Wichita restaurant owner dreamed he was a ‘barbecue guy.’ He woke up, changed professions.

Four years ago, Jerry Bell came home from a hard day at work as a contractor. He went to bed exhausted.

“I had a dream that I was a barbecue guy,” he remembers. “And when I woke up, I changed my profession from a contractor to a barbecue guy.”

Never mind that he didn’t have any experience on the grill or even own a pair of tongs, he said. He believed the message was being sent to him from a higher power.

Now, Bell is a restaurant owner. His JuhBa’s Official BBQ operates from the old Charlie’s Famous Burgers building at 3200 W. 13th St. and is open Wednesdays through Sundays each week. (He was closed last week while he attended a family reunion.)

After the dream, said Bell — known to his friends as Jay Bee and to his cousins growing up as JuhBa — he started teaching himself how to cook on an old grill his parents owned at the time. He also bought the old Charlie’s building, which sat vacant until he started using it earlier this year. (Charlie’s closed in 2017 after 25 years in business.)

Before that, Bell said, he developed a following serving his food from the parking lot of the Family Dollar store at 21st and Grove. Finally, this year, he decided he was ready to move into the building, which now has a DIY paint job and a homemade sign out front.

Bell said he’s become well known for a dish he calls “popcorn ribs.” Essentially, he said, they’re boneless rib tips that are breaded and fried and look like popcorn chicken bites.

“You pop them in your mouth like popcorn,” he said.

Also on the menu: brisket, smoked meatloaf, ribs, chicken legs, pulled pork, baked beans, potato salad, mac and cheese, chicken wings and fries. Soon, Bell said, he plans to add fried catfish.

The tiny restaurant doesn’t have any dine-in seating, but Bell said he offers carryout and drive-through service.

One of the best parts of being a restaurant owner so far, he said, is interacting with children who love his food.

Recently, he said, an 8-year-old boy and his mom stopped by. The mom wanted to show Bell a sentence her son had written in school when asked to describe someone who inspired him.

On Facebook, the mom said that her son used to get Bell’s popcorn ribs when he would serve them at 21st and Grove. After they hadn’t seen him there for a few weeks, the son asked where Bell had gone, and she told him that Bell had opened his own restaurant, promising to take him.

The boy’s paper read, “I am happy that the man has his own shop.”

The mom who shared the story wanted to be sure Bell knew the impact he’d had.

“He was so happy to hear you finally got a restaurant of your own,” she wrote in her post. “Thank you for inspiring him.”

JuhBa’s hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, Bell said, unless he has an event going on. Also, he said, 8 p.m. isn’t his official closing time: He shuts up the shop when he runs out of food.