As long as I can remember, I’ve always known what I wanted to be when I grew up. I knew I wanted to own my own restaurant or bar someday but it seemed like a lofty goal at the time so I reserved that dream for retirement. In college I studied Entrepreneurship and Marketing, inching closer to my goal of ownership with every class. Never in my wildest dreams did I envision the opportunity to start a
business with my good friend at the age of 25. DB’s Barbecue is the love child of myself and Brandon Jansen, DB’s = Dave + Brandon in case anybody hasn’t figured that out yet. Brandon introduced me to the art of barbecue and smoking meats and very thoroughly taught me everything he knows about the subject. With my knowledge of business, and his knowledge of barbecue and the business of barbecue, Brandon and I created a fantastic duo. We started out just as a catering company but when covid shut down Cape Girardeau for a few months, we were blessed with the space and the opportunity to open a drive-thru restaurant! Dream come true!! Because of the covid shutdown, our jobs at the time were relegated to a few hours a day if we even went in at all, so DBs couldn’t have presented itself at a better time. It took us over a year to open the business, and it’s been another full year of operation since we opened our doors to the public. We fought through many of the pains of starting your own business, but we persevered. What we learned from our experiences changed us as men and also changed the face of our business. That brings us to today, where things are a lot different than 2020 and 2021. Over the winter in our first year of operation, Brandon slowly transitioned back to his full-time job while DBs wasn’t busy. By early springtime of this year, Brandon had gone completely full-time at his other job. Around this same time, my part-time side job was also turning into a full-time job which was an opportunity I could not pass on.
[More details about the transition from drive-thru/catering to just catering are explained in a post on September 21st, 2022. At the time this was written it was the pinned post on the page]
DB’s Barbecue is currently solely owned and operated by Dave Knost. With the help of my loving parents (to whom I owe the world), DBs Barbecue has maintained as a barbecue catering company throughout the spring and summer of 2022. Thank you,
Dave Knost
