Black BBQ Cook-Off Coordinator Bruce Yeomans

[00:00:00] For the past two years, BBQ enthusiasts have been descending on Fayetteville, North Carolina for a festival that brings together tradition, camaraderie, and some of the best smoked meats you'll find in one place down east.

[00:00:22] Now as the Black BBQ Cook-Offs gearing up for year number three on August 17th at the Crown Complex in Fayetteville, we're excited to welcome the coordinator for the contest, one man who definitely knows his way around a smoker and a BBQ cook-off.

[00:00:37] But before we talk to our BBQ expert, here's your invitation to the Low and Slow Barbecue Show website at LowSlowBBQShow.com. You'll find podcasts with other pit master conversations as well as blogs that include barbecue recipes and reviews.

[00:00:53] And while you're at LowSlowBBQShow.com, subscribe to our newsletter, The Lowdown. It delivers Carolina barbecue news and events directly to your inbox every Tuesday. And this week, we're excited to announce the launch of our YouTube channel. Find the Low, Slow and Slow Barbecue Show on YouTube for videos.

[00:01:11] That's Low and Slow Barbecue Show on YouTube. We got videos from our interviews, short candy conversations with pit masters, and some of the videos from my visits to barbecue road trip stops around the Carolinas. Now let's talk about that Black BBQ Cook-Off I mentioned at the top.

[00:01:28] And to do that, we have with us Bruce Yeomans. He's the contest coordinator and we're excited to have him today. Bruce, welcome to the Low and Slow Barbecue Show. Hey, I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me guys.

[00:01:40] We'll tell you a little bit about the event if you guys ready for it. Yeah, please. Let's start from that most basic information. What is the Fayetteville Black BBQ Cook-Off? Well, I'll tell you, it started up at 2022 April.

[00:01:54] A good friend of mine, a childhood friend of mine, Carlos Jones. He's with Low and Slow Barbecue. No, Slow Burn. I'm sorry. Called Slow Burn. I was just talking to you. He called Slow Burn. Carlos has been doing competition for over 20 something years.

[00:02:08] And he got me into getting in the competition. And what he always said that was lacking was minorities with black guys. There was not many black teams in these cook-offs for whatever reason. Maybe they just didn't know about it. I'm sure they did,

[00:02:22] but maybe they just was uncomfortable about it. And he said his whole thing was to start a black barbecue cook-off. And the steps were almost like a baseball minor league that get us prepared to be able to do some of these bigger contests,

[00:02:35] some of these SBNs and KCBSs and FCBAs, some of the sanction events and come out of the backyard. Right. We talked about it. We had a meeting. It was a lot of enthusiasm about it.

[00:02:46] And then we got a lot of pushback about it too, because of being black. And we got most of the pushback from black people. Really? Absolutely, we did. We did. And it was a hurt and feeling.

[00:02:58] One thing that we wanted to set up, we wanted to bring everybody in, but we wanted to focus on the black cooks, the backyard cooks. The guys that we knew around town that was pretty good are the ones that we could reach out.

[00:03:08] And we all wanted to put that together. And we wanted to do it in the blackest part of town for that obvious reason to be able to set it up, which is Merckson Road, if you know anything about Fayetteville, North Carolina. OK.

[00:03:19] And we were able to get a location there. One of the ladies helped us out also with the ownership, and they had no problem. But the first year we had 17 pitmasters. It rained. It was summer rain. So it rained, but nobody left. Everybody stayed. Yeah.

[00:03:38] And it turned out really good. We had 17. And also with the black barbecue cook off, we have a nonprofit, which is I Love My Community, which Miss Elizabeth Staff, she's been running that for four years. And we teamed up with her in 2022.

[00:03:54] So and one of the reasons we do it around the time of August is because when we get the kids ready back in school, her nonprofit is I Love My Community, which we give the backpacks, the school supplies. We do a health screening, voter registration,

[00:04:09] a lot of community things with the veterans and stuff like that that people are not aware of that we want to make them aware of. But like I said, the first year, man, it was we was a bunch of ragtags. We you know, I watch YouTube.

