Nice to meet y’all. I’m Jeremy Staggs, and this is how Boxcar BBQ was born.
Growing up, my family and I moved around quite a bit, mainly throughout South Texas. Transferring from school to school became normal, and talking to and meeting new people became a way of life from a very young age. Looking back, one thing that was always consistent was cooking. I can still remember cooking eggs for our family at maybe six or seven years old, and having a lot of fun doing it. We moved to Port Aransas when I turned fifteen, and I started working at Dairy Queen. I loved every second of it, from cleaning to conversations with customers. After high school, I took a break from the food industry and joined the Marine Corps, and I bet you can guess what industry I worked in afterwards. As soon as I came home, I started working at a close friend’s family-owned restaurant and continued my love of cooking.
Looking back, it’s wild to think about how I got here. At 26, I was living in Corpus Christi, just starting culinary school at Del Mar College, when a buddy of mine, Benny Perez of Vaeh’s Pit BBQ, wanted to make some ribs. I’d never made barbecue before and I was curious. We fired up the pit behind his parents’ house and I was hooked. I loved it all: the maintenance of the fire, the saucing, the wrap. I can’t remember if those ribs turned out great, but I do remember that was the moment I fell in love with barbecue.
Fast forward to 2018, and life had changed. I’d run the gauntlet through the restaurant industry in Houston, graduated from the Art Institute in late 2017, and I was worn out on working for someone else. An opportunity came along to be a chef instructor at a high school, and after a conversation with my wife Vicky, I took it. Teaching did two things for me: it made me appreciate the cooking process, and it made me miss customer interaction. There’s nothing like shooting the breeze with people eating a good meal. So I decided to pull the trigger and build a barbecue business from scratch, and Boxcar BBQ was born.
Success means different things to different people. To me, it’s being happy, at peace, comfortable in your own skin, and most importantly, being able to spend time with friends and family. As it turns out, my family, friends and community like barbecue, so I get to make a living while spending time with my favorite people.
When the road gets rough, you get tough.
Always build back stronger and better when faced with a setback. We suffered a devastating fire. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and we were able to rebuild.
Photos by Ben Simms