Barbecue for breakfast? Gladstone’s found its appetite for soft-shell tacos with lashings of succulent brisket, pulled pork, bacon, egg, hollandaise and a belt of barbecue sauce from Hughesey Que.
It’s a bestseller and one of the word-of-mouth menu items that has made the mobile food vendor the Harbour City’s hottest barbecue guy, and now, a national finalist in the Australian Barbecue Awards 23-24 Caterer of the Year.
“To be 100 per cent honest with you, I didn’t expect it,” owner operator ‘Macca’ Hughes told Gladstone Today.
“Without being rude, we’re just this little catering business from Gladstone and not too many people in the barbecue world know where Gladstone is.
“So, to become a finalist in something as big as this… we’re governed for our competitions by the Australian Barbecue Alliance and Meatstock’s is the biggest barbecue comp scene in Australia, so it’s pretty amazing.”
A qualified chef, Macca said there are plans to upgrade Hughesey Que to a food truck within the next six months as the business he operates with offsider TJ Lyon keeps growing.
“With our business, we have found since August last year when I decided that I was going to hang the chef jacket up and just focus on barbecue, we’ve seen it go from strength to strength,” he said.
“We’ve seen people that haven’t tried barbecue come and try our food, and once people give it a go, they’re usually hooked on it.”
Macca said the barbecue movement was one of the fastest growing food trends in Australia.
“We have a good probably 1000-odd barbecue vendors and caterers within this country and I think we all do similar stuff, but we all do it in our own way and I think that’s what gets people so interested in the different barbecuers,” he said.
“Take Miriam Vale’s Backyard Barbecue Boys and myself – we do brisket and we do pork and lamb and chicken, but we add our own little spin and flair on it which obviously gives people variety.”
Hughesey Que has aligned itself with Gladstone Camping Centre, which stocks a large range of barbecue sauces and rubs and barbecue products, as well as supporting Drakes Sun Valley locally to source some of its meat.
“We try and support Gladstone Camping Centre when we’re doing gigs and showcase what they sell so we can help their business,” Macca said.
“Hughesey Que is all about trying to support other local businesses in the region.
“Drakes are a huge supporter of what we do and the guys down there treat me like family almost. They do a fantastic job.”
Apart from the breakfast barbecue tacos, Macca said the most popular menu item was the Tailgate, which was a smorgasbord plate of Hughesey Que’s offerings – brisket, pulled pork, chicken wings, potato salad and slaw.
“But we change up the menu because me being a chef, we’ve found that Gladstone likes variety and they don’t like the same menu all the time, so we try and make sure we give Gladstone every opportunity to try and have that different meal and flavour profile,” he said.
