Latest / Single Tree Nation Show / Tim Hutchins: Sourcing Wagyu Brisket, Scaling Hutchins BBQ & Learning from Franklin BBQ

Transcript

Tim Hutchins: Sourcing Wagyu Brisket, Scaling Hutchins BBQ & Learning from Franklin BBQ · Single Tree Nation Show

0:02
Welcome back to Singletree Nation, guys.
0:04
I'm your man, Charlie Eblin,
0:05
and as always,
0:06
we have our illustrious co-host, Mr.
0:08
Derry Wells, with us today.
0:09
What is up, everybody?
0:10
What is up?
0:11
Man, it's a good day.
0:12
Summertime.
0:14
Summertime and living is easy.
0:16
You know, I was thinking...
0:17
You know,
0:17
I walked out on my back porch this
0:19
morning and I was standing there drinking
0:20
my coffee.
0:21
Yep.
0:21
You know, no shirt on.
0:23
Absolutely.
0:23
Crocs and socks.
0:24
Proper.
0:25
I was watching the chickens go by.
0:26
Man, you liar.
0:27
That was me.
0:27
Oh, oh, oh.
0:28
Golly.
0:28
Man, I knew something was going on.
0:33
Setting me up with a bump set spike
0:36
in a volleyball, right?
0:37
I got it.
0:37
Just throw the softballs out there,
0:39
let you get them.
0:39
Well,
0:39
I come to you as a safe space
0:41
and I did not mean to.
0:42
Look, this is the way I hug you.
0:48
I wish, in all seriousness, I loved,
0:53
because it stormed last night, right?
0:55
So the air was crisp.
0:56
It was sharp.
0:57
It felt good.
0:58
I don't usually let my chickens out first
1:00
thing in the morning, but I was like,
1:01
man, it feels good.
1:02
The dog's already inside.
1:03
Who cares?
1:03
I won't be home most of the morning.
1:05
And I flung that door open,
1:06
and the rooster, like, I don't know.
1:08
first of all we didn't know we had
1:09
a rooster we thought we bought all hens
1:11
secondly this big mf comes strutting out
1:15
like he knew what he was doing and
1:17
i was like have your day boy like
1:19
just go off and he i mean walked
1:22
the yard like what are y'all gonna do
1:23
about it and i don't know where he
1:25
got an attitude but he picked it up
1:26
and it's i love it so yeah i
1:30
uh way tmi on my chicken flock now
1:32
but there you go look i'm telling you
1:33
i need the picture
1:37
You want the original or the AI doctored
1:39
one?
1:40
No, I want authentic dairy.
1:44
No shirt, Crocs and socks.
1:48
Black coffee and a backwood cigar watching
1:52
the sunrise come up.
1:53
That's what I want.
1:54
I'll see if I can get Julia to
1:55
help me out.
1:56
She's got to.
1:58
Julia, I'm talking to you right now.
2:02
You have to come through with this photo.
2:04
You have never seen a better poster for
2:08
our Friday feel good than that one.
2:12
Oh,
2:12
how would you like to be our guest
2:13
and be like,
2:14
what are these guys opening with right
2:16
now?
2:16
Because that is not what they said when
2:17
our, our, our openings are so bad.
2:19
They're off the wall.
2:22
They are off the wall.
2:22
Look, we have a great show today.
2:24
We have an incredible guest.
2:25
I am stoked to have Mr.
2:27
Tim Hutchins on the show.
2:29
He has got an absolutely incredible
2:31
barbecue joint.
2:33
If you haven't heard of him,
2:34
I don't know what rock you've been under,
2:37
but his restaurant is amazing.
2:40
Tim,
2:40
thank you for coming to hang out with
2:42
us.
2:42
Thanks for coming on the show.
2:43
Yeah, thank y'all guys for having me.
2:46
Absolutely.
2:48
We are stoked.
2:49
As we were talking about pre-show,
2:50
I can't wait to actually get out there
2:52
and come see your place in person.
2:55
The things that I've seen from your
2:59
restaurant are just absolutely incredible.
3:00
So it's pretty cool.
3:04
What made you get into barbecue?
3:07
Oh man, I was,
3:08
I was born and raised in barbecue.
3:10
So my, um,
3:11
my dad started about six miles from where
3:14
we are now here in McKinney.
3:16
So he started in the nineteen seventy
3:17
eight just on the side of the road
3:19
and just, uh, just the stand.
3:21
So I grew up in the business for
3:23
sure.
3:23
I love it.
3:25
Yeah.
3:26
Literally our house was, um,
3:27
my dad built on.
3:28
So he started in, um, like a,
3:31
it was a train,
3:32
basically a metal trailer and, um,
3:35
Like when he left his job because he
3:37
was delivering for a meatpacking company.
3:39
So a few months after he left his
3:41
job, he found out that he was,
3:44
you know, my mom was pregnant with me.
3:46
So they were broke as can be.
3:49
They moved out of their apartment.
3:50
They were staying in.
3:51
They lived.
3:51
We lived in a ten by ten room
3:53
at the end of the barbecue joint for
3:55
the first year I was born after I
3:57
was born.
3:58
So I literally grew up.
4:00
In the barbecue business.
4:02
Literally.
4:03
Literally.
4:04
In the building.
4:06
In the building.
4:07
Yeah, no doubt.
4:11
Not everybody can say that.
4:11
And then my dad,
4:12
he added on the house to the side
4:14
of the barbecue.
4:15
So we lived there all the way until
4:17
I graduated high school.
4:18
My parents just left that house about ten
4:21
years ago.
4:21
So it was pretty cool.
4:23
Yeah.
4:25
I like,
4:26
we've had a number of barbecue guests on.
4:29
Nobody has ever said,
4:31
I thought I'd wake up one morning,
4:32
make barbecue.
4:33
Everybody's got a story that somebody had
4:36
this dad, uncle, grandma,
4:37
somebody showed them that one thing,
4:40
whether.
4:40
It was the element of fire or the
4:43
smoke or the pleasure of feeding family or
4:46
whatever it was.
4:48
And yet here we are.
4:49
Not only did we grow up in it,
4:51
we're in the building as a infant just
4:55
taking it all in.
4:56
So you were born by the fire almost.
4:59
I mean, that's just incredible.
5:00
Literally.
5:01
Yeah.
5:01
So.
5:02
yeah some of my first memories were just
5:04
out um you know out behind the house
5:06
uh by the by the pit i remember
5:08
watching my dad cooking when i was a
5:09
young kid he had a big area where
5:11
he threw his ashes to let him pull
5:13
off and um as they would cool of
5:16
course there was no after there was no
5:17
coals that was pretty much what i use
5:19
as my sandbox so there's a lot of
5:21
like kid pictures of me like i'm out
5:23
there just in the ashes like i'm just
5:26
just having a good old time
5:28
We were raised poor.
5:29
We were raised poor like just it was
5:31
just like my dad would burn all his
5:32
trash and we were raised like super poor
5:35
just on the side of the highway cooking
5:37
barbecue.
5:38
That was it.
5:40
there's something to be said for that
5:41
though because like if you don't know any
5:44
better you're loving life like there's
5:46
something of look there's there's nothing
5:49
about a kid playing in ashes that says
5:52
he's not having fun that's true that's
5:55
true yeah i know i know i did
5:59
one of my favorite pictures of my kids
6:00
is my daughter playing in mud,
6:02
like just like covered.
6:03
And like she looked up and the, the,
6:06
the sub,
6:07
the just sublime excitement on her face of
6:11
look at how authentic and wonderful this
6:14
is.
6:14
And it's dirt and water to be a
6:17
kid again.
6:18
So with growing up in it, like you,
6:20
you typically hear one or, you know,
6:22
a couple of different versions of that
6:23
story, right?
6:24
Like,
6:25
you you were you were literally born
6:27
inside your restaurant and and grew up
6:30
right there in it and lived in that
6:32
place the whole you know all through high
6:34
school you know yeah and and a lot
6:37
of people going through that time period
6:41
would go man i don't want to have
6:43
nothing to do with this i've been doing
6:46
it my whole life and i want to
6:48
i want to go be an accountant
6:51
Yeah, that was,
6:51
that was me for most of my early
6:54
days.
6:55
Up until high school,
6:56
I thought I was going to be a
6:56
professional football player.
