Teamwork

It would have been super news for any restaurant owner anywhere in the country, but it was Rooster and Lori Beane, owners of Rooster’s BBQ in Cresson, whose phone rang Sunday with big news about the Super Bowl.

The call confirmed that the Los Angeles Rams want to feast on Rooster’s Texas-style barbecue after practices leading up to Sunday’s competition against the New England Patriots.

Super Bowl LIII will be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

“I think this was a pretty good birthday present,” said Rooster, who turned 60 on Friday.

Married almost seven years, Rooster and Lori hit the road Monday for Nashville, where Rooster owns a catering business. He is a preferred NFL caterer.

“We’ll start cooking tomorrow,” he said from his cell phone as they drove on Interstate 20.

Rooster stated that he and Lori and a team of about six employees are scheduled to have a serving line ready for the Rams after the team’s practice today. He said the buffet will include brisket, turkey breasts, ribs, potato salad, jalapeño cole slaw and banana pudding.

The couple opened their Cresson restaurant at Texaco Plaza last summer after a lease dispute caused the owners of BBQ on the Brazos to vacate the space they had leased there since 2013.

The Beanes have been splitting their time between Hood County and Nashville. Lori is a retired longtime schoolteacher for the Granbury school district. She has relatives in Nashville and met Rooster at a New Year’s Eve party there. They married in May 2012.

She now helps Rooster with his barbecue businesses, including working with nutritionists for NFL teams.

“I’m excited,” Lori said of the high profile catering gig. “This is my seventh year with him to do this.”

WINNING TEAM

Although they have not previously done any Super Bowl-related catering, the couple has fed 27 of the NFL’s 32 teams, including the Seattle Seahawks, Detroit Lions, New York Jets, Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, San Francisco 49ers and Houston Texans.

Rooster is a native of Tennessee but always served up Texas-style barbecue when he owned a restaurant in Nashville. He closed that restaurant but continued catering.

“There’s Kansas City barbecue, there’s North Carolina barbecue and there’s Memphis barbecue,” Rooster said. “A lot of theirs is mainly pulled pork and it’s vinegar-based. In ours we have no vinegar at all.”

Brisket makes up the bulk of their sales, he said.

“I think ours is one of the best that there is,” Rooster stated. “They’ve got some other barbecue places around Atlanta, New Orleans, etc., but they seem to always come right back to us.”

It is possible that Rooster’s barbecue will be served again to the Rams after Sunday’s big game but that would be “surprising,” Lori said, because of the intense security.

That’s not to say that the Beanes aren’t accustomed to tight security protocols with the NFL. Their catering at football stadiums often involves bomb checks.

Lori said that she and Rooster always make an effort to include security personnel and police officers in the catered grub.

“We always make extra for them,” she said.

There is a chance, Lori said, that she and Rooster will also feed the opposing team.

“We have contacted the Patriots,” she said. “There’s a chance, but right now we don’t know.”

Neither said they are apprehensive about catering pre-Super Bowl meals for demanding football players who can really put it away after several hours on the football field.

“We’ve been doing it for so long,” Rooster said, adding that he has been an NFL preferred caterer for 10 years.

Lori said, “We know what we’re doing. Nervous, no, but excited, yes.”

Just as no single player will win the Super Bowl game for the Rams or the Patriots, Rooster and Lori know they can’t succeed without a strong lineup.

“We have a team, too,” Lori said.

kcruz@hcnews.com | 817-573-7066, ext. 258