Latest / Single Tree Nation Show / HoneyFire BBQ Origins | Ben Claybaker on Building a Nashville BBQ Favorite

Transcript

HoneyFire BBQ Origins | Ben Claybaker on Building a Nashville BBQ Favorite · Single Tree Nation Show

• 0:01
  Welcome back to Singletree Nation, guys.
• 0:03
  I'm your man, Charlie Eblen.
• 0:04
  And as always,
• 0:05
  we have our illustrious co-host, Mr.
• 0:07
  Derry Wells,
• 0:08
  who's being a smart butt today.
• 0:10
  What's up, everybody?
• 0:11
  I'm glad you're letting me remain in the
• 0:13
  room.
• 0:17
  Count to sixteen and divide by two, right?
• 0:19
  Looking for sixteen.
• 0:20
  Good Lord.
• 0:23
  guys our show is brought to you by
• 0:25
  toast our primary technology partner here
• 0:28
  on the show and in our restaurants um
• 0:32
  we have a uh an amazing guest today
• 0:34
  i'm super excited to have him ben from
• 0:39
  honey fire barbecue welcome my friend
• 0:43
  thank you for having me love it
• 0:44
  We are excited to talk all things Honey
• 0:48
  Fire, barbecue, life in general,
• 0:51
  and anything else you really want to talk
• 0:52
  about in the next fifty nine minutes.
• 0:55
  So look, our show, like I said,
• 0:59
  we're pretty laid back.
• 1:00
  We we want to kind of tell the
• 1:02
  story.
• 1:03
  Right.
• 1:03
  So I'll give you a few few minutes
• 1:06
  here to just kind of tell everybody who
• 1:08
  you are, what you do,
• 1:09
  how we got to.
• 1:10
  to where we now own two honey fires
• 1:13
  coming up on a third in the near
• 1:16
  future and beyond.
• 1:19
  Love it.
• 1:19
  Yeah.
• 1:20
  It's cool that you're sponsored by Toast.
• 1:22
  We use Toast.
• 1:24
  We're bought in.
• 1:26
  We actually use them for almost
• 1:27
  everything.
• 1:28
  Payroll, marketing, back end office,
• 1:32
  and obviously POS.
• 1:34
  We had a call this morning about the
• 1:38
  outage we just had.
• 1:40
  That was an exciting one.
• 1:42
  That was interesting.
• 1:43
  I'm glad you brought that up.
• 1:44
  Did that affect y'all's ability to do card
• 1:47
  sales and that kind of stuff?
• 1:48
  Mostly online.
• 1:49
  OK.
• 1:50
  Yeah.
• 1:50
  The cool thing about Toast is they have
• 1:53
  a offline mode.
• 1:54
  So when you lose service through Wi-Fi,
• 1:58
  you can flip over to the offline mode
• 2:01
  and you can still accept credit card
• 2:02
  payments.
• 2:03
  The problem with the outage yesterday was
• 2:05
  it affected a lot more than just that.
• 2:07
  Sure.
• 2:09
  It affected no fault of Toast by any
• 2:12
  means.
• 2:13
  The amazing part about Toast was that
• 2:16
  outage happened.
• 2:18
  We immediately I'm on the customer
• 2:19
  advisory board and we immediately got an
• 2:21
  invite for this morning to discuss what
• 2:24
  happened,
• 2:25
  what steps they were taking and what steps
• 2:28
  that we thought as customers that they
• 2:30
  could do to prevent that in the future.
• 2:34
  But it wasn't a toast thing, was it?
• 2:36
  It was like an internet thing, right?
• 2:37
  It was more of a server.
• 2:38
  Yeah, it was the AWS server,
• 2:42
  the Amazon something server went down,
• 2:46
  which a lot of the third-party apps like
• 2:50
  DoorDash, Uber Eats, Postmates,
• 2:52
  all those things, Grubhub, they use.
• 2:54
  So it wouldn't speak to Toast POS and
• 2:59
  probably many other POS companies as well,
• 3:01
  not just Toast.
• 3:03
  Toast just did an amazing job of...
• 3:06
  Navigating the issues.
• 3:07
  Navigating, facilitating,
• 3:09
  and asking for feedback that they didn't
• 3:13
  have to ask for.
• 3:14
  Right.
• 3:14
  So, you know, I'm a huge fan.
• 3:16
  They did a phenomenal job.
• 3:17
  And honestly,
• 3:18
  they're so good at communicating,
• 3:20
  letting you know, hey, we got to...
• 3:22
  I mean,
• 3:22
  I usually don't even know we have an
• 3:23
  issue.
• 3:24
  I get the alert first.
• 3:25
  Yep.
• 3:26
  And then we're like, okay, yep,
• 3:27
  we do have that issue.
• 3:30
  We get notified that there's an issue and
• 3:33
  then go, oh, well,
• 3:33
  let's see if we can fix it.
• 3:34
  But that's actually really good.
• 3:35
  Like if you're still operating well enough
• 3:37
  that you don't realize there's an issue
• 3:39
  until you're told of it.
• 3:40
  I mean,
• 3:41
  that speaks to them and how they're
• 3:43
  communicating and operating.
• 3:45
  So well done on them.
• 3:46
  They do a really good job.
• 3:47
  They do a really good job.
• 3:48
  So support is amazing.
• 3:49
  So I'm glad to be using them.
• 3:51
  Glad to have them as partners.
• 3:52
  Yeah.
• 3:53
  well a little summary of me uh ben
• 3:56
  clay baker uh born in texas uh raised
• 3:59
  mostly in arkansas um i uh my first
• 4:03
  job at fourteen actually is my second job
• 4:05
  my first one i think i painted a
• 4:07
  couple of of houses and churches for a
• 4:10
  guy um and then my first real paycheck
• 4:13
  job
• 4:14
  I was at fourteen at Backyard Barbecue in
• 4:17
  Magnolia, Arkansas.
• 4:21
  I was a low man on the totem
• 4:22
  pole.
• 4:24
  Got to clean the pits while the college
• 4:27
  girls got to run up in the front
• 4:29
  and take orders.
• 4:30
  I was the one getting to clean the
• 4:33
  pits.
• 4:33
  We were talking earlier.
• 4:35
  avid the owner the husband was an avid
• 4:38
  duck hunter and so duck season i would
• 4:40
  have to he'd bring the ducks and i'd
• 4:42
  have to do all the cleaning so i
• 4:43
  got to learn how to clean ducks and
• 4:45
  do some barbecue did you at least get
• 4:48
  to enjoy the fruit of the labor no
• 4:51
  i didn't oh come on jeez but i
• 4:53
  can do it blindfolded now yeah sure i
• 4:55
  bet you can i bet you can i
• 4:58
  think there's something to be said for
• 4:59
  for anybody to go through that,
• 5:01
  that issue.
• 5:02
  So I told you pre-show we killed, uh,
• 5:04
  me and my son both killed our first
• 5:05
  year last December.
• 5:06
  Oh yeah.
• 5:07
  And I know a processor and I was
• 5:10
  like, I'm not taking it to him.
• 5:11
  Like I want to go through the full
• 5:13
  experience.
• 5:13
  Right.
• 5:15
  and i was telling him about it and
• 5:16
  i cleaned my deer i butchered it did
• 5:18
  the whole nine yards hung it in my
• 5:20
  mom's garage yeah it was great on your
• 5:22
  first one on the first one and i
• 5:24
  will never ever do it again i will
• 5:27
  pay that hundred fifty dollars every
• 5:29
  single time but i think it was like
• 5:30
  to know what it meant what went into
• 5:32
  it and same thing like i mean now
• 5:34
  you said you can clean them you know
• 5:35
  in your sleeve it just is there's an
• 5:37
  appreciation for the art and for what goes
• 5:40
  into that and
• 5:41
  the provision of food and what nature does
• 5:44
  um it's an impressive element i think i
• 5:45
  follow a couple people on facebook the uh
• 5:48
  some pages on on processing but i think
• 5:51
  i think it's just a bigger idea that
• 5:53
  i probably won't get into you know i
• 5:55
  think i'm gonna trust the processors and
• 5:57
  just pay the money and yeah and be
• 5:58
  happy i killed one that year
• 6:00
  That's it.
• 6:00
  That's where I'm a hundred percent at now.
• 6:01
  I've got my one out of the way.
• 6:02
  I did all I wanted to do with
• 6:03
  it.
• 6:04
  And so now I will pay the processor
• 6:06
  and just pick it up.
• 6:07
  Pre-packaged and frozen.
• 6:08
  And I use a guy here in town
• 6:10
  in Murfreesboro.
• 6:10
  Oh, okay.
• 6:11
  Yeah.
• 6:11
  Odom.
• 6:12
  Okay.
• 6:12
  Okay.
• 6:12
  Yeah.
• 6:13
  Yes.
• 6:13
  Yeah.
• 6:14
  Y'all know him.
• 6:15
  Great guy.
• 6:15
  Yeah.
• 6:16
  We actually shoot archery.
• 6:18
  Okay.
• 6:18
  Okay.
• 6:19
  Uh, yeah.
• 6:20
  So grew up in, in, uh,
• 6:21
  in Arkansas and went to college in central
• 6:24
  Arkansas at UCA.
• 6:25
  Uh, and then.
• 6:28
  Waited tables, did catering,
• 6:31
  did all the way through high school and
• 6:33
  college and even after a little bit.
• 6:36
  Just loved the hospitality.
• 6:38
  Loved meeting new people every day at the
• 6:41
  tables you served and just fell in love
• 6:44
  with the restaurant industry at that
• 6:46
  point.
• 6:47
  Went to school, got my finance degree,
• 6:49
  and then actually ended up working for a
• 6:52
  congressman.
• 6:53
  So got into politics a little bit.
• 6:56
  Went to D.C.
• 6:57
  right out of college and worked for him
• 7:00
  for a few years.
• 7:01
  And then from there, I went to Austin,
• 7:04
  Texas,
• 7:06
  worked for Lieutenant Governor down there.
• 7:09
  and then was there for about three years
• 7:12
  and then ended up going back to DC,
• 7:14
  worked for George W.
• 7:18
  Bush on his reelection.
• 7:22
  So I went there in oh four and
• 7:23
  then met my wife on the campaign.
• 7:30
  I think our first date was actually the
• 7:32
  inaugural ball.
• 7:34
  Oh, wow.
