Latest / Single Tree Nation Show / Bob Roberts | Building Redwood Smoke Shack & Mastering the Craft of BBQ | Single Tree Nation

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Bob Roberts | Building Redwood Smoke Shack & Mastering the Craft of BBQ | Single Tree Nation · Single Tree Nation Show

0:02
Welcome back to Singletree Nation, guys.
0:05
I'm your man, Charlie Eblen,
0:06
and as always,
0:07
we have our smiley friend and illustrious
0:10
co-host, Mr. Derry Wells.
0:12
What's up, everybody?
0:14
You were giggling.
0:15
It was because Trent did the countdown,
0:17
and for whatever reason,
0:18
popped in my head was Wayne's World,
0:20
when they couldn't get it right.
0:23
I'm seeing Trent over there trying to
0:24
count backwards from three, and it's...
0:29
Right, that.
0:29
It stuck with me.
0:31
Three.
0:31
All I could see was Garth, like, one,
0:33
two.
0:33
Anyway, so, sorry.
0:36
All right.
0:38
All right.
0:38
We have a good show for you today,
0:40
folks.
0:41
But before we do that,
0:42
we're going to highlight our primary
0:45
technology partner with Toast.
0:47
They help us at the restaurant and here
0:49
on the show to provide unbeniable
0:51
hospitality with the technology that they
0:53
give us.
0:55
every single day.
0:56
If you would like to get more information
0:58
about Toast,
0:59
you can reach out to me at any
1:01
point in time,
1:02
and I would be happy to help you
1:04
link up with the right individuals.
1:05
I'm purely a consumer in this.
1:07
I've got no front of house,
1:09
back of house, whatever.
1:10
It doesn't help me at all.
1:12
When I'm out and about and I see
1:13
Toast,
1:13
I feel like I'm more comfortable with that
1:14
handheld, even though I'm not.
1:16
They're all the same to me, but
1:18
My favorite part about toast and their
1:21
handhelds is when we go,
1:23
there's one restaurant here in town that
1:27
uses handhelds religiously,
1:28
which is amazing.
1:31
But they always hand us the handheld to
1:34
pay the check.
1:35
And like,
1:36
I want to go in and ring something
1:40
in.
1:40
Like,
1:40
can I add some fried pickles to my
1:42
order, please?
1:44
Before I pay out.
1:45
That's hilarious.
1:45
But yeah.
1:47
so look uh today we are going to
1:50
talk about uh Redwood Redwood Redwood we
1:55
have Bob and Roberts am I correct that
1:58
is that is correct right here make sure
2:00
I don't screw it up uh I've done
2:02
that a couple of times on this show
2:03
which is really always awkward so uh but
2:07
welcome to the show Bob we appreciate you
2:09
coming thank you for having me the Redwood
2:11
Smoke Shack you were in Norfolk Virginia
2:14
correct
2:15
Yeah, we have three locations.
2:16
So we're going to be in what they
2:17
call the Hampton roads area.
2:19
So it's like seven cities.
2:21
So we have one location in Norfolk.
2:23
That was our original location.
2:25
Uh, second location, uh,
2:26
we went down to Virginia beach and we
2:28
all popped up a spot there.
2:30
And then.
2:31
Fourteen months ago,
2:32
we opened our third location in Northern
2:35
Suffolk.
2:36
I love it.
2:38
I love it.
2:38
So barbecue on the beach.
2:40
I'm in the heck.
2:41
Yeah.
2:41
When did you,
2:43
have you ever been to Virginia beach?
2:44
Nope.
2:46
it's a beautiful place yeah yeah i feel
2:49
like i'm being set up here no no
2:52
not at all not at all i mean
2:53
i can hook you up with some good
2:54
violence yes this is definitely a melting
2:56
pot military town okay yeah that makes
2:58
sense it's the home of the navy norfolk
3:00
is the home of the navy okay perfect
3:01
perfect i had uh my prior job i
3:04
had a look i had a location there
3:06
um and uh yeah
3:10
okay i'd still eat barbecue on the beach
3:11
i don't care yeah so i mean sure
3:14
i give you some redwood nothing goes
3:16
nothing goes better with brisket than you
3:17
know and sand going everywhere yeah it's
3:22
beautiful i don't know man i might tie
3:26
in some brisket might be pretty good
3:27
together we can find out it may be
3:29
maybe i'm more of that lone star guy
3:31
but hey
3:33
Lone Star goes better with brisket.
3:35
That's right.
3:35
That's great.
3:36
I love it.
3:38
So how long you been doing barbecue?
3:42
So selling barbecue,
3:43
I guess more on the commercial side is
3:46
going to be April will be ten years
3:47
that my girlfriend and I popped up at
3:51
the end of our driveway in our
3:52
neighborhood and just sold it out of a
3:53
smoker that I bought with my tax returns.
3:56
So let's just call it ten years.
3:59
We're going on seven years in a brick
4:01
and mortar in June.
4:04
So that's when I took the leap,
4:05
leaving my normal nine-to-five career and
4:09
saying, okay, I'm going all in.
4:11
What was the nine-to-five?
4:14
I was a food broker for K-Twelve in
4:15
the military,
4:16
so I've repped all these brands,
4:18
and I'm still pretty diehard true to some
4:22
of them in our day-to-day.
4:25
And then before that,
4:26
I was running a food service for a
4:28
local university,
4:29
so I ran the whole university and was
4:32
trained by Chick-fil-A and Yum!
4:33
Brands and all that kind of stuff.
4:35
So I've been around for a little while
4:37
in all different aspects of this fun game
4:40
that we call...
4:42
hospitality hospitality is such a funny
4:46
word because y'all frame it so nice and
4:48
neat and here we are to serve you
4:50
and i've seen the background at your
4:52
kitchen and there are some people back
4:54
there that are not hospitable
5:00
they are very hospitable they just don't
5:04
want to be it's an industry man that's
5:06
an industry for sure it's uh it is
5:08
for sure it is fun for sure for
5:10
sure you have you always enjoyed cooking
5:14
barbecue and did it on the side just
5:16
kind of in the backyard or no no
5:19
no i i grew up in upstate new
5:21
york i mean i'm talking about like upstate
5:23
lake george like you know
5:26
hour and a half south of Canadian border.
5:28
I went to college basically on the border
5:31
and then moved to Syracuse.
5:33
And that's where I got, I guess,
5:34
my first introduction to maybe fusion type
5:39
of barbecue.
5:39
And that's going to be dinosaur barbecue.
5:41
So it's not your straight up Texas style
5:44
or Carolina style.
5:45
And then I moved down here in oh
5:47
nine for the job to run that university's
5:49
food service.
5:51
And I got introduced to North Carolina
5:53
style.
5:54
so you know i had just like everybody
5:57
they get like an old uh oil tank
5:59
and they have somebody cut it open and
6:01
put it on a jet ski trailer and
6:03
and we just started doing some luau's in
6:05
my house whole hog you know i'm just
6:07
screwing up anything i could touch let's
6:08
face it right in the beginning you know
6:10
you're just gonna you're gonna mess it up
6:11
you're gonna be like oh that was amazing
6:13
it was so smoky it's like yeah you
6:15
know that's really not the way it's
6:16
supposed to be but you got you got
6:17
to learn somehow and a good thing for
6:19
friends because they're always going to
6:21
tell you it's good um because it's free
6:23
i'm sure
6:24
So I did that for a little while
6:27
and really kind of got bit by the
6:31
hobby.
6:32
And I was brewing a lot of beer.
6:34
I was the president of a local homebrew
6:35
club.
6:36
So I'd have brew days over here on
6:37
the weekends at my house, and we'd have,
6:39
you know, ten different people.
6:40
So I just bought a tiny little offset,
6:43
an old-school Oklahoma Joe back when they
6:45
actually made them the right way.
6:47
I bought it on Craigslist and –
6:51
I would do like ribs and chicken wings
6:53
because you're looking at four or five
6:54
hour cooks.
6:55
And I really just thought it was kind
6:58
of cool.
6:59
You know, I was in the,
7:00
the hospitality food service sector.
