Sun BBQFest at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut
- Thread starter Nathan FA
- Start date
We had a great time. The team I was helping brought home the people's choice trophy, 3rd year in a row. I think it helps they are local.
The event was way more busy then anyone expected. For the people choice they sold 4oz samples and he prepared around 800lbs(before trimming and cooking) combined of brisket/pork shoulder/pork belly/chicken and we sold out around 6pm with the event supposed to go until 10. All of the BBQ teams were running out early and customers were a bit frustrated that the selection of food was very limited late Saturday into Sunday. I'm not sure the event staff did a very good job informing people as they came in selections would he limited.
I ended up talking along the WSM and it was called into emergency duty. I cooked around 40lbs of pork butt, 4 chickens and 24lbs of pork belly from around 9pm Saturday until 1pm Sunday. He runs a stick burner that was mostly dedicated to the competition meat then once the everything was turned in he did some wings. We sold the stuff I cooked along with 120 chicken wings and the left overs from the competition all Sunday by around 3. With a lot of the other teams being sold out on Saturday and not reloading we probably could have sold 1000lbs of meat if we would have had a way to cook it.
For the competition portion of the event he finished middle of the pack out of 73 teams and was a bit disappointed but we all had a good time.
I walked around and saw tons of WSMs being used. I also saw some crazy set ups, all kinds of smokers. Our neighbors who were super nice won the Grand Champion and had what they called a perfect perfect 360 on brisket.
The Weber Grill experience truck was there but I didn't realize it until the end so I didn't get a chance to check it out.
Overall I'm glad I made the trip. It was a good time.
The event was way more busy then anyone expected. For the people choice they sold 4oz samples and he prepared around 800lbs(before trimming and cooking) combined of brisket/pork shoulder/pork belly/chicken and we sold out around 6pm with the event supposed to go until 10. All of the BBQ teams were running out early and customers were a bit frustrated that the selection of food was very limited late Saturday into Sunday. I'm not sure the event staff did a very good job informing people as they came in selections would he limited.
I ended up talking along the WSM and it was called into emergency duty. I cooked around 40lbs of pork butt, 4 chickens and 24lbs of pork belly from around 9pm Saturday until 1pm Sunday. He runs a stick burner that was mostly dedicated to the competition meat then once the everything was turned in he did some wings. We sold the stuff I cooked along with 120 chicken wings and the left overs from the competition all Sunday by around 3. With a lot of the other teams being sold out on Saturday and not reloading we probably could have sold 1000lbs of meat if we would have had a way to cook it.
For the competition portion of the event he finished middle of the pack out of 73 teams and was a bit disappointed but we all had a good time.
I walked around and saw tons of WSMs being used. I also saw some crazy set ups, all kinds of smokers. Our neighbors who were super nice won the Grand Champion and had what they called a perfect perfect 360 on brisket.
The Weber Grill experience truck was there but I didn't realize it until the end so I didn't get a chance to check it out.
Overall I'm glad I made the trip. It was a good time.
Bob Bass
TVWBB Gold Member
Congratulation on your brother-in-laws team. Sounds like fun was had by everyone.
Normally, the lowest score in each category is dropped leaving the 5 remaining scores per category. If all 5 judges give a 9, then the team end up with a 180. An Excellent score. BUT... your neighbors, Aporkalypse Now, received a perfect perfect 180... this is where ALL 6 Judges gave 9s in all categories (Appearance, Taste & Tenderness) ! Does not happen often !
And Arlie does put on some Great Events !
Normally, the lowest score in each category is dropped leaving the 5 remaining scores per category. If all 5 judges give a 9, then the team end up with a 180. An Excellent score. BUT... your neighbors, Aporkalypse Now, received a perfect perfect 180... this is where ALL 6 Judges gave 9s in all categories (Appearance, Taste & Tenderness) ! Does not happen often !
And Arlie does put on some Great Events !
Oops guess I ment perfect perfect 180 haha. I wish I could have seen or tasted the brisket that scored a perfect score. I could see it being really hard to get 6 people to give a perfect score.
