Latest / Single Tree Nation Show / Rodney Scott on Whole Hog BBQ, Hard Work & Building a Legacy

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Rodney Scott on Whole Hog BBQ, Hard Work & Building a Legacy · Single Tree Nation Show

0:04
Welcome back to Singletree Nation, guys.
0:06
I'm your man, Charlie Eblen.
0:08
And as always,
0:09
we have our illustrious co-host,
0:10
Mr. Derry Wells.
0:12
What is up, everybody?
0:13
What is going on?
0:13
It's a good day.
0:14
We have a pretty epic show.
0:17
I have been trying to nail
0:19
down this show for almost a year now.
0:21
It's been a while.
0:22
I knew that.
0:22
It's been a while.
0:24
Somebody that I've been following for,
0:27
geez, at least five or six years now.
0:30
Probably right at five years
0:32
I've been following this
0:34
gentleman's progression of what they call,
0:40
some people call overnight success,
0:42
which we'll get into in a little while.
0:44
But I don't even know what
0:49
the best way to introduce
0:51
this gentleman is, the legend.
0:53
it's just thrown to the
0:54
master that's it the the
0:56
the tv star the author
0:58
restaurateur restaurateur
1:01
the man the myth the legend
1:03
yep mr rodney scott himself
1:05
welcome to the show
1:07
Thank you for having me.
1:09
Man, I'm just a dude.
1:14
I say the same thing
1:15
sometimes and I absolutely
1:17
love that you answered that
1:19
that way because I feel
1:22
like most people that are
1:25
The barbecue enthusiasts
1:27
that have done what you've
1:28
done are very similar.
1:31
And we just like making
1:32
amazing food and building
1:34
people and communities and
1:36
bringing them together and
1:37
having a good time over a great meal.
1:40
Yes, absolutely.
1:42
There's nothing better, man.
1:43
You know, you learn a lot of stories,
1:45
a lot of truth,
1:45
a lot of lies when you're
1:47
sitting by the fire, you know.
1:50
Can't beat it.
1:50
Tall tales.
1:52
It's like fishing.
1:53
You know,
1:54
you get by that fire and
1:55
everything gets bigger.
1:56
Yes.
1:57
Oh, my goodness.
1:58
Yes.
1:58
It's good stuff.
2:01
Now,
2:02
you have been in and around barbecue
2:05
for most of your life, right?
2:07
Yes.
2:07
You can pretty much say my entire life.
2:09
I was born in seventy one.
2:12
Family started a business in seventy two.
2:15
Nineteen seventy two for
2:16
those of you out there.
2:19
That is a century.
2:22
And I grew up in the business from,
2:25
you know,
2:26
walking around it to helping out
2:27
to actually taking over.
2:31
Now, if my memory serves me correctly,
2:36
your first time ever cooking a hog,
2:38
you weren't even a teenager yet.
2:41
Wasn't a teenager yet.
2:42
I was eleven years old.
2:44
It was a chilly day in December.
2:46
School was out and there was
2:48
a basketball game down the
2:50
street that I was dying to go to.
2:53
And the challenge that day
2:54
was you're going to cook
2:55
the hog if you want to go to the game.
2:57
And I was like, oh, yeah, really?
2:58
I got this.
3:00
And it was a rivalry game
3:01
and I wanted to go really bad.
3:03
So my dad got we got it
3:05
loaded and he left and he was like,
3:07
you watch the hog until I get back.
3:10
man seemed like he wasn't
3:11
ever coming back so I I
3:15
knew what I was supposed to
3:16
do and I knew what to look
3:18
for so it was one knee
3:21
flashlight all day wood in
3:23
the barrel coals all day
3:25
not understanding that the
3:26
dude that was hanging out
3:27
was actually supervising me
3:29
secretly to make sure I
3:31
didn't lose track or or
3:33
burned it up and you know
3:35
man when it was time to
3:36
flip it over and it flipped
3:37
over I said yeah I win
3:40
And he said, I could go to the game.
3:41
I didn't give a rip, man.
3:42
I had to stick around and see the finish.
3:43
I changed clothes and went
3:44
to that basketball game.
3:46
Oh, no, you missed your own product.
3:48
I mean, you know, I was, hey, I'm a Levin.
3:51
Right.
3:51
Now priorities.
3:52
You did it.
3:53
So there's a basketball bounce.
3:54
That's right.
3:56
I love it.
3:57
No.
3:58
At eleven,
3:58
basketball is way more important
3:59
than that hog.
4:00
Yeah.
4:03
Now you go back that far, man,
4:05
like looking back when you were, you know,
4:08
when you were in grade
4:08
school and middle school and high school,
4:10
like when did,
4:12
when did food and cooking
4:13
hogs and when did all of
4:15
that start clicking for you?
4:17
You know what?
4:18
Funny thing.
4:18
It started clicking the
4:20
summer before my senior
4:21
year when we had economics
4:24
and government and it was a
4:25
tough class for a lot of us at school.
4:28
And my math teacher held me
4:30
back on purpose.
4:31
She said, you passed,
4:33
but you could have done better.
4:34
So I only needed English, math,
4:38
and economics and government to pass,
4:40
right?
4:42
So I persuaded my folks to
4:43
let me get to summer school
4:44
and get that economics and
4:45
government out of the way.
4:47
And the only thing that I
4:48
can really tell you about
4:49
economics and government
4:50
from memory is supply and demand.
4:53
That's when I figured out
4:55
food is definitely a demand.
4:57
We can supply it.
4:59
Let's make this delicious.
5:01
I understand this.
5:02
Let's sell this.
5:03
So by my senior year,
5:05
I started to realize that
5:07
food was very necessary.
5:08
We make it.
5:09
Let's make it delicious.
5:11
This is a gift, I think, because again,
5:15
by this time, I'm about sixteen.
5:17
said this is a gift I I
5:19
really need to make this
5:20
work I can make this work
5:22
and that's when I started
5:24
to see the importance of
5:25
what we were doing versus
5:27
you know everybody else in
5:28
the community and how much
5:29
it made an impact on the
5:30
community so I was all over
5:32
it man I was like this
5:33
thing's gonna work out if I
5:34
make it right yeah yeah now
5:38
you you start you start
5:40
diving in a little bit more are you
5:43
Are you kind of going off on your own,
5:44
on your own side of trying
5:46
to learn more about palette
5:49
and flavors and different styles?
5:52
Or are you asking pop, hey,
5:55
how do you do this?
5:56
How do you do that?
5:57
How do I make it this?
5:58
How do I do that?
6:00
What was Rodney's way of really diving in?
6:02
Well, basically it was all pops,
6:05
whatever they said, what you're doing.
6:07
And it was more or less,
6:09
why is the sauce going on now?
6:11
How long does it have to be on there?
6:14
How much cayenne pepper
6:14
versus black pepper?
6:16
Because we did it all
6:17
separately back then.
6:18
So it was basically going on
6:19
what he said and what we needed to do.
6:22
Because again, during this time,
6:24
I was still trying to
6:25
figure out the difference
6:25
in salt and Jesus tears.
6:29
Jesus tears is MSG.
6:30
We all know.
6:32
And I was trying to figure
6:32
out the difference between
6:34
the two and why is one more
6:36
heavier than the other?
6:38
So little things like that,
6:39
I just started to ask him questions,
6:41
but I still went on his direction.
6:44
So then I learned that you
6:45
couldn't put the same
6:46
amount of seasoning on a
6:47
chicken that you did on a hog.
6:49
And that's when my early
6:50
education of the basics
6:52
that we were cooking,
6:53
I started to apply towards, you know,
6:57
the everyday and how to
6:58
range it out a little bit,
7:00
like add it to a steak or
7:02
add it to some turkey.
7:03
So those are things I
7:04
started to learn off of
7:06
following what dad would
7:07
tell you what to do.
7:08
I love that.
7:10
The MSG thing is just epic for me.
7:15
Jesus Tears is just one of those things.
7:18
So I had no idea.
7:21
Let me reach over here and grab this.
7:22
I had no idea until I got this.
7:27
Yeah.
7:28
Okay.
7:28
And I started talking about
7:29
you to my wife probably
7:34
about the time the Netflix
7:36
special with the chef's table came out.
7:41
And because she,
7:44
I could name a pit master
7:45
and she wouldn't have a clue who it was,
7:47
but this, this way I could say, you know,
7:49
the guy I was watching the
7:50
other day on Netflix.
7:52
And so then she got me your,
7:53
she got me your cookbook because I was,
7:56
I loved the show and
7:57
started talking about you
7:58
and all the things she brought me.
8:01
I had no idea that there was
8:02
people out there that put
8:04
more MSG on things.
