Two EHS students and their father run a family-owned food truck business, Big T BBQ. Freshman Peyton Truett and her brother, sophomore Lucas Truett, assist their father, Mike Truett, with the truck and have learned about BBQing and the food business.
¨It’s the best decision I have ever made In the 30 years I have been working a job I have always worked in the food industry in some capacity. I entered a BBQ competition back in 2008, I placed first in chicken and second in ribs. That put me in first place overall. After winning the competition I was asked if I would be interested in working part-time for a family catering business,” Mike said.
Mike decided to build on family traditions when starting his business specifically lessons from his grandparents.
¨It just so happens they did a lot of smoked BBQ. But my grandfather also smoked a lot of meat. Almost every meal I had at my grandparents’ house included some sort of smoked meat. So naturally I wanted to learn the craft, the art of smoking different meats. It took me a few years to learn the ins and outs of smoking meat. There is a science behind it and that was also interesting to learn. After perfecting my craft, I started teaching myself how to make different BBQ sauces that tasted the way I wanted them to. We now have eight different homemade sauces.¨ said Mike.
The Big T BBQ team is busy at a variety of places.
¨We do a lot of events and catering. We cater weddings, parties, etc.,¨ Peyton said.
Down the road, the Truett’s have growth expansion plans that move them past just having a truck.
“The future plans for Big T BBQ are to eventually own an event center to hold wedding or corporate events. I would like to call it ‘Circle T Event Center’. I believe this would be a business that my kids and possibly my grandkids will want to take over someday.” Mike said.
While Mike looks forward to the kids taking over, that doesn’t mean the kids are not learning about the business.
“Working is fun when you make it fun and always remember your dreams are just dreams if you leave them on the pillow,” Lucas said.
Peyton enjoys the work and sampling the truck’s offerings.
“I love trying new foods for our truck and meeting some new people!” Peyton said. “It’s all about the smell and the menu looks. If the people smell something good, they tend to come runnin.”
As with any business, the truck offers challenges and struggles too. The business can affect the family’s time or just add stress.
“Definitely our burgers they have so many things on them it’s very hard to memorize what goes on what sandwich but I do pretty well at my job I think,” Lucas said. ¨I enjoy it although sometimes it is stressful. It’s cool to meet new people and also fun to make food that people love.”
¨We have not had many complaints, but if something is wrong we will try our best to make them happy again,” Peyton said.
Mike has to balance stress and his passion too.
¨Juggling schedules! Most of the events we have absorb the majority of our weekends or evenings. Balancing time for family and time for friends can be difficult. Balancing that time is important to me. Fortunately, my wife and kids help with running the food truck. They are helping me achieve my dreams of having a successful business,¨ Mike explained.
The Truetts use social media to show off their food. Big T BBQ advertises on their Facebook page.
“I would visit our Facebook page to read the reviews people leave us or look at posts people tag us in. It will help you understand who we are. I also want to mention the story behind our logo. Big T BBQ. The circle around the letter “T” is the image that was left on cattle from the branding iron placed on cattle. They owned a cattle farm. Their ranch or farm was called Circle T Ranch. A small family business where my grandpa sold cows. My grandfather was also a meat smoker who learned the craft in the great state of Texas and brought this to our family when he moved back to Hamilton Ohio in the 1960s”. Mike explained
“Social media is the only way I market my food truck. Facebook has been the easiest way for me to reach people. We started our Facebook page in 2012 when I started catering weddings and special events, However, it really didn’t start growing till 2022 when my wife and I purchased a food truck,” Mike explained. “Since there are so many groups on Facebook I post my schedule all over the place, in hopes that people want to try something different. It also allows followers to get to know me a little bit as a person and also a person who is passionate about making people happy with my food.¨
Big T BBQ can be found on Facebook @BigTBbq Mobile Catering and food truck. In addition to food, Mike also dispenses knowledge for wannabe entrepreneurs.
“Absolutely follow your dreams. Find a mentor or someone you can ask questions to. Recently I have helped two different people to start their own food truck dreams came true,” Mike said.
