Jon & Kristy from Just North of Memphis BBQ

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome everybody. New edition of Dinner Plus Drinks. And we have two very special guests lined up today. We have John and Christy Biach from just north of Memphis Barbecue. It's uh a little early on a Monday morning is recording this. Uh you guys, bright and butchy tailed. How are you guys doing?

SPEAKER_04 0:23

Doing great. We're glad to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Wonderful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

I suppose it's not super early compared to some of the cook days you guys have to do at competitions, right?

SPEAKER_04 0:32

Exactly. Um, our days start pretty darn early, um, usually between four and five a.m. You know, so this is I I actually slept into about 10 after 7. So this it wasn't too bad.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

This is midday.

SPEAKER_04 0:46

Right, right, exactly, Bridget.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

That's right. We have young kids, so we're up pretty early.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

We're doing this interview the week that I was hoping I'd see you guys in person at Elkhorn Ribfest. Uh, but unfortunately, due to COVID this year, it's been canceled. And instead of talking in person, we thought it would be awesome to talk to you guys remotely, um, record this and talk to people a little bit about what just north of Memphis barbecue is, um, share some of your stories from the road. You're telling us one before we started recording that was pretty funny and also really cool. Um, and then just share some barbecue tips too. So, could we start off by you guys just telling us what just north of Memphis barbecue is? Sure. You want me to take that one?

SPEAKER_04 1:34

So, just north of Memphis, Christy and I, um you've literally met the whole company now. Um, we're a small family-owned business. Um we've been in business for a good 20 plus years, and we would tell you that our business is kind of three three components to it. Number one, um, the reason you and I met Nick a few years ago is because we were in Elkhorn, Wisconsin at the Ribfest there. And we, first of all, are a national barbecue team. Uh, for the last 15, 16 years, Christy and I have crisscrossed the country literally from coast to coast, north, south, east, west, and we have competed in barbecue at some of the country's largest and most prestigious uh barbecue events, festivals, so forth. Um, and uh and that's our first component. The second component is back here home, um just north of Memphis here in Minnesota. Um we uh we have a uh catering business. And so uh we we um when we're not on the road, we spend a lot of time um catering barbecue here locally. Um uh and going hand in hand with that uh this last year we bought a second food truck, and so we have two food trucks that we go around and do local events here in Minnesota with, uh, and that's kind of been something that's been really good for us in terms of the year of COVID that we're in. And then the third piece um, which uh you we work with you on, is the third piece is we have a line of products, uh, which is our dry rub seasoning and our two sauces. And we're very thankful that uh uh Lake Geneva Meats has those in their store.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Well, they're we wouldn't put them in if they weren't good. Uh so that's awesome. So you talk about these three pieces. It seems like that's pretty much all encompassing in your life. Do you have other hobbies or things you do or just the barbecue?

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Any time.

SPEAKER_04 3:33

Yeah, well, we run pretty hard from uh the first of May all the way through the end of October. Um when we are on the road, um, which can encompass anywhere from it's not as much as it used to be. Um, but um when we're on the road, um we work six, seven days a week. Um, and that's during the warm weather months. Um, but but in the wintertime we lay ourselves off and take a little break so it's not as as stressful then. Uh but we do put in long hours. Um, one of my favorite sayings regarding barbecue is you know, you can't cook good barbecue fast. Uh and so you do have to put the time in, and that's been good for me because it's helped me slow my life down. You know, there's just nothing that I can do to change that.

SPEAKER_03 4:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

So who when you're a traveler, um, when you're traveling right now, who are you running the catering side of business, or are you just running that on the road?

SPEAKER_04 4:33

Well, we're blessed to have four children, and they're all now in their 20s. Uh so if if we got two of them on the road with us, two of them are back home, um, and two uh two of them are school teachers, one of them is still a student. Uh so they have been our right hands for almost all the years that we've been in business. Um, and they're they're truly part of they are the team, you know. When we call ourselves just north of Memphis Barbecue Team, they're the team. Yeah. Um, and uh the four kids have all uh contributed incredibly. Uh they could literally run the business without us. Um and they they know everything, they're all great cooks. Um and they can tell you everything that we're gonna share with you today.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Awesome. Um go ahead, Nick.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Was it always your intention to include the kids? Uh what got you started in in barbecue? Was this something that you started to, you know, like you said, slow down and include your kids? Or um was this something that you just always loved? And how did you get into barbecue?

SPEAKER_04 5:43

Well, I'll start and then Christy can um answer the second half. Um, I was um I was born here in Minnesota. Christy and I were both born here in Minnesota, but then uh my dad got a wild hair back in 1969 and moved our family to Nashville, and my mother's sister had already been living with her husband in Memphis. Okay, so during holidays and vacations and weekends, we'd travel down to Memphis and hang out with my cousins and my aunt and uncle. And it just so happened that my uncle uh was one of the guys that got barbecue kind of started as a sport back in the 70s and 80s. And I remember growing up as a young kid in elementary school, we'd go down to Memphis from Nashville to visit them, and he'd be cooking on the back patio, you know, and that's kind of where I got my first introduction. Uh, and then uh fast forward to 1992, after my uncle had literally won everything you could win in the sport of barbecue through the 80s and 90s, um, he came up to the very first Twin Cities Rib Fest. Now, Christy and I had met and we'd gotten married, and he invited us to come down and help out the team at this at this first rib cook-off in downtown Minneapolis. And uh long story short, uh he took first place, but we spent four days with him rubbing ribs, cooking ribs, slicing ribs, selling ribs. And then when he won, that was the icing on the cake, you know. That I like to say I got baptized in barbecue that day. Um, and then it became kind of a real, real dream because not only was it that we won, but we saw all of the interaction of all the people, the thousands of people that came to this first-time event in downtown Minneapolis. Uh, and it was really just an incredible experience uh that really changed me and and made barbecue my passion. So then you have to.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

How long were you guys married with a traumatic experience with those newlyweds?