8:07
Yep.
8:08
Well, I did like that.
8:09
Yeah.
8:10
what you pointed out first
8:11
of all the name jesus tears
8:13
yeah and how that came
8:14
about like just putting
8:15
your own little spin on it
8:16
I like I've gone through
8:18
some of your book here with
8:19
charlie and just the little
8:21
antidotes that you have and
8:22
what uh what food does
8:25
allow you to do and having
8:27
those stories and building
8:28
that community building
8:29
that background and then
8:30
how the uh I think it was
8:32
nick's kid walked in he's
8:33
like no it's just jesus
8:34
tears and and that builds on that
8:37
But you made a comment like
8:38
you didn't hold back.
8:39
Like, yes, we put MSG in our food.
8:42
And your counter to that was
8:45
you're already eating it
8:46
because it's in all this
8:47
other junk that you consume daily.
8:50
What gave you the confidence
8:52
or was it just the fact of
8:53
you knew it made it better
8:55
to to move forward and say, yeah,
8:57
we're going to hang on to
8:57
this and keep right on going?
8:59
Well, you know,
9:00
I did my little research on it.
9:01
I was like, OK,
9:02
I found out that sodium level was lower.
9:04
And I was like, oh, that's better.
9:07
This is good.
9:08
Then I found out that it
9:09
only enhances what you already have.
9:12
So one particular day at home,
9:13
I tried to go without it.
9:16
Didn't work as good.
9:17
And I put a pinch back in and I was like,
9:19
Oh, that changed it a lot.
9:21
So I was like,
9:22
why be afraid to say what it is?
9:24
Tell them straight up.
9:25
Hey, this is what I use.
9:27
And once, once I ran out,
9:29
I didn't have it with me.
9:30
I did a job in, I'll say North Carolina.
9:32
I'm not going to say which city.
9:33
And, uh,
9:36
Is that what we're doing here?
9:39
Yeah.
9:41
I was like,
9:41
where's the nearest grocery store?
9:42
I need to find some real quick.
9:43
He said, what do you need?
9:45
We have a whole kitchen.
9:47
Well, I need some Jesus tears.
9:51
He took a deep breath and he hesitated.
9:53
He's like, I got it, but
9:57
Nobody knows I use it.
9:58
And I'm like, uh-huh.
10:01
Told on himself.
10:02
Yeah.
10:03
So that's when I was like,
10:05
just go ahead and say you use it.
10:07
If you use it, you use it.
10:09
Again, you're already eating it.
10:10
It's in all of your favorite
10:12
snacks and different places.
10:14
Some places they don't even
10:14
want to admit it's there.
10:17
It's just a flavor enhancer.
10:19
Just basically a little bit
10:20
more flavor added to what you already do.
10:23
And
10:24
You know, why not just add that to it?
10:27
And I boldly tell them, yeah,
10:29
it's in there.
10:30
And people say, well, I'm allergic.
10:31
No, you're not.
10:32
You think you are.
10:35
You've been eating it this whole time.
10:36
You're not allergic.
10:38
That bag of Doritos over
10:39
there says you're not allergic to it.
10:41
Because you have consumed it.
10:44
You ate three small packs of
10:45
that thing already.
10:46
You're all stacked with it.
10:48
But, you know,
10:49
why not just say what's in it?
10:53
I'm not ashamed to say we use it.
10:56
Where did the MSG come from?
10:58
I would have never,
11:00
and maybe it's my lack of culinary,
11:04
formal culinary training,
11:06
but where did you just come up with, hey,
11:09
let's just put some more MSG on it?
11:12
Well, growing up in the barbecue pit,
11:15
you listen.
11:17
And my dad's uncle,
11:19
He was the one that was
11:20
teaching my dad how to do it mostly.
11:23
And I remember him saying
11:24
one particular afternoon, he says,
11:27
I need a little bit more accent.
11:30
What?
11:31
You know, that's one brand of MSG.
11:34
And I saw him take it and
11:37
just dabbed it on.
11:39
And he said, oh yeah,
11:40
that's it right there.
11:43
Right?
11:43
I'm like...
11:45
You've heard that more than once.
11:46
Yeah.
11:49
Really?
11:49
This pretty little can made a difference?
11:52
So when they turned their backs, you know,
11:54
we kind of tasted like, ooh, all right.
11:59
It's a lot of flavor.
12:00
And the memory never escaped me.
12:03
And I always knew that if
12:04
you had a pinch of that.
12:06
it would make things so delicious.
12:08
Add so much more flavor on
12:11
top of what you already have.
12:13
It's better than just adding
12:14
a little salt.
12:15
Yeah.
12:15
And then a lot of people
12:16
said it's in Chinese food.
12:17
It's everywhere in Chinese food.
12:20
It's an Asian thing that a
12:21
lot of people like to use.
12:22
And I'm like, well,
12:23
I didn't know that either,
12:24
but I know it works great in our house.
12:27
Can you taste it?
12:28
If you taste too much MSG,
12:30
too much in quotation marks,
12:32
do you know what it is?
12:33
You can pick it out?
12:35
Honestly, I can't pick it out.
12:37
I know if they use it.
12:38
Okay.
12:39
The flavor is hitting like bang.
12:41
Okay.
12:42
Anytime you taste something
12:43
and you finish with
12:45
Okay.
12:46
It's probably in there.
12:47
All right.
12:47
It's in there because it's
12:49
going to make you kind of
12:50
like draw your palette
12:51
together and finish with like a kiss.
12:53
Okay.
12:54
I'm going to go to the grocery after this.
12:57
Yeah.
12:57
It's up in there, man.
12:59
MSG is great.
13:01
I don't use it nearly as much as I should,
13:03
but it's a wonderful, wonderful additive.
13:08
I'm going to tell you what I
13:08
did with my family.
13:11
I took some steak seasoning.
13:14
Right?
13:16
And I took just a pinch and
13:17
sprinkled over the steak
13:19
along with that steak seasoning.
13:22
Let me tell you something, man.
13:24
I got a sixteen-year-old in here.
13:26
He'll make two or three trips.
13:29
Anything that I pull off the
13:29
grill with that combination on it,
13:32
whether it's a rack of lamb
13:34
or the bone-in steaks or the pork chops,
13:36
he's all over that thing, man,
13:38
with that little extra.
13:40
That's outstanding.
13:41
That's outstanding.
13:43
Let's take a quick break,
13:44
and then we'll come right
13:46
back in and dive in with
13:47
Mr. Rodney Scotton.
13:51
All right, welcome back, guys.
13:52
Again, I'm your man, Charlie Eblen.
13:54
We always have our illustrious co-host,
13:55
Mr. Derry Wells, here with us.
13:58
Look,
13:59
I want to take a quick second and
14:01
thank Toast for being our
14:03
primary title sponsor for the show.
14:05
We couldn't do it without
14:06
them and the technology
14:07
that they provide for the
14:10
restaurant as well as the
14:12
partnership here at the show.
14:14
So thank you, Toast.
14:16
I'm not a restaurateur.
14:18
And I know, Rodney, you've got several,
14:21
I believe.
14:22
I don't know your number of units, but...
14:24
What I've found is that locally,
14:25
when I go to different spots now,
14:28
I see the places that have
14:29
toast and I find it more
14:31
user-friendly and I don't
14:32
know if it's familiarity or
14:33
if it's just because I'm aware of it now,
14:36
but as somebody that's not
14:37
on the user end, as far as, you know,
14:40
mapping a business, it is helpful.
14:42
So you use toast at your place.
14:46
Yes, we do.
14:47
I love it.
14:47
I love it.
14:48
They great company.
14:49
They do.
14:49
They do a lot for us.
14:50
So super, super glad to have them.
14:54
But speaking of technology,
14:55
what would you say in the
14:58
restaurant and hospitality
14:59
space in today?
15:01
How do you think technology
15:03
is changing our industry?
15:07
man you know technology is
15:09
definitely changing our
15:10
industry when you got the
15:11
barcodes there and you got
15:13
the the people that don't
15:14
carry cash of course that's
15:15
convenient for them to use
15:17
their cards and the phone
15:19
taps and all that all that
15:20
stuff is great you know me
15:21
being a nineteen seventies
15:23
individual I still like
15:25
that personal contact as
15:26
well um the technology is
15:29
awesome but if I call a
15:32
restaurant and they answer the phone
15:34
I'm in love and at our restaurant,
15:36
you know, not always answering the phone.
15:38
And I kind of get worried
15:40
depending on technology,
15:42
hoping that it's working,
15:44
hoping that it's not too
15:45
cloudy and the signals blocked, you know,
15:48
hoping that whomever is
15:49
calling from the other end
15:50
can get through.