[00:04:22] I want to cook off. I didn't. I had been in the three and I try to emulate what they were doing. And my wife, she does a lot behind the scene and she was able to coordinate the judges. But that was difficult. If you don't know

[00:04:38] pretty much how to judge, you don't know how to judge. So we had to write on the read. They was eating all the ribs, you know, about the six six contestant. You you fool. So we had to change out judges. But it worked out pretty good.

[00:04:50] We kind of set a president's we're doing what we do. We had to prove it to ourselves. Like I said, we're in our third year now and we the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville again, if you know about Fayetteville,

[00:05:01] that's where a lot of your concerts, your events happen out there. And they they were not major sponsors. They gave us a location. And it's amazing. There's a Miss Dorothy. She runs marketing. And there's a guy, Mike, who runs F&B, both of them, man.

[00:05:17] They really rolled out the red carpet tours and we were so thankful and pleased. So we're pretty excited about this year. We're about a week and a half away. OK, but this year we only got 16 teams. I guess a lot of guys backed out of it.

[00:05:28] What I did this year also, I didn't allow teams to vent before we would allow them to vent to be able to sell their goods. But this year, if we want to be on a serious basis, more like your KCBS, yes, we wanted to cut out the venue.

[00:05:41] We wanted you to actually concentrate, concentrate on the cooking part. And when we bring the crowd in, the contract on the crowd as well, because we're going to be serving samples. Those samples will be chicken in ribs.

[00:05:55] And we also going to do the people's choice of poor pork. So those those samples, you have to have purchase a van, which will offset some of our costs because the last couple of years my wife and coming out of pocket a lot.

[00:06:06] Some people think you make a lot of money setting these things up, but you don't. But if for the love of it, we will get a return on our investment, but it's for the love of it. We have three protein categories. We have the brisket.

[00:06:18] We have the chicken, any cut, and we have the rib, which is a spare rib. And those would determine whether you become a grand champion or whatever you want to coordinate yourself in. We also have the poor pork. That'll be the people's choice.

[00:06:33] That's when the people will go around and decide who has the best poor pork. Normally, sometimes what happens sometimes kind of unfair is not unfair because most of your out of town teams are not going to win that.

[00:06:43] Somebody local is going to have all these people come in and double check and stuff like that. But then again, sometimes an out of town might sneak in. We had a bear last year. He wanted he was somewhat of out of town retired army guy.

[00:06:57] I think Big Bear competition team originally out of Texas, but he was tired army guy. Nobody knew who he was. So it turned out pretty good. Yeah, we're pretty excited. We got SBN now. I met Mike at Bobby Brinson Vicious Pig cook off last year.

[00:07:12] Yeah, let me let me interrupt you there. You mentioned SBN, so that Southern Barbecue Network, and they're one of our partners and they're helping to sponsor our low and slow barbecue show. Excited to be part of their partnership. Tell me, how did the Southern Barbecue Network get involved?

[00:07:26] And then what's their role going to be at the cook off? And I know you mentioned some ragtag type judges before. How are they playing into the event? Well, so I met, like I said, Bobby Brinson, he holds his call to the Vicious Pig throw down.

[00:07:40] Right. In November around the Veterans Day weekend. And he broke it down. He said, Bruce, I got these guys, man, you don't have to be doing because you do a lot of running, man. You try to coordinate this thing.

[00:07:51] You run in here, there people calling you here and there for stuff that don't make sense half the time. But you got you got to be there. He said, man, get these guys. They'll take care for you. I talk with Mike. I send them up.

[00:08:03] I send them up. You know, I filled out an application. I sent him a form. He called me back right away. He wanted to know what was going on with it and what we got, because he couldn't find a nonprofit.

[00:08:13] Normally when you look something up, you see a connection with both. But no SBN, well, as Casey B.S., you have to be connected with a nonprofit. And he asked me a lot about that. And then he ran across his team. He said they was pretty excited.

[00:08:25] You know, they was pretty excited. And Mike and them also did a judging. They did one here in April at Laurie's Ace Hardware. And they did a judging class, which I took that judging class. I wanted to I want to know the actual scope

[00:08:37] of actually being a judge, what they criteria was. Sure. You know, it was pretty good class, pretty good class. So they're going to handle all we they're going to handle the judging aspect of it. They also given a class that Friday night.

