Food trucks are becoming more and more popular across the United States.
According to mobilecuisine.com, there are 4,130 total in the U.S. - bringing in over $1 billion in food truck revenue.
"Food trucks are becoming a lot more popular," said Gabe Jones, owner of Smoke N' Pig BBQ. "A lot of people ask me how to start a food truck and I always tell them... get away from the mainstream and do something exotic, do something different from others."
So with the rise in food truck businesses (and restaurants), what makes Smoke N' Pig BBQ unique?
There are a number of things that make them different - for example, everything the barbeque truck sells each day is freshly homemade.
"We don't bring anything over from the day before," said Jones. "At first, it was kind of hard to judge because we didn't know what kind of business we were going to get."
But it's important that Smoke N' Pig's menu items start from scratch every morning.
"Any of the left over food, I’ll box it up and take it down to the fire station or I'll drive around for a little bit and [give it to] the homeless people or whoever is standing out that needs something. I'll just hand out trays to people," said Jones.
Smoke 'N Pigs menu consists of ribs, rib tips, pulled pork, chicken and homemade sides – the truck's rib tips being most popular.
"With our customers so far [the most popular item] seems to be the rib tips," said Jones. "Rib tips are our best-seller by far. Our rib tips are a little spicy."
All the barbeque sauce comes on the side, appealing to those that want the extra flavor as well as to the ones who don't.
"We just have one barbeque sauce right now - our Signature Smoke N' Pig BBQ sauce," said Jones. "Some people like spicy and some people don't, so we went with a traditional sweet and tangy one at first. Because our rub is a little spicy, it tames that... calms it down a little bit."
Although rib tips are their number one menu item as of right now, Smoke N' Pig's ribs are also something to look out for after winning a 'Best Ribs' contest during Brighton's Smokin' Jazz & Barbecue Blues Festival.
"We got into the Brighton festival. We were supposed to be on a different part of the strip - someone backed out so we got a chance to be on the main drag and that put us in the rib competition... our ribs took first place," Jones said.
Smoke N' Pig is now eager to expand.
"This winter we will be looking at another trailer in hopes of having one always at Market Fresh and one able to be mobile and move around," said Jones.
But if you're wondering where you can spot Smoke 'N Pig before the mobile expansion, look no further than the BWL Chili Cook-off to be held on October 7 at Adado Riverfront Park, where the food truck will be a vendor.
Smoke N' Pig Barbeque is located in the Market Fresh parking lot at the corner of Martin Luther King Blvd. and Jolly Rd. in Lansing and is open Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
For more information on Smoke N' Pig BBQ and to stay updated, click here.
To enter for the chance to win a $50 gift certificate to Smoke N' Pig BBQ, click here.
For more BBQ Week on Big Bang Theory, click here.