15:52
For me, it's a blessing and a curse.
15:56
It works great.
15:56
It's fast.
15:58
It works well.
15:59
But when it's down, it's a huge challenge.
16:02
Very much so.
16:03
You get a glitch in the
16:04
power system or your
16:06
internet is a little weak
16:08
or something of that nature,
16:10
then you have to result
16:11
back to old school.
16:13
I kind of like the personal touch.
16:16
I like to say, hello, how are you?
16:20
Take the money out of your hand,
16:21
put it back in your hand.
16:23
I love that part.
16:25
But technology is convenient,
16:27
but I'm more of old school.
16:29
Now,
16:29
I went into a restaurant the other day.
16:31
I'd love your opinion,
16:32
just because you've been
16:33
doing this for a while, and I'm curious.
16:36
But I went into a restaurant the other day,
16:37
and they don't take cash.
16:40
I was going to go down that road as well.
16:41
They don't take cash.
16:43
Now, look,
16:45
I get that we're turning into a
16:47
digital age, right?
16:48
I mean,
16:48
the cryptos and paying with the tap
16:51
and paying with your phone
16:52
and all the things.
16:53
I understand that.
16:56
And I,
16:56
I lean on technology a lot to
16:58
enhance our hospitality, to, to,
17:01
to grow our hospitality and
17:03
make it easier to spend
17:04
more time to have that
17:05
personal connection.
17:07
But when you,
17:09
when you just take away
17:12
something completely, you know,
17:14
my question, my question was, well,
17:16
what happens if I don't have a card?
17:18
What happens if the only
17:19
thing I brought in here was
17:20
a hundred dollar bill?
17:22
and and I want my hamburger
17:24
and and cheese fries or
17:25
whatever and and then you
17:27
don't have any way to take
17:29
a payment that that seems
17:31
strange I I think of it
17:34
just like rodney said
17:34
though there's days when
17:36
wi-fi is down internet's
17:37
down you still got power
17:38
you can still cook your
17:39
kitchen still going yeah
17:41
you don't have a way to
17:42
accept payment and you're
17:43
going to be you're going to
17:44
be up the creek real fast
17:45
right then um we had a
17:48
situation once where
17:50
I traveled from Atlanta.
17:51
My buddy Bob the Builder, that's my man.
17:53
He sees me in Atlanta.
17:54
He says,
17:55
let's go to the football game in
17:56
Tampa tomorrow.
17:57
We're in Atlanta.
17:59
I said, dude, I drove.
18:00
He says, I'm on my way to the airport.
18:02
Meet me in Charleston.
18:02
Let's go to Atlanta.
18:03
Let's go to Tampa tonight.
18:07
Me, being who I am,
18:09
drove from Atlanta to Charleston.
18:12
from Charleston down to
18:14
Orlando to spend the night
18:16
to go to Tampa the next day.
18:18
That's three states.
18:19
That's a couple of tanks of diesel.
18:22
We get in the stadium the
18:25
next afternoon and they said,
18:26
we don't take cash.
18:29
Now,
18:30
the credit card's been burning up for
18:31
the past few hours.
18:32
It's been to all these different states,
18:35
all these different times.
18:36
I'm like, well, if I can't pay you,
18:38
we're stuck.
18:40
it did go through but again
18:41
what if yeah right what if
18:44
I had about a hundred
18:45
dollars worth of snacks for
18:46
us right there I'm like
18:47
what if what if the car
18:49
didn't work simply because
18:50
of the different states
18:51
that we've traveled in less
18:53
than four hours and how
18:55
would you folks take this
18:57
money and they said sir you
18:59
probably just wouldn't get your food
19:03
Wow.
19:03
I mean, I get it.
19:05
It's safe for a lot of
19:07
people not to have all that cash on hand,
19:09
but all at the same time,
19:11
what's your backup plan?
19:15
You got a five thousand
19:16
dollar order and you can't
19:17
do it unless you have a card.
19:19
What's the plan?
19:21
Yeah,
19:21
I think the role of operator that you
19:24
two guys would see because
19:26
you're always wanting cash
19:28
flow into your business, money flow,
19:31
if you will.
19:32
And I'm not going to step
19:34
out on a limb to cut off
19:36
completely one entire
19:38
source of revenue just for
19:40
the sake of convenience.
19:41
So, yeah,
19:42
we had I had a situation and the
19:45
reason I guess it kind of.
19:48
muffles me a little bit and
19:49
ruffles my feathers however
19:50
you want to call it is we
19:52
had a catering order like
19:53
you just said a big
19:54
catering order and and they
19:56
didn't want to pay with a
19:57
card they didn't have a
19:58
card it was a business and
19:59
they didn't have a credit
20:00
card they had a check cash
20:02
yeah a business check and
20:05
so if I don't take if I
20:07
don't take any cash
20:08
payments quote unquote
20:10
you're not going to take a check.
20:12
So it's, uh, you know,
20:14
then you lose out on that, on that order.
20:15
And, and I don't know many,
20:17
I don't know many small
20:18
business restaurants that
20:19
wouldn't want to have a three,
20:21
four or five plus thousand
20:23
dollar order because they
20:24
don't take cash.
20:25
Right.
20:26
So, well, look, let's back up and, uh,
20:28
get a little bit more of this story.
20:30
You're in high school, senior year.
20:31
Yeah.
20:32
You're,
20:33
you're really enjoying the food scene.
20:34
Now you're, you're diving in,
20:36
learning all you got, uh,
20:38
what took you from there to
20:43
up to sixteen working for
20:45
pop cooking the hogs
20:47
learning everything you can
20:48
what what was what was the
20:51
big change from there to
20:53
okay hey now it's it's it's
20:54
my time let's let's go open
20:57
let's go open rodney
20:58
scott's barbecue well you
21:00
know we farmed as well I
21:02
hated farming god I hate it
21:06
tractors and plows and all that thing,
21:08
you can have them.
21:09
Forget that, I hate it.
21:11
But I started to focus in on
21:15
the barbecue business.
21:15
And in the year that my dad
21:16
said he wasn't gonna farm
21:17
that particular year with tobacco,
21:20
That gave us more time in the pits.
21:21
So now I'm starting to
21:22
explore more and understand
21:24
more of what we're doing.
21:25
And during the twelve hour cooks,
21:26
we would try things like
21:28
cooking chicken parts over
21:30
the open flame in foil.
21:33
Little things like that
21:34
started to you start to
21:36
learn how to flavor your rice.
21:39
how to smoke meats without
21:40
drying them completely out,
21:42
different things, different proteins.
21:44
So all of this is starting
21:45
to get into my head.
21:47
And then I realized I was like,
21:48
you know what?
21:49
We can grow this thing.
21:50
We could be all over the place.
21:51
And it wasn't until I
21:52
traveled a little bit to
21:54
different restaurants and
21:55
tasted other foods that
21:57
were supposed to be some of the best.
22:00
I said, we can compete here.
22:02
we can do that so I started
22:03
to pay more attention to
22:05
what we were doing saying
22:06
that we can compete with
22:08
some of the best of them so
22:10
I would take some to myrtle
22:10
beach to people I knew down
22:12
there and say tell me about
22:13
this in florence south
22:15
carolina all these
22:16
different places and when
22:18
they would say oh this is
22:19
delicious I said oh man we
22:21
could take this to another
22:22
level I believe and you
22:25
know my thought was let's
22:27
grow bigger and we were
22:28
averaging about thirty hogs a week
22:31
when I was still working with my family,
22:34
it wasn't nothing to do,
22:35
thirty hogs a week, easy.
22:38
And those are what?
22:39
One hundred and fifty,
22:40
two hundred pound hogs?
22:41
One hundred and fifty to one
22:42
hundred and eighty average.
22:44
Now and again,
22:44
we had a couple of two hundred pounders,
22:47
but we stayed in that one
22:48
fifty to one seventy range.
22:50
And those were your hogs, right?
22:51
You raised those hogs, didn't you?
22:53
Some of them we raised and a
22:55
lot of them we had to start
22:56
buying because the demand
22:57
got larger than what we could handle.
22:59
Gotcha.
23:00
Gotcha.
23:00
You know, rules, regulations,
23:01
you had to get professional raised hogs.
23:03
So we just moved on over to buy them.
23:06
Nice.
23:07
So you opened the first
23:09
Rodney Scott's in two thousand seventeen.
23:14
Two thousand seventeen.
23:15
We opened the first Rodney
23:16
Scott's barbecue.
23:17
And that was in Hemingway, right?
23:19
No, no.
23:19
Hemingway opened in nineteen seventy two.
23:22
That was OK.
23:23
Scott's barbecue.
23:24
OK.
