Latest / Single Tree Nation Show / Cooper Abercrombie | The Texas BBQ Grind Behind Bar-A-Que | Pitmasters, Smoke & Entrepreneurship |

Transcript

Cooper Abercrombie | The Texas BBQ Grind Behind Bar-A-Que | Pitmasters, Smoke & Entrepreneurship | · Single Tree Nation Show

0:01
what is up everybody welcome back to
0:03
another episode of single tree nation uh i
0:06
am dairy without charlie today still down
0:10
for the count and uh so by the
0:12
time this comes out all should be back
0:13
to normal and he'll be feeling well so
0:16
best wishes to him i want to welcome
0:18
cooper from bar a barbecue with us today
0:21
matt montgomery texas i almost said
0:23
madison and offended somebody cooper how
0:25
you doing man i'm good brother how are
0:28
you i appreciate y'all inviting me on
0:29
today
0:30
We are stoked to have you here.
0:32
We made a joke before you came on.
0:35
Just about everybody from Texas that we've
0:37
ever tried to book has stiffed us.
0:39
So we're glad that you decided to jump
0:41
in here with us and see what we
0:43
can get into today.
0:46
All social media is good, man.
0:48
I take it all.
0:49
Yeah, well, we try to.
0:52
I don't do a ton of deep diving
0:54
into our guests,
0:56
but I do enough to where I can
0:57
actually have a conversation.
1:00
Y'all's social media is,
1:02
I love the authenticity.
1:05
I genuinely think my favorite part is when
1:07
you just ask, hey, are we taping?
1:11
It makes it feel like something got missed
1:13
one time and you're going to make sure
1:14
we're not going to ever miss it again.
1:16
i've uh we you know we do youtube
1:18
as well and i've i've been burned several
1:20
times where the the you know camera's not
1:22
been actually recording or the audio is
1:25
not on so i'm like you know what
1:26
it i'm just gonna ask every time are
1:28
we on i love it i love it
1:30
well that it's born out of an authentic
1:32
presence and i absolutely love it hey
1:35
listen
1:37
Go ahead, take a short time here.
1:41
Give us your elevator pitch.
1:43
Tell me who you are, what you got,
1:44
and we'll jump in from there.
1:47
Yeah, Cooper Abercrombie.
1:49
I own and operate Bar A Barbecue in
1:51
Montgomery, Texas,
1:52
about an hour northwest of Houston.
1:54
And we're a Texas monthly top-fifty
1:56
restaurant,
1:57
top-one-hundred restaurant in the Houston
1:58
area, and we serve Texas craft barbecue.
2:03
Texas craft barbecue.
2:04
That is a name in of itself.
2:08
I think it's barbecue is one of those
2:10
things that's so regionally developed,
2:13
but everybody knows what Texas barbecue
2:15
is, or at least in my mind,
2:17
everybody knows what Texas barbecue is.
2:19
And, um,
2:21
I think that I love the part about
2:23
just keeping it simple.
2:24
It's it's, you know what to do.
2:27
You do the basics well and keep them
2:30
coming back for more.
2:31
So, um,
2:32
I'm not smart enough to do any other
2:33
way, man.
2:34
We try and keep the menu smaller,
2:35
execute it well,
2:36
and just honor what we can while still
2:39
trying to evolve in a pretty competitive
2:42
market.
2:44
I would say a very competitive market.
2:46
Do you know how many barbecue restaurants
2:48
are in Texas?
2:50
Ballpark?
2:50
I have no idea.
2:52
I mean,
2:53
there's five within five miles of me.
2:56
Wow.
2:57
Okay, so it is saturated.
3:00
Us Tennessee guys think there's a lot here
3:01
in our little small town,
3:03
and we've got the national chains,
3:05
we've got the local guys and that kind
3:06
of stuff.
3:06
So I don't think there's anywhere, though,
3:09
that there's five within five miles.
3:10
So that's pretty impressive.
3:12
Yeah, it's like a donut shop, man.
3:14
There's one every corner around here.
3:16
Absolutely, absolutely.
3:19
Hey,
3:19
one of the social media posts that you
3:21
made recently,
3:22
and it was probably the one that really
3:24
piqued my interest the most,
3:27
I believe it shows yourself hand-cutting
3:31
y'all's pickles.
3:33
And the caption that goes along with it
3:35
is something to the effect of,
3:38
all your friends are telling you just buy
3:40
it from Cisco.
