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Justin White is happy to keep Apple Valley in the family
By
BEN
MCCARTY
News staff writer
It’s summer, and that means it’s barbecue season.
When most people think barbecue, they think of places like
Tennessee,
Missouri
and
Texas.
Oregon
rarely cracks the list, and to Justin White, that’s a shame.
“Oregon
isn’t known for its barbecue and that’s too bad because we have
some great wood,” White said.
White, who runs the Apple Valley Country Store, spent several
years as a chef before coming home to take over the family
business in 2006.
The next year he introduced barbecue to the store. On
special-event weekends throughout the summer, the popularity of
the barbecue is clearly evident, with the front yard spilling over
with people whose faces are smeared with sauce.
White smokes all the meat used for
Apple Valley
barbecues with local apple and cherry woods, and the sauce is made
with a local apple cider base.
Eight weekends a year the store cranks out hundreds of servings of
pulled pork, ribs and pear coleslaw.
“Of all things we do at the store, the barbecue is the most
popular,” White said.
White arrived in
Hood
River
as a freshman in high school, and while his dad ran the store,
Justin wanted nothing to do with the family business.
After he went off to college, he began working as a chef to put
himself through school, and eventually found his side job turning
into a passion.
After college he worked at Cooper Spur resort and then spent
several years working in
Key West.
Then he came back to help out at the store for awhile.
“I told my dad I would help him out for a bit and then things sort
of just fell into place,” White said.
Soon enough he was running the place, and says he couldn’t see
things any other way.
“I love working for myself,” he said.
The biggest change he introduced to the store when he took over in
2006 was the barbecue.
A few times before, the Spooner family ran barbecue events at the
store, but was looking to get out. So they sold White the
equipment and gave a crash course in barbecue 101.
He also received training from barbecue guru John Willingham and
set out to develop a good sauce.
White spent several years “constantly tweaking” the regular and
spicy sauce varieties at
Apple Valley.
His preference is spicy because he likes the way it complements
the sweet flavor of the fruitwood-smoked meat.
He’s also a fan of the store’s huckleberry pies and milkshakes,
and thinks that they go perfectly with the barbecue items.
Apparently, so does everybody else.
“On hot days they just sell one after another,” he said.
Given the option between the pulled pork and the St. Louis-style
ribs that
Apple Valley
churns out, he prefers the ribs, but says that around 90 percent
of the customers ordered the pulled pork.
Either way he says they can’t really go wrong. The process starts
with the meat being seasoned with a light rub, and then put in the
smoker.
“Most places smoke it until it has a black crust on it but I do it
until it’s more of a reddish burgundy,” he said. The unfinished
meat is then cooked in an oven. This allows them to keep up a high
volume of meat going through the smoker.
For a weekend event, the meat smoking typically starts on a
Thursday so they can have enough ready to go for a big weekend.
White is excited to see what new directions the barbecue takes the
store, but says that while they do catering, they do not intend to
expand their current operations anytime soon.
“We are kind of at capacity here,” he said.
The 35-year-old and single White also loves that the store
continues to remain in the family. He took over the store because
his father was looking to get out and didn’t know if he should
sell it. White never wants to have to reach that stage.
“I have an 11-year-old niece,” he said. “And if I have my way
she’ll take over when she graduates from college.”
For as long as he can, though, White intends to keep cooking the
barbecue that he loves.
“I don’t think I’m going anywhere,” he said.
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