Happy Thanksgiving….on Black Friday!

Well, now that the Thanksgiving holiday is behind us and Black Friday is upon us it’s time to start thinking about all those upcoming Holiday events!  Heck, it’s time to start booking your 2010 events as far as that goes!  Our calendar is filling up for the Spring and early Summer months next year and we’d LOVE to add your event.  Our 2010 Menu is going to change a bit, but our current favorites will all still be there, so if you’ve got a Holiday Party, Family Gathering or Company event coming up, think about adding some slow cooked, wood-smoked, ‘North Carolina Style’ BBQ!  We keep our smokers burning year round and what a great way to share good times and create memories with friends and family! 

Our pulled pork is cooked with the NC tradition always in mind…low & slow over Hickory and some Apple wood and MAN is it tasty!  Add a bun, some Carolina Style Vinegar Slaw and a bit of Hoover’s Southern Fusion BBQ sauce and it’s a marriage made in heaven!  Actually, it’s made here in South Middleton Township along the mountain…but you get the point!  We offer something for everyone in addition to the Pulled Pork, we’ve got incredible ‘Beer Can’ style smoked chicken which gets to soak up not beer, but an incredibly fragrant and tasty blend of fresh herbs and chicken stock, delivering a taste that is hard to beat.  We also have tremendous, lip smackin’ ribs that once beat the guy (Butch) who’s ribs beat Bobby Flay’s on the Food Network’s ‘Throwdown’ TV show…I think that means that they’re pretty tasty!  Finally our Beef Brisket is a taste of Texas right here in Central PA!

All of our meats, sides and desserts are prepared to order for your event and are served to you and your guests as fresh as can be.  Our smoked meats come right off the smoker and straight to your event, our sides are home made and complement our “Q” perfectly and our Desserts are sure to please.  We offer a variety of catering options for all types of events and are capable of serving 25 to 1500 folks with over 350 square feet of smoker space!  AND…as if that’s not ENOUGH to tempt your tastebuds…we are offering a 5% Discount on ANY sized 2010 event booked by December 31st!  That’s a 5% savings and you’ll lock in at 2009 prices…not a bad deal for Black Friday!

SO..if you’ve got an event coming up and you want something a bit different, consider our craft cooked meats and sides, it will be a meal that folks remember for some time!

Checking in from BBQ-Ville!

It’s been a while since my last post and I have no reasonable excuse to offer other than the standard ‘been busy’ line, so I’ll spare you!  Thought a quick update on what’s been going on around here might be in order:

• We’ve begun the process of looking for the right Co-Packer to do a commercial run of Hoover’s Sauce this Winter.  It’s an arduous process and there’s LOTS of opinions and possibilities out there, so I sure would appreciate any advice or experience that readers might have with or about co-packers!  Heck, then I’ll need to ride that distribution learning curve too…so once again, any help….much obliged!
• We’re actively working on a complete re-vamp of the menu for 2010 and so far have been having fun with concepts and test recipes…more news to come on the ‘10 menu soon!
• Still putting together plans to open a walk-up/concession location in early Spring, financing (as always) is the issue these days!  We have now included an “Investors” page on the website (www.GreatQ4U.com) which following initial conversations to insure sincerity and commitment, folks interested in being a part of GreatQ4U! will have a chance to take a detailed look at the plans and the numbers.  If it all makes sense for them, we’ll offer a package that offers the opportunity to earn a substantial return on your investment.  All the while investingating traditional financing options as well.
• Keeping the smokers burning!  We’ve got test recipes, competitions and lots to do in the coming months, so we keep the Hickory and Apple burning!

So, that’s all I have to say about that!  It’s APPLE SEASON…take the family to Adams County, PA this weekend and pick up LOTS of apples! – jak

2010 BBQ Competition Season is FAST Approaching….

I know that in some context I say this every year and I have since this whole crazy odyssey began, but NEXT year we are definately going to spend some time on the competition trail!  You see, back when this all began it was in our home kitchen brewing up a BBQ sauce.  Not just ANY sauce mind you, but “Hoover’s” sauce!  It was my goal to develop a primarily vinegar based ‘red’ sauce (just like most folks in North Carolina prefer) that could actually win a comptetition.  You see, back then and to a significant degree still today, vinegar doesn’t win competitions.  It seems that the majority of judges prefer some thick, sweet smokey sauce…at least that’s MY impression.

With that in mind I made batch after batch of sauces to try and strike just the right balance between the two.  In fact, I made so many batches that good friends began to cry “Uncle”, reminding me that they already had several bottles of my sauce.  I wasn’t deterred by their pleas for mercy and kept loading them up!  Finally after nearly 5 years, ‘Hoover’s Southern Fusion’ sauce was born.  With a touch of Kansas City, a smidgeon of Memphis and a whole lot of those North Carolina roots it was still a discernably vinegary sauce, but I thought it just might have a chance!

With the sauce complete, I embarked on learning the fine art of choosing the right meats and tending the Pit.  It was a steep learning curve and I had LOTS of help from others who were involved in KCBS competitions on a regular basis.  While it didn’t take as long as I thought to become proficient at the Pit, I’ll steal an analogy from my golfer friends and say that learning to swing and send the ball in the general direction you want it to go is one thing, building the perfect swing is another thing entirely!  So, I continue to work on my techniques to this day and have had a lot of fun doing it!

While friends kind of complained about the bottle upon bottle of sauce that they had piling up in their kitchen cabinets, I never have heard any complaints about the ziplock bags of Pulled Pork, Brisket or Chicken!  Alas, it was all that handing out freshly smoked meat that led to the beginning of the catering business.  Ever since then, it’s been cater, competition, cater, cater and more catering!  I am certainly not complaining, I love to meet new folks and even better to find new fans of Hoover’s sauce!  BUT, this whole thing started out as a way to win in a competition using a non-traditionally favorite sauce of the judges! 

We’ve had a blast year after year at Pork-In-the-Park in Salisbury, MD and then moved on to our busiest season for delivering GreatQ to parties, weddings, family gatherings, events and even a Hoe-Down (not sure how to spell that)!  However, I would like to spend some more time on the competition circuit and next year we are going to do just that!  Finally I am coming to the point of this ramble…if you are interested in being on the GreatQ4U! BBQ Team, we’d LOVE to hear from you.  I would request that you join (if you’re not already a member) either the Kansas City BBQ Society (www.kcbs.us) or the National BBQ Association (www.nbbqa.org) before contacting me so you’re already on the way.  Better yet, join BOTH…as well as your local BBQ Association too!  Membership will bring with it a great deal of access to knowledge along with a support group of fellow BBQ enthusiasts!

Once you’re a member of the Associations, shoot me an e-mail (Jim@GreatQ4U.com) or call the office at 717-254-1937 and we’ll talk about your interest, your availability and we all have to offer each other!  Hopefully this will lead to a more consistent presence at KCBS events across the country in 2010!  I look forward to hearing from you and wish you happy “Q”! – jak