[00:08:51] And what I understand, they got a couple of them signed up. Mike made contact with Dorothy and marketing, and she made sure he had the space in the facility to take care of that. We're going to get a couple of teams to cook extra for that Saturday

[00:09:03] because the new judges, I think they're going to separate them from that and make sure they OK. But yeah, he's he's taking and you won't believe how much pressure that is off me, man. I promise you it's because you're trying to coordinate people to judge.

[00:09:15] And they never really did it right. They'll tell you hello, barbecue. I'll be right there. It's not it is the level barbecue. But, you know, it is what you have to do to judge. And like I said, when I took the class, I saw that as well.

[00:09:30] And I also took a KCBS class to see what the difference was. And I saw that as well. So I'm pretty much a certified judge. I haven't judged anything yet. But this is going to help me when we go up to fire

[00:09:41] in the foothills and King at the end of September with my team. Yeah, we're pretty excited to have the Southern Southern barbecue network. Yeah, we'll get a little bit into that. What's going on in King and your team here in just a moment.

[00:09:53] And it sounds like, you know, we had Laurie's ace and Mike and all those guys, Bobby Brinson, too, from Fish and Pig have been on the Low and Slow Barbecue Show. And they talked a little bit about the process. And it really sounds like the Southern barbecue network

[00:10:05] kind of gives some parameters to judge around, you know, some basic specific things that the judges need to look for. So it's cool that you guys have some certified people there. It takes all that off of your plate.

[00:10:16] And then you get some unbiased, you know, authentic opinions in there for people that are trained in what should be good in barbecue. So, you know, let's kind of move into the competition. You shared a little bit about what folks can expect.

[00:10:28] People can come in, they can, you know, they buy the wristband, they get some food, they can sample it. What are other things that people can expect when they come to the Black Barbecue Cook Off on August 17th?

[00:10:39] Oh, yeah, we got we got some activity for the kids as well. We got we bring it in a jump house. We bring it in some drill and dance team. Elizabeth Handlin on that side. We also got a dunk tank, which my brother-in-law's is big mouth.

[00:10:50] He's ready for that dunk tank. And he let everybody know, don't take the insult personal. Just buy the balls and throw them at me. Yeah, we also have food trucks. We have some local food trucks.

[00:11:01] I try to go local as much as possible, but we brought a couple out of towns in. So we're going to have a pretty well-rounded family atmosphere. You know, my brother's a DJ. He'll be handling all the entertainment on that end.

[00:11:15] We got trophies. We got cash, cash money. So it's going to be pretty good. We try to get into where we can give scholarships this year. But we kind of fell short on that end of the funding. So because we didn't get any funding from the city,

[00:11:27] I think we might have waited too late or whatever the issue was. And then they say when we moved from the Merckson Road out to the Crown Coliseum, that turned from city to county. So it's always something I would say political or something

[00:11:42] is some type of red tape you have to find. But maybe next year at that point, we probably can get there. But yes, it's going to be all around family day. If you love food, you want to come out. We got music.

[00:11:53] My brother do have some local entertainers lined up. Like I said, Miss Elizabeth got the nonprofit side for the backpack giveaway and a lot of other stuff. And also she has the drill and dance team coming out.

[00:12:04] We also got an exhibition with a couple of chefs, Chef Judy. I don't know if you heard of her. She was a Food Network chef. She's local celebrity around here. Her and two other female chefs is going to be put on an exhibition.

[00:12:16] I think one is Chef Peggy. And I forget the other one. They probably get me for forgetting that name or something. But they're going to put on an exhibition as well. And also we have our first black female pit master. And her name is Portia Grady.

[00:12:31] She is executive chef and owner of the Friends Table here in Fayetteville. Now, she's an amazing chef. I don't know how much of a barbecue cook shields, but those guys don't care. You come out there, you fair game.

[00:12:42] I know you've been around it where you hear that talking trash. I mean, yeah, they you fair game. It doesn't matter. Yeah. Well, so let's talk a little bit more about some of those teams that are involved. You mentioned those guys are going to be given her

[00:12:56] and given Miss Portia a little bit of grief along the way, you know, challenging her. But you mentioned there's 16 teams. Tell me about those teams. Where are they from? And, you know, what do they bring into the competition? I'll tell you, I get you right there.

