How the BarbeQuest Started

In the mid-1980s, a guy I know opened a barbeque joint in Bloomington, Indiana. He was from Kentucky, and he brought Southern barbeque to a town that didn’t really know the stuff. I had never had hickory-smoked chopped pork, and while I enjoyed tomato-based commercial barbeque sauces a lot, nothing tasted as good as this guy’s vinegar-based hot sauce. A few drops on your pork sandwich, and you were in heaven. If you overdid it, you were in hell. But oh, what a beautiful hell it was!

After awhile, the guy got out of the business, and there was nowhere to go for such amazing pork. Even worse, the unique sauce disappeared from my world. I travel often, and everywhere I went, I kept an eye out for barbeque joints. No matter how I searched, I never found anything like the sauce I loved.

Fifteen years after my favorite barbeque place closed, a friend in Minnesota took me to the Famous Dave’s in Maple Grove. I was glad to see real smoked chopped pork, but what really made the experience amazing was the Devil’s Spit sauce. It was virtually identical to the Indiana sauce. Finally, I was “home.”

I lived an hour from Maple Grove, so I traveled there for barbeque about once a month. Another Famous Dave’s opened in Baxter, an hour away in a different direction. I kept lobbying for a location in St. Cloud, where I lived. It didn’t happen, though plenty of people were asking for a St. Cloud Famous Dave’s.
In the meantime, whenever I was out of town and bumped into a Famous Dave’s, I would eat there. After I drove through La Crosse, Wisconsin and visited the Famous Dave’s there, I decided I should document my many visits. I put up a web page to list the places I had visited: places I had visited and another to show photos of each location.

It’s worth my while to photograph each location because, unlike many chains, Famous Dave’s has used a variety of building styles over the years. While there may be uniformity on the horizon, there are a lot of unusual buildings to celebrate. I hope you enjoy the photos.

Finally, in 2007, I got word that Famous Dave’s was coming to St. Cloud. I put up a web page to chronicle the construction progress and opening.

When they opened on November 12, 2007, I was one of the first customers, and I visited each day for the first week, with a variety of friends. (One actually stuck with me all week.) They knew about the web page in advance, and from the start, the management and staff spoiled me a bit. On Day 6, knowing that I preferred bottled root beer to the fountain root beer they served, the general manager placed an IBC root beer in front of me. They stocked the bottles for me for several months. Once I learned how good the sweet tea was, they were off the hook.

During a recent Customer Appreciation Week, the managers gave me the Famous Dave’s stainless-steel grill set. It comes in a beautiful steel suitcase, and I am waiting impatiently for grilling season to arrive.

My ultimate goal is to visit every Famous Dave’s location and write a book about the experience. Something along those lines is in the works now. That’s the purpose of this blog: to keep you informed about the BarbeQuest as it develops and as it proceeds. I’m glad that you have come along for the ride. Talk to you soon!