Here we go!
Well, summer is here! Our summer at least! Memorial Day weekend was CRAZY! We kicked off our burnoff season with a trip to the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds for the Berea National Rib Burn Off. Wasn’t a great weekend because of weather, but it’s always good to get back into the swing of things and see our old friends! This coming weekend we head to Paratown Mall in Parma, Ohio for their burnoff! Always a good one.. and it’s always HOT HOT HOT!! Forecast is looking to promise the same weather.. hopefully the rain stays away!
Our cement is poured and we’re getting ready to bring in the forklift to move our smoker to its permanent location in the restaurant! It is an exciting time for us.. but also a little bittersweet. The first smoker to “live” at the restaurant is our first smoker that we got 6 years ago. She is named Ginny after Dale and Bill’s Mother. “Ginny” is the smoker that started it all, and we are completely dismantling our “big” trailer because as we’ve grown, it has held us back a bit because of size. We are now able to work off a much smaller trailer that is easier to pull and also to get into events! We have come a long way in the past 6 years and we are very proud of where we came from, and also very excited to see where the future takes us!
We are now considering turning our “traveling” into a year round adventure taking us to many different parts of the country that we haven’t visited yet. We just have to get the logistics worked out as to how to do that as well as keep our restaurant up to our standards… but we’re working on it!
Now, as promised before, a little introduction to who the “fat guys” are! The number one guy is Dale Foraker. He has been grilling most of his life and this was always a dream of his. It just so happened that after being laid off from the steel industry after 30+ years was the push needed to get it going! Number 2 (and 3.. and 4 and 5 if you want to count them) helpers is Jen and Andy Bolgiano (4 and 5 are their daughters Eiley (who is almost 2 years old) and Kinsey (who is 5 months!)). Jen is Dale’s daughter and helped from the very beginning.. she is also blamed for coming up with the name! Andy got sucked into the whole ordeal when he and Jen started dating! Little did he know what all he was getting himself into! The next part of the ownership team is Dale’s other daughter Kim, and her husband, Mark. They live down near Marysville, Ohio so can’t be as involved with the every day operations, but like to help whenever and however they can. The final part is Adam Bolgiano. Adam is Andy’s brother and not only does he own a portion but he is our acting general manager at the store. He also plays a huge part is running our summer team (he’s the one pushing for traveling more!). So that is us in a nutshell! Not too exciting, but as you can see.. no corporate bs here! We are family owned and operated.. for better or for worse!
