Blog

Our catered events are broken into three main segments: On-Site, Delivery, and Pickup. We will go through each and talk about the pros and cons.

ON-SITE

On-Site means you will have staff at the event for the duration of the meal.

When you have Saddleback’s staff is on-site we are responsible for:

• Setting the food
• Serving the food – unless you would like the guest to serve themselves, this leads to faster lines
• Answering all questions about the food
• Replenishing pans of food
• Cleaning our serving station
• Packaging the leftovers

So what are the downsides to having staff on-site? Saddleback, like most catering companies, charges for each hour of labor the event will need. So if the event requires 3 people to be on-site for 4 hours, we will have to charge 12 hours of labor.

Typically, for any wedding we highly recommend having on-site staff. It’s not an absolute must, but it does alleviate all effort for the guests. We also recommend staff for any events that will need frequent replenishing of the pans of food — Each pan has about 15lbs of food, so if you are ordering many types of food with more than 15lbs of food it may be a good idea.

Another option aside from having staff on-site for the duration of your event is to have the food delivered. When Saddleback delivers a catering event, we will set everything up for you. We light the sternos, place the food in the chafing dishes, and organize all of the food.

DELIVERIES

As the name suggests, we will deliver the food, but we will also set your event up for success.

When we deliver food to an event, we will:

• Arrive at your desired location and unload all of the foo
• Organize the placement in the most optimal order
• Light the sternos and set up the chafing dishes
• Provide disposable serving utensils

Deliveries are our most popular type of catering. They take almost all of the work out of food at an event. We highly recommend these!

PICK UP

Great for smaller events (80 people or less)

Just let us know what time you would like to pick the food up, we will have it ready. The food will come packaged and ready to be served. We pack the food in large aluminum containers that fit perfectly in chafing dishes. We also have a post explaining best practices for pick up orders, you can find that here: https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/tips-picking-catering-order

*** Some things to keep in mind, our dates fill up quickly. If you need your event catered on-site we will need more time to plan the event. We can provide food for pick-up caterings on very short notice. If you’re in a pickle and need food quickly, we will direct you towards pick-up. ***

When ordering food for an event the last thing you want is for the food to be cold when your guests eat it. Saddleback takes measures to ensure this never happens. Namely:

• As soon as your food is ready to go out the door it enters a hot-box. These are incredibly insulated portable containers. They will keep the food at nearly the same temperature that they were cooked at for up to 4 hours.
• Once the food is ready to be served, we highly recommend having chafing dishes and sternos. Chafing dishes and sternos can be purchased directly through Saddleback or from many retailers (GFS, Amazon, Walmart, etc). The sternos typically keep the food warm for 4 hours.
• This means between the hotbox we bring the food in and the chafing dishes we can keep the food hot up to 8 hours after it has been cooked!

*If your vendor does not allow the use of open flame on premise. Sterno offers a no flame product. Essentially, it’s a water activated packet that we put in the water pan under the food.*

For the past 5 years, Saddleback has purchased animals at the 4H live animal auction to support the college funds for some amazing kids and their incredible families. We have been able to donate over $20,000! Due in large part to our community.

The goal of 4H is to help kids develop life skills through experiential learning programs. One of those programs is the LiveStock Auction that occurs at the Ingham County Fairground. Kids are taught responsibility, confidence, and leadership by raising an animal and bringing it to the market to sell for a premium price. Many of the kids use the money they raised to help pay for college. At 5am, when most kids are sleeping, these kids are up feeding, grooming, and tending to their animals.

For the 2021 Live Animal Auction, we wanted to give the community an opportunity to donate to the auction, without needing to purchase an entire hog. We started a fund that people could donate to. Anyone that donated received a Saddleback Gift Card for equal value.

Below we breakdown the amount of donations raised and where the money went.

We also wanted to feature some of the amazing kids involved in the program by telling their story.

First up, Wesley:

Last year we had the privilege of purchasing one of Wesley’s pigs from the show. This year things are a little different, Wesley is competing again, but is also helping coach his siblings through the program. He also took on a new challenge, raising a lamb.