• 7:35
  That's a story.
• 7:36
  Well, I mean, it is, but you know,
• 7:37
  if that's your first date,
• 7:38
  where do you go for your second?
• 7:40
  Right.
• 7:40
  That's true too.
• 7:41
  There's a big downfall there.
• 7:42
  That was great.
• 7:45
  Now what are we going to do now?
• 7:47
  Walk by the pond.
• 7:49
  So what, what, what was date two?
• 7:51
  Gosh, that's a good question.
• 7:52
  I should know that, but I don't.
• 7:54
  Ruby Tuesdays?
• 7:55
  Yeah, right.
• 7:55
  Actually,
• 7:57
  I think we went bowling maybe a couple
• 8:00
  weeks before that, and she lost the bet.
• 8:02
  And it was whoever lost had to cook
• 8:03
  dinner.
• 8:04
  So she had to cook dinner.
• 8:05
  There you go.
• 8:06
  I think that was the second date.
• 8:07
  Well played, sir.
• 8:08
  It was.
• 8:08
  Well played.
• 8:09
  And I was not going to let her
• 8:10
  win.
• 8:13
  no way i don't blame you no i
• 8:14
  can't even today i don't let my kids
• 8:15
  win no i was always that guy and
• 8:17
  my son like he's getting of age where
• 8:20
  like he could start holding his own with
• 8:21
  me and i'm like man or i'm declining
• 8:24
  i don't know which it's all at the
• 8:25
  same time but those those high school
• 8:28
  years so a few weeks ago we went
• 8:31
  to panama city for vacation oh yeah
• 8:36
  my wife and kids have they go play
• 8:39
  putt-putt all the time and and it's kind
• 8:42
  of their thing and they love doing it
• 8:44
  the whole nine yards and i've played golf
• 8:49
  a little bit in my lifetime once or
• 8:55
  twice was he really good yeah okay he
• 8:57
  went to college playing golf
• 9:00
  We,
• 9:02
  we get to Panama city and one of
• 9:03
  my children says, Hey,
• 9:05
  let's go play putt putt.
• 9:07
  And my wife being my wife says, Oh,
• 9:10
  great idea.
• 9:10
  Let's go do that.
• 9:12
  So we find a place again.
• 9:16
  I don't go,
• 9:17
  I've only gone maybe once or twice.
• 9:20
  And it's typically while we're on
• 9:21
  vacation.
• 9:23
  We go play.
• 9:25
  We get done.
• 9:27
  And my middle child literally shot twice
• 9:33
  what I did.
• 9:37
  and i told him i said you didn't
• 9:39
  think i was gonna let you win he
• 9:40
  was like no but you could have at
• 9:42
  least made it closer nope sorry sorry it's
• 9:47
  not gonna happen that's not how this works
• 9:49
  honestly it makes it more it's more sweet
• 9:52
  for them when they actually do
• 9:54
  when he gets to the point that he
• 9:55
  can win then great and it'll be it'll
• 9:57
  be amazing but no not today i have
• 10:01
  to celebrate it real big yeah well that
• 10:04
  so in dc uh end up getting married
• 10:06
  um i actually got married in nashville but
• 10:08
  we still lived in dc her parents lived
• 10:10
  in franklin okay uh we lived there for
• 10:13
  about two years and started talking my
• 10:15
  kids and i was like you know i
• 10:16
  don't really want to raise kids in the
• 10:18
  concrete jungle and um i want to get
• 10:21
  back back to the south
• 10:23
  And her parents lived in Franklin.
• 10:26
  Mine are still in Arkansas.
• 10:27
  And we just kind of prayed about it.
• 10:30
  And we were like,
• 10:32
  where should we raise our family?
• 10:34
  And Nashville just seemed perfect.
• 10:38
  We just had a peace about it.
• 10:39
  So we actually moved to Nashville in –
• 10:44
  um and then I started I got out
• 10:48
  of politics uh all together kind of I'm
• 10:50
  still doing a detox you know twenty years
• 10:52
  later it's hard to walk away from
• 10:56
  sometimes I can imagine so um
• 11:00
  Yeah, I started working in real estate.
• 11:02
  So that was a passion of mine in
• 11:06
  college, always had an interest in it.
• 11:08
  So I started doing real estate,
• 11:10
  commercial real estate.
• 11:11
  In
• 11:17
  Well, well,
• 11:17
  two thousand eight actually bought my
• 11:19
  first commercial property.
• 11:21
  Two thousand ten started a company with a
• 11:24
  with a friend of mine.
• 11:25
  And then two thousand sixteen,
• 11:27
  I sold my interest to him and still
• 11:29
  work there.
• 11:30
  And so I just just just a broker.
• 11:34
  So I got.
• 11:35
  out of the, you know, management.
• 11:37
  Um, and it was the best,
• 11:39
  best decision in my life.
• 11:40
  It was, it was just, it was great.
• 11:42
  Um, I consider myself kind of an, uh,
• 11:45
  serial entrepreneur.
• 11:46
  I, um, we've owned a, um,
• 11:49
  executive office suite where, you know,
• 11:51
  you rent offices, um,
• 11:54
  and we had memberships and all that on
• 11:56
  that for, for a while,
• 11:57
  started and sold it actually bought into a
• 12:01
  car lot.
• 12:02
  Don't do that ever.
• 12:03
  Yeah.
• 12:05
  on that for two years uh lost money
• 12:12
  for a year year and a half and
• 12:13
  finally started breaking even i remember
• 12:15
  about third month of breaking even i
• 12:17
  turned my wife and i was like i'm
• 12:19
  gonna close this thing she goes thank god
• 12:24
  So we closed it.
• 12:25
  It's just so stressful.
• 12:26
  And I love cars.
• 12:27
  I mean, I love cars.
• 12:29
  And I just told her, I was like,
• 12:30
  man,
• 12:31
  let me just go make money and buy
• 12:32
  my own car.
• 12:34
  Not worry about selling them anymore.
• 12:35
  That's exactly right.
• 12:38
  In fact,
• 12:38
  I think this show probably saved me about
• 12:40
  ten grand because on the way here,
• 12:42
  I had to pass through Smyrna,
• 12:44
  and there was a car for sale.
• 12:45
  And I'm in the market for like a
• 12:48
  C-Ten, old pickup Chevy truck.
• 12:50
  Oh, yes.
• 12:50
  And I'll be looking.
• 12:52
  Seventy-two, short bed, three-fifty.
• 12:54
  Oh, yeah.
• 12:54
  I know what I want.
• 12:55
  I might do the little LS swap.
• 12:58
  Oh, I'm fine with that.
• 12:59
  That's a hundred percent fine.
• 13:00
  I just want to be black.
• 13:01
  Silver Mickey Thompson wheels.
• 13:02
  I know exactly.
• 13:03
  You know what you want.
• 13:05
  I love it.
• 13:05
  Say less.
• 13:06
  I'm all over it, but I'm literally,
• 13:08
  I was like, I'm going to stop.
• 13:09
  Like, no, I don't have time.
• 13:11
  So you saved me some money today.
• 13:13
  My wife appreciates it.
• 13:14
  I'm sure.
• 13:14
  She doesn't even know it yet.
• 13:16
  She's already excited about it.
• 13:17
  You know, I'll, I'll,
• 13:18
  I'll send you a text on where to
• 13:19
  send a Christmas gift.
• 13:20
  That's outstanding.
• 13:24
  Yeah.
• 13:24
  So I got it,
• 13:25
  got into that and then started, um,
• 13:28
  started honey fire with a friend of mine
• 13:30
  in in uh two thousand eighteen um two
• 13:35
  thousand nineteen is our first full year
• 13:37
  it was it was awesome just i mean
• 13:38
  two thousand nineteen i think i think
• 13:41
  anybody probably could have started a
• 13:42
  restaurant it was just so good the labor
• 13:45
  was low inventory was was low and demand
• 13:49
  was high and it was it was fantastic
• 13:51
  it was a good run the cost of
• 13:53
  chicken was reasonable
• 13:55
  Yeah, brisket was actually,
• 13:57
  we'll talk about it later.
• 14:02
  And then, yeah, so we got through COVID,
• 14:06
  got through a few other things.
• 14:10
  Labor started going up,
• 14:11
  so I'm getting crazy.
• 14:12
  And my partner, you know,
• 14:16
  he wanted to do his thing.
• 14:18
  And I definitely had had dreams.
• 14:21
  I'm a growth guy.
• 14:22
  Love just building things.
• 14:25
  Yeah.
• 14:26
  And so, matter of fact, during COVID,
• 14:28
  I kind of went to him.
• 14:30
  It's like, man, we need to expand.
• 14:31
  We need to like everyone else is kind
• 14:33
  of shrinking.
• 14:34
  We need to go kind of bullish on
• 14:36
  this thing.
• 14:37
  um i think i scared him a little
• 14:39
  bit but i i that's just how i
• 14:41
  think is like you if we could have
• 14:43
  opened up one or two during during that
• 14:45
  little weird time yeah and everyone else
• 14:47
  when things were pennies on the dollar
• 14:49
  yeah yeah sign some longer leases and yeah
• 14:52
  um
• 14:53
  But, you know, I didn't.
• 14:55
  We didn't do it.
• 14:55
  We kind of went our own directions.
• 14:58
  My wife and I run it,
• 15:00
  have been running it since, you know,
• 15:01
  twenty one.
• 15:02
  And it's been it's been great.
• 15:07
  Twenty three, we opened our second.
• 15:10
  And then a couple of months ago,
• 15:11
  we signed our lease for our third.
• 15:13
  And we're already looking at a couple
• 15:15
  other spaces for maybe four and five.
• 15:19
  I just love growing things.
• 15:20
  I love building teams.
• 15:22
  I mean, my heart is really...
• 15:24
  always tell people all the time like i'm
• 15:26
  not really in the barbecue uh industry i'm
• 15:28
  in the people industry and yeah and um
• 15:30
  that's where my heart is mentorship um uh
• 15:34
  you know just getting to build things i
• 15:36
  we joke all the time about how um
• 15:38
  we're we're building the plane as we're
• 15:41
  flying it um and we did and that's
• 15:44
  well said i mean that is well said
• 15:47
  every restaurant tour needs to have that
• 15:50
  over their office door like don't forget
• 15:52
  the truth you just don't want to put
• 15:54
  the wing on while you're sure the other
• 15:56
  stuff there's some nuts and bolts you know
• 15:58
  you put the wheels on so you can
• 16:00
  land eventually all right yes yes yeah
• 16:03
  it's been it's been fun um man i've
• 16:07
  gosh i've learned a lot i mean it's
• 16:10
  no amount of college or master's you know
• 16:13
  level stuff i mean that stuff doesn't even
• 16:15
  i i
• 16:17
  If you get, look,
• 16:17
  you got a lot of experience in multiple
• 16:19
  different avenues, right?