6:58
And once I figured out that wasn't going
7:00
to work out,
7:01
I ended up marrying my high school
7:03
sweetheart.
7:04
So at about eighteen, I decided, hey,
7:07
I'm going to have to,
7:08
I wasn't smart enough to go to college.
7:10
So I was like bottom third or bottom
7:13
thirty percent,
7:14
whatever percentage was in my grade.
7:16
So I was like,
7:17
I'm just going to go into the barbecue
7:18
business, make a living for a while.
7:20
and I'll figure out what I wanted to
7:21
do.
7:23
So I just went into it.
7:25
I'll tell you at the time,
7:26
I looked at it as something, you know,
7:28
short-lived, maybe four or five years,
7:29
spending the barbecue business,
7:31
make a living for a bit.
7:32
At about twenty-four,
7:35
when I was about twenty-four years old,
7:36
I kind of decided we were going through
7:38
bankruptcy as a business.
7:40
Our family actually had a split in two
7:43
thousand five,
7:44
and I took over the Hutchins Barbecue here
7:46
in McKinney.
7:47
My brothers took over other restaurants at
7:49
the time.
7:50
But I kind of made a decision during
7:51
that time.
7:52
Like, you know,
7:53
I'm just going to go all in on
7:54
this.
7:55
It had a decent little local following and
7:59
I'm going to see what happens.
8:01
And that was through some of the hardest
8:02
times.
8:04
I got a divorce in two thousand six
8:06
for my hospital sweetheart.
8:08
So that was, you know, looking back now,
8:10
it was kind of some rough times,
8:11
but that's why I just put my head
8:13
down and.
8:14
It was really a lot about hard work
8:17
and, you know, faith and knowing I could,
8:19
you know,
8:20
I knew it was a good opportunity,
8:22
you know, it was a good opportunity.
8:23
And I thought I was a hard worker.
8:26
So, you know,
8:27
I looked at it as like, hey,
8:28
this is do or die.
8:29
And I also had a huge bankruptcy hanging
8:31
over my head at that time.
8:32
It was like over two hundred thousand
8:34
dollars worth of debt that it was the
8:36
way the business fell and the family.
8:39
A lot of that debt got stuck on
8:40
me.
8:41
Um,
8:42
so I knew if I left the business
8:44
and didn't pull that out,
8:46
I could have went done something else,
8:47
but I would have had a huge debt
8:49
hanging over my head.
8:50
So it was really just, you know,
8:52
sticking that out.
8:54
There we are.
8:54
Yeah.
8:54
And so when did you,
8:57
when did you do that?
8:58
When was the bankruptcy?
9:00
Bankruptcy was in two thousand two.
9:02
So we were, we were a family business.
9:04
Um, obviously my dad, my brothers,
9:06
you know, the whole nine yards,
9:07
we were all in it together.
9:09
Um,
9:11
We got in some tax trouble,
9:12
state controller,
9:14
and a big part of the debt ended
9:19
up going in my name.
9:20
I had to file personal bankruptcy when I
9:21
was twenty two years old.
9:23
Well,
9:23
I was in twenty two or two thousand
9:25
two.
9:25
I'm sorry.
9:26
Two thousand two.
9:28
And.
9:30
So we just,
9:30
I kept rolling with that for a few
9:32
years as a family business.
9:34
In two thousand fives,
9:35
when I finally said, you know,
9:38
this isn't working the way it is.
9:40
So we're going to we're going to split
9:41
up.
9:42
I'm going to take one store to try
9:43
to pay this debt back off.
9:45
And then I'll take these other stores and
9:47
we can all, you know,
9:48
all kind of try to make a living
9:49
and, you know, see what happens.
9:52
And, you know, and really,
9:55
I just got in there at twenty five.
9:56
I was twenty five years old and I
9:58
just.
9:58
Worked my tail off.
9:59
I paid back the bankruptcy within two
10:01
years.
10:02
I started putting a lot of effort into,
10:05
you know, changing the culture,
10:07
focusing on the financial side of the
10:09
business for those first two years.
10:14
So, and then were you...
10:19
So the place, the one in McKinney,
10:21
and that's the one you have now, right?
10:23
Yes, sir.
10:23
That's correct.
10:24
So that one is,
10:26
you've been running that since, oh, two,
10:28
which, geez, that's what,
10:30
twenty-four years?
10:31
Yeah.
10:32
Twenty-four years, yeah.
10:33
So...
10:34
How much is different now from when your
10:39
dad was there, you were running it,
10:41
it was all family owned and operated the
10:44
whole deal?
10:45
Is it a totally different restaurant?
10:47
Did you keep all the same recipes and
10:49
all the same stuff and just perfect it?
10:54
Man, it was quite a journey.
10:56
Say I took it over in
10:59
The first few years,
11:00
it was really just getting the bankruptcy
11:01
paid off, of course.
11:02
And then I totally had to re-gut the
11:05
building,
11:05
put a lot of money back into the
11:07
building.
11:07
The city was trying to comment on us
11:09
and condemn part of the building or the
11:11
building itself.
11:13
Lots of leaks and such.
11:14
But so I focused on the building.
11:17
I focused on culture.
11:19
In two thousand ten, two thousand eleven,
11:22
I started really working on changing the
11:24
product.
11:25
So we had a fire in two thousand
11:28
twelve,
11:29
but I was already I was already tinkering
11:31
with product changes already.
11:33
I went and had a barbecue tour.
11:37
In two thousand eleven,
11:39
I went on a barbecue tour of central
11:40
Texas.
11:41
So I went to a lot of the
11:42
old school shops and me and me and
11:46
my general manager on the way right before
11:47
we're about to come back.
11:48
We were like, man,
11:50
there's this place right by the hotel.
11:52
there in Austin.
11:53
I was like, we should stop there.
11:54
It had a bunch of reviews and it
11:56
was called Franklin's barbecue.
11:58
I'd never heard of it in my life.
12:00
So we went there and it was like,
12:03
it was like, there were celebrities there.
12:05
There was already like,
12:06
people were taking photos.
12:07
And I was like,
12:08
what the heck is this?
12:09
And this is just coming out of like
12:11
the, you know, the blacks,
12:13
the Louie Mueller's and all.
12:14
And those were great.
12:15
But this was like a different element to
12:17
barbecue.
12:18
And I'm like, man, this is like crazy.
12:20
The food was off.
12:21
We sat in line for an hour.
12:23
The food was obviously amazing.
12:25
That was right when Aaron,
12:26
I think he moved into his freestanding
12:29
building there maybe two or three months
12:31
before I visited.
12:34
So we ate that.
12:35
I came back.
12:35
I was like, man,
12:36
our goal is to have brisket that good,
12:39
but to serve it seven days a week
12:41
from eleven to nine o'clock.
12:43
So I went on a journey from there,
12:45
just trying to source the best quality
12:47
meat I could begin with.
12:49
You know, sourcing to me was crucial.
12:53
I started working on the trim of the
12:54
brisket.
12:55
And back then, that's before YouTube and,
12:58
you know,
12:58
a lot of the information that's out there
13:01
now.
13:02
So I'm having a trial and error,
13:04
trial and error, error.
13:05
I'll never forget, like, um,
13:07
I was trimming a brisket back in the,
13:09
because we used to not trim.
13:10
We would season,
13:11
throw them around the pit.
13:13
So I'm back in the back working on
13:14
trimming this brisket down.
13:16
And my dad walks in and he's like,
13:18
boy, you're crazy.
13:19
I was like,
13:20
I might be crazy because I'm trimming off
13:22
about, like,
13:22
forty percent of the brisket before it
13:24
goes on.
13:25
So I was like,
13:25
I'm about to lose my butt here.
13:28
Um, so I started working on trimming.
13:30
Um, I got with a local butcher downtown.
13:34
And around here,
13:35
you'd ask people like your meat suppliers
13:37
for prime, you know, prime brisket,
13:39
and they would look at you like you're
13:40
crazy.
13:41
Like, what are you talking about?
13:42
It's all about the cheapest brisket,
13:43
you know, select choice.
13:45
So I got with the meat butcher shop
13:48
down the road,
13:49
and he started getting me in the right
13:51
direction.
13:52
Actually,
13:53
I started buying a Hartley Ranch brisket.
13:56
Then he had a good connection with them.
13:59
And that was really my first, you know,
14:03
first time I've ever used like a really
14:05
top tier quality brisket to begin with.
