Ottawa's barbecue scene has a quiet powerhouse in Meatings Barbecue, and founder Mat Flosse is rewriting his own playbook. What started as a catering operation — serving slow-smoked meats at weddings, corporate events, and private gatherings across the capital — has evolved into something far more ambitious: a wholesale business supplying restaurants, retailers, and food service partners across the region.
The Catering Chapter
Flosse built Meatings from the ground up, doing what most passionate pitmasters do: firing up the smoker, loading the trailer, and showing up wherever hungry crowds gathered. Ottawa's catering market is competitive, and carving out a niche with authentic barbecue — not the watered-down banquet-hall kind — takes real commitment. Meatings did exactly that, earning a reputation for brisket, ribs, and smoked sausages that kept clients booking year after year.
But catering, for all its rewards, has a ceiling. Revenue is tied directly to events, which means slow winters, unpredictable bookings, and a team that has to be on-call for weekend rushes. Flosse recognized early that the model had structural limits.
The Wholesale Pivot
The shift from B2C to B2B wasn't an overnight decision. It came from listening — to restaurant owners who wanted consistent, high-quality smoked proteins they didn't have the capacity to produce in-house, and to retailers looking to differentiate their prepared food sections. Flosse saw an opportunity to become a supplier rather than a competitor.
Wholesale changes the game entirely. Instead of one-off event revenue, Meatings now operates on recurring purchase orders. Instead of chasing individual customers, the team builds long-term partnerships with businesses. The production model shifts from reactive to planned, making it easier to manage staffing, inventory, and margins.
For Flosse, the transition also meant investing in production capacity and food safety certifications — the unglamorous infrastructure work that unlocks access to institutional buyers. It's a grind, but one with compounding returns.
What It Means for Ottawa Food Lovers
The wholesale pivot is actually good news for everyday Ottawa residents, even if they never attend a Meatings-catered event. As Meatings products land in more local restaurants and grocery outlets, the city's access to quality smoked meats expands. Ottawa's food scene has been growing steadily, and local producers anchoring that supply chain are a big part of what makes the city's culinary identity distinct.
Flosse's story also fits a broader pattern of Ottawa food entrepreneurs maturing beyond their founding model — finding leverage through partnerships and distribution rather than purely direct-to-consumer hustle.
The Road Ahead
Meatings Barbecue isn't abandoning its roots. Catering remains part of the business, but it's no longer the engine. Wholesale is. That's a meaningful shift for a company that built its name one event at a time, and it signals the kind of operational discipline that separates passionate cooks from durable food businesses.
For Mat Flosse and the Meatings team, the smoke is still rising — just from a bigger kitchen now.
Source: Ottawa Business Journal