• 16:20
  So if you could go back through and,
• 16:24
  and,
• 16:24
  and give our audience one piece of advice
• 16:27
  that you would say is the best piece
• 16:29
  of advice that you've either received or
• 16:32
  learned to date,
• 16:35
  going back through opening all the
• 16:37
  businesses you've had and growing,
• 16:39
  you know, being bullish on,
• 16:41
  on what you have.
• 16:42
  You obviously have a great product, right?
• 16:43
  You got a great, got a great concept.
• 16:45
  People love it.
• 16:48
  that you voted best barbecue two years in
• 16:52
  a row now?
• 16:53
  Or was it just this past year?
• 16:55
  On the Nashville scene,
• 16:57
  so it's been four years.
• 16:58
  We've been top three.
• 16:59
  And then this year we bumped up to
• 17:01
  two.
• 17:01
  Nice.
• 17:02
  Yeah, Edley's has that spot locked down.
• 17:03
  Yeah, they do a good job.
• 17:05
  They do.
• 17:05
  They do a good job.
• 17:06
  My wife could not tell you another
• 17:08
  barbecue restaurant in Nashville probably,
• 17:12
  but she knows of Edley's because we went
• 17:13
  to the one in Chattanooga and she liked
• 17:15
  their nachos.
• 17:16
  That was the only,
• 17:17
  but what she doesn't know is I've been
• 17:19
  on your Instagram page and I'm going to
• 17:20
  take her to go get your nachos.
• 17:21
  So she doesn't like the cheese on yours.
• 17:23
  I'm sorry.
• 17:24
  So nobody likes the cheese on mine.
• 17:26
  It's a,
• 17:27
  it's something we're probably going to
• 17:30
  change pretty soon.
• 17:31
  So thanks for pointing it out.
• 17:32
  I'll just tell you what my wife didn't
• 17:33
  care for.
• 17:35
  At least your wife likes barbecue.
• 17:38
  Mine doesn't like the smoky flavor.
• 17:39
  my wife did not eat a whole lot
• 17:42
  of protein when we met and i was
• 17:44
  like oh you're going to get used to
• 17:45
  that because that's what i do that's right
• 17:47
  and i i mean just and i didn't
• 17:49
  i don't obviously force feed or anything
• 17:51
  but like hey try at least everything once
• 17:53
  um she likes the meaty part of ribs
• 17:55
  none of the fat oh yeah uh you
• 17:57
  know so we don't do a lot of
• 17:58
  spare ribs with her uh just that top
• 17:59
  piece of the baby backs she loves so
• 18:02
  you're gonna do the pastrami baby backs
• 18:04
  uh i actually i'm definitely gonna do that
• 18:06
  a hundred percent you've done that so we
• 18:08
  just did a uh a show with deuce
• 18:11
  raymond okay um from sweet baby rays
• 18:13
  deuces wild and all the things that he
• 18:15
  has um and he just did a pastrami
• 18:19
  baby back rib
• 18:22
  And it blew my mind.
• 18:24
  I love pastrami.
• 18:27
  I love brining the process and the whole
• 18:29
  thing.
• 18:30
  It's amazing.
• 18:32
  But to think about it being on a
• 18:37
  rib, on a pork rib.
• 18:38
  Was it spare?
• 18:40
  No, it was a baby back,
• 18:41
  which just kind of threw me off to
• 18:43
  another left field.
• 18:44
  So, um, but he, he,
• 18:47
  he talked about it and gave us some
• 18:48
  advice and,
• 18:50
  and we're going to have to do something
• 18:51
  with it.
• 18:52
  So, I mean,
• 18:53
  when you did a limit time offer, I'm,
• 18:54
  I'm, I'm there.
• 18:55
  I'll let you know.
• 18:57
  Look,
• 18:58
  let's take a quick break before we go
• 18:59
  and switch gears here.
• 19:01
  Get a word from our sponsor and we'll
• 19:02
  be right back.
• 19:05
  We had another minute.
• 19:07
  and no we didn't you're at nineteen friend
• 19:10
  because we started at five that's right i
• 19:13
  told you sixteen was gonna be hard for
• 19:14
  you count to sixteen this thing add four
• 19:17
  that's a weird thing look at that you
• 19:19
  have to talk like oh you can edit
• 19:23
  all this out right this is all part
• 19:24
  of the break welcome back guys i'm going
• 19:28
  to bring us in
• 19:32
  uh before we were talking about pastrami
• 19:33
  and ribs and during our break we did
• 19:36
  a little bit of math uh figured it
• 19:38
  out but uh for me the pastrami wrist
• 19:41
  part it sounds weird like the flavor combo
• 19:44
  like i don't know i can't wait to
• 19:46
  try it let me preface that it's just
• 19:48
  like my mind goes in two different spots
• 19:50
  are you gonna do it or am i
• 19:51
  doing it
• 19:53
  one of us i've got i mean the
• 19:55
  next thing i'm brining it i've got a
• 19:57
  whole chicken that i'm needing to play
• 19:59
  around with yeah it crossed my mind like
• 20:03
  how weird can it get so anyway so
• 20:06
  one of the things i ask people that
• 20:08
  are fellow barbecue folks
• 20:12
  is uh we've smoked some pretty crazy
• 20:16
  things um if you ever get a hankering
• 20:20
  for smoked kiwi uh don't we've done a
• 20:24
  watermelon really i wanted to do a
• 20:27
  watermelon i mean it's gimmicky gotcha um
• 20:31
  we've done you know pineapples delicious
• 20:35
  um peaches yeah it'd be good i have
• 20:37
  i've seen it done it looks fantastic yeah
• 20:42
  i'm still trying to figure out what i'm
• 20:43
  doing with those peaches you got jarred
• 20:45
  peaches don't the pineapple though it's
• 20:47
  not pea season you put your rub on
• 20:49
  the pineapple i'm telling you it's amazing
• 20:51
  it's really really good yeah um we've done
• 20:54
  ice cream um ice cream is really good
• 20:57
  uh there's different you can graham
• 20:59
  cracker and chocolate and caramel tastes
• 21:01
  like a s'more it's really really good um
• 21:04
  are you refreezing it like i don't even
• 21:07
  Yeah,
• 21:08
  so in the last show I was telling
• 21:10
  them, you have to take the ice cream,
• 21:12
  get it really, really cold, beyond frozen.
• 21:16
  Then you have to put it in an
• 21:17
  ice bath, like a one-inch hotel pan,
• 21:20
  put that in an ice bath, freeze that,
• 21:23
  then take that.
• 21:25
  It's a labor of love.
• 21:26
  It's a process.
• 21:27
  But then you take that and you put
• 21:29
  that on the smoker at like a hundred
• 21:30
  degrees.
• 21:30
  Okay.
• 21:31
  But you're only going to smoke it for
• 21:32
  like six minutes because the ice cream,
• 21:35
  the cream in the ice cream just sucks
• 21:38
  up the smoke.
• 21:39
  So you take that,
• 21:40
  wrap it up in cellophane,
• 21:41
  put it back in the freezer to freeze
• 21:43
  it.
• 21:43
  And then, you know, once it's frozen,
• 21:45
  it's ready to serve.
• 21:46
  So,
• 21:47
  I put I put graham crackers and chocolate
• 21:49
  sauce on it and it literally tastes like
• 21:51
  a s'more.
• 21:52
  So but we're in the process of I'm
• 21:55
  working on another dessert.
• 21:58
  I woke up,
• 21:59
  I had a dream and it was thinking
• 22:03
  about how I,
• 22:04
  what I could do with bananas.
• 22:06
  And I saw somebody deep fry bananas and
• 22:09
  I thought, okay, well,
• 22:09
  if I put bananas and beef fat in
• 22:11
  a skillet and, you know,
• 22:13
  pan fry them and beef tallow, okay,
• 22:16
  what can I do with that?
• 22:17
  And then I thought,
• 22:18
  then I thought bananas foster.
• 22:20
  So let me throw some,
• 22:21
  I got a smoked bourbon.
• 22:22
  So let me throw that smoked bourbon in
• 22:24
  there, see what that does.
• 22:25
  And we put a little brown sugar in
• 22:26
  there.
• 22:27
  And that was great.
• 22:28
  And I put it with ice cream,
• 22:29
  but then it just kind of turns into
• 22:31
  a like a weird milkshake really fast.
• 22:35
  It's not not delicious.
• 22:37
  So they started with like a not so
• 22:41
  ripe banana.
• 22:42
  It has to it has to be a
• 22:43
  really fresh banana.
• 22:44
  It can't be, you know,
• 22:46
  it can't be ripe at all.
• 22:47
  And then it needed some sort of bread
• 22:53
  or crunch or something to go along with
• 22:54
  it.
• 22:55
  So then I did a whole cake.
• 22:58
  a really well-cooked hoe cake and and that
• 23:01
  kind of i'm still in process we're getting
• 23:04
  there i want an over-the-top redneck
• 23:06
  banana pudding is kind of what i'm looking
• 23:08
  for man the um a bread pudding it
• 23:14
  man we did uh we just got done
• 23:17
  with um bacon and barrel
• 23:19
  Yep.
• 23:19
  Yep.
• 23:19
  I won it three years in a row.
• 23:22
  Nice.
• 23:22
  Our team is fantastic.
• 23:24
  Um, but was it Ruby sunshine?
• 23:27
  Is that the breakfast place over in
• 23:28
  Franklin?
• 23:30
  uh i think i know yeah i think
• 23:31
  it's nationwide uh or at least regional um
• 23:34
  they had a bread pudding and we always
• 23:36
  go to the different stations and try their
• 23:38
  stuff out and i came back to our
• 23:40
  little booth i said oh i don't know
• 23:43
  man that's that's really good yeah they
• 23:45
  end up getting second um and it was
• 23:47
  it was delicious but man what'd y'all do
• 23:51
  uh we did fried ribs
• 23:52
  A fried rib.
