Lois, in 1938. According to the company’s history, Mull originally hoped to find work connected to the Hoover Dam, but instead found work in casino construction.

By the 1940s, he had moved into meat processing. In 1954, Mull applied for his first business license and opened a slaughterhouse and meat store near Gowan Road and Decatur Boulevard. That 1954 license marks the beginning of the John Mull’s business story locals still know today.

This was a very different Las Vegas. The neighborhoods that now surround John Mull’s had not yet swallowed up the open land, and the family business operated more like the kind of country butcher shop you would expect to find far outside a growing desert city.

If you enjoy seeing the older side of Southern Nevada that still survives beyond the Strip, that same sense of history is one of the reasons places like the historic Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings are still worth seeking out. Some places tell the story of the region simply by continuing to exist.

Mull brought beef in from his Utah ranch, and according to the company, cattle were sometimes herded directly to the Thom Boulevard property. Customers came for fresh beef and specialty butcher products such as blood sausage and scrapple—an old Pennsylvania dish made from pork and cornmeal.

Ownership remained in the family. John Mull’s son-in-law, Don Frommer, took over in 1957. In 1964, John’s younger son, Bill Mull, became the next owner and operated the business as John Mull’s Meats & Deer Processing.

Bill expanded the processing side to include animals such as deer, elk, and hog. Then, in 1981, John Mull’s grandson, Chuck Frommer, became the fourth owner and the third generation of the family to lead the business.

Today, animals are no longer slaughtered on the property, although John Mull’s continues operating as a meat market and processes wild game brought in by properly permitted hunters. The market also sells beef, pork, poultry, cheeses, seasonings, sauces, rubs and other products alongside the prepared food served at Road Kill Grill.

It creates an unusual combination: part neighborhood butcher shop, part barbecue counter and part living piece of Las Vegas history. In a city where restaurants and buildings seem to change constantly, that continuity is a major part of the appeal.

From Butcher Shop to BBQ Icon

The move into barbecue grew naturally from what the family was already doing.

After years of providing meat to local caterers, Chuck Frommer expanded the business with Road Kill Grill, bringing the family’s decades of experience with meat into prepared BBQ, homemade-style sides and catering.

Instead of simply picking up meat to take home, customers could now grab smoked brisket, ribs, pulled pork, chicken, hot links and other barbecue favorites prepared right on the property.

Road Kill Grill developed the kind of following that is difficult to manufacture. It isn’t built around a polished dining room or a carefully staged restaurant concept. The picnic tables, outdoor patio, smokers and butcher-shop surroundings are the concept.

The familiar yellow building with dark brown lettering still has an old-school look, and the covered outdoor dining area keeps the experience closer to a backyard cookout than a traditional Las Vegas restaurant.

The process behind the food is equally serious. John Mull’s says many of its BBQ meats require long cooking times, with some preparations taking around 16 hours. That low-and-slow approach is a major part of what has made the Road Kill Grill name stick.

Las Vegas has developed a surprisingly varied smokehouse scene around places like this. For another pit-focused neighborhood experience, Wild Fig BBQ in Summerlin takes its own approach to slow-smoked meats while keeping that casual local feel.

I first discovered Road Kill Grill 12 years ago, and it’s been my go-to BBQ spot ever since.

However, many locals I talk to have heard of it but never actually visited.

That needed to change. So, after a morning ride through Red Rock Canyon with my riding buddies, I steered the group straight to Road Kill Grill for a well-earned feast.

Our timing made the visit even better. The Nevada BBQ Association was hosting a BBQ cookoff that day, and a live band was working through classic rock and country songs while the smokers ran in the background.

The smell alone could make you hungry all over again. Smoke was rolling through the area, people were moving between the cookoff and picnic tables, and plates of barbecue kept coming out of the kitchen. We had basically ridden straight into BBQ heaven.

It was exactly the kind of unplanned stop that makes a Vegas ride memorable. If that combination of motorcycles, desert roads and local destinations sounds familiar, our Las Vegas road trips and day trips are filled with places that make a good excuse to get out of the city for a few hours.

National Attention from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

Road Kill Grill may feel like a neighborhood discovery, but it hasn’t exactly stayed a secret.

John Mull’s Meats & Road Kill Grill was featured on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives with Guy Fieri, bringing national attention to a place Las Vegas locals had already been visiting for years.

Food Network specifically highlighted Chuck Frommer’s barbecue and dishes including the hot links, ribs, pulled pork and mac and cheese. The hot links received particular attention for the time that goes into curing and smoking them.

That TV exposure introduced Road Kill Grill to visitors from around the country, but walking around the property today still feels very different from visiting a celebrity-chef restaurant on the Strip. The surroundings remain casual, the picnic tables remain part of the experience, and the butcher-shop identity hasn’t disappeared behind the national recognition.

For another classic smokehouse experience on a much larger restaurant scale, Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que delivers brisket, ribs, hot links and Southern-style comfort food—but the atmosphere could hardly be more different from John Mull’s backyard setup.

