What to vend at a BBQ Comp?

I'm deciding whether or not to register for a comp coming up in January. I've never vended while competing before and want to try to vend this one to recoup some of the costs. Trying to come up with some ideas of what to vend. Any suggestions? I have an 18.5 WSM, a 22.5 WSM, two 22.5 kettles and one 18.5 kettle. So between cooking for the comp turn ins, I feel a bit limited as to what I can successfully cook and vend at the same time. Meaning the menu would have to consists of just a few simple items.

So far the only ideas I have are
-pulled pork tacos
-pork belly mac n cheese (haven't tried this yet but a coworker just told me about it and it sounds awesome!)
-abt's
-pig shots

Any other suggestions or recommendations from those who vend and compete would be greatly appreciated!

I always vend when I compete for the same reason. It's tough to use your kettles and WSMs to vend, they are a little finicky for constant opening, and will be tied up with comp. Id recommend you get an electric chafer or standalone/induction burners. Sterno chafers won't work well, outside.

People want to eat BBQ at BBQ comps, so pulled pork tacos will sell hard. We killed it with BBQ bahn mi sandwiches this year.

Don't forget to include the BBQ organizer's 20% cut in your prices. People are expecting to spend during these events and if you underprice it you will have a hard time breaking even.

Do as much as possible in advance, you won't have time to cook vending food except maybe overnight on Friday but I wouldn't recommend it.

And, recruit a lot of friends to help, so that you can focus on the comp as necessary while they vend. Beer+tee shirts seems like adequate payment for these services.

Oh and don't forget to do everything above-board with your local health department because they will put the brakes on you selling, if you don't.

Thanks for the reply Dave! I already know I'm going to have a hard time pricing everything and keeping in mind the 20% cut the organizer gets. Either way it'll be an experience and recouping something rather than nothing is always good.

Also just thought about adding pulled pork nachos and maybe pig candy to the menu. I have until Monday to get the early registration discount so this weekend should be interesting experimenting with what to cook/vend.

Winning the comp will help you recoup some costs. Good luck!

It's pretty unlikely that anyone will hold you specifically to the menu you list on your application. Just be generic: "BBQ pork" "slaw" "bread"

Hope everything is coming along Benji. Update us!

Dave from Denver said:

Hope everything is coming along Benji. Update us!

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I unfortunately wasn't able to register for the comp. It's this weekend actually, I'm going to try to go just to support the teams and eat some good Q! It was just too much for me to try to compete and vend at the same time, hopefully later on down the road i'll be able to when I have more resources and more help. Thanks for all your info though Dave!

When vending pulled pork is the easiest. You just keep it warm in one of the turkey roasters and serve it up. Another popular item at Comps/festivals are ribs. If you're at a BBQ Contest, you're gonna wanna serve up ribs. I see the biggest obstacle for you will be cooking enough food in advance using the equipment you have. You'll need a really good schedule so you're not going nuts on Thursday or Friday and do not want to run out of food. You want to come close to running out, but do not run out.

If you find you have a lot of pulled pork left over you can have a "Sale" and just charge by the container or weight. Check with the event organized about selling in containers or by weight.

And perhaps someone here can help in estimating how much to pre-cook. Depending on the organizer you may also be able to sell soft drinks, Coke, Diet Coke, A&W Root Beer, etc. Again check with your organizer.

If you're going to enter your first Comp and also Vend you'll really need to start planning about a month or more in advance. Have a good checklist. You don't want to be running to the store on Saturday. Get as much help as you can get and practice your 4 category meats (including box set up) as much as you can.

Be weather conscious. Get on top of the weather for the weekend of your comp. I was at the Colorado BBQ Festival a few years ago in Frisco. Huge crowd. Then on Friday night around 7:30 it rained for about 15 minutes. Only half the crowd returned. So check the forecast and have wet weather gear with you - just in case.


Then practice and be really, really, really organized.