Wesley has many interests outside of the 4H program, he loves soccer, plays basketball, and runs cross country and track. We asked him how he is able to do so many things at once, his answer was unbelievable

“I have to prioritize and plan for what I love to do the most, which means I get up around 6:00 am every day all summer to feed, walk and wash my animals before I go to soccer camp and other sports training all day, and I’m back in the barn until after dark most nights doing the same thing. I do multiple things all year long because I’m trying to learn different things from different experiences, and I love most of all competition!”

When asked about helping his siblings, he said the main goal, aside from instilling a great work ethic, was to let them know to “become friends with their animals … Our show animals become our best friends”

We were curious about where he learned the necessary skills to raise a great animal. He essentially said it is a collaborative effort. His mother, Melissa, is better at certain aspects (training the animals for showings), his father, Tim, is better at other areas (i.e. selecting the best quality food for each animal to ensure the best health for the animal). He also said he learns from other friends he meets at the shows.

As mentioned above, this is Wesley’s first time raising a lamb. We asked him what new challenges this has presented. He said, because it was brand new to him, it was incredibly difficult. The skills he had acquired for raising pigs do not translate with lambs. At first, the lamb, whose name is Fudge, “was a little crazy”. “I asked a lot of questions, but still made the mistake of not training him correctly early enough, so I had to work extra hard later to get him ready to show.”

We were curious about how he was introduced to the 4H program, “My mom and dad were both in 4-H and showed animals when they were young. They always believed what they learned was important for us kids to experience. Since I’m the oldest, we got a couple of pigs the year before I was able to show so I would be able to see what it was like. I have always loved animals and was excited for my first year. Each year is hard work and takes a lot of time every day, but I still love it.”

If you’re interested in having your kids join the program, Wesley thinks it’s a great idea!

“If you are interested in raising and showing livestock I would suggest you do it, it is a really fun activity and a great group of friends – it’s like a big show family! Raising animals is a huge commitment though, it takes a lot of patience, time, and hard work. But when you get in that show ring and do a good job it feels so good. You will feel amazing!”

Thanks, Wesley!

Next up, Meah:

If you have any involvement in the Ingham County Live Animal Auction, chances are you know the Palmatier family. Meah Palmatier has been dominant in the auctions since Saddleback first got involved.

We have made it a loose tradition to purchase the Grand Champion Market Hog every year. Since Meah is so incredibly talented, this means we are often end up purchasing her hog (she has won Grand Champion 3 of the last 4 years!).

We asked her to list a few of her accomplishments:

⁃ Champion Showman for my age division at the fair the past 4 years

⁃ Grand Champion Market Hog at the Ingham County Fair 3 out of the past 4 years

⁃ Top 10 in the Michigan Swine Youth Challenge

⁃ Exhibited the Champion Michigan Breed Purebred at the Michigan Livestock Expo in 2020

⁃ Received the Premier Stockman Award for Michigan Livestock Expo for 3 years.

If you are not familiar with the world of showing livestock, this list is IMPRESSIVE. We often joke that she is the equivalent of the Alabama Football Program for raising animals.

Meah has participated in the Large Animal Auction for the past 8 years. She said this year was slightly more difficult than most. Due in large part to the fact that she and her siblings raised 18 pigs! “Which includes getting up every morning to clean pens, feed, walk and bathe them.”

Meah has many hobbies outside of raising her animals. “Aside from working with my animals I really enjoy playing volleyball at the Varsity High School and National level. I also have lots of fun playing basketball at Williamston. I am very involved in my school being a member of organizations like the National Honor Society, Student Government, peer to peer to name a few. I also enjoy baking and sewing with my Grandma. And like any girl my age, I like spending time with my family and friends.”

After high school, Meah has plans to attend college (hopefully playing volleyball). Then eventually sees herself either becoming an orthodontist or doing something in the agriculture field.

When asked if Meah would like to stay active in the 4-H program after she can no longer compete, her answer was perfect, “I definitely see myself staying involved with the 4H program when I am no longer able to participate. I want to give back to an amazing organization that has helped develop me into who I am today. I want to continue to help younger youth in 4H get more involved with livestock, and find a love for the livestock industry as I have developed.”

Thank you, Meah!

Recently in Lansing there has been a surge in theft and vandalism, restaurants have been disproportionately affected by these. Saddleback is good friends with, neighbors, or colleagues with all of these businesses. Naturally we wanted to help in any way possible.

