Big Bubba’s Bad BBQ reports $100,000 loss due to canceled event
Owner of mobile eatery donates $50,000 in leftovers to food bank
–Roger Sharp, the owner of Big Bubba’s Bad BBQ, Tortilla Town, and Good Ol’ Burgers, at 1124 24th Street, Paso Robles, reported this morning a $100,000 loss due to a canceled event in Houston, Texas.
For the last 30 years, Sharp has operated a mobile Big Bubba’s Bad BBQ eatery with his sister Susan Sharp Farias. The mobile operation travels across the country to large fairs and festivals, serving smoked meats with barbecue sauce and other food items, often serving tens of thousands of people per day.
On Feb. 24, the mobile operation headed to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo with about 2.5 million people in attendance over an 18-day period.
“The event opened seamlessly on March 3rd with a statement from the Houston rodeo management that the much-feared coronavirus would not cause any disruptions,” Sharp said. “Unfortunately, on the morning of March 11th everything came to a screeching hault when a memo from management circulated… the Rodeo was closing at 12 noon due to the coronavirus concerns. This meant business owners and operators only had a 30-minute notice to shut down a million-dollar operation.”
Sharp was left with over $50,000 in meat products alone sitting in his mobile refrigerator, so he and a few other business operators loaded up a 53-foot trailer and hauled over a huge donation of food to the local Houston Food Bank. Donations included hundreds of bread products, fresh produce, hot dogs, chicken, pork, and beef. Enough food to feed many people within the community for weeks,” Sharp said.
“Although the pandemic of the coronavirus has caused an unexpected painful hit to Big Bubba’s Bad BBQ, there was a major bright side with the huge donation to those in need,” he said. Every year after the event, the business donates the left-over products, but never to this magnitude. We are still reeling from this quick decision. We have paid the 80 workers that were hired from the local Houston labor force and all of the traveling crew, without hesitation,” he said.
“Although we are all broken and it will take some time to recover over this one, we are healthy, strong and confident in our future,” he said.
- Follow all local COVID-19 coronavirus news updates
- Follow New York Times nationwide tracking of all COVD-19 cases
Comments