Serving Up Smoky Flavors & Tender Meats

We went all in with our order, making sure to sample a little bit of everything. There are times to order responsibly, and then there are times when four hungry guys arrive at a BBQ joint after a motorcycle ride.

This was definitely the second kind.

Burnt Ends

These were the star of the show for me—tender, smoky and packed with rich beef flavor. The darker bark around the outside gave them that concentrated barbecue punch, while the inside stayed juicy enough to keep us reaching back for another piece.

Hot Links

If there is one menu item with some serious Road Kill Grill credentials, it is the hot link. Spicy, smoky and finished with that satisfying sausage snap, ours had enough heat to make things interesting without overpowering everything else on the plate.

Brisket

Brisket is always one of my tests at a barbecue restaurant. Ours came tender and deeply smoky, with enough richness that it didn’t need much help once it hit the plate.

BBQ Chili

The chili went in a completely different direction from the sliced meats—a thick, hearty bowl with plenty of smoked-meat flavor running through it. This is the kind of side that can easily turn into part of the main event.

Baby Back Ribs

The ribs brought exactly what we wanted from a BBQ lunch: tender meat, plenty of smoky flavor and a rich sauce that added sweetness without hiding the meat underneath.

Mac & Cheese

You almost have to order mac and cheese with barbecue, and Road Kill Grill’s version gave us that creamy comfort-food break between bites of smoked meat. There is a reason Food Network lists it among the restaurant’s popular dishes.

Bean Soup

The bean soup rounded everything out with a warm, hearty side that felt right at home beside the larger BBQ platter.

The outdoor picnic-table setup ended up being exactly where we wanted to eat. With the live band going, smokers working nearby and a BBQ competition adding extra energy to the afternoon, the visit felt less like a normal restaurant lunch and more like walking into somebody’s very large backyard cookout.

If barbecue and Southern comfort food are your thing, Mama Bird offers another neighborhood take on smoked meats, fried chicken and Southern flavors without repeating the same kind of Road Kill Grill experience.

A Conversation with the Pitmaster

After finishing our meal, I had the chance to chat with Chuck Frommer himself.

That conversation helped put the whole place into perspective. It is easy to look at John Mull’s today as a well-known BBQ restaurant that appeared on national television, but Frommer is carrying a family operation that reaches back three generations before him.

Despite the attention surrounding Road Kill Grill, he came across as grounded and focused on the work.

His philosophy was simple: stay positive, listen to feedback, and love what you do.

Frommer acknowledged that customers will always have opinions—some positive, some critical—but he views feedback as an opportunity to keep improving.

That mindset also explains how the business has survived so many changes around it. Las Vegas has grown dramatically since John Mull first entered the meat business. Open land became neighborhoods, neighborhoods became major communities, and the city developed one of the most competitive restaurant scenes in the country.

Yet this little piece of old Vegas is still here.

Weathering the Hard Days

Road Kill Grill has had its share of difficult moments, too. During our conversation and original reporting for this story, we discussed the fire the operation faced in late 2024, which damaged part of the area used to prepare its barbecue.

The important part of the story isn’t the damage—it is that Road Kill Grill kept moving forward.

That resilience feels appropriate for a business that has already adapted from a slaughterhouse to a meat market, from a meat market to a catering operation, and from a local butcher shop to a nationally recognized BBQ destination.

As a local business owner in Vegas myself, that part hits home. Businesses like John Mull’s don’t survive for seven decades because every year is easy. They survive because families, employees, customers and communities keep showing up.

That is one of the reasons we spend so much time highlighting locally owned Las Vegas businesses and the people behind them. A city is more than its newest buildings and biggest attractions. The businesses that survive long enough to become part of a neighborhood’s identity deserve some attention, too.

More Than a BBQ Stop

John Mull’s Meats & Road Kill Grill is more than just a place to grab a plate of smoked meat—it is a living piece of Las Vegas history.

You can come here because you saw it on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. You can come because somebody told you about the burnt ends. You can stop at the meat market before heading home to fire up your own grill. Or, like us, you can make it the final destination after a morning motorcycle ride around the valley.

Whichever excuse gets you onto Thom Boulevard works for me.

The combination is what makes this place special: an old butcher shop, generations of family history, giant smokers, picnic tables, BBQ plates and a business that somehow still feels connected to a version of Las Vegas that existed long before most of the homes around it.

And if this visit sends you looking for more barbecue around town, try the modern smokehouse atmosphere at SMKD BBQ or the Mexican-American smoking style at Humo Barbecue. Both show how far the Vegas BBQ scene has expanded while giving Road Kill Grill its own distinct place at the old-school end of the spectrum. :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}

But there is only one John Mull’s.

If you’ve driven past the area without realizing what was back there, consider this your invitation to finally make the turn. Order more meat than you probably need, grab a picnic table, and enjoy one of those increasingly rare Vegas experiences where the history surrounding your meal is almost as interesting as what’s on the plate.