Don’t Get Any on Your Forehead…My Saucy Story
My saucy story began in Houston Texas in the early ’80s. I was working as an engineering recruiter for the oil industry. Weekend activities for my friends and I consisted of lots of beer drinking and experimenting with different methods of recreating the mouthwatering brisket that could be found at joints all around Texas. None of our efforts were successful, sad to say. Fast forward to the early ‘90s. I was managing a barbecue restaurant in Dublin, Georgia and began playing around with making barbecue sauce. Georgia barbecue is pork, but my brisket experiments continued, and my sauce began to take form.
In 2004 we moved just north of Nashville, Tennessee to Greenbrier and in 2005 to Springfield, Tennessee. I had perfected my sauce by then and making converts out of my family and friends. In between working gigs in refineries in Texas, Louisiana, California, and Washington, we would host cookouts at our home. In 2015 I founded Kenny Bob’s Foods and opened a small barbecue joint in Greenbrier. My specialty was...brisket. Yes, I produced the best brisket outside of the state of Texas, hands down, no question. My other specialty was sauce; Kenny Bob’s Sippin-Dippin & Flippin Sauce in a mild and a hot version.
In the restaurant business you either have to have a lot of capital or a great location. Sadly, to say I had neither and the restaurant closed in late 2017. I hung up my spurs, turned the horse out to pasture and cried myself to sleep. Just before Christmas 2018 I got an email out of the blue from a guy who had seen my Facebook page. He asked me if I would be interested in bottling my sauce for distribution and sale. I stared at that email and thought “Hell Yeah!” So, as of March 1st 2019 Kenny Bob’s Sippin-Dippin & Flippin Sauce hit the market.
Two questions I get from folks is. “What does ‘Don’t get it on your forehead’ mean, and why do you call it Sippin-Dippin & Flippin Sauce? As for the first question, I come from a family of twelve (5 girls and 7 boys) we are all good cooks, and we are all half-assed comedians. My oldest brother whom we called Junior was probably the funniest of us all. When he cooked something, he was particularly proud of he would say, “don’t get any on your forehead, ‘cause your tongue will beat your brains out trying to get to it.” So, I shortened his phrase to add a little mystery and it stuck.
The source of the name of my sauce dates back to the mid ‘50s to early ‘60s. There was a southern comedian that went by the stage name Brother Dave Gardner. One of his bits was about how King David invented rock and roll music. In telling the lengthy tale he explained how little David, was sent to deliver food to his brothers who were fighting the “Philadelphians.” Brother Dave says that little David got to where his brothers were dug in, they asked what he had “brung” them to eat. Little David rattles off an extensive menu including 4 RC’s and 2 Moon Pies and ends with, “some after sippin, dippin & flippin Snuff.” Obviously, the snuff was not appetizing, so I changed it to sauce. And now you know the rest of the story.
My recipes are original, created from scratch. No artificial ingredients or chemicals are used - imitation smoke flavoring is cursed in my house, so you will never find it in any sauce that I make. I use the best spices, herbs and peppers I can find. My attention to detail is one thing that sets my sauce apart and allows me to confidently state that you will love my sauces.