See Also: Shinobu Diego Tacos y Burritos: Bringing Fusion Food to the Streets
Phoenix has been blessed with a veritable explosion of food trucks but none truly devoted to the art of embracing meat with smoke -- until Q Up. The were off the road most of last month due to a catastrophic engine failure but now they're back, with a completely rebuilt engine and some new recipes. Prior to their engine block meltdown, Q Up had just returned from the Tuscon Taco Festival where they won an award in the Anything Goes category for their BBQ pork nacho taco.
The Business: Q Up BBQ
What You Need to Know: Good, flavorful, delicious barbecue out of a food truck. Of course the good people of Q Up aren't satisfied with simply serving you a slab of meat on a plate; although that's totally an option with their meat platters, they tend to spice up their slow-cooked concoctions by serving them up with a Southwest twist. Just take a look at their slow-smoked BBQ pork nachos:
Where'd the name come from? We went back and forth on a few different names. We wanted to keep it simple and to the point and we actually polled it on Facebook and we got a really good response so it was Q Up.
How's business? It's been great we've been getting great feedback from people. We love it. We're a lot busier than I thought we were going to be.
Who's We? The family! It's myself and my wife Katherine, my daughter Taylor and my son Colin. It's a family operation.
What'd you do before you started BBQ? I've been cooking, not professionally, for about four years. But career wise, I was in banking. I was mortgage banker for about 11 years. I've always wanted to open up a restaurant, it's been a dream of mine. I wanted to do it, not for the money, but because I love to cook. I just got burned out on banking and with the economy being so bad, it just wore on me for so long. I got the opportunity to throw this together and get my feet wet. It's always been in the back of my mind, I just didn't know how to do it. I put it down on paper and I got a couple people to try my food and see what they thought. They wanted to invest in the company and became partners and they helped us get it up and running.
Why BBQ? I love barbecue. Especially here in Arizona, I'm always outside grilling and I've had a lot of people tell me that they really love the way I cook the meat. The other thing is, I haven't really had a lot of just really great barbecue in Phoenix. So I wanted to try and pour my heart and passion into bringing great barbecue to the Valley.
Devin also let us know that they're planning to roll out a brand new dish in the next couple of weeks: A smoked brisket, bacon mac-n-cheese, grilled cheese sandwich on sourdough bread.
Q Up BBQ can be found throughout the Valley pretty much everyday of the week. Check out their Facebook and Twitter for their latest schedule.