[00:13:09] Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Let me see. We got we got. Let me see. Let me see. We got we got in the Army Q. He's out of Charlotte, North Carolina. OK. He used to retired army guy.

[00:13:23] He used to be stationed at Fort Brettwell, Fort Liberty now. Actually, he won the championship last year, so he's making his return as well. We also got Bad Boys barbecue out of Wilson, North Carolina. Now I met them down a country style at Art Fornell. We got reds.

[00:13:40] We got smoky reds out of Lexington, South Carolina. He's only South Carolina team. Now, he he he done done a couple of things backyard as well. We got a let me see. I'll tell you. Yeah, I don't feel like you got to go down the whole list.

[00:13:54] No, no, no, no. Get an idea of, you know, where all everybody's coming from. OK, we got we got we got Fuqua Verino. We got Roland Torres barbecue out of Fuqua. Uh huh. We got BNB out of Pottersville.

[00:14:07] We got a team man, main dish out of Raleigh, North Carolina. So we got a couple of out of town teams. You got a lot of local guys. We got Max Low, Roland Smoke right here out of Fayetteville.

[00:14:17] He runs a food truck as well out on Fort Bragg Whitmills. So we got manatee. Those guys are pretty good out of Rayford, North Carolina. So they do some and we got flip flop flip flop. I don't know if you heard of him. That's called premium.

[00:14:30] He's got a sauce on the market. It's called flip flop. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've heard of sauce. He was at the Carolina Barbecue Festival. Yeah, that's him. That's that's that's one of my guys. And also my team, the guys that roll with me is

[00:14:41] the two six K.A. barbecue team. You know what the K.A. stand for? Yeah, yeah. But yeah, we have to let it. But yeah, those are my guys. That's Malloy and Malloy from It Takes Two barbecue and Jerome from SL Fat Boy Spring Lake.

[00:14:56] Actually, Jerome ran one grand reserve grand champion last year at the Black Barbecue Cook Off. So those two had teamed up. Yeah. So, you know, we talked a little bit about this at the beginning when you were kind of getting this started out.

[00:15:09] You got a diverse group of folks that are they're coming from all over, really, North Carolina and some from South Carolina, too. A lot of great teams that are coming up. But, you know, you mentioned this is specifically a black barbecue cook off.

[00:15:20] Why did you guys feel like you needed to start something that was really targeted to the minority and and, you know, kind of the second part of that is what do you feel like that the black barbecue experts, the pit masters bring to the competition

[00:15:32] that you might not find it at another type of contest? Well, we again, like I explained in the beginning because of the not much diversity in the bigger, the bigger sanction events. But it's not like we're not welcome because we are.

[00:15:45] I've been there, never been treated bad, never had anything out the way said to me. Matter of fact, been invited to other camps and drinking and having fun. And they teach you some of their techniques. But we just wanted to bring the guys out in the backyard like,

[00:15:57] well, why are y'all not getting into this? Let's put something together. Let's let's start doing it. And a lot of guys have started getting into other competitions slowly as well. And we also wanted to explore the history of barbecue. If you know, I forget the author name,

[00:16:11] but he wrote a book called Black Smoke, Adrian Foster. OK. OK. OK. OK. I gotcha. I gotcha. So you guys can barbecue. Yeah, is there anything different about the way that, you know, you guys are barbecue and that you might find that some of the other

[00:17:09] competitions or is it is it the same just better or different? I think the St. John ones are more structured. Like SBN, you're more structured, you know exactly straight line. I mean, we were rag tag from the beginning. We were rag tag, man. There's no doubt about it.

[00:17:24] We had to build that structure. Second year we did a lot better. This year with Mike and the SBNs and them coming in, Southern Barbecue Network, they've given us more structure too. I think we got 16, I think 16, right? 16 or 17. But last year we had 25.

[00:17:42] I think a lot of them got it that because they couldn't vent and make money. But you don't go to the bigger ones, you don't go to the sanction ones to do that. You concentrate completely on your cooking style, you know what you present.