14:09
Of course, then I found out Franklin,
14:10
they were using the Creekstone brisket,
14:13
prime Creekstone.
14:14
I started trying to source that out and
14:16
it was just, oh yeah,
14:18
it still is his brisket.
14:19
And it was just almost impossible to get
14:23
that up in the DFW market.
14:25
And so it was a journey for me.
14:27
And not just that, it was, you know,
14:29
the Duroc ribs.
14:30
So that started about...
14:32
Not to interrupt you,
14:33
but I talked to Creekstone three months
14:36
ago.
14:37
Yeah.
14:38
And they told me that I could get...
14:41
I might be able to get five to
14:44
six briskets a month.
14:46
Brisket or cases?
14:47
Five to six briskets.
14:50
Oh, wow.
14:51
Because Franklin...
14:54
Because Franklin and Interstellar buy all
14:56
of their briskets.
14:57
Yeah, yeah.
14:58
They don't have any more.
15:00
Creekstone's an absolutely fantastic
15:02
product.
15:03
It really is.
15:05
We get about three to five big buy-ins
15:08
a year of Creekstone still.
15:09
So it's all seasonal for us.
15:11
So this year we've probably used three
15:13
thousand cases of Creekstone.
15:16
And that was from...
15:18
December, it's just seasonal.
15:20
So we'll buy,
15:21
we bought in like the five hundred case
15:23
truckloads when we bought in.
15:25
So that's kind of how that works for
15:27
us.
15:28
But then it goes away and it's not
15:29
a consistent,
15:31
it's not a consistent supply.
15:32
Who do you use when you're not using
15:34
Creekstone?
15:35
Man, it's top secret.
15:40
Okay.
15:41
No, no, no, no.
15:43
I'll be transparent with you.
15:44
I've been, you know,
15:46
one of my biggest things is searching out
15:48
the best quality meat.
15:49
I feel like, you know,
15:50
you take two pit guys that can cook
15:54
equally.
15:54
They're both top notch.
15:55
The only thing that's going to separate
15:57
them is the product they're using.
15:59
So say you got two tins as a
16:01
pit master,
16:02
what's going to be the differentiator?
16:04
It's the meat quality.
16:06
So I'm a huge believer in that.
16:10
And right now we're using Myers.
16:12
It's a natural product.
16:14
And it comes out of, I think, Nebraska.
16:19
But the ranches,
16:20
a lot of the ranches are up in
16:21
northeast Colorado, up in that.
16:25
To me,
16:25
that's a sweet spot for Angus brisket as
16:27
far as the weather,
16:28
everything is just right on.
16:31
So we're getting about five to six hundred
16:33
cases about a weekend now.
16:35
And then all of our other briskets are
16:37
sourced.
16:38
We use only Wagyu,
16:39
American Wagyu at that point.
16:41
So we're using two local ranches.
16:44
We use a lot of Rosewood,
16:48
which is right here in the FW area.
16:51
We use as much as they can get
16:53
us.
16:53
We use RC Ranch down by Houston.
16:58
Those are
16:59
Amazing briskets.
17:01
My other one, I use a Omaha,
17:04
a Greater Omaha Wagyu,
17:06
which I buy everything they make every
17:08
week.
17:10
And then I get a Mishima Wagyu and
17:13
I get everything as much as I can
17:14
get of what they have available.
17:17
So I'm getting right.
17:18
How do you like you get you're buying
17:21
American Wagyu.
17:22
Yeah.
17:23
And and that's it's an incredible product.
17:25
I've used it.
17:25
We use some at a comp that we
17:27
did not too long ago.
17:29
Me and Derry did.
17:30
And Derry's wife is in love with that
17:32
brisket that we used.
17:35
And it was really good.
17:37
But, you know,
17:39
I haven't made the leap to go.
17:41
I use Prime and I love using the
17:45
Prime.
17:45
It's great.
17:45
It's delicious.
17:47
But American Wagyu brisket is just that
17:53
next step up.
17:55
But just like going from a choice brisket
17:57
to a prime brisket,
17:58
the yield from a cooking standpoint,
18:03
you just lose that much more from a
18:05
yield.
18:07
How do you manage to make money off
18:09
of a product that from a raw state
18:13
to a cooked state, I mean,
18:15
you're getting what,
18:16
forty percent net weight?
18:18
Well, we're getting forty...
18:21
around forty percent on all our brisket
18:23
net weight.
18:24
So our yields are not too far off.
18:27
We're getting low forties net weight,
18:30
anywhere from thirty eight to forty two
18:31
percent.
18:32
You're right on at forty.
18:35
So our Wagyu's are coming in.
18:38
We've been doing a lot of yield test
18:40
to answer your question,
18:41
and we're we're yielding about the same on
18:43
the block.
18:44
What I've noticed,
18:45
you get a little yield back for us
18:47
anyway,
18:48
is when
18:49
is when you go to cut the meat
18:51
on the block, you have less scrap.
18:54
You have less crumbly flat.
18:56
You have a little more yield on the
18:58
block.
18:58
About a percent or two,
18:59
you're gaining back when you're on the
19:02
block.
19:03
So we're yielding,
19:05
actually finished product,
19:06
we're yielding really close to the same.
19:09
But to justify the price,
19:12
you really can't.
19:17
I wasn't going to bring it up.
19:18
Yeah, you just kind of like... Man,
19:21
like I said a minute ago,
19:23
I feel like that's the only thing.
19:25
You have two amazing pit guys,
19:26
two amazing barbecue joints.
19:27
The only thing that you're going to do
19:30
to separate yourself on that brisket is to
19:33
serve a better quality meat.
19:36
We got a good reputation here to serve...
19:39
excellent food.
19:40
And, you know,
19:42
our customers are expecting excellent
19:43
product at all times.
19:44
And we got to do everything in our
19:46
power to, to give them that,
19:48
to give them that product.
19:50
We,
19:51
it's hard for me here in Tennessee because
19:54
we are, Tennessee is not a brisket state.
19:57
Right.
19:58
You know, there's a lot of whole hog,
20:00
there's some ribs and, you know,
20:03
you get into East Tennessee and you can
20:04
get a little, you know,
20:05
even more pulled pork and whole hog kind
20:08
of stuff as well.
20:08
But brisket is just not a...
20:12
just not a thing yet it's becoming that
20:14
way people are getting more and more
20:16
excited about it and and i sell a
20:18
ton of brisket comparative to my my
20:23
cohorts around here but i don't i don't
20:26
know if you want to want people to
20:27
get too excited about it the way brisket
20:29
processors right now no i don't want them
20:32
to get i want them to forget about
20:33
it
20:35
That's what I think I'm trying to bring
20:36
into this is from the consumer side,
20:39
I'm not going to talk shop for a
20:41
second.
20:41
I'm going to sit here and think about
20:43
the fact that he just said he's ordering
20:46
as many cases as he can from one
20:48
of his suppliers.
20:49
There's only two briskets per head of
20:52
cattle.
20:52
yeah and and so like i'm thinking like
20:54
there's only so much brisket to go around
20:56
like that that's where like my mind
20:58
immediately went to because there are some
21:01
of these guys who are can are able
21:03
to buy up so much of the supply
21:06
especially if it's a local supply like
21:07
they do in texas where the ranch is
21:09
somebody they know or whatever how does
21:12
someone either in your position where
21:14
you're having we don't have a whole lot
21:16
of local ranches or in your position tim
21:19
where you may know the guy who's
21:21
there and they call you and tell you
21:24
hey i've only got a hundred cases or
21:26
i can only give you five brisket like
21:28
what do you do to play around with
21:29
that or is that why we have four
21:32
five six seven suppliers because i need to
21:34
meet my quotas yeah i did that's i
21:36
mean that's me i buy from different places
21:38
when i have to i have one that
21:41
um i can get pretty much everything that
21:42
i need and then i'll supplement with
21:44
others okay
21:45
And that's really what brought me to
21:47
American Wagyu last,
21:49
I started using it early last year.
21:51
So it's been about a year and a
21:52
half now.
21:53
And I knew,
21:54
we know the prime market's getting really
21:57
constrained, especially this year,
21:58
we're like a seventy year low.
22:00
So I had to have another supply.
22:03
A lot of guys right now are going
22:04
back to choice.
22:05
They're going because the supply is just
22:07
not there.
