Barbecue

This month’s BayouEats feature, SHAW NUFF BBQ, isn’t just a story of good barbecue, it’s a story of service to humanity. Owner and Pit Master, SAM SHAW, hasn’t just made barbecue a meal, he’s made a life out of it.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KELLY MOORE CLARK | ARTICLE BY VANELIS RIVERA

I’m your Michael Jordan of barbecue,” says Sam Shaw, owner and Pit Master of Shaw Nuff BBQ, with a sly smile. Though confident his grilled goods are a slam dunk, Shaw’s admiration for the Chicago Bulls legend has more to do with Jordan’s individuality than his stardom. Sitting down at Shaw’s second location at the recently opened 76 Gas Station on Louisville Avenue, I was expecting to smoke out the secrets to making good barbeque, but one hour into what turned out to be a two hour conversation, I quickly realized the secret to Shaw’s success, what has guided his every move has been his ability to ‘keep it real’ and focus on the most important part of his business: the people he interacts with on a daily basis. As a result, he has one of the most sought-after barbecue plates in town.
Though he was born in Monroe in 1967, Shaw was raised in Fort Riley, Kansas. “I’m an Army brat,” he says, adding it was a short-lived upbringing, returning to Monroe at fourteen, but he did enjoy the diverse pool of families he was exposed to while there. He remembers the first time he became fascinated by grilling. He recalls his mother making barbecue at home, but he had a neighbor who had the “big grills” out in his backyard. One day, his neighbor called him over to help, asking him to watch the meat. “I just watched the smoke coming out the grill,” he says. He never touched or turned anything, but he paid attention, taking interest in a skill he would later develop working at a successful barbecue establishment. “It could have easily gone south,” while working there, he says, recalling the growing pains of his first two years. “All I knew was the streets.” It was challenging to take ownership of his work ethic when he didn’t have a connection to the establishment, but he quickly dropped that mentality to the curb. “If you act like it’s yours, maybe one day you’ll have your own,” he asserts. It wasn’t an easy shift of perspective, but he went with it, and that spirit of advancement has contributed to fifteen years of Shaw Nuff. “The thing I learned most from working there was dealing with people,” says Shaw. Initially, he didn’t know he had it in him, to deal with people, but it became his focal point. “I just love people,” he says, following with, “Color don’t mean anything to me; it never has.” As a great uniter, good food draws all kinds of people in, the steady line of customers a testament to the quality of his grilled meats.
In the process of working, he had built a food truck because he had a feeling that in order to manifest his future, he had to start somewhere. “I call that trailer the ark, like Noah’s ark, because when I built that trailer it stayed at the house two years before anyone knew about it,” he says. With his restaurant days behind him, he began to set up his trailer at night clubs. Since many people knew him from his former workplace, it made it easier for folks to accept this new portable establishment. “From that point on, it just went,” he says.
“We got good barbecue,” says Shaw nonchalantly. Everything he knows about barbecue has mainly been acquired through instinct and intuition. “Barbecue is something I learn everyday,” he says, revealing he often switches gears here and there, striving never to get too complacent. All that matters is making sure the resulting flavor stays the same. When it comes to what Shaw Nuff has to offer, it begins and ends with their house-made sauce: “It’s not considered barbecue until the sauce is on it.” As he reveals that only he and his best friend know the recipe, he gets up saying, “Hold on one second. I’m gonna grab something for you.” When he returns, he’s holding a small styrofoam container and a plastic portion cup. As he sits down he says, “Let me tell you what that sauce is gonna do to you when you taste it. You’re going to get a flavor that’s never been there before, then that flavor is going to leave, then it’s going to allow you to taste the meat.” As I dip a piece of sausage into a dark brown sauce, Shaw warns, “Be careful,” with a playful laugh. The sauce is tangy and, sho’nuff, stands out. Even after multiple dips, you’ll still be chasing the flavor with this sauce. There seemed to be hints of molasses and some kind of liquor, but when I asked, Shaw just laughed. “You know what’s in that sauce?” With a wry look he answers, “Love.” Truly, as the song goes, it’s all you need, especially if you’re spending approximately four hours making roughly 150 gallons of it every two weeks. “The thing about that sauce is that it’s never done until it’s done, done, done,” he says. What does that mean? “I knew you were gonna say that,” he laughs. It goes through a process, he explains, keeping it vague. “When I make that sauce, I can smell it and know that it’s complete.” Most people try to find the fastest way to cook their sauce, but Shaw’s way is about patience.

