Good Neighbor Podcast: Delco

The Delco Sauce with a Mission: Q's Cue Barbecue Sauce & Dry Rub

Bob Blaisse

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0:00 | 14:18

The Delco Sauce with a Mission: Q's Cue Barbecue Sauce & Dry Rub

On this episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, listen to the heartwarming story of how two parents' personal tragedy has turned to a mission from Delaware County, PA. Hear Good Neighbor Podcast Host Bob Blaisse welcome Tara Moyer and Joe Quattrochi, the co-owners of Q's Cue BBQ Sauce and Dry Rub, to the podcast studio to share their story of how they are raising their five children and running a business, which came to be thanks to their taste for quality barbecue and charitable giving.

Listen as Tara and Joe (a.k.a "Q") reveal how Q's Cue  was inspired by Tara's culinary talents and the couple's profound personal experiences. Tara, who studied culinary arts, lost her 13-month-old daughter to Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC), while Joe's son lives with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). These life-changing circumstances inspired these two parents of a now-blended family to create a business where every purchase of their highly appreciated BBQ sauces and rubs now directly supports research for both conditions. As Joe poignantly shares in this episode, while suggesting that life has given the couple a lot of lemons, you’ll hear how they've used their experience to make lemonade (well, actually barbecue sauce), that now brings a smile to everyone who tastes their brand of products.

You'll also hear how what sets Q's Cue BBQ products apart isn't just the mission for its designated charitable causes, but it's the recipe, using the highest quality ingredients with none of the high fructose corn syrup or chemical preservatives found in most commercial barbecue sauces. Using only natural sweeteners like apples, honey and pineapples instead, they've developed the right mix of both sweet and hot barbecue sauces, and two versatile dry rubs – applewood smoke and coffee espresso – which Q's Cue customers use in surprisingly creative ways from seasoning roasted vegetables to flavoring ice cream and cocktails.

If you're not near one of the 13 stores across Pennsylvania counties that sells Q's Cue BBQ Sauce and Dry Rub for that perfect blend of tastes and meaningful social impact, learn how you can order Q's Cue BBQ products online. Also, see how each bottle features the images of the children who inspired Joe and Tara in their mission, which makes every purchase a personal family connection to something greater, proving how this Good Neighbor Business brings good neighbors and good taste together while making a genuine difference in the world.

Q's Cue BBQ Sauce and Dry Rub
QsCue.com
facebook.com/qscue

--- About The Show--- Good Neighbor Podcast is a spotlight on local businesses in and around Delaware County, PA (“Delco” ) and Beyond...  The executive producer and host, Bob Blaisse, is a community sponsorship advocate, business branding specialist, and publisher of several hometown magazines, including: Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors, Marple Friends & Neighbors and Newtown Edgmont Friends & Neighbors, mailed monthly to more than 12,000 homes in Western Delaware County, PA, and also available for reading online.
 

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast

Speaker 1

Hello, delco. This is Michael Barkan, welcoming you to the Good Neighbor Podcast, where fans of local businesses and their neighbors come together. It's my pleasure once again to introduce my friend and neighbor, our host Bob Lacey.

Speaker 2

Ken. Thanks again and everybody, welcome to a new episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast coming to you from Delaware County, pennsylvania. In the southeast corner of Pennsylvania we lovingly refer to Delaware County as Delco, and it's got a real vibe. Everybody's starting to know about it, even nationally, and the nature of this podcast is to bring that vibe forward. A little bit of Delco, good neighbor businesses from Delco, and tonight we're going to be talking about the taste of Delco from the perspective of a good neighbor business that is formed in Delco and now raising money really for great causes through their barbecue sauce.

Introducing Q's Q BBQ Sauce

Speaker 2

So let me bring to the stage and talk a little bit tonight to the co-owners of the Q's Q BBQ sauce and dry rub company that is in Delco, co-owners Tara Moyer and Joe Quattroti. So, joe and Tara, welcome to the stage. Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Hi, thank you so much for having us, tara. I have to ask you ladies first, as the co-owner of this business is it like a fondness for barbecue sauce or is there really some kind of additional mission behind this business? Because you love to cook or something like that?

Speaker 3

Well, I did actually go to school for culinary arts, so I do have a passion for cooking. When I met Joe, he, you know, had pitched this idea and we just kind of ran with it. You know, we don't use it just as a barbecue sauce or just as dry rubs. We use it on pretty much everything, um as far as like stir fries and all of that. But um, behind all of it there's there's a mission. Um, my daughter had passed away when she was 13 months old, of um SIDS or S-U-D-C passed away when she was 13 months old of SIDS or S-U-D-C which is sudden, unexplained death in childhood, and his son has Duchenne muscular dystrophy. So our profits do go to benefit those two different charities.

Speaker 2

Wow, I had heard that there was behind this business a great mission, but I thought it was to teach people to love better tasting barbecue sauce.

Speaker 4

That's definitely what it is, Bob. It's one of the best tasting sauces. Everyone is just ranting and raving for it. We're growing super, super quick.