3:41
Nobody will know, but you'll know.
3:44
Where...
3:47
First of all, thank you for that,
3:49
because I think so many restaurants do
3:51
have a tendency to kind of default back
3:54
to I can order this.
3:56
But when when you're choosing those
3:59
elements that can be house made,
4:02
what part of that is like, hell, yeah,
4:04
that's what I'm going for versus I want
4:07
to stick it to the man versus this
4:09
is just the pride that I take in
4:10
what I do.
4:13
How much time do we have?
4:14
Because this one kind of leads to another
4:17
one, another one,
4:18
another one of my kind of core things
4:20
that I really believe.
4:23
You know, craft...
4:27
I'm going to make,
4:28
I'm going to do the long way to
4:29
answer.
4:29
Screw it.
4:30
So you're going to hear a lot of
4:30
me talk today, but anyway,
4:35
I'm a Texas high school football coach's
4:36
son.
4:37
Okay.
4:38
Uh,
4:38
all I've ever known my entire life is
4:40
long days, long hours, put in the work.
4:42
You get what you get,
4:43
what you put into it.
4:45
And, uh,
4:47
football like the restaurant industry i
4:49
believe it's there's a lot of crossover a
4:51
lot of similarities um i don't take the
4:54
term coach lightly just because you can
4:56
accept money from a bunch of parents and
4:58
go travel around the country the baseball
5:00
team doesn't make you a coach uh that's
5:02
a that's a term that's earned not given
5:04
uh just as the you know just the
5:06
term chef is you know chef is earned
5:08
not given uh and i'm not a chef
5:10
by any means but i'm just making a
5:11
point here um
5:13
they're just because you call yourself
5:16
craft if if you're not making your pickles
5:18
if you're not making your sides from
5:19
scratch if you're not making your breads
5:22
your rolls i mean if you're just buying
5:24
this stuff already pre-made throw in some
5:27
garlic powder black pepper and season all
5:29
in there and calling it stretch bs man
5:32
that's that's the that's the easy way out
5:34
that's not craft now
5:36
I will say this.
5:37
I have nothing against that.
5:39
There is a great business model.
5:41
It makes money.
5:42
There's a lot of places that have done
5:43
that for a lot of years.
5:45
But you cannot put the term craft in
5:47
front of your name if that's the way
5:48
out you're going to go.
5:50
You know, I hear all over social media,
5:53
all over the news right now that,
5:55
you know, people are,
5:56
restaurants are closing.
5:58
It's because the cost of living is too
6:00
high.
6:00
This and that.
6:01
People aren't eating out.
6:02
BS.
6:02
There's restaurants all over this country
6:04
and every single town that are jam-packed
6:06
every single night of the week.
6:09
People are still eating out.
6:10
They're still spending money.
6:13
I don't think people are...
6:15
I don't think there's less money to spend.
6:18
I think we've hit a point right now
6:21
in this country where people are more
6:24
conscious of everything that eating out
6:29
encapsulates.
6:31
the ambiance, the guest experience,
6:34
the customer service, and the food.
6:37
I think for a long time,
6:38
you could just have great food and get
6:40
away with it and still be jam-packed,
6:41
and the customer service could lack,
6:42
or the ambiance could...
6:44
I don't think people are willing to go
6:46
spend a hundred and fifty bucks anymore to
6:48
feed a family of four,
6:50
and not all four of those are gonna
6:52
meet their expectations.
6:54
So I think the bar has been raised
6:57
several notches over the last several
6:59
years,
7:00
that some restaurants are not able to hit
7:03
that mark anymore for a bajillion reasons.
7:07
And sometimes it's not in their control.
7:10
There are some restaurants that just flat
7:12
out had some bad luck and it didn't
7:14
work out.
7:14
And that happens every single day.
7:17
But...
7:18
I'm just not one that wants to play
7:20
in the game of making excuses.
7:22
You know,
7:23
I see too many places that are busy,
7:25
that are doing it the right way,
7:26
that aren't selling in this industry for
7:29
me to say, well, you know,
7:31
it's a slow day because of politics or
7:34
the economy or whatever, man.
7:35
I think that's the, again,
7:36
that's the easy way out of this whole
7:38
thing.
7:39
I saw announced today that there's a
7:43
nationwide restaurant chain that's going
7:44
to close five hundred something locations.
7:48
And they were given three or four reasons
7:50
along what you were saying.
7:52
The customer is not buying anymore.
