- It's a lovely sunny Wednesday afternoon,
and I'm in an industrial estate in Failsworth,
which is not something I do on the regular,
but the reason I'm here is because I heard a rumour,
and that rumor is that there is a
great big yellow U.S. school bus somewhere
that is serving up some of the best
BBQ food this side of Texas.
So I'm here to check it out
if I can find it.
- Hello!
- Hi, nice to meet you!
- I'm Kate
- I'm Mark
- So this is the BBQ bus?
- It is the BBQ ranch!
- The Ranch?
I'm just gonna cut to the chase, will you show me the smoker?
- Let's go and have a look.
- That's like the real deal, isn't it.
So what do you cook in it?
- Brisket, ribs, pulled pork, sausage, wings, beef rib
and corn on the cob.
- Yeah?
- Does it have a name?
- The Beast.
I would have thought you'd call it a nice soft girly name
- No no no, the Beast.
No it's gotta be the Beast.
- Can I have a look?
- Of course you can.
- Oh my god, what are you spraying on it?
- Jack and coke.
- Oh my god, boozy ribs!
- I start very early in the morning.
- How early is early?
- About 3am.
- 3am?
- About 3am.
- What made you get the bus?
Like, why a bus?
- Well, I was looking at old food trucks.
Normal food trucks didn't cut it for me.
I just wanted to do something a little bit different
and I was searching for food trucks all night
and a pop up came up with that school bus there
and I had to make a phone call
and ask if I could come and see it.
- How long have you been going?
- The bus started in March 2016,
and we did 14 months as a food truck.
We closed down in August 2017, for 7 months
while I built the Ranch.
- So you built the bar yourself as well.
Are you a big drinks guy?
- Yes.
- Yeah, what are you into?
- I will drink anything.
I'm not gonna lie I will drink anything.
Beer, I'm a whisky man, a bourbon man.
- American whisky?
- Yeah, a moonshine man.
- Moonshine?
- Moonshine.
- Oh my god the jars are amazing.
So what's it made of?
- It's a corn whisky.
4 different flavours, peach, apple pie,
raspberry and blackberry.
It's all imported from South Carolina.
- Right, is it legal?
- It's legal over here yeah.
- What about beer, are you big into American beer?
- We go for Bud Light,
and we're going for the Goose Island at the moment.
We have a rotational craft tap.
All our cocktails are kind of all moonshine based as well so...
- Have you got cocktails as well?
- Yeah, all made in-house.
- They're all original?
- They're all original.
- Would you make me something?
Cause I'm absolutely desperate to try some food?
- Yeah, of course I will.
There you go.
- Oh my god, that's the small one?
- That's the small one, that's just the Taste of Texas.
- What's your bestseller?
- Our Brisket Cheese Steaks.
They're probably the main bestseller now.
We used to do them as a special
but cause it was going that well we put it on the main menu.
- So in terms of what goes on in the evening
I see you've got yourself a little stage there.
- We have got our stage yes.
- What goes on there?
- So basically we have Americana and Country
and we have some of the best artists in the UK coming now.
We sell out every single weekend.
As I'm aware, this is the UK's first
purpose built outdoor BBQ restaurant.
I don't like to class this as a restaurant
I like to class this as street food.
It's the kind of stuff we were serving out of the food truck.
The portions are a bit bigger now.
We can change our menu any day we want to.
We're not a chain where it's the same thing day in and day out.
We can just put whatever we want on.
- Right so I think you should just leave me to get through this
but I'm gonna come back tonight I think
and see what it's all about, so cheers!
- Cheers.