Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Patrick and Amber Brown, Smoky Hill BBQ
At a glance: During the COVID pandemic, Amber Brown bought her family a grill and her husband enjoyed it to much that he wanted to do more. The Browns ultimately purchased a smoker, trailer and downtown storefront for their barbecue business plus a market for local foods and crafts.
More information: Ron Wilson, rwilson@ksu.edu, 785-532-7690
Photos: Ron Wilson | Amber and Patrick Brown
Website: Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development
Sept. 23, 2026
Distribution of the weekly Kansas Profile column will end on October 21, due to writer Ron Wilson’s upcoming retirement from Kansas State University. The final column will post October 21. Thank you for your interest in Kansas Profile.
By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University
What’s cookin’? In Sharon Springs, Kansas, it might be delicious barbecue or savory smoked meats produced by this rural Kansas family.
Or it might be that this entrepreneurial couple is cooking up an idea for a community food hub that could help other local food producers bring products to market.
Patrick and Amber Brown are the owners of Smoky Hill Market and Smoky Hill BBQ of Sharon Springs. They are also the entrepreneurs who envision a food hub in northwest Kansas.
At left: Amber and Patrick Brown | Download this photo
Patrick is from Phoenix. He met and married Amber who lived in Denver. Amber’s parents and her sister had moved to Wallace County in 2018 and 2019. When the Covid pandemic hit, the Browns were ready for a career change and moved to Sharon Springs to be closer to family.
Patrick works with the local grocery store. Amber works with the Western Vistas Historic Byway and does accounting for the library. They also have two daughters, ages 10 and 7.
“During the pandemic, Amber bought us a charcoal grill and I really got into it,” Patrick Brown said. He enjoyed it so much that he wanted to do more.
“We had both worked in the restaurant industry when we were younger,” Amber said. Patrick considered doing barbecue as a business but couldn’t find a suitable storefront at the time.
One day, in the Nex-Tech online classified ads, they saw a barbecue truck for sale. “We bought the smoker and then figured we might as well get the trailer too,” Brown said.
Because of their location in the Smoky River Valley, they named their business Smoky Hill BBQ. They cater and attend special events.
“Our barbecue is slow-smoked, inspired by Texas barbecue that Patrick had while visiting his brother in Austin,” Amber Brown said. “Our cooking is ‘low and slow.’”
The Browns have a 500 gallon offset smoker. It was custom built by the local welding teacher. Then an opportunity arose to have a storefront in downtown Sharon Springs.
“The General Store was a business in a 100-year old building,” Brown said. The Browns took possession, updated the purchasing system, and reopened immediately as Smoky Hill Market.
Smoky Hill Market offers food items provided by the previous store plus more local products and their own barbecue. This project was organized as the Smoky Hill Food Collective, doing business as Smoky Hill Market.
“In addition to more Kansas-based food products, we’re carrying local crafts such as handmade cutting boards, jewelry and flower arrangements from a lady in town,” Amber Brown said. “Someday we’d like to replicate this model for other small towns.”
According to Patrick Brown, “we’ve worked a lot with Jenny Doty and Quinlan Carttar,” who are food business resource navigators for the K-State Extension Community Food Systems team. They helped the Browns procure a USDA Resilient Food System Infrastructure grant plus a pre-development grant from the Kansas Healthy Food Initiative.
This is a family business. “Our girls like to help,” Brown said. When the Big Boy train stopped in Sharon Springs, the girls prepared desserts for sale.
“They were so excited when they sold out,” Brown said.
Smoky Hill Market keeps the family busy and catering has expanded, but on occasion they still take their smoker to special events such as fairs, craft shows or car shows. For example, they recently took the smoker to an event at the nearby rural community of Wallace, population 41 people. Now, that’s rural.
“I always like to think about, ‘What’s next?’” Brown said. The back half of their current, large building is unused.
“We would like to put a 500 square foot food processing kitchen in there, a 500 square foot educational and restaurant kitchen, and have swing retail and restaurant seating in the rest,” Brown said.
For more information, find Smoky Hill BBQ on Facebook.
What’s cookin’? At Smoky Hill BBQ and Smoky Hill Market, it could be delicious barbecue or locally grown items.
We commend Patrick and Amber Brown for making a difference with food entrepreneurship and support for local producers. They’re cookin’ up a lot of food, and a lot of ideas.
Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at www.huckboydinstitute.org/kansas-profiles. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit www.huckboydinstitute.org.
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K‑State Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the wellbeing of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county extension offices statewide. Its headquarters is on the K‑State campus in Manhattan. For more information, visit www.ksre.ksu.edu. K-State Extension is an equal opportunity provider and employer.