A Real Sausage Fest

Before he opened d.d. Pecker’s Wing Shack on Savannah Highway, Derek Harris was a teacher and an assistant principal at Porter Gaud for a decade. It was while there that Harris became close friends with Randy Clark, principal of the Middle School and longtime varsity basketball coach for the Cyclones. “I used to say ‘he was my best friend.’ And then 10 other guys would also say he was their best friend. That’s just the kind of a guy he was,” says Harris, speaking about Clark, who passed away in 2013.
Harris and his business partner and brother-in-law Brian Lawson created a golf tournament in Clark’s honor, with the proceeds going to the Randall L. Clark Scholarship Fund, which provides tuition and tutoring assistance to a minority student with recognized financial need entering the 6th grade. The golf tournament was sold-out and the event was a huge success. But Harris and Lawson wanted to do more.
One of the fondest memories Harris has of his old friend and co-worker was his unofficial “Sausagepalooza” parties he would have at his pool. Harris laughs now retelling the story of how every summer Clark would buy pounds of Bratwurst and other sausages and then call Harris and all his buddies up and proclaim “Sausagepalooza this weekend!” And they would go over to his house and have a pool party and grill out.
So after the golf tournament was such a success this year, Harris says he wanted to bookend this year’s Randall L. Clark Scholarship fundraising with d.d. Pecker’s first-ever Sausagepalooza. “Porter Gaud was his life,” says Harris. “And he would have loved this.”
The inaugural 2015 Sausagepalooza will be held from 6-9 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 30 at d.d. Pecker’s Wing Shack, located at 1660 Savannah Hwy. While the official start of Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany will still be a couple weeks away, Sausagepalooza will serve unofficially as an early Oktoberfest of sorts for West Ashley. Harris and Lawson have hand picked several different kinds of sausages that will be available for sampling. From Ted’s Butcher Block downtown, you can try, fresh German sausage, bratwurst, and gator sausage. And from the Brazilian Market in Goose Creek, you can try Brazilian-style chicken sausage, pork, spicy pork, and “meatball” sausage.
While seven different kinds of sausage is a lot of sausage by any standard, Harris didn’t want to stop there. He recalled once have been given a “Sausage of the Month” gift through Esposito’s Finest Quality Sausage in New York City. Every month five pounds of different kinds of sausage would show up on his doorstep. He recalled the wide variety and high quality Esposito’s offered, so he called them up and told them what he was doing. They responded by giving him a great deal on whatever he wanted. So he added a half dozen more sausages to the lineup — fresh chorizo, hot Italian sausage, sweet sausage with provolone and parsley, Italian sausage with broccoli rabe and mozzarella, chicken broccoli rabe and mozzarella sausage, and Andouille sausage.
In addition to the 13 different kinds of sausage, d.d. Pecker’s will also be serving soft pretzels and German potato salad. And when Harris told his Sierra Nevada rep about Sausagepalooza, the West Coast-based brewery, which just set up another brewery in Asheville, N.C. jumped at the chance to be the official beer sponsor of the event. Sierra Nevada. Although they have been brewing beer since 1979, this year marks the first time Sierra Nevada has ever made an Oktoberfest, so this was a great opportunity to showcase their new brew, which they collaborated with Brauhaus Riegele of Augsburg, Germany to create what Men’s Journal recently dubbed the “World’s best Oktoberfest.”
According to Harris, Sierra Nevada will also be rolling out some other seasonal brews for the event in addition to providing three different types of their own craft mustards to go along with the sausages and pretzels.
For the inaugural Sausagepalooza, Harris says he wants to keep it relatively small, only selling 50-60 tickets. He hopes that next year he can grow it to be twice as large. Tickets for Sausagepalooza are $30 and include all the sausage and beer you want. It will be held rain or shine under a large tent in the d.d. Pecker’s parking lot.
Sausagepalooza will be held Sunday, Aug. 30, 6-9 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the d.d. Pecker’s Wing Shack, located at 1660 Savannah Hwy. For more information call (843) 402-4567.