History
Honoring Wayne Mark Schafer, August 28, 1963- May 26, 2026
My husband, and founder Wayne Mark Schafer, Sr. was only 16 when he decided he wanted to emulate and improve in the footsteps of his parents in food concessions. In those days, his mother Barb and stepfather Ron Greer owned Roban Foods and would sell food at fairs and festivals. Their wooden stands were built with love and care, which they attributed to a design Ron “borrowed” from Cory Higgenbottom’s dad “Higgie.”
Please visit the official obituary here —> Obituary for Wayne Mark Schafer | The Rosedale Funeral Home of Philip E. Cvach, Inc.
Wayne saw this vision and wanted to branch into other ventures. He soon started J&W Foods in Rosedale, with first wife. Ironically, he lived just around the corner from me, in fact I walked past his house to school on most days, although I never knew him. (My first boyfriend worked for him, yet our paths would not cross for almost two decades). Wayne wanted to sling less sausage and gyros and had a vision of pit smoked meats rubbed with a special blend of seasoning marinated over several days to give it flavor. He also worked at Gibby’s seafood and managed other Baltimore restaurants.
In the 1980’s he would solicit the help of younger brother Brian, and the two brothers would go into business of their own and get a small shack on Route 40 in Baltimore. This is when the original Big Fat Daddy’s was born. In those days there were several places – Big Al’s, Big Fat Daddy’s and Chaps (the last still conveniently located outside the Gentlemen’s club), and this area was dubbed “Baltimore’s Pit Beef Row.” Each joint had their own flavor profile. The Schafer boys had a nice, heated tent and a huge side buffet bar. Each meal deal in those days included fries, a sandwich and drink for the ripe price of $5.25. I know, because I helped Brian often. Wayne would work out of a warehouse on Philadelphia Road primarily doing concessions while Brian would run the pit beef stand.
Wayne playing around with Noah Cappe on Food Network
The brothers had different ideas and would often butt heads. I was helping Brian when Steven Raichlen came to the Pit Beef Stand in the late 1990’s. I still had not met Wayne formally and it seemed I always missed him by a minute. He was married now to his second wife. and again, our paths would not immediately cross.
That one sandwich served to Steven would soon land Big Fat Daddy’s into pit beef fame. This was a time before internet, before iPhones, before Diners Drive-Ins and Dives TV show, and before the web was hopping. At this time, you still had to hit “C + RUN” into a commodore 64 to get it to move. If you were in the local paper, it was something as newspapers and magazines were the primary source of information. Now, being that the little pit beef shack was soon featured in Steven’s BBQ books, Saveur Magazine and inducted into the Southern Food and Beverage Museum for Baltimore’s version of pit beef was just unreal and a time where the phone was ringing off the hook for catering and invites. Unfortunately, it was around the time of the partnership split. Brian would continue under “Brian’s Big Fat Daddy’s” eventually moving to Hanover, PA. Wayne would retain “Big Fat Daddy’s” for his own. During this time, he was married to his second wife. and working at Tully’s.
Wayne’s Bestie Armon
Wayne came into my life in 2004 and by 2006 we were inseparable and built our lives together. I was his third wife as of 2008 and we had a beautiful sand binding ceremony on East Grand Lake in Maine. We appreciated the beauty of every sunset and sunrise.
We moved the business to Manchester, PA and left Baltimore to live in a small community in the mountains of West Virginia, we hosted KCBS festivals in Winchester, Virginia called “Hogging Up” which raised money for cancer care. Wayne catered for Ray Lewis and cooked giant burgers at “Ray’s Summer Day’s.” Wayne enjoyed taking Myron Mixon’s cooking class which led to the Big Fat Daddy’s flavor profile in our pulled pork. He would be featured and filmed on Food Network’s Carnival Eats in two different seasons and was often on the News in Virginia and Pennsylvania. Wayne was featured in thousands of articles, but he was very humble and private in his down time. He would serve thousands of people at the fair but enjoyed quiet time on a lake with his dogs having only a handful of close friends.
Wayne and his boat
Wayne’s motto was work hard, play hard. Wayne had a big heart and tried to help everyone along the way. My husband was my best friend, my business partner, and my mentor. He would pick me wildflowers every day and called me his Jenny. If you didn’t respect him or his choices in his life, you were out. He would move mountains for those he loved. He was my hero and a standup guy.
Wayne, Cindy, Noah Cappe, and the crew filming on Food Network
Wayne’s closest family and friends knew that he battled rheumatoid arthritis since 2008, but he would not let it get the best of him. (This is an auto immune disease that causes your own body to attack its own organs.) It would be very painful at times and the medicines that Rheumatologists gave him were to weaken his own immune system, namely chemo drugs. It would be during this time that when he was 58, a rare form of squamous cell carcinoma showed up on his neck. Soon it was “successfully” removed with dermatology, but it came back. Then it was “successfully” removed with “MOHS therapy.” But it came back. Soon our nightmare began, we were told that Wayne was in stage four cancer, and it was in his parotoid gland. With the help of a wonderful surgeon Dr. Masroor at GBMC, he underwent a 13-hour surgery, and six weeks of radiation. This bought us almost four more years of time, testing clear for three years before his back started hurting in Spring of 2026. We were then told the worst news one could hear that the orignal squamous cell “came back again” and metastasized into his lung and spine. Originally, we thought we would be accepted into Hopkins for an immunotherapy trial, but the cancer was turbo charged and we didn’t have the opportunity. My husband refused hospice just about every day for three weeks, just to spend this time holding my hand in the GBMC hospital telling me all he wanted to say, until he took his final breath. It took his life on May 26, 2026 at the age of 62. I am thankful to have had 22 beautiful years together. He was my soul mate.
Wayne Schafer, in the off season in Maine
This story is not about Wayne’s BBQ endeavors, as he had many, but it’s about love. My husband’s legacy is honored with every sandwich that I serve, with every catering job that I do, and with every inch of my heart. The final weeks in the hospital where he battled just to have one more moment with me makes him my ultimate hero. His accomplishments in the BBQ world won’t be forgotten, and in my eyes, he will always be King of the Fair. I now continue Big Fat Daddy’s into the Final Rodeo. as he wished with the friends and family pit crew who have been with me and him every step of the way. Love lasts forever. I see him in every rainbow, in every sunset on the East Grand Lake, as I finish the legacy he started so long ago.
Thank you to the thousands of customers, vendors, and business associates who have reached out and helped me though this difficult time. and most of all, my pit crew family who have stood by our side though all of this. Your kindness won’t be forgotten. Wayne KNEW WHO MATTERED and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. As for Big Fat Daddy’s it will always be Wayne and Cindy, because Love Lasts Forever!
Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer
Owner, Big Fat Daddy’s