We decided to begin a GoFundMe

THE RESULTS

With your help, we raised $8,621.00 to help Lansing Restaurants that were broken into recently. Each restaurant will receive a check for $1,383.60. Below is an exact accounting of every donation, GoFundMe fees, and the amount of each check.

*As a reminder, Saddleback is not taking a penny of this money and we paid $1,791.83 of our own money to advertise it to raise awareness about this issue.

Total Amount Raised: $8,621.00

GoFundMe Fees $319.38

Total After Fees $8,301.62

Amount Per Restaurant $1,383.60

Good Truckin’ Diner $1,383.60

Weston’s Kewpee Burger $1,383.60

Gumps BBQ $1,383.60

Social Sloth Cafe & Bakery $1,383.60

102 Pho & Banh Mi $1,383.60

Good Fella’s Bagel Deli $1,383.60

*Amount Saddleback Paid to Advertise the Post: $1,791.83

Buy any two bottles of Saddleback sauce and receive a $5.99 credit to use at either saddleback location!

To redeem the the credit, take a photo of our receipt and go to this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfovh-_Ntklp3LTALyZOyDNNU5zA7A_KMf08HqtazcdVzdPZg/viewform

(this rebate has now expired)

Our BBQ Sauce was just named the Best BBQ Sauce for Brisket in 2021!

Saddleback BBQ is a locally owned BBQ restaurant in Lansing, Michigan. We were founded in 2016, and follow traditional BBQ principles, using all-wood smokers, and simple yet powerful ingredients.

– Saddleback BBQ was named the Best BBQ in Michigan by Mental Floss

– We were was named the Best Small Business in Michigan by the SBDC

– Both of our sauces are Gluten Free

– Our retail products as a result of a successful Kickstarter campaign – raising over $16,000

Shop Now!

Sweet & Savory

Sweet & Savory is Saddleback’s staple sauce. The recipe hasn’t changed since we’ve been open. It has a sweetness, balanced out by its cumin and black pepper. Our Sweet & Savory sauce is utilized on one of Food Networks “Best Sandwiches in America”

Shop Now!

Michigan Mustard

An up-north twist on a Carolina Mustard sauce. Little sweet, little tangy, little spicy. For a full powerful flavor.

Shop Now!

Contact us to begin planning your event: https://saddlebackbbq.tripleseat.com/party_request/16389

When hosting a party deciding how much food to order can be stressful. Operating two restaurants and catering thousands of weddings, graduation parties, and business events makes us fairly confident when it comes to estimating how much food a gathering will need. 

We follow fairly simple rules of thumb: 

For proteins: 1/3lb of meat per person 

For sides: 1/2lb per person

If you would like to have multiple sides, aim to have have 1/2lb/person total, not of each side (for example, 100 person event would need 30lbs of Mac & Cheese and 20lbs of Baked Beans. NOT 50lbs of Mac & Cheese AND 50 lbs of Baked Beans). 

Keep in mind how popular an item is, we always know to have more Mac & Cheese than any other side because it's so popular. We typically like to have about 60-70% of the total amounts of sides to be the most popular item. 

When estimating how much food to order having a good idea of how many children will be attending is always smart. If they are a younger child (ie. 13 or younger), we estimate they will eat half as much. 

Sauce - we plan on 1oz of sauce per person

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What it looks like when put all together! 

Example order: 120 people attending, 20 of whom are children. 

Meats 

Pulled pork - 17lbs

Brisket - 18lbs 

Sides 

Mac & Cheese - 25lbs

Baked Beans - 18lbs

Potato Salad -10lbs

Sauce - 10 twelve oz. bottles 

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Tips! 

Plate Size - If you're terrified of running out of food, consider the size of the plate. The smaller the plate the less food people take, this helps ensure everyone will get at least one serving. 

Order of the Items - Often times the most popular items will be taken in bulk, this means there's a chance not everyone gets to try the best items. To alleviate this, we have found that placing the most popular items last makes sure people load up on the other items first, meaning there isn't enough room on their plate to take copious amounts of the popular food. 

Contact us to begin planning your event: https://saddlebackbbq.tripleseat.com/party_request/16389

To help celebrate 6 years of being in business and making it through the pandemic we wanted to go all out for our anniversary party this year.

We will be offering 4 BRAND NEW specials, free shirts, and much more.