SPEAKER_04 7:49

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:50

No, we're six years.

SPEAKER_04 7:51

Five, six years. We had been married, so she she kind of knew what she got at that point, you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

But uh not really, but let's be real.

SPEAKER_04 8:01

But then it was in then it was in 2005 that we made the decision to jump off the corporate bandwagon. We and we started our own business, and and uh here we are today, 15, 16 years later. Um and one of my one of the things that my uncle used to always say was a family that plays together stays together. So your question about, you know, did we intend for the kids to get involved with it, you know. I think one of the reasons that I left the corporate world and wanted to start our own business, and barbecue was the mechanism to allow me to do that, was I knew from watching other people, you know, that we could make it a family business. And that that was a really, you know, I worked a lot in the corporate world. I figured, well, I might as well work a lot in my own business and then be able to spend more time around the family.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

Sounds like a pretty good trade-off. Um people that are maybe new to this, like I've only been to RibFest in Alcorn once. Um, I didn't live back here. Uh it I kind of heard about it. Someone said, hey, let's check it out. I expected like pop-up tents with some people like flepping ribs. So for people who aren't like have never been to this, can you explain barbecue competitions a little?

SPEAKER_04 9:15

Sure. Um you want to take that one?

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Well, first I'll I'll start off with maybe a little bit of difference between what we we're a combination of the two when we compete, and we're also the national barbecue team. When we travel the country um and we go to Ribbest, a lot of that's selling our product along with competing. And and so, but there's also just competitions where you go around, you earn points to go to different national competitions, which would be Jack Daniels, Memphis MA, um, the Kansas City Royal. So there is a little bit of a I mean, we we usually compete at every rib fest that we go to, but we'll compete for um people's choice, which is your vote. We won that last year, by the way. Yeah. And then there's also um, you know, a first, second, maybe a third place ribs and also sauce. But they also might we uh sometimes turn in chicken, beef, and you know, another pork sandwich or something too. But um it's there is a little bit of separation when it comes to really competing and earning points to go to a national competition than other local events where we come to and and those kinds of things, which means a lot to us as well. Yeah, but there's a little bit of separation. I didn't realize that. That's so interesting. Yeah, and you can add to that, I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 10:46

So Elkhorn is a is when we were there last year, um, of all the events we did uh across the country, that in its fifth year, I think it was last year, maybe it was its fourth year, but anyway, um it bec it has become our second biggest, largest event in the country. And when I first got the phone call five years ago from the Walworth County Fairgrounds to inviting us to this brand new little rib fest in in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, I looked it up. I'd never heard of Elkhorn, Wisconsin. You know, I looked, I looked it up. You know, in a little town of 10,000. We're we're normally going to Boston and you know, Kansas City and Memphis and big cities, right? But there's lots of people, and we're we're like, okay, this is this is kind of crazy. But I mean, there's there's one of the things that intrigued us was uh uh you know, they told us, well, this is Wisconsin's largest county fair, you know. And so anyway, it it has become one of the best barbecue events in the country, and we we sure hope that it can continue in years to come. Uh but they're great hosts. The customers and the people that come are awesome. There's no reason not to come, there are no barriers to it. And then one of the things that we get to do and have done over the last 15 years, and we talked about our kids a little bit, but we also have lots of extended family that we've developed over the last 15 years all over the country. Every place we go to, um, typically what we'll do is uh we'll um put out an ad on Craigslist or something like that, um, inviting other people to come and join our team for the weekend. Okay. And there'll be some barbecue fanatics or some people that you know we we meet and they've become family year after year. They come and they spend the weekend with us cooking barbecue. Um, and so that's been a huge thing. And then the second part of that is as you mentioned, uh Bridget, you know, you expected maybe to see some pop-up tents with some guys and gals flipping ribs on grills, and that's not what you saw at all. You saw these national barbecue teams with these, you know, hundred thousand dollar rigs, yeah. Um, you know, cranking out hundreds and thousands or hundreds of ribs a day, you know. And so both our universe is not. We work Christy just said, we work in a very, very small universe. There are not a lot of national barbecue teams out there. Um it's as as you've mentioned in one of the questions, it's pretty insane. You know, when we when we go into an event for a four-day weekend like or a five-day weekend like in Elkhorn, um we start with setting up and and then start prepping all the food. Um, and then we're basically on our feet for 12 to 15 hours a day for four days straight. And um we do this shoulder to shoulder with these other barbecue teams. Sure, there's competition involved, but if my neighboring team, if Johnson's Barbecue or Barbecue King or Desperados or any of the other teams are in need of anything, or if I need something or Christy needs something, they're there for us. And we're like family. And and we don't all go to the same event weekend after weekend. There's no circuit per se like there is in NASCAR, or there's no, you know, set schedule. But, you know, we're we're we're all such um, we're all first of all, we're all small business people, so we're all in the same boat together, you know, and um we're all there for each other, and we've become close friends, if not family, you know, over all these years that we've been traveling and crisscrossing the country, competing against one another, you know. So, you know.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

