On Saturday, July 23, Niverville’s first annual barbecue competition will get fired up. The event, presented by the Niverville BBQ Society (NBS), will take place on the grounds of the Centennial Arena. All proceeds will go to support the Niverville Nighthawks.
The two starring attractions this year will be the Niverville Smokemaster BBQ Competition, for preregistered teams of adults, and the Kid’s Que Burger Competition, for preregistered individual youth between the ages of five and 14.
Post-judging festivities that night will include a beer garden and three live bands taking turns on the open stage. All are welcome to attend and admission is completely free.
Long-time Niverville resident Adrian Bruce is the founder of the NBS and a competitive barbecue cook.
“Ultimately, our goal is to establish a community event that will be of long-term benefit,” Bruce says. “This event is for us to build on every year and take the proceeds from that and donate it to a worthy cause in the community.”
Fourteen adult teams were signed up for the barbecue competition just prior to registration closing. Bruce says there’s competitors from all over Manitoba—and quite possibly Ontario, too.
Teams will take on challenges in two meat categories: St. Louis-style ribs and chicken thighs.
Bruce’s crew, the Tortugas, will participate as Niverville’s home team in the hopes of capturing a sought-after trophy and cash prize. Even more exciting, he says, will be a chance for the big winner to hit the international stage this fall.
“[We got our hands on] something that’s unbelievably cool, and it’s yet to happen anywhere before in Canada,” Bruce says. “Whoever wins the championship here gets a Golden Ticket to the World Food Championships to compete in the barbecue division.”
That illustrious cookoff is scheduled to take place in Dallas, Texas this November. The grand champion there will go home with an impressive $300,000 prize purse.
Serious barbecue cooks like these are often schooled in the art from a tender age. To encourage this early-years passion, the NBS has included the Kid’s Que Burger Competition. For this event, the meat patty, bun, and cooking tools are provided. Each child must come supervised by an adult.
To win the judges over, the young entrants are encouraged to bring and use their own unique condiments and garnishes. A celebrity panel will be on site for judging, including the proprietors of three sponsoring businesses—Wiens Furniture, Niverville Dairy Queen, and Torque Brewing. Mayor Myron Dyck will round out the row of judges.
“We’ve got 20 kids [registered],” says Bruce. “It’s a free entry fee, they get personalized instructions, and every kid goes home with a free [coal-fired grill].”
As if the NBS, consisting of six local members, wasn’t busy enough planning the big event, a series of pre-competition highlights will also take place throughout the week leading up to Saturday.
Event sponsor Luxe Barbecue Company hosted a barbecue cooking class at their Stapleton Street location on behalf of NBS on July 19. The class was led by keynote instructor Jim Johnson, a grand champion pitmaster from Memphis, Tennessee.
With space for 100 attendees, Bruce says the event was sold out within a day.
The Torque Brewing Tap Room is the location of a VIP dinner on July 20. At $50 per plate, attendees will be treated to a barbecue chicken dinner prepared by Johnson and Wayne Shymko, Winnipeg’s two-time chili champion and master griller.
On the morning of July 20, CTV Morning Live will conduct their broadcast from Bruce’s private backyard cookhouse.
Niverville Bigway will be treating their customers to an appreciation dinner on Thursday evening from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Bruce will prepare his specialty smoked pulled pork for that event.
Finally, on Friday evening, the Kansas City Barbecue Society—the international governing body for barbecue competitions—will holding a judge’s class at the Community Resource and Recreation Centre in Niverville.
Bruce can’t say enough about the outstanding support the NBS has received throughout the planning stages of these events. Their allies, he says, include Niverville’s town council, the Olde Tyme Country Fair committee, Nighthawks board members, and the event’s many sponsors.
“Our community of Niverville is very prideful of producing quality events, and for [the NBS] our focus is just that,” says Bruce.
Supporting local organizations and clubs, he adds, is also a huge driver.
“More and more, these programs get less and less dollars and yet their expenses keep increasing,” Bruce says. “It’s not easy for families to put kids into these kinds of programs, or even for these organizations to exist with little or no funding.”
Bruce himself has been a long-time community champion. Couple that with his passion for outdoor cooking, the barbecue competition felt like a natural fit.
Though he’s fairly new to the competition circuit, his interest in outdoor cooking was first sparked 15 years ago when he attended a customer appreciation event hosted by his friend, Wayne Shymko.
“The first time I went to his shop, I just saw all these smokers everywhere and I thought, ‘My goodness, what is this wonderful world I’ve stumbled upon?.” Bruce recalls.
Since that day, Bruce began building his own collection and now owns 15 different smokers, cookers, and grills. Some of them are computer-controlled, allowing him to track every moment of the cook and identify ways to improve the outcomes.
In 2021, Bruce and his good friend Russell Hicks took on a project to contain the growing accumulation of cooking gadgets. One year later, a large section of Bruce’s backyard had been transformed into a cookhouse, an outdoor kitchen and diner. Built into one wall is a hand-built wood-fired pizza oven.
In the fall of 2021, Bruce entered his team into their first-ever barbecue competition in Steinbach. Competing against approximately 24 other teams, his team came in ninth place.
“I was disappointed in how we did, because I was a national team athlete,” Bruce quips, referring to his many years as a national wrestling coach. “I’m used to being successful. That’s kind of what lit the bug, that first competition. We walked out of there feeling so good about it that we just started strategizing… and developing our skills.”
His team, the Tortugas, consists of his pal Hicks and various members of his family.
“My kids are a part of our competitive team and it’s awesome,” he adds. “I catch them out [in the cookhouse] occasionally, cooking on their own. And when they come to competitions, we all have our roles and they understand them and do them well.”
Thanks to an unexpected shoulder injury in February, Bruce and his team have only made it to one competition this year so far. The team took the title of reserve grand champions, which means they finished second with their combined scores in both ribs and chicken.
Since then, Bruce has been determined to keep shooting for the stars. Starting the NBS and hosting a nationally recognized competition in his hometown seemed a natural progression.
“NBS’s goal is to establish Niverville on the forefront of the barbecuing community in our country,” Bruce says. “Niverville doesn’t go halfway with anything [they do], so why should we?”