DAKOTA BBQ

With 15 professional BBQ competitons under their belt and 18 top ten awards, Mike and Elena Russell started Dakota BBQ (comp team) late in the summer of 2009 in Dell Rapids, SD. Their first competiton was 9 hours away in North Platte, NE in the spring of 2010. They pulled their homemade trailer and smoker, and together with some help of alternate team members, they had an awful showing... only coming in 47th out of 53 teams. But that is all it took to light the fire! That was the only competition that they competed in that year. After layoffs, they decided to leave Eastern South Dakota in August of 2010 for Northern Colorado. Chasing jobs (and BBQ Comps), they ended up in Fort Collins, CO. 

In the early part of 2012, Mike got a job at a new BBQ restaurant in Greeley, CO called Peace Pit BBQ, started by Mark and Susan Shook. He spent over a year as their manager until Mark and Susan decided to pursue other opportunities. Mike then helped Peace Pit when they needed help with their pizza side of the business. When Peace Pit left town, Mike went on to help Element's Wood Fired Oven, which was also a mobile wood fired oven and BBQ. He was with Element's until the Summer of 2015. 

Now back in South Dakota, Mike and Elena have now opened are small quick service BBQ restaurant downtown Custer, in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota.