Meet Max Mcgarity

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Max Mcgarity. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Max below.

Hi Max, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

Definitely my mother and father! Both of them worked multiple jobs as I was a kid and taught me the importance behind good work ethic. Me and my siblings had full-time seven day a week paper routes as kids. so we learned responsibility, managing money and commitment. Early on. I think that all blends into why I was able and am able to do what I do.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Hi, I’m Max McGarity, owner and operator of Smoked On Chai BBQ. You may not know this about me, but I was born right here in Columbus, Ohio and raised Jewish. I attended Columbus Jewish Day School (CJDS) as one of the members of its very first graduating class. I had my Bar Mitzvah at Beth Tikvah synagogue in 2003 and continue to celebrate the Jewish holidays with my family year after year.

Although it feels as if I’ve been wandering the desert for 40 years… for the last 10+ years I’ve been successfully creating a high volume craft barbecue, catering and restaurant company. Over the last 5+ years of building Smoked on High, I have dipped my Jewish toes into kosher BBQ — working alongside Buckeye Kosher and Torat Emet synagogue to provide kosher BBQ for their pop-ups and festivals. At these events over the years, I saw that there is a high demand and severe lack of options of not only kosher barbecue, but kosher food in general. It’s an untapped, under appreciated market, and the Jewish community needs strong local companies to provide quick and easy kosher food options for them. I decided I could be the one to fulfill this prophecy! My partnership with Torat Emet shows that I’m dedicated to my Jewish community, and I want to not only continue to provide a reliable, delicious, consistent kosher option, but grow with the kosher food community as well.

Everything will be smoked and produced on site at the synagogue to assure no corners are cut. Our mission is to create authentic Texas style kosher barbecue with a Midwest twist. Although the kosher community is the focus, this BBQ can be for anyone and everyone! Why be a Goy Boy, when you can be a Chai Guy?!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Resiliency for sure would be number one! You’re gonna get knocked down quite a bit in this industry if you don’t have the thick skin and the resiliency to keep going, you won’t succeed. Next would be patience. It takes time to build knowledge and expertise. Nowadays, everybody wants instant gratification. I’ve built my business, like my barbecue low and slow. The last Skill would be honesty, you have to be honest in this industry … in the notion that people know more about certain subjects than you do. so listen to what they have to say soak everything up because knowledge is power..

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

I’d say right now since opening up the Kosher barbecue concept the hardest challenge would be just getting in front of the different pockets in the Jewish community. I feel as if people get comfortable in their practices and the vendors they use. so just making myself known to the community is going to be my biggest uphill battle. I think once they try the food And experience our authentic barbecue that’ll go along way!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.smokedonhigh.com/kosher
• Instagram: @SmokedonchaiBBQ