Derek Manning -Owner
Derek first fell in love with BBQ as a child when his father hosted neighborhood cookouts at their home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He remembers the attendance quickly growing once his dad put food on the grill to cook. Some of my fondest memories growing up are of those times with my dad’s music blasting in our backyard and the smell of smoke from the BBQ my dad was cooking.
When Derek was older his dad eventually let him help more and more to the point he could do it on his own after several years. As an adult Derek always seemed to be an entrepreneur at heart as he had several different side hustles like dee-jaying over the years while working full-time at his job. The dream for Manning’s Hometown BBQ was born after he started selling dinners that people loved out of his home kitchen over 15 years ago.
24 ft Food Trailer
This fully equipped and licensed food trailer is the true workhorse of our operation. We bring this onsite to all of our catering events and it allows us to serve hundreds of people in a short amount of time. At the front of the trailer it is outfitted with a custom grill and smoker that Derek fabricated himself. The grill took over 80 hours to build as he customized it to meet his specifications for cooking and the anticipated volume of BBQ that he can cook in a day. Please see the pictures of the process for the grill below.
