Hillbilly Grillers & Sonia the Bus (Bowling Green, KY)

Today was a good day, especially for the Hillbilly Grillers.

I first met this Monroe County couple at my favorite farmers market when I first visited about 18 months ago. I wrote about them in the SoKY BBQ Guide and included a lot of pictures showing what they do and what they make. Basically, what they do is BBQ -- they grill stuff, they smoke stuff, and they make homemade sides, sauces, salsas, desserts, etc.

JB works the big grill each Saturday at the market.
His specialty is Monroe County pork shoulder, and since we've met it has been my Saturday lunch more often than not.

Ribs.
If you ever get a chance to try their ribs, try their ribs!

Sauces.

More on the big day for my BBQ friends below in a minute. Today was also a big day at the market because Sonia was introduced...

Sonia

Sonia.

In a few weeks, the Community Farmers Market will move indoors again for the winter, but this time we're moving a block down the road to a new permanent home. And on display in front of the new building you'll see the new Mobile Market Bus. She'll be used to take fresh local food to people who don't often visit the markets. And when she's not doing that, she makes a pretty good roadside sign!

The guys at Rustic Nail did a really nice job, and there are some good photos of the process here. This was the first time I've been able to check her out...

Dig the paint.

Dig the paint in here, too... and the wood.

Dig the Hilltoppers.

They won't give me the keys for some reason.

So, that's Sonia. She's cool. If you see her driving around town or setup in a parking lot for the afternoon, you'll know what she's doing.

Now, time for the party...

Hillbilly Grillers @ Liquor Barn

Liquor Barn.
Bowling Green, KY.

The party this afternoon was at Liquor Barn. Why? Because the Hillbilly Grillers are introducing some of their products to the shelves of every Liquor Barn store in Kentucky! Woot. It's kind of a big deal, and even though I got to the market too late to get any BBQ this morning, I knew they'd have some samples here.

The Hillbilly Grillers, with samples.

Party animals.

Kentucky Proud.

Look for their products in the Kentucky Proud aisles, where they'll be keeping good company (I spy products from Wild Turkey, Maker's Mark, Jim Beam, Buffalo Trace, Evan Williams, Ale-8).

For now, their BBQ Sauce and Salsa will be in the stores, and hopefully more items will be added soon. There were no jars on the shelves at the end of this day, though, because they sold out. My own mom took the last jar...

Picked up a couple other Kentucky Proud products to help with dinner -- Bourbon Barrel Grillin Char (???) and Kenny's Barren County Bleu.

Whoa!

This stuff from Kentucky Knows smells more like bourbon than bourbon does! That link features a pretty cool video, and if I ever ride the Kentucky Bourbon Trail again, I'd love to see that studio.

[I found the instructions a bit odd -- they suggest placing the char on aluminum foil that you place on the grill grate next to the food, and they say it won't work on a gas grill. Well, that method did nothing for me on a charcoal grill, so I put the big chunk right on the coals and set the foil packet with the smaller bits on the coals. Now we're smokin' and it smells great! I see no reason why the foil packet wouldn't work on a gas grill, but it is very flameable (as you might expect) so you definitely want to keep the smaller pieces on foil.]

Oh, I forgot to mention, we were grilling wings. After about thirty minutes of indirect heat and plenty of time to absorb some bourbon smoke, we tossed them with Hillbilly Grillers Wing Sauce and then gave them a couple more minutes on the grill.

"The best wings I've ever had in my whole entire life," she says.

Grilled Wings w/ Hillbilly Grillers Wing Sauce, Barren County Bleu, and PA Lard Chips.

Liquor Barn... Kentucky Proud... Hillbilly Grillers... Check 'em out!

Today was a good day.


UPDATE (10/22/13):  Hillbilly Grillers Wing Sauce and Bourbon Barrel Grillin Char teamed up again for some good Monday Night Football wings...

UPDATE (11/2/13):  Today was another good day, as the new Farmers Market location opened. Sonia was out front, of course, and JB was grilling up some pork chops for breakfast.

Community Farmers Market BG.

CiCi & Little Man.
And Sonia.

Hillbilly Grillers Pork Chop w/ Spencer's Coffee & Waffle.
Hey, if Fried Chicken & Waffles is a thing, why not Pork Chops & Waffles?

UPDATE (11/8/13):  Now Hillbilly Grillers have their BBQ sauce and Salsa at Chuck's Liquors, too! Today they were setup next to Jim Rutledge, Master Distiller for Four Roses Bourbon, who was signing bottles. Nice guy. Glad I got to chat with him.

Hillbilly Grillers were serving up samples of a Four Roses BBQ Sauce. Stay tuned...

Jim Rutledge and Hillbilly Grillers.
#KentuckyKicksAss

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