7:03
I was not a kitchen guy.
7:04
I was more of the, the, the manager,
7:07
right?
7:07
I'm the leader.
7:08
I'm the one looking at PNLs and budgets
7:10
and things like that.
7:11
And, um,
7:13
I just kind of started playing around with
7:15
it.
7:15
And I've kind of learned through osmosis
7:17
of how to cook in flavor profiles through
7:20
all the great chefs that I've worked with.
7:22
And it just kind of snowballed from there.
7:26
Once I got that little smoker and you
7:28
know,
7:28
you start throwing smoke in the air in
7:29
the neighborhood and people come and
7:31
they're just like, what's that smell?
7:33
And tax returns, I bought a Lang,
7:36
like one of their original eighty fours.
7:38
I think it was called a two fifty
7:40
at the time.
7:40
Right.
7:42
So I bought one of those.
7:43
And my first cook, I'll never forget.
7:46
It was in the rain.
7:48
I set up a ten by ten little
7:49
tent in my driveway and I cooked one
7:53
New York strip steak.
7:56
burning all that wood.
7:57
And yeah, you know,
7:57
cause I didn't even know,
7:58
I didn't even know how that was going
7:59
to translate.
8:00
So I was out there in the range,
8:01
it's tending to fire and you know,
8:03
it's a reverse flow.
8:04
So it's completely different and, um,
8:08
just kind of started developing it.
8:09
And I'm like, Hey,
8:10
if I've done this for other people and
8:12
basically, you know,
8:13
creating procedures and all that type of
8:15
stuff,
8:16
why not just start playing around with
8:17
myself?
8:17
So we did that.
8:18
And I wanted to really just cook so
8:23
I could practice and,
8:25
But I'm not going to go out and
8:27
buy three pork butts.
8:28
I mean,
8:28
what are you going to do with twenty
8:30
fifteen,
8:30
twenty pounds of finished pulled pork?
8:32
Quite honestly.
8:33
So, you know,
8:34
I went I went and I had a
8:35
depot restaurant depot card because of,
8:37
you know, the university I worked with.
8:40
And I bought a bunch of meat and
8:43
made up little things.
8:44
Menus and built a little aim frame sign
8:46
and said hey,
8:47
we're gonna do barbecue on this day You
8:48
know, eleven a.m.
8:50
To sold out didn't really even know a
8:52
lot about the business, right?
8:55
Or even how what the hell I was
8:56
doing.
8:56
So I did it we sold out and
8:58
I want to say like four hours and
9:01
And the next day we started getting notes
9:05
in our mailbox and on our door of
9:07
like, Hey,
9:07
when are you guys going to do it
9:08
again?
9:08
Let us know.
9:09
So we did it again the following Sunday,
9:12
did twice as much food sold out half
9:14
the time.
9:16
And, you know, my girlfriend at the times,
9:18
you know,
9:18
thought I was just the craziest mother on
9:20
earth.
9:20
the face of this earth, right?
9:22
It's April here.
9:23
It's like forty degrees.
9:24
We're out at the end of the driveway
9:26
at a folding table and I got my
9:27
smoker and she's taking the orders and I'm
9:29
just fulfilling them.
9:31
And so it just kept growing from there.
9:34
And then I started looking at food
9:35
trailers.
9:36
And the weird thing is we bought a
9:37
food trailer
9:39
And I took money that I had.
9:41
It was twenty eight thousand dollars all
9:43
in to start a quote unquote business.
9:46
And I bought this food trailer,
9:48
very unique,
9:48
but I bought it ten minutes north of
9:50
Syracuse,
9:51
where I lived for the last six years
9:53
before moving to Virginia.
9:55
So I told my girlfriend, I was like,
9:56
hey, well, we can go up.
9:59
take a look at this food trailer and
10:01
if we don't like it no big deal
10:02
at least i'll get you introduce you to
10:04
some of my friends that i grew up
10:05
with in the area that i lived in
10:07
so it was kind of two birds one
10:08
stone we ended up coming home with the
10:10
trailer uh which is like a twelve thirteen
10:13
hour drive in the middle of a freaking
10:15
massive thunderstorm you know pulling an
10:17
eight thousand pound trailer on a truck
10:19
that's not mine and um you know
10:23
hindsight's twenty twenty because i
10:24
probably wouldn't do that again
10:26
But so then we just sat there for
10:29
six months in the driveway because we
10:30
didn't have a name.
10:31
We didn't have a logo.
10:32
We didn't have any of that stuff.
10:34
So, again,
10:35
reached out to my network of friends in
10:36
my beer club.
10:37
One of them was a graphic designer,
10:38
and he's just started like, hey,
10:40
this is what I want you to do.
10:41
Sit down with four pieces of paper and
10:43
one piece of paper.
10:44
Do this, that, the other thing.
10:46
Process of elimination.
10:47
We picked a name.
10:49
We started kind of tossing around it,
10:50
telling friends about it.
10:51
It just never really felt right.
10:54
And then there was a diner down the
10:55
road in Syracuse that I used to go
10:57
to breakfast place called Redwood Diner.
10:59
And every time you walked in, I mean,
11:01
this is one of those greasy spoons, right?
11:03
You just definitely don't want to look
11:05
around when you're eating,
11:06
but it's the best tasting food.
11:08
Yeah.
11:10
But the feeling that they gave me when
11:12
I was there and everybody that walked
11:14
through the door was family, right?
11:16
It was just, come on in.
11:18
We're going to feed you.
11:19
We're going to make you feel good.
11:20
We're going to tell stories.
11:21
We're going to laugh and joke,
11:22
and then you can go home.
11:23
So that was always kind of in my
11:24
mind.
11:25
So somehow we landed on Redwood,
11:27
and then our trailer is all covered in
11:30
barn boards,
11:31
so Smoke Shack kind of just fit.
11:34
and the w we turned into uh you'll
11:38
see we got little points on our w
11:40
so our well our our our smoker on
11:43
there is modeled after a cadillac cooker
11:45
so it's got two smokestacks one on both
11:47
sides with rain caps over them that look
11:50
just like that so we kind of tied
11:52
it all in um and it was born
11:57
i guess at that point so we did
11:59
it for two and a half years
12:01
On weekends only the first eight months,
12:03
it was my girlfriend and I turned,
12:04
who's now my wife.
12:06
And then we started, you know,
12:08
some people started helping us out to help
12:09
prep and whatnot.
12:11
So we ended up growing that up to
12:12
like four employees and maybe we would go
12:15
out at a Friday and a Saturday.
12:16
I'd be on conference calls with earbuds in
12:19
serving barbecue to people on a Friday.
12:21
So I ran,
12:22
I basically worked seven days a week for
12:23
three years.
12:24
Okay.
12:25
um and at that point it was like
12:28
i'm not giving my job my career a
12:31
hundred percent of my time and i'm not
12:33
giving this idea this brand that this this
12:36
business i'm building a hundred percent of
12:38
my time so what am i gonna do
12:39
um so with you know uh an amazing
12:44
uh partner lindsay you know we just kind
12:46
of said
12:48
if I'm going to screw up and lose
12:50
everything I have,
12:51
why not do it when I'm forty and
12:52
not fifty?
12:53
Right.
12:54
So we just kind of pulled that trigger.
12:57
And now, like I said,
12:59
it's been seven years and we have three
13:00
locations.
13:01
The last location we purchased the
13:04
property, which is three acres,
13:06
and it's got
13:07
Two buildings on it,
13:08
one seventy five hundred square foot.
13:10
So I rent some of that out to
13:12
a window tenor.
13:13
And then I have my home offices and
13:14
test kitchen in there and things like
13:16
that.
13:16
And then the front building is our new
13:19
location.
13:20
And I was able to actually design that
13:22
with pit rooms and floor drains and hot
13:25
water everywhere.
13:25
You know,
13:26
everything that you always would want for
13:29
my team.
13:30
You know,
13:30
I do a lot of this now for
13:31
my team.
13:34
And you just opened that location,
13:35
didn't you?
13:36
We opened the twenty eighth of January of
13:38
last year.