Shaw makes it clear that his sauce is a serving sauce, not one that you keep “painting” on your meat while you cook it. His take on barbecue sauce is that it’s the “quiet part” of the process because of its simplicity. What you should expect at Shaw Nuff BBQ are the classics smoked to perfection on pecan or oak wood slabs: sausage, ham, ribs, turkey legs, chicken, and brisket. A variety of combo plates are available, as well as sandwiches. Don’t leave your barbecue without one of their sides: baked beans, potato salad, corn, coleslaw, or green beans. Simple, filling, and good enough to keep you coming back for more. “You know who really let me know that I had good barbecue? Truck drivers! They go all over the country,” he says. “They’re like, man, this is the first place I’ve ever came and just had good barbecue.” Out-of-towners aren’t the only ones showing Shaw’s food love, one Facebook review raves, “even the parking lot smells edible y’all.”
Shaw admits he doesn’t get to talk shop too often. In fact, he claims he is “one of the shyest people in the world.” But once the questions started rolling, he had stories to tell and even some grilling hacks for those wanting to improve their craft. “The one thing that people can really try understanding about how you start a grill, you don’t wait till your coals get completely white to start cooking,” he says. The only time you’d want to do that is if you’re cooking something fast, like hotdogs. “You only have so much energy in those coals,” he says, so when you do fire-up the grill, then place your raked off rack on it, the moment those coals start smoking, it’s time to cook. Another warning Shaw emphasizes is to never close your lid once you fire the grill. It could explode because of the combustion or the chemicals still on your coals will make your food taste like fluid. “I never toot my own horn. This is my first time doing this,” he says. Though that may be true, Shaw has the established chops to brag about his know-how, particularly because he has pride in his profession and food. “You know, this is how serious I am about barbecue. You know most folks, you cut them they bleed, right? You cut me, I’ll smoke,” he says with a chuckle. He likes to tease his customers sometimes. When he sees them praying over their food, he’ll say, “You know how good my barbecue is? It’s so good, that you don’t have to say grace; it’s already blessed.”
When Shaw first started doing the “barbecue thing,” it was about making money, but it wasn’t long before he began to contemplate how he was making that money: “That’s not the way to look at anything that you do because it’s short lived. If it becomes a business to you, the hustle is the last thing you want to use.” That’s why his logo is a knife, fork, and spoon forming a peace sign. “That’s all I know, but it comes with love,” he says, referring to barbecuing. He doesn’t consider himself a cook. “I know how to grill,” he says, asserting that barbecue is his art. “It’s more like a man’s feel on the grill.” He became addicted to his work because the love was always present. “Instead of just making a meal of it, make a life of it,” he says. That seems to be what Shaw got out of it, intentionally aspiring to have the best barbecue in town by perfecting it to the fullest.
Confident with good reason, Shaw does take it down for a moment admitting, “I may not be the best, but whoever is, I’ll make them nervous.” Shaw considers one of his most significant blessings from God to be having people to testify to. “Sometimes we get mixed up with what we do in our professions. You have to keep in mind, your profession is not your humanity. Your profession is your service to humanity,” he affirms. That’s what he strives to dish out daily. “This is Shaw Nuff BBQ. We love all, we serve all, run tell dat!”
Shaw Nuff BBQ is located at 1509 Martin Luther King Jr Drive Monroe, LA 71202. Follow them on Facebook and check out their second location at gas station 76, 21 Louisville Avenue, Monroe, Louisiana.