Where there’s smoke, there’s BBQ

STORY BY PAM BURKE PHOTOS BY COLIN THOMPSON

The argument could be made that the way to Steve Parker’s stomach is through his heart. Co-owner with is wife, Jennifer, of the food truck Parker’s BBQ Pit, he learned the love of special foods and quality ingredients while growing up among the cooks in his family on Rocky Boy.

As the pit master for their food truck, Parker prepares the pulled pork, brisket, chicken and ribs that they serve along with seven or eight side dishes, including an original recipe apple coleslaw. Parker said he learned to cook, and learned to love the process of cooking, from his parents and grandparents.

One of his favorite memories centers around his family’s birthday tradition. His family didn’t have much money, he said, but when a birthday came around, the celebrant could ask for a special meal of their own choosing, and his mom and grandmother would create that meal no matter what it was.

“Over time, I learned to associate food with a form of how you care for somebody. It’s a way for you to express how you care for that person, and we have that tradition now with our kids,” he said.

His dad and grandfather cooked, as well, he added. His dad would pit roast whole pigs — a skill that ended up sparking Parker’s love of barbecue.

When the Montana Centennial Cattle Drive was in the area in 1989, Parker said, his dad was asked by the tribe to roast a whole hog, but in honor of the celebration, he pit roasted a buffalo for everyone.

“It was fascinating to me,” he said, “so naturally I was drawn to barbecue and outdoor cooking. And from my mom and my grandmother I really learned to care for my ingredients. The better ingredients you use, the better the food you can produce.”

But they also stressed that the cook’s attitude, the emotional energy they put into cooking was important, too.

“When you cook you should always take your time and make sure that you’re in a good mood. If you cook while you’re in a lousy mood your food is going to reflect that. But if you have good thoughts and good energy you’ll be able to transfer that into the food that you’re producing,” he said.

“Those key things have stuck with me for a very long time,” he added, including when he was in the military later.

As he traveled with the military, he sampled foods from different regions, analyzing what he liked about them and how they were made.

“There’s a lot of common spices regardless of what region you’re looking at, but the ratio of those spices and how they’re changed region to region can really change the flavor profile dramatically,” he said. “Just using a different parsley, using a different tomato can give it a different flavor, or the treatment that you give the same produce can turn out to be something totally different.

I think it’s just fascinating.”

He said the foods from Mexico’s Baja California region are some of his favorite, especially with the variety of fresh vegetables used in the cuisine.

Still, though, his love of all barbecue and smoked meats is reflected in the variety of flavors and serving options displayed by his menu.

PARKER’S BBQ PIT Cooking Tips

Meat - cooking time - final temp

Pork ribs – 4 hours – 145 F Chicken – 4-6 hours – 165 F Pork butt – 6-8 hours – 203 F Brisket – 10-14 hours – 203 F

It was a dare of sorts that launched the Parker’s into their side business as barbecue food truck vendors.

Steve and Jennifer Parker were planning their wedding eight years ago, and trying to figure out how to pay for all the expenses, while also taking care of daily expenses that included five children, four of whom lived at home. Steve Parker’s best man suggested that he set up a vendor booth at the powwow during the Rocky Boy Celebration.

Parker said it sounded crazy at first, but his friend had eaten enough of Parker’s different smoked meat meals to know it could work and offered to put up half the money for expenses.

The Parkers decided to go for it, with no idea that this would affect their future, including the next two years serving at the powwow. But that first year alone, they sold 1,000 pounds of ribs and about 6,000 pounds of pork butts for the pulled pork — in one long weekend.

“It was overwhelming how the food was received by the community and by the visitors,” he said.

It was fun but a lot of work, he said, and not just because, after a long day selling food, he came home and spent all night smoking the meats needed for the next day. Well in advance of the powwow they were researching and working on everything from food service regulations to how to calculate the amount of food they could expect to sell.

They also spent two weeks building their vendor booth.

“I had actual doors and windows on it, we ran electricity, I installed

shelving for our inventory, we’d bring in all the appliances,” he said. “It was a lot of work but in those three years we really experienced a lot of success. … It seemed like the folks we served our food to were excited to have it; there was a lot of encouragement there to make something out of what we had thought of as a temporary venture.”

They became hooked on the idea of making this a permanent gig, though. But they need a more user friendly cook shack.

Parker said they spent a long time looking for a food truck without success. The ones they could afford would need a lot of investment to get them up to code and suited to their needs, and the ones that were ready to go were out of their price range, he said.

In the end, they bought a trailer and had it custom fitted to their needs. They put together a business plan, he said, then applied for and received a state Department of Commerce grant that went toward a significant down payment. They also worked with Bear Paw Development Corp. in Havre to arrange the rest of the financing. They got the trailer for 60 to 70 percent of the price of an equivalent truck, Parker said, but the process took almost two years.

In 2017, with a brand new Parker’s BBQ Pit food truck/trailer, food service certification from the county and an invitation to participate in the Discover Downtown event that included a food vendor competition, they jumped straight into business again. And straight into their first food competition, with four other vendors that included a popular and prize-winning vendor from Great Falls.

