How Veterans Q Uses Sauce To Raise Money for Vets
When Steve Lulofs served as a combat engineer in the Army in Iraq between 2003 and 2005, he never imagined he’d one day operate a barbecue sauce company. But today, he’s the owner and operator of Chicago-based Veterans Q, which sells barbecue sauce and rubs and donates profits to veterans’ nonprofits.
“When I won my first barbecue competition, I won $200 and said I’d donate the money,” Lulofs said. “Then when I started making sauce, I did the same thing. I think people really like that we’re donating, and it helped us grow."
Steve Lulofs, an Army veteran, founded Veterans Q in 2016.
The origins of Veterans Q dates back to September 2015 when Lulofs entered into a backyard barbecue competition in Chicago. As a newbie he was under the mistaken impression he needed to make his own sauces for it. So he cranked out his own version of a basic barbecue sauce plus his own twists, and it immediately helped his food stand out.
“We ended up taking second place out of 60 teams and I was hooked,” Lulofs said. “That’s how this whole thing got started.”
Veterans Q sells a variety of popular sauces and rubs.
In 2016, Lulofs started making his barbecue sauce for friends and family, and eventually enough people asked where they could buy it. That spurred him to finally figure out a way to bottle it in bulk.
“I reached out to a small manufacturer here and did the smallest batch I could make, at about 1000 gallons,” Lulofs said. “My first order was 750 bottles, and I thought I only needed to sell it by the year. I ended up selling them all in less than two months. … It felt crazy. People on Facebook started buying it and some mom-and-pop stores picked it up too.”
Today, Veterans Q sells thousands of bottles of sauces and rubs each year (now barbecue chips too), and they can be found on store shelves around the country. In 2020, the company’s sales were actually up by 70% versus their 2019 sales.
“2020 was a ridiculous year,” Lulofs said. “I think a lot of it is the pandemic. We were able to benefit from so many people being home. Most people were tired of eating the same chicken breasts and spaghetti and wanted to try something new.”
The Veterans Q BBQ Boy Toys calendar raises thousands of dollars for veterans each year.
On top of selling sauces and rubs, Veterans Q also raises money in another creative way. A few years ago, the company began selling a tongue-in-cheek calendar that looks nothing like any other calendar out there. It features “BBQ Boy Toys,” typically larger men modeling barbecue sauce in their underwear.
“It started because we wanted something to help us market ourselves or go viral,” said Lulofs. “We started thinking about what would be funny and our group thought, ‘let’s do a bunch of big guys in their underwear.’ I reached out to our local Chicago veteran community and asked ‘who wants to get pictured in their underwear eating barbecue? We had a few people interested. It now comes out around Veterans Day each year.”
The BBQ Boy Toys calendar sells out quickly each year, has been featured on several TV programs, and raises thousands of dollars for veterans’ causes. The most recent run of the calendar sold more than 8,000 copies.
We’ve personally tried the Veterans Q sauces and quite enjoyed the results. (Photo by Ryan Cooper)
To date, Veterans Q has raised tens of thousands of dollars for organizations that help veterans and their families. Veterans’ organizations that the company has donated to over the years include TLS Veterans, Wounded Warriors In Action, Operation Warrior Wishes, Honor Flight, and the Oscar Mike Foundation.
“We don’t pick big organizations nationally that get tons of money,” said Lulofs. “We donate to organizations where 80% of the money has to go to veterans’ themselves and 20% or less is overhead. We go after credible organizations, and I try to change it up every year. I want to spread it out.”
Lulofs regularly ships sauces to military bases overseas. Above, Army SFC Robles enjoys Veterans Q sauce at his base in Afghanistan.
Lulofs continues to work a regular day job as an immigration analyst for the Department of Labor, but he one day believes Veterans Q could move from side gig to full-time.
“I think it eventually could be something bigger if I could dedicate more time to it,” said Lulofs. “We’re renting space in a little warehouse and starting to outgrow that. Hopefully in the next two or three years.”
If you’re interested in buying sauces or rubs from Veterans Q, you can do so here.
Sean Ludwig (NYC BBQ)
Co-Founder, The Smoke Sheet
—Adrian Miller’s upcoming book Black Smoke chronicles how Black Americans helped shape and enrich barbecue.—
HOT OFF THE PRESS
A number of outlets celebrated Black History Month with articles honoring the contributions Black Americans have made to barbecue:
Boulder Weekly talked with Adrian Miller, also known as the Soul Food Scholar, about his journey from the Clinton administration to writer and documentarian of African-American history and cooking. Miller also talked about his forthcoming book Black Smoke, which is set to be released in April. According to Miller, Black barbecue “defies regional categorization” and developed into a style that is part of but also separate from the barbecue found in the American South. READ MORE.
Today had a story about Chef Alfred Mann, who was captivated by the barbecue from Gene Daniels in Florida. Mann now serves his own barbecue at Munchie's Live BBQ, an outdoor barbecue restaurant near Orlando. Munchie’s is an outdoor barbecue dining location at Camp Ithiel, with picnic table dining and lakeside outdoor activities. READ MORE.
As part of an ongoing series honoring the diversity, roots, and evolution of Black cooking and cuisine in America, The Daily Meal wrote about NASA aerospace engineer and pitmaster Dr. Howard Conyers. Dr. Conyers has been able to apply a scientific approach to barbecue while at the same time honoring his ancestors’ traditional ways of cooking. READ MORE.