What is all on the menu typically at uh on your rig or at something like this? What do you get judged on? What what what items do you make? And then how do you judge how good barbecue is? Is it just I like this? I did uh we had like a sponsor judging thing last year at Ribfest. And there's the you know, like American Barbecue Society rules, there's is this yummy rules, there's I like sweet ketchup sauce rules. How what are all the items you make and how are those judged?

SPEAKER_04 15:08

Um generally, as you mentioned, there's in and for people that want to get involved in barbecue, uh, as Christy mentioned, you can do it on the local level, the state level, the national level, and there are all these um groups and associations, societies that you can get involved with at whatever level you choose, as you just mentioned a few of them that have their own set of rules. Um, and they don't vary too much. The three basic rules in barbecue for judging and and scoring is taste, tenderness, and appearance. Okay, and that's generally how our our barbecue is judged. Um, as Christy mentioned a bit ago, you know, we can be judged in sauce, um, we can be, and then we're judged typically in the meats. Um and always I should would say uh you're judged in ribs. Okay, that's that's pretty much a given that no matter what competition we're in, there is going to be some kind of judging on your ribs. Um, and then generally sauce is after that. Um, and then and many of them, like uh in Columbus, Ohio, when we go to the jazz and rib fest there in July every year, we're judged also on brisket, uh pulled pork, and chicken, which when you put that with ribs, those four are kind of the four meats in the Kansas City Barbecue Society. Um, and we're judged again on taste, tenderness, and appearance. Now the judging format can change at each of these rib fests. Um, and Elkhorn does a little blend of it where some of the competitions we go to, it's 100% blind judging. The judges that taste, look at, and and um score your products don't know where the meat came from. Okay, they don't know which team it came from. Um but I think in Elcorn, and also like I mentioned in Columbus, we actually had judges come and visit our booth and receive part of our score from that visit, as well as from the blind judging. So I don't know if that answers all the question, but that's typically that's typically the format. It's typically those um one to four cuts of meat that we're cooking, um, and then it's uh scored based on taste, tenderness, and appearance.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

So it sounds like there's all kinds of things to choose from. So for a person new to any one of these festivals, how do you suggest they order? Like, do they come up and get one of everything or pick something they're used to eating, try something new? What would you say someone like me, new-ish to the booth, what should what should I order?

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Well, I think um our signature item is always our ribs, because typically in most events, we're one of the very few, if not the only one, that has a dry rub. And we do not, if you choose not to have sauce on on your ribs, we can you know just give you the ribs. We call it dry, which is just with the dry rub on. And that's what we suggest. We suggest it with us that you put the sauce on the side so that it's more of a dipping sauce versus a slathered over-the-grill kind of thing. But that's not everybody's flavor, so but for us, that's what that would be my first thing that I would tell you. Our second, well, actually, there's two more things. One more thing would be um our nachos are awesome. So you can have you can have the pulled pork or the chicken or even the brisket on the nachos. Um, but our third item that I is one of my favorites, it's because I make it fresh every day, is our peach bread pudding. Oh my god. That's not even meat. That's not even meat. That's your dessert. This sounds great. So that's one of these. Yeah, so that's that. Well, that's our dessert for you.

SPEAKER_04 18:57

So many of us, many of us teams at at these uh events like Elkhorn, um, many of us will offer a combination platter. Okay, so you get to taste brisket and pork and chicken and ribs. Um, so we have that on our menu. Um and uh so that's probably the number one thing, and it's probably one of the best sellers, you know, after the ribs. Um what makes a rib fest different from a county fair is first of all, obviously you get a plethora of barbecue to choose from. Um, secondly, um it is a rib fest for a reason. You're coming for ribs, and it's amazing as we crisscross the country and go to these events, how many people come just for ribs. I mean, our sales, uh our sales typically uh at an event like this in Elkorn are 50-50, 50% sandwiches and 50% ribs. That's about how it breaks down.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

I think when someone first told me to go to RibFest in Elkorn, I was like, I don't really like ribs. I don't know, I'm not a huge rib person. So we would go, my husband would get a combo platter at every booth he visited, and I would get nachos or the mac and cheese or whatever the kind of cancerian items were, and it was a really fun way to try everything.