23:25
And first,
23:26
Rodney Scott's barbecue opened
23:28
in twenty seventeen in Charleston,
23:31
South Carolina, in Charleston.
23:33
OK, I got him.
23:34
I got him backwards.
23:35
Now, with all this reference to Carolinas.
23:37
Yeah.
23:38
In your words, what is Carolina barbecue?
23:42
Carolina barbecue is the best.
23:45
It's vinegar-based barbecue.
23:48
I know some people are going to, oh, no,
23:50
he's crazy.
23:51
Well, I'm sticking to my opinion.
23:53
This is my question.
23:53
Rock with it.
23:56
I love it.
23:56
It's vinegar, cayenne pepper, black pepper,
23:59
lemon juice, sugar, pepper flakes.
24:02
That's what we grew up with.
24:03
That's my version of Carolina barbecue.
24:06
That's the eastern part of
24:07
South Carolina and North Carolina.
24:10
They both do that vinegar
24:11
pepper-based sauce.
24:13
It's delicious.
24:15
I think that it's one of the
24:17
best things out there, in my opinion.
24:19
Now, you talk about vinegar sauces,
24:21
and I got to pick the
24:22
master's brain because I've
24:23
been working on – I have
24:25
three different recipes for
24:26
vinegar sauces,
24:27
and I don't like none of them.
24:30
You need to ask MSG.
24:31
Man, yeah, probably.
24:35
You said sugar,
24:36
and it's probably a missing
24:37
ingredient in my vinegar sauce.
24:41
Is it more of a white sugar,
24:43
a brown sugar?
24:45
What sugar profile are you going for?
24:48
White sugar is what we're using.
24:50
Here's what I want you to
24:51
pay attention to.
24:52
Are you cooking your vinegar
24:53
or heating your vinegar up
24:54
when you make this sauce?
24:56
No.
24:57
There you go.
24:58
Trust me when I tell you,
25:00
heat that vinegar up.
25:02
it doesn't have to I got a
25:04
whole light bulb that's
25:05
popping off you can't see
25:06
right now you said you said
25:08
heat it up and I just went
25:09
damn that vinegar you see
25:13
it start to swirl just
25:14
before it gets to that
25:15
boiling point you dump all
25:17
your ingredients in there
25:18
and you marry them right
25:20
keep it stirred don't let
25:21
that pepper stick at the
25:22
bottom and once everything
25:24
marries together and it's
25:26
been hot for a minute
25:28
Don't let it boil.
25:29
So just when you start to
25:30
see the edges of that sauce
25:32
around the edge of the pot
25:33
start to bubble just a little bit,
25:35
shut it off.
25:38
Shut it off, let it cool.
25:39
It's going to change your game.
25:41
White vinegar, of course.
25:42
It's going to change the game.
25:45
And, you know, brown vinegar as well.
25:47
Apple cider as well.
25:48
You can go ahead, heat it up.
25:50
That takes some of that strong,
25:51
pungent taste off of it.
25:53
You're trying to do that.
25:55
You're trying to do that right there.
25:56
There you go.
25:57
You're trying to do that right there.
25:58
That's right from the book.
26:03
There it is.
26:04
There's the model.
26:05
I knew I saw it today.
26:05
Just read the book, Charlie.
26:06
You'll be all right.
26:06
That's right.
26:07
It's outstanding.
26:08
I absolutely love that.
26:09
But that's one of the key
26:10
ingredients to make it more
26:12
balanced is to heat the
26:13
vinegar up before you do anything.
26:16
You know,
26:17
when I got into this business many,
26:19
many moons ago,
26:22
no one ever told me that I
26:23
was going to need chemistry
26:25
and biology to be a good cook.
26:30
I tell you what, what I find most unique,
26:33
and I'm sure y'all have
26:34
dealt with this with like your cuts,
26:37
you know,
26:37
having butchered my own deer
26:40
this year of trying to
26:41
learn the cuts and what
26:43
goes into it to create a
26:44
really good cut of meat so
26:47
that you aren't wasting it.
26:48
So like,
26:48
I know you do a lot of your briskets,
26:50
you doing the hogs.
26:52
that butcher process goes into it as well.
26:54
So I think people downplay
26:57
the knowledge of the barbecue guy,
27:01
you know, the pit master.
27:02
Cause yes, it's coals, it's heat,
27:03
it's fire, it's protein.
27:05
It's all these other things
27:06
that go into it as well.
27:07
Cause you got to understand
27:08
the anatomy of the animal you're, you're,
27:10
you're cooking.
27:10
Yeah.
27:11
Yeah.
27:12
So I'm impressed.
27:13
Like y'all got a great
27:14
background between coming
27:16
up with recipes and heat.
27:17
Like I said, just the different things,
27:18
the suggestion there.
27:20
I get impressed every time
27:21
we start talking.
27:22
You know, the bad thing about that is,
27:24
is we cook our regular barbecue sauce.
27:28
We cook our hot barbecue sauce.
27:30
But you didn't think about
27:30
doing the vinegar.
27:31
But I didn't think about
27:32
cooking the vinegar sauce.
27:33
There you go.
27:33
You heat that vinegar up.
27:35
Yeah, definitely.
27:37
Dummy, just cook it.
27:39
Part of that is... That's
27:40
what you should have said, Rodney.
27:41
Dummy, just cook it.
27:42
No, I'm not that kind of guy.
27:46
You always have to stay a student.
27:47
You have to always keep your
27:48
ear open and don't be
27:50
afraid to listen and learn.
27:51
I love it.
27:52
Tell me to build you a recipe right now.
27:54
I might can't build it that fast.
27:56
Right.
27:56
You tell me to put some
27:57
flavors together and make
27:59
something delicious.
27:59
I'll be like, oh, okay, give me a minute.
28:02
Let's try this.
28:02
Let's try this.
28:03
This should be delicious.
28:05
But that's where I would ask a chef,
28:08
someone who's culinary trained,
28:09
who has that background.
28:11
I would ask,
28:12
help me put this list together.
28:15
So you have to learn a lot of things,
28:18
your environment where you're cooking.
28:20
The size of the animal, the fat cap,
28:23
what is the animal?
28:24
All of these things you have
28:25
to pay attention to when
28:28
you're cooking over fire.
28:29
Because it's not just a start the fire,
28:32
throw it on, season it, take it off.
28:34
It's not that easy.
28:37
Sometimes when I talk to you,
28:38
I feel like I'm really
28:39
doing the bare minimum when
28:40
I'm doing my little weekend
28:41
order stuff over here.
28:44
Just say, cause y'all,
28:45
y'all have a science going and I love it.
28:47
So it's good stuff.
28:49
Now we're back in two thousand seventeen.
28:52
You got Rodney Scott's open.
28:54
Yeah.
28:55
You've been open.
28:55
Let's just, let's just say ninety days.
29:00
Yeah.
29:01
What what's going on in your head then?
29:03
Because ninety days prior to opening,
29:06
you got this.
29:08
It's we're ready to take over the world.
29:10
I know the feeling when we
29:11
opened our restaurant and
29:13
you're on top of the world
29:14
and nobody can tell you anything.
29:16
Yeah.
29:17
You're ninety days after
29:18
opening that first unit.
29:21
What's going on in Rodney Scott's head?
29:24
Why is all this gray coming in?
29:27
That was the first thing.
29:28
Yeah, I understand.
29:31
It was scary.
29:31
It was stressful.
29:32
It was it was nerve wracking
29:34
because it's like, can I make this?
29:37
Did I make the right decision?
29:38
You know, what's next?
29:40
How do we keep a steady flow?
29:42
Because you start way up.
29:45
Everybody's curious.
29:45
The line's down the block.
29:48
Then about a few weeks later,
29:50
that line is real short.
29:51
And you're like, what happened?
29:52
What am I doing wrong?
29:54
Then you're trying to get
29:55
employees to understand your process.
29:57
For me,
29:57
I had to learn how to teach people
29:59
to cook the whole hog.
30:01
All of these things are
30:02
going through your head.
30:03
It's like, well, what are we going to do?
30:03
What are we going to do?
30:05
How do we keep business going?
30:07
And sure enough,
30:09
it started to balance out a little bit.
30:11
But man,
30:12
the thing that was going through
30:13
my head was, am I crazy?
30:14
Why did I do this?
30:16
Can I make this happen?
30:17
Can I make this work?
30:21
And we used to always get
30:22
together every morning to
30:24
taste the food before we
30:25
opened and served.
30:27
And one morning we got a phone call.
30:30
I got a phone call.
30:32
And I didn't answer another phone call.
30:35
I didn't answer because I
30:36
wanted my staff to understand,
30:37
pay attention when we're talking.
