From a rainy Friday night in an industrial street in Blacktown to serving royalty and rock stars, BlackBear BBQ’s journey is pure Aussie grit and a generous serving of flavour. What began as a few mates with a smoker and a dream has become one of Western Sydney’s most loved barbecue destinations, built on community, consistency, and the unmistakable aroma of slow-cooked brisket.
The start of a friendship brisket
Before he was running one of Sydney’s best-known smokehouses, Scott “Chop” McCoy was just a backyard cook with a free second-hand barbecue. “I bought a Weber originally – actually, I found it on the side of the road,” he laughs. “Cooked a couple of things, and then I upgraded myself to brisket.”
That first brisket would change everything. At Pendle Hill Meat Market, McCoy spotted a bearded bloke carrying a brisket and beef ribs. “I’m like, man, this guy obviously knows how to cook brisket,” he says. “I followed him around the meat market until he got off the phone, then went up and asked, ‘Hey, mate, do you know how to cook a brisket?’ That was Ben [Huppatz], one of the founders. We call that our friendship brisket now. We celebrate it every year on the 10th of September.”
It wasn’t long before McCoy joined Ben, Glenn [Ellis] and Haydn [Graham] to help out with their new idea – a small Friday-night barbecue spot in Blacktown’s industrial area that became BlackBear BBQ. “Our first Friday night, we had a massive line down the road, 200 metres, and it was raining,” he says. “The next day, they’re like, ‘We need to get more smokers.’”
Building a neighbourhood favourite
What started as a once-a-week pop-up quickly became a full-time operation. “Blacktown was our first location. That’s where we started – in Forge Street, in an industrial area where you wouldn’t think a restaurant would be,” McCoy says. “We were just on the cusp of starting when the whole barbecue scene started in Australia. We hit Instagram hard, and our first night we had that line down the road. From there, it just kind of grew.”
From day one, BlackBear BBQ has welcomed everyone. “Our target markets are tradies, and then the single mums, the dads, whoever – we don’t discriminate,” he says. “Then the young Instagram kind of people come in at night, taking their photos and everything. Our demographic’s massive. We do breakfast, lunch and dinner.” Over the years, BlackBear BBQ has fed festival crowds, music lovers, and even royalty. “The King and the Queen, Post Malone, doing events like Meatstock, Good Things, Knotfest,” McCoy recalls.
At BlackBear BBQ, you can ever get brisket for breakfast. “We originally opened at 6 AM because the guys who started it were tradies,” McCoy explains. “I think we were the first in Australia – if not most of the world – doing breakfast barbecue. Brisket, pork belly and egg in a box for breakfast – it’s just a nice, hearty tradie breakfast.”
The Square connection
BlackBear BBQ has used Square since day one. “At Blacktown, we were searching around for what kind of POS system to use, and one of the girls stumbled on Square, and we’ve been using it ever sincem” says McCoy. “It’s been amazing.”
The business now runs on Square Register with Square Point of Sale at their brick and mortar stores, but the team also smoke up a storm at a lot of events. “We did an event the other day where we set up a QR code and gave it to all the vendors,” McCoy explains. “Instead of lining up, they just ordered on the QR code, and we had a special line for them. It spits out a ticket – sensational.”
McCoy also leans on Square data and analytics. “Every time I do a festival or anything like that, I’ll have that data,” he says. “Then, when I’m coming up to that festival again, I’ll bring up Square, look at what we did, and that helps me forecast for my next event. It breaks down hourly, so I know how to staff as well. The reporting is amazing.”
For customers, the in-store experience is just as smooth. “People can see the front unit [the customer display] and they can see what they’re ordering – it just works a whole lot better,” McCoy says. “They know exactly what’s going on.”
When trading at events, the team still uses Square Reader and Square Stand for flexible payment setups, with plans to adopt the new Square Handheld. For online pre-orders and Christmas scheduling, they use Square Online to streamline sales and pick-up coordination.
Keeping the flame burning
Running a small business isn’t without challenges. “Biggest challenge? Probably rising costs,” McCoy admits. “Electricity costs, staffing costs, meat costs – trying to keep everything… the biggest problem for us is, our stuff’s expensive as it is, so if we put it up even more where it should be, people will potentially not buy our products. So it’s balancing that line to making a good-quality product at a good, reasonable price.”
Even with those pressures, the goal stays the same: to make great barbecue both locally and at more events. From backyard experiments to lines down the street, BlackBear BBQ’s success story is one of passion, grit and genuine connection.