13:39
Yeah.
13:40
And that was a cluster fuck.
13:46
So so we.
13:47
It's opening a restaurant, man.
13:48
That's it.
13:50
It is.
13:50
It is.
13:50
But it really this one took.
13:53
every ounce of energy that my brain could
13:56
give.
13:57
And it completely changed me as a person.
13:59
I mean, I, I was not,
14:01
I was a shell, right?
14:03
I mean, I, I, my,
14:04
my wife made me go to the doctors
14:05
to get some medication so I could sleep
14:07
anxiety because, you know,
14:09
you're dealing with contractors,
14:10
you're dealing with millions of dollars
14:13
and you find out real quick that everybody
14:15
just wants your money and they don't
14:16
really give a shit about you.
14:18
so i'm trying to run two locations and
14:21
do this build out it was it was
14:23
a lot it was a lot and we
14:24
opened up and then you know you get
14:27
killed for the first three months i mean
14:29
you're just you're lying around the
14:30
building from open to close it's thirty
14:32
four thirty four degrees and it's snowing
14:35
raining and the line is wrapped around the
14:37
building and you're getting one sorry
14:39
views constantly because i came out and it
14:41
was a three and a half hour wait
14:42
and it was and i got pulled pork
14:45
and i'm like well
14:45
Did you think that like a unicorn was
14:47
going to pop out of it and it
14:48
was going to be magic?
14:49
It's fucking barbecue.
14:51
Right.
14:52
And we do it the right way.
14:55
Yeah.
14:55
I mean, we do it the right way.
14:57
And if you choose, I mean,
14:58
I go down to Texas.
14:59
I go there to learn.
15:01
I go there for barbecue crawls.
15:03
You put the time in.
15:05
Right.
15:05
You put the time in in line,
15:06
you meet people, you tell stories.
15:09
That is barbecue to me.
15:10
If that's not what you want,
15:12
then just go on our website and place
15:14
a to go order and come on and
15:15
say, hey, it's Robert.
15:16
So here's your bag.
15:17
See you later.
15:17
Go home and eat the food.
15:18
Right.
15:19
You don't got to wait in line.
15:20
But, you know, so in our area,
15:23
in Hampton Roads.
15:25
The line is not something that any
15:27
restaurant has.
15:28
And that was always my goal after I
15:30
went to Franklin's for the first time.
15:32
I said, when I open up a place,
15:33
we will have a line.
15:34
I'll have chairs outside, all this stuff.
15:36
And everybody just kept picking on me.
15:38
They're like, there's no way in hell.
15:40
And that's what happens every day now at
15:41
our locations.
15:42
So, you know, I mean,
15:43
I guess we proved them wrong.
15:45
But we're still setting ourselves up for
15:47
those negative comments because people
15:49
walk in, they see five people in line.
15:51
We are on average one and a half
15:54
minutes per person.
15:55
That's what our time is.
15:56
And that's go to the cutter,
15:57
your assembler, which is your hot sides,
15:59
cold sides,
16:00
and then anything from the back line.
16:01
Right.
16:01
So, I mean,
16:02
we are we're busting some ass.
16:03
I mean, we're turning and burning.
16:05
We're doing three thousand,
16:06
four thousand transactions in five days.
16:10
It's it's a lot.
16:12
But people here have a hard time and
16:15
we're still educating every day is about
16:17
education.
16:18
Like we were talking about beef cheeks and
16:19
we're talking about flat irons.
16:21
And, you know,
16:22
like we did oxtails last week,
16:24
smoked oxtails for our Friday special.
16:28
And it took us thirteen hours to make
16:29
that product.
16:30
from the braze to the smoking,
16:32
to the brazing of it, uh,
16:34
to the rest, you know, it's like,
16:35
you know, it's like, you know, it's like,
16:36
you know, it's like, you know, it's like,
16:38
you know, it's like, you know, it's like,
16:39
you know, it's like, you know, it's like,
16:40
you know, it's like, you know, it's like,
16:41
you know, it's like, you know, it's like,
16:43
you know, it's like, you know, it's like,
16:44
you know, it's like, you know, it's like,
16:45
you know, it's like, you know, it's like,
16:47
you know, it's like, you know, it's like,
16:48
you know, it's like, you know, it's like,
16:50
you know, it's like, you know, it's like,
16:52
you know, it's like, you know, it's like,
16:54
you know, it's like, you know, it's like,
16:57
Weird business that he can be in.
16:58
It makes you wonder why we do this.
17:01
I, it really does because I mean,
17:02
I don't know about you, but you know,
17:04
I'm sitting in a home office.
17:06
That's like all of like eight foot by
17:07
four foot.
17:08
It ain't like I live in a mansion
17:09
and wipe my ass with a hundred dollar
17:10
bills, but they, they, you know,
17:13
you hear the, it must be nice.
17:14
It must be nice.
17:15
And all these other little terms.
17:17
And it's like, I mean, you know what,
17:19
when it's good, it's good.
17:21
But it seems like that good only lasts
17:23
for a little bit.
17:24
So you always got to keep reaching for
17:26
the next thing that makes it.
17:28
And for me, daily,
17:31
I think it's good because I have a
17:32
great team.
17:34
I'm allowing them to, you know,
17:36
express who they are and some of the
17:38
stuff we do.
17:39
And, you know, in hopes that we keep,
17:43
I guess,
17:43
getting bigger and taking on more.
17:45
Right.
17:46
So if we're happy with our four walls,
17:48
anybody else that comes in, you know,
17:50
I mean, you're here,
17:51
you're here for a good time.
17:52
If that's what you want,
17:52
you came to the right place.
17:54
If you want a good meal,
17:55
you came to the right place.
17:56
All the other drama.
17:57
I really don't have time for that.
17:59
I really don't.
18:00
I understand that completely and agree.
18:02
Let's take a quick break,
18:03
and then we're going to talk about what's
18:04
on the horizon for Redwood.
18:07
We'll be right back.
18:13
welcome back to single tree nation guys we
18:15
have bob from redwood smoke shack on the
18:19
line today with us and our illustrious
18:21
smiley co-host mr jerry wells i like it
18:26
like a full rbf or something no no
18:28
no but i like i don't know i'm
18:30
starting to like this smiley co-host thing
18:32
oh i've done illustrious co-host for two
18:35
years right yeah exactly maybe it's about
18:37
time to change it to smiley co-host i
18:39
mean i mean it's not worse so
18:42
you guys let us know should it be
18:45
illustrious co-host or smiley co-host or
18:49
the illustrious smiley co-host oh we can
18:51
have three options there we go three
18:56
options
19:00
all right we were talking about i do
19:02
want to get into where we're going and
19:04
what redwood has on the horizon you have
19:07
uh in seven years you've gone from a
19:09
food truck to having is it four or
19:13
three three three three locations yep um
19:17
but we were talking prior to the show
19:19
starting about uh beef cheeks um you
19:23
talked about flat irons a minute ago
19:26
it being from upstate new york to now
19:30
being in virginia cooking texas barbecue
19:35
right cooking barbecue north carolina's
19:39
people yeah it's fun yes um beef that's
19:42
why you get all the f words on
19:44
the reviews nobody yes well yeah they
19:47
don't they don't they know and it's funny
19:49
i've never had anybody say
19:52
then go back to Texas.
19:53
I mean,
19:53
a lot of people assume I'm from Texas
19:55
because of, you know, the, the,
19:57
the people I know and, you know,
19:59
helping them in festivals and all that
20:00
stuff.
20:01
Uh, but nobody really like that.
20:04
Oh, I don't sound Texas.
20:07
Just being honest there.
20:09
So that's,
20:11
You definitely sound like you're from
20:12
upstate New York.
20:13
Probably.
20:14
Yeah.
20:14
I would not,
20:15
I would not think that you were from
20:16
Texas just by hearing your voice from
20:18
Texas.
20:19
But, um, so my question is where did,
20:21
where, I mean, how do you go?
20:23
You know what?
20:23
Hey, we're cooking beef cheeks next week.
20:26
So we do, um,
20:28
every Friday we do a different special.
