Labor Day celebrations have many families coming together and enjoying the day off work. That means people will be cooking out and enjoying this nice weather, and that includes one Wausau family has taken their barbecue recipe to the store shelves for others to buy.
It all started in his own kitchen, mixing up a sauce for a Lemke family cook-out. And that recipe is now getting attention around the state, one mouth at a time.
Kim’s Beyond Sensational barbecue sauces consist of Wausau native-- Kim Lemke's secret concoction. The sauces have been such a hit, they can even be found on store shelves around the state of Wisconsin, but what makes Kim’s secret recipe stand out-- is what he has done with hundreds of the bottles, donated them to area organizations, and fundraisers in order to help others.
Those donations are what Kim’s wife Mandy, says keeps Kim working away in the kitchen. "Its all a very humbling process because not only is he doing this for his business but he's getting his name out there and people are actually thanking him for the fact that he will help the community with donations when we can, because that’s what's really important"
The Lemke's make a variety of different flavors of sauce like original and spicy-- once the sauces are made they are distributed across the state for sales.
Hundreds of those bottles stay local, going to organizations like the Special Olympics and St. Judes Children’s Hospital. Those donations come in baskets. Each basket includes cooking utensils to go along with the tasty sauces.
Kim says his goal is to get his company large enough to make it a household name in kitchens around the nation. But one thing he says he is proud of at this time is the more than 150 gift baskets he has given away since December.
The Lemkes say they have sold more than 5,000 bottles of those special sauces.