22:08
And the price is going astronomical on the
22:10
prime market.
22:11
What's cool about the Wagyu is it's not
22:14
tied to the commodity beef market.
22:18
And what we're doing,
22:19
we're going into the natural space on
22:21
brisket.
22:22
So it's not as tied to the commodity
22:25
market, even though it kind of still is.
22:28
So to answer your question,
22:29
that was what brought me to Wagyu.
22:31
I knew I had to get ahead of
22:32
the game on this Angus problem we're
22:34
having.
22:35
And it's worked out pretty well for me.
22:37
There was a time last summer,
22:39
end of July,
22:40
where I was paying less for Wagyu than
22:42
what I was for my all-Angus brisket.
22:45
Wow.
22:45
Yeah, absolutely.
22:49
So just get ahead of the curve.
22:50
Yeah.
22:52
I love it.
22:52
Let's take a quick break,
22:53
and then when we come back,
22:55
we'll talk about some dinner for two.
22:56
Let's do it.
22:57
All right, guys.
23:01
All right.
23:01
Welcome back guys.
23:02
Welcome back.
23:03
I'm your man, Charlie Evelyn.
23:04
We have our illustrious co-host, Mr.
23:06
Derry Wells today.
23:07
This is one of those days where I
23:08
feel like that.
23:09
I'm like just kind of the co-pilot.
23:11
Cause y'all obviously are able to talk
23:12
shop.
23:13
So like you threw out the, I yield.
23:15
Yeah.
23:16
Yep.
23:16
Me too.
23:17
Like, okay, cool.
23:19
You get two briskets per cow.
23:21
What do y'all do?
23:21
That's awesome.
23:24
Sorry for being the outsider today.
23:26
Some of that is I'm training a new
23:28
pit guy.
23:29
So you're very much on top of what
23:31
you're doing.
23:32
It is on top of mind.
23:34
I've been talking about brisket for hours
23:36
today.
23:40
And yet I'm getting my thirteen year old
23:41
daughter to help me carry the couch out
23:43
of the door so we don't...
23:46
Tim will tell you it's...
23:51
He probably has a better labor pool for
23:54
pit people than I do.
23:55
Sure.
23:56
There's not a lot of guys that want
23:59
to cook on an offset pit in Tennessee.
24:03
There's just not.
24:05
No.
24:06
There's not a lot of guys that want
24:07
to cook barbecue in Tennessee.
24:08
There's not a lot of guys that know
24:09
what an offset pit is in Tennessee.
24:12
I'll go that far.
24:13
You know, the funniest thing, Tim,
24:16
you'll get a kick out of this.
24:19
I placed an ad for Pit Masters to
24:22
fill a hole that I needed in my
24:23
restaurant.
24:25
And I had somebody put on their resume
24:29
that they had barbecue experience in
24:33
multiple barbecue restaurants.
24:36
And they came in,
24:38
one of their experiences said Pit Master
24:42
on it.
24:44
Okay, awesome, great.
24:47
So they come in,
24:47
they sit down in the restaurant.
24:49
You might want to see how this will
24:52
go.
24:52
Where we are sitting in my restaurant is
24:55
in front of a window, okay?
24:58
And my smoker is fifty feet from the
25:02
front door.
25:02
Right.
25:03
And it's a thousand gallon offset pit on
25:07
a trailer with a fourteen foot stack
25:11
built by primitive pits.
25:13
You can't miss the dang thing.
25:15
You can't miss it from the road at
25:17
forty miles an hour.
25:17
I mean,
25:21
and I'm sitting there talking to them and
25:23
they look at me and go, well,
25:24
where do you smoke?
25:28
Interview over and me being a nice guy
25:33
that I am said, oh, well,
25:35
we smoke it, you know,
25:36
outside on the pit.
25:37
And she goes, oh,
25:40
I thought that was a food truck.
25:42
Oh, no.
25:44
Now, keep in mind,
25:45
there is a food truck in front of
25:49
my pit because the guys in the space
25:52
next to me that have a taco shop
25:55
have a eighteen foot taco trailer sitting
26:01
next to my pit.
26:01
That says tacos on it.
26:02
I said, well,
26:09
I guess you've never smoked before,
26:10
have you?
26:12
that's good oh yeah yeah i just didn't
26:14
see your pit that's funny some folks man
26:19
i love it just don't understand
26:21
Now as your is,
26:22
and I asked because I've been,
26:24
like I said,
26:25
I've been talking about smoking all day.
26:27
All of my, my,
26:28
both of my pits are outside.
26:29
So I have two pits ones in the
26:31
back of my restaurant that we cook small
26:33
proteins and sausage and stuff on.
26:35
And, and I can, I can, it just,
26:38
it's just seasoned better and comes to the
26:41
sausage is better on it.
26:42
Anyways, long story short, I got two pits,
26:44
right?
26:44
So big thousand gallon upfront and a
26:46
smaller one in the back.
26:48
Um, but they're both outside.
26:50
Right.
26:50
There's no, you know, we're, we're in a,
26:52
we're in a strip mall, so we can't,
26:54
you know,
26:55
have a smokehouse where it's covered and,
26:57
you know, and have all the things, but,
26:59
um, are your pits outdoors and,
27:01
and do you have a cover?
27:03
You know, how do you, how do you,
27:05
yeah, our pits, I have two stores,
27:07
one in McKinney,
27:08
one in Frisco and the McKinney store,
27:10
we have, um,
27:12
all of our pits are in
27:13
inside I would say the fronts of them
27:16
I use a lot of the older pits
27:17
um the M&M the rotisserie pits I don't
27:21
know if you're familiar with those that's
27:23
what I grew up cooking on I do
27:25
have some offsets as well um so our
27:28
McKinney store we have um how many pits
27:31
do we have we have eight inside
27:34
eight oilers inside and we have a Zeus
27:36
out,
27:37
which is like a rotisserie and two
27:38
barrels.
27:39
And that's on a disconnected building.
27:42
So most of our pit room in McKinney
27:44
is inside,
27:45
but the back of it hangs out,
27:47
so it's getting fresh air.
27:49
And you know, it's,
27:49
it's partially in partially out.
27:51
So now I, uh, uh,
27:54
Matt and Mike over there at M and
27:55
M are, are some of my favorite people,
27:58
good people, man.
27:59
And they can, they can,
28:00
they can build a pit, just go crazy.
28:04
When we opened our restaurant, um,
28:07
even prior to opening the restaurant,
28:09
when I just had the food truck,
28:10
I reached out to him a couple of
28:11
times trying to figure out what I was
28:13
going to do when we did open the
28:14
restaurant.
28:15
right and i i needed a pit when
28:19
we opened the restaurant i had a two
28:21
hundred and fifty gallon offset pit and i
28:24
thought that i could open my restaurant on
28:26
that two hundred and fifty gallon offset
28:28
pit and i was uh i was sorely
28:31
mistaken yeah no doubt that that was not
28:35
gonna happen that's the fourth of what you
28:37
have now like that like when i think
28:38
of it just those simple terms well if
28:40
you didn't and rack space
28:42
It's less.
28:43
Yeah.
28:44
Yeah.
28:44
It's really a fifth because of I got
28:47
the thousand gallon and the two fifty now
28:50
to be both.
28:51
So and they're both going every day.
28:54
So it's it's crazy to think about what
28:57
it was then.
28:58
And there and there were smoking seven
28:59
days a week.
29:00
And, you know, it is what it is.
29:02
But that's amazing.
29:04
Mike,
29:05
Mike and I were talking and I called
29:07
him and I said, hey, bro,
29:08
I need another I need a thousand gallon
29:10
pit.
29:12
And, you know,
29:13
I'd really love to get one of the
29:14
oilers, but, you know,
29:15
I don't really have the place to put
29:16
it in my location.
29:19
And, you know, I can do an offset,
29:21
and I would rather cook with an offset
29:22
anyways because that's what I enjoy doing
29:26
now.
29:26
Right.
29:27
Probably should have talked to people like
29:29
yourself before I made that decision,
29:31
because now that I have talked to people
29:33
like yourself, the,
29:35
the big rotisserie M and M pit that
29:38
they have produces the same product with
29:41
more room and better efficiencies,
29:43
but it's a whole different conversation.
29:46
But he was,
29:47
he was nine months out on building an
29:50
offset.
