As some may have heard from various social media outlets or via press release, Baby Got Rack competed at the Iowa State Fair barbecue contest in the Combination category last Tuesday and brought home the championship.
Word on the street is that we were very close to winning the Grand Championship, but fell just short because we didn’t have our own barbecue sauce. An oversight that has been remedied. 4X over.
Here are a few photos from the day.
We were set up and ready to rock by 5 AM.
This corn dog stand can take a long walk off a short pier.
Marcus holding down the smoker.
Chicken and pork loin on!
IPTV setup a timelapse camera in our booth, but didn’t use the footage in their show.
Meat check.
Meat resting.
This guy’s shirt. Came to the right place.
60 total barbecue combatants.
Never hurts to work the Staties.
Getting the pizza ready.
The Marriage Saver
Scott and the judges.
Cynthia Fodor spent quite a bit of time hanging around our booth.
Media Obligations
More Media Obligations
Even More Media Obligations. This interview was on IPTV.
The Grand Champion Judges
Scott receiving his award. If we would’ve won Grand Champion, he would’ve gotten that crown.
I also took some pictures of the preparations, but we don’t want any of the trade secrets going public.
If you’re sad you missed Baby Got Rack’s most recent competition, we will be competing again during the Pufferbilly Days barbecue contest. We will be looking to defend our People’s Choice Award. We have a few tricks up our sleeve for this one. An ace in the hole from a marketing standpoint. Almost as good as our trademark fedoras.
Some come up and try our free samples on Sunday, September 11. Downtown Boone. Follow the smell of smoky and goodness. Vote for Baby Got Rack! The one vote you can cast this fall that you won’t regret later.
These are great! That first shot is amazing.
Have I ever shared my BBQ sauce with you? I don’t know if it would work for you, but I’d be happy to share. And since it’s tomato season, a fresh batch of sauce could happen in the near future.
I have to say. That the people that were there for free samples, acted like we had some kind of obligation to feed them. Some were very pushy. One lady in particular got mad at us because there might have been chicken in our beans and our jalapeno corn we were giving out. She was allergic to poultry. Maybe you shouldn’t go around looking for free food!
She scoffed, “Who puts chicken in pork and beans!” Then she walked off in a huff. There actually isn’t chicken in our beans (which actually aren’t that special), but the beans sit under the chicken in the smoker, so.
The grand majority of people were really cool. But a couple people. Man.
Shannon, I had no clue you made your own barbecue sauce. If you have a jar to spare, I would love to try some. Also the recipe.
Also, you by chance wouldn’t have a cool looking drink dispenser I could borrow?
If you have a life-threatening allergy, I feel like you should take some ownership of it.
We were at Fuji once, and Alice was mentioning (while eating chicken strips and fries that got nowhere near the table) that she has a shrimp allergy (just a light one, not anaphylactic), so Jon shouldn’t get his shrimp near her.
A lady had just sat down at the next hibachi, and was talking about her life-threatening shellfish allergy, where just breathing them in would send her into shock. (As they got out the shrimp that they make for literally every hibachi dish.) She knew they did it, but was hoping they would make special accommodations for her. JUST DON’T EAT THERE.
I definitely have jars I can share with you and your team, as well as the recipe. What sort of drink dispenser are you looking for? I’ve got one of those 3-gallon deals with the ice cooler that hangs from the lid.
Angie, food allergies. The ultimate #FirstWorldProblem.
IF you have an allergy, you definitely need to own that. Don’t come trolling around some place looking for free food and then getting mad when it doesn’t accommodate your need.
IF I had a legit food allergy, I would probably never eat at a restaurant, because I’d be paranoid about how my food was handled. Unless it was in a restaurant that definitely didn’t serve the kind of food that I was allergic to. But even that is risky. Even cooks can bring in outside food that could contaminate yours.
However, if I had a food allergy, I’d probably just move to Africa until my body stopped being a puss. Which is what I probably should have yelled at that lady as she walked off.
In my dream sequence of this dream sequence, a guy in the crowd would’ve told me, “She can’t hear you man. She never will.”
I read a quote recently that kind of summed things up. “Some of my best friends are people, but people are the worst.”
But the poultry lady pales in comparison to the New Jersey lady I met at the State Fair that reminded me that New Jersey people are the worst of the worst. Her story will be coming up fairly soon.
Shannon,
My actual dream would be to convert an milk can into a drink dispenser. However, since I see that food grade milk cans seem to start at $150, I don’t see that happening. I am looking for something that has a somewhat of a rustic, old timey feel.
Right now, I’m leaning towards a mason jar looking dispenser.
Can you send me a picture of your dispenser, because I can’t imagine what you are describing.
Yeah, we’ve been wildly lucky – Alice gets hives from shrimp, and Charlie got (and is now over!) eczema and GI issues from dairy. If my entire life were on the line, and some a-hole just raised the prices of Epi pens by 400% or whatever, I’d probably just make sure I was bringing my own food everywhere. It’s pretty easy not to eat food other people prepare (well, I don’t cook, but I mean in general).
All of my worst stories from Ortho travel involve New Jersey. Cesspool.
Thankfully, there currently aren’t any (pretty sure any ways) that there aren’t any New Jersey peeps with our hardware any more. Thankfully Lauren Wolf dropped us after she got a krypto-virus that she somehow deemed our fault.
Good riddance!