30:39
Phone just kept going off
30:40
and that we got a call that
30:42
we got nominated for James Beard.
30:44
Hmm.
30:48
that was just as nerve
30:49
wracking as opening a restaurant.
30:51
Yes.
30:51
It was a scary morning.
30:56
Um, that it was humbling.
31:00
It was scary because it felt
31:01
like I had to start all over again.
31:04
But I remember going across
31:06
the street and I bought two
31:07
bags of chocolate covered
31:09
almonds and I went through one bag,
31:11
like nothing, just nerves.
31:13
Uh,
31:15
I said, now everybody's paying attention,
31:17
we gotta get this right.
31:18
But again, all of that fear from February,
31:24
the nerves started kicking
31:25
in later on about how do we maintain,
31:30
how do we keep this business going?
31:34
It was scary.
31:36
Now, when you opened the first unit,
31:39
was that all you or were
31:41
you and Nick already partnered up?
31:44
Me and Nick had already
31:45
partnered up with the first year.
31:47
I got my timetable wrong.
31:50
It was two thousand eighteen.
31:51
We got the call because
31:52
that's the year that we won the beard.
31:54
But but just nerves in
31:57
between all of that.
31:58
Yeah.
31:59
Just building up from from month to month,
32:02
watching sales go up.
32:04
watching them come down,
32:05
hearing the critics say whatever they say,
32:08
trying to stay consistent
32:09
and make things happen, it was tough.
32:12
And me and Nick,
32:13
we kept our heads together,
32:14
trying to make sure that
32:15
we're doing everything balanced out,
32:17
staying consistent,
32:19
making sure that our food
32:20
was the best that we can deliver.
32:22
Now,
32:23
how did you and Nick get linked up to
32:26
begin with?
32:27
Nick and I got linked up
32:29
through John T. Edge.
32:32
both a mutual friend and
32:33
john t told nick about me
32:36
and at the time jim and
32:37
nick's had a restaurant
32:38
downtown and they did this
32:41
dinner for charleston wine
32:42
and food and I got invited
32:44
to cook and lo and behold
32:46
here I am in this historic
32:48
district of charleston with
32:49
a wood burning in the
32:51
middle of the street it's
32:52
nice blaring man you know
32:54
all of the no-nos and uh
32:57
I cooked that hog,
32:58
and it was very much
33:00
appreciated and welcomed by
33:01
the folks once it was done.
33:02
And the next thing you know,
33:04
Charleston was embracing what we did.
33:06
And I said, okay.
33:08
I love that I impressed
33:09
these folks in Charleston.
33:10
Let me go back to my little tiny corner.
33:13
And Nick just kept saying, hey, man,
33:15
we should do something.
33:16
We should do something.
33:17
And we did.
33:19
And the first Rodney Scott's
33:20
Barbecue was born.
33:21
That's outstanding.
33:23
And that was that was two
33:24
thousand seventeen.
33:25
Yeah.
33:26
And then shortly after that,
33:27
you opened another unit in
33:30
and that was at the end of eighteen.
33:32
It was the end of eighteen,
33:34
early nineteen.
33:35
I think we opened the second location.
33:38
So and then in twenty twenty,
33:41
you opened one up here in Nashville.
33:45
We opened Nashville in.
33:47
Well, we discussed it in twenty one.
33:49
Twenty one.
33:50
We.
33:51
No, twenty one was Atlanta.
33:54
And then twenty.
33:57
Four, because we got pushed back,
33:59
we opened Nashville.
34:00
That's right.
34:01
I think I heard about it in
34:02
twenty one or twenty two,
34:04
something like that.
34:05
Yeah, we got excited to do it.
34:07
But now there's a story that you.
34:13
You obviously partnered with
34:15
a gentleman that most
34:17
people here in Nashville know.
34:18
Oh, yeah.
34:20
Another Carolina boy.
34:24
Right.
34:25
So now, how does that happen?
34:27
Because there's a story that
34:28
before you guys even
34:29
discussed the restaurant,
34:31
y'all met each other in
34:32
passing at a golf tournament or something,
34:34
but didn't speak.
34:35
I kind of saw him, and I was like,
34:37
that dude looks familiar.
34:39
Yeah, that's Eric Church.
34:41
I said, what?
34:42
No, I knew him.
34:44
We were in VIP.
34:45
And, you know,
34:47
we're all back there just hanging out,
34:48
me and Bob the Builder again.
34:51
And we were hanging out and I was like,
34:54
gosh, that guy, we keep passing that dude,
34:57
Eric Church.
34:58
And, you know,
34:59
Darius was there at the time and me,
35:01
Bob and Darius were having
35:02
a quick conversation.
35:04
And me and Bob was like, let's go.
35:06
We're leaving and we see him again.
35:07
It's like, there's Eric Church again.
35:10
Guys everywhere.
35:12
Didn't think of it.
35:14
And a few weeks later,
35:15
I get the phone call.
35:16
They said, Eric Church wants to meet.
35:19
Who?
35:21
We was just playing golf like this.
35:24
This dude's awesome.
35:25
You know,
35:26
let's see what he's talking about.
35:28
Lo and behold, man, in no time flat,
35:31
we came up with an idea and
35:33
Nashville was born.
35:34
That is great.
35:35
It's outstanding.
35:36
So now how do you put a
35:39
barbecue joint together?
35:41
on the top of a bar on
35:43
broadway very quietly very
35:49
quietly um there was some
35:51
challenges here and there
35:52
um we have we had to since
35:54
make some adjustments but
35:55
you know we did it we did
35:57
it you know what I mean it
35:59
did happen there was some
36:01
adjusting but it happened
36:04
We made it to Broadway is
36:07
basically what I could say.
36:08
And so far, everything's still doing good.
36:11
So yeah.
36:11
I love that.
36:11
That's outstanding.
36:14
Now, is that location?
36:16
So I haven't been to the Broadway one,
36:19
which is crazy,
36:21
but I've been to the one in Birmingham.
36:24
So is it the same as your other locations?
36:30
Broadway is a little different.
36:31
It's not built completely
36:33
around the Rodney Scott platform.
36:34
We provide all the food on all the floors.
36:37
So if you're a guest in
36:39
there and you want something to eat on,
36:41
you get our barbecue.
36:43
And of course,
36:44
we make the necessary adjustments.
36:46
Same barbecue background for
36:49
got wings in there and
36:51
whatever it is that you may want, brisket,
36:53
the burgers.
36:55
Those type of things that we
36:56
still do in there.
36:57
It's not as big a menu as
36:59
you do in the day-to-day restaurant,
37:02
but you still get that
37:03
Rodney Scott experience.
37:05
I love it.
37:07
I love that.
37:08
Rodney,
37:08
you've got a slogan that pops up
37:10
several times through your
37:11
book and I've seen it on
37:12
your social media stuff.
37:15
Every day is a good day.
37:16
Every day is a good day.
37:18
Tomorrow's going to be even better.
37:19
Yeah.
37:21
He just made the slogan, but I love it.
37:22
Where where where's that
37:26
inspiration or that background on that?
37:27
Because I mean,
37:28
there's a lot of folks that
37:30
can hang their hat on that
37:30
right there and just that
37:32
every day is a good day.
37:33
And but you've got through
37:35
here several times.
37:36
Give me the back story on that.
37:38
Well,
37:39
the back story was I wanted to build
37:40
a house, right?
37:42
Didn't have a lot of money.
37:44
And I found out you just needed credit.
37:46
okay boom I'm still young
37:47
trying to get a house built
37:49
how do I do this I go to
37:50
this bank and this guy
37:52
working in the bank told me
37:55
you have to get a loan you
37:56
have to have collateral
37:56
this and the other so I
37:57
said I want to use the
37:58
house with collateral this
38:00
guy turns me down
38:01
flat-footed like that he
38:03
says your credit needs
38:04
about nine hundred dollars
38:06
to clear up to clear up the
38:09
bills that are against
38:10
right I said let me go
38:11
downstairs I got that much money
38:14
He says, no.
38:17
He turned me down, but I wasn't hurt.
38:18
I smiled and I said,
38:19
you got you got a card.
38:20
He gave me a card and I
38:23
stuck it on my refrigerator
38:25
and I looked at him and I
38:26
smiled on the way out.
38:27
I said, thank you.
38:29
I was disappointed as I was.
38:32
Something said, keep smiling at this guy.
38:34
I said it still was a good day.
38:36
And I took his card and
38:37
stuck it on my refrigerator.
38:38
I lived in a mobile home at the time.
38:40
And I walked out the back
38:41
door every single morning
38:43
and I looked at his name and I said,
38:45
every day is a good day.