7:54
The dollar is not buying whatever, blah,
7:55
blah, blah.
7:57
And one of the first comments to it
7:59
was,
7:59
or maybe a business model of crappy food,
8:03
getting more expensive and poor customer
8:06
service just doesn't fit us all anymore.
8:09
And I,
8:11
there comes a point much to what you
8:13
were saying.
8:15
Convenience isn't the only factor of going
8:17
out to eat anymore.
8:18
I think for a long time,
8:19
that was what a lot of people chose
8:22
to do.
8:22
Well, we're too busy tonight.
8:23
Let's just pick something up,
8:24
that kind of thing.
8:26
now it's become a destination.
8:27
Now it's become a point of,
8:29
I know where I want to go spend
8:31
my dollar.
8:32
And I personally,
8:35
as someone who has a background in
8:38
craftsmanship with wood and being able to
8:40
see what I create,
8:42
love what you said there about being able
8:45
to call what you're creating craft and
8:48
putting your time putting your effort
8:50
putting the the specific touches in being
8:53
able to do that so um kudos to
8:57
you well done because like you said there
8:59
are plenty of restaurants that are still
9:00
jam-packed there are plenty that are still
9:02
doing all that they want to do making
9:05
plenty of money and income and providing
9:08
for all their employees so it can't just
9:10
be a fact that
9:12
well we don't have the money or we
9:14
don't have the clientele or the politics
9:16
or the dollar or whatever so excuse me
9:20
um we've got a segment that we do
9:23
in every show called a table for two
9:28
um and we've had some really good answers
9:29
to this but i'm i get excited each
9:31
week when we ask this uh if you
9:34
could have dinner with anyone past present
9:37
future who would that be and why would
9:40
you choose them
9:46
Probably,
9:47
and this answer changes probably every
9:51
month, it seems like.
9:52
There's someone else I kind of get fixated
9:54
on.
9:55
Probably Chef Sean Brock out of Nashville
9:57
right now.
9:58
He's kind of...
10:01
I've worked with some of the guys that
10:03
have worked under him and every one of
10:04
them that I've worked with has been just
10:06
an incredible human being and incredibly
10:08
talented chef.
10:09
So I would like to be able to
10:11
sit down and have a meal with that
10:12
guy and pick his brain and just understand
10:16
kind of how he sees hospitality from,
10:19
you know,
10:19
the food to every little detail in
10:22
between.
10:24
You mentioned that you wouldn't call
10:25
yourself a chef.
10:27
Clearly you have culinary skills.
10:31
at what point does a skill level reach
10:36
hey i have earned that name or the
10:39
caveat there is there enough self-drive in
10:43
someone like yourself that i'm never going
10:45
to attain that because i'm always looking
10:47
to better myself and you don't want to
10:50
just settle for getting comfortable
10:54
There's several factors.
10:55
A, I'm not a label guy.
10:57
I don't believe in labels.
10:59
I don't care.
11:01
But two,
11:01
I just think the guys that you
11:03
legitimately have earned that title are
11:06
able to turn.
11:09
I mean,
11:12
there's just a level to those guys.
11:14
I've had conversations with legitimate
11:18
chefs that get very offended when some of
11:21
us in barbecue call ourselves chefs.
11:24
And I don't really have a reason to
11:28
counter their point.
11:28
I kind of agree, you know.
11:30
Sure.
11:30
Just because we can do three or four
11:32
things really well,
11:33
I don't think that makes you, you know,
11:34
a chef.
11:34
I think those guys have mastered so many
11:36
different techniques,
11:37
so many different cooking styles and
11:39
variations of food that some of us in
11:41
barbecue have never even dreamed of doing.
11:44
um that doesn't mean that you're not an
11:45
extremely talented um you know artist to a
11:49
degree in barbecue there's a lot of that
11:52
uh but again and and this is this
11:54
is my opinion i'm i am wrong a
11:56
lot of times so you know i don't
11:58
want anyone to get offended with me that's
12:00
just how i see it um
12:04
I kind of rambled.
12:05
I'm sorry.
12:05
I forgot the main point.
12:06
No, you're good.
12:06
You're good.
12:08
I was just saying,
12:08
but there's a personal drive there where,
12:11
you know,
12:12
some guys have a distinguishing mark there
12:14
or whatever.
12:15
And like,
12:15
is there a point when you would ever
12:16
say, yeah, you know what?
12:18
I am a chef.
