Lazy D delivers BBQ sauce with local flavor

“I’ve been making my own sauce for about 10 years now,” said Derek Feeback, creator of Lazy D’s Barbecue Sauce. “People love it. They kept telling me I should sell it, so I started this business.”

The business, Montana Barbecue Sauce LLC, features Feeback’s first sauce flavor, Lazy D’s, a sauce the creator describes as uniquely Montanan.

“It’s kind of Kansas City,” he said. “It’s a bit sweet and doesn’t really have that vinegar and mustard taste you get with Carolina style. It’s a blend of styles, though, it’s Montana-style.”

Feeback makes the sauce at the Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center in Ronan, part of the Lake County Community Development Corporation. The center is a fully functioning food processing, research and development facility, inspected by the United States Department of Agriculture, the United States Food and Drug Administration and the Montana Department of Agriculture’s organic food program. It was built in response to a 1998 community needs assessment, which indicated a strong need in northwest Montana for infrastructure to assist farmers, ranchers and food producers. The venue provides marketing, food processing and distribution assistance as well as a business incubator for specialty food entrepreneurs in northwest Montana.

Feeback rents commercial kitchen space from the center, and bottles his sauce there for distribution to a variety of retailers including grocery stores, specialty outlets and gift shops, as well as local restaurants and eateries. His first batch was 246 bottles, many of which have already been sold or distributed for retail purchase.

Lazy D’s sauce will be featured locally at Treasure Mountain and Feeback will be doing a tasting event at Libby’s Rosauers grocery store Friday, Oct. 30 from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m., or until he runs out of sauce.