38:46
Today's a good day.
38:48
And as I closed the door and I would say,
38:50
every day is a good day.
38:51
And I kept that dude's card
38:52
on the refrigerator until I moved out.
38:55
And to this day, I say that I feel better.
39:00
It's kind of like an aspirin.
39:03
To the day to day challenges.
39:04
Right.
39:05
Say every day is a good day
39:07
and you seem to feel better.
39:09
And they say,
39:09
what happens on days when you
39:11
lose a loved one?
39:11
I said, that's a challenging day,
39:13
but you're still it's still
39:14
a good one because you're here.
39:17
So for me, every day is still a good day.
39:20
Some are more challenging than others,
39:22
but every day is a good day.
39:26
I got goosebumps, man.
39:27
That is fantastic.
39:29
Rodney,
39:30
every show we do a segment that's
39:32
called Mac or Beans.
39:34
Okay.
39:35
In this segment,
39:36
it's a this or that segment.
39:38
And as a fellow barbecue guy
39:40
and restaurant owner...
39:42
You know,
39:43
you go into another barbecue joint.
39:45
When you come to Nashville
39:46
and you're coming into
39:47
Singletree to come hang out
39:48
with me for a day,
39:50
just so I can learn
39:51
everything there is to
39:52
learn about barbecue from you,
39:56
you sit down, you order your meal.
39:57
We don't do whole hog,
39:59
but we do on occasion,
40:00
so we'll time it right for you.
40:04
But you get your side item, right?
40:06
Most guys walk into a place,
40:08
and they're either going to
40:09
get the mac and cheese,
40:12
or the smoke or well, minor smoked beans,
40:14
but, or the beans, right?
40:16
And you can pick your pick
40:17
and choose from there.
40:18
What are you going to get?
40:19
You're going to get the Mac and cheese.
40:20
Are you going to get the beans?
40:22
Both.
40:24
Well, hey, you were barbecue guy.
40:27
Classic answer.
40:27
You were not wrong.
40:29
That smoky brown sugar
40:30
flavor that the average
40:31
barbecue joint has in it.
40:33
I got to have it.
40:34
Yeah.
40:34
The mac and cheese.
40:35
I got to taste it.
40:37
And for me, you take that mac and cheese,
40:40
those beans and the pork,
40:41
put them all together.
40:43
and you got one heck of a bite.
40:46
That's why I always say both.
40:47
I've had two different
40:49
managers called on me
40:50
because I've gone to
40:51
barbecue restaurants and
40:52
ordered the entire menu.
40:56
It's like this one guy is up
40:57
here at the bar,
40:58
and he wants everything to go.
41:02
Serve the man.
41:04
The manager comes around.
41:06
The first time I did it,
41:07
I was in Charlotte.
41:08
A guy came around, and he says...
41:10
Oh, it's you.
41:13
Yes.
41:14
I just want this to go.
41:15
And I got all of his food.
41:17
And then I rushed over to
41:18
the second barbecue joint,
41:20
did the exact same thing.
41:22
And that manager says,
41:24
is there any particular
41:24
reason you're ordering everything?
41:26
I said, I just want to taste everything.
41:28
So I'm that guy.
41:30
I'll get everything.
41:31
Give me both.
41:33
Yeah, I'm real close to you.
41:35
My wife absolutely loves
41:36
going on vacation with me
41:37
because I will sniff out a
41:39
barbecue joint in the middle of nowhere.
41:42
Yes.
41:43
I can smell the smoke, man.
41:47
That's awesome.
41:47
Yeah.
41:47
Listen, went to one at SeaWorld in Disney.
41:50
I walked in, it was a barbecue joint.
41:52
I said, sit down.
41:57
I feel like all you barbecue
41:59
guys have the same, like that,
42:01
that little, your, your,
42:03
your spotty senses go off.
42:04
Like you get smoke in the air.
42:06
Like there's something that feels like,
42:09
yeah, this one don't have it.
42:10
This is not it.
42:11
If there's no smoke in the air,
42:12
I don't know.
42:16
Not at all.
42:16
The other half of that Mac
42:18
or beans question.
42:18
I'm going to give you another,
42:19
this or that.
42:21
And this one,
42:22
I make it personal and I'm
42:23
going to throw a caveat.
42:24
You can't say both here.
42:25
Okay.
42:25
Okay.
42:27
You wrote for years.
42:28
I seasoned with my ribs on the pit,
42:30
just like I seasoned my hogs,
42:32
but then I opened Charleston.
42:34
I rethought that.
42:35
And now you've got a rib rub.
42:37
If you had to pick one,
42:37
are you going with your hog
42:38
seasoning or are you going
42:39
with your rib rub?
42:40
The rib rub.
42:41
The rib rub.
42:42
The rib rub.
42:43
Now give me the why.
42:45
I'm going to give you the why.
42:46
Okay.
42:47
Rib rub works on ribs.
42:48
The rib rub works as a
42:50
finish on the steak sandwich.
42:54
You can add steak sandwich.
42:56
It works on a burger when it's cooking.
42:58
And here's the kicker.
42:59
It works on coleslaw and
43:02
potato salad as a topping or a finish.
43:05
Love it.
43:06
Now, I tell this story all the time.
43:10
My wife and I had to go to
43:11
the family to cook,
43:13
and the family's pretty
43:15
sensitive about the dishes.
43:17
Sure.
43:18
Well,
43:18
they've grown up with a good background,
43:19
yeah.
43:20
We went to the local grocery store,
43:22
got a seafood salad from
43:24
the local grocery store,
43:26
put it in a casserole dish, right?
43:28
Smoothed it out.
43:30
We won't try them.
43:31
We smoothed it out.
43:32
They go to the same grocery
43:33
store and get this stuff all the time.
43:35
cleaned it up and we dusted
43:37
it with rib rub.
43:39
Took it to the family.
43:40
I was like, oh my God,
43:41
this is so delicious.
43:44
And I just smiled.
43:46
We said, nah,
43:46
that came from the grocery store.
43:48
That is outstanding.
43:51
Did you keep the receipt?
43:52
Did you prove like, here's my story?
43:54
Okay, good.
43:55
There you go.
43:56
There you go.
43:57
The last reason I chose a rib rub,
43:59
I was cooking in France and
44:00
the vinegar was a different percentage.
44:03
It was way stronger.
44:05
and I boiled that thing dang
44:06
near as weak as I could but
44:09
it was too strong with the
44:11
spicy hogs hog rub but the
44:14
sweet in the rib rub
44:15
balanced it out so I always
44:19
take river up with me
44:20
wherever I go regardless if
44:22
I'm just doing whole hog
44:23
take the rib rub anyway and
44:25
I finished the hog with the
44:26
rib rub first time ever
44:27
doing it balanced it out
44:31
So it's universal.
44:32
It could be a start, a finish, a marinade.
44:35
It can be extra flavor.
44:36
It's just the all around plus.
44:38
I really thought I was going
44:39
to stump you making you
44:40
choose one of your own products.
44:41
You had a solid answer there.
44:42
So well done.
44:43
That's outstanding.
44:44
I've made a few mistakes before.
44:46
Sure.
44:49
Now, look,
44:50
you have started from a
44:52
single-unit restaurant,
44:54
working with the folks,
44:56
to starting your own place.
44:59
Now you have, is it six locations,
45:01
six restaurants?
45:02
Five.
45:03
Five restaurants.
45:04
Five restaurants.
45:05
You have a cookbook that's
45:07
wildly successful as well.
45:09
Your Netflix show,
45:11
James Beard Award winner, your...
45:13
in the barbecue hall of fame
45:15
like I give me another
45:16
forty five minutes and I
45:17
can list the rest of your
45:18
credentials but doing all
45:22
of that being on the the tv
45:24
shows and the having the
45:25
restaurants what would you
45:29
go back to two thousand
45:31
seventeen and tell yourself
45:34
right before you start this
45:35
journey to do more of be patient
45:41
Be patient.
45:43
I remember being frustrated
45:44
the first week because it
45:45
felt like I couldn't keep up.
45:49
Give yourself more grace.
45:52
Give yourself more understanding.
45:54
Give yourself your personal time.
45:57
So I started with an hour a day of nobody,
46:01
no nothing.
46:02
Find that hour somewhere in
46:03
your day just to be you.
46:05
Take time for yourself.
46:09
I would still say to this day, be patient.
46:11
Everything doesn't happen
46:12
when you want it to or when you plan it.
46:15
So you really need to be
46:16
patient and embrace what
46:18
you're doing and the time
46:19
that you're doing it in
46:21
because everything is going
46:22
to work itself out.