20:30
That's kind of what we've done since
20:31
beginning.
20:32
We're trying to move away from that where
20:33
we're trying to do a special protein every
20:36
day and just have five special proteins.
20:39
So every Tuesday now it's, you know,
20:41
smoked fried half chickens and every
20:43
Wednesday it's, you know,
20:44
our chopped beef and Thursday would be our
20:46
smoked Turkey and our wing special Friday
20:49
is that weird one because we've always
20:50
done off the wall stuff.
20:52
I mean, as weird as we could get,
20:54
well,
20:55
there's people out there doing these, um,
20:58
meats like beef cheeks, like oxtails,
21:01
like flat irons, you know,
21:02
these people that you look up to.
21:04
So you're like, Hey, can I get it?
21:06
And that's number one, you know,
21:08
being in a state that might not be
21:10
allocated for some of this stuff.
21:12
And that's the things that's my previous
21:14
job being a food broker.
21:15
I kind of understand the game of what
21:17
distributors play.
21:19
Um, so it's helped me out, but, um,
21:21
The beef cheeks,
21:22
we've been doing those for a while on
21:24
and off.
21:24
We've done them twice in the last...
21:28
Because we're trying to find that protein.
21:31
I did.
21:32
So, uh, beef cheeks, phenomenal.
21:34
You got some really good people out there.
21:36
It's Paul Meyer.
21:37
Barbecue is just one that comes to mind
21:39
that you're constantly seeing their beef
21:41
cheeks.
21:41
Um, and then of course, Leroy and Lewis,
21:44
right.
21:44
They kind of made the beef cheek what
21:46
it is now in, in,
21:48
in a barbecue setting.
21:50
Um, so it's like, Hey, well,
21:51
we can do that too.
21:52
In a few weeks.
21:53
And I'm excited to have that conversation.
21:55
Yeah.
21:56
Yeah.
21:56
Yeah.
21:57
So, you know,
21:58
and I don't know if a lot of
21:59
that stuff is.
22:01
We've had people like Kevin Kelly reach
22:03
out to him.
22:04
Oh,
22:05
I see you're running this or you're doing
22:09
the Bubba Cole and you got to give
22:10
a shout out to Blake and things like
22:13
that.
22:14
There are people that are very like you
22:17
can't steal other people.
22:20
I think when Food Network
22:22
And guy and all these guys started it.
22:24
There's,
22:25
I don't really know what else is that
22:27
you can create anymore.
22:29
Right.
22:29
Other than like taking like three
22:31
different ideas and making it kind of one.
22:34
So I've always thought about it from a
22:37
standpoint of it's not a, uh,
22:41
like your beef cheeks you I mean we
22:44
were talking about it prior to the show
22:45
you you're doing a um a chimichurri on
22:48
top of it and we did it with
22:51
just pickled red onions and then I made
22:53
a chimichurri to go on top of it
22:55
because I thought it honestly never even
22:58
heard anybody else doing it I just thought
22:59
it would taste good so I just made
23:03
one up and put it on top of
23:04
the beef cheeks and it's delicious
23:06
I mean, it's absolutely phenomenal.
23:08
So it's,
23:08
but I can almost guarantee that your beef
23:12
cheeks and your chimichurri have a
23:13
different taste profile than mine, right?
23:16
I'm going to, I'm probably,
23:18
you're probably not smoking with hickory
23:20
like I smoke with.
23:21
And, you know, you probably didn't,
23:23
you know,
23:23
use the same ratio of rub that I
23:26
did.
23:27
If you just,
23:28
if you did it with the exact same
23:31
seasonings.
23:31
So,
23:32
and then I know your chimichurri is
23:33
different than mine because I saw pictures
23:36
of it.
23:36
So.
23:37
I know it's a different chimichurri.
23:39
So it's one of the things that I
23:41
absolutely love about barbecue is we can
23:44
cook the exact same thing and it have
23:46
a totally different taste profile and
23:48
people can love yours and they can love
23:50
mine and not have to hate yours or
23:54
hate mine.
23:55
You can love both of them and they'd
23:57
be really good and just continue to move
23:59
forward and just cook good barbecue.
24:02
We had Kevin Bledsoe on the show and
24:04
he said to us that just don't cook
24:08
bad barbecue and you'll be all right.
24:09
That's it.
24:12
That's all it takes.
24:14
Just don't cook bad barbecue.
24:17
A smidge, a smidge.
24:19
It takes a lot more than that,
24:21
but we'll get it.
24:22
We'll keep it simple.
24:23
Yeah, for sure.
24:26
Look,
24:27
one of our segments on our show is
24:31
dinner for two,
24:33
and we need to take a quick break.
24:42
There we go.
24:45
There we go.
24:46
Sorry about that.
24:47
All good.
24:48
All good.
24:48
We're back into it.
24:49
So what I was saying was one of
24:51
our segments on our show is dinner for
24:54
two.
24:55
And, uh, what that segment is,
24:57
is if you could have dinner with somebody
24:59
past, present, or future, who would it be?
25:02
And why?
25:04
So I probably, you know, weird, but, um,
25:12
Probably my grandfather,
25:15
because I never met him.
25:15
He passed away right before I was born.
25:17
So there's a lot of stuff that,
25:20
you know, I hear about him and whatnot.
25:23
So, you know, that's kind of one.
25:27
Number two, I guess,
25:29
if I were to pick somebody,
25:30
Tootsie's probably one.
25:32
You know, I've met her before,
25:33
but I've never really sat down,
25:35
broke some bread, you know,
25:36
ate a rib with her and really kind
25:38
of...
25:39
pick the brain you know clay and and
25:42
uh he's great to talk with we kind
25:44
of went down there and cooked with those
25:45
guys um you know and aaron franklin these
25:48
people that i kind of looked up to
25:50
that i just realized now are just normal
25:53
people because i get the same thing with
25:55
customers coming in
25:57
And, you know,
25:57
they travel a long way to come eat
25:58
our barbecue or see how we do things.
26:00
And they kind of put, you know,
26:02
whether it be me or, you know, us,
26:05
Redwood, you know, up on this, you know,
26:07
step above them.
26:08
And I'm like, hey,
26:09
we're all just the same.
26:11
We're just a person that we have a
26:13
sick,
26:14
twisted mind where we want to tend a
26:16
fire for twelve hours to cook a piece
26:19
of meat.
26:20
Right.
26:20
I mean, it's not not normal.
26:23
that you're gonna sell out of in thirty
26:24
minutes.
26:24
Right.
26:25
And then you're just gonna, yeah, exactly.
26:29
Exactly.
26:29
Right.
26:29
And get all the wonderful DMs in the
26:30
process.
26:31
But, yeah.
26:32
Look, I will tell you,
26:34
if you ever get a chance,
26:36
Aaron Franklin wouldn't remember me from
26:39
Adam,
26:39
but I got to cook with him in
26:42
L.A.
26:43
at the L.A.
26:44
Food Bowl.
26:44
Okay.
26:46
Geez, probably eight years ago.
26:48
Maybe longer than that.
26:49
But he is incredible.
26:52
he is a wealth of knowledge the way
26:55
his brain works is is just he is
26:59
one of a kind man like the the
27:02
science that he understands barbecue and
27:07
and how the engineering and airflow and
27:12
the
27:14
The biology of the animals.
27:16
It is, it's incredible.
27:17
He is, he is a wealth of knowledge.
27:19
And I love that aspect of barbecue that
27:22
there's so many different things that
27:25
contribute to that final.
27:28
protein or side on your plate it's not
27:31
just hey i followed i mean let's face
27:34
it we i learned from his pbs specials
27:36
and his uh his book right about how
27:39
to trim my brisket and all this other
27:41
stuff so you know he was that guy
27:43
and you know i finally i was able
27:45
to meet him a couple times um i've
27:48
i have not cooked at a festival with
27:50
him we're actually
27:52
participating in our first festival in
27:55
charlotte um the eighteenth i want to
27:58
believe of april and so it'd be nice
28:01
to be able to pull down one of
28:02
our five hundred gallon uh smokers and
28:04
cook alongside some of these people sam
28:06
jones is one of them lawrence barbecue um
28:10
you know there's john james and all the
28:12
two
28:12
Yeah,
28:13
all these people that you run into within,
28:16
but you've never really spent an overnight
28:20
or a pitmaster kind of throwdown dinner
28:23
while you got something else on the pit.
