Our BBQ Story
Who We Are, and Why We Like BBQ
Hello there, and thanks for your interest in Dig In Barbecue! I’m Kendall, and I own and operate this business together with my wife, Michele. Our three daughters, Nicole, Callie, and Tasha, also help out quite a bit.
Our love for BBQ started back in 2000. As everyone knows, there isn’t a huge BBQ culture in Southern Idaho, especially not in the Twin Falls area. At that time, we were newly married and were delivering building materials across southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. We made a weekly delivery to a building supply in Joseph, OR which was a dealer for Traeger Grills. At that time Traeger was a small company that had not hit the mainstream as it has now. The owners of the store would give us samples of their smoked meats, and we were hooked.
We Start Cookin'
A few year later, looking for a little sideline occupation, we started a Traeger dealership of our own in Buhl, ID, called Smokey River BBQ Supply. We would set up on street corners on weekends, giving away samples and selling pellet cookers. Along the way, we also added Green Mountain Grills to our lineup.
Bump In The Road
As life has a way of doing, our occupation changed and we moved on into a different line of work. The barbecue sideline soon got in the way of trying to grow our business. In 2011 we sold it off to focus on our main line of work. Two years in, with the business starting to grow, I was becoming burned out from the 18 hour per day demands of business. Michele suggested that I take up BBQ again as a diversion, something I enjoyed as a means of keeping my sanity.
A New Approach
The new foray into BBQ was a lot different than our Traeger days. While we still had a bunch of pellet cookers left over from our dealership days, I was no longer under any obligation to them, so I was free to experiment. I had grown bored with the pellet cookers and wanted a more hands-on experience. While the oven-like control had allowed me to learn how meat to cook meat, I wanted to physically control the fire. I decided to start from the basics and learn it all over again. I started with a humble old Weber kettle that my Dad had discarded behind his shed, which I fixed up and learned to cook large cuts like pork butts on, low and slow for 12 hours without babysitting it. Also, a friend and I took an interest in antique Weber grills and I restored the one shown on the right.
As we gained confidence, we of course served barbecue to many of our family and friends. It wasn’t long and we started getting requests to cook for larger events. These events were stressful at first, due in part to the fact that I had to tend multiple cookers at once.
Building My Own
In an attempt to increase our capacity, I decided I would try my hand at building some smokers of my own.
Being a heavy equipment operator, I first built a Case backhoe themed smoker out of a steel drum. It operated on charcoal and worked well.
The next project was a “stick burner” offset smoker. This was a bit more of a project made as much as possible from scraps of steel we had around the shop and an old water heater tank. Again, it worked well once I had it built and it had decent capacity for small crowds.
On Labor Day 2014, we decided to have a bunch of friends over for a big ol’ backyard barbecue. We served ribs, brisket, and pulled pork, along with various sides. Among the crowd was the owner of Old Home Cooking, a local restaurant here in Buhl. He and his wife liked what we were doing and approached us about serving a special barbecue meal at his restaurant once a month. We worked out the details and agreed to serve there the first Monday evening of each month.
Dig In Barbecue Is Born
And that, folks is where Dig In Barbecue was born. The name is a spin-off of my main occupation as an excavating contractor, with the mental image of a hungry customer “digging in” to a hearty plate of barbecue. We also obtain a food service license at this point as well. We served our first meal at Old Home Cooking in March of 2015. Since then, we have served every month except for September, the first Monday of which falls on Labor Day.
Bigger & Better
After 2 or 3 months, Michele and I decided if we wanted Dig In Barbecue to succeed we needed better equipment. We ordered a custom built Pitmaker Vault trailer from Humble, TX. This cooker burns natural lump charcoal for fuel, and is very efficient, with capacity enough to cook meat for up to 500 people at once. Since acquiring it, we have cooked and served literally thousands of pounds of meat each year in this cooker.
Smoke On The Horizon
That, in a nutshell, is the story of our BBQ journey. Today, as a fully licensed and insured caterer, Dig In Barbecue serves delicious smoked meats for all sizes of events in the greater Twin Falls area, from small parties to massive crowds of 600 people or more.
As we look to the future, we hope to soon make the move into a mobile food trailer in response to requests for Dig In Barbecue concessions at festivals and other events. If you have an event where you would like to serve traditional barbecue meats and down-home sides, be sure to contact us. We’ll do our best to make it an event to remember!