Our History
You might be asking, “How did all of this get started”? I had a difficult time finding a barbeque sauce, that I liked, in the stores. When I found one that suited me, the store would stop carrying it in less than a year’s time. Again, I would be searching for a good sauce to use. I was at a V.F.W. barbeque fundraiser in Kansas City with my father in law and found myself eating some of the best barbeque that I had ever tasted. I asked him where they got their sauce, because if he would tell me where to go, I’d buy a case of it. He laughed at me, pointed to the counter & said “See the black lady over there? She made it”. At first I didn’t believe him, but after he urged me several times to go talk to her, I finally broke down and approached her. I asked her how she made her barbeque sauce and she wouldn’t tell me. As it turned out, it was an old family recipe that she hadn’t even shared with her grown daughter. She told me that she would give me a good base to start from, that I could add spices and change proportions until I had something that I enjoyed.
After about two years of experimentation I came up with what, in my mind, was the perfect barbeque sauce… what’s now known as Cowboy Chris’ Original Hot Barbeque sauce. I was a happy man; I no longer had to depend on the whims of a grocery store to get a good barbeque sauce. I would make the stuff up, enjoy it for myself and serve it up to family and friends…who seemed to think it was great stuff. All was good in the universe. Then, as a joke, I sent a mason jar full of my sauce to a friend in New York City (Go ahead & say it…you KNOW you want to! *Laughing*) for her birthday. She was always giving me a hard time about being a “dumb hillbilly” and I was always calling her an “uppity city woman”, so I put a little post-it note on the jar stating, “This is how the country folks do it”. A month or so later, she sent me an email raving about how good the sauce was. She had taken it to a family get together and they loved it. She kept pestering me about how I should sell it to grocery stores. I told her to stop pulling my leg, that if she liked it, that was all that mattered to me. She said the following words to me “Chris, I work in sales and marketing and you need to get this out on the market”. She gave me a simple, flexible marketing plan and my business was off and running.
As time went on, my product line was expanding. I started making dry rubs to compliment the bbq sauces…also, because I was eating my own sauces so much at promotional events that I needed a change of pace. I got some of my products into a few grocery stores and I was making an internet sale here and there. I was booking into some local festivals, fairs, rodeos and making people aware of my offerings. In August of 2004, shortly after the Missouri State Fair, a small explosion of growth began.
The story continues to this day…..
WOW, What a ride!!
I can’t think of any other business that, after many years of promoting my sauces and thousands of miles of travel, I would still enjoy doing this much. How many jobs do you get to meet up with old friends or meet new ones every weekend? What else could I do that would have Charlie Daniels, Joe Diffie, Eric Church, members of the rock band REO Speedwagon, & the professional wrestler Goldberg all using my products? What other business would allow me to be at Chris LeDeoux’s last concert while promoting my products, have the Governor of the state of Missouri using them on his dining room table, or to have my sauce used by a customer to win Grand Champion, at the 2004 Missouri State Fair bbq contest? I can only thank God, my customers, and those who invited my company to their events, for those kinds of opportunities.
You might be asking, “How did all of this get started”? I had a difficult time finding a barbeque sauce, that I liked, in the stores. When I found one that suited me, the store would stop carrying it in less than a year’s time. Again, I would be searching for a good sauce to use. I was at a V.F.W. barbeque fundraiser in Kansas City with my father in law and found myself eating some of the best barbeque that I had ever tasted. I asked him where they got their sauce, because if he would tell me where to go, I’d buy a case of it. He laughed at me, pointed to the counter & said “See the black lady over there? She made it”. At first I didn’t believe him, but after he urged me several times to go talk to her, I finally broke down and approached her. I asked her how she made her barbeque sauce and she wouldn’t tell me. As it turned out, it was an old family recipe that she hadn’t even shared with her grown daughter. She told me that she would give me a good base to start from, that I could add spices and change proportions until I had something that I enjoyed.
After about two years of experimentation I came up with what, in my mind, was the perfect barbeque sauce… what’s now known as Cowboy Chris’ Original Hot Barbeque sauce. I was a happy man; I no longer had to depend on the whims of a grocery store to get a good barbeque sauce. I would make the stuff up, enjoy it for myself and serve it up to family and friends…who seemed to think it was great stuff. All was good in the universe. Then, as a joke, I sent a mason jar full of my sauce to a friend in New York City (Go ahead & say it…you KNOW you want to! *Laughing*) for her birthday. She was always giving me a hard time about being a “dumb hillbilly” and I was always calling her an “uppity city woman”, so I put a little post-it note on the jar stating, “This is how the country folks do it”. A month or so later, she sent me an email raving about how good the sauce was. She had taken it to a family get together and they loved it. She kept pestering me about how I should sell it to grocery stores. I told her to stop pulling my leg, that if she liked it, that was all that mattered to me. She said the following words to me “Chris, I work in sales and marketing and you need to get this out on the market”. She gave me a simple, flexible marketing plan and my business was off and running.
As time went on, my product line was expanding. I started making dry rubs to compliment the bbq sauces…also, because I was eating my own sauces so much at promotional events that I needed a change of pace. I got some of my products into a few grocery stores and I was making an internet sale here and there. I was booking into some local festivals, fairs, rodeos and making people aware of my offerings. In August of 2004, shortly after the Missouri State Fair, a small explosion of growth began.
The story continues to this day…..
WOW, What a ride!!
I can’t think of any other business that, after many years of promoting my sauces and thousands of miles of travel, I would still enjoy doing this much. How many jobs do you get to meet up with old friends or meet new ones every weekend? What else could I do that would have Charlie Daniels, Joe Diffie, Eric Church, members of the rock band REO Speedwagon, & the professional wrestler Goldberg all using my products? What other business would allow me to be at Chris LeDeoux’s last concert while promoting my products, have the Governor of the state of Missouri using them on his dining room table, or to have my sauce used by a customer to win Grand Champion, at the 2004 Missouri State Fair bbq contest? I can only thank God, my customers, and those who invited my company to their events, for those kinds of opportunities.
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