Smoke'n Grind Food Trailer

Our Story -

Chris & Jeff met in high school.  They are truly brothers and have been there for each other through thick and thin. Shelly & Jeff have been married over 17 years and they welcomed Kristie like a family member when Chris introduced them.  The couples have taken turns being each others rock in the bad times and celebrating in the good.

Celebrating the good times has always meant cooking amazing food.  Chris and Jeff have this unwritten competition on who can take the Chef Crown.  Friends and family welcome the competition and all the amazing food that they are 'forced' to enjoy.  The four have talked about owning a restaurant, a bar, a brewery ... you name it.  Providing great food and seeing people enjoy that food is really what drives them to continue to improve meal after meal after meal.  Life gets hectic -- we all know that.  During the economic crash, all four experienced hard times, loss of jobs, etc.  We all struggled to rebuild what we lost during those times, even if that meant starting new.  Of course this means that life gets busy - they worked, worked, and worked many hours to relieve financial pressures and make it back to a daily routine.

It is SO EASY to get comfortable in that routine.  You go to work, you make good money, you come home and spend limited time with family and the cycle continues.  Celebrations continued, making great food continued, people "advising" you to open that restaurant or that catering business or anything to get your food out there for more folks to enjoy.

On May 24th, 2015, the couples were camping with friends and family when Kristie's & Chris' entire world was flipped on its side.  Kristie's best friend's life was tragically ended at the young age of 39.  Tara left behind a loving husband, brother, beautiful twins (http://www.gofundme.com/twinkies)
, her mom, and the list goes on.  Through the grief, the lesson that hit Chris hard was that "Life is Short".  Jeff & Shelly essentially catered Tara's life celebration.  Regardless of who they knew, they stepped up and became that rock that Chris & Kristie needed.  At the services, people told them again -- you guys should own a restaurant or catering business.  Chris took that life lesson to heart and the wheels began to turn on making some of these dreams he has had come true.  Fund raising began and the couples started seriously discussing how to make the "serving awesome food" dream a reality.

On June 29th, only a month after Tara's passing, Kristie's grandfather passed away.  Chris, again while holding Kristie up, catered the event with help from the church.  Grandpa's favorite food was when Chris would come and bring him pulled pork so the only option Chris would consider is doing this again for Grandpa one last time.

The first trailer will be dedicated to Donald Shanks & Tara Dubrava-Underwood.  They always supported us in every way possible and, in some ways, they are the two who rocked us from our comfort zone and have pushed us to "Live out the Dream".  

I read this quote on one of the social media sites and it hit home.  It is the quote I will leave you with as it epitomizes the lessons we have learned over the last few months:

"Note to self:

None of us are getting out of here alive, so please stop treating yourself like an after thought.  Eat the delicious food.  Walk in the sunshine.  Jump in the ocean.  Say the truth that you're carrying in your heart like hidden treasure.  Be silly.  Be kind.  Be weird.  There's no time for anything else"

I hope this story, if nothing else, is as inspiring to you as it has been to me.  Turning tragic events into a positive outcome is the only thing that has kept me going.  I know we will be sharing our food with you soon!

-Kristie

PS -- If you have an extra few bucks to donate to the gofundme campaign -- no amount is too small.  Every donation counts and gets us closer to our goal.  We really thank you for all the support we have had so far.  It has been overwhelming to say the least.  Join us on our journey of having the best mobile food experience in the Valley!


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