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Shillington music shop cooks up something new |
Reading Eagle: Ryan McFadden
Fred Bernardo making chicken wings and stuffed jalapeno peppers on a grill heated with hardwood pellets.
5/19/2008
Fred A. Bernardo adds barbecue supplies to his business and renames it Fred’s Music Shop and BBQ Supply.
By Michelle E. Arevalo, Reading Eagle correspondent, 5/19/2008
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Fred’s Music and BBQ Supply
Owner: Fred A. Bernardo
Address: 212 W. Lancaster Ave., Shillington
Phone: 610-777-FRED (3733)
Hours: Mondays through Thursdays, noon to 8 p.m.; Fridays, noon to 6 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.
Price: $250-$900, depending on the unit.
Info: A full-service music store since 1972, Fred’s also is an outdoor-cooking specialty shop. Following an expansion last year, during which a wing of the store was converted into a barbecue supply shop, Fred’s carries related apparel, cookbooks, spices, sauces, grills and grilling accessories. Featured grills include those made by Big Green Egg, Traeger, Vermont Castings and Napoleon; the shop also sells ProQ smokers. There is a kitchen classroom, where Bernardo conducts impromptu cooking lessons and food tastings.
As one of Berks County’s best-known music stores, Fred’s Music Shop, 212 W. Lancaster Ave., Shillington, long has been a place for all things musical, especially guitar-related. Now, in addition to walking in for a new ax with which to show off your hot licks, you can sample some finger-lickin’ grub, hot off the grill. Owner Fred A. Bernardo officially changed the name of his shop to Fred’s Music Shop and BBQ Supply last year after he received a gift from his wife, Dee.
"I wanted a smoker and she got online to do some research on them, to get me one for my birthday," he said. "Her research kept leading her to resources and forums about Big Green Egg grills, but she thought they were too expensive. She tried to find a used one and couldn’t, which told her something — no one ever sells one. So she decided to get me one to try."
His first try with the grill produced a slow-cooked, spice-rubbed pork roast that brought the house down.
"It looked like a meteorite on a plate," said Bernardo, 56, "It was covered in a black crust and smoking. We just stared at it and wondered if it would taste good. It was so tender it fell apart when I touched it. Minutes later, we were all standing around it, eating with our fingers and amazed at how good it was."
Within months, Bernardo had converted a section of the music store into an outdoor cooking specialty shop. For sale are Big Green Egg ceramic grills, Traeger wood-pellet grills, propane grills by Vermont Castings, and Napoleon and ProQ smokers as well as a multitude of outdoor-cooking accessories, apparel, cookbooks, sauces, spices and a teaching area. The classroom is where Fred, a graduate of Ray "Dr. Barbeque" Lampe’s grueling 24-hour cooking course, holds impromptu sauce-and-spice tastings and cooking lessons.
"We do it mostly on Saturdays now," Bernardo said, "I’m thinking of holding organized classes soon. I also offer lots of samples because I think letting people taste the food is better than any advertising."
In addition to offering burgers, chicken, steaks and ribs — a recipe that Bernardo made every day for six months in order to perfect it — he and his staff demonstrate how the Big Green Egg can make pizza, roast turkeys and bake desserts.
"Its design and ceramic construction make it function like a grill and a convection oven combined," he said. "The egg heats up fast, stays hot for a long time and keeps the juices inside whatever you’re cooking. For pizza and breads, it’s like an old-fashioned wood or brick oven. It also uses only a handful of all-natural charcoal, which I sell, and hardly ever needs to be cleaned."
An official distributor of Big Green Egg, which has its headquarters in Tucker, Ga., Bernardo said, "If you think about it, there’s nothing more American than music — blues, for instance — and barbecue."
He added that introducing the cooking gear was a business decision.The downturn in the recording industry has affected music retailers.
"We’re not seeing the numbers of new, young musicians — the next generation — coming in, as we used to, so, due to that and the fact that I was excited about the barbecue gear, I had to expand," Bernardo said.
He also said many musicians cook because it is another creative pursuit — the first Big Green Egg he sold went to a customer who picked up a repaired guitar.
"My staff and I are guitarists and grillmasters," he said, "I like to say we’re smokin’ guitar players."
Evidence to support this music-and-barbecue connection is on the shop wall, among the dozens of different sauces for sale.
"There’s (from Aerosmith) Joe Perry’s Rock Your World Boneyard Brew Hot Sauce, Hank Williams Jr.’s Family Traditions BBQ Sauce and Elvis’ Shake, Rattle and Roll Barbecue Sauce," Bernardo said.
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