Barbecue tents honor Memphis, pigs, Czech Republic
Sure, the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest is all about the barbecue. But there’s another competition that pits these barbecue teams against one another at Tom Lee Park: Who has the best tent?
On Thursday night, Memphis in May officials announced this year’s winners.
The Top 3 Tents 1st place: All Star Tenpin Porkers
Memphis in May announced in September it would celebrate the Czech Republic this year, and many teams brainstormed how their tent would honor that country.
All Star Tenpin Porkers was no exception.
Each year, this team honors the designated country, and it has won the contest several times.
The team was originally made up of employees from Billy Hardwick’s All Star Lanes. It now has about 25 core team members.
The team began brainstorming as soon as the Czech Republic was announced as this year’s country.
The outside of the tent was a digital print of Prague Castle, including an astronomical clock feature like the castle has. A cart and buggy were parked outside the tent.
2nd Place Swine and Dine
Memphians Lauren Cavanaugh and Austin Brown designed their tent for the first year since their former tent designer moved to Nashville.
“We wanted to bring something traditional to barbecue fest,” Brown said. “Easter is a big holiday for (Czech Republic). Their Easter market is like our Cooper-Young fest.”
The outside was lined with Easter eggs and looked like St. Nicholas Cathedral. Many of the eggs were hand-painted, but some were Memphis themed.
“We tried to re-create the tradition and tie it in with Memphis,” Cavanaugh said.
3rd place: Boofhead BBQ
Boofhead BBQ also embraced a traditional Czech architectural theme with its two-story air-conditioned booth. Outside were flower boxes in windows and flags, while hanging inside were swords and Czech flags.
Pit-master Bruce Rylance said most of the team is from Lake Forest, Ill., although some members are from different areas of the country. Rylance has been involved in Memphis in May since 2010.
“This is the Super Bowl of barbecue,” he said. “It’s just fun every day.”
Rylance said this year the team wanted an “open kitchen concept.”
“But the Czech Republic is so different. There’s so much history,” he said. “For this we felt it was best to represent the Czechoslovakian architecture.”
Honorable mention
If we could award honorable mention honors, these three tents would definitely make our list.
Porkosaurus
What do you get when you cross a dinosaur with a pig? A porkosaurus, according to AJ Horner, a member of the team that goes by that name.
Davey Studios in Memphis designed two “porkousauruses” outside this onestory tent for team Porkosaurus.
At certain times throughout the day Friday, the creatures’ noses blew a gas into the hot, muggy air.
Horner said his first porkosaurus’s name was Dino, but he has not yet named his brand-new porkosaurus. Dino has been at barbecue fest for years.
“Dino fell out on I-55 one time on my way here,” Horner said. “I had teams calling me to say that they saw my dinosaur on the road.”
Love Meat Tender
“We try to represent the country every year,” Glenn Owens of Germantown said about his team’s tent. “We take it seriously.”
Owens is a custom home builder and helped build the two-story, 3-D castle tent. They tried to re-create Hluboká Castle in the Czech Republic.
Owens expected that the team would host more than 1,000 people.
“Entertain, cook and honor the country — we do it all ... We want it to feel like we are taking a restaurant or a club off Beale and putting it in Tom Lee Park.”
Inside the booth, they have painted the Czech flag on the bar and the floor.
Aporkalypse Now
Aporkalypse Now has never entered the booth competition. Each year, the team sticks to a jungle outdoors theme. Team members loaded their trailer May 11 and set up for days before the competition started.
“Everybody loves our design and our team name,” team member Kolby Young said. “We’re recognizable. That’s big for us.”
Young said each year people from all over the world stop to see team members, who are from across the country .
Last year, the team placed Top 40 in Ribs.