Laying the Foundation
When you call Mark’s Feed Store, a friendly voice will tell you that you’ve just reached “the best barbecue in Louisville.” Since opening in 1988, that title has certainly been earned.
After spending 15 years working in the service industry, Mark’s Feed Store founder Mark Erwin decided it was time to branch out on his own. He decided that what Louisville needed was a top-notch bar-b-q restaurant.
“I had a lot of restaurant and managerial experience, but I didn’t have a lot of bar-b-q experience, so I went down to learn from some old masters in Western Kentucky,” Erwin explained. “I studied with them and brought their techniques back home, where I discovered and created my own sauces.”
Erwin recalls his kitchen looking like “a science project” as he worked tirelessly to create his signature Original Bar-b-q Sauce™, comprised of a tangy mixture of 26 ingredients including a top-secret blend of 13 spices.
To ensure that the restaurant’s setting was as authentic as the bar-b-q, Erwin selected a historic building that had housed Hancock’s Feed Store for over half a century as the location for his Middletown restaurant. Erwin recalls cooking the first-ever pork shoulder in these pits on the eve of the restaurant’s opening.
“That was one of my most tense moments. When it came out, it was just as tender as it could be and the meat was perfect,” Erwin recollects. “That was a huge relief because I knew I had the sauces and I could cook the meat, so now it was just whether or not the customers would come.”
Customers did come to Mark’s, and kept on coming back.
Mark’s Feed Store’s mission of serving world-class bar-b-q in a family-friendly atmosphere sounds simple—and it is. By serving a quality product and taking care of both the employees and guests, Mark’s has established itself as Louisville’s neighborhood bar-b-q joint.
