'Que-Lapalooza

As caterers and now competition cooks, we have often been asked whether we do any dinners that anyone can attend. The answer has always been "maybe one day". Well that day was last Friday, Sept 25. We hosted 'Que-Lapalooza, our first public event and a fundraiser cabaret to fund our trip to the American Royal this week. Unfortunately in the rush of things we never remembered to take any pictures! I will be begging and pleading, hopefully we can find someone with some pics to share.

We had about 100 people out, approximately 50% friends & family, 50% complete strangers. This was a great mix - it means word is getting around in this city about true Southern BBQ. We only had about 3 weeks to promote the event and promotion was somewhat limited.

We served the 4 competition meats - brisket, pork butt, chicken, and ribs. We used exactly the same rubs and sauces we serve in competition so people could get a taste of what's worked so well for us this year. We managed to find a band a few days prior, and we got great feedback about them - Festus - a Regina band specializing in Southern-inspired Rock and country. We enjoyed them a lot too.
We gave a way a couple dozen door prizes, we had some items up on a silent auction table, and we had a well stocked bar. (There will be wine next year too!)

The evening finished up a bit earlier than we planned (I guess most people really did come for the food) but it looked like everyone had a good time and we can get an early start on planning the 2010 event.