We were lucky to catch up with Anthony Outlaw recently and have shared our conversation below.

Anthony, appreciate you joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

I developed my Outlaw Smoke BBQ Rubs to complement the smoked meats and sides that I prepared for family and friends. I tried many other brands at first, and while they were good, they didn’t complement my dishes enough to bring out the full flavor of my cooking. So, I set out on a mission to create MSG-free rubs with an umami punch. I was introduced to a variety of herbs and spices in the early 2000’s while on a food and spice tour, with my wife Lisa, in Charleston, South Carolina, which launched me on my quest to create blends that were not only tasty and complementary, but also natural and sustainable. On that tour, one thing the spice maker said to me stuck with me and became the foundation of my recipes and the methodology for my blends: “Every great blend must have salt, fat, acid, and heat.” As a result, all of my rubs start with a base of the big four: Salt, pepper, onion, and garlic, along with other complementary herbs and spices, combine to create the umami profile that distinguishes my rubs from others.
After three years of research, finding a sustainable spice vendor, trial and error, taste testing by family and friends, and final approval from quality control (Lisa, my wife), I successfully developed my first rub, the Savory blend, a blend of ten herbs and spices suitable for basic grilling and pit smoking.

The next step after final development, was getting both the rub and a processing facility approved by the state Agriculture Department for sale and distribution. Just as I got the dates in place to do so, the COVID pandemic hit in March 2020, and all plans were delayed for a year. Since I couldn’t run my catering company during that time, I decided to work on a few more blends for release once things opened back up and reached some normalcy.

In June 2021, as things began to slowly open back up, I received a call from the Agriculture Department scheduling my inspection. The inspection went great! Not only did I pass inspection, but the inspector also said that the facility was the cleanest one that they had ever seen. On June 9, 2021, the Outlaw Smoke BBQ Rub line was successfully launched.

That year off from catering for me was tough but necessary, because it forced me (mostly my wife) to recreate and rebrand my catering company (Outlaw Smoke BBQ) with the rubs being at the forefront of the business. That year also enabled me to focus on developing more rubs to satisfy the taste buds of anyone who tries my brand. In doing so, I created our Sweet Rub, Sweet Heat Rub, Coffee Rub, and All-Purpose Rub, and I’m still quietly working on my next blend to expand the product line.

My wife Lisa (Brand Development) painstakingly overhauled my website tying together beautifully, the relationship and necessity between food and flavor. She also created our online store, so that the rubs are available to everyone nationwide and in Germany, for my former Army buddies who live there and need a little taste of home spice.

While many both hated and struggled through the height of the pandemic, personally, it was a blessing and motivating factor for me to finally be about instead of just talking about ways to expand and diversify my business.

In the works, I’m currently meeting with small co-packing companies to produce my rubs at a higher volume without compromising my recipes, product quality and Mom and Pop small business feel of the love, warmth, and full-flavored boldness that my rubs are known for, when sprinkled on your favorite foods.

All of my rubs are sold and shipped solely through our website, Outlawsmoke.org. When you savor flavor, Outlaw Smoke BBQ Rubs are a satisfying tastebud explosion.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers?

I am the owner of Outlaw Smoke, a BBQ catering company in Raleigh, North Carolina. In addition to being a Pitmaster, I am a husband, father, pastor, and barber. As a Raleigh native, My love for great food stems from spending time in the kitchen with my mother, a retired chef. Some of my most memorable lessons involve learning how to prep and cook southern, scratch-made comfort food. As an army veteran, my taste for smoked meats was acquired and developed while being stationed in Texas. I began smoking meats as a way to cope with my PTSD diagnosis, once I got out of the army. It was also a way to help me meet my business expenses (via BBQ plate sales) when I first opened my Barber Shop. My personal favorite and first mastered dish is beef brisket, seasoned with my signature Savory BBQ Rub, smoked low and slow for hours in my wood burning pits. Other meats such as pulled pork, pork ribs, pork belly, chicken, and turkey came later, as well as homemade sides of mac & cheese, cabbage, and collard greens just to name a few. At Outlaw Smoke, all meats are seasoned to perfection with my line of signature “Outlaw Smoke Rubs”, smoked low and slow, to ensure a mouthwatering, unforgettably tender, tasty and juicy experience. My motto at Outlaw Smoke is, “Pray, Eat, Sleep.”

