Fire and Family | Talking with Jason Ganahl of GQue BBQ in Colorado

Jason Ganahl is the founder of GQue BBQ and a father of four.  Simply put, Jason Ganahl is a successful and busy man.

But being busy didn’t happen overnight.

At one point in time, the Colorado father/BBQ maven was a single man working his tail off in the corporate world. As fate would have it, he’d meet the woman who he now calls his wife, with life taking Jason Ganahl on stops in St. Louis and California. It was during this odyssey period where Jason became curious about cooking.

His next stop? The Internet. 

“I went online, and I found the Kansas City Barbecue Society,” recalls Jason Ganahl of his barbecue journey.

“I found out they put on these professional barbecue contests all over the country. I thought, ‘Holy cow, I can be a judge and I can eat the most amazing barbecue ever!’”

Slowly but surely, Jason was becoming busier. He was also becoming happier and fuller thanks to his weekend hobby of tasting the best barbecue the world had to offer as a judge.

Soon, he’d hunger for more.

“Being a competitive person, I thought it would be fun to get in on one of these contests,” smiles Jason Ganahl while talking to Shawn Walchef on the Digital Hospitality podcast in 2021. “So, I got into a contest and got my ass kicked. I got my ass kicked in the competitions for a good two years.”

A sucker for pain? Perhaps. More than anything, Jason was curious, competitive and anxious to get involved. Having a fun time the whole way and learning just the same, barbeque continued to make him busier and also happier.

“We took about two years and by about 2013 or 2014 we won,” shares Jason Ganahl about competition barbecue. “We won a lot. We won the team of the year out here and we got invited to a lot of really good invitational contests.”

By becoming a winner after two years of taking losses, Jason was excited, but he was once again curious.

“That's where I really got inspired to open up a restaurant,” Jason looks back.

“It was never my dream to open up a restaurant, but by doing a lot of those invitationals I got to meet a lot of guys that had barbecue restaurants. They would share their revenue and what they were doing. I was amazed by the amount of volume, the amount of barbecue they were selling, the amount of revenue. I was really inspired by that to give it a shot.”

So, give it a shot he did. Jason Ganahl started GQue BBQ which now claims three locations in Colorado.

By learning from the friends he made through judging and participating in barbecue competitions, Jason has been able to build a successful business that stemmed from a weekend hobby. Learning the business through friends has inspired the now busy businessman to grow his business with friends just the same.

“What I learned through this entire process is that I want to do business with people I like,” notes Jason Ganahl on the Digital Hospitality podcast.

“People I like to the point where it's mutually beneficial and they're going to look out for me versus just the bottom line. I try to really do business with people I like more so than people who might have saved me a dollar or might be able to get it to me faster for a week or so.”

For a man as busy as Jason, the conversations with vendors are no longer just crunching numbers, it’s catching up with people he genuinely likes.

Following his curiosity and working with people he likes has allowed him to pursue and mend his passions even more. Jason’s love of sports has led him to networking with the Colorado Buffaloes.

“We feed the coaching staff every week,” says Jason Ganahl of the Buffalo football program. “I love sports and love being around the team.”

On top of that, GQue BBQ even operates in Empower Field where the Denver Broncos play. During games and concerts, fans can enjoy Jason’s takes on Chicken Wings, Stadium Nachos with pulled pork, and much more.

In only a short period of time, Jason’s love for barbecue, people and sports has allowed him to flourish. To do so,