Terry Dicken Business Park Feature Friday

Big D’s BBQ

 

Big D’s BBQ event caterers serve up quality BBQ food cooked to perfection for parties, weddings and corporate events.

We first met Damon back in 2019 when they were serving breakfast for Amazon! Let’s find out what’s new…

 

Ground to a halt

“Being an event caterer meant that covid-19 had a massive effect on our business. The majority of our work comes from parties, weddings and corporate events which were suddenly stopped so we had a tough time during the pandemic. We were very grateful for the support we received from the government as we wouldn’t be here now without it.”

 

BBQ to go

“The forced closure gave us time out to consider new ideas and we opened a take away from the unit. This became very successful and supported us through a very difficult and worrying time. We’re really grateful for all of the customers who supported us and we are opening the take away up again from January 14th.

 

Street food ninjas

“We also used the time to focus on our menu choices and we’re now launching new menus. Listening to feedback from customers who really enjoy our street food style, we’re launching new wedding packages too. Taking inspiration from around the world, these include popular street food items such as burritos and shawarmas. Our corporate clients have been more adventurous with food so we’ll be introducing a bigger choice of live fire cooking for them, including Mexican wraps, tacos, and nachos. All of this can be served from our brand new converted horse box trailer!”

 

Community spirit

“It’s been really nice to get back to some normality, catering for a number of weddings last summer, seeing many familiar faces and getting back to what we do best; being a large scale event caterer. We’ve worked with a lot of the same wedding venues and corporate clients for over 10 years and it really is great to see those businesses surviving and doing well. After everything that’s happened there’s now such a camaraderie in the industry and it’s fantastic to be among people again.”

 

Full on again

“I’m not going to lie, it’s been full on since parties, weddings and corporate events have been up and running again. It’s not unusual to see us doing a 100 hour week. The motivation for working those sort of hours is to not let people down. Some of our customers have had to cancel their weddings 2 or 3 times in the last couple of years so we’re determined to fit everyone in and not let anyone down.”

 

No matter the weather

“We are now very much geared to be a complete event caterer. Using our converted horse box trailer allows us to do various different types of food no matter the weather. So we now cater for various types of events whether the client requires canapés, main meals, desserts, evening food or a fully fitted out bar.

 

So good they named a gin after us

“We even have our very own ‘Big D’s strawberry gin’. This all came about when I mentioned to John Toovey at Spirit of Captain Cook that we sold so much strawberry gin. He suggested making our own and within 3 days he returned with 10 samples for us to try. The flavour profile is made especially for us and was taste tested and chosen by all of the Big Ds BBQ staff.”

 

Erm, no-one told me there was gin needing to be tasted ?

 

New recruits

“One of the biggest challenges we have faced when returning to event life is the lack of experienced staff. Businesses like ours rely on students and casual workers who enjoy the flexibility of seasonal work. Because the industry took an enforced break, the experienced people had moved on and we had to recruit new people mainly without experience. Thankfully everyone is keen to learn but we’re always on the look out for experienced staff. We’re proud to have supported the local community and have had generations of families working for us here at Big D’s. We’ll be recruiting for more staff in March so encourage anyone with experience to get in touch.”

 

Thinking of applying? Go ahead! I think working on the park is great. Let’s see what Damon thinks…

 

The best business park in the North East

“The Terry Dicken Business Park has excellent facilities. There are a lot of good working relationships between the different businesses on the park which makes life easier.
In a previous life, I was an economic development officer and with that hat on, I can honestly say that the business park is one of the premier business park’s in the North East.”

 

Well you can’t really say fairer than that!

 

If you’re planning a party, wedding or corporate event and you want a caterer to provide live fire cooking and/or a full bar then Big D’s BBQ can be found at Unit 28, Terry Dicken Industrial Estate, Stokesley TS9 7AE.

Or visit their Facebook page

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