BUSINESS & AG LIFE
THURSDAY, JULY 1, 2021
THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD — B3
Eateries added to off erings at the Depot
By BILL BRADSHAW
BENNIES BAGGIES
Wallowa County Chieftain
When: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.,
Thursday through Sunday
Where: 83490 Joseph Highway,
Joseph
Phone: 541-304-5289
Email: BenniesBaggies@gmail.
com
Online: BenniesBaggies.com
Z’S BBQ
When: 4 p.m. to when they’re
sold out.
Where: 83490 Joseph Highway,
Joseph
Phone: 612-219-2717
Email: Zbbqtruck@gmail.com
Online: Facebook.com/z’sBBQ
Instagram: @zsbbq
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Autumn Roseberry shows one of the trays meals are served on at
Z’s BBQ on Wednesday, June 23, 2021. Z’s is located at the Depot be-
tween Enterprise and Joseph.
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Ludwigson said. “Over
the winter, we added more
equipment and got the
health certifi cation (from
the state.) So now we’re
serving really delicious
breakfast burritos. We got
permission from Mike and
Kathy (Leo) from the old
Red Horse to use their Red
Horse breakfast burrito
recipe.”
Ludwigson emphasized
the variety of his menu. He
and Amy Roseberry serve
three diff erent burritos,
four lunch entrées that are
either wraps or sandwiches,
as well as muffi ns, cookies
and other items. He said
much of the food is organic,
but he’s been unable to fi nd
organic ingredients for all
the menu.
Barbecue perfection
Meanwhile, Zieman was
perfecting his barbecue.
“This is his fi rst crack
at doing barbecue, but he
took months of perfecting
it,” Ludwigson said. “I
don’t know how many
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N OF S T
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have a good lunch.”
Located in the lobby of
the Depot, it’s long off ered
premium coff ee to guests.
“When Red Horse
Coff ee went out of business
a couple years ago, we went
down there … and bought
a bunch of their equipment
with plans of maybe trying
to do some kind of restau-
rant in the future,” he said.
Well, the future has
arrived and now the restau-
rant also fi lls hungry stom-
achs at breakfast.
“I’m a self-proclaimed
breakfast burrito afi cionado
and burrito connoisseur,”
he said.
“Last fall, we opened
just with coff ee. We didn’t
have our food license for
the certifi cation set up yet,”
“I guess our deal is
making food that’s healthy
and natural and good for
humans and good for the
earth,” he said. “We try to
use natural meats, natural
ingredients, no GMOs —
and, it tastes fantastic.”
a mixture of oak and
cherry wood.
“The oak is for the
heavy smoke and the
cherry adds a little sweet-
ness to it,” he said. “The
cherry burns a little faster
and the oak burns slower
and longer. It’s a combina-
tion of both that way.”
Of course, eating bar-
becue can be a messy prop-
osition, and Z’s BBQ takes
that into account.
“We’ve got plenty of
napkins and wet naps
around here,” Zieman said.
Roseberry said that she
and Zieman just moved
back to Wallowa County a
couple months ago.
“We’re going to make
this more of a permanent
location,” she said.
But the truck, itself, is
mobile.
“The plan is to be able
to (travel), but right now
we’re just getting estab-
lished here,” Zieman said.
In August, they plan to
be at the Main Street Show
‘n’ Shine in Enterprise and
they have a couple wed-
dings scheduled to cater.
“The plan is to be more
mobile, but it’s nice to have
a place that people can fi nd
us all the time,” he said.
ESTERS
NATIONAL A
WALLOWA COUNTY
— The historic Depot,
long a site popular for trav-
elers’ lodging, has added
food to its off erings with
the advent of Bennies Bag-
gies and Z’s BBQ at the site
along Highway 82 between
Enterprise and Joseph.
Housed in the 1908
building that once was the
railroad depot in Enterprise
along the tracks near where
Wallowa County Grain
Growers now stands, it was
moved in the 1980s to its
current site. Purchased four
years ago by Leita Barlow
and her daughters, Amy
and Autumn Roseberry, the
daughters have been joined
in the business ventures by
their boyfriends, Ben Lud-
wigson and Daniel Zieman,
respectively.
True to form for most
successful businesses, they
saw a need and found a
way to meet it. Both eat-
eries opened Thursday,
June 17.
“The idea came from
we’ve got a lot of Airbnb
guests and people coming
through this area and
they were always asking
us where they could get
lunch for the day before
they go on the Railriders
or they go hiking or what-
ever,” Ludwigson said. “So
we got a big commercial
fridge, which sparked this
idea of preparing healthy,
bagged lunches that would
be fi lling and would travel
well and people could put
the stuff in their backpack
and bring with them to
times we got to sit back
and enjoy the 12-hour-
smoked, delicious barbecue
just being test subjects. It
was awesome. He really
dialed it in.”
Zieman does more
than the usual ribs, but all
off erings are for a healthy
appetite.
“Rather than sand-
wiches — we might throw
some specials on every
now and then, but the idea
behind it is a family-style
meal or if you want a nice,
big meal for yourself,”
Zieman said. “We spend
all day smoking the meats.
Then, when we serve it,
you and another person can
come get a nice plate of
it. You can get the pulled
pork, you can get the ribs,
you can get brisket, your
sides and get a couple
plates full.”
It’s served on trays lined
with butcher paper with a
variety of barbecue sauces
and sides, Autumn Rose-
berry said.
“We’ve got a few dif-
ferent size options,” she
said.
Zieman smokes his
meats on a carefully con-
trolled fi re outside their
service truck. He uses
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