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Rocklands Barbeque and Grilling Company

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    • Holiday Menu
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  • Order for Pickup
    • Alexandria – Pickup
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Our Story

Mission Statement

To use our passion for real barbeque to celebrate and support families, team members, and the greater community.

Vision Statement

To create fun and memorable dining experiences for our guests.

To serve exceptional food and offer stellar service in a clean, safe and inclusive atmosphere.

To ensure that our team members feel like family, that voices and ideas are heard and encouraged, and trust and respect is felt.

To have and commit to achieving our personal and professional goals.

To make a positive, impactful difference in the greater community and on the environment.

To continue to serve the DMV area for another 30 extraordinary years!

The Rocklands Story

We’ve been serving our wood-only barbeque to loyal DC-area fans since 1990.  The story starts before that, though: John Snedden started barbequeing whole pigs when he was in college. (Aren’t we all glad he changed his plans and did not become a doctor?) Check out our timeline to get more of the the story.

  • Solar panels on top of Rocklands Arlington

    2022 From Surviving to Thriving!

    Rocklands wins the Sustainable Business of the Year Award from the Arlington Chamber of Commerce! Proud to have been able to have one of our sustainability goals come to fruition this year – installing a solar roof at our Rocklands Arlington! Solar energy production reduces our carbon footprint, saves resources, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and our utility bills!

  • Stop. Face mask required for entry.

    2021 Survival Mode

    We survived the changing mask mandates and everything that comes with that. No need to rehash. It reinforced that our team and our community are amazing!

  • Cheers to 30 years of Rocklands!

    2020 Cheers to 30 Years!

    We’ve turned 30! Thank you to all our customers for your support over these past three decades. We couldn’t have come this far without you. Cheers!

  • Rocklands at Nats Park

    2019 Rocklands Expands to Nats Park

    ROCKLANDS continues to expand opening a Barbeque and Beer Pop Up across the street from Nationals Park center gate. Baseball fans can sit outside and enjoy their favorite barbeque and beer 90 minutes before most home games!

  • Rocklands Spicy Mustard Barbeque Sauce

    2019 New Spicy Mustard Barbeque Sauce

    ROCKLANDS new house made sauces are bottled and sold on our Wall of Fire! Now producing and bottling two new additions to our family of sauces are the Spicy Mustard Barbeque Sauce and the Sweet and Smoky Barbeque Sauce.

  • Rocklands Kiosk at Capital One Arena

    2018 Capital One Arena Kiosk

    Capital One Arena undergoes a multi-million dollar facelift and ROCKLANDS gets it’s very own service kiosk moving to section 103/104– and the sports fans continue to go wild!

  • Rocklands Barbeque now at Capital One Arena

    2017 Start Serving at Capital One Arena

    The Verizon Center becomes the Capital One Arena…and ROCKLANDS starts serving there at every home game. Caps and Wizards fans go crazy for the combination of ROCKLANDS barbeque and Devil’s Backbone beers, available at section 105/106.

  • Red Rocklands Food Truck

    2016 Four Food Trucks

    FOUR food trucks? You bet. The streets of the DMV smell delicious as our trucks serve lunch curbside, or appear at local breweries. And a pop-up at National’s Park brings one of ROCKLANDS four food trucks to Nats fans for every home game.

  • 25 Years and Still Smokin'!

    2015 Rocklands Turns 25

    This year, ROCKLANDS turns 25. A quarter-century since we opened our doors on Wisconsin Avenue in Glover Park (where we are still in our original location). Thank you to every person who has come through those doors. And thanks to our staff, who together have worked for ROCKLANDS for a total of 656 years.

  • Wedding Catering from Rocklands

    2014 Wedding Bliss

    We cater our largest party to date — 3,900 people — and help 38 couples celebrate their marriages with weddings catered by ROCKLANDS.

  • Rocklands voted Best of DC: BBQ

    2013 Best of DC: BBQ

    For the fifth year in a row, fans vote us “Best of DC: BBQ” in Washington City Paper’s well-known annual poll (thanks, all!).

