Western Howard County’s newest hot spot for lunch or dinner sits on four wheels in a church parking lot.

Seating is scant at three picnic tables, but the phone inside Smokin’ Hot!, a 22-foot by 8-foot blazing red barbecue trailer tucked behind St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Glenwood, rang constantly with orders on a recent visit.

“People think, 'Oh, this is just a barbecue trailer' and maybe they will get a decent sandwich, but then they say this is some of the best stuff they have ever had,” says Scott Quinn, who, along with partner Brett Arnold, opened the trailer at 2892 Route 97, behind St. Andrew’s on Oct. 1. A portion of the proceeds go to the church.

Quinn, a former mortgage broker, and Arnold, a trained chef and caterer, had been looking for places to open a restaurant for about a year. The two met as members of St. Andrew’s and have been friends for years.

“In the meantime, I know the church is in deep need of money any way they can get it,” says Quinn, 49. a resident of Woodbine. “It was Brett’s idea of coming up with a trailer. It was the least expensive entry into the market. And when you put it in the parking lot of the church and pay the church rent, it seemed to make a lot of sense.”

What the pair didn’t realize was what a fast following Smokin’ Hot! would attract.

“We have been real happy with the word of mouth,” says Arnold, 38. “There are not that many places for people to eat out here. People are circulating the menu like it’s a chain letter almost.”

He sees new customers every day who say they heard about the trailer from a neighbor, friend, colleague or relative.

“People bring their friends to show them their new secret place, everybody likes to have a new secret place,” says Arnold, a former president of the Glenwood Lion’s Club.

Customers line up

A little over one-month old, the trailer has become the prime meeting spot for not only church members, but local business employees, commuters and teachers at nearby schools.

Jerry Liu, of Baltimore, grabs lunch at Smokin’ Hot! as many as three times a week.

“I am so glad they are here,” says Liu on a recent visit. He works in sales at a nearby business park. “They have a great selection and the food is excellent.”

Dina van Klaveren, a priest at St. Andrew’s, finds the smells from the trailer enticing as she sits in her office.

“I love the food. It’s changing my waistline,” she says with a laugh.
 
She said she visits the trailer two to three times a week for lunch.

“They are bringing in traffic back here. I used to see a car pull into the parking lot now and then and  it would just be someone turning around. Now there is a constant traffic.”

Arnold and Quinn make use of St. Andrew’s commercial kitchen “which was just sitting there unused most of the time,” van Klaveren says. She describes the men as “some of the most beloved members of our parish.”

As much as Arnold and Quinn are well known and well liked in their church (the former is the youth group leader, the latter is senior head lay member), it is the food that has been the main draw.

The menu consists of traditional barbecue restaurant fare — pulled pork, pit beef, pit turkey, pit ham, ribs — with some things one might not expect to be able to order from a roadside stand.

“Our kale side dish is one of our most popular side dishes of all — who would have thought it?” says Quinn. “You don’t expect that kind of food from a barbecue trailer.”

All of the meats are smoked for at least 12 hours.

“My 13-year-old son is eating kale,” Cindy Dwelley, of Brookeville, says about her son, Nathan, on a recent afternoon. Her daughter, Olivia, likes the macaroni and cheese so much that when they order it to take home, the container is finished before the family pulls into the driveway.

Arnold — known among the youth of the church as “Mr. Dude,” — makes six different kinds of barbecue sauce from scratch. Customers have been known to order sandwiches just to be able to use their favorite sauce on it.

Seasoning for the pork is an espresso-ground chili spice rub. He can barely keep up with the demand for his kale with smoked turkey or homemade macaroni and cheese.

“I do a lot more than an average person would out of a trailer,” he says.

He offers daily specials that change all the time and that people have come to expect to see every day on the menu.

“We offered a shepherds pie as a special and there are now people who want to know why we don’t have that every day,” Arnold says. “Same with our meatloaf.”
 
Now daily specials stay on the menu for at least three days in a row.

“We are probably the only barbecue trailer  with a panini press in five states,” adds Arnold, who has been working in the restaurant and catering business since his first job at 14 at Fager’s Island in Ocean City.

“The reality is, Brett is the chef, without a doubt,” Quinn says. “I would often hear people say, ‘Someone should open a business with that guy, he is so talented.’ It dawned on me, why shouldn’t that someone be me?”

Road trip

They found the 22-foot by 8-foot trailer for sale online in Arizona and in August, drove two days to get it and two days to bring it back. It is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., staffed solely by Arnold and Quinn, although sometimes their wives and Quinn’s two children help out.

“We get here around 8:30 in the morning and if we are lucky we are out of here by 9 that night,” Quinn says.

The pair has had offers to open restaurants outside of Maryland. They’re not interested.

“That would take away from what we can do for the church,” Quinn says. “We want to keep our business in the community.”

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