J. Render’s Food Truck – Where’s Big Red?
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The Story of Big Red: How the J. Render’s BBQ Food Truck Got Its Start in Lexington, Kentucky
A long, long time ago back in 2012, Ren & Gwyn Everly were sitting on their back patio in Lexington, Kentucky, talking about how they should open a barbecue catering business. Granted, they really had no idea what that would look like or entail. Why would it even work? Ren had been smoking meats and making his own rubs recreationally for years and Gwyn was always ready with the perfect Southern sides to go with the smoked meats. Friends had commented on how good their food was and Gwyn even had all the catering equipment and would cater just for fun. And, entertaining, the Everlys loved to entertain.
Still, plenty of people make good food and plenty of people love to entertain. That doesn’t necessarily mean they should start a catering business. Regardless, Gwyn and Ren were determined to at least look into it. Ren started digging and the first thing he found was there was no commercial kitchen in Lexington that someone could rent. First hurdle. But, Ren wasn’t ready to give up, so he started looking online for a commercial food truck. Why not, he thought? It would be a mobile kitchen that they didn’t have to rent. Gwyn agreed wholeheartedly. Ren designed the layout and all the equipment they would have on the food truck and they had a choice between yellow and red. Hands down, they both agreed on red and Big Red was born.
Valiant Mobile Kitchens got to work on building out Big Red and the Everlys were so excited that they headed down to St. Augustine, Florida in December of 2012 to get their first look at him.
He was big and shiny and RED! Ok, so now they had a food truck, well not quite. They had to wait for Valiant to finish it all up and pay someone to drive it to Kentucky. On a cold winter night in January of 2013, they pulled up to the house with Big Red in tow.
Big Red had made it home to Kentucky. Now, Gwyn was so worried that someone would pull up and take off with their shiny, new food truck, they parked their car right in front of it. They would soon learn that there was probably zero chance a person would wander by with a vehicle heavy enough to tow Big Red. More on that later!
Morning dawned and the Everlys got their first good look. He was a beauty!
And thus, the Everlys’ business, J. Render’s BBQ Catering & Delivery, began right there in Lexington.
Gwyn laughs about the first time they tried to turn all the equipment on. It was definitely not as easy as one would think. At least Gwyn didn’t feel that way. But, eventually the equipment was turned on and they were cooking with gas.
Next was hooking Big Red up to Gwyn’s car, a Chevy Tahoe. Not easy, and it wasn’t going to work. The Everlys didn’t realize just how much tongue weight Big Red carried. What does that even mean? It meant that the Chevy Tahoe started to pop a wheelie as Big Red was lowered onto the hitch. Now, the Everlys had a food truck and no way to move it. And if you live in a neighborhood in Lexington, you know the HOA is not going to take kindly to a food truck being parked on the street. So the scramble was on to find a tow vehicle that could handle Big Red, hitch, weight and all. They found one. And once they did, Big Red hit the road, and J. Render’s BBQ started feeding central Kentucky one event at a time.