[00:17:53] And if you got like, I went down to the DoCo Rib Fest in Columbia and what they did, they did the sample ribs. Your team had to cook the samples for the people cause that helped offset the cost of putting on an operation like that.

[00:18:07] So I wanted to switch over. The more I started doing competition and learning for anybody to really take us serious, let's take the venting away. Let's concentrate on the protein that you're gonna put in. Let's give you time to concentrate on that instead of worrying about selling plates.

[00:18:23] But I think that's what the, cause a lot of folks were used to that. I mean, they made pretty good. You know? So we wanted to take that way. We want to get more serious about it. We want to get a good sanctioned body

[00:18:34] to be able to oversee us and give us structure. You know, we know we wouldn't dare. When we do, like I said, I did a lot of them and we start doing the research and I started looking at taking notes.

[00:18:43] We were way off, but we want to get in line till we have a credible event. This episode of the Low and Slow Barbecue Show is sponsored by the Southern Barbecue Network. Since 2010, the Southern Barbecue Network has sanctioned barbecue tournaments

[00:18:57] to further their goal of preserving a Southern tradition by providing well-trained judges to contests that are raising money for charitable causes in the Carolinas. In addition to supporting charitable barbecue competitions, the Southern Barbecue Network also donates annually to numerous local community organizations, hospitals and nonprofits.

[00:19:17] To find out more about the Southern Barbecue Network competition program and barbecue judge training classes, please visit sbbqn.com for more information. Again, that is sbbqn.com. Yeah, that's a good transition to kind of like, you know, if I want to start a barbecue competition,

[00:19:41] let's say we're gonna start one here in Hickory, where I'm based in Western North Carolina. What are some tips that you would offer somebody who wanted to start a competition? It sounds like getting involved with the Southern Barbecue Network to find some form is one thing,

[00:19:54] and then maybe kind of keep it to the proteins and not try to vend the meat, but what other kinds of tips would you offer to people that are trying to be like Bruce starting up their own barbecue festival? Yeah, be like Bruce.

[00:20:05] But yeah, I would say probably get with some people that love it. You gotta love it. You gotta have some trash talkers in it. You gotta have those guys. Yeah. Get hopefully the city or community can back you up. You need that backing. You need a team.

[00:20:23] You gotta build a team around you that ain't gonna get paid and know that, you know. If you can get with that nonprofit, that's even better. Cause people are gonna come together for food, food and music go hand to hand

[00:20:36] and people are gonna come together for a festival. If you say there's a festival going on, some barbecue, we got that. They're gonna come together. So you get with those people, you get with a nonprofit so it's a good cause.

[00:20:45] It's not just about, well, the barbecue is a draw, but you wanna have a cause or purpose behind that. And then if you can reach out to an SBN or one of the sanctioning bodies and see what they criteria is, see how they can help propel you forward

[00:21:03] from starting that event. And you would leave a lot of that stuff and they have that judging part of it. Man, it takes a lot We had some judges that didn't show up. Then they got fooled, like I said, they didn't know what to do.

[00:21:15] And my wife did the best she could with trying to instruct them. But you just gotta, and then some of it's trial and error, man. Some of it's growing pain, there's trial and error. You're gonna miss some things. What I did when I started it,

[00:21:29] I invited the whole community out. I wanted everybody to have an input. I wanted everybody to help me out cause this is my first time and I asked for a lot of help. Some people helped me, some people didn't. I understand.

[00:21:40] But the thing is that when you do that and those people don't show but they got a comment at the end, you're like, well, you had a chance to have put your input in. I needed your help. Then you do it the second year

[00:21:51] and the same ones that got something to say, they not showing up. So we've completely ignored them. So those that don't be a part of it, we're not even worried about them no more. We only worry about the ones who's gonna be a part of it.

[00:22:02] We try to build something for the community, something people can look forward to, the kids or the people that's in need that need that medical screening or that VA help or the dance teams that's coming out, the bouncy house for the kids.