The guys on Aporkalypse Now were all super nice and even let us bum some power off their generator when the events system was not online until late.
It was definitely a good time....not much sleep and tons of work but a good time
The guys on Aporkalypse Now were all super nice and even let us bum some power off their generator when the events system was not online until late.
It was definitely a good time....not much sleep and tons of work but a good time
MikeRLynch
New member
My brother in law is a pro cook and he's been amateur BBQing for a while, we always shoot the poo about cooking and him wanting to go pro. I saw this event and noticed the fact that you could sell samples, which would go a long way to offsetting the cost of these things. He want's to try it out on a big scale and compete, but unless a mysterious dead uncle inexplicably leaves him a bunch of money, the cost is too much of a barrier for a guy on a cook's salary.
He's a CT local and I was trying to get more info on this event for him, maybe work up to it next year. Anyone more familiar with how the $$ works? I offered the services of my little WSM 14, the more the merrier
He's a CT local and I was trying to get more info on this event for him, maybe work up to it next year. Anyone more familiar with how the $$ works? I offered the services of my little WSM 14, the more the merrier
My brother in law is a pro cook and he's been amateur BBQing for a while, we always shoot the poo about cooking and him wanting to go pro. I saw this event and noticed the fact that you could sell samples, which would go a long way to offsetting the cost of these things. He want's to try it out on a big scale and compete, but unless a mysterious dead uncle inexplicably leaves him a bunch of money, the cost is too much of a barrier for a guy on a cook's salary.
He's a CT local and I was trying to get more info on this event for him, maybe work up to it next year. Anyone more familiar with how the $$ works? I offered the services of my little WSM 14, the more the merrier
What restaurant is he at? I live in Plymouth but get to Boston regularly. Would be cool to check out a competition one of these days if we could find one in our area
He prepared a lot of the meat the week before the event then had an old refridgorator set up to keep it in, that along with a bunch of coolers. As far as sleep I can only speak to this event but it was a take turns sleeping plan with not that much actual sleeping. We had 3 guys working the smokers.
My brother in law is a pro cook and he's been amateur BBQing for a while, we always shoot the poo about cooking and him wanting to go pro. I saw this event and noticed the fact that you could sell samples, which would go a long way to offsetting the cost of these things. He want's to try it out on a big scale and compete, but unless a mysterious dead uncle inexplicably leaves him a bunch of money, the cost is too much of a barrier for a guy on a cook's salary.
He's a CT local and I was trying to get more info on this event for him, maybe work up to it next year. Anyone more familiar with how the $$ works? I offered the services of my little WSM 14, the more the merrier
I don't know if this is how other events are ran but with this one the event sold tickets for $1 each then customers would use those tickets to buy food/drinks/ECT. We took the collected tickets to have them counted and the event/casino kept 10% of the sales.
The team I was on was competing in the peoples choice so they were supposed to be selling a 4oz sample cup of each item for $2. Some teams competing for people's choice sold sandwiches or full plates at different prices which I think technically was not supposed to happen but it didn't really hurt anyone.
There were some teams that did not compete in people's choice and they simply sold their food at whatever quantity or price point they wanted. I overheard one team say they sold over 200 whole racks of ribs on the first day by 6pm.....like I said before this event was way more busy then I think anyone expected.
It may be hard to go into an event like this as an "amateur" as to sell enough to offset the cost as you probably need to have a lot of equipment to make it work. My Brother in law has a catering business he does on the side so he has a lot of the stuff needed to set up a booth. Canopies, tables, coolers, chafing dishes. He rented a propane oven to reheat the meat he prepared ahead of time.
The event also did inspections for food safety and I think he had to have his food license to sell food at the event. I am not sure on the details of this as I was just the hired help.
All that being said I did see some teams there simply to compete and they had simple booths with just a few guys and a smoker. I don't think they sold anything so the costs to enter would simply be the entry fee and cost of the meat/preparation.
MikeRLynch
New member
Gotcha, yeah I was wondering how the whole food license thing worked, I can't imagine CT not trying to regulate every little facet of something like that