29:51
yeah and um and so i called when
29:55
i'm talking to him i said well you
29:57
know if if if you were going to
30:01
buy a pit and you needed one in
30:02
the next ninety days who would you call
30:06
and so he he sent me down to
30:09
primitive pits in coal mountain georgia
30:11
and so i had them build me one
30:14
and i got it in about about a
30:16
hundred and twenty days
30:17
I'll just close my mouth.
30:20
It's an amazing pit.
30:21
I love my pit.
30:22
I can make it do just about anything
30:26
I want it to do.
30:27
The product comes out great,
30:29
and people love it,
30:31
and that's what matters.
30:32
That's it.
30:33
That's all that matters.
30:35
My next pit will be one of those
30:37
big two-thousand-gallon oilers.
30:41
Those things are, man.
30:44
They're good.
30:45
Yeah, they're nice pits.
30:46
It's kind of funny.
30:47
You know, a lot of people,
30:49
I love the offsets.
30:50
I do.
30:51
And I think certain things they cook
30:52
better.
30:53
That's why I have some offsets in both
30:54
my stores.
30:56
But I grew up on it.
30:57
My dad,
30:58
that was the first pit I ever cooked
31:00
on when I was a young guy,
31:01
nineteen years old.
31:03
And that was before it was a broke
31:05
down or it had no dampers.
31:07
And we had to do everything manually.
31:09
So I learned how to cook on it
31:11
without.
31:13
using all the dampers and the systems.
31:15
So I've really learned that really taught
31:18
me to use those as a,
31:20
as a help night to,
31:21
to depend on them to cook your food
31:23
because you really, you still have to,
31:26
so many people buy those and they depend
31:28
on those to do their fire management for
31:30
them.
31:31
And you're,
31:32
you're going to have a disaster,
31:34
bad smoke.
31:35
Um, there's just so much, um,
31:38
you still have to manage the fire.
31:39
I have guys here all night.
31:41
Even having a lot of oilers,
31:42
just because I want that fire to be
31:44
clean, to run smooth,
31:46
to have the right coal bed.
31:48
That's just all there is to it.
31:50
So either way,
31:51
you got to manage the fire.
31:56
Either way, you know,
31:57
if you don't have a good clean fire,
31:59
it ain't going to taste good.
32:00
Nope.
32:00
That's right.
32:01
That's right.
32:02
Yeah.
32:04
I look,
32:05
we have a segment on our show that
32:06
we call dinner for two.
32:08
And in this segment, it's pretty simple.
32:10
If you could have dinner with anybody past
32:12
or present, who would it be?
32:13
And why me?
32:19
Yes, sir.
32:20
Oh man.
32:23
I would have, um,
32:26
probably Paul from the Bible.
32:28
Ooh.
32:32
That's a great answer.
32:36
I'm going to use this as a moment
32:40
and then I want him to come back
32:41
and tell me why Paul, but like, Oh,
32:43
you an apology.
32:46
because two or three months ago you said
32:50
if you could have dinner with anybody past
32:52
present or future and I was like what's
32:54
a future person and we're like haha what
32:56
are our future people you may have a
33:00
grandchild you could have a daughter who
33:05
is going to be
33:06
be wed at some point.
33:08
So you've got a future son-in-law out
33:09
there or whatever.
33:11
And I really ridiculed you over the,
33:13
how do you have a future person?
33:15
And there are very,
33:16
it's a small number of the people you
33:19
could have dinner with,
33:20
but I'll give you that.
33:21
And so I just wanted to throw that
33:23
out there for a second.
33:24
Cause it just hit me that I owe
33:27
you an apology on, on future people.
33:29
Thanks.
33:30
So now you can say past, present,
33:31
future again.
33:32
So
33:35
I've got you trained down to say just
33:37
pastor present now.
33:38
So I'm just hung up on the fact
33:43
of, if I have a daughter,
33:44
we all need to have a conversation.
33:46
Oh, well, you know, that's, that's, I,
33:49
I am forty six years old and I
33:50
do not need to have no more kids.
33:52
Well, okay.
33:53
Well,
33:53
you'll have a future daughter-in-law then.
33:55
I mean, like, you know, hopefully.
33:57
Yeah.
33:57
And so there's that kind of element and
34:00
like, and all that came about.
34:01
Cause you know, my,
34:02
my son being engaged now,
34:03
like at some point I'm more than likely
34:04
going to be a grandfather.
34:06
Well, that's a future, you know,
34:08
person that, man, I would,
34:09
I'd have dinner with that kid, you know?
34:11
So,
34:12
but I'm convinced I'm going to be a
34:13
phenomenal grandfather when that rolls
34:14
around.
34:15
That's awesome.
34:16
Can you imagine me?
34:18
Chickens, cigars, coffee, bear shirt,
34:22
fifty five front yard like this is
34:24
granddaughter playing in this kid has no
34:26
idea what's coming like that.
34:28
So, Tim,
34:32
I think Paul is an amazing answer,
34:34
but I got to know why.
34:36
Well, man,
34:37
he wrote two thirds of the New Testament.
34:40
He hated Christians.
34:41
He like killed Christians,
34:43
probably the worst of all sinners.
34:46
And then he like wrote Damascus had a.
34:49
you know, uh, encounter.
34:51
So I think that's a pretty amazing story.
34:54
All the bad stuff I've ever done.
34:56
I've never murdered Christian.
34:57
So I think that's a good time.
34:59
I've always been impressed with,
35:01
cause I mean,
35:03
from what we know with what they say
35:04
in the Bible, his,
35:06
his appearance was still him.
35:08
And they're like, Hey,
35:08
weren't you the dude killing these folks
35:10
like last week?
35:11
And he's like, yeah,
35:12
but that's not me anymore.
35:13
Like, how do you change?
35:14
If somebody told you nowadays,
35:17
That's not me last week that was, like,
35:19
I'm not the same person.
35:20
We would laugh you off the block.
35:22
Like, there's no way.
35:23
Nobody changes their, what's it,
35:25
a tiger doesn't change their stripes?
35:26
Yeah.
35:27
You know, like, we would not think that.
35:28
And here this man did.
35:29
Like I said,
35:30
his encounter on the way to Damascus and,
35:33
like, I was killing you last week.
35:36
Now I'm supporting you.
35:37
Well, they didn't trust him.
35:39
They didn't trust him.
35:40
And then was it Nicodemus or who was
35:43
the guy that,
35:44
he was kind of an outsider.
35:46
But he's the one who kind of got
35:47
him into the actual church because it was
35:49
an underground church then.
35:50
So like he's the one who got him
35:52
in,
35:52
but they didn't want no part of Paul.
35:54
Like he was like, no,
35:57
I don't blame him anywhere near what was
35:59
going on.
36:00
And then he's the one.
36:01
So I love it.
36:03
Great answer.
36:04
Outstanding.
36:05
Now let's talk a little bit about your
36:07
barbecue joints as they sit today.
36:09
right so you got you got two places
36:12
um obviously over the last twenty five
36:15
some odd years it's changed a little bit
36:18
right you know yeah you trim brisket now
36:21
and people think we're crazy because we
36:23
throw half our product in a in a
36:24
bin and make sausage with it or burgers
36:26
or whatever whatever we can do to to
36:29
save the scraps
36:32
You know,
36:32
what is what is some of the challenges
36:34
now that you got two places you're
36:36
ordering, you know,
36:38
obviously hundreds and hundreds of cases
36:41
of briskets and porks and all the things?
36:44
What are some of the challenges that you
36:45
have today comparative to when you were,
36:48
you know,
36:49
nineteen years old and trimming the first
36:50
brisket and your dad's asking what the
36:52
hell you're doing?
36:53
Well, gosh, the biggest challenge,
36:55
I think it's probably always the same,
36:58
but it's consistency to make sure that I
37:02
feel like our product is top notch when
37:05
it's on and to make sure every day
37:07
it's we're serving the best we can serve.
37:09
So to be consistent and serve, you know,
37:14
thousands of customers a week,
37:16
that's by far the biggest challenge.
37:19
And to get everyone to buy into that,
37:21
because you have to have a lot of
37:22
I have a lot of passion for the
37:24
business.
37:24
We have over two hundred and forty
37:26
employees in our business.
37:28
So to get everyone to buy into that
37:30
same passion, that's that's a challenge.
37:34
But, you know,
37:35
it's doable and that's something I feel
37:37
like we're we're really doing really well,
37:39
no doubt.