28:25
And that's why I like going every year
28:27
to the Houston Barbecue Fest because I go
28:28
and I help one of my buddies that
28:30
owns a barbecue place in Houston.
28:32
I've been doing that for six years.
28:34
And that's kind of the open arms that
28:37
this craft has.
28:39
It's almost like...
28:41
brewing right if like oh i don't have
28:43
a stack of two row somebody right next
28:46
door will let you borrow their two row
28:49
right we do that with hey you can
28:50
take my pit or uh you know i
28:53
need x y and z yeah no problem
28:54
i got it here take it um and
28:56
that's kind of you know the word
28:58
competition is not in our vocabulary you
29:02
know collaboration is more of the better c
29:05
word in my mind and
29:07
And we live in an area here where
29:09
everybody thinks that everybody's against
29:12
somebody.
29:12
Right.
29:12
So it's always it's not about elevating
29:16
the craft around here.
29:18
We elevate every day within our four
29:20
walls.
29:20
And that's what I try to tell my
29:22
team.
29:23
You know, we're trying to be better.
29:24
Don't worry about what other people are
29:26
saying.
29:26
If they like it, great.
29:27
If they don't like it, great.
29:29
It ain't going to change what we do
29:30
every day.
29:31
Um,
29:32
so I'm really excited about this barbecue
29:34
festival that we get to serve food at,
29:37
um,
29:38
cause I'm bringing a couple of my guys
29:39
and they have never been in that
29:42
environment before.
29:43
So it'd be kind of cool.
29:45
Yeah,
29:45
I'm getting ready to get baptized into
29:47
mine next weekend.
29:48
And I want to get excited.
29:51
And I know that there's a work element
29:53
as far as like tending the fire and
29:55
making everything.
29:55
But ultimately, I just want to have fun,
29:57
meet folks in that arena, you know,
30:01
because everybody's going to do their
30:02
thing and have a good time with it.
30:04
And I'm looking forward to that more than
30:06
I am anything else.
30:07
Sure, if we come in, you know,
30:09
top fifty on something, awesome.
30:11
Also, you're doing a competition cook.
30:16
But there's still that effect of community
30:18
there and what goes on there.
30:22
I'm really looking forward to it.
30:23
Have you guys ever talked with or met
30:25
Brian Furman?
30:27
from my bees crackling bees his place
30:31
burnt down many years ago and Bob Lerma
30:34
is kind of good friends with him so
30:36
he kind of his thing was a whole
30:38
peach glazed ribs that was kind of his
30:40
thing many years ago so I think he
30:42
still does some of these festivals or
30:43
whatever but he had a shirt and he
30:45
said you know he was so anti competitions
30:50
and you know I'm kind of on that
30:52
same fence his shirt said he cooks for
30:55
people not judges
30:57
Yeah.
30:59
Right.
30:59
Because it's completely a completely
31:00
different style.
31:04
Right.
31:04
Look,
31:05
give me give me four thousand people in
31:06
front of me and I'll crank it out.
31:07
Right.
31:08
Rather than eight judges.
31:09
And I just give them one slice.
31:12
I don't have really in this stage of
31:14
my life.
31:15
I don't have interest.
31:15
Don't give me ten more years.
31:16
Maybe I will.
31:17
I don't know.
31:18
Look,
31:18
I will tell you that I've been a
31:19
bit against competition barbecue cooking
31:22
my entire life.
31:25
I always say I don't cook for trophies.
31:28
I cook for the people that come see
31:31
me every day.
31:32
So I'm trying to,
31:33
I cook for my community.
31:34
I'm trying to help build and grow the
31:36
community through the perfect way.
31:37
So Smiley,
31:37
it looks like you're the odd man out,
31:39
man.
31:40
yeah well the reason is is he's he's
31:44
coming to doing a competition with me so
31:50
but here's here's why so uh four years
31:54
ago uh I got pushed into doing a
31:58
comp and and I was like okay I'll
32:01
go do one so we drove down to
32:03
Huntsville Alabama and we did a
32:04
competition
32:06
and i forgot or just didn't bring half
32:12
of the things that i needed okay
32:15
In this competition,
32:17
the guys to the left of me and
32:19
the guys to the right of me just
32:22
openly volunteered, hey man, here,
32:26
you needed this.
32:27
I heard you say something earlier,
32:29
you needed this here, take it.
32:32
And I was like, oh, okay.
32:34
And then about halfway through my brisket
32:37
cook, I was talking to...
32:39
to one of the guys that was with,
32:41
that was with me and on our team,
32:44
quote unquote, and says, uh,
32:48
I said something about, you know,
32:50
my ribs and I just wasn't happy with
32:52
the sauce and how I was going to
32:53
do it.
32:54
And, and,
32:55
and a guy literally from the trailer next
32:57
door to me came over and gave me
32:59
his recipe.
33:00
Oh wow.
33:00
Like here, just use this recipe.
33:04
You know, I heard you talk about,
33:06
you just, you know, you, you had some,
33:07
you know, you know,
33:08
you weren't happy with it.
33:09
So I, I won, you know,
33:11
two comps and ribs last year with this
33:13
recipe.
33:14
So it, it, it should be,
33:15
it should be at least close.
33:17
And I was like,
33:18
are you using this recipe?
33:20
And he was like, yeah.
33:22
I said,
33:25
what do you i mean you're going to
33:26
give me the recipe that you're using and
33:29
he said yeah you still got to cook
33:32
it yeah you still got to make it
33:35
so if you out cook me then you
33:36
deserve it i don't care what difference
33:38
does it make i love it so and
33:41
that that got me hooked for the reason
33:44
of it wasn't the competition came from the
33:48
judges not from the competitors
33:51
yeah it's more of the community that
33:54
community the community is still there so
33:55
i did another competition that year um and
34:00
well it wasn't that year's the following
34:01
year in the spring which is what we're
34:03
doing in a in in a week or
34:05
two um called smoke on the shores here
34:08
in nashville and so i signed up for
34:11
it and i keep in mind this is
34:15
the second comp that i had ever done
34:17
in my entire life
34:19
and i had found out uh three days
34:23
prior to this competition that it's the
34:26
third largest competition of the year
34:29
there's there's more pro teams at this
34:32
comp than any other companies in the year
34:37
and these are all guys this is like
34:38
the jump off
34:40
for the season.
34:41
So it's like the first big comp of
34:43
the year.
34:44
Okay.
34:44
It makes sense.
34:45
So everybody that does competition
34:47
barbecue literally every weekend.
34:49
Right.
34:50
So, so I'm getting baptized by fire.
34:52
Oh, heck yeah.
34:53
I can't wait.
34:55
You walk around those things and a little
34:57
in awe of some of these people that
34:59
you meet or a little nervous to walk
35:01
up to like keep brows or something and,
35:04
and, you know, or Chris Lilly or whatever.
35:07
I mean,
35:07
but they're just, they're people,
35:09
like you said earlier,
35:10
they're just people.
35:10
Yeah.
35:11
And,
35:12
and they will give you the shirt off
35:14
their back.
35:14
And, you know,
35:15
last year my squirt bottle broke about a
35:19
quarter of the way through my cook and
35:22
I'm walking out to my truck and I'm
35:24
frantically looking for another squirt
35:26
bottle.
35:26
Cause I thought I brought another one and
35:27
I didn't.
35:28
And, uh, the guy next to me goes,
35:32
Hey Chuck, you okay, man?
35:34
I was like, yeah, I mean,
35:35
I can't find my squirt bottle.
35:36
My other one broke.
35:37
I'm yeah.
35:39
He goes, he goes, I got one here.