When I’m not cooking and catering to others, I spend my time enjoying life with my wife, kids, and grandchildren: Family is my happy place.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner?

I met my business partner Lisa, who is also my wife, and best friend, on January 26, 1997, on a semi blind date. I say semi, because we had talked on the phone a few times and the date was set up by my best friend Garrick, who is married to Lisa’s sister. Garrick tried to get us to meet while we were all in college in 1987, me at North Carolina Central University and Lisa at Lasalle University, in Philadelphia and he and her sister were at UPenn in Philadelphia.
Being a football player, I had no true interest in settling down especially long distance, and truth be told, she was not interested in my probable arrogance-she was right at the time-so we elected not to meet. A couple of years later, Garrick hoped that we would meet at he and Sheila’s wedding, since I was supposed to be in the wedding but due to Desert Storm, my unit wouldn’t grant me leave to attend and participate.
Fast forward some ten years later, I was four months separated from the army, a year removed from a failed marriage, and starting over as a civilian in a new career. Lisa was a successful career woman, single mother of two young kids and beloved friend, daughter and sibling to those around her. After hearing Garrick’s plea yet again, we finally agreed to meet, but only after we spoke on the phone.
I knew from the moment we had our first conversation that she would be my wife. and I told her so halfway through our conversation. Of course, she called me crazy, delusional and arrogant; I call it fate. To put it lightly, I have a strong personality and her whit, intelligence, honesty, expectations of life and snarky attitude, is exactly what i was looking for in a wife, and our first conversation checked all the boxes.
The day we actually met was Super Bowl Sunday, the Patriots were playing the Packers (personally, I’m a Cowboys fan). The party was at her house, and she was stunning. She came out in a burgundy skirt outfit with a couple of bleach stains on it, and no makeup, which was great because I’ve never been a makeup fan. As for me, I was my comfortable self; layered sweats, my army camouflage coat, and my signature rose colored glasses. We examined one another and found that we enjoyed the comfort of just being our truly authentic selves, and from there we stayed up until 6 am just enjoying mature stimulating conversation, and we went on that way for months.
After a year or so of dating and dedicating our lives to Christ making him the center of our relationship, we wed on November 20, 1998. Since then, we have raised two wonderfully successful children, put them through college, gained a great son-in-law, been blessed with four amazing grand kids, been called to Pastoral ministry, own a couple of successful businesses, love one another unconditionally, still date weekly, genuinely enjoy spending our time together and we are just getting started. Through ups, downs, uncertainty, and an ever-changing world cultural landscape, we remain steadfast, unmovable and in love.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In March 2020, I was enjoying successful careers in both barbering and catering and the COVID 19 pandemic hit. Everything immediately and unexpectedly shut down. Faced with the possibility of having no income, my wife and I looked at the numbers and she pointed out that to maintain for an unknown period of time, I had to shift and do something different, shortly after our conversation, I began working on and developing a BBQ Rub line that I had been blaring in my wife’s ear about for years.
While I had been periodically working on a couple of recipes, now was the time to get focused and perfect those recipes into another product brand that would be pandemic proof.

Once the recipes were blended, I sent samples to my family and friends that were posting their BBQ and other foods on social media during this time. I asked them to use it, post it on social media if they liked it, honestly review it and give me critical feedback so that I could perfect the rubs.

After months of tasting, data collection, and mixing spices, we finally came up with the rubs that people around the nation enjoy today: The Outlaw Smoke BBQ Rubs.

My wife recreated and rebranded my website to showcase the rubs, and so that everyone could order and pay online, which generated a steady income stream during the pandemic.

No matter what obstacles you face, anything can be overcome through faith in God and resilience in life.

Contact Info:

• Website: Outlawsmoke.org
• Instagram: Outlawsmoke1
• Facebook: Outlaw Smoke Catering
• Twitter: @Outlawsmoke