Customer Story: Wild Wades BBQ

I’ve always been the cook at home and just about everywhere else. Whenever there was a get-together, I was the guy who would take over the cooking. After so many years, I began to notice a trend of my kids, family, and friends telling me I need to enter in barbecue and chili cook-offs. They always insisted that my barbecue and self-proclaimed “world famous” potato salad needed it’s own place of dwelling for all to enjoy!

I had never looked at my cooking in this way. That’s not what I was in it for, I really just loved cooking and enjoyed feeding people. Hearing the silence when food is served reassures you that you have just delivered success to your friends and family.

I love cooking, and when it comes to barbecue the weather doesn’t matter! If I was to start a barbecue business, my only issue now was to figure out how to cook the amount of product needed to put my crafted barbecue art into the public for all to enjoy. What magic barbecue machine would let me reach a large scale of people and really take my love of cooking and feeding people to a whole new level (one I had never dreamed possible)?

"What magic barbecue machine would let me take my love of cooking and feeding people to a whole new level?"

Before I started Wild Wade’s I spent of lot of time looking around for a cooker that would meet my needs and researched the necessary classes, licensing, and such. As it is with anything, when you have good tools, your work shows for it.

This search went on for about a month. I found that nothing in my area was good enough for what I wanted to do. Right when the frustration was beginning to take over, I found the Yoder’s Smoky Mountain Barbecue website. What I found there brought sudden relief to my search. They had the perfect setup I was looking for! It was the Meadow Creek PR60T Pig Roaster (charcoal, of course). It came with all the features I needed to do everything I wanted to do.

I’ve been doing a lot of barbecues over the years, and I’ve never been more impressed with a grill than this one! I can roast, smoke, or grill knowing that what I put on the rack will come off as some of the best food I have ever cooked.

Meadow Creek PR60T Pig Roaster with optional Charcoal Grill Pan and Second Tier Grate

There is no force in the world as we know it that would make me give up my Meadow Creek PR60T Pig Roaster. I do a lot of cooking, and it has never let me down as far as performance and price are concerned! I don’t endorse many things, but I would gladly suggest this or any other Meadow Creek cooker to someone who really wants the best meat ever cooked! If I didn’t have this Meadow Creek Pig Roaster, I wouldn’t even think about starting my own business. Like I said before, with good tools, you get good products and food is no exception.

"If I didn’t have this Meadow Creek Pig Roaster, I wouldn’t even think about starting my own business."

I also had a lot of people who helped me get started with business cards and such. A very special thanks goes out to my lifelong friend Gregg Haugland for having enough trust in me and my barbecue art to be
my primary investor and give me the support I needed to really make this business work. Since starting my business, I’ve had some great times cooking for people, and it seems people have had a great time too! Everyone is always watching me cook and enjoying the smells until they quiet down for that silent gratifying moment of “the feast.”

Friends, family, and even complete strangers say my ribs are the best they have ever had. And the tri-tip that comes off that grill no words can describe.

Business has grown 1000% since my first year. The PR60T may not be the biggest cooker out there, but people are still impressed when they see what I'm cooking and how great it tastes, not to mention that everyone wants to get one. I even had one guy start taking measurements of it, saying he could make one himself. I laughed at him and told him to “beat it or I'll put you on the grill!”

At some point I guess I’ll have to enter a competition just to see for myself how good things really are and hopefully pick up some pointers, for you can never stop learning in the craft of “the cook.” Once I’m ready for an upgrade to a bigger setup, I will most definitely go back to Meadow Creek again! The staff ?at the dealership was so helpful and took good care of my needs, so much that I would recommend them to anyone who wants to start doing what I do. I love my roaster and I love having my own business. It’s like they say, “If you do what you love to do, then it’s not really work.”

—Wade Janes, Wild Wades BBQ & Grill, Citrus Heights, CA