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December 23, 2024
GREENWOOD – Though owning and running a brick-and-mortar restaurant is new to Dan Blastic – owner of Hog Cabin Bar-B-Que – his passion for barbeque, he said, is not.
“That’s how I perfected the barbeque,” he said.
After running a barbeque catering company – aptly named Blastic’s Bar-B-Que – for nearly 22 years, Blastic took the leap and opened Hog Cabin Bar-B-Que at N10005 Hwy 73 in Greenwood earlier this year.
The pivot to restaurant ownership, he said, came after he retired from his other years-long career in construction.
When he hung up his hard hat for the last time, the former Milwaukee and Arizona resident said he sought a slower-paced place to live.
And with his son, daughter-in-law and grandkids residing in the area, Blastic said he began searching for a commercial kitchen from which to run his catering business.
Though he couldn’t find one that fit, he said he did find a restaurant in the area for sale – and put in a bid.
At that time, Blastic said it didn’t work out as his bid wasn’t accepted.
A few months later, however, he said the owner opted to sell due to a change in circumstances and Hog Cabin Bar-B-Que became a reality.
“Either way, it worked out for us,” he said.
With the keys in hand, Blastic said he proceeded to do intensive cleaning, including the kitchen hoods and had the fire suppression system, appliances and other equipment serviced to ensure everything was working properly before opening.
“It’s important to make sure all the foods will be held at the right temperatures. I’m all about that,” he said. “I know there are restaurants out there that say something is ‘good enough,’ but that’s not enough for me.”
Carefully curated menu
Blastic said the same applies to the carefully curated items on Hog Cabin’s menu, which, of course, includes barbeque.
The restaurant’s smoked brisket, he said, tends to rank No. 1 with customers, though the pulled pork and baby back ribs are strong contenders as well.
Blastic said the menu also features a smoked prime rib that has been well-received by customers – even though it veers from what most people are used to having at a supper club.
“People weren’t quite sure (about the smoked prime rib) at first, but we made it again last Saturday, and we sold out,” he said. “I have people who say they’ve ‘always gone to XYZ for prime rib,’ but they tried ours and liked it.”
Blastic said all the meats are made with his homemade sauces, honed from years of finessing and tweaking – noting that nothing is pre-made.
In addition, he said he makes his own barbeque beans from scratch using yet another secret recipe and has created quite a following for his French onion soup and brisket chili.
“These are all my recipes – my mother taught me as she was a terrific cook,” he said. “One thing I do when cooking is to write everything down to ensure the recipes are always the same. There is no ‘handful of this’ or ‘handful of that’ when I cook. I measure everything so it’s always the same – I don’t deviate. I also use the same ingredients consistently. I don’t just buy what’s on sale in a given week. That’s important to keep things consistent.”
From the ground up
Blastic said he started smoking meats with a smoker he bought on a closeout.
“Out of the gate, I thought, ‘this is going to be great,’” he said. “But it took years of practice, and a lot of clubs and groups sharing tips and advice, for it to be good.”
Blastic said it’s an interesting time to offer barbeque meats because of the popularity of Traegers and other wood pellet grills.
However, Blastic said there is an important differentiation in how he smokes meats versus how a wood pellet grill does.
“This is a completely different taste,” he said.
Blastic said it’s definitely not a “set-it-and-forget-it” scenario when it comes to smoking the meat at Hog Cabin.
He said it takes several hours to trim and prepare the meat, which is typically done the day before it’s smoked.
On days he smokes meat, Blastic said he gets an early start as it can take anywhere from 18-24 hours, depending on the type of meat.
Cooking barbeque, he said, is not about time but about temperatures.
“It’s about maintaining temperatures for different types of meat, and if you don’t reach and sustain those temperatures, (the meat) is not done,” he said. “It requires a lot of monitoring. Windy days are worse because it stokes the fire harder. The way I do it, there is a lot to it, but the taste is for sure worth it.”
Blastic said he is particular, and if barbeque doesn’t meet his standards, it won’t be served.
“I drive hard,” he said. “I don’t just throw something in and say it’s good enough to eat. If I don’t eat it, it doesn’t go on the table.”
Blastic said he recognizes that his barbeque is unique to what many other restaurants serve.
“I’ve tried them, and a lot of other places use a lot of spice because they believe the hotter, the better,” he said. “But that’s not what we do. Our flavors are subtle but delicious.”
Blastic said Hog Cabin grinds its own meat for its burgers, as well as hand cuts and marinates its steaks in a secret blend he created.
He said he doesn’t tend to use salt given the natural sodium content of meat and the ease with which someone who wants more of it can add it.
More than barbeque
The restaurant menu isn’t limited to the barbeque, also including wings, pizzas, buckets of broasted chicken, barbeque beans, macaroni and cheese and even some Mexican dishes.
Thursday night, Blastic said, is Mexican night at Hog Cabin and gives his main chef an opportunity to create made-from-scratch Mexican dishes without using boxed or bottled ingredients.
“I told him, we don’t do that here,” he said. “If you look at my kitchen, there are racks and racks of spices. He makes his own sauces now and his own dishes, and people love that. We’ve even incorporated some of my barbeque meats into some of them to take them to another level.”
In addition, Blastic said he has a sous chef who helps on Fridays and Saturdays in addition to his daughter, Brittany, who assists in the kitchen around her full-time bakery management job.
Blastic said catering continues to be a mainstay for him, whether it’s brisket, pulled pork or broasted chicken for the holidays, business meetings, teacher in-service days or other get-togethers.
He said he offers a catering menu of items that can be delivered, set up and cleaned up, or for pickup – which includes a variety of barbeque meats, as well as beans, soups, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes and even desserts, with meats and sides available by the pound.
“We package things in nice aluminum pans for easy rewarming at home,” he said. “We do as much catering as we can, including full-service catering where we set it up, people can serve themselves and then we come back and clean up when we’re done, even taking the trash with us. We don’t give any reason not to bring us back.”
Blastic said summertime brought some outdoor catering events in local parks and there’s been growth in catering to several local establishments that have the facility space to accommodate a good-sized group but don’t serve food beyond some snacks.
That’s been a great entry point for Hog Cabin, he said.
“Because we’re licensed, they allow us to come in and set up for parties, and they have enjoyed what we did,” he said. “We’ve even talked about being private caterers for a few of these locations.”
The restaurant itself, Blastic said, is also available for special events – with seating up to 130.
Most of Hog Cabin’s clientele are local, but Blastic said it draws from Wausau (an hour away), Eau Claire (an hour and a half away) and everywhere in between.
“I would love to appeal to more people from those communities to visit us,” he said.
A part of the community
With a focus on community, Blastic said he and his daughter created Hog Cabin Heartfelt Holiday of Hope to benefit a few local causes, including children who wouldn’t otherwise have a Christmas, families in need and the Greenwood Area Food Pantry.
He said they purchased a variety of items to create baskets, which customers can purchase raffle tickets for, with all proceeds benefiting these organizations.
“We’re trying to do for this community,” he said.
Since he hasn’t had the funds to invest in advertising with the repairs the restaurant needed, Blastic said fortunately, word of mouth has been a great source of new customers as well.
“It’s a small town, and I’m sure we’d be doing a heck of a business if we were in a big city,” he said. “But I’m not in this for the money. It’s a passion of mine, and I love to see people come in and enjoy it. There is nothing like it around here.”