  • Rocklands Blackening Rub and Malt Salt

    2012 Two More Homemade Products

    The launch of ROCKLANDS Malt Salt and Blackening Rub adds two more homemade products to our restaurants and to our retailing partners (like Whole Foods and Wegmans).

  • @rocklandsbbq on twitter

    2011 We’re on Twitter

    Our first tweets go out to the world. We now tweet blue-plate specials from each location every day.

  • Rocklands turns 20

    2010 Thank You for 20 Amazing Years

    ROCKLANDS thanks all its restaurant and catering customers for 20 amazing years. We’re happy to serve you barbeque!

  • Barack Obama Hot Sauce by Rocklands Barbeque

    2009 Barack Obama Hot Sauce

    Marking the inauguration of the nation’s 44th president, ROCKLANDS introduces limited-edition Barack Obama Hot Sauce, a chipotle-rich condiment we can all support.

  • Rocklands Barbeque in Arlington VA

    2007 Arlington Store

    In December, ROCKLANDS Arlington opens its doors at 3471 Washington Boulevard. The mural is an instant hit.

  • Rocklands Barbeque Alexandria VA store

    2004 Alexandria Store

    The next ROCKLANDS opens at 25 South Quaker Lane in Alexandria, VA, as both a restaurant and catering kitchen. There’s now more elbow room for the catering team to create great events!

  • Eat Your Barbeque Mural

    2003 Good Neighbor Award

    ROCKLANDS is awarded the “Good Neighbor Award” by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.

  • 2000 The Millennium

    ROCKLANDS celebrates the millennium and its tenth anniversary by saying “thank you” to the loyal customers who’ve been eating ROCKLANDS barbeque for a decade.

  • Whole roasted pig

    1998 That’s a Lot of Pork

    With two locations and full-service catering and party planning, the ROCKLANDS staff now numbers 75 employees serving over 100,000 pounds of pork annually.

  • Rocklands Original Barbeque Sauce

    1997 Original Barbeque Sauce

    Determined to bring a taste of ROCKLANDS to the nation, John bottles ROCKLANDS Original Barbeque Sauce and begins nationwide distribution.

  • 1995 Rocklands at Carpool

    ROCKLANDS at Carpool opens its doors in Ballston, Virginia. Now barbeque lovers can enjoy a game of billiards and a mug of beer with their favorite food. ROCKLANDS staff expands to 45 people and the company serves over 66,000 pounds of pork.

  • Rocklands Catering

    1994 Quality Catering

    Overwhelmed by demands for quality catering services, ROCKLANDS staff increases to 20 people.

  • White House

    1993 White House Calling

    John Snedden gets a call from the White House, asking for menu suggestions. His ideas are used in Bill and Hillary Clinton’s first State Dinner.

  • Young John

    1991 One Year In

    At the end of its first year of business, ROCKLANDS has served over 20,000 pounds of pork.

  • Rocklands

    1990 ROCKLANDS Barbeque and Grilling Company opens its doors

    John’s dream of owning his own real barbeque restaurant finally comes true. In December, ROCKLANDS Barbeque and Grilling Company opens its doors at 2418 Wisconsin Avenue in Washington DC, and John hires his first 7 employees.

  • 1987 Catering from home

    Flooded with requests, John begins catering full-time from his home. He’s cooking for everything from weddings and picnics to fund-raisers and company parties (and he still is!).

  • First Place Ribbon

    1983 Welcome to DC

    John moves to Washington, DC, where he caters his first party. In the same year, he enters the International Barbeque Competition — and wins first place for ribs.

  • Original Barbeque Sauce

    1978 New Sauce

    Unhappy with store-bought sauces, John experiments to create ROCKLANDS Original Barbeque Sauce, named after the farm where he lives. The new sauce is an instant success among John’s pals and local barbeque lovers.

  • Rocklands Washington DC location 1990

    1977 The Beginning

    John Snedden leaves home to attend Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA, where he barbeques whole pigs for fraternities and local farms.

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Cheers to 31 years of Rocklands!

Catering

703-778-8000
catering@rocklands.com

World Headquarters

202-337-1925
info@rocklands.com

Our Stores

Alexandria – 703-778-9663

Arlington – 703-528-9663

Washington DC – 202-333-2558

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