Years ago, we started as a little country store in Prospect, Kentucky. Shane and Tracy Best were the last owners of the old Prospect General Store. Having been in the custom cut retail meat business, we brought years of experience to the old store and the combination couldn’t have been any better.

Over the years we acquired a tremendous reputation for uncompromising quality on all our food items, so a common request among our customers was “Now if you would just come over and cook for us…” This led to the creation of our catering division, which we called the Kentucky Cookout Company.

While still operating out of the General Store, the New York Times selected us as having the BEST country hams available for mail order, which certainly added to our notoriety.

But we weren’t finished yet — we had already turned our passions towards barbecue sauce and the tremendous growth potential in the barbecue industry.

As our popularity grew in the catering business, word of our success began to reach promoters of barbecue competitions.

One of the first contests we cut our teeth on (no pun intended) was the World Invitational Rib Championship in Richmond, Virginia. Stacked against 20 of the BEST rib cooking teams from around the world, eight small-town hillbillies packed up their goodies on pickup trucks, and not only did battle with the world’s BEST, but conquered and returned home as World Invitational Rib Champions.

More recently, we have turned our attention to barbecue sauces and spices.

With Shane’s expertise, Kentucky BourbonQ® Brand was rewarded with one of the food industry’s most respected awards — the 2001 Scovie Award, accepted internationally as the top award for spicy foods.

The National Barbecue Association (NBBQA) awarded us for packaging, as well. And most recently, we’ve been honored with another Scovie Award, this time for the 2004 judging.

Finally, Shane is extremely proud of his sweep of First and Second Place People’s Choice Awards for BEST Barbecue Sauce at the 2004 International Zesty Food Show in Fort Worth, Texas!

We invite you to try our award-winning barbecue sauces, spices, and rubs, and find out for yourself why we’re The “BEST”!