KCUR told the story of Henry Perry, the black entrepreneur who helped give birth to Kansas City barbecue in the early 1900s. Perry proclaimed himself the barbecue king in newspaper ads and on the window of his restaurant. The legacy that Perry started in the early part of the 20th Century lives on today at Kansas City barbecue joints such as Arthur Bryant’s and Gates. READ MORE.
Robert Moss wrote about the stories behind some of America’s favorite barbecue sauces for Southern Living. In the article he covers the sauce from Kansas City staple Arthur Bryant’s and the signature Alabama white sauce from Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q, among others. He also includes lesser-known sauces and commercial and competition sauce favorites. READ MORE.
Texas Monthly’s Daniel Vaughn recently wrote about Oak’d Handcrafted BBQ, which opened in Dallas in late 2020. Oak’d pitmaster Michael Lane is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. While the restaurant offers plenty of great meat options, including both Wagyu and Prime brisket, Duroc pork ribs, and smoked turkey, as well as high quality side dishes, Vaughn thinks that the desserts might be the best in Texas. READ MORE.
ADDITIONAL READS
The Discovery Channel is spinning off a new competition series called Moonshiners: Smoke Ring in which an all-star list of guest judges and experts carries out the search for undiscovered pitmasters.
Buffalo’s Southern Junction is creating a unique fusion of Texas barbecue and Indian cuisine.
Hattem Mattar is the Arab pitmaster who brought Texas-inspired smoked brisket to Dubai.
Sarah Blaskovich of The Dallas Morning News proclaimed that Goldee’s is the best new barbecue joint in North Texas.
A new 2,200 square foot patio deck will be unveiled at a special pop-up event on February 20th, bringing together Dozier’s BBQ and Michael Wyont of Flores Tortillas.
According to Daniel Vaughn, you’ll need a nap after the loaded sandwiches, stuffed baked potatoes, and more from K&K Bar-B-Que in Corsicana.
Jenkins Quality BBQ has been a Jacksonville staple for 63 years.
A second location of Sam Jones BBQ recently opened in Raleigh.
Memphis-based Central BBQ will open its second Nashville location in March.
New England’s Hodgies Too ice cream shops recently debuted barbecued brisket flavored ice cream.
—Slab in Los Angeles serves up creative barbecue options like this smoked pastrami sandwich.—
WATCH
How To Get LA's Best Underground Barbecue — Food Insider
Burt Bakman of Trudy's Underground BBQ opened Slab so that his fans could come by and eat his barbecue anytime. No longer underground, Slab is the result of tens of thousands of Instagram followers demanding delicious brisket and ribs without having to sneak into a random backyard. Here's how Burt has been doing since the Insta-fame. WATCH HERE.
LISTEN
Doug Scheiding of Rogue Cookers — Baseball & BBQ
Doug Scheiding makes a triumphant return to the Baseball & BBQ podcast and shares his incredible baseball knowledge. If you are familiar with his fine work as the longest running embedded correspondent on The BBQ Central Show, you know he is a rocket scientist, an award-winning pitmaster for the Rogue Cookers barbecue competition team, a Traeger Pellet Grills representative, and a Head Country brand ambassador. What you may not know is that he is an avid Chicago Cubs fan and an extremely knowledgeable baseball fan. Listen as Doug chats with hosts Leonard and Jeff about their two favorite subjects. LISTEN HERE.
READ
The One True Barbecue: Fire, Smoke, and the Pitmasters Who Cook the Whole Hog — Rien Fertel
In The One True Barbecue, Rien Fertel chronicles the uniquely southern art of whole hog barbecue — America’s original barbecue — through the professional pitmasters who make a living firing, smoking, flipping, and cooking 200-plus pound pigs. More than one hundred years have passed since a small group of families in the Carolinas and Tennessee started roasting a whole pig over a smoky, fiery pit. Descendants of these original pitmasters are still cooking, passing down the recipes and traditions across generations to those willing to take on the grueling, dangerous task. This isn’t your typical backyard pig roast, and it’s definitely not for the faint of heart. This is barbecue at its most primitive and tasty. Fertel finds the gatekeepers of real southern barbecue—including those who tend the fire at legendary spots like Bum’s, Wilber’s, Sweatman’s, Grady’s, the Skylight Inn, and three different places named Scott’s — to tell their stories and pay homage to the diversity and beauty of this culinary tradition. These pitmasters are now influencing a new breed of chefs and barbecue enthusiasts from Nashville to Brooklyn. BUY IT HERE.
—You can replicate the festival experience of feasting on a giant, smoked turkey leg with this recipe. (Photo by Ryan Cooper)—
Smoked “State Fair” Turkey Legs
By Ray Sheehan
For this week’s Recipe of the Week, we chose this recipe for Smoked “State Fair” Turkey Legs from Ray Sheehan. Ray begins the recipe for turkey legs with a simple brine before rubbing with delicious seasonings. The turkey legs are smoked at 300 degrees F until they reach an internal temperature of 175-180 degrees. Give this recipe a try and recreate the festival experience in your own backyard! (Because we know you haven't been to any huge festivals lately.)
—Many of the largest barbecue events of 2020 have been canceled or postponed.—
In light of the constantly changing coronavirus crisis, we are leaving our events section blank for some time. We’ll be updating our events section on our website with the most up-to-date information as we have it.
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