Outside Dumfries, Barbeque is Good Business

By URIAH KISER

DUMFRIES, Va. — Virginia’s first town isn’t known for its roadside barbeque stands. Dumfries banned them, along with all other roadside vendors, sending a message that you’ll have to drive through or sit down if you want to eat out.

Roadside vendors can work on days Dumfries holds special events like its upcoming fall festival, but it’s hard for barbeque cooks like Derrick Wood who owns his own business and wants to make and sell barbeque in his hometown on weekends.

“It’s always the easy answer to say ‘no’ rather than looking outside the box. Could we be creative? Could we create some positive things by not looking at things from ‘the glass is half empty point of view? How are we creating a unique niche here in Dumfries that no one else in Prince William County has done?” asks Wood.

Wood in recent months has been working to change the town’s no roadside vendor rule. While not common on U.S. 1 in Woodbridge, vendors can be found in parking lots, and in neighborhoods in Prince William County selling ice cream.

Wood says there is no “good barbeque” joint within five miles of the town, and that traditional restaurants don’t see roadside vendors as a threat because they’ve already developed their customer base.

But the Dumfries Planning Commission doesn’t see it that way and in May decided not to allow roadside vendors.

“It was a tremendous slap in the face, we felt, [to allow roadside vendors in Dumfries]. It was almost an anti business move for folks here,” said Planning Commission Chair Christopher Padberg at the May 22 meeting of the Dumfries Town Council.

Padberg, and the commission overall, supports brick and mortar business that invest in infrastructure, and fall under a regular tax code.

But don’t mention brick and mortar to Dennis “Lil’ Black” Dove who runs a thriving roadside barbeque stand on U.S. 1 just five miles south of Dumfries, in Stafford County’s Boswell’s Corner area. For five years, Thursday through Sunday, he’s been catering to government contractors from nearby Quantico Corporate Center, as well as travelers just passing through.

He’s regularly checked by the Virginia Department of Health, is certified in safe food handling, and drives a modified RV with nothing inside but cleaning sinks and a walk-in refrigerator to keep food cool.

By 3 p.m. Friday, he had already sold 40 racks of ribs, 80 chickens, and a whole rack of barbeque. He normally sells double that on a Saturday or Sunday.

“It’s hot, but I’ve got to be out here on this corner because if I’m not here when my customers come, they won’t come back, and then I don’t eat,” said Dove.

He says Stafford County has no problem with roadside vendors, and that getting the proper permits to do business alongside U.S. 1 is fairly easy in a county that promotes itself as business friendly. And since the Quantico area is growing, so will business, he said.

In Dumfries, Wood delivers his food to businesses who order barbeque. But being able to sell barbeque in his hometown from a roadside food truck any day of the week is something he’ll continue to fight for.

“To me, this is who I am, great barbeque is who I am, and when you give birth to something from the ground up you want to see it through and make it successful,” said Wood. “People resist change, and you have to keep presenting an idea many times before we comfortable with it.”