Speaker 2

So we're talking about for those who don't know and don't really eat spicy foods or whatever. I mean, we all know barbecue and we all know that people would use barbecue sauce, often on chicken or on ribs, soak ribs in it. It really rub ribs down and that kind of stuff. But I don't know if everybody knows what a dry rub is. But talk a little bit about the sauce. Is it really a super secret recipe? Can you share a little bit about what makes it special and makes it taste so good?

Speaker 4

Yeah. So first of all, Bob, what we really looked around is you go into any grocery store and every bottle of barbecue sauce has nothing but high fructose corn syrup, chemicals, preservatives all these words you can't even pronounce. So we wanted to make something that was all natural. If you look at our ingredient list, it's just we put a lot of apples, honey and pineapples in to make a lot more sweet type of sauce. We also use all clean products. There's no high fructose corn syrup, no chemical preservatives, and we still use glass, because it's just like Coca-Cola, Bob, Everything just tastes better in glass.

Speaker 2

You know it. Joe, I have to say you're making my mouth water here. It's in the evening time and I'm thinking, wow, I have to imagine the difference in the taste on this. But, tara, can I ask about the name? We all know what barbecue sauce is and people say, you know, put some Q sauce in there or something, but Q's, q's barbecue sauce or Q's Q. I mean, who's Q? Is there a Q? Is that your nickname now, joe?

Speaker 3

It kind of is. So the Q's Q came from. Joe's last name is Quattrochi and that's just way too long for a label, so we shortened it and we did Q's Q. Got it, and then the barbecue.

Speaker 2

So, for the listener's benefit, we're talking to Joe and Tara. Joe's last name is Quattro, T begins with a Q, and Tara's last name Moyer. Tara, Moyer, Joe and Tara have brought to the market their own barbecue sauce, so it's it's fondly named after that Q guy, one of the chefs and recipe creators, Q? Q's barbecue sauce. But it's really. If you want to look for this website, it's easy to remember. Just put in Q's for Q-S-Q-Q-U-E dot com C-U-E C-U-E.

Speaker 4

We're sorry about that.

The Meaning Behind the Mission

Speaker 2

Q-S-C-U-E dot com. I have Q's on my mind here. Q's Q dot com is the way to find them on facebook too. Go to facebook and just put in qs que. Again, it's cue. I keep thinking of that, of that q, so we're going to get it right here. Um, it's q's q on facebook, qs cue, yes, on facebook. And that's the same thing for the domain name. I apologize, I think the taste of this barbecue sauce you know on my lips here, making my tongue tied. Joe, I want to ask this too, because Tara brought up that your business is not just the mission of bringing the best barbecue sauce to the people of Delaware County and beyond, but it's also got the mission behind it to raise money, and it was a hard subject to hear. I'm really sorry to hear about your loss. You lost your daughter to SIDS, right, tara? And then, joe, did you also your son too?

Speaker 4

Well, no, my son is still alive. He's 12 years old. He was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy when he was four years old. So we help to not only raise awareness about the disease, but to also raise as much money as we can to help to give to the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation to help find a cure for kids and him and kids like him. Tara and I always keep a positive outlook. We always say that life has given her and I a lot of lemons. So instead of making lemonade, we made barbecue sauce.

Speaker 2

And, yes, there is lemons in our barbecue sauce. Well, I love it and I bet you, everybody who buys a bottle of Q's Q barbecue sauce or the dry rub, which I want to get to, but everybody who buys a bottle is actually contributing to one of those charities, correct? Do you pick a certain charity for each product and put it on the bottle?

Speaker 3

Well, yes and no yes, so at the, basically at the, when we're ready to make the donation, we split everything in half between. That's nice, that makes it, that makes no matter what product you you purchase, um, all of it goes into the same pot. Any donation that is made it, it goes into the same pot. Any donation that is made it all goes into the same pot, and then we just split it between the two.

Speaker 4

And on both of our bottles, bob. On the sweet bottle we have a picture of Tara's daughter Her name is Hannah and we have a little explanation of what SUDC is. And then on the hot bottle we have a picture of my son, adam, and then an explanation of musculature. So when you pick up a bottle you can literally see the kids. You can see there's links to the charities if you would like to donate yourself on your own. So we really try to push awareness and try to help as much as we can.

Creative Uses for Dry Rubs

Speaker 2

It's beautiful. I saw the website. I saw the picture of the kids on the bottle and I have to say I thought maybe that was just kids who love barbecue sauce. But this is your own children on the bottle and it's the way that people get reading and they realize that every purchase of every one of Q's barbecue sauce or the dry rub product is a purchase that leads to a donation. Part of the purchase price is actually going half of it to one of your two charities, half of it to one of your two charities, and they include the Deshawn Muscular Dystrophy Charity and the SUDC Charity. These are really a memento of the life of your children. So what a blessing that is. And let's now get on to the blessing of dry rub. Tell me a little bit, because I don't think most people know dry rub. I mean, they hear about it, but is it literally a kind of seasoning that has to be rubbed on to meat first? Is that how it's working? Or is it just the name of it?

