Jason Ganahl

Maestro of Meat

GQue Championship BBQ

Lone Tree, CO

Founded: 2015

Industry: Hospitality

Jason Ganahl has developed a tasty recipe for success and he’s not afraid to serve it. 

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Growing up in St. Louis, Ganahl, Maestro of Meat at GQue BBQ Championship Barbeque Restaurant, was raised on BBQ. After his move to Denver 13 years ago, he started his quest to satiate his appetite and satisfy his seasoned BBQ palate. During his search, he stumbled upon the professional BBQ society, KCBS, who put on professional BBQ contests all over the United States.

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“I became a judge and judged BBQ for a couple of years then decided to start competing and eventually started winning,” Ganahl said. 

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GQue BBQ found itself the most dominant competitive cooking team in this area winning all kinds of contests and awards including the nations 3rd largest contest and taking home the Team of the year award for a 9 state 29 contest season long competition.

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“While competing at the highest level I had the opportunity to meet the country's top competitive BBQ cooks and a few of them had restaurants that were doing rather well,” Ganahl said.

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Following their example, and his gut, Ganahl opened GQue in Westminster, CO in November of 2015. He said that the business relied on social media and word of mouth advertising. As luck would have it, Ganahl said that many happy customers told him that he needed to open GQue in additional locations. Now, with three successful locations, this Maestro is the first to say that he is pleased with his accomplishments and still driven by his passion to continue GQue’s growth.

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“My reputation in BBQ and the restaurant world is well known as a Dominant Competition Cook “, Ganahl said. “I’m the one to get the word out about our High-Quality BBQ being made in Denver to people that don't live in Denver.”

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GQue is undeniably putting Denver and Colorado on the BBQ map. Inducted into the RMBBQA hall of fame, Ganahl has a trophy case packed with trophies and boasting rights for the highest quantity and scores of online reviews of any BBQ place in Colorado. GQue and Ganahl have also been acknowledged and recognized for their success and reputation by notable publications including: Forbes, Inc., 5280,  Eater Denver, Denver Post, Westword, Food & Wine, Thrillist, Daily Camera and Big 7.

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“I’m VERY proud to do what is very hard in BBQ and that is to have consistent very good BBQ in multiple locations that are open for both lunch and dinner 7 days a week,” he said. “This is where I subscribe to the Lou Holtz mentality that if you ever have to tell someone how good you are then you're not that good to begin with.”

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Leading by taste, this Maestro of Meat is confident that the truth to success can be found in the sauce.  For his passion and competitive pursuit of perfection in the BBQ industry, Ganahl has been named a Titan 100.

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