• 23:53
  Fried rib.
• 23:54
  We did it chicken.
• 23:54
  I mean, it's just chicken fried,
• 23:56
  double battered.
• 23:57
  We worked on it for about a month.
• 24:00
  We ended up doing,
• 24:03
  we did a red sauce,
• 24:04
  our normal original barbecue sauce,
• 24:07
  and then we did an Alabama white.
• 24:11
  Baby back ribs?
• 24:11
  Yeah,
• 24:12
  that's all we do is a baby back.
• 24:15
  When you do a deep fried rib like
• 24:17
  that,
• 24:18
  Are you cooking the rib all the way
• 24:20
  through and cooling it down, or is it?
• 24:24
  Cold ribs.
• 24:25
  So we already cooked it.
• 24:27
  We cut them up,
• 24:28
  and then we do it just like a
• 24:30
  chicken fry steak.
• 24:31
  Gotcha, gotcha.
• 24:34
  I've had some deep-fried ribs at a couple
• 24:37
  of different places,
• 24:38
  and I wasn't a huge fan because they
• 24:40
  were really, really dry.
• 24:42
  Oh, yeah.
• 24:44
  It's almost like they overcooked the rib.
• 24:48
  Yeah.
• 24:49
  or they may have cooked them and just
• 24:50
  not cooled them down.
• 24:52
  Yeah.
• 24:53
  So they just kept cooking.
• 24:54
  We played around with it a long time
• 24:57
  trying to figure this thing out because
• 24:59
  you have to serve like five hundred
• 25:00
  servings.
• 25:01
  Oh, wow.
• 25:03
  And so in the restaurant,
• 25:05
  we do fried ribs.
• 25:07
  And it's really when we have leftover
• 25:10
  ribs,
• 25:11
  we will do the fried rib as a
• 25:13
  limited time offer.
• 25:14
  It usually just lasts through lunch and
• 25:15
  then they're sold out.
• 25:17
  Yeah.
• 25:17
  um i'm i'm going to interrupt yep i
• 25:20
  jumped on your instagram to find a picture
• 25:22
  of your fried ribs holy cow like i
• 25:27
  cannot wait pretty tasty looking i mean it
• 25:31
  just like it just it looks probably a
• 25:34
  little distance from here but like that
• 25:36
  just my word so the
• 25:39
  the year before we won bacon and barrel
• 25:43
  and we did it with we called them
• 25:46
  pig wings but it really is just a
• 25:48
  shank of of the pig yep and that
• 25:51
  was that that was a little harder because
• 25:54
  i don't think it's really as good as
• 25:56
  rib meat but it tastes like rib meat
• 25:58
  okay and so we we did um basically
• 26:00
  just smoked pig wings and had a logo
• 26:03
  for it and everything it was it was
• 26:04
  cool i mean it won i think it
• 26:07
  really got people's attention because it
• 26:08
  was different
• 26:10
  Um, well that,
• 26:11
  that fried rib would be different.
• 26:12
  Like if I walked in somewhere and saw
• 26:14
  that, I'd be like, that's, I mean,
• 26:15
  I want to get a try.
• 26:16
  Yeah.
• 26:17
  So look,
• 26:17
  that's why the first time I first
• 26:19
  restaurant I ever went to the Haddam,
• 26:20
  that's why I got them.
• 26:21
  Okay.
• 26:21
  Like a deep fried rib.
• 26:22
  Right.
• 26:23
  Right.
• 26:23
  I got to try that.
• 26:24
  So I think,
• 26:26
  The dryness,
• 26:27
  what I found is if you fry them
• 26:28
  and then you try to hold them in
• 26:29
  a hot box, it'll dry them out.
• 26:32
  But we had our food truck at the
• 26:34
  competition and we were literally just
• 26:36
  dropping them and bringing them in.
• 26:38
  And as soon as we put them on
• 26:39
  the table, they were gone.
• 26:40
  So I think that when you fry them,
• 26:42
  it rehydrates that.
• 26:44
  It shouldn't be dry unless they were
• 26:46
  overcooked in the beginning, which,
• 26:48
  you know.
• 26:48
  It's possible.
• 26:50
  Yeah, and backyard smoking,
• 26:53
  a lot of people like it fall off
• 26:54
  the bone.
• 26:54
  Yeah.
• 26:55
  And we don't do that.
• 26:56
  Mm-hmm.
• 26:57
  Which I think is one of the bigger
• 26:58
  misconceptions from competition versus
• 27:01
  like everybody, because even restaurants,
• 27:03
  oh, I fall off the bone ribs.
• 27:05
  Like, cool.
• 27:06
  But your competition side is like, well,
• 27:08
  that's overdone, you know?
• 27:10
  And so like there's people don't know what
• 27:12
  that concept is.
• 27:13
  And I know we've had discussions about
• 27:15
  before,
• 27:15
  but when you go into these competitions
• 27:17
  and it's all about the one bite and
• 27:19
  you got thirty eight flavor profiles and
• 27:21
  it's all built and layered and this and
• 27:22
  that and you're having to bite it off
• 27:24
  the bone,
• 27:25
  like
• 27:26
  That's not what I want.
• 27:26
  Just give me a rub.
• 27:29
  Give me a sauce.
• 27:30
  Let the bone fall out and wear it
• 27:32
  out, man.
• 27:32
  Like, that's just.
• 27:33
  Well,
• 27:33
  in restaurant cooking is so much
• 27:36
  different.
• 27:36
  Oh, yeah.
• 27:37
  I mean,
• 27:37
  it is so different than than even your
• 27:40
  cul de sac hero.
• 27:41
  Yeah.
• 27:43
  And then competition is on a whole nother
• 27:45
  level.
• 27:45
  Yeah,
• 27:46
  I've I've never done the big circuit.
• 27:48
  I've done backyard circus fair.
• 27:51
  We've done a few of the local fair.
• 27:54
  stuff we we've won quite a bit well
• 27:56
  i say that we've won a lot in
• 27:58
  ribs and we've won a lot in wings
• 28:00
  um but we've i've never won brisket which
• 28:02
  i'm i mean in our restaurant that's that's
• 28:04
  my that's my gold what they call a
• 28:07
  gold standard like yeah like when people
• 28:09
  come in i want them to go i
• 28:10
  want you to eat the brisket yeah not
• 28:12
  now because it's six dollars and ninety
• 28:13
  five cents a pound yeah i don't need
• 28:17
  to brisket right now give it another year
• 28:19
  is that no
• 28:22
  i heard beef prices are up currently at
• 28:24
  this like last week or so or has
• 28:27
  this been something it's building uh it's
• 28:29
  been a while okay yeah so i started
• 28:32
  to see an increase i don't know what
• 28:35
  where you get yours but we use u.s
• 28:36
  foods and and and they started increasing
• 28:40
  about six or seven weeks ago
• 28:43
  golly we were using a whole nother
• 28:45
  producer um and i don't remember how they
• 28:49
  know this or who told us but they
• 28:52
  were like hey they're about to go sky
• 28:53
  high and so we kind of started looking
• 28:56
  around and we went to another producer and
• 28:59
  uh sure enough now everybody's sky high
• 29:01
  but but the one that program that we
• 29:03
  were on is even it's like a dollar
• 29:05
  more
• 29:08
  When I took over the whole operation,
• 29:12
  we ended up going prime.
• 29:15
  Spending time in Texas, man, I'm like,
• 29:16
  prime's where it's at,
• 29:17
  and I just got to do it.
• 29:19
  It's a totally different product.
• 29:22
  It is.
• 29:23
  For me,
• 29:23
  it's not even about the quality of the
• 29:25
  meat.
• 29:25
  It's the flavor and texture is just
• 29:32
  totally different than a choice.
• 29:34
  And if I'm at the house and you
• 29:37
  give me a choice and I have time
• 29:39
  to baby it, absolutely, I can make it.
• 29:40
  And you might even think it's Wagyu.
• 29:43
  But at the restaurant,
• 29:45
  like we were saying,
• 29:46
  it's totally so different.
• 29:48
  I put it to the point of this,
• 29:53
  is if me or you are cooking a
• 29:55
  brisket, like you said, and it's at home,
• 29:58
  or even at the restaurant,
• 29:59
  if I'm cooking twenty briskets at the
• 30:01
  restaurant, if I'm cooking them,
• 30:04
  versus one of my guys cooking them,
• 30:08
  it's different.
• 30:09
  Because I have thirty years more
• 30:12
  experience in cooking that brisket.
• 30:15
  And the prime
• 30:21
  the difference in my brisket and their
• 30:23
  brisket when it's prime is much smaller
• 30:27
  than if,
• 30:27
  if I'm going to cook it helps you
• 30:28
  out with your consistency.
• 30:29
  Yeah.
• 30:30
  Yeah.
• 30:30
  You're,
• 30:30
  you're taking out a lot of different
• 30:31
  variables.
• 30:32
  Yeah.
• 30:33
  Yeah.
• 30:34
  Um,
• 30:36
  But it's the prices, though,
• 30:40
  have just so crazy brisket's really,
• 30:42
  really high.
• 30:43
  I mean, literally seven dollars a pound.
• 30:45
  And I have a I have a vendor.
• 30:47
  It's over eight.
• 30:48
  Yeah.
• 30:49
  And then you just you can't make money
• 30:51
  because when you you're talking about even
• 30:53
  pre trimmed brisket,
• 30:55
  you're still cutting three pounds off.
• 30:56
  right right and then i mean that's twenty
• 30:58
  four dollars just right out the window and
• 31:00
  then before you sold anything i mean then
• 31:02
  you're talking about uh the you know maybe
• 31:04
  you get fifty five percent you know maybe
• 31:07
  i don't think sixty but um yeah we're
• 31:09
  doing fourteen to sixteen hours so you're
• 31:11
  talking you know that's a lot of that's
• 31:14
  a lot of lost uh weight and so
• 31:16
  we're we're you know let's just say fifty
• 31:18
  five percent yield on it i mean you're
• 31:21
  you're talking twenty dollar a pound
• 31:23
  brisket just for our cost now what
• 31:27
  I w we're waiting off into the weeds
• 31:28
  a little bit here,
• 31:29
  but the non restaurant tour,
• 31:32
  like me who walks in and my favorite
• 31:35
  local joint, you know, they, they had,
• 31:37
  they,
• 31:37
  they brought out new menus three months
• 31:39
  ago,
• 31:39
  which we all know what the new menus
• 31:41
  means.