Speaker 3

No, that's just kind of the name and the common understanding of a dry rub, but we use it on pretty much everything. I mean you can put it on, you know, the meat the night before, put it in the refrigerator, refrigerator, let it marinate, um, the brown sugar and the spices kind of seep in overnight, makes it really tender, and the sea salt, you know it. It all works with the meat. But I also use it on, like um, my roasted vegetables, potatoes, things like that. I just toss it with like a little bit of olive oil, throw them in the oven and it's great, Anything that. I hand bread, like anything you would use, like shake and bake on. I use breadcrumbs and I mix a little bit of the seasoning in just to give it some extra flavor.

Speaker 2

Wow, Well, that opens up my eyes a little bit here, and my mouth even water more now. Well, we have you know. It opens up my eyes a little bit here and makes my mouth even water more.

Speaker 4

Now we do have a customer who puts our dry rubs in her ice cream, our coffee dry rub, yes, so we have a coffee espresso dry rub that she says she puts in her ice cream, puts in her lattes, and she said, if you mix it with butter she's like our coffee. One tastes just like the butter from Texas Roadhouse, which I never even thought of and I love that butter. So I immediately ran to the kitchen and mix it. I'm like, oh my God, yeah, it does. And then the other one is an applewood smoke dry rub and that thing. I put it on everything Beef, chicken, pork, fish, vegetables. I mean it, just it's amazing.

Speaker 2

That's great and you might be onto something there. Future non-alcoholic drink in your future there.

Speaker 3

Right, exactly, we actually had a gentleman tell us that he puts it in his white Russians.

Speaker 4

So hey, whatever you want to do, we're completely fine with Tiny things and we tell our people who purchase from us. I'm like send us pictures, you know. Send us what you do, give us your recipes. We're always looking for new, weird ways you want to use our product and we love that. We love that about our customers and about people who like us.

Speaker 2

So when you're selling the product, it's really primarily what Three products, the rub and then two different sauces Correct, Two different rubs.

Speaker 4

It's four. There's a sweet barbecue, there's a hot barbecue, we have an applewood smoke dry rub and we have a coffee espresso dry rub.

Where to Find Q's Q Products

Speaker 2

And the people that would find you would find you at like if you're doing a show or a flea market or something like that and the person can buy online right.

Speaker 4

We're in 13 stores right now in Pennsylvania from Delaware County, Lehigh Bucks and Montgomery County. We also have our website, QsQcom, which you can purchase online and we can ship it out to you. And Tara and I we do shows almost every single weekend all year long. We just got done the bronco festival in wildwood and jeep festival. We're in the seattle farmers market all summer and, if you're interested, the bob. This weekend we're doing the pocono cannabis festival up in the poconos, you know. So come out there and get some of your medication and get some yeah, I don't know if I can make it through that.

Speaker 2

I can make it over the to Edgemont Community Day, though perhaps coming up in a couple weeks, but good, good.

Speaker 3

We try and spread our wings and cover. You know all the events.

Speaker 4

As many as we can.

Speaker 2

yes, Well, is this the kind of mission that could take you away from your? If you have daytime, jobs like this could be the future.

Speaker 3

He is an eighth grade social studies teacher and I work in medical. I work in a local hospital, so we are definitely looking for this to take us away from those. You know his nine to five Mine's not a nine to five, it's three and seven am and Bob.

Speaker 4

together we're a blended family. We still have five children that are living with us and they eat us out of house and home. So, we're doing the best we can to sell as much sauce just to make sure we keep the cupboard filled.

Speaker 2

I love it and there's mission in this product. Everybody, if you've heard Tara and Joe talk about this business Q's Q Barbecue Sauce and Dry Rub barbecue sauce and dry rub let's get together and see if we can help them not only help their good causes for the nonprofit organizations that they donate to, but let's really increase our palate tastes by getting the very best barbecue sauce that is born and bred in Delaware County, pennsylvania. Q's Q If you want to find it online, it's QS for Q's and then C-U-E Q's Qcom. Tara Moyer and Joe Quattro. T is the way to spell the name. It starts with a Q and that makes sense, right?

Episode Closing and Contact Information

Speaker 2

So everybody, I have to say, with a strong request this doesn't usually come from the Good Neighbor podcast, but this is a Good Neighbor business and I'm asking everyone to go to the website, make a purchase, email them, contact them and see if you can't maybe load up some of that great Q's Q barbecue sauce and dry rub even in your own store or in your own restaurant. I can't wait to taste it. Guys. What a great business with a great mission. Great tasting product, I hear, and I want to thank you for bringing it not only to Delaware County, but bringing it to the Good Neighbor podcast Definitely a good neighbor business. We're looking forward to tasting your wonderful sauce. Joe and Tara, thank you very much for being a guest on the Good Neighbor podcast tonight.

Speaker 3

Absolutely. Thank you for having us.

Speaker 4

We really appreciate it.

Speaker 1

It's an honor. Thank you so much for having us aboard and we appreciate everything you're doing for us and for our business. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast hosted by Bob Lacey. This is Michael Barkan inviting everyone to get on the Good Neighbor team. Nominate your favorite local business to be featured on an upcoming episode by going to gnpdelcocom or by calling Bob at 610-557-3745.