[00:22:14] We just trying to bring the whole community together. This is our way of giving back or celebrating our community. I'm from Fayetteville. I wasn't born here. I was raised here. I was born in Germany. My dad was Army. But I was raised here

[00:22:26] and I came back in 08 after my mother got sick. I was in the Navy and I came back and I said, well, let me finish up down here and I started the food truck and that's when the barbecue aspect

[00:22:35] and Carlos, like I spoke to you about him before, he talked me into getting in the competition and once you get in it, man, it's almost like when you play little league ball. You're a competitor. So my goodness, when you're getting the win in circle, man,

[00:22:52] that's even better because it's something like you always testing yourself. You always trying yourself. And like I said, when I put my team together, I saw my weakness and I saw their strength and I asked them that they wanna join up. So that's where we at now.

[00:23:05] So let's talk about that team while you're on that. Tell me all about your barbecue team. You're not just doing the competitions. You're not just organizing the black barbecue cook-off, but you've also got kind of your own barbecue operation. Tell me all about that. Absolutely, absolutely.

[00:23:18] My team is, my man Maloy, Jay Wayne, we call him Jay Wayne. He's still in the National Guards, but when he came back from Kuwait, was it Kuwait Afghanistan, we had teamed up. We met through his wife.

[00:23:31] She went to the old high school I went to as well, but we met through his wife and he told me what he wanted to do. I said, hey man, we got this going on. You wanna be a part of it from day one. This guy is like,

[00:23:40] he is so focused when he, I'm the shit talker, but he is so focused when we had these competitions to make sure everything is right. He almost like a perfectionist. You have to calm him down sometime. And then we teamed up with drone William Wright

[00:23:55] out of Spring Lake SL Fat Boys. I told you, he's my grand champion last year. His specialty is brisket. Now he's focused too the way he can cut and trim a brisket. I'm an okay brisket cook, but he's a good brisket cook.

[00:24:07] So I knew I wanted him part of the team as well. So we try to put, and of course my wife, she's the coordinator. She makes sure we have all that inventory right. She lays out the area when we go and set up. But those guys, man,

[00:24:24] those guys are killers. Those guys are straight up killers and that's why we got the 26K8 barbecue team. Yeah. And it sounds like you've kind of got some all-stars from experts in different areas and put them all together so that you can have one successful operation.

[00:24:40] How is that working for you guys and where do people find you out there? Okay, well, it's just working pretty good. We done did some backyards. We didn't do two, but backyard's a little different. We're doing some backyard,

[00:24:52] but I'll tell you where the next event is coming up. Of course, if you ever black barbecue cook-off, those two be doing, then we will go up to King, North Carolina on September 30th, 31st and then we'll be in the fire in the foothills.

[00:25:03] Like I said, we met those guys up there at the chef's judging class on the 13th. And we planned on doing some more. We got some, my man Carl, PBM flip-flop, he's got one in September down here. Then we're gonna do one in Spring Lake.

[00:25:18] It would have helped Jerome coordinate that. The city of Spring Lake want one as well. Of course they right beside us so they see the activity that we got. Then we got Fat Man's down in Darlington, South Carolina. That was the whole hog down there.

[00:25:32] But we're gonna look for some more sanctioned events, some SBNs, we're gonna do Bobby's as well. Bobby's is November. SBN will be covering that as well. We're gonna get in that one. I think we got Pull Pork and Ribs and Bobby's.

[00:25:47] And then I think they do a chicken one of those as well. We're gonna get in that one as well. So we're gonna keep ourselves pretty busy. You know, we still have the court name on Malloy cause he's still in the guards.

[00:25:58] So if he's gone, it just be a two man, me and Jerome. And of course my wife, she's the coordinator of some of that right there. Yeah, no. We're gonna keep pretty busy. You've got a food truck too separate from this? Is that right? Yeah, uh-huh.

[00:26:11] I'm a full time food truck operator. I've had it since 2018. I was working out at Cargill Corporation in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Okay. The soybean meal plant. And I was doing some, a lot of catering, a lot of backyard stuff I was doing.

[00:26:28] And I wasn't licensed, I wasn't legit. And my brother told me, you might want to think about stepping it up. And of course I had to check with my wife and make sure, you know, you make them purchase like that. You definitely can't do it on your own.