To pre-order your meal, go to our Online Ordering system, select the location you would like to order from, pick Wednesday, June 9th for the date, then look under Wednesday Specials! 

Order Now

Armadillo Eggs -A Cream Cheese stuffed jalapeno, wrapped in sausage and bacon - $14.99 - Order Now

Brisket Mac Wrap - Our classic smoked brisket, mac and cheese, tossed in pork rub, rolled tightly in a 12in tortilla, with Sweet & Savory sauce served on the side - $13.99 - Order Now

Panko Crusted and Fried-Buffalo Garlic Shrimp - Tossed in Buffalo Garlic Sauce, topped with seasoned pork rind crumbles and diced green onions - $9.99 

Brisket Olive Burger - Smoked brisket, served on a bed of lettuce, onion, and tomato, topped with a classic Lansing olive sauce, all served on a brioche bun. - $14.99 - Order Now

Mother's Day Meals 

Thank you for purchasing a Mother's Day Meal, we wanted to make it as easy possible to have your meal ready to eat! 

Turkey - Preheat your oven to 375°F. Place the cold (not room-temperature) turkey in a roasting pan, breast-side down. This allows the fat from underneath the bird to drip down while it heats up, ensuring a moist, tender breast. Cover the turkey with foil and place in oven. Drop oven temperature to 275°F. You’ll want to reheat your turkey for around 5 minutes per pound. So a 10lb turkey would need to reheat for around 50 minutes. Use a meat thermometer before removing. USDA recommends cooking and reheating all poultry to an internal temperature of 165°F.

Ham - Reheat in a 325-degree oven until it reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees. Figure no more than 10 minutes per pound. for reheating.

Mac & Cheese - Either microwave or stove will work great. For microwave place the mac & cheese in a microwave safe dish, heat in the microwave for 45 seconds, take out stir, add butter as needed for desired creaminess. If needed, place back in the microwave for 30 more seconds. 

For stove, place the mac & cheese in a pot on medium heat. Stir frequently adding butter or milk as needed to reach your desired creaminess. Heat until you reach your desired temperature. This will take 10 to 15 minutes. 

Brussel Sprouts - Preheat oven to 350 degrees, keep the brussels in the tin they come in, remove the plastic lid. Cook for 15 minutes, check the brussels to see if they've reached your desired doneness. If you like less crunch, place back in oven for up to 10 minutes. 

Corncake - The corncake is fine to serve at room temperature. If you would rather eat the corncake warm, keep in tin. Bake at 350 for 5 minutes and check. The corncake is designed to be enjoyed with as much moisture as possible, so be sure to bake for a very limited time. 

Please email info@saddlebackbbq.com if you have any questions! 

Blogs about BBQ! 

General

What Causes Meat to be Dark? - https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/what-causes-meat-be-dark

What Makes Meat Tough? - https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/what-makes-meat-tough

What Internal Temperature Does my Meat Need to Be? https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/what-internal-temperature-does-my-meat-need-be

What Internal Temperature Does my Meat Need to Be? https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/what-internal-temperature-does-my-meat-need-be

How to Make a Dry BBQ Rub - https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/how-make-dry-barbecue-rub

Initial Start-Up and Burn-In Process for a Pellet Smoker? https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/initial-start-and-burn-process-pellet-smoker

Ribs

When Cooking Baby Back Ribs, Should You Use Mustard? - saddlebackbbq.com/when-cooking-baby-back-ribs-should-i-use-mustard

When Cooking Pork Butt or Brisket - Should You Spritz? https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/when-cooking-brisket-or-pork-butt-spritz-or-not-spritz

How to Reheat Baby Back Ribs - How to Reheat Baby Back Ribs 

Brisket

Which Side Should be up When Smoking a Brisket? https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/which-side-should-be-when-smoking-brisket

When Cooking Pork Butt or Brisket - Should You Spritz? https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/when-cooking-brisket-or-pork-butt-spritz-or-not-spritz

Pork

How to Tell if a Pork Butt is Done? https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/how-tell-if-your-pork-butt-done

When Cooking Pork Butt or Brisket - Should You Spritz? https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/when-cooking-brisket-or-pork-butt-spritz-or-not-spritz

Steak

How to Make an All Purpose Steak Seasoning - https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/how-make-all-purpose-steak-seasoning

How To Reverse Sear a Steak - https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/how-reverse-sear-steak

How to Make a Chimichurri - https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/how-make-simple-chimichurri-sauce

Chicken

Why is Smoked Chicken Pink? - https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/why-some-cooked-chicken-pink

We have a crisis: Food Cost Inflation. Our Wings & Brisket prices are reaching critical levels. Because of this, we will be taking Wings OFF THE MENU soon. Once we run out of the wings we have, we won’t be ordering more.

