Written by Amanda Coers – Chip Barker was facing some tough times when he said a simple prayer beneath the pecan trees in his backyard.

After working for Pepsi for eight years, Chip found himself unemployed when the local distribution center moved its operation to Abilene. His wife, Karen, was also laid off from her position as an education secretary at the T.R. Havin’s Unit after prison systems cut school programs for inmates.

 

“We got behind on everything,” Chip said. “We were borrowing money from every Tom, Dick, and Harry we could find just to pay our electric bill.”

The couple worked as best they could to make ends meet, with Chip taking landscaping jobs and Karen building up a housekeeping business. They slowly worked their way back on their feet, but it was a hard road.

One morning, Chip grabbed a cup of coffee from a local convenience store and returned home. He started praying beneath the pecan trees in his backyard.

“Lord, I don’t want to do what I’m doing, I need you to show me the way,” he remembers praying. “And that movie, Field of Dreams came to mind: if you build it, they will come,” Chip said. “I had no idea what God was talking about.”

He remembers walking around the pecan trees and smelling neighbors cooking bacon for breakfast. The smell stayed with him, and he finished his coffee and his prayer and went inside his home. There was a copy of Texas Monthly on the table with “10 Best Barbecues in Texas” in an article, featuring an image of a bacon cheeseburger.

“There was bacon all over it,” Chip laughed. “And the bottom caption said ‘they built it on a dream, and now they are here.’ And it was like boom! Hit me upside the head with a brick. I said okay, I got it, I got it.”

With $200 in the checking account, and bills looming, his plan seemed impossible.

“So what are you going to do?” his wife asked, after hearing of his revelation. Chip wasn’t sure, but felt confident the Lord would provide. The couple decided to turn in for the night.

Chip couldn’t sleep, so he headed back to the convenience store for another cup of coffee. He ran into an old friend, Rick Gravell, who inquired about a storage building Chip had purchased a few years back.

Chip said he still had it, but wasn’t really using it.

“I saw the other day a guy made a restaurant out of his storage shed,” Rick told Chip. “I thought about you. Just have it in your backyard, get a health permit, and start selling burgers and barbecue out of that.”

It was another sign from above, and Chip called the health inspector the next day to see what would be needed to convert his storage shed into a barbecue take-out stand. After consulting with the health inspector and the fire chief, Chip realized they needed about $12,000 to get started.

“God’s behind it,” he figured. “So I went to ask Shannon over at the bank.”

He approached the bank with his plans, and explained that God wanted him to open a barbecue place. The bank agreed to give Chip a loan, truly a miracle on its own. The papers were signed the next week and Chip got started building Chipster’s Grill right in his backyard, beneath the very trees where he had prayed for guidance.

Chipster’s Grill in Bangs officially opened July 14, 2014, and had 100 customers the very first day.

“At that time, all we served was brisket plates, potato salad, beans and burgers,” Chip said. Business, and the menu, have steadily grown ever since.

Now, in addition to serving up barbecue on the weekends, Chip is covering the snack bar at the Coleman County Livestock Auction on Wednesdays. Starting at 10 a.m., he keeps buyers and sellers full with his signature brisket and fixings, and more, until the late hours of the night. The snack bar stays as fast paced as the auction arena, and Chip keeps the plates flying. In the last few weeks at the snack bar, Chip has served almost 100 pounds of bologna. That’s a lot of bologna sandwiches.

And just like everything Chip makes, his bologna sandwiches are no simple meal.

“Anyone can make a bologna sandwich with some cheese on it,” he said. “My bologna is 100% beef, smoked, sliced 1-inch thick, and grilled with a spice blend, topped with grilled onions, and roasted garlic, with a toasted jalapeño  cheese bun, and pepper jack cheese.”

But besides divine intervention, his passion for the food he creates is the secret to his success.

“I don’t cut corners,” Chip said, explaining he uses top-quality ingredients, takes pride in his work, and he doesn’t skimp on the portions.

“All my life I’ve really enjoyed cooking. I find it interesting that you can take a sirloin steak and make it taste completely different with a few changes,” he said, talking of the creative freedom in his craft. “Just because it’s ‘supposed’ to be that way, doesn’t mean it has to be that way.”

Chip believes in doing things his own way, and that’s just how his customers seem to like their barbecue.

Chipster’s Grill is open Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at 409 West Hall in Bangs.