The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Central Oregon's Slick's Que Co., with restaurants in Sisters and Bend, scored very high marks in both the People's Choice Barbecue Bash and the Awards of Excellence product competition at the National Barbecue Association's annual convention in San Diego last week. The convention is held every year and draws top barbecue pit masters from all over the country, creating some very exciting competition and great camaraderie in a fun and educational environment.

This year's People's Choice Barbecue Bash included top teams from all over Southern California and the Southwest. Slick's Que Co. was the only team from the Pacific Northwest. The teams cooked up both chicken and pork and everyone that came to the event judged the combined entries and chose the winners based on who had the best barbecue overall. The top six teams won various size trophies and $250. Slick's Que Co. placed second overall and with only one entry - pork.

Roy Slicker, owner of Slick's said: "I am really proud of our effort. What makes this win so special is that every other team had two entries and for us to place second with the public means they really liked our pork. People's Choice Awards are really special for barbeque people because you have to appeal to a very large number of taste differences." Slick's came home with a large trophy that's now on display.

Slicker went on to say, "We were only able to enter one meat due to teaching a seminar and a lot of other volunteer work I was involved with throughout the event. We dragged our big smoker from Sisters all the way down to San Diego, worked our tails off during the competition and it paid off. It made the 1,080-mile drive home on Sunday in 17 hours a whole lot easier!"

In addition to the barbecue bash, the event also hosts an Award of Excellence competition for barbecue related products. This year there were over 380 entries in the barbecue sauce category. Slick's Que Co was very happy to receive a third place with its new spicy barbecue sauce.

Slicker said, "Barbecue is one of the hottest growing food segments in the country right now and the number of sauce entries keeps growing and growing. It's really great to think we've got a product that stands up to some of the best products in the south, Texas and beyond."

Slick's Que Co. in Sisters will reopen after its winter hiatus on March 16.