The bus had been used as a food truck for one year and came equipped with a smoker, and the two spent most of the summer researching, practicing and perfecting smoked meat recipes they planned to use.
STILLWATER OKLAHOMA MAGAZINE / 9
WE’ VE BEEN EVERYWHERE:
BBQ Bus hits the road bringing smoked meats and sno cones to customers
PICTURED: Jordon Beaver hands sno cones out to customers
Ava Beaver always held a childhood dream.“ I’ ve always wanted to open a restaurant from the moment I was little,” Ava said.
Sometimes she thought it might be a drink trailer. Her husband Jordon’ s family owned a sno cone trailer for two years before he met Ava, so he had some experience with mobile food units.
One day, while sitting at home, Ava was scrolling through Facebook Marketplace and saw a remodeled bus for sale.
“ I was like,‘ Oh, my gosh! We should look at this. This is so cool!” Ava said. The Glencoe-based couple drove to Cushing to see the bus, and the same day they put a down payment on it to purchase the vehicle.
The bus had been used as a food truck for one year and came equipped with a smoker, and the two spent most of the summer researching, practicing and perfecting smoked meat recipes they planned to use.
“ With( my parents) help, we got it started and set up pretty fast compared to other food trucks,” Jordon said.
Diving into the“ food bus” world can be challenging, Ava said. Passing food inspections and obtaining permits can be overwhelming. Jordon’ s parents, Jon and Bridget Beaver- who own Beav’ s Ice Paradise Sno Cones – helped them navigate all of that.
“ Or else we probably wouldn’ t be here right now,” Ava said, laughing.
Oklahoma’ s“ Food Truck Freedom Act”( House Bill 1076), which passed in November 2025, created a single statewide license, allowing food trucks to operate in any local jurisdiction without needing separate permits for each city, which reduced the couple’ s anxiety with having to purchase individual permits for each city they visited.
The couple also had to learn flexibility. Sometimes the generator and smoker on the bus would quit. But one of their biggest challenges was time management – cooking food and wrangling the kids. The brisket they serve has to be smoked for 15-20 hours.
“ We were always late to events. It’ s hard smoking meat overnight,” Ava said.“ But I think now we’ ve pretty much gotten it down when we need to leave to make sure we have enough time to set everything up and start selling food.” At first, they sold brisket and pulled pork sandwiches with chips and a beverage. But they wanted something unique to them. They talked about selling loaded fries, but knew everyone else sells them.
Then they had a bright idea.“ Let’ s throw it all together,” Ava said.
“ We’ re going to put this mac n’ cheese, and we’ re going to throw everything in it – our whole menu, we’ re just going to put it in a box,” Jordon said.“ And then it turned out to be delicious. So, then we just started selling it.”
The bus had been used as a food truck for one year and came equipped with a smoker, and the two spent most of the summer researching, practicing and perfecting smoked meat recipes they planned to use.
STILLWATER OKLAHOMA MAGAZINE / 9