News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Competitors were: from top left, Mike Shear and Brian Walters (kneeling) of the local Tropical Piggy team; four in far back row: Pork Daddy's team from East Wenatchee; Bad Bones team (grey beard and short woman in front) from Happy Valley, Ore.; to the left of them, the Lake House team of one from Everett, Wash.; Wine Country Q, from Duvall, Wash., in middle holding trophy); Drummin Up team from Coeur d' Alene, Idaho; Caveman, Airway Heights in checked shirt; Old Coulee Que, Almira (the couple with kids); Uff-Da Q, from Yakima; G-Pa D's BBQ, Spokane in front. - Scott Hunter photo
A team from Duvall, Wash. secured their third straight yearly championship of the Pacific Northwest by winning last weekend's Harvest Festival Barbecue in Grand Coulee.
The Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce's first barbecue competition ended up being the de facto championship for the year of the Pacific Northwest Barbecue Association as several teams competed closely for total points, and Grand Coulee's was the last event of the year.
Of 10 teams at North Dam Park, two were local: Tropical Piggy's cooks (Brian Walters and Mike Shear) tried their hand at the intense competition (teams cook all night); and Old Coulee Que, the Pinar family of Almira, landed seventh in total scoring across the four meat categories of Pork, Brisket, Chicken and Ribs, taking fourth in Brisket. Denny Pinar has competed with another team previously.
Wine Country Q, the winners from Duvall, totalled 745.52 points. Drummin Up BBQ, from Coeur D' Alene, Idaho, came in second with 734.72.
What you do in your back yard is probably "grilling" but not "barbecuing" to these elites.
With a dozen judges and a computer program making the calls, only a 12-percent difference separated the top cooks from the "got smoked" prize winners. And the computer program had to flip a digital coin for fifth/sixth in the ribs contest.
The Coulee Dam Credit Union supplied the $3,500 purse for the event, which the chamber hopes to grow annually.
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