Ship's Log

January 29, 2007

Well, it’s been a while since we updated our log. Please chalk it up to being incredibly busy building the business. Thank you, every one of you that bought our sauce, that prayed for us and our business this last year, and have voiced support for us. We sure need the prayers, and the best wishes that have come our way have made this an incredibly fun year for all of us.

Two days ago, we celebrated our first year. On January 22, 2006, we made our first run of sauce, the original Smoky Bourbon. A month later, we added the Robust and Spicy, then come August, we came out with our Caribbean Gold Apricot Ginger Glaze, and then in October, we launched Barrel no.51 51st Degree Burn Habanero. Somewhere in there, we came out with our Pirate Booty Dry Rub as well. One note here, the name is changing to Buccaneer’s Plunder, as Pirate’s Booty already belongs to an outfit in the East that does chips, and they wouldn’t let us shirt tail on to their name. They thought folks might mix dry rub up with their chips. No matter, we’re fine with that. The name’s not the important thing; it’s the taste… and you all know how good it tastes!

This last summer we also launched Barrel no.51 BBQ at the Fircrest Fun Days, and it was a hit. We had a bit of trouble the first day getting people to see us behind the taco wagon, but once they did, we kept up a steady stream of customers. We even had several people come back and get a couple more sandwiches telling us it was the best BBQ they’d had. Now I don’t make any claims as to being the best out there, I personally know of another BBQ place in Tacoma that is terrific. But that being said, ours is decidedly better than most others I’ve had around the area. I think that’s because we smoke with either hickory or mesquite, and most others smoke with alder wood. Anyone that knows anything about BBQ can tell you that the flavor of hickory or mesquite just can’t be beat.

We’ll be continuing to offer the best of BBQ and sauces again this summer, so keep an eye on our Ports O’ Call page and you’ll not miss out on one single juicy sauce dripping opportunity.

We had a great Christmas this year, selling our Holiday Gift Bags. A special thanks goes out to my cousins Jeanne and Rick Garris for praising our sauces to their co-workers at BP in Naperville, Illinois. In fact, BP (British Petroleum) regional office in Naperville, Illinois ordered our gift bags for their employee’s Christmas presents. That was a real blessing.

As well, we had our gift bag presented to the Honorable Daniel B. Pritchett, Mayor of Franklin Park, Illinois as can be seen in the photo. Tom Wolf, my cousin is the Chief of Police in Franklin Park, and he wanted to win some points with the boss, so he chose our Holiday Gift Bag to win the mayor over… Just kidding. Tom just realizes a good thing when he tastes it and wanted to share.

We’ve gotten many responses from friends and customers that used our gift bags for Christmas presents. We sent them to Texas, Florida, California, Minnesota, Ohio, New York and beyond. Every one of the responses has been that the recipients have loved the sauce and want to know where they can get it. We’re opening stores as fast as we can, but New York?? Well, who knows?

What’s next for Barrel no.51? Well, starting this year, we welcome our first non-family employee, Linda Honeck to our staff. Linda is now our independent account manager, and in the first week she came on board, she opened a new location for us. We’re now being handled by the Thriftway in Montesano. She told me that she likes the work, and it’s easy because she believes in the product. Linda is a close friend of my daughter Johanna’s and has always been a big supporter of ours. Now she can blow our trumpet, and get paid for it for a change!

Look for additions to our list of products. We are going to continue to bring you the best BBQ sauces in the Pacific Northwest, but we’re also going to be coming out with dipping sauces, confectionary delights, and more.

As a final note, I received the following email from a co-worker that purchased one of our gift bags for her son in San Jose CA. I thought I'd share it with you.

Paul, I wanted to let you know that I gave my son the gift package and a bottle of the hot sauce so he could try it all. For Mom’s birthday party on the 20th, he used the rub on lamb and cooked it at 250 for about 6 hours. It was delicious! (But, my goodness, it sure burned my eyes when he opened the package - LOL!) He just sent me this e-mail and I wanted to share it with you. He loves to cook and is really loving it.

Hello Mom, I just BBQ some nice thick pork chops with the bone in them and I used a little dry rub. While they were being grilled I based them with the apricot and ginger sauce. It was a big hit. It looks like I will be going through these sauces very fast and it isn't even summer time yet. Well have a good night and say hello to Tom. Love you

You have a fan, Paul!
Lynn