Grill-off competition brings new flavor to city’s Foodstock Festival in 2023

Somerset Smoke Show will feature 12-grill competition, barbecue shop classes and barbecue tastings by award-winning pitmasters

Back­yard rib bar­be­cuers, unite: If you think you have what it takes to win Somerset’s first grill mas­ter title, then See Som­er­set Tourism, Pro­Trade BBQ Sup­ply & Hard­ware and Baney’s Ban­gin’ BBQ want YOU to com­pete in the community’s first grill-off com­pe­ti­tion.

The Som­er­set Smoke Show will take the stage at the 2023 Food­stock Fes­ti­val April 29 in down­town Som­er­set, fea­tur­ing a 12-per­son rib grilling con­test, bar­be­cue shop class­es and bar­be­cue tast­ings by award-win­ning pit­mas­ters. Con­tes­tants will com­pete against one anoth­er for the community’s first-ever grill mas­ter title, plus a host of prizes from event spon­sors.

The idea is the brain­child of Baney’s Ban­gin’ BBQ own­er Greg Baney Jones and Pro­Trade BBQ Sup­ply & Hard­ware own­ers Luke and Jenn Bates, local entre­pre­neurs who want­ed to use their shared love of grilling and bar­be­cue to bring a unique culi­nary expe­ri­ence to Som­er­set.

Jenn Bates said when she and her hus­band opened Pro­Trade Hard­ware in 2020, they had no idea it would morph into a grilling des­ti­na­tion. In adding Traeger, Green Egg and Weber grills to their inven­to­ry, they devel­oped rela­tion­ships with cus­tomers and grilling enthu­si­asts — like Jones — who talked with them often about grilling tech­niques, spe­cial­ty rubs and sauces and pre­sent­ed ideas for grow­ing the grilling com­mu­ni­ty. The Bate­ses recent­ly rebrand­ed their shop to become Pro­Trade BBQ Sup­ply & Hard­ware because of the suc­cess they’ve had in the mar­ket.

“There are so many bar­be­cue and grilling enthu­si­asts we’ve met along this jour­ney that have sup­port­ed us and we’ve lis­tened to them,” Jenn Bates said. “Being food­ies at heart and being able to bring this amaz­ing grilling com­pe­ti­tion and bar­be­cue expe­ri­ence to our town is some­thing we are very excit­ed and proud of. This is our chance to share the love of bar­be­cue and grilling with our com­mu­ni­ty. No mat­ter what skill lev­el you pos­sess or grilling expe­ri­ence you have, this event will bring us all togeth­er to enjoy the love of food and grilling!”

Fel­low enthu­si­ast Baney Jones has turned a life­long pas­sion for mak­ing sauces and dry rub for per­son­al cook­outs into a small, up-and-com­ing busi­ness in his home­town. After putting in hours of research and receiv­ing encour­age­ment from friends and fam­i­ly, includ­ing the Bates fam­i­ly, Jones began man­u­fac­tur­ing, pack­ag­ing and sell­ing Baney’s Ban­gin’ BBQ Sauce. He now sells his prod­ucts at Pro­Trade BBQ Sup­ply & Hard­ware, Paul’s Dis­count, Serendip­i­ty at the Orange Door, The Mole Hole, Bur­netts Farm Pro­duce, and Con­ley Bot­tom Resort.

He said hav­ing his busi­ness affil­i­at­ed with an event of this kind is an hon­or.

“If any­one knows me, they know I’ve always loved grilling and smok­ing meat,” Jones said. “It makes me extreme­ly proud to have made my life­time dream a real­i­ty by serv­ing not only my com­mu­ni­ty, but bar­be­cue enthu­si­asts across the coun­try with some great-tast­ing sauces and dry rub. The Som­er­set Smoke Show will bring peo­ple from dif­fer­ent areas to our com­mu­ni­ty and give them the oppor­tu­ni­ty to see how beau­ti­ful down­town Som­er­set is while enjoy­ing some great enter­tain­ment, and I am excit­ed my busi­ness will be a part of it.”

See Som­er­set Tourism Direc­tor Leslie Ikerd said when Jones and Bates brought the idea to the city for con­sid­er­a­tion, she knew imme­di­ate­ly it was the type of authen­tic, cre­ative expe­ri­ence that will take Food­stock to the next lev­el.

“Thou­sands of peo­ple vis­it our down­town every spring to enjoy the best our local and region­al food ven­dors have to offer,” Ikerd said. “With the addi­tion of the Som­er­set Smoke Show, they will now be able to do so while watch­ing grill mas­ters at work and learn­ing from award-win­ning pit­mas­ters and pro­fes­sion­als. It’s a won­der­ful way to add val­ue for our fes­ti­val-goers and con­tin­ue to shine the spot­light on the amaz­ing food and culi­nary artists in our region.”

The event will be emceed by Ken­tucky Food and Recipe Blog­ger JC Phelps. Pro­fes­sion­als from Traeger Pro, Big Green Egg and Weber as well as Kryp­tonite BBQ award-win­ning pit­mas­ter Kei­th Har­ris will teach free bar­be­cue shop class­es on chick­en, pork and ribs on Foodstock’s main stage while the com­pe­ti­tion is tak­ing place.

Phelps has tast­ed the best of the Commonwealth’s food from Pikeville to Pad­u­c­ah as a Ken­tucky food writer. But there’s noth­ing like home, he said.

“… and being from Lake Cum­ber­land, I know that there’s some seri­ous­ly deli­cious food here,” Phelps said. “I’m so excit­ed to have been asked to join the event and I look for­ward to cel­e­brat­ing all things deli­cious with y’all next year!”

Reg­is­tra­tion for the grill-off com­pe­ti­tion opens Jan. 15, 2023, and is lim­it­ed to the first 12 peo­ple to reg­is­ter. There will be four spots avail­able on a Traeger Grill, four spots on a Big Green Egg, and four spots on a Weber Grill.

For their reg­is­tra­tion fee of $100, con­tes­tants will be pro­vid­ed a tent, table, grill, sup­plies and two racks of ribs. All they have to do is show up and cook the ribs on site, Bates said.

Con­tes­tants will sub­mit their ribs at a des­ig­nat­ed time for judg­ing. An expert pan­el of judges will be select­ed to choose Somerset’s first-ever grill mas­ter, as well as win­ners in three oth­er cat­e­gories: Best Ribs on a Traeger, Best Ribs on a Big Green Egg and Best Ribs on a Weber.

For more infor­ma­tion about the Som­er­set Smoke Show or to reg­is­ter, vis­it www.protradehardware.com or fol­low @ProTradeHardware or @baneysbanginBBQ on Face­book. For more infor­ma­tion about Food­stock, vis­it www.seesomerset.com or fol­low @SeeSomersetKy on Face­book.

Ikerd said details about Foodstock’s food ven­dors, live art com­po­nent and music sched­ule will be released in the com­ing months.

“We are so excit­ed to be able to announce this addi­tion to Food­stock and begin plan­ning for our 2023 sea­son of fes­ti­vals,” Ikerd said. “The city’s fes­ti­vals have helped light up Som­er­set in ways that we couldn’t even begin to imag­ine when we start­ed them in 2019. Each fes­ti­val has a chap­ter in Somerset’s renais­sance sto­ry, and the Som­er­set Smoke Show will no doubt enhance that sto­ry in the com­ing years.”