Introducing Crowder Barbecue…

Have a conversation with someone about Australian food and the conversation will invariably gravitate towards barbecues. Perhaps the ultimate Australian cliché, the word barbecue is almost synonymous with Aussie cuisine despite Australia, and Western Australia in particular, being a veritable treasure chest for a huge variety of cuisines, ingredients and amazing produce.

Yes, they may be an Aussie cliché, but few can argue against the fact that barbecues really are one of life’s greatest pleasures. It’s a sunny day, you’ve got your mates gathered around, a sizzling barbecue is on the go and you’re enjoying a few beers – a scene pretty close to perfection if you ask me! And whilst we may not be blessed with the sun as often as the Aussies are, that’s not stopping two Leeds’ residents from cooking up an exciting barbecue movement right here in our fair city!

Crowder Barbecue
Meet Andy and Dan Crowder, two brothers originally from Lichfield but now living in Leeds. Dan’s a Philosophy Graduate from the University of Nottingham and currently works as a Recruitment Consultant, whilst Andy is in his final year of a Music Production degree at Leeds Metropolitan and runs Musical Mathematics in his spare time. They also LOVE to barbecue. REALLY love to barbecue. This is no mere love of tinned hot dogs and burgers on a stale bun with a smear of ketchup. They take barbecues very seriously, so much so that they’re asking for your help to turn their love of barbecues into a viable business that all barbecue fans can benefit from.

I caught up with Dan who told me more:

Tell me about Crowder Barbecue?
We love to barbecue, and after a string of successful monthly supper clubs, parties, and meat experiments, we’re now ready to take things a little more seriously. We want to turn our barbecuing passion into a full time street food business, serving authentic barbecued street food at gigs, events, markets, festivals, parties, weddings, and wherever else we’re needed.

Where did your passion for barbecues come from?
We’ve always hosted barbecues for friends and enjoy experimenting with different cuts of meat, creating exciting recipes and we’ve always had great feedback. We also run a monthly supper club, The Crowder Barbecue Club, at our house in Headingley. We’ve been running it since January and experiment with different meats, rubs, sauces and accompaniments for about 25 people each month. The supper club has helped us realise that this is something we want to continue doing and take to the public!

What’s your inspiration?
I travelled the States from coast to coast on greyhound buses back in 2010 and enjoyed some incredible food there. We’ve also witnessed the boom in street food in London over the past few years and we thought that whilst there is some fantastic street food in Leeds and Yorkshire, there is always room for different vendors. In particular, we saw a gap in the market for authentic, backyard, home-grown barbecue.

There are a couple of key chefs and restaurants that really inspire us. We’ve closely followed what Pitt Cue has achieved and we also follow Aaron Franklin really closely – his restaurant and his methodologies are a huge inspiration for us. He has a no-nonsense, simple, no frills, but incredibly flavoursome approach and he has a great success story, having started from very humble beginnings in a trailer in an Austin ‘Parking Lot’.

So what are your next steps?
We’re crowdfunding on Kickstarter to help establish Crowder Barbecue as a street food business. We need equipment which is expensive, but relatively cheap when compared to setting up a restaurant. We’re aiming to initially put on a Street Food and Music event at the Brudenell Social Club, which you can find more details about here: http://musicalmathematics.co.uk/post-oak/.

Our longer term aim is to develop the infrastructure to regularly cater for large groups at events, gigs, festivals, markets and pop-ups, as well as private events such as weddings. We want to establish a profitable, sustainable business and we’re hoping Kickstarter can help us with this.

So, why Kickstarter? Why crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding is a fantastic way of raising funds. We already have a business plan in place and a clear idea of what we want to do and achieve, but we’re not homeowners, Andy’s a student, and we’d struggle to get backing from banks.

Crowdfunding allows us to engage with potential customers and get their feedback on our business proposition. It’s a great way of finding out if your project has legs. If you don’t raise the required amount, then it probably wasn’t a very good idea in the first place! We’re getting real time feedback, and the encouragement and support we’ve received has made us even more confident we’re doing the right thing.

What do you need people to do?
We’ve already had some fantastic support, with backers from the US (New York, Santa Cruz, Indiana). But we still need your help. We need people to get behind us in the run up to our deadline – next Tuesday, 7th May. All the money we receive will go into establishing our business moving forward. If we can reach, or even better, exceed our goal, we should be in a really good position moving forward.

Yes, we need financial support, but in return we offer a range of barbecue treats, such as our food, homemade sauces and rubs. It’s an opportunity for someone to get directly involved with what we’re doing and follow our journey!

If you’d like to see barbecue street food come to Leeds, help the Crowder brothers by donating on Kickstarter. You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter, visit their website and find out more about the Street Food and Music Event at the Brudenell over on Musical Mathematics!

Good luck Dan and Andy, I hope you’re successful because now I’m REALLY craving a barbecue…