KCBS News FeedBBQ Tour Stop #23: Canton, GA
November 3, 2010 This was the fourth year for the Cherokee Pignic in Canton, Georgia. The Pignic is held in a city park right along the river with big open fields filled with the professional division teams, the backyard cookers, antique tractors and walking trails.Pam and the crew in Canton put on a wonderful event and really take care of the cook teams with breakfasts, lunches and dinner not to mention electricity, water and ambassadors. Jane was our ambassador and was just a phone call away to help with any needs that that may have come up – she was a great help to us!
On Thursday night, we skipped the team dinner and headed into Woodstock to eat at Bub-Ba-Q’s restaurant. Walking through the front door, the walls are a deep red that contrast with the framed clippings of past events and every shelf has trophies from past wins. While we weren’t surprised by the quality and quantity of the award winning pork, ribs, brisket and burnt ends, we were surprised to see a singing Elvis pig trophy top that is the logo for our hometown event – Rock’n Ribs in Springfield, MO.
Friday morning we headed over to Marietta and hit the local Sams club for supplies for the weekend. After getting onsite, Chris and I finished setting everything up to get ready for the gate opening at 4pm. This was the last event that Redwood Creek would be at with us this year so we were excited to see Heidi and Michelle at the Pignic. After we closed up for the evening, we got to visit with Alfredo from Sadlers Smokehouse who was also close to us in Kansas City at the Royal. As we walked around visiting teams, we were drawn into a cook site competition with the Honorable Stephen Smith and Bad Byron involving sausage. Charles with BS Pitmeisters, Chris and I were the judges, and it was unanimous with even Stephen and Byron agreeing that Bad Byron won best Sausage at the cook site!
When we arrived at the trailer on Saturday morning, there was frost on the ground and it made for a crisp day for the barbeque teams. Right across from us was the public sampling tent, so folks were able to taste some championship BBQ and then come over and sample wine along with Weber Kick’n Chicken and Gourmet Burgers. Our demonstration filled the bleachers that were set up for us and everybody had a great time!
As we were packing up, we could hear all the calls and were tickled to hear that Bub-Ba-Q must have turned in as good of food at the contest as what was at the restaurant and won Grand Champion!
The Cherokee Pignic is a top-notch event and we were tickled to come back again!
