Scoot’s BBQ may have been crowned Virginia Living Magazine’s BBQ Bracket Battle Champion in 2019. But ask owner Gary Ward who the real winner was and he’ll tell you humbly “it was truly a win for all of the Middle Peninsula.”
For putting his hometown on the BBQ map, so to speak, and representing the Middle Peninsula business and culinary community in such a powerful way across the Commonwealth, on Thursday, July 23, 2020, Delegate Keith Hodges surprised Ward at Scoot’s BBQ and presented him with Virginia General Assembly House Joint Resolution No. 243.
Passed during its 2020 session, the resolution commends the Gloucester Point restaurant for its BBQ win.
Scoot's BBQ, a family-owned restaurant operated by Ward and his wife Karen, entered the competition in 2019 after a panel of seasoned judges narrowed a list of more than 250 BBQ restaurants down to 32 to go head to head in a bracket voting battle.
Slated in the Eastern region of the bracket for the start, Scoot’s BBQ was pitted against a different restaurant each week as Virginia Living readers voted to determine which establishments would advance to the next round.
“The BBQ bracket battle was amazing and there was great competition,” Ward said. “The community here really rallied around us and we were so excited to get so much great support from our community.”