Name of Business: Burt’s BBQ Shak

Type of Business: BBQ sandwiches

Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday –Sunday

Location: 2901 Tegner Rd

Contact information: 656-1602

Business Specialty: Tri-tip, pulled pork

Burt and Linda Baucom are proudly serving their homemade BBQ sandwiches out of the comfort of their newly established restaurant, Burt’s BBQ Shak.

The couple spent years searching for each other after Burt returned home from the Vietnam War, and once reunited they went back to college together. Burt proposed to Linda during the graduation ceremony and the two have since retired and opened this “mom and pop’s shop.”

“He would barbecue for me every night,” said Linda Baucom. “I told him, ‘You’ve got to share this; everybody should taste this.’”

Burt Baucom uses local vendors for anything and everything, and he also makes his own barbecue sauces.

“That’s one thing that we do and also a big reason why we didn’t want to be a franchise,” said Burt Baucom. “We use local grass-fed beef and corn fed pork—we deal with anyone in Turlock that we can.”

Turlock is home for Burt and Linda. Their families are rooted here, they have grandchildren at CSU Stanislaus and they want Burt’s BBQ Shak to feel like home to the customers, as well.

“We want people to feel as though they are coming in to our home and we’re just barbecuing out in the backyard,” said Burt Baucom. “We want people to come in and feel comfortable.”

The couple has strived to create a cozy atmosphere at Burt’s BBQ Shak.  Whether it’s the backyard style furniture, the positive messages or the warm welcome and company—it’s a place of its own.  The positive messages on the wall reflect what kind of place you’re in, what kind of people you can expect and the customers it attracts, said Linda Baucom.

“We’re ‘people’ people,” said Linda Baucom. “We have church families come in on Sundays and no one brings their cell phone... they just come in and interact with each other. It’s so great to see.”

All of their meat is smoked at Burt’s BBQ Shak—real wood, charcoal and smoke is used.

“Anyone can cook in an oven and throw barbecue sauce on it,” said Burt Baucom. “But that’s not real BBQ. It’s not the same as having wood smoke over the meat—and smoke slowly for a long period of time.”

Each meal comes with a bag of chips, a drink, coleslaw or baked beans and a brownie bite to top it all off.

“We run a thin margin—because it’s about sharing great food with a community,” said Burt Baucom. “We’re just a mom and pop’s operation, that’s how we see it and that’s always what we’re going to be.”