This video will explain how food cost inflation is harming the restaurant industry. Topics discussed:

– How do restaurants price their food?

– What are “Core Costs”?

– What happens when Food Costs Increase?

Here is a short list of some of the restaurant supplies that have increased in cost but it has impacted almost everything.

1. Brisket up 30-40%

2. Wings up 20-40%

3. To-Go containers up 50% to 200%

4. Rubber gloves up 300 to 600%

In this video, we walk through the example of Chicken Wing costs.

– Wing Prices –

180 Wings Per Case

$134.36 cost per case

$8.36 Cost of Sauce for the wings

$4.84 Cost of Spice Rub on the Wings

— $147.56 Total Cost of Ingredients–

$.82 Cost Per Wing

8 Wings Per Order

Equals: $6.56 Food Cost of for an order of 8 Wings.

$14.00 is the Current Price we charge customers for 8 Wings.

That means that at the current prices of wings, our food cost is 47%. Our target Food Cost is 30% in order to be profitable.

So, what can we do?

We basically have 3 options:

1. Raise the price of the wings.

2. Buy a lesser quality wing. (Smaller wings)

3. Take the wings off the menu.

If we were to raise the price and keep them on the menu, instead of charging $14 for 8 wings. We would have to charge $22!!!!!!

We don’t think that our customers will want to pay $22 for wings. So for that reason, we are very sadly removing them from the menu.

If you want to get wings, order them now! Because once we sell out, they will be gone from the menu for the foreseeable future.

We hope this information helps shed some light on what all restaurants are going through right now.

Travis Stoliker – Co-Owner

Available May 7th - 9th only!

Mother's Day is rapidly approaching - We composed our meals to come with everything you need to pull off the holiday in style.

Everything will come fully cooked with simple reheating instructions. The packages will be available May 7th - 9th. 


Our normal menu items will be available all weekend. We also have indoor seating and patio seating at both locations. Reserve your table at the Okemos location now!

*The sides show in the photo are not accurate*

Half Turkey Meal 149.99
Feeds 3-5 People
The turkey meal includes:

-1/2 a turkey, spatchcocked and smoked
-Pork Belly Brussel Sprouts 
-Family Style Caesar Salad
-Mini Pan of Corncake 
-Large Container of Mac & Cheese
-A Long Stemmed Rose

PRE-ORDER NOW!
To order, select the location you would like to pick up from, pick either May 7th, 8th, or 9th for your date, then look under Mother's Day specials.
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Full Turkey Meal - 279.99
Feeds 7-10 people
The full turkey meal includes:

-Full a turkey, spatchcocked and smoked
-Pork Belly Brussel Sprouts
-Family Style Caesar Salad
-Mini Pan of Corncake
-Large Container of Mac & Cheese
-A Long Stemmed Rose

PRE-ORDER NOW! 
To order, select the location you would like to pick up from, pick either May 7th, 8th, or 9th for your date, then look under Mother's Day specials.
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1/2 Ham Meal - 129.99
Feeds 3-5 People
The ham meal includes:

-1/2 a ham, slow-smoked
-Pork Belly Brussel Sprouts
-Family Style Caesar Salad
-Mini Pan of Corncake
-Large Container of Mac & Cheese
-A Long Stemmed Rose

PRE-ORDER NOW!
To order, select the location you would like to pick up from, pick either May 7th, 8th, or 9th for your date, then look under Mother's Day specials.
------------------
Full Ham Meal - $229.99
Feeds 7-10 People
The ham meal includes:

-A Full Ham, slow-smoked
-Pork Belly Brussel Sprouts
-Family Style Caesar Salad
-Mini Pan of Corncake
-Large Container of Mac & Cheese
-A Long Stemmed Rose

PRE-ORDER NOW!
To order, select the location you would like to pick up from, pick either May 7th, 8th, or 9th for your date, then look under Mother's Day specials.