Pitmasters From Around The Country Showcase Their
Award-Winning BBQ
by Mark Smiley and Richard Colaizzi
The Second Annual Denver BBQ Festival was held over Father’s Day weekend at Broncos Stadium at Mile High. Pitmasters from around the country were on hand to smoke meat and serve their barbecue to thousands of attendees in search of good barbecue. “The energy that’s going on at this event is twice as good as it was last year,” said John David Wheeler, Pitmaster for Memphis Barbecue Co. “Denver is starving for great barbecue. They’re wanting it. Hopefully we can bring it to them.”
Time To Slice: Ribs were on the menu at Memphis Barbecue Co., Pappy’s Smokehouse, and Peg Leg Porker at the 2nd Annual Denver BBQ Festival held at Broncos Stadium at Mile High over Father’s Day Weekend. Mark your calendars for next year as it promises to return to Denver.
The event featured not only award-winning barbecue but also live music throughout the three-day fest. And, Tito’s Vodka sponsored the VIP Lounge and a dog lounge. The VIP experience cost $85 and also allowed for unlimited barbecue tastings for a two-and-a-half-hour period.
BBQ Ninja: Craig Verhage also known as The BBQ Ninja is a brand ambassador and consultant for Ole Hickory Pits, Royal Oak, and Ubons. Follow him on Twitter @The_BBQ_Ninja for recipes, videos, and more.
Pitmasters from six states lined up and cooked meat from the time they arrived until the time they pulled out. The three-day festival featured a total of over 19,000 pounds of meat and almost 3,000 pounds of sides. “You have to cook volume here,” said Craig Verhage, The BBQ Ninja. “You have to feed the people, feed the masses. If anything here, each team is helping each other. If somebody needs something we get it to them. We all have the same goal here and that is to cook as much as we possibly can and sell as much as we possibly can and make everybody that comes through the gate happy.”
This fraternity of pitmasters is evident with how much respect they have for each other and how much they like each other. “We do these events all over the world, said Mike Johnson, owner of Sugarfire Smokehouse in St. Louis, MO. “I’m in South America and Europe all the time. I’m in Australia a few times a year for events. I tell everyone this is one of my favorite events. It’s classy and the food is great. It has the most talent of any event I have ever done. I’m not bragging about myself. These are all my heroes. Salt Lick and The Shed, Memphis Barbecue Co. and Peg Leg are awesome. Ubon’s. They’re all really good friends of ours. They have great food.”
Sugarfire: Mike Johnson, pitmaster for Sugarfire Smokehouse, served leg of lamb, smoked salmon, and watermelon & feta salad at the Denver BBQ Festival. He credits the other pitmasters at the fest as his heroes. The pitmaster circle is a fraternity of people helping one another and serving great barbecue.
It’s not just the love of great food that they share. They
also have friendships that have hatched as a direct result of doing the festivals
together for so many years. “I’ve been overseas with all these guys,” said
Johnson. “We spend tons of time. We’ve been together for birthdays and
funerals. We do a lot of stuff together.”
“He’s a genius (Mike Johnson),” said Wheeler. “What a
talent. If you’re out here on this block right now, you can do it and the
people of Denver don’t know what a treat it is to have these guys. I wish we
could do this everywhere and let people share our passion with barbecue.”
This passion for barbecue and the desire to give back to the community is what sparked Wheeler to start Operation BBQ Relief. “Operation BBQ Relief started about eight years ago when a group of guys just like us got together after a tornado in Joplin, Missouri, destroyed the whole town,” said Wheeler. “They wanted to do something so everybody who had meat in their freezers or refrigerators took their meat out and started cooking. 117,000 meals later and three and a half weeks, they were done.”
Disaster Relief: John David Wheeler is the founder of Operation BBQ Relief which provides meals to displaced residents and emergency personnel during times of natural and other disasters. Wheeler is also the pitmaster for Memphis Barbecue Co. heralded as one of the best barbecue joints in the country.
That was the birth of Operation BBQ Relief and since then, they are 45,000 meals away from serving three million meals. “We do what we can to help people out and when people walk up, they walk up like a deer in the headlights asking why we are doing this,” said Wheeler. “My answer is I would hope you would do the same for me.” Wheeler and a team of 300-500 volunteers set up five smokers that can hold 1,000 pounds of meat each. That allows them to feed between 25,000 and 50,000 people. “Being around people who give their time to volunteer to help other people are the kind of guys I want to hang out with,” said Wheeler.
