For all your barbecuing needs
BBQ Emporium by Juniper grows out of owner’s innovative scraper
May will be a special month in more ways than one for Jason Janes of Deer Lake.
Not only is it marking five years for Janes’ Juniper BBQ Scraper, an innovative product he created, but it will also serve as a month-long grand opening for Janes’ new BBQ Emporium by Juniper.
Along with Janes’ signature Juniper BBQ scrapers, the Emporium will sell barbecues, barbecue accessories, barbecue spices, sauces and fuels.
If you’re a barbecue enthusiast like Janes, the new store has all the goods.
“We’re only a barbecue supply store,” he tells West Coast Wire. “We offer just the barbecue essentials you need to have a great barbecue.”
To kick things off for the new store, May will be a month-long celebration.
“As we celebrate five years in business, we’re going to be having a month of specials and events and activities at the Barbecue Emporium,” says Janes.
All through May, the Emporium will offer a surprise gift for anyone who makes a purchase at the store, while there will be discounts on products, with charcuterie boards 50 per cent off next month.
The Juniper BBQ Scrapers will be on special at three for $50, the same price for the product when it was launched five years ago.
On select days, Janes is looking forward to getting out and firing up the barbecue to serve customers. He plans for more activities like this throughout the year.
As the summer unfolds, he expects to host some barbecue classes and hopes to welcome barbecue chefs for special events.
Janes feels the time is right to make this transition from selling scrapers to becoming a local one-stop-shop for all barbecuing needs.
“Barbecue in our area is maturing,” he explains. “There are a lot more people engaging in outdoor cooking, cookouts, outdoor living in general.
There are a lot more home chefs that are firing up the grill, enjoying some tasty foods.”
BUSINESS EVOLUTION
Janes’ foray into barbecue supplies started five years ago, as his barbecue re-emerged from the winter thaw and he prepared to fire it up once again. But what he saw next disgusted him.
“I went inside to clean it off, get ready to fire it up,” he recalls. “And I looked at my grill cleaning bristle brush and it was full of gunk. It was mouldy, it was gross. It was wrecked over winter.”
So, Janes journeyed to the store to find a new brush, one that avoided the nastiness of the bristle brush but also wasn’t made of plastic shipped halfway across the world.
His quest came up empty. But Janes had an idea.
“I called up my dad and I said, ‘Do you have a piece of juniper?’ Janes recalls. “He said, ‘Yeah, why?’ and I said, ‘I want to make a barbecue scraper.’”
The rest is history.
He got the juniper from his father and shaped his first five Juniper BBQ Scrapers using hand tools. He shared the invention with some of friends.
“Just sort of as a lark, thinking I’d get a little rise out of my friends,” Janes says. “Well, it turned out they wanted one.”
More and more people became interested and, before he knew it, he says he had orders for 500 scrapers. Janes could never imagine it would take off the way it did.
But his timing was fortuitous. He had been unaware of it when he made the scraper, but concerns had emerged around the negative side effects of bristle barbecue scrapers.
Not only were they more difficult to clean, but Janes says there were stories about the bristles coming off and getting lodged in people’s throats and stomachs.
That increased the interest in his new product. It received growing media attention and, suddenly, the emergence of a global market. Today, he says the scrapers are sold in about 75 different countries.
Despite the growth, Juniper BBQ Scrapers remains a hands-on, family operation. His father Bern Janes, mother Lynn Janes, sister Candace, uncle Tom Yetman and wife Jackie all assist him in the operation.
The expansion into other barbecue products sort of came about organically. Janes would go on the road for barbecue festival and competitions across Canada to sell his scrapers. Along the way, he was introduced to many great Canadian barbecue products that he would bring home and share with friends.
As he received more and more requests, he started to add more of these products until he felt able to trial the Emporium concept. Janes received enough positive feedback at trade shows and markets in St. John’s that he felt a store like this could be successful on the west coast.
The Barbecue Emporium by Juniper is located at 9 Wellon Dr., almost at the intersection of Trans Canada and the Viking Trail.
The store is open Wednesday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Orders can also be placed online at juniperbbqscraper.com where readers can learn more about the scrapers and the wide array of barbecue products available at the Emporium.
The store also has a Facebook page, Juniper BBQ Scraper.