New food truck brings BBQ to Ashtabula County

ASHTABULA — It all started with an Oklahoma Joe’s wood smoker.

That’s when Tiffany Honkonen bought the smoker as a birthday present for her husband, Dominic.

“I quickly found out that I had a real calling for coming up with specialty rubs, recipes and sauces,” he said. “We both found that from prepping the meat to watching the smoke billow out of the smoke stack, it is a peaceful process. When given lots of love and attention, it produces the best food.”

Soon after, the couple formed Cove Creek BBQ Company and today you can find their food truck at festivals, events and pop-up sales around Ashtabula County.

“Our favorite thing to do is experiment on new techniques and ingredients for the meats on our truck,” Dominic said. “Our sides are all homemade recipes passed down from family members, which is why we think you really feel at home when tasting our food.”

Cove Creek BBQ is a family-owned business, but most often you’ll find Dominic and Tiffany, Hannah Hackathorn and Dave Honkonen manning the food truck. Behind the scenes prepping you will find Alexis Vance, Austin Vance and Mary Hackathorn.

The couple is also available to cater events supported by their catering team of Cindy Vance (Dominic’s mom), Jeanette Newbold (Tiffany’s mom) and Dave Honkonen (Dominic’s dad).

The Honkonens, both natives of Ashtabula County, are graduates of Edgewood High School. They got married in Brentwood, Tennessee in 2019 and had their son, Nicholas, in 2021.

“We also have AJ, our beloved pet and quality control,” Tiffany joked.

After tasting their meals at holidays and family get-togethers, it was their families who encouraged them to pursue their dream of owning a food truck.

“But it seemed out of reach,” Tiffany said. “Then, in 2022, the Ashtabula Dream Center asked us if we would make some pulled pork for their yearly yard sale fund-raising event, as a donation, and we gladly accepted.”

While there, the owner of Ashtabula Valvoline tasted their food and he asked the Honkonens to cater a customer appreciation lunch.

“We then realized the dream that seemed so far out of reach was totally achievable,” Dominic said. “We upgraded our smokers, got our business license and our food truck license and, because of those two great organizations, Cove Creek BBQ was born.”

When not manning their new food truck, Dominic and Tiffany work full time. Dominic is an account manager at Atlantic Track and Turnout — a company based in New Jersey, selling rail road components to most of New York City’s Transit systems, along with other large metro areas.

Tiffany is a production and quality administrator at Cortina Leathers in Conneaut. Cortina Leathers manufactures and supplies leather to the architectural and design, traditional and automotive markets.

But the couple’s favorite time is time spent making barbecue.

To find out where the Cove Creek BBQ food truck will be on the weekends, like them on Facebook. That’s where they announce where they are going and what’s on the menu.

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