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About Us
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| Piggy Pat's BBQ has it's roots in Vail, CO., Lake City, S.C. and Middleville, N.Y. The first time I ever had southern BBQ was at a pig-pickin' in Vail, CO. I was living out there during the 70's and part of the 80's. This redneck buddy of mine from North Carolina named Ed Browning dug a hole in the ground and cooked a pig all day. Man, I was hooked! |
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Commitment! |
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It was right around this same time I met this beautiful nurse from Lake City, S.C. named Brenda Moore. Brenda had a job as nurse to Betty Ford, wife of President Gerald Ford. I had a job as a Vail ski patrolman. Part of my job was to ski with the president as part of a security detail whenever he skied in Vail. So I got to see lots of that pretty nurse. After we got engaged, she took me to Lake City, S.C. to meet her parents, Ernie and Joan Moore , and in the process got me some more of that great southern BBQ.
Now in the south "BBQ" is a noun, e.g. "Ernie went to Country Cousins to get some BBQ". It's just understood that BBQ is slow-smoked pork. In the north "BBQ" is a verb, e.g. "In New Hartford, NY my dad would BBQ hotdogs and hamburgers". That's grilling... but I digress. After we got married and had 2 children Caitlin and Conor in Colorado, we decided to move back to central N.Y. to raise our children around family. |
Pat, Caitlin, Conor, and Brenda - 1994 |
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In 1985 we bought a farm outside Middleville, NY and tried our hand at dairy farming (not one of my best ideas). The cows ate more than they produced and so the bank took them. It was when the bank was going to take the farm that we decided we had to do something quick. We converted one of the outbuildings into a take-out BBQ shack in 1994. |
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The Original Four |
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Thanks to God and people like Don Spencer (God rest his soul) from Swansee, S.C., Tommy Brown of "Brown's BBQ" in Kingstree, S.C., Irwin McKnight in Lake City, S.C., family, friends and neighbors, we got opened and were surprisingly successful. I say surprisingly because we weren't sure if these Yankees up here |
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Dad (Hank), Pat, Mom (Marie) |
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would even like southern BBQ. They did!
We started out doing lots of catering and people loved to take a ride in the country on weekends to get some good BBQ.
In June of 2001, we opened a full-service restaurant in Washington Mills, a suburb of Utica, N.Y.
Believe it or not, that's the short version!
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