If you are dreaming of barbecue -- beef brisket, pork butt, ribs, smoked chicken -- for Christmas this year, you are in luck. Daddy Pete’s BBQ is coming to town.
The local food truck, Daddy Pete’s BBQ, has added a brick-and-mortar location to their lineup in Grand Rapids and will celebrate with a grand opening on Thursday, Dec. 15, from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm.
The 1,200-square-foot Daddy Pete’s ‘to-go’ location is housed at 2921 Eastern Ave. SE and has been open since its Nov. 25 soft launch. They plan on maintaining a weekly schedule of Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 am until 7:00 pm.
Daddy Pete’s BBQ, known for its classic, old-school, wood-burning rotisserie smoker and ‘low and slow’ cooking technique,
has been in business since 2012.
Like many entrepreneurs, owners Cory and Tarra Davis began small, cooking from their kitchen for catering gigs and then moving to a food truck, all the time
building a stellar reputation and a
loyal following.
With a pending grand opening and hundreds of pounds of briskets and pork butts smoking, Rapid Growth was able to catch up via emails with the Davis duo while they took a short breather over the weekend.
RM: What does a brick-and-mortar mean to your business model?
Daddy Pete’s: The food truck/concession trailer was not able to be opened year-round, therefore, the business was not well-equipped to take advantage of the many off-peak dining and catering opportunities. Daddy Pete’s capacity to serve would increase considerably if it were able to serve its customers year-round and expand catering through a larger brick-and-mortar kitchen.
RM: We’ve been following your soft opening; it appears you got a lot of support from other BBQ "brothers and sisters.” Anything unique about the BBQ scene in West Michigan?
Daddy Pete’s: Here, in the north, the predominant cooking style is 'high and fast,’ meaning the use of high heat, which cooks the meat fast. There are a handful of others who utilize the 'low and slow' cooking style, using wood as their heat source. A number of us who follow the ‘low and slow’ cooking style have developed a kinship. Although the field of BBQ can be competitive, when it has come to being supportive of each other, we know there is a group of pit masters and business owners who band together.
We have been blessed to have so many friends, customers and businesses who have supported and helped Daddy Pete's from the very beginning of our very humble start to now that it would be hard to single out any one person or entity. We are just thankful to each and every one of them who have helped in any way to get where we are today.
To keep current on Daddy Pete’s BBQ news you can follow them on the web at
http:// daddypetesbbq.com. They can also be followed on FaceBook at
https:// www.facebook.com/DaddyPetesBBQ/ and on Twitter at
https://twitter.com/ DaddyPetesBBQ and on Instagram at
https://www.instagram.com/daddypetesbbq/.
Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs News Editor
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