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About The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current | View Entire Issue (May 22, 2015)
THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 3 FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2015 Business & Ag Big Chief’s BBQ has busy opening • NEW BARBECUE JOINT OPENS IN FORMER ARCEO’S LOCATION BY MEGHAN ANDERSCH Meghan@TheBakerCountyPress.com Tantalizing aromas and the prospect of fresh bar- becue did not disappoint, if the crowd on Big Chiefs BBQ’s opening day was any indication. Located at 781 Campbell Street, in the former Arceo’s building, the restaurant opened its doors Tuesday at 11 a.m. At a little after 6 p.m., most tables were full and patrons seemed to be heart- ily enjoying the food. One diner was heard to com- ment he hadn’t had decent BBQ since moving out from New York. Steven DeLeon, owner and head chef, said the restaurant enjoyed a good opening day. He said their product will continue to improve as they make adjustments. For example, the mac and cheese didn’t seem quite right to him on Tuesday, so he changed it up for Wednesday and was much more pleased with the results. DeLeon’s passion for cooking shines in his care- ful attention to detail. He handcrafts his own rubs and sauces and smokes his own meat. He says he is at the restaurant at 5 a.m. every morning getting things ready to go. He has a SmokinTex professional smoker and can smoke 200 pounds of meat at a time. All food is freshly pre- pared and served. DeLeon said he gets everything set up so that when his crew arrives, all they have to do is plate the food and get it to the customers. DeLeon explained he knows people coming in on their lunch hour need enough time to order and enjoy their meal, not just gulp it down and get back to work. After feeding the lunch crowd, DeLeon gets everything set up for dinner. Big Chiefs BBQ also offers a children’s menu, with entrée, side, and small drink for $4.99. It’s not on the printed menu yet, but DeLeon mentioned smoked chicken legs are available now and will get added to the children’s menu. Other menu offerings include the Big Chief sand- wich—pulled pork, tri-tip, bacon, and mac and cheese loaded onto a ciabatta roll and served with coleslaw, as well as salads, pulled pork, tri-tip, ribs, sausage, and half chicken. Appetizers include fresh pork rinds (which can also be ordered “loaded”) and hot wings. DeLeon also described his popular brownie, which is topped with ice cream, caramel BY GINA K. SWARTZ Gina@TheBakerCountyPress.com The Small Business De- velopment Center (SBDC) is a national organization that offers free face-to- face business consulting to those looking to start up or grow their businesses. Baker City’s own SBDC operates out of a new location in the Pythian Castle, has revitalized its fading inmate program, and brought Jeff Nelson on board to work alongside economic development expert Gene Stackle. SBDCs are hosted by leading universities, col- leges and state economic development agencies. The local SBDC is overseen by Art Hill and hosted through Blue Mountain Community College, which also hosts the SBDC in Pendleton. Recently a SBDC opened in Wallowa County as well. SBDCs are funded in part by the United States Congress through a partnership with the U.S. Small Business Adminis- tration and nearly 1,000 service centers are avail- able to provide no-cost business consulting and low-cost training to help with success of entrepre- neurs. All services are confidential as well. “We take that very seri- ously,” Stackle said. “We will not tell people who we are working with specifi- cally although we may tell what industry they are in. The only way we divulge information is if we get consent from our clients. The majority of our clients, if not all, are very eager to help us help other clients.” The SBDC has bro- chures, hosts Pub Talks several times per year, the last one held at Lefty’s Tap House had a maxi- mum capacity crowd and was geared at community resources. “It’s a commitment and I can tell you I think is im- portant for the general pub- lic to know about, SBDC clients specifically under- stand staff are not full-time employees. We only work part time, approximately 20 hours a week,” Stackle said. However, far more hours go into the cause. “Sometimes you go over but you gotta do what you’ve gotta do. We will work after normal business hours or go to a business directly and work right there with our clients. We most definitely don’t have a 9-5 job. You can’t when you’re working with busi- nesses and sometimes it’s a family affair too. Small businesses, sometimes they bring their kids in, we understand that,” he said. The SBDC also has many more resources they are able to access. Stackle said, “Because there is SBDC in every state, we have individu- als who have particular support and expertise we can rely on. We have access to a CAT team, a capital access team. Those individuals have a specific duty to help with financ- ing, if possible for different businesses. We will call them to help us. They go through and analyze the financials once we have gone through and done that portion of the plan. We do financial projections for our clients too. Let’s say a Friday, May 15, 2015 — Eastern Oregon Prices trended generally steady compared to the same quality last week. Trade activity and demand was slow this week. Most producers have sold all that they plan to sell for this season. No new