• 31:41
  Right.
• 31:42
  and then they get hit with this how
• 31:44
  do y'all because i mean y'all's margins
• 31:46
  are already razor thin how do y'all offset
• 31:50
  that in such a way that like because
• 31:53
  you can't just automatically go i say you
• 31:55
  can't you don't want to automatically go
• 31:57
  with prices right immediately but it's in
• 31:59
  i don't even know what year we are
• 32:02
  is that seven
• 32:04
  We've raised twice.
• 32:08
  So like for the brisket,
• 32:09
  I don't know your strategy.
• 32:10
  Mine is just we're going to hold tight,
• 32:12
  and we're going to lose money on it,
• 32:15
  but I want to make sure the quality
• 32:16
  stays there.
• 32:18
  We've discussed for about two seconds,
• 32:20
  and I shut it down, but hey,
• 32:22
  do we need to go back to choice?
• 32:24
  Like no.
• 32:25
  Yeah, no.
• 32:25
  No,
• 32:25
  because I mean how many times have you
• 32:28
  been to those restaurants where either
• 32:30
  they went –
• 32:31
  public and they went corporate.
• 32:32
  As a matter of fact,
• 32:33
  there's one right here.
• 32:34
  Because in Austin, they were fantastic.
• 32:37
  I won't mention the name.
• 32:39
  We know who you're talking about.
• 32:42
  But they went public and literally the
• 32:44
  quality just started going down.
• 32:46
  well i remember right after covid uh you
• 32:48
  know with the the cases of chicken a
• 32:50
  lot of folks for wings were just trying
• 32:52
  to stay in business and keep their numbers
• 32:54
  so they bought that second grade and then
• 32:57
  it's just like and i knew a couple
• 32:59
  guys like look i'm not hating but like
• 33:01
  this ain't the same like i don't know
• 33:02
  what to do look i could almost understand
• 33:04
  a little bit back then sure
• 33:06
  there was a lot more uncertainty when
• 33:08
  you're talking about a a global pandemic
• 33:10
  and nobody knew what was going to happen
• 33:11
  for me today right so i can understand
• 33:14
  out here wanting to open more units i
• 33:15
  mean i can understand but i mean look
• 33:18
  there was there were some crazy thoughts
• 33:19
  and his thought was you opened a store
• 33:22
  like his thought was was spot on right
• 33:24
  and would have been perfect right um
• 33:28
  but in today's world,
• 33:30
  the economy is cyclical.
• 33:32
  It's going to come back around.
• 33:33
  Right.
• 33:34
  So it's, do you have the wherewithal to,
• 33:37
  to do what he did and make that
• 33:40
  statement of,
• 33:41
  I'm not going to sacrifice my quality
• 33:44
  because of a dollar, right?
• 33:46
  It's,
• 33:47
  it's the adage of what's more important,
• 33:50
  your bottom line or your people.
• 33:52
  Well,
• 33:52
  if your people aren't the most important,
• 33:56
  then you're not going to have a bottom
• 33:57
  line, right?
• 33:58
  So if your quality of product isn't the
• 34:00
  most important,
• 34:02
  you're not going to have a product.
• 34:03
  Because there's plenty of places to cut
• 34:06
  costs.
• 34:07
  Very much so.
• 34:07
  And even cut corners,
• 34:09
  and some of them just aren't worth it.
• 34:11
  Sure.
• 34:11
  I mean, I remember our first year in,
• 34:14
  I remember going to the kitchen and
• 34:15
  looking up, and there was imitation honey.
• 34:18
  And I'm going...
• 34:20
  what the heck you got honey in your
• 34:22
  name yeah you can't do that fan sorry
• 34:24
  like we and so i it but honey
• 34:26
  was expensive it is and but i was
• 34:29
  like no we can't do it and literally
• 34:31
  gosh how many years ago i i'm i
• 34:34
  got a beekeeper out in gallatin and i
• 34:36
  buy those big drums of honey now
• 34:39
  now and that saves my price and the
• 34:41
  honey you know lasts quite a bit but
• 34:43
  it's got a great shelf life yeah and
• 34:45
  we also do a you know habanero infused
• 34:47
  honey um kind of like a you know
• 34:49
  mike's hot honey but we do habanero uh
• 34:52
  and and i use that and so it
• 34:54
  and we use it daily and so eventually
• 34:56
  i have to buy another drone you know
• 34:57
  but i've had it for
• 35:00
  year so how much does a technology partner
• 35:03
  like you said y'all use toast like all
• 35:06
  throughout I know you use it predominantly
• 35:08
  I don't know everything but when you're
• 35:12
  deciding to cut those costs somewhere does
• 35:15
  having something like that help out that
• 35:17
  tremendously or is it just something that
• 35:19
  you're you're it's helping you watch it
• 35:20
  already so you know right where you are
• 35:23
  or is a combination of both or
• 35:26
  It's kind of a vague question, but no,
• 35:27
  no, I get it.
• 35:28
  I'm a data nerd.
• 35:31
  I love numbers because numbers just don't
• 35:33
  lie.
• 35:34
  And for so long, and listen,
• 35:38
  I've done businesses wrong before.
• 35:42
  And as long as you're learning from them,
• 35:44
  there's a John Maxwell book called Failing
• 35:46
  Forward.
• 35:48
  And I feel like if you're just failing
• 35:49
  forward and you learn from it, it's good.
• 35:50
  But numbers, I've managed without them.
• 35:54
  And you're really you're managing from a
• 35:56
  knee jerk reaction.
• 35:58
  You're it's a feel like, oh,
• 35:59
  people don't like this.
• 36:00
  Like we had a menu item that I
• 36:03
  just couldn't stand.
• 36:04
  And so I was like, man,
• 36:05
  let's take that off.
• 36:06
  And I won't tell you what it is.
• 36:10
  And and I said and I was like,
• 36:12
  people aren't buying this because every
• 36:13
  time I'm at the point of sale,
• 36:14
  no one was buying it.
• 36:15
  Well, you know, it's very random.
• 36:16
  And we looked at the data.
• 36:18
  I'm like, oh, they are buying this.
• 36:20
  This is crazy.
• 36:21
  So you kept that.
• 36:24
  But to answer your question,
• 36:26
  so I use Extra Chef.
• 36:28
  Toast bought Extra Chef.
• 36:29
  It's incorporated.
• 36:31
  It syncs up.
• 36:32
  I get my vendors' invoices go through.
• 36:35
  I mean,
• 36:35
  there's a lot of prep that you have
• 36:37
  to do to get on a system like
• 36:39
  that.
• 36:39
  I think it took us probably four months.
• 36:42
  And we have a really smart team that
• 36:44
  can do it.
• 36:46
  But we did it,
• 36:47
  all the managers got together and we just
• 36:48
  put the work in.
• 36:50
  But now I can tell you today on
• 36:53
  all the invoices that I just did,
• 36:54
  I can tell you that
• 36:56
  exactly what i have in my pork sandwich
• 36:58
  and i can tell you that you know
• 37:01
  on this menu item you know possibly losing
• 37:03
  money and that's everything from the tray
• 37:05
  liner to the the you know the six
• 37:08
  ounce uh side cup to everything um based
• 37:11
  on the the that invoice so it's not
• 37:14
  six months ago it's it's you know that
• 37:16
  that's live the technology helps you where
• 37:21
  i i don't use extra chef um
• 37:25
  It's a great tool,
• 37:26
  I just don't personally use it.
• 37:28
  But I'm also in my restaurant,
• 37:31
  I'm handling everything day to day.
• 37:33
  I'm still doing the truck orders.
• 37:34
  It's a little bit,
• 37:37
  the data's more in my brain and in
• 37:39
  between my ears than it is on the
• 37:41
  computer.
• 37:42
  The difference is he can pull his phone
• 37:46
  up or pull his laptop up and log
• 37:50
  in and he can get down to the
• 37:52
  penny in a matter of seconds.
• 37:55
  I have to go do some manual calculation
• 37:57
  to figure it all out.
• 37:59
  I have the data.
• 38:00
  You've got to call the restaurant.
• 38:02
  Hey,
• 38:03
  how many brisket did you throw in today?
• 38:06
  I know exactly what I paid for pork
• 38:07
  butt this morning.
• 38:09
  I got the invoice.
• 38:10
  I went through it, read it all.
• 38:11
  I know what that number is.
• 38:13
  But to be able to take that...
• 38:17
  what yield I'm getting,
• 38:19
  how much we're putting on the pork
• 38:20
  sandwich, how much the bun cost,
• 38:22
  how much the paper costs,
• 38:23
  how much the ramekin, the fries,
• 38:25
  all that combined would take me a few
• 38:28
  minutes to do the calculation.
• 38:29
  Right.
• 38:30
  So it's, it's,
• 38:30
  it's the technology helps you do things
• 38:33
  faster.
• 38:34
  A good friend of mine, Troy Hooper, uh,
• 38:37
  said it best in a, uh,
• 38:40
  a panel that we were talking about AI
• 38:42
  last week at the create conference.
• 38:45
  Hmm.
• 38:47
  And he simply put that technology has to
• 38:52
  enable us to do something better.
• 38:56
  And the moment that technology takes over,
• 38:58
  whether it's technology, AI,
• 38:59
  whatever you want to call it,
• 39:02
  and it's pulling out hospitality and
• 39:06
  replacing it with bots or mechanical
• 39:11
  whatever.
• 39:11
  Right.
• 39:12
  then we lose what the industry is.
• 39:15
  And the great thing about people like
• 39:17
  Toast is they are not trying to replace,
• 39:21
  they're trying to aid in.
• 39:23
  So where Extra Chef will help him get
• 39:27
  an answer to a question that may take
• 39:29
  me ten minutes to figure out,
• 39:32
  that's ten minutes that he gets back to
• 39:34
  spend on his business or be with his
• 39:35
  guest or his employees team managers
• 39:38
  whoever that's gonna better his business
• 39:41
  and grow faster right and it back to
• 39:43
  the numbers thing man like we did a
• 39:46
  whole menu analysis on it too um and
• 39:49
  that's just me being like that nerd geek
• 39:52
  that i am um you know the numbers
• 39:54
  geek i mean i'm literally going through
• 39:56
  and and
• 39:57
  And I realize some of the things you
• 39:58
  think, oh, that's a cheap item.
