Proprietor of Crazy Jakes’, Donald Jake Trumbore was born in Kansas City – the home of over 90 barbeque restaurants.  He moved to the Lehigh Valley area with his family when he was 18 years old.  Jake has always had a passion for cooking and has always been intrigued by the art of barbequing.  “It’s been a hobby of mine for over 20 years” says Jake, who brings a Kansas City style barbeque to his own sauces, rubs and baked beans. 

Jake worked for The Morning Call for 25 years when he decided to make his passion for barbeque his new career.  Jake’s wife Wendy said when they first told her father of their decision for Jake to quit his job to start his own business, her father’s reply was “He’s Crazy!”  It was that that stuck in Jake’s mind and became his new business name – “CRAZY JAKES’ BARBEQUE PIT”. 

He purchased a log cabin style concession rig in September of 2004, with the intent to cater parties and picnics.  The rig is a smokehouse restaurant on wheels.  It has a large drum smoker mounted on the back, a holding oven and a food preparation area inside complete with refrigeration.  His first event was the Whitehall Fall Festival at Whitehall High School.   He was also catering private parties and picnics.  

When he first began his concessions he used a name brand barbeque sauce and just added a few extra special ingredients to make it his own.  As with any good cook that just wasn’t good enough for Jake.  Late one night while lying in bed with his wife he had a barbeque epiphany.  He woke his wife and the two of them went to the kitchen to cook up his award winning barbeque sauce from the recipe he concocted in his head.  As he was cooking he was writing down all the ingredients to his secret recipe, which is locked up safely, says Jake.  And the rest is barbeque history.  His sauce and his rubs are now bottled and for sale to the public.

But this wasn’t enough for “Crazy Jakes”.  He began searching for a permanent spot to park his rig and sell his mouth-watering barbeque sandwiches.  Then in April of 2005 he leased space at the  Fegley’s Fast Fill Exxon in Walnutport, PA.  From his first day there you could smell his smoking meat from all over town.  It was the aroma of beef, pork and chicken smoking in Jake’s mix of hardwoods like apple, hickory and cherry. 

Jake would smoke his meat for sandwiches sold the next day.  He had set hours of operation but more times than not he had to close early because he sold out of food for that day.  He quickly became everyone’s quick fix for a barbeque craving, with a slew of regulars that kept coming back for more. 

After two seasons of operations at the Exxon parking lot, Jake and his wife finally decided to find a location to have a permanent restaurant.  After a long search they finally landed on Freemansburg Avenue, in Palmer Township.  They

 renovated the building to a country style restaurant and opened their doors on February 22^nd 2008.  The restaurant

seats 85 people and even has a drive thru, which is currently for phone in/ pick up orders only.  According to Jake they

filled the parking lot on the first day, without any advertising.  All they did was turn on the light.