SPEAKER_04 20:20

Right.

unknown 20:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:22

Going back to 1992, one of the things you know that bit me and got me so excited about this was not just the food, but what the food does, you know. And so your husband, he went and got all these sampler paddles, you know. But what happens after that? If he finds one that's really good, what's the first thing he wants to do? He wants to tell somebody about it, right? So you have this, yeah, you have this automatic reaction in us human beings that once we find something really good, uh, we want to share it with people.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:56

And so what that does, and and you know, there's theories out there that barbecue is an opportunity to bring world peace, uh but and and it's not that we don't subscribe to that, but you know, people there people, I think, first of all, have a uh even if they don't know how to cook barbecue, they have an underlying idea of what it takes to cook barbecue. Right, you know, and it's it's not just like frying hamburgers, yeah, you know, there's a lot more that goes into it. And so I think people appreciate that. That's first, and then if they find something that's really good, then they want to share it with people. And then all of a sudden you create these bonds that never would have happened, you know, and that's what we see happening at these events. Uh so they're as much about going for the food as they are about maybe the opportunity to share something with somebody that you may or may not know.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Yeah. So you mentioned you guys do dry rubs on the ribs, Christy. Is that kind of your calling card? Woods. Sets you guys apart. You guys have won a ton of awards. Uh always have a long line at RibFest, which is generally a good sign. What do you what's kind of your calling card other than that? How do you cook the ribs that's you know different? Or what makes you say like this is what we do and we're proud of it?

SPEAKER_04 22:20

Uh well, here's how we explain it to people. Christy already touched on the dry rub seasoning, and that is a family recipe that's been in our family for over 60 years, uh, developed by our aunt and uncle down in Memphis. And then the second piece, Nick, is I know when you came to the booth, I was really proud to be able to show you the smokers that we use.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

It's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 22:41

Those smokers are extremely unique, they're very rare, but most importantly, they were invented and built by my uncle. And uh a lot of people have seen them, they can check them out. There's probably some video on our Facebook page and out on YouTube of how these ribs cook in these smokers. Uh but what makes it unique is we we hang the meat vertically versus laying it horizontally on a grill, and then it's on a vertical carousel and it goes around for hours and hours and hours while it's smoking, and that gives the meat a different texture and tenderness. Um, and literally, as we describe to people when we're showing them these smokers that my uncle built, um they literally will self-baste in the smoker while they're while they're cooking. And between the dry rub and the design and the way that the smokers work, that's what makes us both the dry rub and the smokers came from Memphis. The only thing not Memphis about just north of Memphis barbecue is John and Christy, because we're from Minnesota. Uh so we have no problem, you know, and we get a lot of people that come up to us. Oh, how how far from Memphis are you guys? I'm from uh, you know, I'm from Martinsville or you know, wherever, and we're like, well, we're a little farther north than that, you know. And uh it's and then once they find out we're from Minnesota, everybody chuckles, you know. But uh but I like to say that I live we live closer to the Mississippi River here in in little old Annandale, Minnesota, than my aunt does down in Memphis. So because the Mississippi starts up here, but most people associate it probably more with Memphis. Anyway, it's the dry rub seasoning and it's the smokers that sets us apart, and we love to uh talk to people about both of them.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

Um the smoker was really cool. When people ask me, like, what the difference between what we can do in our huge smokehouses at the store versus what they can do at home, it's control and space. Um, and a lot of what we do, if we we'll cook ribs sometimes for for places, um, and it's the same thing where they hang vertically, um, and then we have louvers on the top and the side, so we can control airflow, so you get that even cooking and like you said, that self-basting. And I've been to a good number of barbecue competitions, rib fests, I've seen a lot of ways people cook. I haven't really seen anyone cook like you do, and I think it's a good way to cook when you look at people on the very professional meat level, uh, when you go to like Smithfield or places that do pre-cooked ribs, you know, heat meat ribs, which are a different quality, whatever. But when you have to bang out a large number of ribs that are a good, consistent quality, that's how it's done. And I thought that was because Larry at the fair said, you gotta check this out.

SPEAKER_03 25:38

Oh, that's nice.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

I was like, I don't know, man. I've seen a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 25:41

And uh I haven't quite seen that.

SPEAKER_04 25:45

Glad that he brought you over to our booth. That was really a nice, uh, nice opportunity to get to meet you, and uh we look forward to the future working with you guys. And uh, you know, it that is the challenge when you're trying to cook anything, whether it's chocolate chip cookies or ribs, in large batches, the larger the batch gets, the more difficult it becomes to create consistency. And I, you know, not all people, you know, like Christy was talking about, Bridget earlier with the two kind of there's the sanctioned barbecue competition, uh, and then there's our world of the big rib fest. Well, in the sanctioned competition, you know, the like Tuffy Stone, you know, the world champion, he's he's cooking six racks of ribs, maybe twenty at the most.

SPEAKER_03 26:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:29

Well, when we went out to the best of the well, and in Elkhorn, I mean, we we cooked close to 3,000 racks of ribs that weekend.

SPEAKER_02 26:37

We were gonna ask that. Like, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:39

You you try to make every one of those the same, you know, you know, and uh, and we're just lucky to have these smokers that my uncle invented, you know, to help us do that. Um uh so you know that's that's part of the reason it's a sport, but it it it it's been a lot of fun. It's I love the challenge. I love the challenge.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

I I can't cook anything consistently, you know, five things, more or less 3,000. So do you guys you talked about like being on your feet all day at these festivals? Do you get any time to go out and like enjoy parts of the festivals, or is it really just about kind of enjoying the time with your neighbor competitors, like you said?