• 40:01
  You plug it in,
• 40:02
  it's like mac and cheese isn't that cheap.
• 40:04
  And then you look at,
• 40:06
  I think right now my Parmesan green beans,
• 40:09
  we use our,
• 40:10
  I'm telling all the secrets now.
• 40:12
  We're using the brisket trimmings.
• 40:15
  So instead of it being waste,
• 40:17
  you smoke it,
• 40:17
  and then we put them back in the
• 40:19
  green beans.
• 40:19
  And I'm telling you,
• 40:21
  because it has that pepper on it already.
• 40:24
  I mean,
• 40:24
  the flavor just went out the roof when
• 40:27
  we did that.
• 40:28
  I never thought about putting brisket in
• 40:29
  green beans.
• 40:30
  You get a lot of people putting bacon
• 40:31
  and things like that.
• 40:32
  And so I love brisket.
• 40:34
  That's my favorite.
• 40:36
  And I saw the waste going out,
• 40:38
  and I'm like, let's put that back in.
• 40:39
  Yeah, we put it in our smoked beans.
• 40:41
  Oh yeah.
• 40:43
  So it's in our, our,
• 40:44
  our version of baked beans.
• 40:45
  Yeah.
• 40:46
  So yeah, it's good.
• 40:48
  Um,
• 40:49
  you got a Mac or beans for Mac
• 40:51
  and beans.
• 40:52
  Uh,
• 40:53
  so you go to someone else's barbecue
• 40:56
  restaurant, not your own.
• 40:58
  Are you going to get the,
• 41:00
  the barbecue baked beans?
• 41:02
  Are you going to go get the Mac
• 41:03
  and cheese?
• 41:05
  So I whenever I go,
• 41:08
  I literally get the big sampler and I
• 41:11
  get my friends,
• 41:13
  especially the guys in the commercial real
• 41:15
  estate office.
• 41:16
  They love going with me because they know
• 41:17
  I'm about to buy every two or three
• 41:18
  appetizers.
• 41:20
  So I just like trying it all.
• 41:22
  Wait.
• 41:23
  It's a cheat answer,
• 41:24
  but I'm a hundred percent in for it
• 41:26
  because we had opportunity last week with
• 41:29
  some of the guys that were in town
• 41:31
  for create.
• 41:31
  And I got to meet a bunch of
• 41:32
  them for the first time and Charlie
• 41:34
  started bringing stuff out.
• 41:35
  And I was like, Oh,
• 41:36
  at least sampling all of it.
• 41:37
  And there was stuff I hadn't had from
• 41:39
  his yet.
• 41:39
  And I was like, get one of those,
• 41:41
  get one of those.
• 41:41
  So I really, I enjoyed it.
• 41:43
  But going back to kind of what we
• 41:44
  were talking about pre-show, uh, but,
• 41:47
  and comparing that to some stuff you said
• 41:48
  during the show,
• 41:49
  you said you're kind of just a serial
• 41:51
  entrepreneur guy.
• 41:51
  You love growing people, seeing that.
• 41:54
  But you obviously have got something from
• 41:58
  that Texas heritage or something that
• 41:59
  still says,
• 42:00
  I like to be out in nature and
• 42:02
  I'm hunting.
• 42:03
  So given a free day, are you going,
• 42:05
  I hate to say you're going to go
• 42:07
  to work,
• 42:07
  but are you going to build something from
• 42:09
  the entrepreneurial side or are you going
• 42:11
  to take a day and go hunting?
• 42:13
  Man, I have so many hobbies.
• 42:14
  Okay.
• 42:16
  He's going to buy a car.
• 42:17
  That's what I said.
• 42:19
  He's going to go to Smyrna and go
• 42:20
  buy that truck he was looking at.
• 42:24
  No,
• 42:25
  I actually did a business coach a long
• 42:28
  time ago,
• 42:28
  and one of the things he said,
• 42:30
  usually people that have as many
• 42:33
  businesses as you've done, like,
• 42:36
  i had to teach him how to leisure
• 42:38
  he goes yeah i don't have to do
• 42:40
  with you i'm like i know tell my
• 42:41
  wife that she's always like you know i
• 42:44
  don't sit on the couch i can't do
• 42:46
  that if i sit on the couch and
• 42:47
  veg out like i feel like i had
• 42:49
  to be outside for sure so like but
• 42:51
  i i normally i have a really good
• 42:54
  life balance on work and and good for
• 42:56
  you and family and i don't know i
• 42:59
  don't know really where i got it but
• 43:01
  i just i love my kids we're in
• 43:02
  we're in a cool period of their age
• 43:05
  right now and how old are your kids
• 43:07
  uh sixteen about to be thirteen and eleven
• 43:10
  so my boy is sixteen and my two
• 43:12
  girls uh thirteen eleven uh i've got my
• 43:14
  oldest is my son and he's twenty one
• 43:16
  and he's engaged and so that there's
• 43:18
  there's a whole coolness that goes with
• 43:20
  that my oldest daughter's nineteen
• 43:22
  She's really close to his fiancee,
• 43:24
  so they come and go,
• 43:26
  and they all do.
• 43:26
  And then there's my twelve-year-old,
• 43:28
  who school never stops.
• 43:30
  She's in theater, she's in choir,
• 43:31
  she's in all that stuff.
• 43:32
  And then my seventeen-year-old's driving,
• 43:33
  and I'm like,
• 43:34
  I'm at a place in life where I
• 43:35
  don't know what's happened.
• 43:36
  That is cool.
• 43:38
  But it is cool,
• 43:39
  and it creates a lot of opportunities that
• 43:44
  you...
• 43:45
  wouldn't necessarily have taken them for
• 43:47
  granted but you're very aware of them and
• 43:50
  so i like i told you my son
• 43:52
  was shooting his bow now oh yeah well
• 43:54
  he's like do it and so i went
• 43:55
  out there with him i'm not as good
• 43:57
  as he is i i i didn't miss
• 43:59
  the target but i'm not as good as
• 44:00
  he is and but it was fun just
• 44:02
  those few minutes of being able to take
• 44:04
  that in kind of hear him talk about
• 44:05
  his day
• 44:06
  And all because we were just shooting a
• 44:08
  bow.
• 44:08
  And now I can't get him to stop.
• 44:10
  And I'm like, hey,
• 44:11
  you've got other responsibilities.
• 44:13
  I know you got off work thirty minutes
• 44:15
  ago and you're already shooting,
• 44:16
  but can we do something else here?
• 44:19
  From the very beginning, man, I have...
• 44:22
  I've never taken that stuff for granted.
• 44:24
  In fact,
• 44:25
  I start tearing up when I think about
• 44:26
  my son.
• 44:27
  He's in the eleventh grade.
• 44:29
  I've got a year and a half left,
• 44:31
  maybe a little bit longer,
• 44:32
  of him being at the house.
• 44:37
  Once it's gone, it's different.
• 44:38
  You're experiencing it now, but for me,
• 44:42
  you start thinking about that stuff and
• 44:43
  you're like,
• 44:44
  time is precious and i want to get
• 44:46
  it so my son's in we don't have
• 44:49
  a lot in common um he's an avid
• 44:52
  reader i can't stand reading i finished a
• 44:55
  lot of books and i actually say that
• 44:57
  because i listen to a lot of books
• 44:58
  on audio so always always kind of go
• 45:01
  can i say that i read them no
• 45:03
  i can't so i always say yeah i
• 45:04
  finished that book you consumed them
• 45:05
  that's right yeah and he read he can
• 45:08
  he can literally read a novel like this
• 45:10
  now he's all fiction and i'm all
• 45:12
  non-fiction but
• 45:13
  like in one day.
• 45:14
  Wow.
• 45:15
  And,
• 45:15
  but the one thing we have in common,
• 45:17
  he loves cars.
• 45:18
  And so we'll hit all these car shows.
• 45:21
  I bet we went, there's one, uh,
• 45:23
  the hot riding national.
• 45:24
  Um, then they had,
• 45:25
  I think two weeks later, that CT, sorry,
• 45:27
  C ten nationals at the speedway.
• 45:30
  Yeah.
• 45:31
  So we went to the,
• 45:31
  the one before that we spent five hours.
• 45:35
  That's awesome.
• 45:36
  And just what, I mean,
• 45:37
  and I would have spent another five,
• 45:38
  but I think my mom, uh,
• 45:39
  the mom was calling and saying, Hey,
• 45:40
  dinner's ready.
• 45:41
  Yeah.
• 45:43
  but that that true i drove down to
• 45:45
  eight forty that day oh and seeing some
• 45:47
  of those ct's coming down the road i
• 45:49
  was like because i admire them from a
• 45:51
  distance you love seeing them parked but
• 45:53
  when you see them moving down the road
• 45:54
  that's a whole deal i don't care what
• 45:56
  car a motorcycle i don't understand and i
• 45:58
  can listen to it i love it and
• 46:00
  my wife's like why i don't care i've
• 46:02
  heard this engine forty five times and i'm
• 46:04
  gonna hear forty six right now and roll
• 46:05
  the window down like because i'm going to
• 46:07
  do it it sounds so good my my
• 46:10
  oldest is nineteen
• 46:11
  oh wow he uh went to utc his
• 46:16
  freshman year and uh just recently moved
• 46:19
  back to nashville okay um and now he's
• 46:22
  working at the restaurant nice um which is
• 46:25
  wonderful i get to see him way more
• 46:28
  than i probably ever have especially since
• 46:31
  he's been able to drive but we uh
• 46:36
  we both ride bikes
• 46:39
  And that has been our thing.
• 46:46
  Cruisers, street bikes?
• 46:47
  Street bikes, yeah.
• 46:51
  I'm getting to the point to where...
• 46:55
  There's a Harley that's kind of got my
• 46:57
  attention.
• 46:59
  Prices are good on them now.
• 47:01
  Is the wife aware that this Harley has
• 47:02
  your attention?
• 47:04
  Hey.
• 47:05
  Hey.
• 47:08
  When this airs, she will be.
• 47:10
  She is a hundred percent aware.
• 47:13
  When we were in Florida,
• 47:14
  Uh,
• 47:15
  I found what I was looking for and
• 47:19
  she was in your head.