35:44
know like i mean it's just it's just
35:46
one of those things like we want everybody
35:48
wants everybody to succeed they all want
35:50
you to get a call you know once
35:52
i submitted everything like all the other
35:54
guys around me came up you know my
35:57
first year were like oh man that was
35:58
really good next year try this yeah you
36:02
know oh man that was really good we've
36:04
been doing that for what you say four
36:05
years
36:06
This will be the fourth year that I've
36:08
done one, and this year we're doing two.
36:12
We're going to do Smoke on the Shores,
36:14
which is a really big comp,
36:16
and then we're going to do Praise the
36:19
Lard in Murfreesboro,
36:21
Illinois from Seventeen Street Barbecue
36:24
puts that one on.
36:25
So do you, when you're,
36:26
you're doing your briskets and ribs,
36:28
I mean,
36:28
you have a special purveyor that you get
36:32
those better quality or are you still
36:35
going through your normal like Cisco PFG
36:37
US foods?
36:38
So I buy prime brisket for my restaurant.
36:43
Um, and I have gotten Wagyu briskets from,
36:50
so like last year I used the farm
36:53
called Chattel farms out of North Georgia.
36:56
Um,
36:57
and they had a Wagyu line and I
37:00
got Wagyu briskets from them this year.
37:04
Uh, I have a, a, um,
37:09
can get a creek stone brisket that's a
37:11
wagyu if i want it it's the same
37:14
thing that franklin and interstellar use
37:16
it's a phenomenal product there's no
37:19
antibiotic ever right or something like
37:21
that yeah all natural yep it's it's really
37:23
really good um i got it i got
37:26
a case a month or so ago and
37:28
and it was really delicious but
37:32
You know, man, I, I don't know.
37:35
I don't know if the,
37:37
the difference in prime and Wagyu is going
37:39
to make the change for me.
37:41
Um, if I,
37:44
so every day at the restaurant,
37:46
then you're probably more, you know,
37:48
cause we've done, you know,
37:49
with anniversaries and stuff,
37:50
we'll do like snake or farmed black labels
37:52
and things like that, which.
37:55
It's a good product,
37:56
but it would be better if I was
37:58
using that every day because I would learn
38:00
how to cook with it, right?
38:02
That fat renders differently.
38:05
The pull is differently when you're
38:07
figuring out where you're at in that cook.
38:10
We use an elite prime,
38:11
so it's upper-fifty-percent prime-grade
38:14
product, but they're smaller.
38:17
So that's going to be different than some
38:19
of the hosses that you get that are
38:22
finished weight of thirteen pounds or
38:24
whatever.
38:24
I mean,
38:25
our finished weights are like four,
38:27
four and a half.
38:28
Now,
38:28
we aggressively trim anyways because
38:30
there's got to be a way that that
38:32
brisket fits on our smoker aerodynamics
38:35
and all that kind of stuff goes into
38:36
it.
38:38
Are you using an offset smoker?
38:41
Yeah, we have two M&M,
38:44
one thousand offsets.
38:45
We have one primitive pit,
38:47
one thousand offset.
38:48
We have a M&M rotisserie, one thousand.
38:52
And then we have a five hundred primitive
38:54
on a trailer and eleven hundred Buley
38:56
extra wide.
38:57
So we have six.
38:58
And then I have one of those new
39:00
M&M Smoke Kings, Texas Smoke Kings.
39:02
So the backyard, a hundred gallons,
39:04
I'm going to start doing classes in our
39:05
back kitchen on like Saturdays.
39:08
So pretty much probably, you know,
39:10
we're open five days a week,
39:11
Tuesday through Saturday.
39:13
My prep and my prep team is there
39:16
Monday through Friday.
39:17
So they got a cake job.
39:18
Well, I'd say cake job.
39:19
I mean, they got to crank out.
39:21
I mean,
39:21
we're doing on average about a hundred
39:22
briskets a day on top of, yeah,
39:25
we went through two hundred and ten
39:27
thousand pounds of brisket last year.
39:30
in twenty five.
39:32
And it's all that's a quarter of a
39:34
million pounds of brisket like that.
39:37
Yeah.
39:37
Yeah.
39:38
One point one million dollars that we
39:40
spend in raw brisket and we're doing it.
39:43
You know, there's no cheating, right?
39:45
It's I got people from our fire start.
39:47
My pit team gets there at two thirty
39:49
in the morning.
39:50
And they don't leave till probably ten at
39:51
night.
39:53
And we go through two cords of wood
39:55
every four to five days.
39:57
So, I mean,
39:57
you want to talk about putting in the
39:59
time and the energy.
40:01
You know, it's not just brisket, right?
40:03
So our proteins at the restaurant are,
40:05
of course, we have brisket.
40:07
sliced and chopped.
40:08
Then we'll take the trim and then we'll
40:10
almost do it like you would a beef
40:12
cheek or a barbacoa, season it, smoke it,
40:15
confit it overnight.
40:16
So we have chopped beef so we can
40:18
kind of make a little bit of that
40:20
money back that we're losing on brisket.
40:23
And then we have pulled pork,
40:25
pulled chicken.
40:26
Now we have bone-in half chickens.
40:28
We do twice smoked pork belly burn-ins
40:31
every day.
40:31
We got brisket burn-ins.
40:33
We make our own sausage.
40:34
We make about
40:37
that we hand link and stuff every day.
40:41
It's a hundred pounds.
40:41
That's the first thing that my prep team
40:43
has got to do.
40:43
How many pounds of sausage did you make
40:44
this week?
40:44
Bro,
40:44
I made forty pounds of sausage today and
40:46
thought I was doing something.
40:47
No, well, and you are,
40:50
and you are because, you know, I mean,
40:51
that's,
40:52
I remember the twenty pounds that I was
40:54
making when I started and I said,
40:55
fuck this i'm just gonna keep buying it
40:58
from somebody and then when i started able
41:00
was able to start training up a couple
41:02
people to take you know i didn't have
41:04
to work the pit and the cutting block
41:07
at the same time you know that i'm
41:08
like well what do i do okay well
41:10
let me start playing around with it and
41:11
then i found out that you can really
41:13
be expressive with the sausage right yes
41:15
so we started having fun with it and
41:17
then i started becoming friends with um
41:20
uh, the sausage sensei, you know,
41:21
Bill Dumas and, you know,
41:23
as crazy as that guy is, but he's,
41:24
he's just, he's such a wealth analogy.
41:26
He's so much fun.
41:28
Um, so, you know, these things that you,
41:30
and then of course you get your spare
41:31
ribs, we do beef ribs,
41:33
the big dino beef ribs every Saturday,
41:35
we do house made pastrami every Saturday,
41:37
you know, so we have a lot of,
41:39
and on top of nine house made sides.
41:40
So, I mean, my team, you know, is,
41:42
is constantly cranking out
41:46
raw products and, you know,
41:47
and my pit team is then taking that
41:49
raw product and,
41:50
and do what we gotta do.
41:50
Um, you know, it's, it's, it's a lot,
41:53
it takes a village, you know,
41:55
it's not me in my driveway anymore,
41:57
a food truck or in the first restaurant.
41:58
I mean, it's, it's a lot.
42:01
Um,
42:02
but just the time it takes to trim
42:04
a hundred briskets every day is a lot.
42:07
yeah we got one guy who started as
42:09
a cutter for me last year in our
42:11
new spot and after like a couple weeks
42:12
he's like i think i'd really want to
42:14
kind of learn the cooking aspect of it
42:17
so we kind of threw him in the
42:18
pit room and then come to find out
42:20
he had a degenerate eye disease so every
42:24
time his eyes would water and he would
42:26
like rub them too much he could actually
42:29
make his prescription worse
42:32
And we didn't find that out until he
42:33
was actually in our pit room doing it.
42:35
So he's like, well,
42:36
I can't really do that.
42:38
And I'm like, well,
42:38
I don't really want you to do that.
42:40
So we actually made him,
42:44
we kind of still call him a part
42:46
of the pit team,
42:47
but he trims all of our briskets and
42:51
he will grind our meat and mix up
42:55
our spices for our sausage.
42:58
Um,
42:58
and that's basically a hundred percent of
43:00
his job.