12:18
I own a restaurant.
12:19
I can cook.
12:19
I can do this.
12:20
I can whatever.
12:21
Or is that the personal drive that you
12:23
hold where sure, some people have that.
12:25
And it's like you said,
12:26
you're not a big label guy,
12:28
but it always allows you the opportunity
12:30
to still go for that next drive,
12:32
the next level, the next step up.
12:35
Yeah, I mean,
12:36
we view everything as it's never good
12:38
enough.
12:38
It can always be improved.
12:40
And full disclosure,
12:41
I haven't cooked anything in this
12:43
restaurant in twelve months.
12:44
I have an incredible team that is
12:46
extremely,
12:47
extremely talented that have come from all
12:50
over the country.
12:51
We've got guys from Arkansas, from Oregon,
12:53
from California.
12:55
We have an incredible team.
12:57
And I just signed the paychecks now,
12:59
I think, in most days.
13:01
Sure, sure.
13:03
not anyone on our staff and no one
13:04
within my organization will ever be a part
13:07
of this organization if they ever do get
13:09
satisfied with what we're doing right we
13:11
all know that it can be improved we
13:13
haven't cooked a brisket the same way here
13:15
in three years of doing this uh we
13:18
are always tweaking techniques always
13:20
trying to find ways to get better to
13:21
get more efficient uh and you know my
13:25
job now is just to make us as
13:27
you know a healthy sustainable business
13:30
that can continue to grow
13:33
Where is the line between being able to
13:36
be consistent and serve the same thing day
13:38
in and day out versus tweaking that recipe
13:43
or tweaking that serving model to better
13:46
the restaurant and how do they balance
13:48
each other?
13:51
It's a fine line.
13:52
You know, when we tweak something,
13:55
you know,
13:55
we've been working on a Caesar kale slaw
14:00
for three and a half months now.
14:02
It's not even on the menu,
14:04
but we work on it about twice a
14:06
week.
14:06
We dedicate Tuesdays and Fridays to
14:09
working on that recipe.
14:11
And that's generally how we work on stuff
14:13
is we'll kind of spend several weeks in
14:15
the background making small batches of a
14:18
certain item to tweak it here or there.
14:20
When it comes to proteins,
14:21
maybe we'll set this one brisket in one
14:23
specific spot that we want to try this
14:25
technique with it.
14:28
You know,
14:28
it's just you're constantly tweaking in
14:30
the background.
14:31
And sometimes, you know,
14:32
you have to learn that.
14:35
You can't just want to break something to
14:38
fix it and be the savior.
14:39
You got to just come sometimes,
14:40
accept that something's really,
14:41
really good.
14:42
And there's only minute little efficiency
14:44
details you can fix for that.
14:46
Always trying to tweak a recipe just to
14:48
break it and fix it is kind of
14:50
an egotistical thing that I've had to
14:52
fight myself.
14:53
You know,
14:53
when you step out of the kitchen and
14:55
into more of the,
14:57
overview of running the business um you
15:00
kind of lose that fire sometimes where
15:01
you're like man i really missed being the
15:03
guy that was always picking that great
15:05
item and putting you know i was the
15:07
one doing it um so there is like
15:11
i said there's definitely a fine line
15:12
between um tweaking something and being
15:15
consistent daily and also just breaking to
15:18
break and say you broke something and
15:20
fixed it right
15:22
Yeah, there's the saying,
15:25
if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
15:27
You know,
15:27
you don't have to break it to create
15:29
a job.
15:29
So sometimes just you are where you are.
15:33
And that makes the most sense.
15:35
You know, there's two.
15:36
I mean, in hospitality,
15:37
you have to somewhat evolve.
15:39
You know, absolutely.
15:41
constantly get better because not only do
15:45
you have to make sure your current
15:46
clientele is happy and seeing that you're
15:48
improving, it's just getting better.
15:49
You know,
15:49
you want to be known as the place
15:50
that gets better every time you go,
15:52
you know,
15:53
but you've also got new people walking in
15:54
the door every day and you want to
15:55
make sure that they're blown away in every
15:57
aspect that first time.
15:59
So they come back at sixth, seventh,
16:01
eighth, ninth, and tenth time, you know,
16:03
that one customer,
16:04
that one new customer is worth several
16:06
thousand dollars for us a year.
16:08
If we do everything the right way,
16:10
we do our job the correct way.
16:13
I love that.
16:14
Absolutely love that.
