Boyhood friends have put Carson City on the barbecue map

Barbecued ribs are delicious any time of year.

But there is something about Labor Day weekend that makes them special, particularly in Carson City.

It might have something to do with the grand-daddy of all rib cook-offs occurring in Sparks later this week. But it more likely has to do with the work of long-time locals David Theiss and Phil Hyatt, who ensure their neighbors get the very best product.

Theiss, owner of Butler Meats on North Carson Street, and Hyatt, co-owner of Carson City Barbecue Company with partner Duane Felker, have built decades-long reputations in the community for delivering superior food.

In the world of barbecue, specifically, no one else in the Silver State seems to have garnered more awards than Hyatt and Felker.

"We tout ourselves as Nevada's most award winning barbecue company," Hyatt said. "We've won over 65 awards."

These include seven trophies from the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off, he said.

Carson City Barbecue Company has won awards in Sparks for Best Sauce three times, the People's Choice twice, and Best Ribs also twice, Hyatt said.

This will be Carson City Barbecue's 19th year at what is considered the largest, most prestigious rib cook-off barbecue competition nationwide, attracting more than 600,000 visitors and international competitors from as far away as Australia.

In its 28th year, the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off lists 23 competitors for the 2016 event. In years past, around 250,000 pounds of meat is supplied and ultimately consumed during the six-day extravaganza, which starts Wednesday on Victorian Square in Sparks.

For Hyatt and Felker, being perennial cookers at the annual Nugget Rib Cook-Off is an honor and privilege bestowed upon only the industry's best of the best.

"To be a little bitty Carson City Barbecue, and be at that event, do that well at that level, just to be invited is a huge accolade in your arsenal," Hyatt said. "Because unless you're somebody, unless you're really good, you're not even there."

The Nugget Rib Cook-Off is an invitational, not an all-comers or pro-am style competition, Hyatt said. Every cooker in Sparks this week has been invited because of their award-winning reputations.

But success at this level of competition didn't come easy for Carson City Barbecue Company, Hyatt said, having endured its share of lumps along the way.

"We started the business originally to compete professionally," he said. "We wanted to be just a rib cook-off company."

Hyatt and Felker's first competition occurred in Phoenix, Arizona, and not in Nevada. This was done on purpose, Hyatt said.

"We picked a place far enough away so that if we failed miserably, nobody would ever hear about it," he said.

Carson City Barbecue Company didn't fail miserably, but it did struggle to turn a profit at its coming-out party.

The event, he said, featured 17 rib cookers and was expected to draw a crowd of 100,000.

But only a tenth of that number actually showed up at the gate, he said, resulting in a loss of revenue instead of a gain.

"I've never worked so hard to lose so much money in my life," Hyatt said. "I didn't even make enough money to pay the entrance fee. I was totally broke after that."

However, the company's fortunes eventually turned when it began catering its food.

Hyatt and Felker's first catering job was a wedding, and ribs were on the menu. The food was so good, Hyatt said, that he was afraid the party was never going to end.

"People were raving about our ribs," he said. "I thought they were going to follow us home."

Afterward came a job catering for a party celebrating Metcalf Builders, Hyatt said. The who's who of Carson City were there, including the mayor and the Nevada governor.

The food, once again, was a hit and Carson City Barbecue Company found itself in clover for the first time.

"I made $500 that day," said Hyatt, who at the time was balancing his fledgling barbecue business with full-time work in construction. "I just made more in a day than I did working for somebody in a week."

Since then, Hyatt said catering accounts for most of what the company does year around.

"The catering just exploded," he said. "Now we're doing 250 catering jobs a year. The smallest jobs we do are 30-40 people up to 1,900."

While catering makes up a large portion of the company's regional reputation, its nationwide notoriety has been attributed to competition.

Hyatt and Felker's first noteworthy win came in 1999 at the Best On the Mountain Rib Cook-Off at Lake Tahoe. Carson City Barbecue Company took the title for Best Ribs and also claimed second place for Best Sauce at that event.

Carson City Barbecue Company quickly owned the annual Lake Tahoe competition, Hyatt said, winning it seven straight years for Best Ribs and either first or second place for Best Sauce over the same period.

"We totally dominated the event," he said. "It became our event."

The first win in 1999, though, punched the company's ticket to even bigger, more exclusive competition down the mountain in Sparks.

"That was our springboard to get in to Sparks," said Hyatt, who recalled he and Felker were invited by John Asguaga's Nugget to take the spot of a caterer that was going out of business.

They've been invited every year since, sometimes helping other cookers out during the event with their equipment.

"We actually rented our cookers out to other vendors there," Hyatt said. "We worked for other rib vendors at the rib cook off."

This also included providing labor for his competitors.

"One year I cut 300 cases of ribs by myself," he said. "No lunch breaks, pee breaks, you sit there and you cut ribs like a dog. As fast as they can throw us a rack of ribs out, you're chopping them up and sending them out just as fast as you can cut them."

These days that's become more the rule than the exception for every cooker, Hyatt said.

"That's the way our business is down there now," he said.

Every competitor at the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off uses St. Louis style spare ribs to cook with.

Not only is it the cut officially sanctioned by the event -- and supplied by the contracted meat provider -- but both Hyatt and Theiss agree it is the best cut of rib providing the most meat and optimal taste.

"St. Louis style is a longer rib," Theiss said. "With the tip cut off, it becomes a squared off rib with a lot of meat."