[00:26:39] Yeah. That's gonna upset the whole house. But she was good with it. We worked it out, she was good with it. And eventually left Cargill and 2019, I signed on with Fort Liberty now, which they have the armed forces, army air force exchange services.

[00:26:55] They do the vending on there. So I've been on there about six years or so. So it works out pretty good. I do a couple of events in town, sometime we travel, but the base, it works out pretty good for me on the daily basis.

[00:27:06] My daily operations out at the Yarborough site. That's a little farther from the center of the base. That's where your third group, fifth group, your civil affairs group and your three, four, 88 are air artillery defense groups out that way. Like I said, it's a little far out

[00:27:20] from the center of the base and they don't have much out there they got to exchange. But it works out pretty good for me. Then we do a lot of company events when they have battalion level events like that,

[00:27:28] our family day events or Smith Lake when the lakes open. So it's pretty good. Yeah, I'm always barbecuing man. I just, I'll tell you what piece of equipment I got. I just bought a vertical pellet smoker. And to me it seems like a loving.

[00:27:44] Reason being because I was so used to the old smoker and I sell so much brisket on the base. It was just wearing me out. The old offset smoke was just wearing me out. I like man, couldn't sleep, got to check the fire.

[00:27:54] You fall asleep, your brisket is going to mess up. Something's going to mess up. Something's not going to set right. But I like, let me get this, put this in this oven and shut it. So the soldiers still like it. So it works out good for me.

[00:28:04] Well yeah, we've been operating out there for quite a while. And it's just barbecue? Well, we do diverse depending on, I'll tell you some of the menu items. We do, of course we do brisket, pulled pork, a pulled smoked chicken because everybody don't eat pork.

[00:28:21] Then we do like our smoked sauces, hot dogs, links and your mac and cheese baked beans, your fries and stuff like that. But if we have an event that somebody, like we did a soccer event up in Sanford and they had nothing with kids.

[00:28:32] So we had to swap off the menu. We went from hamburgers, chicken nuggets, stuff like that, and a little bit of barbecue. So we run a versatile menu, but mostly mainly it's barbecue. Yeah, gotcha. So let me ask you, and we're kind of getting close

[00:28:46] to the end of our time here, but between the black barbecue cook-off and organizing these things, your competition team, your food truck, Bruce, what keeps you motivated in this barbecue world? Why do you keep doing this stuff? Man, I'm built for it. I'm built for it.

[00:29:01] I love it. I can tell you who got me into it. My dad was an old griller now. He was good, old retired 82nd Airborne guy. You know, grill is hot and fast, but I got a brother-in-law. His call sign is Hoppin' Bob. He loved the movie Life.

[00:29:13] Me and him used to try to one up each other. We'd drink, we'd talk trash, we kept doing stuff. And oh, Hoppin' Bob was attached to JSOC. That's Joint Special Operations Command here at Fort Bragg. So he was gone, if they called him, he was gone, wheels up.

[00:29:26] They were doing some stuff. They took care of business. Then he come back, he have a new idea and we go back and forth in it. But he kind of got me into it. And then that fire hit, you know, I got the big pit smoker,

[00:29:38] I got the food truck and it just kept going. I started getting into competition. The competition, man, I love. It's expensive, but I love, especially if you don't win. It's expensive. But the guys that I'm with and my wife, they all love it, man.

[00:29:55] The guys love it, I love it. You meet so many good people, man. These are a lot of good people. You get that bond. You get that bond with them. Definitely. It's like you're happy to see them at the next event

[00:30:08] or wherever you're going or what they doing or become friends on social media. But yeah, I love it, man. I love it, I'm built for it. Yeah, it's what we call barbecue family out there. You got a big old family of people. They're not blood relatives,

[00:30:20] but they're barbecue relatives there. That's good. Yeah, I'd like to hear all that. So we're gonna take it into the low and slow showdown here and we'll surprise you here with some one-hit questions, just sort of one word answers.

[00:30:32] See how you do on that before we wrap it up here as we talk about the black barbecue cook-off coming up in Veyapul August 17th. So first of all, Bruce, you mentioned it. Do you prefer gas pellets, charcoal or wood? Wood. Which wood and why?