• 47:21
  Uh, she was in the,
• 47:25
  she was in the middle of telling me
• 47:28
  the news that she was going to get
• 47:30
  a new car soon.
• 47:32
  Oh.
• 47:32
  And, and I said, well, great.
• 47:33
  Well, I want to get this Harley.
• 47:35
  And she was like,
• 47:36
  you give me the car,
• 47:36
  you can have the Harley.
• 47:37
  Oh, nice.
• 47:38
  There you go.
• 47:39
  Deal.
• 47:42
  so and then brisket got expensive right
• 47:44
  right right my Harley dreams are going
• 47:48
  away but wings have gone down okay so
• 47:52
  when things are looking up but um I've
• 47:56
  ridden sport bikes my whole life yeah
• 47:59
  um i tried going to tracks and doing
• 48:02
  stuff like that that did not fare well
• 48:04
  for my body uh i broke a knee
• 48:07
  and an ankle in one day and uh
• 48:10
  that was the last time i was on
• 48:11
  the track so my son and i did
• 48:13
  uh bmx bicycle racing for a while um
• 48:16
  because you know we have one of the
• 48:17
  oldest tracks here in nashville we did
• 48:19
  that and then when he got to a
• 48:20
  certain level
• 48:22
  Um,
• 48:22
  you either have to put in the work
• 48:24
  to get to,
• 48:24
  to win races or you kind of like
• 48:27
  fizzle.
• 48:27
  And so then we ended up selling all
• 48:29
  our bikes and then we bought dirt bikes.
• 48:31
  Nice.
• 48:32
  So we do, we, uh, we have that,
• 48:34
  but I think,
• 48:34
  I think we're kind of done with the
• 48:35
  two wheels.
• 48:36
  I think we're done.
• 48:37
  There comes the point of maturity where
• 48:39
  that's all right.
• 48:39
  You know, dirt bikes.
• 48:40
  I tell everybody all the time, dirt bikes,
• 48:42
  four wheelers, three wheelers,
• 48:43
  all that stuff.
• 48:45
  I there that is far more dangerous than
• 48:50
  than a street bike to me because there's
• 48:53
  there's no car so I can go and
• 48:57
  I can go as fast as I want
• 48:59
  to go.
• 49:00
  But in my brain, my personal brain,
• 49:02
  like I've hurt myself more on
• 49:05
  four-wheelers and dirt bikes than I ever
• 49:07
  have on a motorcycle, on the street.
• 49:11
  Just because on the street,
• 49:13
  but I ride differently.
• 49:14
  I drive the same way.
• 49:17
  I'm very defensive.
• 49:18
  I'm very conservative.
• 49:20
  I don't do anything crazy.
• 49:22
  When I get on a cruiser, man, I...
• 49:25
  especially in nashville because i come
• 49:27
  from a super small town i mean it
• 49:28
  was eleven thousand people oh wow and you
• 49:33
  could ride bikes all the you know anywhere
• 49:34
  i mean i was riding two miles to
• 49:36
  school on a bicycle and my you know
• 49:38
  it's no big deal here i would
• 49:41
  Not doing that in Nashville.
• 49:41
  You would never dream of doing that, no.
• 49:44
  No.
• 49:44
  We had off-campus in high school.
• 49:46
  Junior high.
• 49:47
  Junior high and high school,
• 49:48
  we had off-campus.
• 49:48
  So at lunch,
• 49:49
  we would all leave the campus and go
• 49:51
  to the restaurants and then come back.
• 49:53
  That's how small town it was.
• 49:55
  But anyway, the motorcycles, man,
• 49:59
  there's just a respect.
• 50:01
  When I get on that,
• 50:02
  like I'm not doing something stupid.
• 50:04
  I'm super cautious.
• 50:06
  I don't speed that much.
• 50:09
  Yeah.
• 50:10
  the way i ride has definitely changed a
• 50:11
  lot since i was in my twenties yeah
• 50:14
  my dad still rides he's he might be
• 50:17
  a little bit older than that but he
• 50:19
  still gets on his harley
• 50:21
  Look,
• 50:21
  I love being – there's something about a
• 50:25
  seventy-five degree day and the weather's
• 50:29
  beautiful and not a cloud in the sky
• 50:33
  and being in the country and just
• 50:36
  enjoying.
• 50:37
  Feeling the fresh air.
• 50:38
  Yeah.
• 50:39
  That's it.
• 50:40
  Let's take a quick break and we'll come
• 50:41
  back and we'll talk about all the
• 50:45
  locations you have.
• 50:46
  Let's do it.
• 50:51
  Welcome back, guys.
• 50:52
  I'm your man, Charlie Eblen,
• 50:53
  with our illustrious co-host, Mr.
• 50:55
  Derry Wells.
• 50:56
  We are sitting here with our man, Ben,
• 50:58
  from Honey Fire Barbecue.
• 51:02
  He's got the original location in,
• 51:06
  what's so funny?
• 51:08
  My mom would appreciate your emphasis on
• 51:10
  the H for honey fire.
• 51:13
  My mom is heavy on emphasis and she
• 51:17
  is not a fan of family guy in
• 51:19
  any way, shape or form,
• 51:20
  but that one where he does the H
• 51:22
  and cool whip.
• 51:25
  It's the only same percent family guy she
• 51:28
  knows,
• 51:28
  but we make a big deal out of
• 51:29
  it because that's maybe because mom would
• 51:34
  appreciate it.
• 51:34
  So I'll be saying like, that's it.
• 51:36
  Yeah.
• 51:37
  Honey, fire, fire.
• 51:37
  I love it.
• 51:38
  If we do that on our next Instagram
• 51:42
  post and say it,
• 51:43
  then we'll tag you on the.
• 51:44
  Please do.
• 51:45
  Please do.
• 51:45
  I'll share it up there.
• 51:48
  You have your original location in
• 51:50
  Bellevue.
• 51:52
  um and then you uh sparked a deal
• 51:55
  with assembly food hall you have a
• 51:57
  location inside assembly which is an epic
• 52:01
  location by the way um i was down
• 52:04
  there last week um my friends didn't want
• 52:08
  barbecue so i we couldn't go to eat
• 52:10
  barbecue i did suggest it
• 52:16
  it was it was funny when i when
• 52:17
  i was sending the group text because
• 52:19
  they're ones from pittsburgh and ones from
• 52:22
  california and when i sent the text hey
• 52:27
  where do y'all want to go eat and
• 52:30
  they said it's not my town
• 52:33
  send us some suggestions.
• 52:35
  So I put, uh,
• 52:39
  specifically the assembly food hall,
• 52:41
  honey fire,
• 52:41
  because I knew they were staying downtown.
• 52:44
  Um, and then, uh, uh,
• 52:47
  our friend over at, uh, peg leg, Mr.
• 52:50
  Carey Bringles place.
• 52:52
  Um,
• 52:52
  I got to throw Pat Martin in there
• 52:54
  cause he's just a good old boy.
• 52:56
  Um, and then, uh, shotgun willies, uh,
• 53:00
  was going to see bill.
• 53:01
  Uh, and then there was one, uh,
• 53:04
  one non-barbecue restaurant that I sent
• 53:06
  them.
• 53:07
  And that's what they all picked?
• 53:08
  No, they didn't even pick any of those.
• 53:13
  got more suggestions like we got on yelp
• 53:15
  and that's it yeah we went to uh
• 53:17
  uh sixty vines oh yeah upstairs front
• 53:21
  burner and um super nice place very open
• 53:25
  huge massive amounts of traffic i mean it
• 53:29
  was it was it was an incredible if
• 53:31
  you've never been to sixty vines go check
• 53:33
  them out that places yeah wow they it's
• 53:37
  crazy same owners own assembly food hall
• 53:39
  Yeah.
• 53:40
  Yeah.
• 53:41
  Yeah.
• 53:41
  It's a, they spent some money.
• 53:42
  Yeah.
• 53:43
  They spent some money.
• 53:44
  So you got those two, uh,
• 53:46
  assembly you've had for two years.
• 53:48
  Since twenty three,
• 53:49
  we worked on it for about a year
• 53:52
  and, you know, they sold out.
• 53:54
  They saw all their their stalls.
• 53:57
  And I reached out because honestly,
• 53:59
  when they first came to us, I mean,
• 54:03
  I'm not afraid to say I was wrong.
• 54:05
  I was like,
• 54:07
  I don't want to be in a food
• 54:08
  court, you know.
• 54:09
  And then when they opened, I was like,
• 54:11
  man, I missed that one.
• 54:15
  And so, but Tommy's everything.
• 54:17
  It was great.
• 54:18
  So I went to him in twenty two,
• 54:21
  maybe closer to the end of twenty one
• 54:24
  and said, man,
• 54:24
  I have any opportunity in here and they
• 54:27
  didn't have anything.
• 54:28
  And I just kept in touch with them
• 54:30
  every other month.
• 54:30
  I would just reach out.
• 54:33
  Most are got most of the decision makers
• 54:35
  are in Frisco, I think.
• 54:38
  texas and they they came out the last
• 54:42
  the next time they came out you know
• 54:45
  rolled out the red carpet at bellevue and
• 54:47
  and just got to know them and then
• 54:49
  as soon as they had an opportunity um
• 54:51
  i didn't hesitate um you know we we
• 54:54
  did we demoed the whole stall and rebuilt
• 54:59
  it because i was like if i'm going
• 55:00
  to do this i'm going to do it
• 55:01
  right do it right yeah
• 55:04
  For that little space,
• 55:05
  it's three hundred square feet.
• 55:06
  And, you know,
• 55:07
  I think we spent two hundred seventy
• 55:09
  thousand.
• 55:10
  Wow.
• 55:11
  Now, that was a package of, you know,
• 55:14
  the equipment package and everything.
• 55:15
  Right.
• 55:16
  But I was like,
• 55:16
  we're going to do this right.
• 55:18
  And we did.
• 55:19
  I mean, the signs up top,
• 55:20
  because that's the biggest thing.
• 55:22
  It's so busy in there.
• 55:23
  You've got to get people's attention.
• 55:25
  Sure.
• 55:25
  You know,
• 55:26
  you're not going to you're not going to
• 55:27
  do like in the mall.
• 55:27
  Like, hey,
• 55:28
  you want to try the sample samples?
• 55:29
  You know,
• 55:30
  like the Cool Springs Mall over here.
