The ownership and staff at Texas Barbecue of Canada, located in Desbarats — 50 kilometres east of Sault Ste. Marie — marked the restaurant’s first anniversary in business August 1.
It’s been a successful first year in operation.
The restaurant’s sign facing Highway 17 East declares that the eatery has served 24,000 people over the past year.
“I'd say probably the star item on our menu is our brisket," said owner Jon Kettles, in an interview with SooToday. "A brisket is usually the star of any Texas barbecue and I think our brisket could go toe-to-toe with the top 50 in Texas."
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Kettles said the restaurant fills a need in Desbarats and the surrounding area.
“I decided to start Texas Barbecue of Canada — what we call TBC — because people enjoy eating barbecued food," he said. "It's a fun thing to do and there weren't any barbecue places around here so I thought I had to change that. It’s worked out really well because I think we serve great food.”
The TBC menu includes not only brisket but also chicken, ribs and pulled pork with side orders such as beans, potato salad, coleslaw and macaroni and cheese.
Various types of coffee and soft drinks are available as beverages.
TBC recently introduced a dessert menu that includes a peach cobbler — a sweet dish common in the southern U.S. — consisting of baked fruit topped with a biscuit crust.
“Everything at TBC is made to taste like you just walked into a great barbecue place in Texas,” Kettles said.
The restaurant’s location is another benefit, he added.
“It's a great spot because you can come in by the highway but we also have our own docks so people can come by boat. We have an outdoor eating area with tables near the fire pit. It's just a really comfortable place to eat under the trees and the shade with a gorgeous view.”
Opening his own restaurant is a career change for Kettles, who worked for 30 years in the aviation industry.
“This is something I started studying about six or seven years ago," he said. "I put a lot of effort into studying it and developing the procedures and recipes so we can consistently put out good food. I have no prior restaurant experience to speak of. All of our processes are based on seeing how it's been done at a lot of barbecue places in Texas. I studied enough of them to see the things that are done well and the things that aren’t done well, so I basically just copied the processes that I've seen done well."
Enjoying his success, Kettles, with family roots in Desbarats, Bruce Mines and Sudbury, said he would like to open more TBC locations in the future.
“This is the original but when people ask me if it's a franchise I usually laugh and say ‘yes, and this is the very first location.’”
