BBQ and Public Libraries

What does BBQ have to do with public libraries? Not much, unless you want to check out some books on some of America’s best food (and of course, there are cookbooks too!). But lately, libraries have been becoming more than just books—they have other resources.

The county library near us has what is called an “innovation center” that makes certain machines available to patrons, usually at no charge unless you need to purchase certain materials. In the process of launching and expanding Smokin’ Bettie’s, we’ve used a sublimation printer (to make potholders and tea towels that we use in our demos), a large-size color printer (to make banners and large signs), a Cricut machine (to make custom labels for sample-sized spice jars), a large-scale laser cutter (to make a wooden sign that, unfortunately, didn’t work out), and a 3-D printer (to make a special bottle holder for when we were producing products in a test kitchen). The center has equipment that we have not used yet, like a mug printer, drawing tablets, a complete sewing setup, and computers that not only control some of these instruments, but also have lots of software for design and production (like Blender for you 3-D animation buffs). And all this from your tax dollars!

The folks at the library, while not expert users of all the equipment, are always happy to unlock the room and share whatever knowledge they may have (indeed, I’ve never met a librarian who is NOT happy to help). And my point? By using this equipment myself, I not only learn a little bit of the skills needed to do that sort of work (and gain additional appreciation for those who are experts!), but I save myself a lot of money by (a) not buying the equipment myself and (b) not paying out the nose for small jobs that a shop would charge a lot for to do such a small job. (And yes, I’ve expressed my appreciation by giving a few bottles of product to those helpful folks!)

If you have similar facilities available at your public library, use them! Again, they’re paid for by your tax dollars, so in a sense YOU own them! And I’m sure the librarians will be happy to help, because they are, after all, librarians!

(Special thanks to all the folks at the Mayfield CCPL for making this blog post possible!)

Eat more BBQ!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As much as it pains me to say, Thanksgiving is not usually a BBQ holiday. Some folks insist on being exceptions, of course, but our family is not one of them. At least, not BBQ-wise.

For the first time since I-don’t-know-when, our family isn’t really doing a “real” Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, we’ve got a small ham, and we’ll do some cornbread dressing (this time, an actual recipe from Bettie’s family) and we’ll have pumpkin pie for dessert and breakfast tomorrow, but this year it’s different. Elder son is having T’giving dinner with his girlfriend’s family. At 92, Bettie doesn’t eat much - our dinner will be a rather muted affair. Maybe we’ll open a nice bottle of vintage port from the wine cellar (our other passion) after dinner as we stream something on TV with a roaring fire in the fireplace. But that’ll be the extent of our “celebration.”

Okay, so no great rip-roaring banquet. (Does anyone else say “rip-roaring” these days?) But ultimately the banquet isn’t necessary. The only truly important idea is the first six letters of the holiday’s name.

And while we’re not ones to make political statements, know this: The people behind Smokin’ Bettie’s will never support any position that implicitly or explicitly condones hurting or killing others, no matter who those “others” are.

Eat more BBQ! Happy Thanksgiving, all.

Special Sampling Tomorrow...

I’m doing another sampling tomorrow - my 86th since stores opened up in August 2021 (albeit slowly) to in-store food tastings after the worst of the COVID pandemic. Why haven’t I posted an announcement to my social media?

Well, I’m sampling at the Coast Guard Exchange off of W. 140th St. The CGX is open only to members of the US Coast Guard and certain honorably-discharged veterans (I don’t recall the exact requirements, and I couldn’t find them easily on their website!). My distributor was able to get Smokin’ Bettie’s products there, and I already demo’ed there once before. But it’s not open to the general public, I know that! That’s why I didn’t put out a general announcement through social media.

At the end of that first demo, the manager on duty asked me if I could return on 11/11, knowing that it was Veteran’s Day. I was honored to asked, and I’ll be there for three hours tomorrow. I have no military experience in my background, but my family and I do have some experience that helps us understand what members in the military go through. So again, I’m honored to have been asked to give out samples on Veteran’s Day, and if my first demo is any indication, we’ll move lots of product.

So Semper Paratus! And I know there will be other demos coming up soon, so keep checking these pages!

Canceled Tastings - BOO!

Doing tastings/samplings has been a core of our business outreach. Know why? Because most people already have a bottle of BBQ sauce in their home. If I’m going to convince folks that Smokin’ Bettie’s Texas-Style BBQ Sauce is superior, I have to go out and get folks to try it! Since stores opened up after the pandemic, I’ve done 83 samplings of our products. My feet hurt just thinking about it!

But “pandemic” reared its ugly head last week - COVID-19 swept through the house. And I tested positive last Wednesday. So, I had to cancel two tastings for this weekend, and reschedules are up in the air. BOOOO! While that sentiment may be appropriate for Halloween Week, it’s also appropriate when I have to cancel tastings - no matter what time of year!

I’ll be back soon. Stay well, y’all. Get vaxxed if you’re not, because the virus can still kill

And eat more BBQ!

Our Origin Story

Welcome to our new blog! Here’s where I will occasionally post material about the company, our activities, recipes, and other stuff. Hope it’s not too boring!

There have been a lot of origin stories in the movies the past few years, so I thought I’d share a brief origin story of my own. I grew up around Houston, Texas, and was brainwashed into loving that certain style of BBQ that Texas is known for. (Sometime brainwashing can be a good thing!) I can do without the weather, and some of the politics (no, I won’t argue that point), but I miss good BBQ. The SO and I ended up in the greater Cleveland, Ohio, area, and have been enjoying everything northeast Ohio has to offer. (Snow! Seasons! A huge amount of water! Metroparks! A reasonable cost of living!)

A few years ago I started thinking about exit strategies, and plans shifted into higher gear when I got a new immediate supervisor who was a pandemic-denier. Or at the very least, a pandemic-arguer. (“We don’t need to mask! We don’t need to distance socially! We can’t do any of our work from home!”) But I’m still a (relative) spring chicken - what do I do next? I should add that both my father and my SO’s father retired and didn’t really have anything to do because their jobs defined their lives. I did NOT want to be in that boat.

Years of making my own BBQ sauce, in the Texas tradition, made me consider starting a small food business making Texas-Style BBQ sauces. And so Smokin’ Bettie’s was born! We worked with some local food entrepreneurs to get started, learned a LOT by doing (including what NOT to do), and got onto our first store shelves in January 2020, right before the pandemic started. I arranged to terminate with my employer, and now Smokin’ Bettie’s takes a decent fraction of my working day.

Because I don’t want to make my first blog post, I’ll stop here. But we’re getting into more and more stores (check the “Where to Buy” page) and have been New Day Cleveland three times already, and I’m now looking into advertising on radio. And I’m having a blast in my second career.

I’ll post again soon; I’m new at blogging (learning never ends!). Until then - eat more BBQ, y’all!