SPEAKER_04 27:18

Um yeah, we're there, we're you know, we you hit the nail on the head, we're there to work, and that's how we make a living. Uh but you know, we maybe the night before the event, um, after we've got everything set up and and the ribs are in the fridge with the seasoning on them, we will try and go find a really nice local restaurant. Um and uh we've been pretty lucky there in the Elkhorn area to find several nice local restaurants and we'll go chill and and have a really good meal.

SPEAKER_03 27:48

Um we do breakfast.

SPEAKER_04 27:50

We do breakfast every morning. Every morning. Um we learned very early on in this business that if you try to go through the day without a strong, nourished breakfast and you try to go 12 hours by the second day, you can barely move. Um that's usually so that's a really that's a really top, yeah, as Christy's saying, this is a top priority for us to in a find a local cafe, those are the best.

unknown 28:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

You walk into a local cafe with the team with eight of us, and you go, we're all in the same shirt, they look at us like, okay, I guess you're here for Ribfest.

unknown 28:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

But those are always fun. You kind of submerge yourself into the community a little bit and get to know people. Um and and for us, at least for me, I try to, well, I think for you too, but um, we really do try to get to low some note, really local people. And it it um when we hire local people, like you said, that is another family that we and and they come back from year to year. I mean, I think we've had the same kind of team from local for what the all the years we've been there.

SPEAKER_03 28:53

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

The same people come back, so then you find out what everybody, you know, what have you been doing, or where should we go for breakfast, or where should we go, you know? So yeah, we really try to do some things local because we're there for you guys too.

SPEAKER_04 29:05

So and we had never been to the Lake Geneva area prior to coming down to Elkhorn, so every year we try to make it down, you know, to Lake Geneva and hang out there for an afternoon. It might be the day after the event or you know, whatever. Um and then the only other time we really get a break is you know, you kind of get an afternoon lull sometimes. And the great thing about the Elkorn Rib Fest is it's multi-dimensional. Yeah, there's the ribs, but then there's the entertainment, and that has been sensational over the years. Yeah, the entertainment, and with that big tent that they got last year, that was first of all the largest tent I've ever seen on the planet. Um but the you know, to take the weather equation out of it, that's perfect. And then to have the carnival and the arts fair on the beautiful grounds. I mean, it's so it's just the perfect recipe for a great event. You know, and um the people obviously it's it's that's all you know testified to by the fact that the thousands of people that come, I mean, it and but it doesn't feel like that. It doesn't feel like you know it's so crowded, it's so busy. And we're all experts, and and and they've done a great job bringing in really high quality barbecue teams so that you know the people that do come and support it um are our service in a really good way.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

So you mentioned with the tent the weather, and that brings up something. In the decades you guys have cooked, you have to have some weather-related horror story of trying to cook ribs in a tornado or something. What what's a funny?

SPEAKER_04 30:45

Well, you know, um maybe funny to me.

SPEAKER_03 30:48

Yeah, funny to us.

SPEAKER_04 30:50

You got a weather story?

SPEAKER_03 30:52

Um in Iowa.

SPEAKER_04 30:53

Yeah. Yeah, we were cooking in in central Iowa. I don't know if it was Cedar Rapids or somewhere, but all of a sudden this dark cloud started approaching the event, and um, and you know, we put up these huge, big 30-foot-tall signs and banners and all this stuff, and Christy's worst fear is you know, those things going whipping across the grounds.

SPEAKER_03 31:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 31:18

But we we time down really good and everything. But this one one event in Iowa a few years ago, we got the straight line winds, and we all literally were holding on to the bottom bar of the signs to try to weight it down. And uh it lifted us up all off the ground. And fortunate unfortunately for us, the the signs ended up on top of the trailer, which is our mobile kitchen, you know, and we were all okay, we were all safe and everything. But that was that was our probably our most harrowing experience dealing with weather. We've been pretty lucky. I mean, we've we've stood in we've stood under the tent, you know, in torrential downpours, but we've all I mean, believe it or not, um, and people in Massachusetts are crazy. Um we downtown City Hall Plaza, we've watched people stand in line, 75 people deep, waiting for their barbecue, waiting for the ribs in three-piece suits and ties and dresses coming out of their office buildings, and it starts pouring, they don't move. They don't move. They're like, they're like, we're getting our barbecue, and that's all there is to it.

SPEAKER_02 32:26

We've been waiting. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:28

And and so we've seen it, we've seen it where, you know, yeah, the weather can be a factor, but it it doesn't have to be, depending on who you are. Um we keep we we keep cooking, you know.

SPEAKER_02 32:39

Of course, right? You've been doing it for hours, right?

SPEAKER_04 32:43

Right.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

So you uh um I've done a million events in my life, and so when I went to Ribfest, I'm of course thinking through the logistics immediately because I just want to know these nerdy things. So these huge trusses with the banners, do you guys set those up or do the do the grounds set that up? Nope, we typically do. So, like you're setting up your own huge trusses, the third one of them. Yeah, do you really do it all?