[00:30:51] Pican native, North Carolinian. Got them in my yard. I got no people that got them. I just prefer that little nutty flavor that what it produces. Yeah. Yeah. It's really mild. So what state in these United States is the best for barbecue? Sheet, North Carolina. I'm biased, baby.

[00:31:10] I don't have to have barbecue here. Nothing wrong with that. Hey, we're biased too. We got North Carolina here on our sign up there. North Carolina all the way. I got some friends in South Carolina that always give them this just runnin' joke

[00:31:24] that South Carolina bore their ribs. Oh my goodness, they get under their collar. It gets under their collar, boy. Yeah. Okay, well so North Carolina's the best. We could agree with that, but which is the best style, eastern or western? Eastern. I'm eastern. I'm eastern.

[00:31:40] Fair enough that you're down east. You're western, right? Well, yeah, I'm in the west. I like Lexington style, but I like the east too. Pork, beef, chicken or something else? Pork. Pork. Pork. Oh yeah. What is your favorite side? Baked beans. What is better?

[00:32:01] You want your meat with or without the sauce? Without. If you have the sauce, do you want it sweet or spicy? I want a combo of both. I like sweet and spicy. I like that. Yeah, that's good. So is barbecue a verb or a noun? A noun.

[00:32:24] Good answer. Both, it's whatever you want with it. It depends on where you're from and how you phrase that. I'm gonna say a noun. Yeah, that's right. It's a noun. That's okay. That's the right answer. There's not really a wrong answer in barbecue,

[00:32:35] I don't think, as long as it tastes good. One more time, Bruce, tell everybody about the black barbecue cook-off, where people can find it when. Give us all the details so we make sure and get there. Absolutely. The third annual Fayetteville Black Barbecue Cook-off,

[00:32:49] August 17th, be at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The gates open to the public at 11. I'll tell you what you can expect. If you buy the wristband, you got some of the top pit masters around this region here. They're gonna put on an exhibition

[00:33:03] and you're gonna wanna be a part of that. We got DJ Barry, he's gonna be playing the music. Music and food go together. We got the Crowns gonna be providing the beer. That go with barbecue. We got Miss Elizabeth with the nonprofit side that's giving the backpack giveaways.

[00:33:19] All you gotta do is buy your wristband, you can go around and sample. You're giving back to the community on that part with Miss Elizabeth and also helping us all set the cost. I think it's gonna be a great event. It's gonna be a great event.

[00:33:30] This is our third one. We got the Southern Barbecue Network is gonna be handling the judging. So we're not worrying about any bias. These folks are professionals. They've been doing it a while. Mike and his team been doing it a while

[00:33:40] and they're gonna put together class that Friday night. But we looking forward to it, man. We looking forward to it. And that my friends is the lowdown from Bruce Yeomans with the Black Barbecue Cook-Off in Fayetteville. Coming up August 17th, again, tickets are on sale now.

[00:33:55] Bruce, thanks so much for joining the Low and Slow Barbecue Show. Man, thank you so much for having me, man. I appreciate it. Yeah, you've been listening to the Low and Slow Barbecue Show on the Mesh.tv Network of Podcasts.

[00:34:07] Be sure to visit us online at LowSlowBBQShow.com. That's where you'll find the blog and other podcast episodes. If you like what you hear in the Low and Slow Barbecue Show, be sure to give us a five-star rating in your favorite podcast network.

[00:34:20] That helps a lot of other people find our podcast and we know you're finding it out there. More and more listeners every single week. Remember, visit LowSlowBBQShow.com and you can subscribe to the Lowdown newsletter. We'll send you the latest podcasts, blogs, recipes,

[00:34:34] barbecue events like the Black Barbecue Cook-Off. All that's coming to your inbox every Tuesday morning. Special thanks to our guest, Bruce Yeomans from the Black Barbecue Cook-Off. Thanks as well to our producer, Andrew Moose, and the whole team at the Mesh.tv Network of Podcasts.

[00:34:50] Most especially, thank you for listening to the Low and Slow Barbecue Show. Remember, for the best barbecue and the best barbecue podcast, make it low and slow.