We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Daryl Gilfillan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Daryl below.

Hi Daryl, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?

My friends and family definitely support my business all the time! Its as simple as jumping on Facebook and asking for them to share and invite their friends and family and most of them will get right on it and numbers will jump big time within days. Just recently was 100 people shy of hitting 11,000 followers and asked and they made it jump over 11,100 people with in 24hrs! That goes a long way as far as support goes.. another thing is our catering side. All of our catering jobs are all word of mouth and we do a lot of catering. I truly appreciate all the love and support everyone shows us everyday! Its very humbling when people tag you and your business multiple times a day for food trucks and catering business!

Daryl, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve actually talked about having a bar and grill since I was younger with all my friends and was always cooking at camping trips and hangout outings. My very first kitchen job was at Donahue’s in Valley Park when I was still in high school then it was a small restaurant that my Grandpa had opened in south county mall called The Chili Pot that didn’t last very long in there because mall traffic slowed down after Christmas that year so grandpa sold the equipment and we left.. there was also a few other places including O Charley’s and even Helen Fitzgeralds too along the way but it really got going more when I started working at Fenton Bar and Grill and I was a main cook there that my cooking experience got alot better.. there has been lots of inspiration and knowledge from all my past jobs that have inspired me to start Smokey D’s including my last job at The Corner Butcher in Fenton..

We offer lots of different Smoked meats and sides and also other options now with the food trailer.. we offer catering, food truck events, private events at homes for a standard minimum fee for basic feeding then a more advanced pricing for specific/specialty items.. we specialize in office, business or corporate catering too!!

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

It all started one night when I went and met Don Marler from Daddy O’s Cheesesteaks to try out his Cheesesteak sandwich he was selling down in my hometown of House Springs Mo in 20° weather and as he was cooking my sandwich the bells were going off in my head that it was time for me to start something similar but not the same.. I didn’t sleep right for 2 days trying to think of what it was I would do to start a food business then it hit me that I was always bbqn for my friends and family so maybe that was what I would do.. after a few days I knew it was time and the plan started coming together and I reached out to my Grandpa about us getting me a pull behind smoker and he agreed to make the purchase for me to get me started then I started talking about it on my Facebook and with friends and everyone told me to do it so we got started on coming up with the brand and thats how Smokey D’s got started! Once I had the smoker delivered I got setup at a local bar in the parking lot and sold everything I had that day so I knew it was going to work. I set up every Saturday that I could for 2 ½ years with sell outs everytime weekend after weekend
then it got to a point I needed more space so opened a small shop in house springs to put out more food and when it opened we gained so much more business it was crazy the amount of food we were going through everyday. I ended up selling the contents of the property to a now coffee shop and buying a food trailer and that’s what we use now and now are opening a catering/commisary building to work out of.

How’d you meet your business partner?

My co founder/business partner was my Grandpa Jim Gilfillan.. he truly believed in me and helped me get things started and that’s how I got this started was from him

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Smokeydstl.com
• Facebook: Smokey D’s House Springs/Fenton Missouri