In vogue: Local company's barbecue ovens are becoming de rigueur for connoisseurs

Vogue Magazine sets the pace for fashion, revealing the latest trends in footwear, clothing, accessories and barbecue.

Barbecue?

While the idea may conjure a mental picture of a supermodel munching a rib dripping with fiery sauce, the August edition actually is where readers will find a full-page picture of Ole Hickory Pits of Cape Girardeau's latest commercial barebecue oven, along with a glowing article by well-known food writer Jeffrey Steingarten.

Clayton Agnew welded inside Ole Hickory Pits' smallest option, The Legend, at their downtown Cape Girardeau location on Friday, September 7, 2007. (Kit Doyle)

In his article, Steingarten writes about the first time he saw his own Convecture Tri Oven, with a design so revolutionary that 38 patent claims have been filed to document and protect it.

"It was clad in gleaming stainless steel, stood nearly 6 feet tall, spanned over 3 feet on each side, and had two narrow smokestacks poking up from its curved top," Steingarten wrote. "On the lower right side was a heavy iron door enclosing a firebox, in which you burn the charcoal and aromatic wood. And inside, behind the hinged top, was a kind of revolving Ferris wheel with eight shelves [instead of seats] on which you lay the meat you want to smoke. It was breathtaking."

It is the kind of advertising Ole Hickory Pits' owner and founder David Knight can't buy. Nor, for that matter, would he ever have thought of Vogue as a place to advertise, he said.

"Normally, for us, our marketing efforts are sharply focused," Knight said. "We have to use a rifle instead of a shotgun approach."

The oven was designed as a compact, efficient machine for smaller restaurants. As the charcoal heats the wood, a tapered vent speeds the air and the rotisserie helps circulate it, eliminating the need for fans to do that job.

The oven has become a hit as the pinnacle of outdoor kitchen appliances. The Vogue article, for example, prompted a Hong Kong-based French businessman with the Comité Colbert -- the French consortium for promoting that country's luxury goods -- to order a Convecture Tri Oven for his villa in rural France.

"When I red (sic) the article from J. Steingarten, whom I trust as a food writer, and saw the pictures, I KNEW THIS WAS THE REAL THING," the businessman, who asked that his name not be used, wrote in response to an e-mail inquiry from the Southeast Missourian.

At $6,000 each, Knight's oven isn't designed to compete for the mass market. "Ours is more for the person who has a passion for barbecue," he said.

Knight's product is what a Lear Jet is to a Cessna, or Cabela's to Wal Mart, he said. "We devote a lot of effort to keeping up the brand name," he said. "That is why we were so pleased to have the brand in the photo" in Vogue.

Four of the ovens will be shipped to Australia soon, Knight said. That customer's next order will be 15 ovens, he said.

A simple white sign with black lettering hangs over the door at the two-story brick buildng on North Main Street that houses Ole Hickory Pits. The 40 employees include skilled welders, metal workers and office staff. A recently constructed metal warehouse building on the east side of Main Street is the only modern structure, a sign of expansion that Knight said will continue.

The Convecture Tri Oven isn't Knight's only product, just the latest one. Barbecue ovens produced at Ole Hickory Pits come in a variety of sizes, all the way up to the $30,000 "Hogzilla" oven capable of smoking 4,000 pounds of meat at a time.

Knight's path to the pinnacle of barbecue ovens began modestly. His career in barbecue started in 1974 when he installed a brick oven in a long-abandoned building on Water Street and opened Port Cape Girardeau restaurant. Beset by problems -- not the least of which was three visits by the Cape Girardeau Fire Department -- he needed a new design.

His business, he jokes, has always worked under a simple principle: "We cannot let a little, minor detail like not knowing what we are doing slow us down."

The replacement for that oven incorporated Knight's first metal design. And that launched the business of selling ovens to other restaurants. The first customer was in Oklahoma City, a pizza chain where, to be kind, Knight said "some pizza locations were not thriving."

The owner saw Knight's product at a trade show, bought an oven and Ole Hickory Pits started to grow. "A lot of our business is repeat business, referral business," he said. "They come to us. And after 30 years, that is kind of nice."

The business also includes a line of branded barbecue sauces and spices, and Knight promotes and sells sauces from his oven customers, including Col. Oscar Poole's Sweet Sauce from a restaurant in Elijay, Ga., that boasts the "Pig Hill of Fame" outside the "Taj-Ma-Hog" restaurant building.

One of Ole Hickory Pits' best promoters is Mike Mills, owner of the 17th Street Bar and Grill restaurant in Murphysboro, Ill., and Memphis Championship restaurant in Las Vegas. It was Mills who introduced Steingarten to the Convecture Tri Oven. Bon Appetit magazine named Mills' restaurant as the best place to eat ribs in the nation.

With help like that, Knight sees a bright future for his company. More construction to add warehouse space is on the design board.

"We are poised for growth," Knight said. "Right down here in downtown Cape Girar­deau."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126