• 55:32
  Mm hmm.
• 55:32
  um it's outside let's do it with signage
• 55:35
  so i got it's two outdoor signs on
• 55:37
  that stall wow and they're you know how
• 55:40
  expensive those things are um i do yeah
• 55:42
  yes but we we're we're happy with it
• 55:46
  i mean we're we're the second highest
• 55:47
  grocer there um it's awesome princess hot
• 55:50
  chicken man they they do so so much
• 55:53
  so much business over there
• 55:55
  uh pharmacies there they do they do great
• 55:57
  business um but yeah that's been a it's
• 55:59
  been a blessing for us um it's a
• 56:02
  whole different animal than just a
• 56:03
  restaurant i mean the way there's no
• 56:06
  storage and so whatever we get in the
• 56:08
  morning off a truck we cook it and
• 56:11
  then we we sell it and so we
• 56:13
  have a full kitchen in the back
• 56:15
  And so if we have leftovers,
• 56:18
  that's not really good.
• 56:19
  So our pars have to be just spot
• 56:22
  on.
• 56:23
  And so we're daily looking at what we
• 56:25
  need to sell.
• 56:26
  We're looking at the Ryman auditorium on
• 56:29
  their schedule, the Bridgestone.
• 56:30
  We're doing all like we're going through
• 56:32
  the whole downtown because one concert can
• 56:35
  can.
• 56:36
  Changed the whole game,
• 56:37
  changed the whole thing.
• 56:39
  And it's,
• 56:39
  it's eerie when there's nothing going on.
• 56:42
  There's nothing going on.
• 56:43
  Yeah.
• 56:45
  I've only seen that once or twice in
• 56:46
  Nashville.
• 56:47
  Doesn't happen much,
• 56:48
  but it's an awkward feeling like,
• 56:50
  because you you've got all these
• 56:51
  recollections of either events you've been
• 56:54
  to,
• 56:54
  or you're driving through and sitting in
• 56:55
  traffic or whatever.
• 56:56
  And then all of a sudden there's nothing.
• 56:58
  And it doesn't seem right.
• 57:00
  It's got apocalyptic kind of vibes to it.
• 57:02
  Like, I don't know about this.
• 57:03
  Well,
• 57:04
  one of the coolest things that I've
• 57:06
  noticed on that,
• 57:06
  and it's such a cool business model and
• 57:10
  understanding it.
• 57:11
  I mean,
• 57:11
  I got a master's degree just by opening
• 57:13
  that thing up.
• 57:14
  I'm sure.
• 57:17
  The crazy thing,
• 57:18
  you think like a Preds game or a
• 57:22
  major concert,
• 57:24
  The highest grossing nights that we have
• 57:26
  is usually when there's a kid's concert.
• 57:28
  I believe that are family oriented because
• 57:32
  some of the guys that are going to
• 57:33
  Nine Inch Nails,
• 57:34
  they're going to go down and they can
• 57:35
  go to Rippy's or they can go to
• 57:37
  whatever.
• 57:38
  But the family,
• 57:39
  so Forrest Frank had a concert.
• 57:40
  I don't know if you know that.
• 57:42
  So he had a concert and I took
• 57:44
  our kids.
• 57:45
  Of course, we went to Assembly Food Hall,
• 57:46
  but so did every other family because
• 57:48
  that's the only place they could go.
• 57:50
  It's across the street.
• 57:51
  That was probably the highest grossing
• 57:53
  night of the whole assembly food hall.
• 57:56
  And I mean, I told their marketing team,
• 57:57
  like, y'all need to pay attention to that.
• 57:59
  Because we're, you know, upstairs,
• 58:01
  they have that venue.
• 58:02
  I think it's fifteen hundred people that
• 58:03
  can go to the sky deck.
• 58:05
  I'm like,
• 58:06
  y'all need to kind of pay attention to
• 58:07
  the two.
• 58:08
  That was a high grossing night on a
• 58:10
  family oriented concert across the street.
• 58:13
  Yeah, because I mean,
• 58:14
  like the events I've been to downtown in
• 58:17
  the past year,
• 58:19
  like I found the little local dive bar
• 58:20
  and I can go in,
• 58:21
  I can hear some opening act, you know,
• 58:23
  whatever I can have two or three drinks
• 58:25
  and then go to Bridgestone.
• 58:25
  Like I don't have,
• 58:26
  I'm not going to think about going there,
• 58:28
  but if you've got family, if you like,
• 58:29
  that would just,
• 58:32
  they need to pitch that to Bridgestone,
• 58:34
  like just one a month or something like,
• 58:35
  Hey, let's make something.
• 58:38
  So now you're working on a third location.
• 58:41
  So Brentwood, yeah.
• 58:43
  So we, I live in Brentwood.
• 58:45
  That's my hometown.
• 58:47
  Been there and they just been looking for
• 58:51
  the right.
• 58:52
  It's a weird, it's a weird community.
• 58:55
  Restaurants don't necessarily do well
• 58:56
  there.
• 58:58
  There's forty five thousand people drive
• 59:00
  in every day to work there.
• 59:01
  But that also probably twenty or thirty
• 59:03
  going out of Brentwood to work.
• 59:06
  So it's a weird dynamic,
• 59:07
  and you really have to crush it at
• 59:09
  lunch.
• 59:10
  And then if you pull a good dinner
• 59:12
  crowd, then you're going to do well.
• 59:15
  And so we've just been waiting.
• 59:17
  And, you know, unfortunately, you know,
• 59:20
  had another restaurant closed.
• 59:22
  And so, you know,
• 59:23
  we were approached actually by the
• 59:25
  landlord to, you know,
• 59:27
  would y'all be interested in it?
• 59:28
  And, yeah.
• 59:30
  And we said, absolutely,
• 59:31
  because it's a little bit bigger.
• 59:33
  It's five thousand square feet.
• 59:34
  We're we're we're used to thirty five
• 59:37
  hundred more than three hundred downtown.
• 59:41
  So this is this is five thousand a
• 59:42
  little bigger.
• 59:43
  We're going to do a little bit slightly
• 59:45
  different thing has a private dining room.
• 59:47
  We're going to try to activate pretty
• 59:49
  well.
• 59:49
  And it's kind of big bar.
• 59:51
  huge bar uh we're gonna double down on
• 59:53
  the bourbon um you know we're in brentwood
• 59:56
  we have our bellevue we have about about
• 59:58
  two hundred whiskey bourbons and in in
• 1:00:00
  brentwood it's got a big community
• 1:00:02
  franklin has a big bourbon community
• 1:00:05
  brentwood does but we'll probably have
• 1:00:06
  around four hundred
• 1:00:08
  wow um it's gonna be the whole wall
• 1:00:09
  as soon as you walk in you're just
• 1:00:10
  gonna see you know brown liquor so it's
• 1:00:13
  been it's been kind of crazy uh you
• 1:00:15
  know trying to build out a bar program
• 1:00:17
  um i haven't i haven't touched a drink
• 1:00:19
  in ten years and and some people like
• 1:00:21
  is that good like yeah it sells i
• 1:00:23
  don't know it sells it's fun yeah so
• 1:00:28
  that's outstanding we're looking forward
• 1:00:29
  to it i think it's going to be
• 1:00:30
  around end of january um
• 1:00:33
  well keep us updated yeah let us know
• 1:00:35
  when when we get closer for sure let
• 1:00:37
  me know we'll uh we'll definitely help
• 1:00:39
  support you in any way so we uh
• 1:00:42
  we'll be there and uh with bells on
• 1:00:44
  for sure so if uh uh people are
• 1:00:48
  trying to find you get a hold of
• 1:00:50
  you catering social all the thing how can
• 1:00:54
  they get a hold of honey fire
• 1:00:55
  Social media is at HoneyFireBBQ.
• 1:00:59
  Email is info at HoneyFire.com.
• 1:01:02
  Catering is catering at HoneyFire.com.
• 1:01:06
  Yeah, pretty easy.
• 1:01:07
  I love it.
• 1:01:08
  I love it.
• 1:01:08
  Open seven days a week.
• 1:01:10
  Seven days a week.
• 1:01:11
  Outstanding.
• 1:01:12
  If you're a hat guy like I am,
• 1:01:14
  they got some great hats.
• 1:01:15
  They do have some great hats.
• 1:01:16
  I've already perused the merch.
• 1:01:18
  And they have some pretty fire food.
• 1:01:20
  Yeah.
• 1:01:21
  We got a couple new hats coming.
• 1:01:22
  Okay, see?
• 1:01:23
  I don't have to make the trip in.
• 1:01:25
  You need to make a trip up there
• 1:01:26
  anyway.
• 1:01:26
  For sure.
• 1:01:27
  For sure.
• 1:01:28
  Roll the red carpet out.
• 1:01:29
  I love it.
• 1:01:30
  Darryl, you got a Friday feel-good for us?
• 1:01:32
  Always, man.
• 1:01:33
  Hey, look, this is from an unknown source,
• 1:01:36
  and I'm stealing this one,
• 1:01:37
  but tell someone how they inspire you,
• 1:01:40
  how you appreciate them,
• 1:01:42
  and how they make your life better.
• 1:01:44
  It could make all the difference.
• 1:01:46
  Just be encouraging to everyone.
• 1:01:47
  Find somebody you know,
• 1:01:48
  tell them you love them.
• 1:01:50
  it's outstanding yeah ben thanks for
• 1:01:52
  hanging out with us we appreciate it for
• 1:01:54
  sure dairy's always coming with the bars
• 1:01:57
  at the end i love it look you
• 1:01:59
  guys know what to do if you want
• 1:02:00
  to get involved please feel free to reach
• 1:02:03
  out to me you can call me at
• 1:02:04
  six one five three zero seven zero one
• 1:02:06
  two zero send me an email at charlie
• 1:02:08
  singletreebbq.com
• 1:02:11
  And always make sure that you like,
• 1:02:12
  share and subscribe to our YouTube
• 1:02:14
  channel.
• 1:02:15
  Watch or not watch.
• 1:02:17
  Listen to us on Saturday mornings on ESPN.
• 1:02:20
  Ninety four point nine.
• 1:02:21
  The fan.
• 1:02:23
  More news coming on that real soon as
• 1:02:26
  well.
• 1:02:26
  And until next time, guys,
• 1:02:28
  we'll see you then.
• 1:02:29
  Y'all be good.