Selling the sizzle at a Waterloo street corner
Rodney "Base" Berry's '1st Base Bar-B-Que" a solid hit at historic dairy store site.
Something’s cooking on the corner of Commercial and West 11th streets near downtown Waterloo.
The Cedar River bridge is being replaced there, but that’s not the only thing stopping traffic.
Especially if you have your windows down.
The aroma of barbecue wafting from the corner of what was once a popular ice cream stand generations ago is enough to make more than a few folks pull over.
That’s where a lot of folks are ‘rounding First Base – and it has nothing to do with baseball -- except maybe for the "exit velocity" of barbecue orders coming out of the place.
The corner, the former home decades ago of the Wolf Den Dairy Mart, is now home to 1st Base Bar-B-Que, an initiative of entrepreneur Rodney “Base” Berry.
"I always felt I should have my own company -- instead of working hard for someone else, work hard for myself," Berry said.
Berry, who grew up in Waterloo, headed for what he thought would be greener pastures. He previously had a lawn and snow removal business and worked 12 years as a bail bondsman in Des Moines. He also lived in North Carolina for a time. He came back to town, starting a mobile barbecue business to tide him over until the “next big thing” came along.
His barbecue business to turned out to BE that “next big thing” – for him and a growing customer base who wanted more than seasonal fare at special events in fair weather.
The business name hearkens back to his youth. "Everybody always called me 'Base" growing up," he said, because he had a nice car with a very reverberant bass on its sound system. "All my businesses were based of that name," he said. "I thought it would be a good name, just because that's how a lot of people know me."
"I always barbecued at home, But I could never find barbecued chicken wings. I love barbecued chicken wings. Not all the barbecue places had wings."
That inspired him.
"Instead of just saying something, I actually did it," he said. "It's working out well for me."
He financed the venture on his own. "From North Carolina I went out to Tyson (Fresh Meats pork plant) and worked for 12 months before i got my trailer. I didn't want to owe anyone either. I'd rather try it on my own.”
He started the barbecue business about four years ago. “It was hard. I was working at Tyson’s still at the time. So I worked there and opened up the trailer on my days off. I was working four on and three off (at Tyson). So I opened up on my days off.”
He remained busy during the pandemic when sit-down restaurants had more difficulties. “I was outside, I was a food truck and people would come. I did all right during COVID.” In fact it was an advantage. “I was able to get my name out because of that too,” he said. “I was advertising, passing out fliers during COVID.”
As COVID restrictions lifted, from his mobile trailer, Berry worked events like the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Waverly Heritage Days in Waverly and the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo. But customers wanted his fare year round.
"Initially, I wasn't planning on getting a (fixed) location," Berry said. "I was going to do a food truck, try to get another one or two or three of them. Then this place came open," in March. For 30 years, from 1938-68, Warren Wolf had operated the Wolf Den Dairy Mart and Drive-In and adjacent Wolf Den Market.
It's been as good a location for Berry as it was for Wolf.
"A lot of people said 'When that bridge opens, you're going to be busy.' I'm busy now!" he said. "Every day, it seems like it's better for me. Every week it seems like I'm getting more business, more different people coming in. It's going good. I could see me being here a while.
”It’s more of a curbside pickup,” he said much as many stationary restaurants established and have continued since the pandemic. He’s also still doing some events.
He has all the business he can handle – so much that he may have to add staff. All he's looking for in taking on help, he said, is people with the willingness and ability to learn.
It's a nice problem to have. And he's looking further down the road. "I want to franchise, get some people to invest. I want to open up a couple more. I want to open up one in Cedar Falls. I also want to do something on the east side of town too. I see me doing big things. Like I said, it’s getting better every day.”
The business is a solid hit. And with a few more “bases,” Berry will hit a real home run.
Regarding advice to other aspiring entrepreneurs, Berry said, "You have to be motivated, willing to step out there and try it. If you're scared to do it, you aren't going to do it. You have to do it."
Pretty "Base-ic."
Pat Kinney is a freelance writer and former longtme news staffer with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier and, prior to that, several years at the Ames Tribune. He is currently an oral historian with the Grout Museum District in Waterloo. His “View from the Cedar Valley” column is part of “Iowa Writers Collaborative,” a collection of news and opinion writers from around the state who previously and currently with a host of Iowa newspapers, news organizations and other publications.
The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative
Thanks, Pat, for intoducing me to Rodney 'Base' Berry and his business venture through your story!