37:40
How do you – and this is a
37:43
question that comes up in my business all
37:47
the time, or not necessarily my business,
37:49
but in my life all the time when
37:51
we talk about growth and going from one
37:54
unit to two units to three to four.
37:57
How do you take what most call craft
38:01
barbecue,
38:02
which is –
38:04
So much about feel and love and the
38:08
passion and all the things that you feel
38:10
about your business.
38:13
How do you take that and instill it
38:15
into somebody and say, hey, man, here,
38:17
I need you to feel the same way
38:19
I feel and cook this brisket the same
38:21
way I do when you don't use a
38:23
thermometer and there's not an SOP on how
38:25
to cook it?
38:27
Well, you know, the passion, you know,
38:30
you can't teach it, but it's contagious.
38:32
So I think with the high level of
38:36
consistency I'm pushing,
38:37
I'm in my storage every day in McKinney,
38:40
and I'm just all over it.
38:42
So, you know, I ask them every day,
38:43
do y'all know my standard?
38:45
Do y'all know my standard?
38:46
And they're always like, yeah, we know it.
38:48
So it's really just a culture in your
38:52
business.
38:53
And for me,
38:54
I have to be really repetitive with
38:57
myself.
38:58
Over and over.
38:59
We don't sell that.
39:00
We do sell this.
39:00
We don't sell that.
39:01
We do sell this.
39:03
So you literally have to tell someone.
39:05
It might take them a hundred times to
39:07
correct them.
39:08
And I, you know,
39:10
I tell my managers and I only have
39:13
high level managers at my stores that
39:16
we're more of coaches than what we are.
39:18
We're not a boss.
39:19
We're not coming in just trying to get
39:20
people to go through the motions or get
39:22
people to do a job.
39:23
We have to constantly coach them and be
39:26
pushing a standard that we're proud to
39:29
serve.
39:30
So for me,
39:30
it's about having good leadership in our
39:32
company.
39:33
It starts with me and then make sure
39:34
I'm communicating that leadership,
39:36
make sure we're hiring confident people,
39:38
making sure the people that we have,
39:39
they care about what they're doing.
39:41
And we have no patience for people that
39:43
don't.
39:44
care about what they're doing.
39:45
They can be competent.
39:46
You know,
39:46
we're communicating the message really
39:48
well,
39:49
but if they're just there for a paycheck,
39:50
we tell them straight up and this isn't
39:53
the place for you.
39:53
We're, we're like a high level business.
39:55
We're, we're trying to,
39:58
we literally are trying to be a five-star
39:59
restaurant in a barbecue shack and we're
40:02
not going to tolerate anything,
40:04
our service, our food.
40:07
And once you,
40:08
I think once that we've built that culture
40:10
where we have so many employees that's
40:12
bought into that,
40:13
then it naturally weeds out the people who
40:16
aren't buying into that.
40:17
They're not going to be around long.
40:20
They're going to get pushed out the door.
40:22
Yeah, for sure.
40:23
You know,
40:24
because my other staff's not going to
40:26
allow it.
40:27
They're going to think, you know, hey,
40:30
pull your weight.
40:32
It's a culture thing for sure.
40:34
Now to do that, we've got two stores.
40:37
There's businesses out there growing a lot
40:39
more than we are.
40:40
And to do that over and over,
40:43
Of course, it's a challenge, you know,
40:44
to grow from two to four to four
40:46
to eight.
40:47
That's a huge challenge to keep that
40:49
going.
40:50
For sure.
40:52
It's tough.
40:53
It's hard to ever get from one to
40:55
two.
40:55
Yeah.
40:56
And then, you know,
40:57
it's just as hard to get from two
40:59
to four.
41:00
Absolutely.
41:01
So, and then...
41:02
On top of all of that,
41:04
to maintain the same high-level quality
41:06
food that you're talking about,
41:10
I don't know if it's possible to take
41:14
a single-unit barbecue joint where guys
41:18
like myself, you, whoever...
41:23
and take them where the owner is the
41:26
pit master slash operator slash marketer,
41:30
payroll, yada, yada, yada,
41:33
the key person there,
41:36
and build that into a fifteen,
41:40
twenty unit restaurant company with the
41:43
same feel that it has when it was
41:47
one unit.
41:50
I don't think it's possible.
41:52
I personally don't think it's possible.
41:54
That's why I've got two stores.
41:55
My brother runs one store.
41:57
I have two nephews that are the CEO
42:00
of the company.
42:01
One of them is the main pit guy
42:02
in Frisco.
42:04
We're super tight-knit family still.
42:07
I have a GM that's been with me.
42:09
He was working at my dad.
42:10
He's fourteen years old.
42:11
He came back to work for me ten
42:13
years ago.
42:15
I have pit guys that's been with me
42:16
twenty, twenty five years.
42:18
So to try to duplicate that and to
42:20
put them all around different cities all
42:23
over the place, it's you can do it.
42:26
You can serve.
42:27
What are you trying to serve?
42:28
Are you trying to serve a ten?
42:29
Are you trying to serve a seven?
42:31
Like a lot of you're going to make
42:32
a lot of money serving a seven,
42:34
like a lot of money,
42:35
especially if you have good brand equity.
42:37
If you're putting out a decent product,
42:39
you're going to make money.
42:41
But that's not it.
42:43
What's the point to me?
42:45
I make a good living.
42:46
I do well.
42:48
I want to be really proud of what
42:49
we put out.
42:52
Every day I look at reviews of our
42:53
restaurant.
42:54
I get a little OCD.
42:57
My restaurant is almost a part of me,
43:00
it feels like.
43:04
You can do it, but...
43:06
is one of this.
43:09
I was,
43:09
I was telling a lot of people outside
43:12
of Texas don't know what the Texas top
43:14
month, the top fifty is.
43:15
They just don't,
43:16
they don't know what it is because they're
43:19
not in Texas and they're not,
43:20
they haven't been in barbecue and
43:23
One of the guys that works for me
43:24
is an executive chef,
43:25
went to culinary school,
43:26
the whole nine yards.
43:27
He's just started.
43:28
He's learning how to do the pit and
43:31
asking, well,
43:32
what temperature is this supposed to be?
43:34
And I'm like, well, I don't know.
43:36
Just pick it up.
43:37
It's supposed to feel like this.
43:39
That's what temperature is supposed to be.
43:41
And I said,
43:42
I can give you a guideline,
43:43
but I've had biscuits done at a hundred
43:46
and ninety two degrees and I've had them
43:48
done at two hundred and twelve degrees.
43:50
Couldn't tell you which one's right.
43:52
And I can tell you what it felt
43:53
like.
43:53
And they both felt the same.
43:55
So they were done.
43:57
That's right.
44:00
Yeah.
44:00
It's very difficult to get those people
44:02
and teach them.
44:04
And for that time period,
44:05
you got somebody that's worked for you for
44:06
twenty five years.
44:08
He's not he's never going to be able
44:10
to teach somebody else what it feels like
44:12
to hold that brisket in his hand.
44:13
Now,
44:14
just take it just takes repetition and
44:15
time to do it.
44:16
So.
44:18
Look,
44:18
we have a segment on our show that
44:20
we call Mac or Beans.
44:23
And this segment is a this or that
44:25
segment.
44:27
But what it boils down to is when
44:29
you go into a barbecue joint,
44:30
whether it's your own or somebody else's,
44:33
you know,
44:33
say we all come to Texas and we
44:36
go see Ernest over there at Burnt Bean.
44:38
And, uh, we go in,
44:40
are you going to get, you know,
44:42
you're going to get your brisket or your
44:43
ribs or your Turkey or the Holy Trinity,
44:45
whatever, you're going to get it all,
44:46
but you're going to decide you're going to
44:48
get what's the first side you're going to
44:49
pick.
44:50
Are you going to pick the Mac and
44:51
cheese?
44:51
Are you going to go with the beans?
44:53
If they have pinto beans or charro bean,
44:56
I'm doing, I'm doing beans.
44:58
If they have like a baked bean or
45:00
some other kind of bean,
45:02
I'm doing Mac for sure.
45:05
But I can't stand baked beans for some
45:07
reason.
45:09
When you say baked beans,
45:10
like a kidney bean?
45:11
I don't know.
45:13
Just a sweet barbecue bean.
45:15
Yeah, a sweet bean.