16:16
Give me your background in barbecue.
16:17
How did you fumble your way into this?
16:20
Was it a goal from the beginning?
16:23
Was it just backyards with granddad?
16:25
Where did that go?
16:27
Me and my wife,
16:29
I'm born and raised here in Montgomery.
16:32
Picked my first real big boy job.
16:34
Me and my wife,
16:35
we moved out to North Carolina and lived
16:37
out there for a couple years with my
16:39
sales job.
16:41
And kind of bummed around over there,
16:43
kind of started eating more barbecue when
16:46
I was out there.
16:47
Because again,
16:48
there's barbecue everywhere in that area.
16:50
It's all pork, you know.
16:52
And I regret now not going to some
16:55
of the great places out there.
16:56
I just wasn't into barbecue that much.
16:57
It was just food to me then.
17:00
But when we finally moved back to Texas,
17:03
the first thing you do when you buy
17:04
a house in Texas is you have to
17:06
purchase a smoker.
17:07
It's in every house agreement.
17:08
It's in the contract there.
17:09
Sign on.
17:10
and um so I bought a Trader like
17:14
everybody uh first thing you do is you
17:16
go to YouTube and you watch a Matt
17:18
Pittman video you watch a Malcolm Reed
17:19
video and how to how to cook a
17:21
brisket and um made just awful awful
17:25
brisket for a long time not those guys
17:28
faults just I I sucked at it sure
17:31
and
17:33
I kind of just,
17:34
it was one of those deals that was
17:35
really, really hard.
17:37
I couldn't figure it out.
17:38
Just kept kind of got enamored with it.
17:41
And, uh,
17:42
every free second free moment I had,
17:45
I was, uh, you know,
17:47
leaving my sales calls a little early to
17:49
go home and try and cook another brisket
17:50
and try and figure this thing out.
17:52
And, uh,
17:54
One day my wife was like, hey,
17:56
we can't just keep cooking brisket to cook
17:57
brisket.
17:57
You gotta figure this thing out.
17:59
So we started chopping up and selling one
18:03
pound freezer pack portions to all the
18:05
moms in our little neighborhood that were
18:07
just taking it and reheating it for kid
18:09
lunches throughout the week.
18:11
And that allowed me the avenue to kind
18:13
of experiment and get better at it.
18:16
Because it got to the point we were
18:17
selling like a hundred pounds a week and
18:18
just chop brisket to these moms.
18:21
And about that time is when I started
18:25
seeing kind of that underground California
18:27
barbecue pop-up game starting to kind of
18:30
show itself on Instagram.
18:31
Right.
18:32
You know,
18:33
with Moose Craft and Burt Backman,
18:38
those guys,
18:38
and Trudy's Underground Barbecue,
18:40
those guys.
18:41
And I thought, hey, we can...
18:43
there's a brewery down the road we can
18:44
go set up over there and start trying
18:47
to do pop-ups and man before you know
18:50
it blink of an eye we just kind
18:51
of kept getting better and better I guess
18:54
and people kept showing up and we go
18:56
from a tent to a trailer trailer to
18:58
the brick and mortar and brick and mortar
19:01
one to brick and mortar two here this
19:03
year so it just kind of keeps growing
19:06
said brick and mortar too is that coming
19:08
up in twenty twenty six or you just
19:09
have finalized that twenty twenty five we
19:12
should be in that building by uh before
19:14
football season they're actually saying
19:17
may i'm i'm not holding my breath i'm
19:19
saying september is my my goal i gotcha
19:22
well good for you hey we're gonna take
19:25
a real quick break and we'll come back
19:27
and jump into some more bar a barbecue
19:32
Welcome back, guys.
19:33
I am here with Cooper from Bar A
19:36
Barbecue in Montgomery, Texas.
19:39
Wonderful story so far going on.
19:43
I saw a couple of things on your
19:46
social media page,
19:48
and it kind of drove me to thinking,
19:50
and I wanted to get what's the most
19:52
unique meat that you've personally ever
19:53
smoked?
19:57
We did a...
19:59
So I got to cook with Max with
20:02
Texacana Barbecue a long time ago.
20:07
And James McFarlane with Nomad Barbecue at
20:09
the time.
20:11
And we did a whole goat in a
20:14
five hundred gallon Moberg.
20:17
And we served it with a reduced red
20:20
wine sauce because Max being Italian,
20:22
everything they do has wine in it.