43:01
Um,
43:01
and then of course there's still people
43:03
inside the other people in the prep team
43:06
that have to, you know,
43:07
on the Saturdays when you're doing,
43:09
you know, a hundred and thirty,
43:10
a hundred and forty of them, um,
43:12
or for holiday cooks.
43:13
So you're just getting your ass handed to
43:15
you.
43:15
You know, everybody's got to pitch in.
43:17
How long,
43:17
how long does it take to trim a
43:20
hundred briskets a day?
43:22
So on average.
43:24
We try to make people,
43:26
and that's the thing I say make.
43:28
We try to train people.
43:29
We have time logs and things like that.
43:31
That's how we get people where they need
43:32
to be.
43:34
But if we can get a brisket trimmed
43:36
in three to four minutes, finish trimmed,
43:39
now the pit team,
43:40
when they go to put them on and
43:42
rub them,
43:44
We will obviously double check kind of all
43:46
of our briskets because there might be,
43:48
you know,
43:49
just sitting overnight on sheet pan.
43:50
You might see the deck will stick out
43:52
a little further.
43:53
So we'll take that off.
43:56
So it takes, you know, I mean,
43:58
so what is about eight hours?
43:59
I mean, figure eight hours.
44:00
And if you can do it's a lot,
44:03
it's a lot.
44:03
And then just the amount of waste in
44:05
the trim.
44:06
Right.
44:06
We were thrown away almost a thousand
44:08
pounds even after that.
44:11
all of our sausage making right because we
44:15
use our rib trim and our brisket trim
44:17
so we don't have to go into pork
44:18
butts um because we're doing so many spare
44:21
ribs you know we're doing seventy racks
44:23
every day
44:25
So, yeah, it's a lot.
44:28
And to be, you know,
44:30
I was always in awe of the Terry
44:32
Black team because they're just cranking,
44:34
right?
44:35
Three hundred plus briskets a day.
44:37
And I'm like,
44:37
how did they become so good?
44:40
And then when you go there and you
44:41
see it and you eat it, you're like,
44:44
he ain't any better than me.
44:46
Right.
44:46
You're just,
44:47
you think that everyone's going to be a
44:49
hundred percent, but let's face it.
44:50
Even if you're doing two briskets,
44:52
one of them might be perfect.
44:53
The next one might be shit.
44:54
Yeah.
44:57
And people,
44:58
people will judge you on that one.
45:00
That wasn't good out of a hundred.
45:02
They don't, they, and you know,
45:03
we pit tours and we invite them in
45:05
the back door and we do a lot
45:06
of lives on social media to show you
45:09
what we do,
45:10
because I can't stress enough on how hard
45:12
this is.
45:13
Yeah.
45:15
Oh, yeah.
45:16
All for a twelve dollar sandwich or a
45:18
thirty dollar a pound.
45:19
And then they're like, oh, my God,
45:20
thirty dollars.
45:21
And I'm like, I get it.
45:23
I understand it's thirty bucks.
45:24
But, dude,
45:25
this just took eighteen hours of our life.
45:26
Right.
45:27
Oh, yeah.
45:29
And an animal had to die for it.
45:30
People don't think about the time,
45:34
the animal, the people.
45:35
They don't think about all of that.
45:37
They just think, oh man,
45:38
I got a sandwich in front of me
45:39
or a plate of brisket in front of
45:41
me and it's thirty bucks.
45:42
I ordered forty-five seconds ago and here
45:44
it is.
45:45
What do you mean twelve dollars?
45:48
My favorite is when we sell out of
45:51
something and people go,
45:54
oh well just cook me another one.
45:56
yeah come back tomorrow come back tomorrow
45:58
i got you but if i put it
46:00
on right now it'll be ready for lunch
46:02
tomorrow yeah people that's the way it
46:04
works bob earlier you mentioned when you
46:07
were talking about trying to get to that
46:09
um having a protein per each day and
46:12
friday you've kind of always had a a
46:14
tradition of running the specials for a
46:16
unique protein and
46:18
What's the most unique or weird thing?
46:22
So we just started doing the protein thing
46:24
on Fridays just because we yeah,
46:28
because my production manager now, I mean,
46:30
let's face it.
46:30
You know,
46:31
all our brains are so tired with trying
46:33
to come up with a special something.
46:35
Right.
46:37
And there's only so much that you can
46:38
do.
46:39
I mean, we've done from, you know,
46:40
Nashville hot briskets to, you know,
46:43
any egg roll you can think of to,
46:46
you know,
46:46
we had originally on the food truck.
46:48
We had a we had a sandwich called
46:50
the Woody.
46:51
It was a Krispy Kreme donut was the
46:53
bun.
46:53
And then I had your brisket pulled pork,
46:55
a little bit of slaw.
46:56
And that was a sandwich.
46:59
The probably the craziest thing.
47:02
I really had fun doing the double-decker,
47:04
like spoofing off from the double-decker
47:07
Taco Bell.
47:08
Because I really try to hit people with
47:10
nostalgia with some of these specials.
47:12
Because it really makes them feel like,
47:15
I got to get in my car.
47:16
And we live in an area where to
47:18
go somewhere...
47:19
You know, it might be fifteen,
47:21
twenty minute drive.
47:22
So, you know,
47:23
I need to you need to be committed.
47:25
And then when you get there,
47:26
you might have an hour wait.
47:27
Right.
47:28
So it's got to be something that pulls
47:31
that you're like, you know,
47:32
the feels like I got to get it
47:34
because I grew up with this.
47:35
You know, we do we do, you know,
47:38
those little cup of noodles.
47:39
Right.
47:40
that you grow up on, throw boiling water,
47:42
put the lid on it a few minutes
47:43
later.
47:44
It's just like ramen in a cup.
47:45
So we do our birria.
47:47
So we were on a birria taco kick
47:49
with our brisket, right, for a while.
47:53
But then we did birria ramen, right?
47:56
So we take our consomme and that's what
47:58
we use.
47:58
We dump it into the styrofoam cup because,
48:01
again, it touches, you know, growing up,
48:03
we didn't have a whole lot.
48:04
That's about all we had.
48:05
And then we top that with our meat,
48:08
with our cilantro and onion.
48:10
And, you know,
48:11
so it's kind of all encompassing just a
48:12
warm, hearty.
48:14
But all the components inside of that are
48:17
so well thought out.
48:18
And this takes so long to make,
48:20
probably minus the noodles and the little
48:22
dried up, you know,
48:23
peas and carrots that you get in there.
48:27
And then you realize how much sodium is
48:28
in that thing.
48:29
So then you got to alter your recipe
48:30
for your consummate.
48:32
And, you know,
48:33
there's so much that goes into it that
48:35
people just don't get.
48:38
And then the kicker is like when they
48:39
don't come out and you're like,
48:40
I got a home run and then they
48:42
don't show up to eat it all.
48:44
And you're like, well,
48:45
now it's now either.
48:47
And we don't like to give stuff to
48:49
our employees all that much because then
48:51
it starts a precedence that they can just
48:53
take, take, take.
48:54
And yeah, we don't,
48:55
we don't really go down that road.
48:57
So unfortunately there was not really a
48:59
whole lot.
49:00
You know, we are fresh every day.
49:02
So every day our cook is the same.
49:04
It's just might be different volumes,
49:06
but every day is cooking for the next
49:10
day, right?
49:11
First thing in the morning,
49:12
doing your ribs and your chicken for that
49:13
day service.
49:14
Then you roll into your briskets and butts
49:16
and all your little off things,
49:17
your pork bellies, your chicken wings,
49:20
sausages,
49:20
anything that you're going to fill up your
49:21
pits with is all after that.
49:24
But every day for my pit team and
49:26
for the prep team,
49:27
it's the most boring job in the world.
49:29
You guys know that?
49:30
yeah excitement i mean if you like to
49:32
make red bliss potato salad i got a
49:35
job for you right but most people don't
49:38
find that exciting yeah i mean no it's
49:41
it's insane i think we went through in
49:44
with the we know what we went through
49:46
in items last year because my production
49:48
manager did like kind of a wrap of
49:50
we did seventy one thousand links of
49:53
sausage that we made ourselves
49:57
You know, when you make sausage,
49:58
it's a three-day process.
