One of the most interesting things about Lillie’s Q from the moment Charlie McKenna started it two years ago was the array of housemade BBQ sauces from the southeast that he offered, very different from the usual tomatoey sauces known in the midwest. Now those sauces, ranging from “Smoky” to “Carolina Gold” (we had that in college once), the mysterious “Ivory” and the new “E.N.C.” (Eastern North Carolina), as well as two flavors of BBQ rub, will make their debut as nationally-distributed products at the 2012 Summer Fancy Food Show in Washington, D.C. this Sunday through Tuesday. They’ll be shown off by local specialty distributor JDY Gourmet, who will also be showing a number of products possibly familiar to savvy Chicagoans, including Nordic Creamery butter, the Scrumptious Pantry, Boat Street Pickles and O-Med Olive Oil from Spain. Oh, and if you happen to be in D.C. for that, don’t miss the day they’re demoing Fermin Iberico’s ham, hand-carving samples. Wonder which sauce goes best on that?
Meanwhile, Lillie’s Q also has a great deal that supports a good cause of their very own— the scholarship fund that chef Charlie McKenna’s family set up to honor his late aunt, Katherine McKenna Brothers, which funds students at Brenau University, a women’s college in Gainesville, Georgia. If you donate at least $10 at the restaurant, you’ll get a pink (for breast cancer, as you may have guessed) bracelet which entitles you to 10% off… for the rest of your life, as long as you’re wearing the bracelet when you come in. And if you donate at least $50, you get all of that plus the opportunity to make a reservation at the popular restaurant… which doesn’t take reservations. The deal runs all through the month of June.
