Page 30 - August 2021 Barbecue News Magazine

President
Kim Stanfield, kstanfield@nebs.org
Treasurer
Chris Clegg, cclegg@nebs.org Mike Strout, mstrout@nebs.org
Recording Secretary
Anissa Ladd, aladd@nebs.org
679 Washington St.; Unit #8-170; South Attleboro, MA 02703
Vice President
Paul Dahlstrom, pdahlstrom@nebs.org
NEBS Board of Directors Michael Strout
Peter Kelleher Jim Morey Craig Kimberley Mike Leger Tom Ryan Mic Stanfield
www.nebs.org
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Gerard “Jed” Labonte of Uncle Jed’s BBQ
We met while standing beside a fully stoked BBQ cooker loaded with 30 racks of spareribs at the Pig ‘n Pepper BBQ Festival in Westford, MA in 1997. I was a BBQ wannabe working with the Jake & Earl’s Dixie BBQ team (that included to be celebrity chef and BBQ restaurateur Andy Husbands of the 3 - Smoke Shop BBQ restaurants) while competing for Chris Schlesinger’s Jake & Earl’s Dixie BBQ/East Coast Grill restaurants in Cambridge, MA. Jed Labonte was the lead pit master of his fledgling competition BBQ team, Uncle Jed’s BBQ, of Wrentham, MA. It was just a quick “how d’ya do” by Jed that initiated our smoke, spice and grease infused friendship. I responded with “no trophies but my team and I had a blast. Wanna join us for a beer”?
I chased and realized a dream of opening a BBQ restaurant, Jake’s Dixie Roadhouse, on Moody Street in Waltham, MA. While Jed be- came a Zen master of smoke, spice and meat while competing, teaching, judging and mentoring anyone within earshot of his BBQ cooker with his encyclopedic grilling and delicious BBQ knowledge – a true BBQ Evangelist!
Fast forward 24 years – Jed is in stage 4 renal failure and is in des-
By: Don Yovicsin, BBQGuy@rcn.com
perate need of a kidney transplant. Don is reasonably healthy and has a well-seasoned kidney to spare. Call it BBQ serendipity or a blessing of the BBQ gods = Don and Jed are a perfect match of blood types and the magic of the gift of time (kidney transplant) will be performed at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worces- ter, MA on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.
My team (with Jed) - “The Serial Grillers and the 2 Hot Pattys” won Boston Magazine’s Battle of the Burger 2012 & 2015!
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