Carson City BBQ
is Phil Hyatt and
Duane Felker’s crazy
dream come true.
“We were just two guys having a good time. We would go out to Lake Lahontan and host a barbecue we affectionately called ‘Phil’s Kitchen.’ We cooked for anyone who showed up. Soon, we had lines of 40 or 50 people on the weekends. Talk about a dream come true! In 1996, there was a drought at the lake, so we decided to go to the Sparks rib cook-off. We decided we could do better and bought a cooker. The rest is history.”
-Phil Hyatt, Owner, a lifetime Carson City, Nevada resident.
Hyatt, owner of PR Door and Glass, and Felker, a driver for Sysco Food Service, started educating themselves about all things barbecue. They discovered there’s more to a good sauce than a ‘secret ingredient’.
Hyatt bought several cookbooks and after learning the basics, he and Felker advanced into creating their own sauces.
“Phil would come over every Sunday, and we’d try this, and try that. We kept at it until we found something we liked.”
-Duane Felker
So, what did it take?
In the spring of 1996, Phil and Duane scraped up every penny they had to enter the Arizona Rib Round Up rib competition. As Phil says, “I never worked so hard to lose so much money”. They basically lost their asses. Tail between their legs, they parked the smoker and went back to their “real” jobs until a friend asked them to cater their wedding. They weren’t sure about catering, what did they know, but they did it anyway and it was a huge success.
Regaining their cooking confidence, they entered South Lake Tahoe’s Horizon Resort Casino Best on the Mountain Cook-Off in 1997 and won Best Sauce. Encouraged by that win, they returned every year winning awards for their ribs and sauces. For the next ten years, they entered other cook-offs throughout the area, including traveling to Portland’s Bones & Brews and winning Best Sauce, Ribs and People’s Choice. All these wins led to them being able to enter the Sparks Nugget Best in the West where they placed fourth for Best Ribs and the following year they garnered fifth place for Ribs, Best Sauce and People’s Choice. This prestigious honor marked the first time a team won two first-place events in the competition.
While entering rib competitions throughout the area, they continued growing the catering side of the business to where catering became a full-time job for both Phil and Duane. So busy that now Carson City BBQ only competes in a few events each year.
Since then, this crazy little idea and a single cooker have turned into a mega BBQ catering business.
Carson City BBQ Company continues to sell more than 12,000 bottles of sauces and rub a year across every state as well as internationally. They cater 200-300 events a year of every shape and size. From a single barbecue to 7 smokers (equipped to hold up to 700lbs of meat each). A 20-foot trailer filled with tents, grills, warmers, banners and cookers specifically for events, a refrigerated trailer for onsite refrigeration and specially designed trucks for catering and trailers to pull it all together. Be sure to make room, Carson City BBQ Company is coming! Remember, we cook fresh onsite, nothing reheated, no boxed meals. Fresh from the smoker to the buffet line, Carson City BBQ continues to successfully grow under Phil’s foresight in the catering business.
Sadly, In 2018, Felker passed away suddenly, and Hyatt took the sole reins of the business. Since then, Carson City BBQ continues to honor Phil and Duane’s BBQ vision by continuing to win awards and becoming a household name in catering.
Our warm and friendly team of experienced cooks, servers, and bussers will deliver five-star service with a friendly smile, a polished look, and an amazing attention to detail.
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