“It was literally our very first day of opening with the food trailer,” he said. “We still didn’t know what we were doing because we didn’t where all the stuff was, we didn’t have all our systems down, we didn’t know what we didn’t know. But we got really lucky and ended up winning People’s Choice Award for that on our very first day. … It was really nice.”

Though he has a personal fondness for the Central Texas style of barbecue, known for its mild smoke flavor — from burning the post oak trees that grow in that area of Texas — and its focus on the meat rather than sauces, Parker said he likes to offer a variety of barbecue flavors.

He considers the brisket to be the real test of a pit master, with a big payoff in flavor and tender juiciness when done right. He shared his recipe which follows this article.

His pulled pork he described as Kansas City style, “so it’s a little sweet” and has sauce. His ribs he calls a blend of Texas and Memphis styles, the latter being known for its sweet, tangy and spicy sauce.

He uses a beer-can recipe to add moisture and flavor to his chicken, which he smokes in his propane-fed smoker that he also uses for his ribs, with the post oak and a touch of hickory in a fire box he added at the base of the smoker.

“We’ve intentionally created our menu to be versatile so we can substitute any meat into any menu item,” he said. “The customers really enjoy that.”

Other than the ribs, which are a barbecue staple, Parker said the meat items he has for the menu were chosen so he can serve them up in several different ways, including as a sandwich, a taco and a “piggy bag.”

Created by his kids, the piggy bag is like a “taco in a bag,” but starts with a bag of original Lays potato chips and is layered with pulled pork and baked beans. It has a loyal following, he said.

“It definitely touches your inner fat kid,” he added, laughing.

Parker’s BBQ is also known for its green apple slaw, a coleslaw with a sweet and tangy sauce.

“It is my take on the Carolina-style barbecue and how they fix their slaw and what they do with it,” he said. “They like to eat their pulled pork sandwiches with the slaw right on top.”

When people say they don’t like coleslaw, Parkers give them samples or a regular customer will convince them to try it, and they’re usually sold on it in the end, he said.

“We’ve intentionally created our menu to be versatile so we can substitute any meat into any menu item,” he said. “The customers really enjoy that.”

Steve Parker loves his food and sharing it with people — whether it’s family, who also act as his first line of taste testers, or customers, but the Parker’s BBQ Pit is about more than that for him and his wife.

He takes care of cooking the meats, recipe development and marketing, while Jennifer Parker manages the books, inventory, ordering and making the side dishes. She’s been supportive of his cooking and has encouraged him to go after this dream from the beginning, Parker said.

“She’s been the glue. I don’t think I’d still be doing it it if weren’t for her,” he said.

She doesn’t long to put in her 40-hour week as a nurse at Rocky Boy Health Center then spend the weekend in the food truck, he said. The food isn’t her passion, but the family time is.

Each of their mothers, their children and a few siblings regularly help on days they’re set up to sell food.

“It’s been a family business from the start, it’s still a family business,” he said. “I think it’s really cool that one of our popular items was developed by our children.”

“We want to serve good food to our customers and also show our kids that you can have some success, but you’ve got to work at it,” he said.

They dream occasionally of having a brick and mortar location, said Parker, who is the CEO of Plain Green, a financial services company and economic arm of the Chippewa Cree Tribe, but relying on connections in the Havre community has brought a real appreciation of his community.

Food supplier Sysco only delivers to restaurants, he said, so Ryan Sorensen, owner of Spud’s Grub Hut volunteered to accept Parker’s orders and store them until he can get there. Different locations, like Crawford Distillery and Vizsla Brewing bring Parker’s BBQ Pit to provide food to their customers throughout the summer. And, he added, Bear Paw Meats tries to make sure he has briskets when he needs them.

In turn, Parkers try to buy local, and collaborate locally, he said.

He’s been working with Neil Crawford to develop a recipe that will feature one of the distillery’s liquors paired with smoked meat.

“Neil and I are committed to developing a pork belly recipe using either his whiskey or his bourbon,” he said, and hopes to debut it before the end of the year with the idea that the collaboration will help them promote each other’s business.

In a previous collaboration, Parker made a smoked simple syrup that Crawfords put it in what they called a smoked Caesar served at the distillery.

While Parker is still daydreaming about having his own restaurant location, he’s also working on a way to test the waters in an established restaurant.

“For now I would really like to do a kitchen takeover sometime with one of the local restaurants,” he said. “I think it would be a lot of fun and I think it would be a really cool proof of concept on how well we could do in a brick and mortar environment.”

Parker’s BBQ Pit is wrapping up for the summer, but making plans for next year.

“I think we’ll continue to do this as long as we make our customers happy because at the end of the day that’s really our motivation,” he said, “to see people enjoy our food and the smiles and the enthusiasm behind having some good food.”

PARKER’S BBQ PIT Steve and Jennifer Parker, owners of the food truck Parker’s BBQ Pit, pose in front of their truck.