Chad and Brycen Epperson had always competed in cook-offs, but now that competitive nature has led to a new food truck here in Pampa with Roll the Dice BBQ.
“We’ve done a lot of competition barbecues and traveled to a lot of towns,” Chad said. “We had been looking for a bigger trailer and could never get one and then this one fell in our laps. We took off with it. Our first weekend was Labor Day weekend.”
The name “Roll the Dice” comes from Brycen’s archery competitions in Las Vegas.
“I told him one time to come up with a shirt design and he asked what name,” Chad said. “So I said ‘I don’t know, just roll the dice’ and he came up with this shirt design online and it had the flame behind it. We just kind of ran with it.”
The food truck industry was among the few beneficiaries of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
“The food truck scene is growing, I know of four food trucks here in Pampa,” Chad said. “The food-to-go thing really helped. But another reason we did this is we can still do our competitions and we can be a part of something growing and taking off in the U.S.”
Roll the Dice features ribs, brisket, pulled pork, pork shoulders, sausage and other barbecue products.
“We try to incorporate our competition recipes as much as we can,” Chad said. “In our competitions, we had been placing really good with them. So we tried to stick with that as close as we can.”
The pulled pork sandwiches and pulled pork nachos are Roll the Dice’s most popular menu item.
“When you see a food truck you think big portions, just to set it apart,” Chad said. “We try to do that. Our nachos are huge. We have a few people who order them and split them.”
Setting up a barbecue food truck is not a quick process.
“We start smoking shoulders and stuff the night before,” Chad said. “We will smoke them for 12 to 14 hours on the briskets and shoulders. Then ribs are about three hours or so. It’s definitely time consuming. But that’s what we like about our pork shoulders, we do cook them so long, they are super tender and we don’t rush them at all.”
Roll the Dice is in a variety of places around town including the Hughes Building (Alcock and Somerville), Wiskey Grills (1421 N. Hobart), Social Eat (200 N. Hobart), etc.
“I’ve had a lot of people contacting me wanting us to set up at their locations,” Chad said. “It helps to bring people in.”
This Saturday, Roll the Dice will be set up at 1623 N. Hobart in the Sears parking lot. Chad will also be catering an event at Wiskey Grills. For their most current schedule, check their Facebook page at “Roll the Dice BBQ.”
