Barbecue recipe stays double super secret

Purveyors of barbecue are, on the whole, more secretive than the folks at the Central Intelligence Agency.

When it comes to recipes, no one's telling anybody anything.

In this respect, Ed McGrew and Brian Ross, owners of the new B.B.Q. on Edgewood in Whitefish, are card-carrying members of the barbecue brotherhood.

"The dry rub is everything," McGrew said. "I won't ever sell my recipe for the dry rub. No way."

He paused a moment, apparently deep in thought. "Well, maybe for a lot of money, I would."

"Dry rub," for the uninitiated, is the mystical melange of spices and seasonings massaged into the surface of the meat before it's smoked.

Now barbecue sauce, that's another matter, entirely. McGrew describes his barbecue sauce as black-pepper hot - not teeth-on-fire hot - and said it was "one tick to the sweet side of things."

B.B.Q. on Edgewood is in a 725-square-foot store on Edgewood Place and Wisconsin Avenue.

"We heard that this is supposedly the busiest intersection in Montana in the summer," McGrew said. "But the reason we're here in Whitefish is because there wasn't any real barbecue in Whitefish before we opened."

Both partners insist they want to keep things simple, so B.B.Q. on Edgewood has only four entrees: rib dinners, chicken dinners, pulled pork sandwiches and beef brisket sandwiches.

For side dishes they have cole slaw and baked beans.

The cole slaw recipe came from Ed's grandmother and the beans, he thinks, were his mother's recipe. But then again, his mother might have gotten the recipe from his Aunt Barbara. McGrew just isn't exactly sure.

The new eatery - take-out and catering, with a couple of picnic tables scattered around outside for ambiance - opened mid-June. Neither partner remembers the exact date.

What they do know, however, is they've sold out every single day without doing two cents worth of marketing or advertising.

"I don't plan to ever run an ad," Ross said. "We don't need to."

As barbecue moguls, the two are an unlikely combo. They first met just over a year ago when they discovered they lived across the street from one another.

McGrew is 51 and Ross is 30. McGrew is Oklahoma-Virginia, Ross is Southern California. McGrew was formerly in dental technology and Ross is a self-described "dot-com kid."

They've divided up their barbecue responsibilities so that McGrew is in charge of the cooking and Ross - with a business degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara - is the back-office guy.

"If we run out of forks or the lights don't work, that's my fault," Ross said. "But if the food's no good, that's Ed's doing. And nobody's above taking out the trash or mowing the lawn because this is a no-ego place of employment."

Seventeen-year old Justin Lindley runs the kitchen.

"These guys aren't really bad at all, actually," he said. "I figure when they get tired of doing it, I'll eventually take over the business."

McGrew started B.B.Q. on Edgewood because he had a lifelong obsession with barbecue. Ross was tired of sitting in front of a computer all day. Both wanted to have fun and insist they're not doing it for the money.

But are they meeting the bills?

"I'll say we sure are," McGrew said. "We're doing far better than we ever expected. We're tickled pink."

Their first and biggest investment was the 18-foot steel smoker parked right outside the front door - hand-built for them by a man they proudly describe as "a real competitive barbecuer."

The smoker gets used nearly nonstop, with McGrew coming in at 5 a.m. and firing up for the day. He starts the process with Texas hickory wood and finishes with local applewood and cherrywood. Chicken will be smoked maybe six hours and ribs might be in there for 20.

Pork is purchased locally, as are the free-range chickens. McGrew estimates he serves anywhere from 60 to 100 customers a day - some days being "mellower" than others.

The store goes through 50 pounds of pork shoulder, 20 slabs of ribs, eight chickens and five beef briskets daily.

B.B.Q. on Edgewood is, Ross said, a labor of love.

McGrew agreed. "When it's not fun anymore, we'll sell it."

Reporter George Kingson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at gkingson@dailyinterlake.com.