Maryland Cookout Coalition

The Maryland Cookout Coalition is a collective of Maryland's professional, blue-collar hospitality businesses and organizations — the barbecue joints, crab shacks, food trucks, dock bars, church auxiliaries, and volunteer fire departments that sell food made to be cooked or eaten outdoors. If it's something you'd eat at a tailgate, you probably qualify.

There's room here for more than just the pros. We're starting with the businesses and organizations that sell this food to the public — but if you're a home cook, or just someone who loves it, there's a place for you here too, and a spot to sign up below.

The first endeavor of the coalition will be a Maryland Tailgate Trail, where we all promote and market ourselves as part of one regional culinary concept: food built for the hills, the fields, the roads, the bay, and the shores of Maryland. Authentic and blue-collar. Simple and delicious. Right now, we're just gathering the names and information of anyone who'd like to be part of this — nothing to pay, no commitment.

There's only one qualification to be on the trail. Your food has to be publicly available for the community to purchase. A storefront, a truck, a stand, a tent, a weekend fundraiser — if a regular person can find you in the state of Maryland and purchase a plate of food from you, you belong on it.

But the trail is just where we're starting. The coalition itself welcomes anyone interested in being part of this — and if you don't fit the trail yet, we'll find a way to bring you in eventually. We're a collective of the blue-collar folks who feed this state, bringing ourselves together to make Maryland a real culinary destination on the East Coast.

If this sounds like the kind of community you'd like to belong to, pick the option below that fits and add yourself. Down the road we want this to include non-professionals too — backyard hobbyists and blue-collar foodies — we're just not there yet. If you'd like to follow along until we've got a place for you, choose Following along.

Let's build this together.