The Roman Roast on the River continues today with barbecue competitions.
The ninth annual Roman Roast on the River returns to Ridge Ferry Park today.
There are three reactions professional barbecue teams have to the calls — results — of their judged performance at any given competition: Happy, fairly happy, or realizing you essentially just made a donation, said Sean Trygestad, of Angry Jack BBQ, which won first place in the ribs category of the 2017 Georgia BBQ Championship.
Angry Jack BBQ is mainly a one-man show of Trygestad, a Minnesota native who has lived in Woodstock for the last three years. On Friday, standing under the shade of a canopy positioned next to his trailer, he was setting up his barbecue rigs for today’s Roman Roast on the River while also waiting on his wife to bring his two boys into town to compete in the Kids’-Q competition.
His professional team is one of more than 40 set to serve up chicken, ribs, pork butt and brisket at Ridge Ferry Park for the ninth annual event, which is sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society. Another dozen or so teams will be competing in the backyard category.
While Trygestad was using a level to straighten up his drum smoker, Beth Mewborn, a teacher from Lawrenceville and part of the award-winning, husbandwife duo of J&B’s BBQ, stopped over to chat. It is a common theme of these barbecue competitions for teams to become close-knit — the kids play together and the adults chat like old friends with a common trade.
Both Trygestad, currently a stay-at-home dad, and Mewborn said they each had come-to moments where they got hooked on making barbecue, and since that time they have not looked back, traveling to almost 10 competitions a year. Mewborn said she and her husband used to watch the TV show “BBQ Pitmasters.” And after enough episodes, they decided they could do that. So they did and have continued doing so for the last four years.
Newcomer Binge-n-on BBQ, led by Lee Bembry of Cumming, is just finding its place in this barbecue family, as today will be just their fourth professional event, after competing for two years in backyard events. However, Bembry grew up tagging along with his father to different competitions. It is still an ongoing learning process, he said, even after all these years.
Today’s festivities will begin with the Armuchee Ruritan Car Show at 8 a.m., followed by the vendors and kids’ area opening up at 10 a.m. Teams will begin turning in their submissions at 11:30 a.m. and the awards will be announced at 4 p.m. Admission is free, but barbecue enthusiasts can buy a $10 ticket at the tasting tent to have their say on who has the best offering at Ridge Ferry today.