A Boise dad is one part of a nationally known social media grill team that is now expanding into ready-to-drink cocktails.
Mark Anderson, who lives in Boise, and his partner, Ryan Fey, are “The Grill Dads,” a comedy and culinary brand with an audience of over a million across social media platforms. The best friends create content featuring grilling recipes and some of their favorite restaurants on their social media platforms, while also appearing on shows like the Today Show and at major food events across the country.
Now, The Grill Dads are bringing cocktails to an Albertsons near you.
Anderson and Fey met each other through work as partners at an advertising agency in Los Angeles.
“The agency was doing really well, and as the agency grew, we had to do more adult jobs, like payroll and sales forecasting, and the creative part of it was gone for us,” Anderson said. “Fey and I were looking for a way to kind of scratch that creative itch, and we cooked together all the time.”
The two would often grill for 60 people on the weekends. They began to do restaurant takeovers, which sold out. But they knew owning a restaurant wasn’t in their cards.
The Grill Dads, Ryan Fey and Mark Anderson. Photo: Courtesy Mark Anderson/The Grill Dads
“We’re advertising and brand guys. We create brands for other people. We realized, ‘let’s do this for ourselves,’” he said. “So we had the idea for The Grill Dads.”
Fey and Anderson created a trailer for a food show and got it in the hands of Mark Summers (former Nickelodeon host of Double Dare) and Guy Fieri. That led to an opportunity on ‘Guy’s Big Project,’ a reality show on the Food Network.
“We won that show and had our own show on the Food Network for years. We really looked at the Food Network not as the finishing line, but the starting line for building a brand,” Anderson said.
Anderson and Fey got off the Food Network as official talent shortly before the pandemic to focus on building The Grill Dads on social and through other platforms, which ended up being fantastic timing.
“During the pandemic, we blew up like a lot of other creators did, because the two most popular things were being outside and cooking,” he said.
The increased social following allowed them to launch their first product, a spice line for Ace Hardware stores. They also continued to do television appearances on shows, including the Today Show and SEC Nation, and host events and tailgate parties for a wide range of brands, including Johnsonville Sausage and Wrexham A.F.C.
The Grill Dads wrote a cookbook called “The Best Grilling Cookbook Ever Written By Two Idiots” in 2022, which won several awards. Eva Longoria Bastón wrote the foreword of the book.
The duo also contributed recipes to the Today Show’s book, “Today Loves Food,” making them New York Times Best Seller recipe contributors.
“We found ourselves in New York City at the launch for that book, sitting between Marcus Samuelsson, Daniel Boulud, and we’re like, ‘We can’t believe we’re here!’” Anderson said. “A buddy of mine texted me and said, ‘How did you get in a cookbook with Ina Garten?’ I responded back with, ‘I think her publicist just texted the Today Show producers the exact same thing.’”
At the start of The Grill Dads’ climb, Anderson and his family also made the move to the Treasure Valley in 2016. He wanted to work for himself, so he looked for a company to purchase in key locations across the country.
“I looked all over the country for six months at different opportunities to buy businesses,” he said. “I was looking at places like Boise and Asheville, North Carolina, places that were big enough to have amenities, but small enough to feel like a town instead of a big city. And we found a great opportunity here.”
Anderson said the duo has enjoyed building such a large following and brand, but also realizes they want to use this opportunity to develop products.
“We’re just honestly out here having a blast, but again, we kind of joke from a business standpoint, we’ve built ourselves a job, because the only way that we make money is to get on a plane and go somewhere and stand in front of either people or a camera and do something, which is amazing,” he said. “But at some point, we’re going to be ‘The Grill Grandpas,’ which doesn’t have the same appeal, so we’ve really focused on the product world, and that’s what landed us into Grill’n Time Cocktails.”
Several alcohol companies have hired Anderson and Fey as influencers; they even managed the NFL integration for Aviation Gin a few years ago. With ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails, they saw an opportunity.
“RTDs are having this big blow-up. It is our point of view, after having tried most of them, that there are the cheap ones, where you’re going to crush them for $1 and just try and get buzzed and not worry about the taste, and they taste awful,” he said. “Then you have other ones that are $18 for a craft cocktail in a bottle. To us, the pragmatic middle was missing.”
As grilling recipe creators, Anderson and Fey have created a wide range of cocktails and felt like they could capture the spirit of grilling in a can.
“We always say that grilling is the one time that you get a pass for drinking. It doesn’t matter what day of the week it is. If you’re standing in front of a grill, no one’s going to give you a hard time if you’re having a drink,” Anderson said. “So, over the years, we have made a lot of different cocktail recipes, and we just decided we were going to take a run at this because we felt like we had a good point of view.”
Grill’n Time Cocktails launched in late 2024, with its first distribution in California. There are three flavors: Tequila Smoke, Whiskey Tea, and Vodka Thyme, and they have an eight to nine percent alcohol by volume. All three flavors feature real spirits, are equivalent to about two drinks at a bar, and a four-pack runs $13.99.
Grill’n Time Cocktails on ice. Photo: Courtesy Mark Anderson/Grill’n Time Cocktails
Now, The Grill Dads are getting ready to launch Grill’n Time Cocktails here in Idaho, starting in eight Albertsons stores here in the Treasure Valley.
To celebrate the launch, The Grill Dads will be at the Albertsons Market Street store on Fairview and Eagle on Saturday, September 20, from noon to 4 p.m. They’ll be grilling, passing out samples of Grill’n Time Cocktails, and giving away cookbooks.
“We always say that as The Grill Dads, we can tailgate anything,” Anderson said. “So we’re tailgating the launch of our own crafts. It’s going to be like a little mini tailgate party. It will be fun.”
With Grill’n Time Cocktails, Anderson said they “want to own the backyard.”
“Grilling time is an occasion,” he said. “… Our goal is to have the brand, the taste, and the whole experience remind people of the backyard no matter where they are.”