Six years ago I bought a smoker and started figuring it out.
Not long after, I discovered a group of dads in the neighborhood who were deep into the same rabbit hole. I joined a crew that was already building something — six solo competitors when I showed up, now twenty multi-person teams and growing. A proper annual neighborhood BBQ competition called Smoketoberfest. Real stakes, deeply questionable trash talk. I fit right in.
I wasn’t the best in the group. I wasn’t the guy everyone called when they wanted to know what smoker to buy — that’s my buddy Dan. I was the guy who was always experimenting, always reading, always looking for an excuse to fire something up. Slowly, through a lot of mistakes and a few genuine breakthroughs, I started figuring out what actually works.
Then late last year I moved to an apartment. I gave my smoker to a stranger who I could just tell would use it to its fullest — sometimes you meet someone and you know. My own BBQ these days mostly means tagging along when the crew fires up, which fortunately happens pretty regularly. The obsession didn’t go anywhere. Just the backyard.
Two years ago I entered Smoketoberfest. I was hitting my stride, though I didn’t quite know it yet. Armed with a tip from the prior year’s champion and a focused game plan, we competed in the brisket category. We showed up in custom Meat Sweats sweatsuits. No shame. Left with one trophy. No regrets.
That win crystallized something I’d been thinking about for a while.
There wasn’t one place that had everything a serious backyard cook actually needed. Honest gear reviews from someone who isn’t getting paid to say everything is great. Real guides for cooking at scale that don’t assume you have a catering setup. Coverage of the competition circuit that goes beyond trophy photos. A genuine map of the best BBQ spots in America that the algorithm hasn’t discovered yet. And practical help for the moments that actually matter — feeding 50 people at a block party, running your own neighborhood competition, pulling off a cook away from home without anything going wrong.
So we built it.
If you just bought your first smoker and have no idea where to start — you’re in the right place. If you’ve been at this for years and want to take your first competition seriously — also right place. If you just need to feed a crowd and not screw it up — especially right place.
This is Fire & Board. Let’s cook something worth talking about.
P.S. — The Fire & Board newsletter goes out weekly. What we’re cooking, what gear we’re actually testing, what’s happening on the competition circuit. It’s free and it’s the best thing we make. — Max L.