Today we’d like to introduce you to Bill Mehilos.
Bill, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Initially, my catering company started out as a BBQ sauce company. I developed Head’s Red BBQ Sauce when I got involved in BBQ competitions in the Midwest area in 2002. I had always enjoyed cooking authentic slow cooked BBQ at home and decided to try my luck competing with other BBQ cooks from across the country in these competitions.
I formed a cooking team with two other BBQ cooks from the area and we named ourselves the Chi-Town Smokers. In order to set our food apart from the other teams I tried to come up with a sauce that was a bit unique from what other cooks were using. Although the use of commercial BBQ sauces are allowed in competitions I was never completely happy with these sauces mainly because they all tasted pretty much the same and most were overly sweet.
That’s when I created Head’s Red BBQ sauce. I took the homemade sauce that I always used for my home BBQ and after some trial and error in the kitchen I came up with what I thought was a good combination of a slightly sweet yet tangy flavor that would complement the meat it was used on instead of overpowering it like most of the commercial stuff does. My sister coined the name for the sauce by combining my childhood nickname along with the deep crimson red color of the sauce.
The sauce was a big hit and worked well for us on the competition circuit garnering us several calls in different area BBQ competitions including Grand Champions in Racine Wisconsin in 2006 and 1st Place Award of Excellence from the national BBQ Association in 2010
Besides the awards we were winning in the competitions, I still kept getting calls from friends, family and neighbors asking for “more of that Head’s Red” so I figured it was time to take it from the kitchen to the store shelves.
As we travelled to stores and farmers markets sampling out our sauce many people were requesting we come cook the BBQ for them that we were sampling the sauce with. That’s how the catering end of our business started.
Has it been a smooth road?
Without an actual restaurant we initially had a hard time getting our name out there so calls for BBQ catering were lukewarm at the beginning. Having a full time job in the computer business also limited us to weekend catering only.
Thanks to word of mouth, social media, and Yelp our catering business grew in the summer of 2017. We are catering every week from small family dinners to large events
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Head’s Red BBQ story. Tell us more about the business.
We specialize in cooking authentic American style bbq slow smoked on charcoal and wood smokers. Due to my Greek heritage we also do Greek style BBQ as well.
The retail part of our business is sauce sales. We sell our sweet and tangy bbq sauce through several grocery stores and meat markets in the area as well as online retailers that specialize in BBQ products. We are proud of how fast the catering end of our business is growing in such a short period of time.
Unlike a lot of caterers our background is in BBQ competitions where we have won many awards in the 10 years we were on the competition circuit. Our BBQ is the real deal. We also do BBQ classes throughout the year to help people step up their grilling and smoking skills by sharing our experience in BBQ.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
BBQ is still growing in the Chicago area but at some point it’s going to level off and hit the saturation point. I think those that are thinking outside of the box and creating unique BBQ and putting their own touches on the typical BBQ classics are the ones that will continue to be successful.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.headsredbbq.com
- Phone: 630-440-4895
- Email: billm@headsredbbq.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/headsredbbq/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/headsredbbq
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/heads-red-bbq-roselle
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