Theiss said a St. Louis cut comes from the middle of the pig's rib cage, below the spine and above the loin. It is essentially a spare rib literally square-cut with the tips removed.

"Baby backs tend to be too small and have the least amount of meat," he said.

Theiss knows as much about ribs as Hyatt, long-time friends whose relationship started as teen-aged youth at Carson High School.

Hyatt is a Carson City native, while Theiss moved to the Nevada state capital when he was 10.

Their friendship has only grown stronger over the years, the result of genuine affection, trust, and a shared passion for all things meat.

While Hyatt has mastered the art of meat cooking, Theiss has become expert in his own right at meat cutting and preparation.

Theiss began working at Butler Meats as a youth before eventually taking over its ownership three decades ago.

As a master butcher with 43 years of experience under him, he knows meat cuts the way Hyatt knows barbecue.

And when it comes to quality cuts, Theiss has made certain Butler Meats stands out across the region.

"Premium products is all I'm about," he said. "You don't stay in business this many years and be real successful doing a [poor] job."

For Theiss, success means doing things right the first time, no matter the cost in time, money or resources.

"We don't mind spending more money on something that people are really going to want," he said. "It's going to be the best you've ever had, and that's why people keep coming back to us."

This time of year, it's ribs that many people want. And, preferably, ribs without the large crowds.

That's why Theiss and Hyatt teamed up 15 years ago to offer Carson City Barbecue's famous ribs behind the meat counter at Butler.

"We used to actually bring the cooker here and cook the ribs here," Hyatt said. "The neat thing about that was when you walk in the door, you weren't walking out without a rack of ribs."

The venture became so successful that the rib sales dominated Butler's business around rib cook-off week.

"I had to kick him out a couple of times," Theiss jested.

Using premium pork St. Louis style rib cuts supplied by Butler, Hyatt and Felker then prepare the ribs the same way they do along Victorian Square in Sparks.

"It's the same exact rib at Butler as those at the Nugget Rib Cook Off," Theiss said. "Same recipe, same cooking time, everything."

The cooked rib is then specially packaged by Theiss and his team.

"I take it one step further," Theiss said. "I vaccuum pack and seal the ribs. I do my job in protecting that product, and we both benefit from it."

Hyatt agrees, saying the vacuum seal technique protects the integrity of his cooked ribs, which stay moist and tender in the packaging.

"It seals in the freshness," he said. "It's amazing."

Theiss said he carries Carson City Barbecue Company's ribs all year long, but he sells the most around the end of August because of the Nugget Rib Cook Off.

"I sell ten times what I normally do just on that weekend because of it," he said. "People want the ribs, but they don't like the crowds."

Theiss and Hyatt are like-minded not only in their appreciation for a good piece of meat, but in what it takes to provide that quality to their customers.

Theiss said since top quality is what Butler Meats strives for, it only made sense to begin working in conjunction with Carson City Barbecue Company.

"He's (Hyatt) like I am. We're all about premium stuff," Theiss said. "You can go buy barbecue anywhere you want, but it's not going to be good."

As for what each brings to this unique business relationship spanning a lifetime of friendship, the two can't say enough about their shared desire to present only the best product to Carson City and beyond.

"He (Hyatt) puts out a spectacular product, and that's the only reason I carry it," he said. "He puts out really good stuff, and he does a really good job at what he does. I'm happy to sell his products, too."

Hyatt said he is equally impressed by the raw product he can get from Butler Meats to supply locals with competition quality ribs every time.

"It's the quality of the rib that he's bringing," he said. "It's also the size -- the 2.5 and down -- which includes the manufacturer."

When Hyatt and Theiss say two and a half and down, they are referring to the amount of meat on a raw rack of ribs. That's two and a half pounds or less.

"We've moved into a 2.5 and stayed there," Hyatt said of his competition ribs.

Theiss said the difference is in the eating experience. A rack of ribs with more meat on it makes for a better product from counter to consumer.

"The bones are the same size but there's more meat on them," he said. "That's why we use two and a halves, because there's more meat on them."

Hyatt agrees, adding that both the preparation and presentation of the ribs improve at the two and a half level.

"They display better, they cool down better, they reheat better, and it's a very meaty rib," he said. "A very nice cut for production."

Theiss said Butler Meats uses different meat brokerages to obtain the best raw product to use for Hyatt's barbecued ribs.

"We have certain criteria, and I'm picky about what I want," he said. "We can get it from several places, and when you're talking raw product, it isn't available everywhere all the time. We know where to find all of this stuff."

Quality is what defines the business relationship between Butler Meats and Carson City Barbecue Company, a collaboration that has spanned a decade and a half.

They are on the same page when selecting pig, Theiss said, and that kind of consistency results in a superior product to consumers.

"Experience is the key," he said. "We know the difference. Most people probably don't."

While the partnership between Theiss and Hyatt appears to be largely business on the surface, there is still a lot of that boyish affection carried over from their youth.

They enjoy not merely the business they do together, but their company and friendship, too, making for an ideal community partnership.

"It's fun to be in cahoots with your friends," Theiss laughs.

The 28th Annual Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off begins this Wednesday and runs through Labor Day, Sept. 5, on Victorian Square in Sparks. Visit the event's web site here for more information.

To learn more about Carson City Barbecue Company, visit it online here or follow it on Facebook.

Butler Meats can be found at 1909 N. Carson Street on the southwest end of the Frontier Plaza in Carson City. Or, visit it online here.

Author's warning: The best smell in the world can be found at Butler Meats, so if you go, be prepared to stay a while.