SPEAKER_04 33:08

Yeah, and I think you know that was the selling point when I heard that you know Elkhorn and Walworth County Fairgrounds was the site of the state's largest county fair. I knew intuitively that they knew logistics. And logistics win the war, if you will, and they're key to putting on a successful event. So if they knew how to set up these large, you know, fairs and events there on the fairgrounds, I would that would that takes out one, that checks off one big box at the very top of the list on whether these people know what they're doing or not, because you know, having giving the customer access to you is the most important thing. You know, if they can't find you, if it's hard to get to you, or if it just doesn't flow right, you know, it doesn't work. Period. End of story. You might as well just not even go. But that was probably the the key point as to why we took a chance on going to that first year rib fest, you know, five, six years ago in Elkhorn, is that they knew what they were doing and had been doing it for what close to 100 years already. So so but you're right. I mean, we do set up everything ourselves, you know. We come in with these big rigs, most of the teams have three to four trucks, uh, so there's got to be space for that. They're all packed full of our equipment. We're all kitchens on wheels, you know.

SPEAKER_03 34:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:27

Um, Christy typically runs the front of the house, I run the back of the house. That's how we divide our responsibilities up, you know. So she takes care of once the food comes out of the kitchen, you know, it's it's hers to to get to the customer and make sure that everything is is the way it should be.

SPEAKER_02 34:43

So and you mention employing kind of you know these different families across the country. How many people will work your booths throughout the weekend?

SPEAKER_04 34:51

Yeah, kind of depends on the size of the event, but in a in an example like Elkhorn, uh, because it's grown so well, we probably are up to at an average any given day 12 to 13 people on the team, you know, and usually uh our goal is to bring about half of those along with us. So that's you know, Christy and I and a couple of our kids, and maybe a girlfriend or whatever, you know. Um not my girlfriend, one of their girlfriends. Uh and uh that's good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

Yeah, good, good. Yeah, good.

SPEAKER_04 35:23

Yeah. And and then, and then we like Christy keeps saying, we we have been fortunate to develop family and and friends locally that want to come hang out with us, and and we have a great time doing it.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

When you're cooking, you said you're always happy to you know show, talk to people, customers. Do you get just bombarded with like barbecue nerds? Do people bring you their products? I do our wine and beer buying and a lot of sausage recipes, so I get the joy of a lot of people bringing me homemade wines to try, uh, a lot of people bringing me uh their sausage ideas, some of which are very good and some of which are uh very amateur. Happy to try, right? What's that like about you guys?

SPEAKER_04 36:08

I'd say it's very similar to your experience, and it makes me chuckle when you say that because you know, if we we could have a whole separate separate pantry in our our our home for all the sauces and seasonings that people have brought us over the years, you know.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

Um they are so proud of them. So you have to, I mean, and and some of them are really good.

SPEAKER_04 36:27

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

Well, I think in Elkhorn, don't we have a chef that used to come by and bring us food? Yep. So during these rib fests and things, you know, we're we're living, it's usually summertime, of course, and you're and we're around meat all the time. So we become a little bit vegetarian for a while. Well, in Elkhorn, we actually have a gentleman who is in the community who was a chef. And so what he does is he cooks for us and he brings us food.

SPEAKER_04 36:57

Make sure we're nourished, you know. And and that's it's not the first time. We when we're out in Reno, Nevada, there's a family there that on the last morning of the event, we get a full spread breakfast made from scratch, and and that's one of the benefits of of you know meeting these people is you know, whatever I don't know what we did for them, but they're sure, you know, yeah, they're sure taking care of us. So that's that's nice and it gives us variety in our diets, like Christy was saying.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

Yeah, I think it gets back to you know, when Tyler Bridget's husband brings that platter of barbecue back, and um when you feed someone, when you share your products with someone, they become part of your family. They, you know, you've nourished them and they want to re you know, repay that flavor.

SPEAKER_04 37:44

But going back to your question real quick, Nick, about you know, what's it like? I you know, for us, that's a that's a key part of what drives us is to create, you know, to to take the time to talk to people because they do have valid questions. It might be, you know, just a beginner um who wants to start barbecuing. It might be somebody that's been cooking for years and they just want to tell you about how they do it. And I always learn something. I mean, like I said earlier, I went took the world, I went and took a barbecue class last February from the world champion. Well, I learned a lot, you know. The first class, the first class Christy and I uh took together was a class that my uncle put on down in Memphis back in 1999, and guys from all over the country came to that class, and it was great to meet those people. So when somebody comes to our booth and wants to um ask a question or see how we do something, um typically it's to our benefit because they're gonna reciprocate and they're gonna share something that they do. Because I always will ask, yeah, well, this is how I do it, what do you do? You know. Um, and and they're you know, the reason barbecue is a sport is because there's 50 million different ways to do it. And and um, you know, on any given weekend, the way this person does it versus the other guy next to him competing, you know, they won. That you know, and there's something to that. So uh I always encourage people, and and this is something I also got from my uncle, is that anyone, even you know, Bridget, don't give up. Anyone can cook barbecue. Anyone can cook barbecue, you know, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter your age, your sex, your religion, your politics, it doesn't matter. Anyone can cook barbecue, no, no matter. Um and just to you know, Nick, we talked a little bit about our smokers and the design and the fact that the meat hangs vertically in them on that carousel. Well, if you or I go to a sanctioned barbecue competition today, anywhere in Wisconsin, Minnesota, or anywhere in the country, probably the most common smoker that the competitors are using is these barrel smokers. And many of them are designed so that the ribs or whatever they're smoking at the time hang vertically in that barrel smoker. Um, and so the idea or concept that my uncle came up with back in the 70s is out there today being used. I would bet you 60, 70% of the teams are using that concept to cook and compete in barbecue. So um, you know, and and you know, people ask, well, what type the very common question, and I'm sure you get it a lot too, uh, what kind of smoker should I get? You know, and and so um that's a very common question. And we love when people come up to our booth and they want to talk barbecue, you know. Um, and as long as we've got the time to do it, we're gonna certainly give them give them the the time to talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 40:38

