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Benton Area Chamber of Commerce

September 2, 2017 By Shelli Poole

Review: New BBQ Truck in Benton Smoking it Up for Charity

by

Owners of BBQ Benefitting Arkansas, (l. to r.) Mark Jaeger and Cade Harguess.

There’s a little patch of concrete at 1130 Military Road that has been the proving ground for many restaurants. Notably, Eat My Catfish and Baja Grill. They both started as food trucks and went on to become successful businesses. Now a business popped up in mid-August that not only makes great barbecue, but also wants to give back.

#GoHogs, here are two smoky pork butts in the cooking process.

I had seen The BBQ Benefitting Arkansas truck a few times as I drove past, but finally stopped in on Thursday for lunch. Eager to dig into some ribs, I quickly noted that Fridays and Saturdays are rib days. Not Thursday. But because I like to be thorough, I returned on Friday to add ribs to the dishes I have tried.

Mark Jaeger and Cade Harguess have put their plan in the name of the business. I know you want to hear about the word BBQ, but first, let’s hear about the benefitting. They make barbecue and they choose a charity each month for giving back a portion of their profits. September is the first month they’ll give back monetarily, and the beneficiary will be Arkansas Children’s Hospital. For October, they’ll give to the Salem Volunteer Fire Department. They like to donate in the form of food too, so Mark and Cade say they have made big meals for the Benton Police and Fire Departments and also the EMT team at Saline Memorial Hospital.

Photos and description of the food are below, and even their menu, but before I get to that, I want to tell you about a big CONTEST for a tailgate package that they have on Facebook. They’ll be doing a drawing on the Friday before the TCU/Razorbacks game. That’s September 8th. The winner gets 2 racks of babyback ribs, 1 pound of chopped brisket, 1 pound of pulled pork, 4 sides of potato salad and 4 sides of baked beans, 8 buns and lots of homemade BBQ sauce. To enter the drawing, LIKE the BBQ Benefitting Arkansas Facebook page, SHARE the their page, and TAG two friends.

Brisket tacos. There’s more of that beautiful guac and salsa.

Now finally, here is what I experienced with the food there. So as I said, Fridays and Saturdays are rib days. Dang it, I went on the wrong day. But now I had a reason to come back. And I did come back.  I tried the brisket, the ribs and the pulled pork and all of them were tender, smoky and delicious. You really can’t go wrong, unless you just like one kind of meat over the other.
The sauce was great too. It’s made by Cade, the chef of this operation – who by the way is about to finish up the culinary program at UAPTC across the county line.

Oh man the pork ribs.

I wasn’t expecting cheese dip on the menu, but there it was, and I’m pretty sure they’re putting crack in it because I’m hooked. Creamy white queso, not too spicy and just right to go all over the top of my Brisket Nachos. About the guacamole – it may not be guacamole like you’re thinking. There’s no sour cream in it. It’s chunky with a sprinkle of cilantro and it was fresh and I loved it. There was also some salsa that was super fresh and tomato-ey and I usually could take or leave a bowl of salsa, but this stuff was so fresh and had a little onion twinge and a little bit of heat but still mild.

Pulled Pork, Salsa, Guacamole and White Queso

Hey, I can’t forget, and I had to use a pic from their Facebook page, but turkey legs are also on Fridays and Saturdays. I would have checked those out on the second day, but someone beat me to it and bought them out at 8:30 in the morning. That’s probably a great review of the turkey legs all by itself… this lady showing up first thing in the morning to buy a bouquet of turkey legs is the stuff of some kind of Rockwell painting I think.

Turkey leg is just fun to say.

Brisket nachos – yes that’s BBQ sauce and queso on top.

Ok lastly, let’s talk about cole slaw. It’s a controversial subject. You love it or hate it. You like it this way or that way. I prefer mine sopping wet and this wasn’t, but it still wasn’t bad – just not my style.

Overall, this was great food and I’ll be back and you can come over there with me too. Y’all check out their Facebook contest and make a comment on the contest event saying you saw them on MySaline.com. Maybe it’ll score me a free turkey leg!