sales reported. USDA Market News Service—AMS.USDA.gov — Weekly Sheep Report — Friday, May 15, 2015 — Eastern Oregon Trade activity was slow this week. Harvest numbers are remaining lower this week as demand continues to be low, storage space is starting to become more of an issue and weights have increased. Consumer demand is still the largest struggle point at this time and packers are continuing to decrease bids. USDA Market News Service—AMS.USDA.gov Meghan Andersch / The Baker County Press Teahnna Welch, manager of Big Chief’s, shows off their new menu. drizzle, and fresh-cut smoked bacon crumbles. DeLeon said he has been doing barbecue for 12 years and that it’s some- thing he’s passionate about. He explained the name of the restaurant as well as the names of his three house-made barbecue sauces poke mild fun at his Native American heritage. He said he’d like people to know “I’m a funny Na- tive.” For example, his Shape Shifter barbecue sauce is made with ghost chilies. He said it starts off sweet and mild, and then will surprise you with a sud- denly burning mouth. DeLeon opened Big Chiefs BBQ to bring some- thing different to Baker City. He said he’s not run- ning the business to make a huge profit, but to serve people in the area and provide good food. Reviews are already popping up on Big Chief’s BBQ Facebook page (BIG- CHIEFS-BBQ-LLC) and sites such as yelp.com are overwhelmingly positive regarding both food and service. The restaurant will open every day at 11 a.m. Monday through Thursday. They close at 8 p.m. and Friday through Sunday at 9 p.m. They also offer carry out and accept reservations. Their phone number is 523-5755. SBDC revitalizes services offered • JEFF NELSON BROUGHT ON BOARD, INMATES SIGN UP FOR NEW PROGRAM — Weekly Hay Report — — Cattle Market Report — Wednesday, May 13, 2015 Vale, Oregon Cattle sold through the auction: 487 Steer Calves 300-400# Bulk N/A Top N/A 400-500# Bulk 287.00-301.00 Top 307.00 500-600# Bulk 243.00-265.00 Top 267.00 Heifer Calves 300-400# Bulk N/A Top N/A 400-500# Bulk 237.00-254.00 Top 259.00 500-600# Bulk 231.00-244.00 Top 248.00 Yearling Steers 600-700# Bulk 234.00-249.00 Top 251.00 700-800# Bulk 203.00-217.00 Top 221.00 800-900# Bulk 183.00-191.00 Top 197.00 900-1,000# Bulk 169.00-175.00 Top 179.00 Yearling Heifers 600-700# Bulk 223.00-234.00 Top 236.50 700-800# Bulk 192.00-209.00 Top 212.00 800-900# Bulk N/A Top N/A 900-1,000# Bulk N/A Top N/A Thin Shelly Cows 84.00-96.00 Butcher Cows 113.00 top Butcher Bulls 144.00 top Stock Cows 1375.00-1825.00 Younger Hfrts. 117.00-151.00 Pairs B.M. - N/A ProducersLivestock.com 541-473-3136 — Log Price Report — Price per 1,000 board feet: Northeast Oregon Gina K. Swartz / The Baker County Press Gene Stackle (left) and Jeff Nelson (right) show off some of the services SBDC offers. client doesn’t understand the funding processes or employees. The client rates themselves and then that way we can work toward understanding. We have worksheets for each one of these categories. We have a flip chart we use when we talk to financial institutions or professionals that can help our clients, have ser- vices that our clients need. Sometimes we go through services that we offer with investors. We give visual ideas and it’s a reminder for us also of things we are doing, it is fairly exten- sive.” Stackle spoke of lending options, which was the main reason Pub Talk, a registered trademark of OEN, Oregon Entrepre- neurs Network, began. The idea was to bring businesses in front of Angel investors. An Angel investor is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business that meets certain criteria. “We really don’t have that many businesses that are ready for Angel fund- ing here so we changed the model a bit about three years ago to fit Baker County. We’re looking more at local investment opportunities and pushing that ideal. The Small Busi- ness Association considers a small business to be 500 employees or less, that’s not us, we have five or less on average,” Stackle said. Nelson, a name recog- nizable from his Historic Baker City (HBC) efforts, joined with SBDC in February to head up and reestablish a program at Powder River Correction Facility. “It’s going to be something new for me, it’s going to be quite the expe- rience,” Nelson said. This particular program was a successful program once headed by Bob Sav- age. Interest dwindled and the program fell by the wayside for a couple of years but its reestablish- ment is seeing approxi- mately 22 inmates signed up for the program that was set to meet for the first time on May 19 for an orientation. SEE SBDC PAGE 12 Doug Fir is $415.00/mbf White fir is $365.00/mbf Ponderosa Pine is brought sold on diameter splits 6 to 11 inch dib $300 to $310/MBF 12 to 17 inch dib $350 to $375/MBF 18 to 23 inch dib $400 to $430/MBF 24 inch plus dib $450 to $500/MBF DIB is diameter inside bark at small end of log. MBF is thousand board feet lumber, net scale. People interested in selling logs should call and get specific quotes from saw mills. Courtesy of Arvid Andersen, Andersen Forestry Consulting — Precious Metals Report — Price per ounce, USD Gold: $1209.70 Silver: $17.11 Platinum: $1,154.68 Palladium: $778.00 Bloomberg.com — Ag Commodities — Corn: $360.00/bu/USD Wheat: $513.50/bu/USD Soybeans: $941.25/bu/USD Oats: $241.00 bu/USD Rough Rice: $9.57/cwt/USD Canola: $458.50 CAD/mwt Live Cattle: $149.73/lb./USD Feeder Cattle: $216.70/lb./USD Lean Hogs: $83.35/lb./USD Bloomberg.com