Wheeler is a full-time home builder and full-time pitmaster
and jokes: “It wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done.” As far as Memphis
Barbecue Co., they served their ribs and baked beans at the festival and the
fast-moving line always had guests waiting for some of the best ribs in the
country.
Don’t Forget The Sauce: A volunteer puts the final layer of barbecue sauce on the ribs from Memphis Barbecue Co. Their ribs are regarded as some of the best in the country.
Wheeler’s friend Mike Emerson, Pitmaster for Pappy’s Smokehouse in St. Louis, also served ribs and some guests commented that it was the best they have ever had. What started as Emerson, his business partner John Matthews, and three employees, has now grown into a 50-plus person operation based in St. Louis. “We actually sat in a bar one day and drew Pappy’s on a bar napkin and 11 years later, here we are,” said Emerson.
Pappy’s: Mike Emerson, right, and his son Brian from Pappy’s Smokehouse were among the pitmasters serving barbecue at the 2nd Annual Denver BBQ Festival over Father’s Day weekend.
Emerson, who is a seventh generation Missourian grew up
loving the outdoors and cooking outdoors. It has always been a part of his
life. Now, Pappy’s runs their smokers 24 hours per day and 7 days per week. “We
run six smokers that will do about 500 pounds on each smoker,” said Emerson.
“We can go as high as five to six thousand pounds per day. Most days we’ll do
about three to four thousand pounds.” It is estimated that his son cooks 400
slabs of ribs per day to total one million since opening.
“We hit St. Louis at a good time, said Emerson. “We’re the
only city that’s got a rib named after it. We do know a little bit about
barbecue. I always tell everybody first the neighborhood embraced us and then
the city embraced us and then America embraced us. Now we actually have people
from all over the world that make trips to Pappy’s so we’ve been very
fortunate. It’s been a great ride.”
Caramelized Finish: Pappy’s Smokehouse ribs gets hit with a blowtorch to give them a caramelized finish. Pappy’s ribs were named “Best Ribs in America by the Food Network.” They are dry-rubbed and slow smoked for up to 24 hours over apple and cherry wood.
That ride has brought them to Denver the last two years with
a nice partnership with the City of Denver and the Denver Broncos. “To make one
of these really successful, you’ve got to have the city buy in with what the
people here are trying to do,” said Verhage. “Between the city and the Broncos
and what we are trying to accomplish here, everybody’s on the same page, you
don’t have somebody that is causing any friction to not make this a huge
successful event.” “I moved West of here (Maui) and this is one of the few
places I’ll come back to the mainland to come visit,” said Emerson. “You guys
are wonderful.”
For more information about Denver BBQ Fest, visit www.denverbbqfest.com. Operation BBQ Relief is located at www.operationbbqrelief.org; Pappy’s Smokehouse at www.pappyssmokehouse.com; Sugarfire Smokehouse at www.sugarfiresmokehouse.com; Memphis Barbecue Co. at www.memphisbbqco.com; and follow The BBQ Ninja on Twitter @The_BBQ_Ninja. If you crave barbecue from one of the vendors from the Festival, Sugarfire has a location in Westminster, and GQue BBQ has locations in Lone Tree and Westminster. For the rest, visit them online to purchase sauces and rubs or wait until next year for the Third Annual Denver BBQ Festival.
One of Denver’s most experienced and successful attorneys,
Craig Silverman, is joining one of Denver’s top law firms of Springer and
Steinberg, P.C. He is also well known as a radio show host on Saturday mornings
at 710 KNUS radio host and noted for his independent viewpoint. He launched his
legal career at the Denver District Attorney’s Office, prosecuting some of
Colorado’s and the nation’s highest profile criminal cases.
Prominent Denver Attorney Joins Law Firm: One of Denver’s most well-known attorneys, Craig Silverman, joins the prestigious Springer & Steinberg Law Firm.
In 1997, he partnered with David Olivas at Silverman and
Olivas, P.C., a well-known boutique law firm in the heart of Denver’s LODO
area. There, Silverman successfully represented hundreds of civil and criminal
defense clients. And now, Silverman is launching a new chapter in his legal
career at the law offices of Springer and Steinberg, P.C.
Silverman says, “I was most interested, flattered, and
excited about being recruited by Springer and Steinberg, P.C. Jeff Springer and
Harvey Steinberg have been good friends of mine for many decades. I’ve played
lots of sports with Jeff and plenty of poker with Harvey.”
Steinberg says, “I’ve known Craig for over 50 years. I
followed his career as a prosecutor and marveled at his success. I watched
Craig move into the world of civil practice and, as expected, his success there
rivaled his prior accomplishments as a prosecutor. Given the closeness of our
families, I am happy we will finally be able to join forces at the best and
most effective law firm ever.”
