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About the

Origin of Ol' Smoky

I was raised on a farm in Southwest Minnesota, just outside of a small town – Brewster, pop. 454. My dad, Doug, was a Marine during Vietnam, and then spent years building A.O. Smith Harvestores (those big blue silos you see on some farms). In the early 1990s, when I was finishing up high school, my dad decided to use an old gear reducer [that he had used to raise the sheets while building Harvestores] to create a rotisserie style hog roaster. Together, we took a 1940s grain trailer, cut the top off, and welded on a big smoke box. Then we rigged an electric motor, the gear reducer and a spit to roast whole hogs. After we painted it, my dad stenciled “Ol’ Smoky” above the doors with red barn paint. For many years to come, we would use Ol’ Smoky to roast a pig for the annual Brewster Fun Day (small town = ONE fun day), and my dad regularly loaned it out to any of my friends who wanted to use it. It’s good to know people.

Ol’ Smoky sat in storage for a long time after my folks retired and moved into town. In 2014, I asked my dad if I could bring Ol’ Smoky up to Rosemount to use for a big pool party we were having at our house. It was our 2nd annual party, and we really wanted to take things up a notch. Mission accomplished. Once I got it up here, and started using it more often, I slowly made improvements to it to make it more efficient—and to smoke anything, not just hogs. My dad, while he was excited that it was being used and improved, told me that if I ever painted it, I had to replace the lettering and could not change the name. In 2020, using the original setup that my dad and I made, I added a rotisserie rack system. Ol’ Smoky advanced to the next level. I did take a wire brush to the entire smoker, and updated it with a nice coat of black high temp grill paint. And of course, as promised, I replaced the “Ol’ Smoky” in barn red above the doors. Ol’ Smoky BBQ was officially born.

Origin of Ol' Smoky
Ol Smoky Sauces

Minnesota Original

Ol' Smoky Sauces

In 2016, Elliot, my 11 year-old son, really started to enjoy spicy food!  He thought hot peppers were exciting, and wanted to grow the hottest ones in our garden.  We planted Scorpions, Carolina Reapers, Ghost Peppers, Dragon Cayenne and a ton of jalapenos and tomato plants.  When it came time to harvest, we started making [HOT] hot sauces and BBQ sauces.  We’ve produced many varieties of sauce over the last few years, and discovered a few that we think are fantastic!  Elliot has three forms of arthritis, so in 2018, he decided that he wanted to do something to help support the Juvenile Arthritis Foundation.  For their gala that year, we auctioned off Hot Sauce for a Year … One type of home-made BBQ or hot sauce delivered to the lucky winner’s door every month for one year.  We had to churn the creative juices, but it was a great challenge for both of us, and for a cause that my entire family is passionate about.  Elliot is 15 now, and still loves making sauces—in addition to forming his skills as my Ol’ Smoky grill apprentice.

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