We had the good fortune of connecting with Viondi and LaChaka Pate and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Viondi and LaChaka, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I have always enjoyed cooking but was afraid of owning a restaurant because of the huge amount of overhead required for startup and just to maintain that business

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Both my wife and I are Registered Nurses and we still work. We are truly excited about the future for our business and where it is headed.

The challenge has been the significant investment but we truly love people and bbq brings people of all backgrounds together. To overcome that we started small. We also were able find a trailer for a price that we could afford. Having a trailer has been great because we have air conditioning and we live in south Georgia and the heat is brutal so it’s been a godsend.

The main lesson that I have learned is that if you are operating in your God given gift things have a way of working out. That doesn’t mean that it will be easy but everything will be alright.

The thing that we want people to know is that we love to see people enjoying the food that we serve them and we are forever grateful that they chose to give us an opportunity to serve them. We truly love people and we love to see people enjoying their friends and family.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would say our home. I love to entertain and I love to feed people and make them feel at home even though they are visiting. If I open up my home to you then I consider you family.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
All of our family and friends that have supported our vision from the start.

Kevin Bludso, the OG in the BBQ game, was one of the first celebrities that tried my sauce and loved it. This gave us confirmation that we were on the right track and that we had a great product.

Dr Howard Conyers. for teaching us the history and significance of black Pitmasters contribution to bbq.

The Unknowns Black Pitmasters for providing a platform and network of Black Pitmasters to communicate and learn from.

Website: www.patespitbbqshop.com

Instagram: @patespit_bbq

Facebook: @patespitbbq

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