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After a weeks-long closure to make some improvements, local food truck Q-Wagon BBQ is back in business, feeding hungry customers its famous brisket, ribs, baked beans and more.
Located at 402 Washington Blvd. in Belpre, two blocks from the bridge, Q-Wagon BBQ operates Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. until they are sold out, daily.
Owner Bill Richardson, who is helped with the business by his wife, Julie, and their two children, said the recent improvements will allow the food truck to cater more events and serve more customers.
Question: When did you open the business?
Answer: We've been open since November of 2015. I built the truck myself. I took a bread truck and converted it and built a commercial kitchen on the back, got all the health department approvals and we've been pretty busy ever since.
Q: Are you year-round or seasonal?
A: We're doing our best to be year-round. We're going to be opening a second location at the Point Park Marketplace soon but we don't have all the paperwork done yet. It's kind of like a food court there.
Where we are now there used to be an old gas station…when we moved in we put tables and stuff in there to allow people to go inside out of the weather. It's kind of novel thing for a food truck.
Q:What do you offer? What are the favorites?
A: We sell a lot of everything but I would say we sell the most brisket. It won the BBQ Throwdown last year in Parkersburg and since then it's just been off the charts. We sell pounds and pounds and pounds of it. We have a lot of customers that work at Kraton and they have a lot of people from Texas, which is famous for its brisket. They roll in and buy it by the pound. They don't mess around.
Q: What are some other popular things you offer?
A: There are some things we always have--the brisket, pulled pork and we do a pulled chicken with boneless, skinless chicken. We always have homemade cole slaw and smoked baked beans that we cook with the meat. We do a cornbread pudding that people are crazy about and occasionally we have soups and sandwiches. We sell ribs, too.
Q: What were the improvements you had done recently?
A: When we bought the truck, it was older. It has 400,000-something miles on it and while everything else had been updated, the motor hadn't been. So we put in a whole new motor so we can be more mobile. We get requests for fairs and festivals and reliability is important.
We also went to Georgia to get a Stump's Smoker. People may have seen it on the cooking channel, on "BBQ Pitmasters"…their cookers are one of the top brands on the competition barbecue circuit. I ordered it last fall and just got it. We mounted the new smoker and now we have a big mobile unit that can probably feed 800 or 1,000 people. Before we could accommodate maybe 250 or 300 so now we can do more plant picnics, big weddings and multiple events in a day. We could do two weddings and have the Point Park site open on the same day. Normally when we have a wedding, we have to shut down the truck.
Q: How long did you have to close the truck to make the improvements?
A: We were probably down for four to six weeks. The phone was ringing off the hook. When we came back we were bombarded with people who said they missed us. We really try to get to know our customer base. Even if I don't remember someone's name, I'll know that's the guy who wants a pork sandwich with sauce on the side and baked beans. We make a connection.
Kate York conducted this interview.