50:02
You know, I mean,
50:02
we have a banana pudding called banana
50:04
masseuse.
50:05
My favorite dessert is tiramisu.
50:06
I really wasn't a banana pudding fan,
50:08
so I kind of merged the two.
50:10
We went through, I want to say,
50:12
forty thousand half pans of that last
50:14
year.
50:20
That's just wild.
50:21
Insane.
50:21
Insane, man.
50:21
And that's all in an area,
50:22
and I think being in an area where
50:23
we don't have
50:26
Like it's foreign to them, Texas barbecue.
50:28
Like when I walk the line and get
50:30
samples out and things,
50:32
I make it a point to explain what
50:34
Texas barbecue is to me and what makes
50:38
it different versus what they,
50:39
because they think, oh, I just, you know,
50:41
it's a five dollar chopped pork sandwich.
50:45
Right.
50:45
It ain't that.
50:46
Even our whole port ain't that.
50:48
That's the hospitality.
50:49
That's the storytelling.
50:50
That's making that customer have that.
50:53
Like you said, I got a twenty,
50:54
thirty minute drive ahead of me and an
50:56
hour wait.
50:57
Now I've had an experience instead of
50:58
just.
50:59
And you can't and you both know you
51:01
can't please everybody.
51:02
Right.
51:02
Somebody might drive a half hour.
51:04
They might have a great experience,
51:05
but they might say and we get it
51:06
all the time.
51:08
Our best review, you know, most popular.
51:10
It was good, but expensive.
51:12
So in their mind,
51:14
they think barbecue equals cheap.
51:17
Now,
51:17
there might be a time and a place.
51:19
It ain't twenty twenty six.
51:21
It might be nineteen.
51:26
When, you know, Decker,
51:27
you're hoping to have nostalgia for.
51:29
Well, when it was a dollar forty nine,
51:30
I was going to wear my other hat
51:31
that says make it's a make brisket one.
51:37
Yeah, I wear that around.
51:38
But right now it's red and it looks
51:39
like a magna hat.
51:40
I just don't even want a political
51:41
anybody's hands off that.
51:44
So I'll just wear my backwards moist hat
51:46
and not piss people off that way.
51:47
yeah i uh i ran across i ran
51:50
across a picture that i sent to my
51:55
business partner the week that we in the
51:58
week prior to us opening and and i
52:01
paid you opened it what twenty twenty was
52:02
it twenty twenty yeah and um uh my
52:07
i bought a prime brisket for two dollars
52:09
and thirty eight cents a pound
52:13
man.
52:14
That was five years ago, man.
52:17
And now I'm paying over six.
52:19
Yeah.
52:20
You know, it's, and, and that's what,
52:23
you know,
52:23
and people don't understand they hear six
52:25
dollars a pound and go, okay, well,
52:26
why are you, you know,
52:28
why are you charging thirty three for,
52:30
for, for a pound of brisket?
52:31
But they don't understand that if you get
52:33
a fifteen pound brisket,
52:35
You're going to cut five pounds of it
52:38
off.
52:40
We yield thirty thirty four to thirty five
52:42
percent.
52:43
That's our that's our end yield from trim
52:47
to cook to final.
52:48
So we're you we're yielding a third.
52:51
Right.
52:52
So once you start putting in that regards
52:54
and you put it into like, well,
52:55
if you had a dollar,
52:56
but I only gave you thirty three cents
52:58
of it.
53:00
Would that make you your eyes open up
53:02
a little bit?
53:02
Right.
53:02
You know,
53:03
that's where you have to connect with
53:06
those people that you can see.
53:08
Well, this person's engaged,
53:09
but they might be bothered or they're
53:11
staying away from the high cost items.
53:14
Right.
53:14
And it's like, OK, well, you know what?
53:16
I can sample,
53:18
give them a burn end or I can
53:19
give them, you know,
53:20
I'll take a few slices and I'll start
53:22
breaking them up to people in line.
53:24
And they're like, oh, OK, well,
53:25
now I know what brisket is.
53:26
I'm like, OK, you know, I mean,
53:27
we can we can start going down that
53:29
road now with you.
53:31
Some people just don't care.
53:32
Some people look at it as fuel.
53:35
Right.
53:35
It's fuel for their body.
53:36
And I get it.
53:37
But I want to put ninety three in
53:38
my car if I can afford it.
53:40
So I try to do the same with
53:42
my body.
53:42
Right.
53:42
One hundred percent.
53:43
One hundred percent.
53:46
What, Bob,
53:47
if people are trying to find you for
53:50
catering, come to your locations,
53:53
how can they get a hold of you?
53:54
Yeah, so you can go on our website,
53:56
redwoodsmokeshack.com,
53:58
and you'll have our history.
54:00
You'll see all our smokers.
54:02
why we named them a certain way and
54:03
all this other stuff.
54:05
Catering,
54:06
you can order catering right from there,
54:08
pay for it and all that stuff.
54:10
You can do all your online ordering.
54:12
We have an app.
54:13
So if you want to order for the
54:14
restaurant, you can do it on the online.
54:16
You can do the third parties, you know,
54:18
save yourself some money and just go on
54:19
our website or download our app and order
54:22
it there.
54:24
Um, and then three locations, you know,
54:25
we're in,
54:25
we're in three of the seven cities in
54:28
the area.
54:29
Um,
54:30
just kind of drive by rolled on your
54:31
windows,
54:32
smell a little bit and you'll find us.
54:33
It's incredible.
54:36
You got a Friday feel good for us.
54:39
I do.
54:39
Uh, y'all being in restaurant, uh,
54:42
business hospitality and just life in
54:45
general.
54:46
Thomas Jefferson has a quote.
54:47
I'm a great believer in luck,
54:49
and I find the harder I work,
54:51
the more I have of it.
54:51
You've got to put in the effort.
54:53
You've got to put in the time,
54:54
and then luck will come your way.
54:56
Y'all know what to do.
54:57
Find somebody you know.
54:57
Tell them you love them.
54:58
I love that.
55:00
That's great.
55:01
I love you guys.
55:02
Yeah.
55:02
Bob, we've had an absolute blast, man.
55:04
We appreciate it.
55:04
Bob, I will tell you,
55:05
the next time I get to Virginia,
55:06
I'm coming to see you, my friend.
55:08
For sure, man.
55:09
Come on in.
55:10
We love you.
55:11
Hey, my sister-in-law and family,
55:13
they live right outside of Nashville,
55:15
I believe in Franklin.
55:16
yep oh yeah it's about twenty minutes from
55:18
us yeah so uh we go down there
55:21
every once in a while um so i'll
55:23
definitely have to i loved your uh ants
55:25
video too your barbecue story oh thanks
55:28
man yeah um i love that guy you
55:30
know hopefully hopefully one day we get to
55:32
we get the email saying hey i'm going
55:33
to be in town we'd love to kind
55:35
of you know see what we do
55:37
i will reach out to him for you
55:39
and uh and get him to uh uh
55:42
we'll get i'll get i'll get with you
55:43
offline we'll see if we we'll see if
55:45
we can get aunt to come see you
55:46
he's uh he's an incredible fella he has
55:49
just gotten better and better at the stuff
55:51
that he's done and uh his channel is
55:55
yeah it's really really really good so
55:57
And now he's starting to do some short
55:58
form stuff too.
55:59
So it's really cool.
56:00
But look,
56:01
I appreciate you coming to hang out with
56:03
us.
56:03
Thank you guys.
56:05
You know what to do.
56:05
If you want to get involved with the
56:06
show,
56:07
please reach out to me directly at
56:08
charlieatsingletreebbq.com.
56:11
You can call me at six one five
56:13
three zero seven zero one two zero.
56:17
the show make sure that you like share
56:19
and subscribe to it every show airs on
56:23
espn the fan on saturday and sunday
56:28
morning from eight until nine o'clock and
56:31
until next time guys we'll see you then
56:33
y'all be good