From Dave Anderson’s humble beginnings serving up ribs at Native-American powwows from a lean-to tent, to building the second-largest barbecue chain in America with 116 locations nationwide, Famous Dave’s has a rich and varied history.
Despite some ups and downs (the company closed 12 locations from 2022 to 2023 after Famous Dave’s parent BBQ Holdings was acquired by MTY Food Group), Famous Dave’s has become a barbecue institution. The company is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a second annual All-Star BBQ competition: a 15-stop tour in which local and celebrity pitmasters compete head-to-head and the winner will get the chance to compete in the World Food Championships in Indianapolis.
The barbecue competition is a nod to Anderson’s history of competing against other pitmasters, including his first win decades ago, where he placed third in a barbecue competition and won $25 and a plastic trophy. That win inspired him to eventually start the Famous Dave’s concept. Celebrating personal history and legacy is a cornerstone of the Famous Dave’s brand, which celebrates Anderson’s roots smoking ribs right outside of his mother’s Native American reservation on the land owned by the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe people in Hayward, Wisconsin.
“I think Famous Dave's is really an American dream come true,” Anderson said. “My parents are both full-blooded Choctaw Indians from Oklahoma, which is where the Southern love for barbecue comes from…. My first restaurant was nothing more than wood saplings with a tarp over it, and who would ever dream that today, 30 years later, Famous Dave’s would be a powerhouse in the world of barbecue.”
Anderson learned many of the secrets to great barbecue from his father, who instilled in him that garnering the right ingredients was crucial. He said that when his dad would cook, several times a year, he would drive down South to get the right peppers for his sauces, the right flour for his biscuits, and the right cornmeal for his honey-buttered cornbread. Anderson said he has always stood by the ingredients the company uses, no matter how large the brand has gotten, to the point that Hormel had to build a separate plant for them just to keep up with Famous Dave’s needs and specs.
“When I first started Famous Dave's, I was building up in Hayward, people would drive by and laugh at me and think I was crazy,” Anderson said. “They’d said, ‘you’re way up in the Northwest corner of Wisconsin with nothing but Swedes and Norwegians up there, and none of them know the first thing about barbecue…. But you know, when you have a power of a dream driving you and you spent 20 years developing your recipes, things happen. When I opened up in a town of 2,000, people by the end of that first summer, we were serving over 6,000 people a week, and I never advertised.”
Although Famous Dave’s is proud of its rich history, Anderson said that one of the most important things about long-term success is to not get stuck in the past. So while the company’s commitment to quality and people has not changed, Famous Dave’s has evolved to create store prototypes with devoted takeout entrances and smaller footprints.
“I have been fond of saying that I have no sacred cows,” Anderson said. “Sometimes, we get too stuck on what the sacred cows of the past are, when really, we have to be about agility to stay in step with what’s happening… We still serve the same ribs with the same hospitality…just the box looks a little different.”
These days, Anderson has stepped back a little from the day-to-day operations of the brand, though is still very much the face of Famous Dave’s. Besides a barbecue competition, the company celebrated 30 years with 30 days of sweepstakes giveaways, and a Rib Fest promotion this summer, and plans to keep growing, particularly in the retail space.
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