D’Hanis Lions BBQ Cook Off set this Friday & Saturday

By Joe Fohn

Anvil Herald Reporter

Seasoned pitmasters will go at each other this weekend at the D’Hanis Lions Club’s annual Barbecue Cook Off. 

The event at the D’Hanis Community Center starts Friday evening and continues through Saturday afternoon. 

It’s one of the service club’s biggest fundraisers, providing scholarships for D’Hanis High School graduates.  

Lions Club President Charlie Langfeld said a full slate of 34 cooking teams signed up this year in the Chicken, Ribs and Brisket categories.

A fourth competition will determine the Jackpot Beans champion.

The number of teams exceeds last year’s registration “by far,” Langfeld said.

He credited the Keep D’Hanis Beautiful foundation for helping advertise the event,  both online and with a billboard on US 90. Besides homegrown cooks, sign ups have come from other towns and include “some new teams that haven’t participated, so that’s cool,” Langfeld said.

Before lighting their fires Friday evening, BBQ teams will sit down with  local folks  on culinary “neutral ground” Friday, in the form of a  community crawfish and shrimp boil at 7 p.m. A Cornhole Tournament follows at 7:30 also at the Community Center.

On Saturday,  area vendors will sell their crafts, food and gift items  from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the grounds of the competition.

Prizes will be awarded to winning teams after the beans and barbecue entries have been submitted  for judging at 4 p.m., and  winners of the prize drawing will be announced at 5. On this year’s prize list are firearms, guided hunts, a zero-turn mower and other valuable prizes. Tickets will be on sale at the event for $20 each or six for $100.

A live auction of donated items will close out the cook-off weekend.