'Tis the season for two barbecue equipment manufacturers

The weather is getting hot, and so are the barbecue pits.

Memorial Day kicked off the summer. For many, that means it's time to start grilling or smoking.

Ole Hickory Pits, 333 N. Main St. in Cape Girardeau, had been in the barbecue business for about 40 years, beginning with the barbecue restaurant Port Cape Girardeau.

Decades ago, the restaurant used a brick pit with a flue three stories high. That method of barbecuing was likely to catch fire -- in fact, the third time that happened, David Knight, founder and president of David B. Knight and Associates Inc. and owner of the business, said it dawned on him there should be a better way to build barbecue pits.

Necessity became the mother of invention, he said. So he created a new product that would have greater control over the fire, which also would improve the way the meat was cooked. His new invention also conserved energy.

Joel Penrod welds a barbecue pit Friday at Ole Hickory Pits in Cape Girardeau. (Fred Lynch)

Knight found other restaurants were encountering the same problem, and that is how he formed his business, Ole Hickory Pits, and got involved in barbecue smoker manufacturing.

Though a majority of Knight's customers are commercial users, the business sells smokers to customers around the world, including restaurants, caterers, meatpacking houses, barbecue competition teams and those who like to barbecue at home, whether it's ribs, beef brisket or pig ears for dog treats.

"It didn't get there overnight. It took 40 years," Knight said.

Ole Hickory Pits has kept current in its methods by attending barbecue contests across the nation, and, in some circumstances, watching TV shows that feature their customers succeeding while using Ole Hickory Pits products.

"We provide the equipment; they provide their expertise," Knight said.

Smokin' Brothers Grills

David Eftink and his family have been in the barbecue business for about 15 years. They first sold distributors' grills and began building their own about four years ago.

Eftink found his way in to the "very interesting, lucrative market" after tasting meat that had been cooked on a wood pellet grill several years ago. He was intrigued by the way the grill worked and how the food tasted, so he bought one.

The wood pellet grills Smokin' Brothers Grills are now known for are built in Jackson and sold in store locations in Cape Girardeau and Sikeston, Missouri.

Their customers include everyone from newlyweds to retirees, and the store has shipped its products to 25 states, Eftink said.

As expected, business booms when Memorial Day weekend approaches. In the next two months, the business will earn about 30 percent to 40 percent of its sales for the year, Eftink said, and more grills are sold in June than any other month.

Wood pellet grills are unique because they have four functions: smoking, grilling, baking and barbecuing. It is the fastest-growing part of the barbecue grilling business, Eftink said, and besides ice cream, the grill cooks everything.

"Having customers that we've never met calling us and telling us how excited they are about their new grill" and how much they can cook with it is one of Eftink's favorite parts about the business, he said.

There has been quite an evolution in the barbecue business, Knight said. What used to be dominated by mom-and-pop spots now are franchises, and many of those franchises sell barbecue equipment outside the country.

That growth of the industry is another thing Knight has enjoyed about the business.

"It's just completely different today," he said, speaking of the opportunity foreign countries now have to experience barbecue -- something they have never experienced before.

ashedd@semissourian.com

388-3632

Pertinent addresses:

333 N. Main St., Cape Girardeau, MO

1923 N. Kingshighway, Cape Girardeau, MO