So if you had to give people there listening maybe a couple tips, someone like Bridget that's never barbecued, somebody that likes to barbecue and somebody considers themselves an expert. What are do you have a couple tips that you kind of commonly share with people just to let the guy at home or the the girl at home uh who wants to up their game a little bit or get started? What are some common things you kind of share with people?

SPEAKER_04 41:02

Well, for first of all, I think people need to and you know appreciate what barbecue is and what barbecue isn't, you know. Um, and obviously in the last 10, 15 years, okay, five, ten years, barbecue has become more common, more known. People because of the food channel and the internet now have an appreciation, a basic understanding of what barbecue is. So, first of all, our government, the USDA, defines barbecue as two things. Very simple. You cook with real wood or a wood byproduct, okay? So that's that's the first part of the definition. The second part of the definition is that you lose 30% of the green weight or the weight that you started with, okay, and then you can call it barbecue. So there are only certain cuts of meat that you can truly, at the end of the day, after you're done cooking them, call barbecue because they lost 30%. For example, you can't lose 30% of a pork wine. That's that cut of meat.

SPEAKER_00 42:00

But you did something wrong.

SPEAKER_04 42:01

Well, yeah, you aren't gonna want to taste it, you're only gonna put it in your mouth, you know, if you lost 30% of a pork wine.

SPEAKER_03 42:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:08

But but you know, what that translates to is that there are certain cuts of meat that come off either the the pig, the cow, the chicken, the lamb, whatever, that will render down to you know that 30 plus percent. So uh what I tell people is start, if you're gonna just start out doing barbecue, first of all, obviously you need some type of smoker. Probably the best and most proven piece of equipment on the planet is just a Weber bullet smoker. You can get one for just a couple hundred dollars, and they do a great job, and a lot of teams compete with that. So if that's where you want to start, obviously, in this day and age, um everybody now is educated in seeing the pellet grills, the pellet smokers. Um, we could talk about those in a whole nother show for about an hour. Um, but that is that is, you know, you got to have the piece of equipment. So that's kind of the first piece that we tell people is you gotta have a smoker, you know. Uh a gas grill is not gonna really do it, even though you can, you know, smolder chips or whatever in there in a but anyway, um, you got to have something that's gonna produce smoke because that's part of the definition. Um, it's gotta be a piece of equipment that's gonna hold the temperature, you know, because the key is you know, having a consistent temperature, and and then the and then start with a cut of meat that is the least or the most forgiving, okay, the easiest to cook. And and then I always tell people or suggest to people that they should start with a pork shoulder or a Boston butt.

SPEAKER_03 43:43

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_04 43:45

It's pretty hard to ruin that, you know.

SPEAKER_00 43:47

And it's cheaper than a brisket.

SPEAKER_04 43:49

And it's a lot cheaper, absolutely. Or ribs, even if you don't yeah, right. Yeah. So those are the two things is you know, you gotta have you gotta have a decent piece of equipment, okay? And it can be homemade. I've seen and you've seen them too. Um, but when we go to the world championships in Memphis, if you want to see every type of smoker on the face of the planet, and you're looking at 400 different teams walking by all their boots, you're gonna see every type of smoker on the planet. Um, do you guys have smokers at Lake Geneva?

SPEAKER_00 44:16

Yeah, we we don't sell any, we have so many local hardware stores that do them and our customers, we just don't want to, you know, I'm a big green egg guy. I uh there you go. I also I like I like the versatility of it. I like that if I want to finish the steak off at 700 degrees, I can. I like that I can keep it at 250 all day long. But yeah, there's so many good pallet grills now. There's you know, the bullet smokers. Um, we get a lot of guys that you know for Christmas, we'll get an electric smoker, and even that'll work.

SPEAKER_04 44:43

Like you said, oh absolutely, absolutely it will be electric. What's that, Bridget?

SPEAKER_02 44:49

Oh, I was just gonna say, I feel like I need to get my husband a smoker for Christmas, maybe. Nick is getting a pretty interesting.

SPEAKER_04 44:54

I think that'd be a very good thing.

SPEAKER_02 44:56

Yeah, it's just made my Christmas shopping easy. Thanks.

SPEAKER_04 45:00

But the good news is that if you have any interest, it can be yours too. Okay, doesn't have to be just his.

SPEAKER_02 45:05

You're right. You know what? I appreciate that. You can smoke. Yeah. Next time we talk, I'll be a pro. Right?

