We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Quentin Van Horn a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Quentin , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think it takes to be successful?

For me I believe you have to run your business with your whole heart and a lot of patience. It takes passion, sacrifice and a whole lot of good energy to pull off a standard that you are proud to put your businesses name on. No matter the product you put out for the world to experience. For me doing true live fire bbq requires all of that plus some. Probably the best example I have to share would be that I was doing a First Fridays popup a few years ago. After I got my truck setup for food service I started chatting with some of the other food truck owners there that night. Of course I gravitated towards the other bbq food truck there and agreed to trade food with this man. He brings me his offerings in a Togo box and said “we don’t mess with slicing to order it’s not worth our time to do so.” I accepted his box of food graciously and without opening it. I then went into my hotbox full of brisket I cooked earlier in the day and proceeded to slice a fresh one open for him to try. He was like damn that looks amazing as I sliced him some of the best brisket he has ever seen. He went back to his truck and I opened his box he gave me and it was a disappointment. Unfortunately I would not serve this to anyone and at that point it was clear to me that quality is everything then some. You never know who is going to experience your product.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was a retail guy for 18 years and finally got out of the grind during the pandemic. I got a job with a easy schedule and started doing their catering on the side. It went so well I started to message local breweries to throw popups. Once I got my first one I never looked back. I started to befriend the KC BBQ community and learn from these guys. KC has the best people to learn from and emulate in this field because we are the Capital of BBQ. My specialty is Texas style Brisket and Ribs. I put my own spin on these creations that I think set me apart from the highly competitive BBQ scene here in KC. I use a offset smoker and roll all hard woods in it to make my meats second to none. Brisket takes 16 hours and my ribs 5 hours. Once a week I’m up through the night watching the fire and making sure the meat is doing what it needs to do. To pull this off takes dedication and passion plus a lot of patience. I’m not the only one in town that does it this way. The guys and places that do put out the best BBQ in the world. What makes me most proud of Point & Flat BBQ is that I built this from nothing and have consistently put out some of the best Que in the city.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I believe that my business mold of doing brewery popups have helped me build a name for myself. Each brewery has a different vibe and setting and crowd. Beer and BBQ pair extremely well. The more of them you do the more the word gets out about your business and your craft.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I’m not one to bad mouth any business and I believe things happen for reasons you don’t know of at the time. So not to go into to much detail about a certain business I will share. I feel it’s the single most defining thing that has happened to my business. Point & Flat was asked to be the full time food option at a brewery that opened a brand new building. I started to do popups at their old location and we formed a good healthy partnership and it grew into a full time gig. Well as they moved into their new space things changed and they really just treated my business and me with no respect. I was fresh off of leaving my regular job at the time and going all in on this dream I have. I didn’t know exactly how to navigate being self employed at that moment. At first I just kinda took it til I couldn’t anymore. I learned how to stick up for my business and the decisions I made there have only helped my business grow. Once I left that with no regular job and no plan in place I started to really feel good about finding different breweries to fill my schedule up. Fast forward almost 2 years and I’m at 3 of the best breweries in Kansas. I’m at Pathlight Brewing on Thursdays, Discourse Brewing on Fridays, and Friction Beer on Saturdays. Fridays I always have Burnt Ends and Saturday it’s just all BBQ goodies. I needed that bad experience of being treated like dirt to grow and move forward.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Pointandflat_bbq
• Facebook: Point and Flat BBQ