Yesterday my BBQ team the Moody Ques had our first full meeting of 2015. We did it at the Silly Goose, where one of our cooks Dusty was bartending and was kind enough to give us happy hour prices. We had butt and shoulder for the team to sample.
Frank and Erik preparing the food
Team members sit enthralled as the fountain of knowledge known as Otto speaks
Dusty and Frank
Shoulder (top) and butt (below). Both were very good but it was a team consensus that the shoulder was better, which is a good thing because we are a shoulder team.
On a side note – I am not usually a big coleslaw person, but Frank! Damn!!! Can we have that slaw every day? That may seriously be the best slaw I have ever had in my life.
My “DAWG” John D
Frank going over the menu for each day. I brought a notepad but due to excessive Fireball consumption it completely slipped my mind to take notes.
More menu discussion
They’re not our sponsor anymore but we still use WordPress to run the team website
Moody relaxing now that she’s handed over day-to-day operations to Clay and Frank
This was a great meeting. This year’s team is reminding me a lot of the 2008 team, when we operated on a shoestring budget but probably had the most fun of any year down there and won 3rd in shoulder. We had several really awesome people write us checks yesterday. It never fails to amaze me what a high caliber of people this team attracts.
I wrote in an earlier post that we are cracking down on liquor this year. Don’t take that the wrong way; if you are a team member or a personally invited guest of a team member, we will make sure you have plenty of access to liquor, and it will likely be a higher quality of liquor than we have had in previous years. What we are cracking down on is the 25-30 people who are friends with many of us, who don’t join the team, but who come in every night and set up their own personal BBQ Fest headquarters in our booth. Those people need to join the team unless they want to be drinking Coke and Sprite this year.
We will have off-duty MPD at the door once again this year. It should be easier to get guests in than in previous years, given that we don’t have to hold space for a large presenting sponsor.
We have a plan to three-peat as Best Booth winner. I can’t discuss the design since members of other teams read my blog, but believe me, it is going to be every bit as good as the previous two years if not better.
We’re also perfecting our BBQ sauce. It’s a sweet sauce that is different from most of what you see at BBQ Fest. It received many favorable reviews at the meeting. Earlier this week we had a member of Squeal Street (who, unlike the Moody Ques, didn’t win any trophies in 2014) try it and he thought it was good.
We have more team members who have paid their dues by this point than we have had in any previous year. That’s a very good sign. If you haven’t paid yet and would like to, you can pay on our website. If you don’t want to pay the PayPal fee, you can get a check to Clay. (Or if you see me out, you can give it to me and I will get it to Clay.) We’re going to cap the membership at 35 but are not quite there yet, so there are still a few spots open if you are interested in joining. Talk to me or whichever Moody Ques team member you know best if interested. (Stupid people and crazy people need not apply)
All right. That’s the recap. It’s Sunday Fun Day and I am wearing shorts today no matter how cold it is. IT”S MARCH DAMMIT and I am sick of being all bundled up. We should normally be well into the 60s this time of year and I am going to dress like it is no matter what. Brunch with Brooke at Bardog at 11 (NO BROOKE I AM NOT DOING FIREBALL) then over to Blind Bear for D-RANKS with B-RAD around 1. Undecided whether I will play poker tonight. There are a few poker players I wouldn’t mind recruiting for the BBQ team (already got one of them) so maybe I will play. Time to hit Publish and pop open a PBR. Back tomorrow with a news update.