Our Story

ALL ABOUT US

Why is this the best sauce you'll ever try?

Who in their right mind would spend 20 plus years creating a BBQ sauce?

Someone who’s picky, stubborn, tenacious, fussy ….! Someone who’s tired of paying good money for good ribs slathered in crappy BBQ sauce. That’s who. And that’s me!

I love ribs – always one of my favorite meals in restaurants, and one of my favorites to BBQ at home. I just couldn’t find the “right” sauce, the one with the “holy shit” taste! Don’t get me wrong – there are a lot of good BBQ sauces available, but so few truly great sauces. I was tired of good enough. I wanted great. Like any mad man on a mission, I started my search. Couldn’t find what I was looking for. Left me with no choice. Do what any crazy person does. Make your own sauce.

So I began my odyssey; researching, analyzing, and consulting. Throwing things together, creating, experimenting, tasting. Then throwing it all out, frustrated, only to start the process all over again. More of this. Less of that. Something new. Something different.

Can’t tell you how many of my friends and family ghost me now after being subjected to so many taste tests. They were afraid to accept another dinner invite to my house – unless they were assured we were serving something other than ribs!
Lost count of how many variations, how many taste tests, and how many racks of good ribs I wasted by my feeble attempts at concocting a taste I could be proud of. I wasn’t satisfied with good. I would only settle for great.

My wife says I was far too stubborn and too obnoxious to give up. I like to think it was my tenacity, persistence, and drive that fueled my refusal to give up.

Change this. Add that. Less of that. More of this. Tastes crappy. Start again. None of that. Much more of that. No, less of that. And then one day I had it! I created the HOLY SHIT of BBQ sauces! Not by accident, but by experimentation. Not by mistake, but by purposeful consideration.

This was the BBQ sauce I wanted – it was the taste I had been searching for. And after much begging and pleading with my friends to please, please just try one more time, try my ribs with this newest creation, they succumbed. I knew it was the Holy Shit sauce because that was also their reaction. The fact there were no ribs left uneaten by the end of the meal confirmed it for me. And then I basted my BBQ chicken with it, and used it on beef roasts and ribs, and even on salmon! Eureka! I had perfected the recipe.

I had indeed created a sauce that I could put my name on! I created Billy-Joe’s BBQ Sauce! And even though my wife is no longer fond of ribs, the sauce deserved her name on it too. It was her support, her patience, her honesty (this tastes like shit!) and her willingness to stick with me through all of this.

The Story Behind The Portrait

A number of years ago, while working at a school stampede breakfast, a teacher and colleague, Renee Carrier, captured a photo of Bill flipping pancakes. Unbeknownst to Bill, Renee used that photo as a reference and created this painting.

A few years later the school was holding a silent auction fundraiser and though Renee wasn’t in attendance she had donated this portrait painting. A friend came up to Bill and said, “You’ve got to see that painting over there!”

Again, unbeknownst to Bill (are you seeing a pattern? 🙂 ) Joanne had already bid on it. Bill’s first thought was he didn’t want a portrait of himself hanging on the wall but Joanne insisted she was getting it. Well, if you don’t know Joanne that well, she can sometimes seem to be on the quieter side, but when she speaks…well that’s all, there’s no changing her mind. They went home with the painting.

Bill’s friend, Frank Fagan is the Graphics Designer behind our branding and took the painting to create the label on Billy-Joe’s BBQ Sauce. It was Frank that recognized the potential of this portrait as the backbone to the branding of Billy Joe’s. Renee Carrier is a self-taught artist who began painting in 2007. She paints with pastels, graphite, and watercolour, occasionally dabbling in other mediums. Renee’s paintings typically consist of up to 20 layers of colour to build complexity and detail in her paintings. Portraits of both people and animals are Renee’s specialty. She enjoys the challenge of creating a realistic likeness and capturing expression while playing with colour, shapes and line. She loves to do commissioned paintings and works closely with clients to create artwork of their precious pets and family members. You can see more of Renee’s work in Okotoks at the Okotoks Health and Wellness Centre, Lineham House Galleries, A Very Delightful Boutique on Instagram @rcarrierartist and on Facebook www.facebook.com/ReneeCarrierArtist/ You can contact her via email at reneecarrier7@gmail.com or by phone at 403-861-2243