Ragin' Hog Owners Launch Cracked Kettle Soup Company

For over eight years, Stacy Van Tuyl and his wife, Colleen, have been churning out Southern-style barbecue at Ragin' Hog, their restaurant at 4361 Lowell Boulevard. Now, they're expanding its offerings with a new virtual kitchen concept called Cracked Kettle Soup Company, available exclusively for delivery on GrubHub.

"I've always loved making soups — I'm kind of into low and slow whole foods," Stacy says. He gets to show off that passion with a menu that includes some Ragin' Hog staples as well as new additions, all of which are ideal comfort food on a cold winter day.

Both from Arkansas, the Van Tuyls moved to Denver 25 years ago. Stacy previously owned a telecommunications company but always enjoyed cooking, and finally they launched Ragin' Hog. They started with a small menu that's expanded steadily over the years. And in addition to the soup business, Stacy says they just installed a new indoor pit that has doubled the cooking area and will allow them to add still more items — if they can work through the current shortages plaguing the food industry.

"It's the weirdest things. Consumables, like my portion cups. Sometimes I can't get ribs, so I've transitioned from a baby back to a spare rib just because I couldn't get my hands on them," Stacy explains. "Even finding chickens is difficult. It's a routine struggle for me to try to find three to four different vendors to get what I need for a day."

Despite the struggles, Stacy is excited for the chance to reach more people with the new virtual kitchen. "I've noticed that when we try to order delivery after about 8 p.m., there's nothing available at all," he notes.  Cracked Kettle will be accepting orders from 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, a strategy designed to fill that late-night gap.
The Cracked Kettle menu includes Ragin' Hog's green chile stew and Brunswick stew, a Southern specialty made here with smoked pork, smoked chicken, lima beans, corn and tomatoes in a chicken stock. Stacy is also experimenting with new recipes, including chili made with smoked brisket, split pea and ham soup, chicken and sausage gumbo, and sausage tortellini soup. Soups will rotate seasonally, and there are plans to add some cold soups in the summer months. Sides like mac and cheese and collard greens will also be available to order.

As a family-operated restaurant — Colleen "runs the place," Stacy says, and their two sons help as well —— staffing hasn't been as much of a challenge at Ragin' Hog as it has been for other restaurants, but the business has still struggled throughout the pandemic. Most of its profits are usually from catering and events, which all but disappeared in 2020 and have been making a slow, and unpredictable, comeback.

But Stacy credits Ragin' Hog's fans with helping the business stay afloat. "We've got a great clientele that's kept us going," he says. "I really can't complain at all. They're really diehards."

Now those fans have one more way to support the business, and Stacy hopes that Cracked Kettle will stir up a following of its own, too.