Nearing the age of fifty, Steve Burney risked everything to open a small family business in Lake Forest Park, Washington. After a six-month wild ride of improbable, serendipitous occurrences, Burney Brothers BBQ had its grand opening in 2004. Between 2005 - 2008, it grew to three locations and an additional business, Burney's Wine Corner. After sixteen years of operating, he decided to retire in 2020 when the first Washington state Covid-19 mandatory business shutdowns were imposed. Steve was previously a bartender and manager at the Mayflower Park Hotel in downtown Seattle for seventeen years. Originally from Texas, he grew up in a small town outside of San Antonio, leaving after high school at the age of nineteen to study theatre in New York City, where he lived and worked as an actor for over ten years. He is now back in Texas, living outside of San Antonio with his wife, Leni.