SPEAKER_04 45:13

Of course, the third component to cooking really good barbecue is the ingredients, and that's where we come in. So you can walk in, you can walk into uh Lake of Geneva Country Meats, and you can pick up a bottle of Sweet Christie's sauce, whether it's sweet Christie's or Christy's mischief, or and a bottle of Johnny B's dry rub. And then you pretty much got the three things that you need to cook some award-winning competition barbecue. Um and um that's right, you know, as as Christy was saying, um, we developed our sauces with the idea uh that was instilled in us very early on that um, for lack of a better way of saying it, barbecue sauce was originally invented to cover up the mistakes of bad barbecue. Now remember, the the definition of barbecue for our government has nothing to do with sauce, sauce is a condiment. So we we developed our sauces, both Sweet Christie's and Christie's mischief, to be a complement to the meat. Okay. Um everybody, in my opinion, on the planet, if they order a plate of french fries, they should taste the French fry before they put the ketchup on. Okay. And it's the same thing with a rib. You should taste the rib before you douse it with sauce.

SPEAKER_03 46:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:30

You know, we want you to taste the flavor of the meat. That I mean, we we didn't spend five, six hours smoking it so you could cover up with sauce and not taste the smoke. Right. You know, what's the point?

SPEAKER_02 46:42

So you served it with like a dipping sauce on the side. That's how I prefer to, I prefer to dip. So I love that.

SPEAKER_04 46:49

Yeah. And to each their own. We're all conditioned to, you know, you know, we're all conditioned and and to each their own, but that's what makes it fun for us because you know, we we are unique in that regard. We're blessed with these really good ingredients, you know, to share with people. Um, and we're a little bit different than most, and we don't mind that, you know. Um hopefully that makes us a little more interesting.

SPEAKER_00 47:16

I think so.

SPEAKER_04 47:18

Thanks.

SPEAKER_02 47:18

I have a very important question. Where do you keep all these trophies that you're winning? Do you have a trophy room? Do you carry them around?

SPEAKER_01 47:30

Well, for the longest time, the trophies kind of were a hodgepodge of different places.

SPEAKER_03 47:36

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 47:37

And they'd go on the road with us and then and then they'd get pieces. And so what we've decided to do is keep them in one spot. So now we have a commercial kitchen where we have our um where we do a lot of our catering. And that's where we've set up the trophy case, I I guess you could say. So now they're all in one spot. So you are able to come and see them.

SPEAKER_04 48:04

If we maybe if we would have done the uh the interview today at 9 or 10 a.m., we would have gotten ourselves up there, and that would have been the backdrop rather than you know, our our home office.

SPEAKER_00 48:15

Hey, it's about the office and everything. I should have I have a bottle of the rub upstairs that I use for a lot of barbecue I do. I should have brought that down to give the good close-up. But it's a great rub. Um they can do it.

SPEAKER_03 48:27

There we go.

SPEAKER_00 48:28

Perfect. So you can buy that at Lake Geneva Country Meets, all the sauces, but you guys also have website and social media people can get it, right? If they're not close to us.

SPEAKER_04 48:37

Yep, the website is jnlmemphis.com and for just north of Memphis, or just Google just north of Memphis Barbecue. Um, that's so that'll take people to our website, and they can shop for them products there. Um and we do that, you know, we do send product all over the country uh because we've traveled all over the country. And the second thing is we'd love for people to join our Facebook group. Um and um and that way we can communicate with them, answer their questions, um, stay connected, stay connected. And then most importantly, that Bridget, the number one question we get when we're on the road at Elkhorn or any other rib cook-off is where are y'all located? Yes, where are y'all where are y'all located? Because people want to know where are you located? Where are you where are you from?

SPEAKER_03 49:25

Where are you?

SPEAKER_04 49:26

Where do I find you? Where do I find you? And our Facebook group is the number one mechanism that we use to let people know now that we've got these food trucks and then we're on the road, we we communicate through our Facebook group, you know, where they can find us.

SPEAKER_02 49:43

Great. Instagram, yeah, we're big things. It's the best way when you're a food truck. You know, Nick and I are big fans of food trucks in general. And so when you're traveling around everywhere, social media is the way to do it. So we will make sure we post all those links so we can get some more fans following along and following your journey.

SPEAKER_00 50:00

Yeah, thanks so much for your time, guys. This was awesome. Hopefully, we'll uh maybe we'll make a trip up to one of your food truck things. We come we come up that way every once in a while, and uh otherwise, hopefully we see you at a Rimfest soon and that gets back on the table, right?

SPEAKER_04 50:16

Yeah, yeah, and and Nick, you know, we'll throw this out there. We're not a com opposed. You you guys want to put on something there on any we're you're you're less than eight hours from it. So I mean it's it's less than a day's drive for us to get down to you guys, and we'd be there in a heartbeat. You know, we have lots of friends and family in the Lake Geneva Elkhorn area, and we'd be even open to doing something this fall yet.

SPEAKER_00 50:42

Um let's uh let's let's we'll talk about that. Yeah, let's wrap up this interview part of it. Let's get down to business. All right. So thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. If you're listening, you can uh watch this on YouTube, see all of our faces. Um, genderplusdrinks.com will have all of the links in the show notes and on there. Um make sure you check out John and Christy just north of Memphis, their Facebook group. And uh stay tuned. We're gonna have a quick conversation about maybe bringing them down to Lake Geneva.

SPEAKER_02 51:12

So thanks for listening. Thanks for being here, guys.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 51:16

Thank you for having us.