By Mike Braun
Chile Pepper Magazine August 1999
Success is sweet, or so we often hear. But the success that one achieves while helping folks with special needs is a blessing for both. Just ask Tony Dry.
Dry- ex-oil industry jobber turned hotsauce entrepreneur – is president and general manager of Billy Beans LLC., in Abilene, which is located west of Dallas/Ft.Worth about halfway to the Texas-New Mexico border. His Billy Beans “I Scream” sauce is manufactured by a group of people at Disability Resources Incorporated. What makes their partnership so special is that Disability Resources provides residential care and vocational training to adults with developmental disabilities.
“This is a mutually beneficial relationship,” says Dry. “ We pay Disability Resources for making the sauce, and the folks earn money for their work.”
Dry uses the term “folks” to describe the individuals at Disability Resources just as everyone associated with the program does.
“We’ve chosen just to call the ‘folks,’” says Rex Nutt, Disability Resources board chairman. “We’ve found ‘folks’ to be a comfortable phrase; one that’s not demeaning in anyway to anyone. Everybody would like to be called ‘just one of the folks.’”
Dry agrees, and he couldn’t be happier with Disability Resources. “We are the flagship at Disability Resources. Through the manufacture and sell of our products, our goal is to help them build 27 homes and a chapel on their campus.”
Although Billy Beans is the only hot sauce that Disability Resources manufactures, they are setup to do it for other entrepreneurs what they have done for Dry.
“ Our emphasis is to look at different types of products, develop a system and see if it is marketable,” says Buzzy Andress, Disability Resources vocational director. “Then we work with our folks on how to make it.”
To achieve that goal, Disability Resources has a certified commercial kitchen to make food products and a woodworking shop to make gift boxes and crates.
“Support of Disability Resources enables people who have disabilities to live in a community and to work in the community and to contribute to the community, and work in the community and to contribute to the community.” Says Jo Ann Nutt, Disability Resources Board Member.
HEAT, SMOKE, and NOVELTY
Disability Resources has been producing Dry’s expanding line for about a year. Since starting Billy Beans “I Scream Sauce” (hot and medium), he has added Pickled Quail Eggs and Dilly Penos, which are pickled sweet-hot jalapenos with a sweet pickle taste, are a great condiment for sandwiches, dips, and cheese balls.
Dry also sells a smoke-flavoring product he calls “Texas Best-Kept Secret”. The main “ingredient” is beans from mesquite trees. Dry says meats have a one-of-a-kind smoked flavor when you sue his product in place of wood chips in the barbecue or gas grill.
Dry currently offers Old Sarge’s Salsa and will soon introduce “Old Sarge’s Texas Eggies” – pickled quail eggs soaked in beet juice to match the maroon color of Texas A&M University. You may have guessed the play on words: A&M’s students are “Aggies.”
LIKE MOTHER LIKE SON
Dry began tinkering with his mother’s hot-sauce recipe about 12 years ago. “ I began making it for my family and giving it to our friends,” says Dry. “I nearly went bankrupt. I was making so much of it and giving it away, I had to start selling it.”
Dry’s big break came in 1996, when Billy Beans “I Scream” sauce won a couple of awards at the annual Rattlesnake Roundup in Sweetwater, Texas. He took Best Name honors and a First Place for salsa.
Since then, Billy Beans “I Scream” sauce has one First Place in the Fresh Food Division, and Second Place in the Cooked Sauce Division of the 1999 Fiery Food Challenge sponsored by Chile Pepper magazine earlier this year in Fort Worth. Also this year, the sauce took two First Place awards in a competition sponsored by Food Distribution magazine in Boca Raton, Fla. – a first for Chunky/Hot and a first for Garlic Salsa/Hot. And Dry captured a First Place award at last year’s Texas Fiery Food Show Shoot Out in Austin.
“The secret behind Billy Beans is the freshness,” says Dry. “ We start with all fresh product – tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, garlic, and serrano peppers – and even after it is cooked, it still tastes fresh.”
SALSA TO THE STARS
Dry likes to say Billy Beans “I Scream” is “the salsa to the country music stars.” And he has the stories to prove it.
He recently taped a segment at the Country Music Association offices for Keith Harling’s “Showcase” shown on the TNN Network. During the show, Dry dished up Pedro’s Tamales, Billy Beans “I Scream” sauce and Guacamole Salad, which is a recipe for his cookbook, Billy Beans Best.
He also provided enough Billy Beans “I Scream” sauce to feed about 3,000 country-music performers at the 34th Annual Academy of Country Music awards show at Universal Studios in Hollywood.
“Man did they eat it up!” says Dry. “ In fact, Layne Wootten, the world-famous cowboy chef, took the last jar and put it in his ice box.”
Another big fan is Chris LeDoux, singer and songwriter of country western tunes.
“Chris and his group toured the Disability Resources plant recently,” says Dry. “They talked to all our folks and gave them autographed pictures, hats, and t-shirts.”
Dry recalls a story about much LeDoux likes to cook on the bus. One day, he was cooking a pot of beans and decided to pour in some flavor by adding half a jar of “I Scream” sauce. One taste and LeDoux was hooked.
“Now,” says Dry, “Chris doesn’t cook beans without Billy Beans.”
The same is true about the helping-hand relationship that Tony Dry and the folks at Disability Resources have. Says Dry: “I’m excited about the possibility for our future together.”
HOT LEADS
Tony Dry sells his Billy Beans “I Scream” sauce, Pickled Quail Eggs, Dilly Penos, Texas Best-Kept Secret smoke flavoring, Old Sarge’s Salsa and Old Sarge’s Texas Eggies through his internet Web site (www.billybeans.com). You also can find them at The General Store in the Stockyards National Historic District in Fort Worth and select gourmet and hot shops around the country. He also is negotiating for distribution in major supermarket chains.
|
