Meet Brandon & Melissa Kennedy: Big Country BBQ Owners & Pit Masters

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brandon & Melissa Kennedy and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brandon & Melissa, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
Smoking BBQ started as a hobby, that led to lots of cooking of lots of meats. This led to my wife encouraging me to try to sell it (since she was secretly tired of eating it). So we invited some friends over on a weekend for some BBQ and to get feedback from them to see if what we were smoking would actually sell. All the feedback from our weekend with friends was nothing but encouraging words and how great everything tasted. So Memorial Weekend was coming up and we decided to advertise on our neighborhood social media pages and our personal social media pages to allow our neighbors and friends an option to buy from us. The first weekend of Big Country BBQ was in May of 2016 and in July of 2016 we would purchase our 1st BBQ Smoking Trailer we could pull to events and give it our best shot. 

What should our readers know about your business?
We are a family run business, its just us and our kids. We pride ourselves on quality which is why we haven’t hired outside help. Every guest every time! Our love to serve others pours out of us when we get to actually serve them. We love meeting new people and catching up with our regular customers. It’s not always easy work, the labor behind the actual events is the tough parts, long hours on the smoker and in the kitchen can get to you, but to hear someone say that’s the best I’ve ever had or we love you guys from our customers makes it all worth while. We also love when we get to cater events and make the day easier for them, there can be a lot of stress that goes in to the food side, our job is to remove that stress so they can have more time to enjoy with their loved ones. When times get tough and we are spread thin we pray and lean into God and each other. Its not always pretty when its been a long day but in the end we support each other 100 percent. One thing we have learned over the years is that you can’t please everyone no matter what.. You can do your best and try to make it right but there will always be one person who says no. Don’t let that discourage you learn from it and move on, so you can be better for the next person. We want the world to know real BBQ still exist. We want them to know that with God all things are possible.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
First we are going to hit up some of the local BBQ spots in the North Ft Worth and Downtown Ft Worth area and try out their popular menu items. We would make a road trip down to Austin to wait in line at Franklins BBQ, check out the YETI shop and hit up 6th Street and grab some VooDoo Donuts, then make our way to San Antonio to check out the Alamo and head over to the River Walk for a boat ride then swing by Rita’s for some Mexican food. On the way back to Ft Worth we would stop in at Salt Lick BBQ and check out there awesome open pit. We would swing out west early one morning to Cisco and grab some caffeine from Waverly’s, head over to Cisco lake kill a few hours fishing and checking out the local lake, possibly check out our friends ranch and private pond, then head back to town for some lunch at Slow Poke Farms where everything is homemade and delicious. Once the evening falls we will head across the street to Red Gap Brewing and have a couple of their famous brews, one of my favorites is Big Daddy Darryl and see what awesome food truck is setup to serve dinner. Once we get back north we would take a day and head over to Arlington, TX and check out the Cowboys and Rangers stadiums, then head over to Texas Live and enjoy some food and drinks for the night.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Red Gap Brewing Company out of Cisco, TX is where we got our first big event, the owners Jason Mahon and Ryan Dekok are friends of ours from Keystone Church out of Keller. Red Gap Brewing was brand new as well, they had just opened and reach out to us about coming out and serving BBQ at their brewery. This was our first big opportunity to serve our BBQ to the general public straight from our small smoking trailer. Our Keystone family has never stopped supporting us in what we do. Kris Klein has mentored us and led us when we start to doubt ourselves or were stuck in what to do. We have always looked to God for our answers to our business decisions. He has blessed us beyond what we could have ever imagined. We built our company on Philippians 4:6. Don’t worry about anything instead pray about everything.

Website: bigcountrybbqtx.com
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