Rosie’s BBQ founder Karl Gregg has big plans for 2025, including a Lower Mainland cook-off

When Karl Gregg decided to start Rosie’s BBQ in 2020, it was because he “wanted to slow down a bit.” Not many people would call becoming an entrepreneur “slowing down,” but for Gregg, who was working around the clock with Banda Volpi (the group behind restaurants like Savio Volpe and Caffe La Tana), smoking meat for a living was always going to seem like the good life. Even if he seems about as busy as anyone working in hospitality right now.

Vancouver-based Rosie’s has two food trailers, two massive smokers, a commissary space and a catering business. It also handles the smoking for Slim’s BBQ on Main Street and the food menu for Main Street Brewing a block away. In the summer, at its peak, the business has over 20 employees and handles events, farmers markets and a weekly stint at Vancouver Canadians’ games.

So yeah, Gregg isn’t exactly sitting by the beach sipping margaritas. “It’s interesting, because social media has kind of changed,” he says. “Instagram used to drive a ton of business. Now it doesn’t drive as much. So we just keep looking for new angles of how to get the name out there.” Gregg notes that he did a lot of travelling this year, going to places like Dawson Creek, Cold Lake, Fernie and Alberta for festivals and concerts, as well as frequent trips to Texas (where Gregg now owns a house) for research.

Rosie’s specializes in Central Texas BBQ, which Gregg notes is different than some other styles that the general public might be more familiar with, like Memphis BBQ. “It would be like comparing Korean food with sushi,” he says. “Is what we do better? Maybe. But you might like the Memphis style. As far as true, Central Texas BBQ, yeah, I think we’re at the top of the chain [in Vancouver].”

He’s willing to be wrong about that last part, though. On Gregg’s list for 2025, because he’s not doing quite enough, is throwing a “proper Texas cook-off—chicken, ribs and brisket” in the Lower Mainland in which both established BBQ joints and amateurs would be invited to compete. “Lots of guys come out to where we are and say, ‘I cook briskets all the time on my Green Egg’ and I’m like, ‘That’s awesome.’ I want them to compete against us, I think it would be awesome if an amateur won or finished second. But the big win is that all the BBQ guys and girls get to gather in one place, find your favourites, hunt them out.”

Gregg doesn’t know exactly where or when the festival will take place yet (he has his eye on April and Port Moody) or what it will be called, but he does have some ideas on what he’d like it to be. “I want it to be a participant-forward event,” he insists. “I find that there are events in the Lower Mainland that the business is paying to be there. I want to try and make sure that we have a profit-sharing program. If we sell 500 tickets and the event makes money, everyone that came gets money back.”

He also wants it to be all-inclusive for participants, wherein the entry fee is the only cost associated, unlike some other events where you have to purchase tokens for samples. “I don’t want it to be a big corporate thing,” he says.

The event also goes in concert with one of his larger goals—to educate Vancouverites about the intricacies of barbecue. “It’s been fun to teach people about BBQ,” he says. “A lot of people say ‘I’m going to throw a burger on the BBQ.’ Well, that’s a grill, you know? Which is fine. There are no dumb questions.”

Texas recently joined the Michelin Guide, and a host of BBQ restaurants earned a star. “It’s been interesting watching the change over the last 10 years. You wouldn’t find kimchi and cucumber at a BBQ joint back then, it just wouldn’t happen. For us, the one standard rule is that the smoking and the meat is always true. I’m not going to inject the brisket with kimchi, but I’ll put it on kimchi and rice.”