The first ever Great Southern Tailgate Cook-Off BBQ contest is over. The winners have been awarded, the coals have been extinguished and the professional teams have moved on to other contests. Were you there? What did you think of it?

The Addison was happy to host Tuffy Stone and his wife Leslie of the Cool Smoke BBQ Team for the weekend. Tuffy is currently ranked around 11th out of over 4000 pro teams in the US.

Tuffy was kind enough to give me a behind-the-scenes look at the competitive side of pro-BBQ and, I tell you this my friends, it can be quite intense. Don’t let the laid back attitude fool you. While their meat is cooking and the smoke is slowly curling put of the stacks you will see a lot of guys puffing away on cigars, enjoying an adult beverage, relaxing in chairs or just nodding off next to their smokers. But when it comes time to finalize their presentation these guys are all business. There is some decent prize money at stake for the pros as well as bragging rights for the backyard (amateur) teams.

Tuffy was kind enough to provide BBQ for our Saturday Happy Hour. Our guests enjoyed samples of chicken, pulled pork, ribs and brisket. We all thoroughly enjoyed the BBQ and the chance to talk with Tuffy and Leslie about life on the road as a pro BBQ team.

One last photo. This was taken of a local team’s grill. I didn’t get a chance to sample what they were cooking but it sure did look good.

I woke this morning around 3AM to the sound of torrential rain. What a difference 24 hours makes! If the rain had come a day earlier it would have drowned out all of the BBQers who were just getting their fires stoked for a day of smoking. As it was we had great weather with cloud cover and quite a bit cooler than we have had the last few months.

My trusty sidekick, Maggie Doone, came with me to the Cook-Off. Here is a video of her day at the cook-off. Don’t let that last little bit of her eating some chicken fool you. As any of you who know Maggie will know, that dog ate all day long. The people in this town have spoiled our Maggie!