Introduction to the Team

I had the extreme pleasure of spending some time with Donna Darling-Butler and her Husband Rob Butler of Horn Dawgs Smokin BBQ during the set-up and running of the Uxbridge Ribfest that ran the week-end of July 16th to the 18th, I have to tell you that the experience was so informative and interesting to be a part of. The show ran from Friday thru Sunday.

The Horn Dawgs team is based in the same city as I live in which is Oshawa, Ontario Canada

They are an award winning BBQ team that not only competes in Ribfests but also does Catering for corporate and private events. Rob can be reached by phone at 905-409-7908 and you can email Donna by going to donna@urbanfinefoods.com

And now you can follow Donna on her new twitter account @horndawgsBBQ

I met Rob along with 2 members of his team Don Whalen and James Drew at the Elgin park in Uxbridge the day before the show Thursday July 15th around 5pm.

I watched as they drove in with a U-Haul van and their Pick-up towing the Smoker rig.

5 PM Thursday…. The set up

The three men were putting together the Horn Dawgs rig from what appears as just a small trailer but once assembled became a huge eye-catching booth in order to sell their food at the show.

Set-up took approximately 5 hours on the Thursday night with a few odds & ends cleaned up before show time Friday afternoon. Rob told me that he likes to only use 3 people including himself to set up his rig, His reasoning is that the 3 of them know each other very well and more people in the crew would cause chaos. Rob would rather take their time and do the setup in an organized fashion which results in a well put together display. Slow & Easy just like when smoking their Ribs!

About 5 years ago I climbed a ladder behind my house to fix a eaves-trough that had slipped out of place during a Winter day and I put the bottom of the ladder a bit too far back and the legs were on the snow. When I climbed up about 8 feet high the ladder slipped out below me and I fell down to the patio, separating my shoulder and bruising a rib.

So ever since then I have been afraid of getting back on a ladder, so my hat goes off to all of the teams that put these shows together.

A quick story how the Horn Dawgs team was born.

Rob and Donna started dating about 4 years ago and their first date was going to the Ribfest in Oshawa and while standing in line in front of Billy Bones BBQ booth, Rob & Donna said that they could do this as well and it was right there in line that they came up with the name Horn Dawgs BBQ.

Rob has been cooking since he was 14 years old and is has been an executive chef at many fine Restaurants and Country Clubs.

If you remember there used to be a restaurant chain called Mother Tuckers and Rob worked for them.

But Southern BBQ has always been his passion.

The team is now in their second year as ribbers on the Ribfest circuit. Rob & Donna were married on June 2oth 2009 and the week before the wedding they did a Ribfest in Bomanville and the week after a show at Toronto’s Centennial Park. Because it was the busiest time of the year they were not able to have a Honeymoon so after the season was completed Donna & Rob headed down to Niagara Falls for a mini Honeymoon and while there they went to a Tattoo parlor and both had the Horn Dawgs logo tattooed , Rob one on his calf and Donna on her back.

The Horn Dawgs first worked the Uxbridge RibFest 2 years ago but not doing Ribs they started out selling Shrimps and Scallops. but being a ribber was what Rob & Donna really wanted to do. Last year they worked only 3 Ribfests but in 2010 they have 11 bookings so far. The Horn Dawgs are a rising star in the circuit and have grown faster than most teams have in the past.

Rob and Donna are hoping to enter a second team of ribbers as early as the 2011 season, lots of ideas but nothing that they are willing to go public with quite yet.

Rob bought his Smoker trailer as a pre-owned unit from another Ribber and the Horn Dawgs are the only team to use a Cook Shack Pellet burning smoker for their meat cooking in the local circuit, most others use a Propane based system.

Rob likes his Pellet based smoker because he uses a blend of fruit based hard wood pellets that in his Cook Shack since he can get a precise cooking temperature and the wood pellets helps to flavour the meat with the smoky taste.  The smoker can cook up to 100 racks of ribs at a time.

The ribs stay in the smoker for 5 1/2 hours and if the team is doing Pork butts they take 12 -13 hours  before they are pulled. The meat is never pre-boiled or cooked before hand.

the only exceptions to this is when they have some un-sold ribs from the night before they are put in the fridge and re-heated the next day and if there are some racks left over at the end of the show they can be frozen and kept up to one month.

in a standard rib fest the Horn Dawgs will sell 200 -250 racks on a Friday bight even though they do not open til 4pm. Saturdays account for 300-400 more racks of ribs and Sunday another 150-200 more for a total of 800 racks or more.

