Crooked Barn Offers ‘Homemade Food With Passion’
By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews
WARSAW — Married couple Scott and Shawn Smith’s food was popular at events.
“We have a lot of gatherings and family parties. We always made barbecue for everybody and they said, ‘You guys really need to take this out and sell it. It is amazing,'” said Scott. “We come from a food background. I’ve been in the food service business for a long time, and my husband was too. And we both said, you know it’s something we’re passionate about.”
“So we brought homemade food with passion to the public,” said Scott.
The Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce had a ribbon-cutting for their business, Crooked Barn Smoked BBQ, 853 N. Lake St., Warsaw, on Friday, May 13.
Crooked Barn opened on Saturday, May 7, with its grand opening being Friday.
Scott detailed everything that is on the menu.
“We have the barnyard beef brisket. It comes as a sandwich or a dinner,” he said. “We have our popped and pulled pork, which also comes as a sandwich or a dinner. And then we have our tasty tenderloin, which can be made as a sandwich, dinner or our tenderloin salad.”
There are also hot dogs for kids as well as macaroni and cheese, garlic roasted potatoes, homemade coleslaw, kettle chips and loaded nachos with brisket or pork.
For now, the Smiths are selling out of a food truck parked at the location, but plans are to eventually move to the red barn behind the truck.
The two want to take the truck to various festivals and events.
People may get food from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Customers may either stop by to order or mobile order online at www.crookedbarnbbq.com.
Shawn comes to the business having been manager of a Pizza Hut. Scott worked in food service for Norwegian Cruise Line for several years and also was the general manager of Hunters Hideaway restaurant in Nappanee.
“I’ve worked in food service since I was 14,” Scott added.
He explained the business’ name.
“We wanted to go with a farm theme because we do come from a farm background and (the area is) a farming community of course,” said Scott.
He said he and Shawn want to offer convenience among other things to customers through Crooked Barn.
“We hope to give everybody affordable prices on high quality, home-cooked barbecue, make it easy for (getting food) with the online ordering and the express window,” he said. “We want to be able to offer it seven days a week to the public rather than just a couple days a week, that way you have options everyday. And the lunch thing was a big thing for us being able to serve all the people in this area on this side of town that would normally have to travel to other places to get lunch.”
He said plans are to invite bands to perform at the location.
That will “give people a place to come have some food and hang out,” said Scott.