46:24
And honestly,
46:25
if all that happened since
46:27
then would have happened that first year,
46:29
I would probably be a
46:30
little bit less organized,
46:32
a little more confused and
46:35
just out of whack, you know,
46:37
because everything came in stages.
46:40
So being patient would be
46:42
the best advice I would
46:42
give myself back in twenty
46:45
seventeen versus where I am now.
46:48
That's outstanding.
46:50
You talked about having to
46:53
teach people how to cook hogs.
46:56
And that is teaching people
46:59
how to cook barbecue is not
47:01
an overnight thing because, you know,
47:04
like yourself,
47:05
I've been doing this for
47:06
thirty three years and I'm
47:08
still trying to learn how
47:09
to cook barbecue every day
47:11
and and we cook it every day.
47:13
Right.
47:13
So it's it's
47:17
It's challenging at its best.
47:20
But how do you teach someone
47:26
else quickly to be able to
47:30
cook like Rodney Scott?
47:33
One of the ways to teach
47:34
them quickly is to work with them,
47:36
work right beside them.
47:38
Be there from the start all
47:40
the way through to the finish.
47:42
Encourage them to ask
47:44
questions along the way.
47:46
If it seems like it's simple,
47:48
ask it anyway.
47:49
No question is off limits.
47:51
Ask any question that you
47:53
want while we're doing this thing.
47:55
I'm also going to tell you
47:56
as much as I can while
47:57
we're doing it and why.
48:00
And it's constant
48:02
conversation throughout the entire cook.
48:05
And when they see that
48:06
you're putting hands on and
48:08
that you're trying to walk
48:10
them through it step by step,
48:12
what it is and why,
48:15
It tends to help a lot and
48:17
tends to work out a lot better.
48:19
I have a guy that's eight.
48:20
He started us.
48:20
He was eighteen years old.
48:21
I think he's twenty six now.
48:24
I would give this guy the
48:25
shovel any day and turn my back.
48:29
And he would make me laugh
48:31
how he said I could smell
48:33
and tell him where I was in the cook.
48:36
And I would teach him this
48:37
aroma right here tells you
48:38
you just fired it is
48:39
starting to cook along at this point.
48:42
And I also had to learn how
48:44
to teach because they were
48:46
following gauges, not touching.
48:48
I touch with my hands.
48:50
They were following numbers.
48:52
So we just kind of work side by side,
48:54
learn together,
48:55
give them the what and the
48:58
why of everything that you're doing.
49:00
Like the vinegar situation I told you.
49:03
You just heat it up, add your ingredients,
49:07
let it marry and cook together,
49:08
and then try it.
49:09
You get a huge difference.
49:12
So definitely work side by
49:13
side with them and explain
49:15
why you're cooking with it.
49:18
Do you find it now that you
49:22
have multiple units over
49:25
multiple States that it's,
49:27
it's that much harder to,
49:29
to turn over the torch per se,
49:31
and you have to, you've taught these,
49:34
you've taught your guys how to cook it,
49:35
but now those guys have to teach,
49:39
other people how to cook your food, right?
49:42
So it's, it's third party removed.
49:45
It's like having a,
49:45
an Uber eats pit master from, from,
49:50
from three states away, right?
49:53
So what's your what
49:55
challenges do you see now
49:56
that you're in a multiple, you know,
49:59
multiple different states
50:00
that you walk into one of
50:02
your units and go, Oh, my goodness, no,
50:03
we got to work on this.
50:05
One of the challenges is you
50:06
get new pit masters that
50:08
think you don't have to do it this way.
50:12
You don't have to do the
50:13
whole animal at once.
50:15
I can do it quicker if it's half.
50:17
Those are some of the things
50:18
that I've walked in on.
50:21
Show up.
50:23
Don't tell them.
50:24
Just show up.
50:27
There's mornings that I
50:28
would wake up here at home
50:29
and I'd be like,
50:29
I'm going to be in Atlanta by twelve.
50:32
And I would just show up.
50:34
And
50:35
When they see you just popping up,
50:37
they tend to follow along a little more.
50:40
Have that secret shopper
50:42
always dropping in.
50:43
Like my buddy Bob would
50:45
always work the roads, he would go.
50:47
He would go in and say, well,
50:49
I'm in Atlanta and this happened.
50:51
Just yesterday,
50:51
one of my first pit masters
50:53
in Charleston ate lunch in Atlanta.
50:57
And the manager,
50:58
the GM had no idea that
50:59
this guy knew every detail
51:02
and that he's worked
51:02
alongside me for almost a year.
51:05
But when he gave his
51:07
critique and told her everything,
51:09
apparently it was one of
51:10
the best visits ever.
51:12
So it's like,
51:13
you got to have a secret shopper.
51:16
You got to try to go to
51:17
sleep at night because
51:18
you're going to worry that
51:19
they're trying to change it up.
51:21
You got to pop up.
51:23
And when your locals go and
51:27
they say that I'm at your
51:28
place or whatever, you ask them,
51:30
how was it?
51:31
And
51:33
I have one one friend in
51:35
atlanta that will call me
51:36
every time they hit the
51:37
door and they said I got
51:39
rodney on the phone like
51:40
yeah right I was like put
51:41
him on the phone
51:42
And that's the only other
51:45
upper hand that you have.
51:47
The GM gets the phone and be like, hey.
51:52
That's a hundred percent true though.
51:54
Like, ah, okay.
51:56
Yeah.
51:57
I have a secret shopper
51:58
sitting next to me right here.
51:59
Been there, done that.
52:02
I get a phone call.
52:03
Can you be at the restaurant
52:04
by seven thirty?
52:04
Yes.
52:05
Yes, I can.
52:07
Got to check it out.
52:07
Make sure it's right.
52:08
Yeah.
52:08
I love that.
52:09
I love that.
52:11
so you know now you got five
52:13
units you're rocking and
52:14
rolling things are things
52:15
are going good um you're on
52:18
you it seems like every
52:19
time I turn on the tv
52:20
you're on tv somewhere um how
52:26
do you enjoy the TV as much as you do the,
52:30
the restaurant or is it,
52:32
is it just part of it?
52:35
It seems to me like,
52:37
cause you're on a lot of cooking shows,
52:38
right?
52:38
You do, you do a lot of cooking, but is it,
52:41
uh, what's the, the one with Bobby Flay?
52:45
Thank you.
52:45
Thank you.
52:47
That one, I watched a couple of nights ago,
52:51
a week ago,
52:51
maybe I saw one of those episodes.
52:54
Um,
52:56
It's got to be a totally different world.
53:00
It is a totally different world doing TV.
53:03
Things are done different.
53:04
Different things are done, period.
53:09
You might see a challenge
53:12
that's outrageous.
53:13
You might see them do a pork
53:16
crown where the ribs are
53:18
just standing up and the bone's out.
53:20
You might see a two-inch pork chop,
53:22
something that you don't do
53:23
every day and watch them prepare it.
53:26
So I really enjoy the TV
53:29
part because you see
53:30
different worlds and
53:31
backgrounds and cultures of
53:33
pitmasters who show some of
53:35
their best work on TV.
53:39
And for me,
53:39
it's like a learning process of, oh,
53:42
I didn't know you could do that.
53:45
Oh,
53:45
I didn't know you would smoke a
53:46
watermelon in hot coals.
53:48
I don't want any,
53:49
but I know you can do that.
53:53
You know, so it's kind of like no thanks.
53:56
It's kind of like a learned
53:57
experience of what they're
53:59
doing and that people actually do this.
54:04
So I really enjoy the TV.
54:06
You meet people.
54:08
You hear their background,
54:09
their styles of cooking, the sauces,
54:13
the ingredients that they
54:14
use that are so different
54:15
than what you grew up with.
54:17
So I really enjoy that part.
54:19
And versus the restaurant,
54:21
I'm still meeting people,
54:22
but I'm telling the story
54:23
through my food.
54:25
instead of me just tasting
54:27
different ones throughout
54:29
like I do on barbecue brawl.
54:31
So I tell my stories through my food.
54:33
They tell me where they're
54:34
from and how we relate.
54:36
And before you know it, man,
54:37
there's a whole new
54:38
relationship created through it.
54:41
So I enjoy the both, but TV is fun.
54:46
And meeting people in the
54:47
restaurant is just as fun because
54:49
Hey,
54:51
it's just like you got a new family
54:53
member all of a sudden.
54:54
Right, right.
54:56
We say that, and I got this,
54:59
I can't take credit for it,
55:00
but we say that every company,
55:04
every restaurant company especially,
55:05
should be a media company as well.
55:09
And I got that from a friend
55:10
of mine who you were on his show,
55:11
Mr. Sean Walsh Chef at Cali
55:13
Barbecue Media,
55:17
I guess probably about a year or so,
55:18
maybe two years ago at this point.
