Disability Resources Incorporated
 By
Mike Braun
Chile Pepper August 1999
Success is sweet, or so we often hear. But
the success that one achieves while helping
folks with special needs is a blessing for both.
Just ask Tony Dry.
Dry- ex-oil industry jobber turned hotsauce
entrepreneur – is president and general
manager of Billy Beans LLC., in Abilene, which
is located west of Dallas/Ft.Worth about halfway
to the Texas-New Mexico border. His Billy Beans
“I Scream” sauce is manufactured by
a group of people at Disability Resources Incorporated.
What makes their partnership so special is that
Disability Resources provides residential care
and vocational training to adults with developmental
disabilities.
“This is a mutually beneficial relationship,”
says Dry. “ We pay Disability Resources
for making the sauce, and the folks earn money
for their work.”
Dry uses the term “folks” to describe
the individuals at Disability Resources just
as everyone associated with the program does.
“We’ve chosen just to call the ‘folks,’”
says Rex Nutt, Disability Resources board chairman.
“We’ve found ‘folks’ to
be a comfortable phrase; one that’s not
demeaning in anyway to anyone. Everybody would
like to be called ‘just one of the folks.’”
Dry agrees, and he couldn’t be happier
with Disability Resources. “We are the
flagship at Disability Resources. Through the
manufacture and sell of our products, our goal
is to help them build 27 homes and a chapel
on their campus.”
Although Billy Beans is the only hot sauce
that Disability Resources manufactures, they
are setup to do it for other entrepreneurs what
they have done for Dry.
“ Our emphasis is to look at different
types of products, develop a system and see
if it is marketable,” says Buzzy Andress,
Disability Resources vocational director. “Then
we work with our folks on how to make it.”
To achieve that goal, Disability Resources
has a certified commercial kitchen to make food
products and a woodworking shop to make gift
boxes and crates.
“Support of Disability Resources enables
people who have disabilities to live in a community
and to work in the community and to contribute
to the community, and work in the community
and to contribute to the community.” Says
Jo Ann Nutt, Disability Resources Board Member.
HEAT, SMOKE, and NOVELTY
Disability Resources has been producing Dry’s
expanding line for about a year. Since starting
Billy Beans “I Scream Sauce” (hot
and medium), he has added Pickled Quail Eggs
and Dilly Penos, which are pickled sweet-hot
jalapenos with a sweet pickle taste, are a great
condiment for sandwiches, dips, and cheese balls.
Dry also sells a smoke-flavoring product he
calls “Texas Best-Kept Secret”. The
main “ingredient” is beans from mesquite
trees. Dry says meats have a one-of-a-kind smoked
flavor when you sue his product in place of
wood chips in the barbecue or gas grill.
Dry currently offers Old Sarge’s Salsa
and will soon introduce “Old Sarge’s
Texas Eggies” – pickled quail eggs
soaked in beet juice to match the maroon color
of Texas A&M University. You may have guessed
the play on words: A&M’s students are
“Aggies.”
LIKE MOTHER LIKE SON
Dry began tinkering with his mother’s
hot-sauce recipe about 12 years ago. “
I began making it for my family and giving it
to our friends,” says Dry. “I nearly
went bankrupt. I was making so much of it and
giving it away, I had to start selling it.”
Dry’s big break came in 1996, when Billy
Beans “I Scream” sauce won a couple
of awards at the annual Rattlesnake Roundup
in Sweetwater, Texas. He took Best Name honors
and a First Place for salsa.
Since then, Billy Beans “I Scream”
sauce has one First Place in the Fresh Food
Division, and Second Place in the Cooked Sauce
Division of the 1999 Fiery Food Challenge sponsored
by Chile Pepper magazine earlier this year in
Fort Worth. Also this year, the sauce took two
First Place awards in a competition sponsored
by Food Distribution magazine in Boca Raton,
Fla. – a first for Chunky/Hot and a first
for Garlic Salsa/Hot. And Dry captured a First
Place award at last year’s Texas Fiery
Food Show Shoot Out in Austin.
“The secret behind Billy Beans is the
freshness,” says Dry. “ We start with
all fresh product – tomatoes, jalapenos,
onions, garlic, and serrano peppers – and
even after it is cooked, it still tastes fresh.”
SALSA TO THE STARS
Dry likes to say Billy Beans “I Scream”
is “the salsa to the country music stars.”
And he has the stories to prove it.
He recently taped a segment at the Country
Music Association offices for Keith Harling’s
“Showcase” shown on the TNN Network.
During the show, Dry dished up Pedro’s
Tamales, Billy Beans “I Scream” sauce
and Guacamole Salad, which is a recipe for his
cookbook, Billy Beans Best.
He also provided enough Billy Beans “I
Scream” sauce to feed about 3,000 country-music
performers at the 34th Annual Academy of Country
Music awards show at Universal Studios in Hollywood.
“Man did they eat it up!” says Dry.
“ In fact, Layne Wootten, the world-famous
cowboy chef, took the last jar and put it in
his ice box.”
Another big fan is Chris LeDoux, singer and
songwriter of country western tunes.
“Chris and his group toured the Disability
Resources plant recently,” says Dry. “They
talked to all our folks and gave them autographed
pictures, hats, and t-shirts.”
Dry recalls a story about much LeDoux likes
to cook on the bus. One day, he was cooking
a pot of beans and decided to pour in some flavor
by adding half a jar of “I Scream”
sauce. One taste and LeDoux was hooked.
“Now,” says Dry, “Chris doesn’t
cook beans without Billy Beans.”
The same is true about the helping-hand relationship
that Tony Dry and the folks at Disability Resources
have. Says Dry: “I’m excited about
the possibility for our future together.”
HOT LEADS
Tony Dry sells his Billy Beans “I Scream”
sauce, Pickled Quail Eggs, Dilly Penos, Texas
Best-Kept Secret smoke flavoring, Old Sarge’s
Salsa and Old Sarge’s Texas Eggies through
his internet Web site (www.billybeans.com).
You also can find them at The General Store
in the Stockyards National Historic District
in Fort Worth and select gourmet and hot shops
around the country. He also is negotiating for
distribution in major supermarket chains.
http://www.chilepepper.com/
http://www.billybeans.com/
|