12 or so Pork butts will be cooked during an event along with around 10 or 12 whole chickens.

Around 8 pm on the Thursday evening Donna and her daughter Ally arrive to help with the final cleaning and booth set up, Ally had Soccer practice and came over straight from the field with Mom.

Donna was proud to show us all that the Etobicoke Guardian put a picture of her from the previous Toronto show on the front page of their paper.

It stated to get dark shortly after their arrival and the mosquitoes arrived as well which made working a little more difficult but the team carried on.

That was the end of my visit during set up of the rig on the Thursday night, I was not around for the show on Friday night but I was told that it was very successful and that they had the longest lines of the evening.

Show time…. Saturday afternoon

I returned to the park on Saturday afternoon with my friend Joe Simeunovich to enjoy the show and see how the Horn Dawgs are doing.

Having arrived at around 1 pm both of us were hungry guys in search of some Georgian style BBQ. in the 2009 Uxbridge event the Horn Dawgs won the award for best sauce at the show and having trying it today for the first time I can see why. Rob has developed 8 different sauce recipes and had a focus group do some testing for him and he had far and away really high scores on 2 of the eight sauces one involved a lot of extra preparation so for most shows he uses his 2nd sauce but even then the  2nd choice is still #1 in most customers views.

The team goes through six 20 Litre  containers of sauce in a show like this one.

Joe and I both decided to try the 2 meat combo dinner that had a half rack of Ribs along with a half chicken and 2 sides, Cole slaw and Beans.

Cost of this combo is $17.00 and is worth every penny, the chicken was juicy with a fantastic crisp skin and the Ribs were the best that I have had at any of the 4 Ribfests that I have attended this year and that is really saying something since I have enjoyed a lot of good ribs from the other vendors as well.

we also enjoyed some nice hand squeezed flavoured Lemonade from another booth in the park.

Horn Dawgs was not the only ribber at the show there were 4 other teams there as well, for more information on the rest of the Uxbridge show please go to  my Examiner article that I wrote.

As you can see in the photos before serving the ribs are finished over charcoal  after being in the smoker for 5 1/2 hours , they are then stored in a warmer oven till needed and put on the grill and lathered with a generous helping of award winning sauce.

As you can see in the pic here from Saturday the team changed the middle panel of the signs to show their 1st place finishes, they were picked up from the Printer Friday and made their debut in Uxbridge.

Sunday afternoon

Sunday I wanted to go back to Uxbridge since an added event was a local car show, and being a fan of cars from the 50′s – 70′s I had to drop by. There were maybe 50 or 60 beautiful cars to look at and I may write a blog  post on that at a later time.

I made my way back over around 2 pm to say hello to Rob, Donna and the rest of the team. and for lunch I had another 2 meat combo and this time I wanted the Ribs and Pulled pork, again the Ribs were top notch but Oh My the Pulled Pork was out of this world!, remember I said that the Pork butts are slow cooked in the smoker for 12 to 13 hours, This makes the meat so tender and juicy, and with the added award winning sauce, it made for a great meal. The Cole Slaw was very fresh and just the right consistency that I like. The Beans were tasty though I would of liked a bit more thinner sauce.

Rob’s Brother Rod helped out on Sunday, Ron is in the Construction trade and does that for 40+ hours a week and then also helps his brother for 30 more, makes for a long week but Rod is happy to help out his brother.

There is a lot of family in this team Kayla and Ryan are cousins and Rob and Donna’s kids are also helping in a big way.

At 6:30 pm everyone gathered at the bandshell to find out if they had won any awards at this years show and the winner of Best Ribs for Uxbridge 2010 is …… The Horn Dawgs Smokin BBQ! wouldn’t you know it the battery died in my camera just before they gave out the awards but I was able to take a picture of the team back in front of the booth with my cell phone. Rob & Donna were thrilled with the result, best Ribs to go with their award winning sauce of a year ago, this will once again make the Horn Dawgs the team to see  in 2011.

I had a wonderful week-end spending time to get to know the team and I look forward to seeing them once again at another Ribfest.