55:22
Do you find that it's easier
55:25
with being on TV that it's
55:26
easier to be able to tell
55:28
your story or does your
55:30
story come out more through the food?
55:34
I think my story comes out
55:36
more through the food.
55:38
Being on TV is one thing.
55:40
A lot of people watch TV
55:41
sometimes in so much
55:42
excitement that they don't
55:43
pay attention to every little detail.
55:46
But the reason I say it
55:47
comes out through the food
55:48
is because this one guy,
55:49
I'll never forget him.
55:50
He says, your tea is too sweet.
55:52
I said, no, it's not.
55:53
I said, you think my tea is sweet?
55:55
You should taste my mama's.
55:57
Proper response.
55:58
And he says, well,
56:01
why do you make it so sweet?
56:02
I said, do you ever go to a restaurant
56:05
and you fix your drink, a sweet tea,
56:07
for example,
56:08
and by the time you get to
56:09
the halfway or the bottom of the glass,
56:11
it tastes less sweet, it's watery.
56:15
Yeah.
56:16
I said, well, if you make it super sweet,
56:18
by the time the water dilutes it,
56:20
it's sweet all the way to the finish.
56:23
Ah, didn't think about that.
56:25
Didn't know that.
56:27
Same guy complaining to me, right,
56:29
as he was walking in the restaurant.
56:31
So I kept my good eye on him.
56:33
He was leaving.
56:35
Guess what he filled up with?
56:37
No sweet tea to go.
56:38
That's right.
56:40
Sweet tea.
56:41
But little things like that, that,
56:44
you know,
56:44
you can tell your story through
56:45
the food because my mama
56:47
said to make it this way.
56:48
And this is this is how I do it.
56:50
And I'm not going to change that.
56:51
I want you to experience
56:53
what I grew up with and how
56:55
I appreciate it.
56:57
I love that.
56:59
Look, in life,
57:00
there's lessons that will be
57:02
learned in business.
57:02
We learn lessons every day.
57:04
Opening restaurants,
57:05
you learn more about
57:06
yourself and business and
57:08
friendships than you
57:09
probably ever could imagine.
57:11
The communities we build are amazing.
57:13
We started this show to be
57:14
able to have people on like yourself,
57:16
to be able to tell stories,
57:17
tell their story.
57:19
I'm a real big believer.
57:20
I love music.
57:21
And I believe that knowing
57:22
people's story makes the
57:24
music sound better.
57:25
Same thing with food.
57:27
Once you know someone's story,
57:28
the food tastes better.
57:30
Right.
57:30
So, you know, taking all that back,
57:34
you've been doing this
57:36
longer than I have.
57:38
What is a lesson?
57:39
What is the best form of
57:41
advice that you have ever been told?
57:45
The best form of advice that
57:47
I've ever been told is that
57:48
manners and respect will
57:49
take you where money never will.
57:52
And my mom told me that.
57:54
She would always tell me that.
57:56
And didn't understand it for a long time.
57:58
Didn't get it.
58:00
But I've come to learn that
58:02
I've gotten jobs through saying hello.
58:06
I've created relationships by...
58:08
saying, ma'am, take my chair.
58:12
Little things like that have
58:13
connected me to bigger things.
58:18
I offered this lady my chair
58:20
this particular year.
58:23
One year later, same event,
58:24
she spots me at a party.
58:26
She remembers and she
58:29
connects me to all of the next level.
58:33
Some of the TV stuff came
58:34
through some of her connections.
58:36
Some of the events that I've
58:39
done came through knowing her.
58:42
A flat tire getting fixed
58:43
one afternoon after hours
58:45
because I knew her.
58:47
So I feel like that the
58:49
beginning with that manners
58:52
can take you so many
58:53
different places that
58:57
It blows your mind.
58:59
So that respect that you
59:01
deliver to everybody that
59:02
you see and acknowledge
59:04
because you never know who
59:04
you're talking to or speaking to.
59:07
It can open so many more doors for you.
59:11
So manners and respect is
59:12
the best advice I've gotten,
59:14
and I try to apply that
59:15
through my day to day routines,
59:17
even at the coffee shop in the morning.
59:19
It's always good morning, ladies.
59:21
Thank you, ladies.
59:22
Have a great day.
59:24
Even on the set,
59:26
everybody on the camera crew,
59:28
good morning.
59:29
When we are done, thank you.
59:33
Show that gratitude.
59:34
And before you know it,
59:35
these folks say that this person is okay.
59:38
He's cool.
59:39
He's down to earth.
59:40
He has respect.
59:41
They show up at your restaurant.
59:43
And then again,
59:46
it just snowballs into a
59:48
better situation or relationship.
59:51
So it's amazing.
59:52
That's some of the best
59:52
advice I've ever gotten.
59:53
And I, and I live by it.
59:55
Mama knows, don't she?
59:56
That's pretty good advice.
59:59
Pretty good advice about that.
1:00:01
There, you got a,
1:00:01
you got a Friday feel good for us.
1:00:03
I do have a Friday feel good.
1:00:04
Uh, and not to follow up what, uh,
1:00:07
Rodney just shared,
1:00:08
but communication can be
1:00:09
one of the key points in your life,
1:00:11
but don't go out of your
1:00:13
way to prove your point
1:00:15
because you should stop
1:00:17
debating people who don't
1:00:18
care about the truth.
1:00:19
Uh,
1:00:20
Their goal is not for clarity.
1:00:22
They are out for ego.
1:00:23
So make sure that if you are communicating,
1:00:26
you're doing it the right way,
1:00:27
that you have a goal in
1:00:28
mind and that you're
1:00:29
solving this or reaching
1:00:31
the solution that you need.
1:00:32
Y'all know what to do.
1:00:32
Find somebody, you know, tell me, love,
1:00:34
love it.
1:00:35
I wish I could reach this
1:00:36
other microphone over there.
1:00:37
I dropped that one.
1:00:40
I appreciate it.
1:00:41
My first mic drop on a Friday feel good.
1:00:43
Yeah, that was deep.
1:00:44
That was, I hear you.
1:00:46
There you go.
1:00:47
Yeah, there you go.
1:00:48
There you go.
1:00:50
I love it.
1:00:51
Look, Rodney, man,
1:00:52
I can't thank you enough
1:00:53
for coming to hang out with us.
1:00:55
Absolutely.
1:00:56
It's been an amazing hour.
1:00:58
Next time you are in Nashville,
1:01:01
you got my credentials and contact.
1:01:03
Please, please feel free to hit me up.
1:01:06
I would love to come chop it
1:01:08
up over some brown liquid
1:01:11
and a cigar and sit by a fire, man.
1:01:16
Yes, I knew I liked you.
1:01:18
Yes, sir.
1:01:19
Yes, sir.
1:01:19
We are kinfolk now.
1:01:21
You are officially a part of
1:01:22
Singletree Nation and our family,
1:01:24
and you are always welcome.
1:01:25
So we thank you for coming
1:01:28
to hang out with us.
1:01:29
If people would like to find
1:01:32
Rodney Scott's,
1:01:34
can you throw down where
1:01:36
they can find Rodney Scott's?
1:01:38
can find me probably in the
1:01:39
airport traveling somewhere
1:01:40
or no you can find me at
1:01:44
pitmaster rodney scott on
1:01:45
instagram or rodney scott's
1:01:47
whole hog barbecue um those
1:01:49
are the two places you can
1:01:50
usually find me or you'll
1:01:51
find me at ten eleven king
1:01:52
street in the mornings
1:01:53
delivering coffee to my
1:01:54
crew and kicking it in the
1:01:55
pits you know hey there you
1:01:57
go I'm somewhere I love it
1:02:00
there's probably rodney so
1:02:02
That is outstanding.
1:02:03
I'm right there with you, my friend.
1:02:04
Again, thank you very much.
1:02:06
Y'all,
1:02:07
if you want to get involved with
1:02:08
Singletree,
1:02:09
please feel free to reach out to me.
1:02:11
You can contact me at
1:02:12
charlie at singletreebbq.com.
1:02:14
Give me a phone call at six
1:02:15
one five three zero seven
1:02:17
zero one two zero.
1:02:18
And until next time, guys,
1:02:20
we'll see you then.
1:02:20
Y'all be good.
1:02:24
Rodney, we appreciate it, man.
1:02:25
I could talk to you for three more hours.
1:02:28
It's fantastic.
1:02:29
I didn't feel like an hour.
1:02:30
It goes quick, man.
1:02:33
It goes quick.
1:02:35
I wish we could ask nine
1:02:36
billion more questions.
1:02:39
It's just a conversation.