From a rusty grill in a friend's backyard to opening a BBQ restaurant on Indy's east side

Dwayne Gibson got his start in the barbecue business over 20 years ago, on an old rusty grill in a friend’s backyard.

It was just for fun, to feed his friends, he said, the 15-20 guys who would sit out back, drink a beer and offer immediate critiques – a great environment to “perfect my craft.”

Pretty soon, consistent smells of burning mulberry wood, charred rib tips and chicken wings seduced the surrounding neighborhood.

“Everybody would pull up. It became a thing,” Gibson said. “Nobody knew the name, but you smelled the flame.”

On Nov. 1, 2021, he and his wife, Stephanie Gibson, officially opened Gip Got Tips, a barbecue restaurant on 2073 North Emerson Avenue, specializing in smoked pork rib tips and chicken tips. There is currently not an option for dine-in, although the couple hopes to be able to offer that service – pending staff – in 2022. Orders must be placed over the phone or online and picked up from the restaurant.

The journey from selling one 30-pound case of rib tips per day, to now selling over 450 pounds on their busiest days, was catapulted forward in 2020; aided by the COVID-19 pandemic, which narrowed options to dine out; and a rising effort to support Black businesses.

“I never thought I’d be cooking this much barbecue,” Gibson said.

Motivated by failure

Gibson has always been driven by a passion for food, he said.

A passion which pushed him to keep going, even after he ruined the first ever barbecue he hosted for an annual softball team party in 1995, burning the meat so badly he had to apologize and order chicken and pizza for delivery instead.

“Failure is the only reason why I was able to keep going,” Gibson said, “because I wanted to succeed at it … My pride wouldn’t allow me to just tuck my tail.”

Passion which propelled him to maintain a catering service “as a side hustle,” since 2000, between enrolling in and dropping out of culinary school; working in construction; starting and ending a lawncare business; and working in the kitchens at IUPUI and the Conrad Hotel.

His reputation for barbecue had been growing since 2012, the year he turned his garage into a kitchen.

In 2020, when most restaurants around the city were closed, Gibson’s garage remained open.

“More and more people started eating the food,” he said. “And a lot of people who I previously cooked for, they just started wanting more.”

'It was so tender, so good'

One day in June 2020, Carmen Davenport of Black Dolla Indy – a Facebook group created the same year to support Black-owned businesses, which now boasts 40,000 members – unexpectedly arrived to do a feature on Gibson's garage barbecue.

“I took the first bite and I was like ‘oh my God,’” Davenport said. “It was so tender, so good.”

She went live and shared her experience with the group’s followers.

Afterward, Gibson said his business was never the same.

“Within seven days, we had a line a mile long,” Gibson said. “It kind of took me for a whirlwind.”

Instead of cooking only on Fridays and Saturdays, Gibson now finds himself behind the smoker almost seven days a week, he said.

He and his wife gave the business its name and registered it with the state the next month.

In 2021, they were approached with an offer to purchase a restaurant space at a competitive price and seized the opportunity, Gibson said.

Since then, “My wife and I can’t meet the demand,” he said. “We wear ourselves out trying to meet it. We cut hours only because it’s just her and I.”

To order, visit gipgottips.com or call 317-258-1447. Open Thursday to Sunday, from 5:30 p.m. until sold-out.

Contact IndyStar reporter Brandon Drenon at 317-517-3340 or BDrenon@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @BrandonDrenon.

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: New BBQ restaurant on Indy's east side over 20 years in the making