Springer echoes those sentiments. “Craig and I go way back,”
he says. “We’ve always respected Craig and his abilities as a trial lawyer and
fierce competitor. Craig is fun to be around and fits in perfectly at Springer
and Steinberg where we have a team approach to winning cases for our clients.
The law firm has close ties with the City of Glendale.
Springer has served as Glendale City Attorney for over a decade and has been
involved in Glendale’s remarkable development. Silverman points out he’s played
a role in Glendale as well, and in 2013 was hired to help screen applicants to
be the new Glendale Police Chief, a process which led to the hiring of Chief
Joe Hoskins.
You could say Silverman’s love affair with “courts” began in
the gym at Denver’s George Washington High School where he was a standout
basketball player, earning seven varsity letters in basketball, golf and
baseball. He continued his athletic career in college, setting a single season
scoring record at Colorado College, over 20 points a game.
Silverman’s Passion For “Courts” Started In High School: 1974 photo of Craig Silverman in action at George Washington High School where he was a unanimous All-City selection in basketball and golf.
In June 1980, following his second year at CU Law School, he
began work as an intern at the Denver District Attorney’s Office. He went on to
become a Chief Deputy DA. “I prosecuted many violent Denver criminals,”
Silverman recounts, “Including Quintin Wortham, the Capitol Hill Rapist, and
Frank Rodriguez, Denver’s only modern-day death penalty verdict.”
Following the 1993 “summer of violence” in Denver, Silverman
was the prosecutor in one of Denver’s highest profile murder cases. Shane Davis
and Stephen Harrington were convicted of brutally murdering Tom Hollar and
sentenced to life in prison plus 200 years. The two-week trial was televised
live on Court TV. Silverman explains, “Tom’s widow, Christina Hollar,
captivated good people everywhere as she bravely testified regarding the horror
of her husband Tom being shot dead at 11th and Corona as he tried, in vain, to
protect her from being carjacked.”
Silverman’s legal experience and engaging style were
appreciated by local and national media outlets. He regularly appeared on local
TV stations to provide expert analysis during the OJ Simpson murder case.
Another Denver attorney, Dan Caplis, was doing a daily afternoon radio show on
AM 760 covering the Simpson “Trial of the Century” and Silverman says, “He had
me on regularly which began our friendship that lasts to this day.” In fact,
the two started the Caplis and Silverman Show on KHOW Radio in 2004, a popular
afternoon drive radio show that lasted over eight years.
Silverman’s legal and media careers converged in 1996, after
he ran as an Independent candidate to unseat incumbent DA Bill Ritter.
Silverman says, “I lost my race for Denver DA in November 1996, and in December
1996 JonBenét Ramsey was murdered in her Boulder home. Media outlets called me,
and I again responded.” Silverman appeared on many network and national cable
TV shows and that continued through other Colorado cases including Columbine,
the Oklahoma City bombing trial, the Kobe Bryant case and the Aurora theater
massacre.
In 2014 he began the Craig Silverman Show which continues to
air every Saturday morning from 9 a.m. ’til noon on 710 KNUS radio. The
schedule suits Silverman perfectly. He says, “I relish the opportunity to recap
the week and express my thoughts about what happened, without having to worry
about any interference with my primary job. My work as a lawyer for my clients
is always my priority.”
Radio Host: Craig Silverman hosts a popular radio show on 710 KNUS Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. He is noted for his independent viewpoint.
In fact, Silverman explains, “Preparation is critical to
putting on a great radio show and the same is true for putting together a
client’s best case. Teamwork and a fierce desire to fight for justice make it
happen at Springer and Steinberg.”
The firm is mid-sized with 30 some legal professionals
dedicated to helping clients. Steinberg is famous as a pre-eminent criminal
defense lawyer while Springer is an experienced and widely respected attorney
who leads a large legal team working on serious injury and wrongful death
cases.
Silverman says he will be focusing primarily on helping
victims of bad driving and other injury-causing misconduct. “Helping people who
have been victimized by the transgressions of others is what I most enjoy as an
attorney and is a natural extension of my work as a prosecutor.” Silverman
notes as a member of the Springer and Steinberg team, he won’t have to worry
about administrative responsibilities like he did at his own firm. “That means
more time with clients, preparing their cases and fighting for justice for our
clients.”
For more information or to contact Craig Silverman at Springer and Steinberg, call 303-861-2800 or csilverman@springersteinberg.com.