45:16
No, not going to happen.
45:20
And a pinto bean.
45:21
That's my favorite bean.
45:23
And we cook a real traditional one here,
45:25
so I'm all about the pinto for sure.
45:29
My mother, for years,
45:31
her baked bean was the only baked bean
45:32
I really liked,
45:33
like when I was a kid.
45:35
last week she's like i tried a new
45:37
recipe like for her it was like
45:39
groundbreaking that you could do this she
45:42
literally left out the onions and added
45:45
ground beef that was the basic change of
45:49
for what it was okay
45:51
Oh, don't you like these baked beans?
45:53
And they were phenomenal.
45:53
I really liked it.
45:54
I liked the addition of the beef.
45:56
But she thought she had reinvented a new
45:59
course of food.
46:00
And I was like, sweetheart, I love it.
46:02
But mom, this ain't the one.
46:06
For me, it's nostalgic now, right?
46:08
I don't need you to go messing it
46:09
up.
46:10
But they were really good.
46:11
It wasn't quite the...
46:13
Tim, we walk into your restaurant.
46:16
What's the, you know,
46:18
for the people that haven't come to see
46:19
you yet,
46:20
they got a trip planned to come down
46:22
there.
46:23
You're one of their first stops.
46:25
What do they have to get?
46:28
You got to get brisket, you know, brisket,
46:31
the pork ribs, sausage.
46:32
I like the jalapeno cheddar sausage.
46:35
And those you have to get,
46:37
you have to get a Texas Twinkie.
46:42
Texas Twinkies are amazing.
46:43
I'd go with the Texas Twinkies.
46:44
And you make all your sausage, correct?
46:46
Yeah,
46:46
we make all in-house sausage for sure.
46:50
Now,
46:50
I have to ask because I just found
46:53
out a couple of weeks ago.
46:56
we started making our own sausage.
46:57
I've never been real good at it.
46:59
It's hard.
47:00
It's hard.
47:01
It's tough.
47:02
And you gotta, you know,
47:03
you gotta have the right feel and it's,
47:05
you can pop the casings over and over
47:07
again and get frustrated.
47:07
Then you want to throw your sausage maker
47:09
in the river,
47:10
but it sounds from like experience today,
47:14
but it's not the point.
47:18
Did you know that they,
47:19
there's a machine out there now that you
47:22
can put your sausage on
47:24
in the machine and it will case it
47:27
and link it for you it's called lucky
47:29
linker we have one you hear this
47:38
Apparently,
47:38
he's ahead of the game or you're way
47:40
behind.
47:40
I don't know which is how you're behind.
47:41
I'll tell you right now.
47:45
Did you order it yet?
47:48
Are we asking permission from the boss
47:49
first?
47:50
No.
47:50
Okay.
47:51
I'm trying to find somebody that has one
47:55
to talk to me about it.
47:57
Lost connection for a minute.
48:00
That's great.
48:00
Yeah.
48:01
The Lucky Linker is a game changer, man.
48:03
No doubt.
48:04
So literally, like,
48:06
it just links it for you.
48:08
Mm-hmm.
48:09
It does.
48:10
And you can set it for every size
48:11
in the world.
48:12
It does.
48:13
It makes hamburger patties, even.
48:15
It's an incredible machine.
48:16
I'm going to buy two.
48:22
Yeah.
48:27
Look, here's the thing.
48:28
Like I said a minute ago,
48:29
I've never been great at making sausage.
48:32
And about two years ago,
48:36
we had had the restaurant open for a
48:38
year.
48:38
And about two years ago, I was like,
48:39
man,
48:41
I'm just racking up all this ground beef.
48:43
And we don't sell enough burgers to sell
48:46
all this ground beef.
48:47
And I'm going to just...
48:49
So I was,
48:49
I was vacuum sealing it and freezing it.
48:52
And okay, well,
48:53
I can't sell chili in July.
48:55
So we, you know,
48:56
what am I going to do?
48:57
And then, you know,
48:58
August would come around and I got a
49:00
couple of hundred pounds of ground beef
49:02
left and I'm like, man,
49:02
I got to figure something else to do.
49:04
So I finally just got tired of it
49:06
and said, you know what?
49:07
I'm just going to figure out how to
49:08
make sausage.
49:10
And I'm just going to,
49:11
I'll just study and I'll practice and I'll
49:13
figure it out.
49:15
So
49:17
I bought a little five pound hand crank
49:21
sausage stuffer.
49:27
Now I'm going to tell you right now,
49:30
Charlie is dedicated hours of his day for
49:36
hours making sausage for your restaurant.
49:42
And everybody in your restaurant looks at
49:44
you like you're an asshole because you're
49:45
the one sitting there holding this face
49:47
right there.
49:48
Bro.
49:50
I did that for like six months.
49:59
Oh man.
50:01
My shoulders and forearms were.
50:06
That's why you can't use your left
50:07
shoulder anymore.
50:07
It's gone.
50:08
So now I actually have a stuffer and
50:11
you know, it's,
50:13
I can stuff it and it's fine,
50:14
but I didn't know about the linker.
50:17
You don't know what you don't ask.
50:18
So I'm over there like going fuck.
50:23
Yeah.
50:23
Damn it.
50:25
Charlie's inventing new four letter words,
50:27
man.
50:28
Jeez.
50:28
Telling you is awful.
50:29
Lucky linker.
50:31
It's crazy.
50:31
Yeah.
50:33
Tim, when I'm going to go,
50:36
I was just perusing your menu and you
50:39
are sitting there as you scroll down the
50:42
Texas feast, I think is what it's called.
50:44
Yeah.
50:44
If I'm wrong with that.
50:46
And it lists for like two hundred bucks,
50:48
something like that.
50:50
And it feeds ten to twelve.
50:52
And like my my quick thought there is,
50:54
as you go through everything is my first
50:58
like looking at it,
50:59
you're going to have somebody walk in and
51:00
be like,
51:00
who's spending two hundred ninety nine
51:03
dollars for a feast of food?
51:05
There's always gonna be somebody
51:06
badmouthing me.
51:08
I'm going to look at like,
51:09
wait a minute, twelve people fed.
51:13
That's less than thirty bucks a plate at
51:15
a barbecue joint.
51:16
I think that's awesome.
51:18
How do you balance the person who comes
51:21
in like, oh my goodness,
51:23
what do you mean brisket's forty dollars a
51:24
pound versus the guy that's like me?
51:26
Who's like, that's a deal.
51:28
Do you just drown out the noise?
51:30
Don't let it get to you.
51:31
Or do you realize the value that you're
51:33
really providing?
51:34
Or is it just kind of both and
51:36
let the people come in that really want
51:37
to take?
51:39
Yeah, we've had really, you know.
51:41
Through COVID, after COVID,
51:43
when brisket's crazy,
51:45
we had to just charge where we're making
51:48
a certain cost.
51:49
So whatever that price is,
51:50
right now we're at the very top of
51:55
the market on brisket,
51:57
or at least in DFW we are.
51:59
So we really just had to,
52:01
we've lost a lot of customers from it,
52:03
I'm sure.
52:04
But we had to just drown out the
52:05
noise because at the end of the day,
52:07
I'm not going to lower quality to lower
52:10
my price.
52:12
And I think that's what it comes down
52:13
to.
52:14
You know,
52:15
if you're trying to run a certain cost,
52:16
run a certain, you know, a certain margin,
52:19
it's either lesser quality for lesser
52:21
dollars or stay with the quality and just
52:24
charge more.
52:25
So that's been, that's been our motto.
52:27
Just, you know,
52:28
At all costs,
52:29
we're going to start quality food.
52:32
I heard something the other day that kind
52:33
of struck a nerve with me,
52:35
and it was if somebody thinks that your
52:37
product is too expensive and you're barely
52:40
making money,
52:41
then that's not your customer.
52:43
Ooh.
52:44
Nice.
52:46
One hundred percent.
52:46
I'm talking to not your people.
52:48
Yeah.
52:50
Absolutely.
52:52
We've got a stronger customer base over
52:54
the last few years because of it.
52:57
I know back, you know,
52:59
we used to have a lot of catering.
53:00
We do a lot of catering.
53:01
But we used to do catering where we
53:03
were all about, you know, price.
53:05
People were calling, shopping price.
53:07
We wouldn't put our price on the menu
53:09
or on the website.
53:10
We wanted people to call.
53:12
But we just got to the point where
53:14
we want to basically –
53:17
If you're budget shopping barbecue,
53:19
then we want to let people know straight
53:21
up, this isn't your barbecue.
53:24
There's big teams.
53:24
There's a lot of barbecue out there if
53:27
you're on a budget.
53:29
We're not about that.
53:30
And I know it hurts, especially, you know,
53:32
we've never...
53:34
I've been through a bad recession in oh
53:36
eight and my dad was in a recession
53:38
back, you know,
53:39
earlier in that in the eighties,
53:41
but we'll see what happens over the next
53:43
few years.
53:44
If we hit a hard recession,
53:46
then we might have to correct and figure
53:48
things out then.
53:49
But right now, you know, while there is,
53:52
you know, there's,
53:52
there's money out there,
53:54
people willing to spend the money.
53:56
Yes.
53:56
We're going to try to serve the best
53:58
we can until something changes.
54:00
Serve a great product and charge what you
54:02
got to charge for it.
54:03
Yep.
54:03
Amen.
54:04
You're not going to hurt my feelings from
54:05
it.
54:05
I don't, you know,
54:07
we charge thirty six a pound for brisket.
54:09
And, you know, I can tell you,
54:12
I don't make a lot of money off
54:13
of that thirty six dollars a pound.
54:16
Well, you just don't.
54:17
And especially, you know,
54:18
we have guys up here.
54:20
You know,
54:20
you can't explain this to customers.
54:22
They don't want to hear it.
54:23
But, you know,
54:24
you got guys here all night.
54:26
You have trimmers.
54:27
You know, we have two or three guys.
54:28
We have three guys.
54:29
Their full-time job is literally trimming
54:31
briskets.
54:32
We have four people that all they do
54:35
at this one store is overnight cooks.
54:38
So we have a lot of manpower manning
54:41
these pits all night,
54:42
trimming these briskets.
54:44
And that's just something people don't
54:46
think about.
54:47
Right.
54:50
Here's something that is,
54:52
this will blow your mind.
54:54
How many ricks of wood do you go
54:56
through?
54:57
Well, I guess,
54:57
I don't know if y'all use ricks.
54:58
You probably go by cords.
55:00
We go cords.
55:01
Yeah.
55:02
Cords.
55:02
How many, how many,
55:03
how many cords of wood do you go
55:06
through in a week?
55:08
Both stores.
55:11
Yeah.
55:12
Both store.
55:13
Well,
55:13
it depends on the time of the year,
55:14
but we,
55:15
we average about nine to ten cords a
55:17
week.
55:18
So you understand how much that is.
55:22
I keep a full cord of wood.
55:25
In both bins.
55:26
Right.
55:26
Okay.
55:27
So that's one cord of wood.
55:29
Right.
55:30
That I have in my restaurant.
55:31
And they're running ten times that in a
55:32
week.
55:33
Oh, my goodness.
55:35
And we've discussed the cost of that
55:36
before you and I have.
55:37
Like, oh, my word.
55:39
And people never even associate.
55:40
What they associate is the package I saw
55:43
at the grocery store said fifty four
55:45
dollars.
55:46
And then when you said on my plate,
55:47
you charged me forty dollars for the
55:49
pound.
55:49
And well, that's not right.
55:51
Well, hang on.
55:52
Look how many hands touched it.
55:54
How many knives touched it?
55:55
How much wood was lit?
55:56
And all like we don't take into
55:57
consideration.
55:58
And the fact that somebody's paying the
55:59
mortgage, like there's a reason.
56:00
And I'll tell you a funny story.
56:02
So the guy that supplies me my wood.
56:05
um terry blacks is putting one putting a
56:07
restaurant here in nashville just north of
56:09
nashville and the guy that's supplying my
56:12
wood is in the running for that restaurant
56:15
okay okay and he comes to my restaurant
56:18
to drop my drop my my wood off
56:21
and he's talking to me afterwards and he's
56:23
like hey man um these guys are telling
56:27
me like eight to twelve uh weeks he
56:30
said ricks but
56:31
all right so that's three or four chords
56:34
right every week and and i was like
56:38
that sounds about right yeah maybe that's
56:41
low i believe that that could be low
56:45
and he goes he goes no yeah
56:53
I went, Yeah,
56:53
you may find a faster growing tree.
56:56
The one thing I will say is,
56:58
is and was it scares me for blacks
57:02
is barbecue in Texas is is not barbecue
57:08
in Tennessee.
57:10
It's it's a different world.
57:11
It's just, you know,
57:13
they're the people in Tennessee don't.
57:17
Barbecue is not a weekly meal in
57:19
Tennessee.
57:20
Right.
57:21
We're not a daily meal in Tennessee.
57:23
It's not a religion probably in Tennessee.
57:26
Yeah, here it's like, you know,
57:28
and everybody that comes to Texas,
57:31
I think, you know,
57:34
we even depend on a lot of tourism.
57:36
So even up in North Dallas, so everybody,
57:39
you know,
57:39
if their family's coming to Texas,
57:42
they want their family to take them to
57:44
the best, you know,
57:44
the best barbecue joint.
57:46
So tourism's a big player here.
57:48
And barbecue.
57:49
And I'm sure that's what Terry Blacks is
57:51
going to be capitalizing on is the tourism
57:54
of Nashville.
57:56
Where they're located,
57:57
they'll be able to capitalize on it too.
57:58
They'll do well.
58:00
That's a big part of their,
58:01
I think so.
58:03
I know my brother knows one of them
58:05
pretty well.
58:05
And they're really nice people.
58:07
Good people.
58:08
They've grown quite a business.
58:09
So, yeah,
58:10
I wish them the best up there.
58:12
We have, we have,
58:13
we have contacts out for him to come
58:15
on the show as well.
58:16
So I'm looking forward to it,
58:18
but you got a Friday feel good for
58:20
us.
58:21
I do.
58:22
Uh, Gary Vee always,
58:24
everybody knows him as Gary Vee, right?
58:26
Uh,
58:27
Gary Vee has a wonderful quote that ego
58:31
is just insecurity in makeup.
58:34
Don't let your ego drive your decisions.
58:38
Make a decision on good quality
58:39
information and move on.
58:42
Y'all know what to do.
58:42
Find somebody you know.
58:43
Tell them you love them.
58:46
Love them.
58:47
Tim,
58:48
if people want to get a hold of
58:49
you, they're trying to get catering,
58:50
they want to come to the restaurant,
58:52
what are the hours of operation,
58:54
the locations, all the things?
58:56
Where can we get Hutchins Barbecue?
58:57
Hutchins Barbecue, McKinney, it's...
59:00
Thirteen oh one North Tennessee Street,
59:02
McKinney, Texas.
59:03
Then we got Frisco,
59:04
Texas is nine ninety two twenty five
59:07
Preston Preston Road.
59:09
And our website's Hutchins BBQ dot com.
59:12
And they can find the catering number and
59:14
all that right there on the website.
59:16
So that's HutchinsBBQ.com.
59:19
We also do nationwide shipping on Gold
59:21
Belly.
59:23
Okay.
59:23
That does pretty well.
59:24
That's pretty well for us.
59:25
You like Gold Belly?
59:26
Is it working pretty good for you?
59:28
Yeah, you know, we've been doing it.
59:29
We've been doing the shipping for ten
59:31
years.
59:31
Or not ten years.
59:33
Six years, the Go Bell is good.
59:34
Yeah, it does really well for us.
59:36
No doubt.
59:37
I've been thinking about it.
59:38
I love that.
59:38
That's awesome.
59:39
Absolutely.
59:40
Dive into it a little bit more, maybe.
59:41
There you go.
59:42
Good deal.
59:43
Look, I appreciate you joining us, Tim.
59:45
Thank you very much.
59:47
Guys, you know what to do.
59:48
If you want to get involved with the
59:49
show,
59:49
please reach out to me at charlie at
59:51
singletreebbq.com.
59:53
You can call me at six one five
59:54
three zero seven zero one two zero.
59:56
Please make sure that you like share and
59:58
subscribe to the YouTube channel.
1:00:00
We air every Saturday on ESPN,
1:00:03
ninety four point nine.
1:00:04
The fan from eight until nine a.m.
1:00:07
And until next time, guys,
1:00:08
we'll see you then.
1:00:09
Y'all be good.