20:24
And it was absolutely awful,
20:28
but it was a very, very fun experience.
20:31
You know,
20:32
we've asked that question to a handful of
20:34
guys over the couple of years that we've
20:37
been doing this.
20:39
And when we ask about those weird meats
20:42
that we've tried to barbecue or we've
20:44
tried to smoke,
20:46
nobody ever says it turned out well.
20:48
We always have a learning experience or,
20:51
hey, I'll never do that again.
20:52
So I find that unique.
20:55
Really, I had hopes for a goat.
20:58
I don't know that I've ever personally
20:59
done that, but I held out.
21:03
Yeah, I would try it again,
21:04
but I don't know about the red wine
21:07
with the goat.
21:07
That was not a combination I enjoyed.
21:12
I read a quote that you had typed
21:14
out,
21:17
kind of touching back on to the reason
21:19
you make your stuff house-made.
21:23
You had said,
21:25
I'm just a kid from Texas trying to
21:27
make something to be proud of.
21:30
And with my background in construction and
21:33
now as a teacher,
21:35
I've often times tried to get kids to
21:37
understand that, that,
21:39
that element of pride in self and what
21:41
you produce makes sometimes the biggest
21:46
difference of what is being put out there
21:48
as just a quote kid from Texas,
21:51
trying to make something be proud of how
21:53
much drive does that give you when you
21:55
set out each morning and saying, look,
21:58
I want to do this and I want
21:59
to do it right.
22:00
And hell or high water,
22:02
this is what we're going to get done.
22:05
Yeah, I mean,
22:09
if you don't wake up every day,
22:11
you know,
22:13
with this passion with what you're about
22:15
to do for the day, what you're creating,
22:18
you haven't found what you're put on this
22:20
earth to do.
22:21
And I don't know if selling barbecue is
22:24
what I'm put on this earth to do,
22:25
but I do believe leading people and
22:30
creating a culture and
22:32
something for a city to be proud of
22:34
is what I was put on this earth
22:35
to do.
22:36
And being from this town and growing up
22:38
here,
22:40
I've always had a goal of finding a
22:42
way to put this city on a national
22:44
map.
22:44
And I think we're starting to make a
22:46
little bit of headway with some of the
22:48
stuff we're doing and some of the other
22:49
concepts that, you know,
22:51
we get to unveil here in the near
22:53
future.
22:55
So like I said,
22:57
we've always said one of our core values
22:59
is just
23:00
always be an asset for the city of
23:02
Montgomery.
23:03
So that's what we strive to do every
23:04
day.
23:06
When you moved back from North Carolina
23:08
and you kind of set foot back in
23:10
home again,
23:12
what's that first element that felt like
23:14
home and you thought I,
23:15
this is what I don't want to lose,
23:17
or this is what I want to promote
23:18
other than obviously the barbecue or what
23:20
you want to do there.
23:21
What part really drove you to,
23:23
this is why Montgomery is worth fighting
23:25
for.
23:28
It's just, you know,
23:29
it's just the memories.
23:31
Everyone has those just nostalgic smells
23:34
and sights and landmarks and roads and
23:38
street signs and restaurants that they
23:41
will, the day they,
23:42
when they're a hundred and fifty years
23:45
old,
23:45
they'll never forget what any of those
23:47
senses were about that hometown,
23:50
what home was.
23:52
And, um, you know,
23:54
when we first moved back,
23:55
we didn't move right back to Montgomery.
23:57
And we, we took a,
23:59
we actually came up to Montgomery to see
24:01
one of our favorite, uh,
24:04
red dirt bands playing at,
24:05
at the wine festival out here.
24:08
And that was the first time I'd stepped
24:10
back in probably ten years.
24:12
And I was just like, I'm,
24:14
I'm not leaving this town again.
24:16
We're here.
24:17
We're, we just bought this house.
24:19
I don't care.
24:20
You're on the market.
24:21
We're finding something out here.
24:23
know it's funny my wife and i bought
24:25
a house it's coming up on two years
24:27
ago and we were in it for right
24:31
at i think it was like this ain't
24:34
the spot like we just knew and and
24:37
we moved and from a
24:40
personal financial deal,
24:42
it was kind of all a wash,
24:44
you know,
24:44
and everybody's like real estate's always
24:46
a good net and we didn't care.
24:48
And it turns out we, we,
24:50
the place we did wind up in,
24:52
it feels like home.
24:53
It literally it's in the same town.
24:55
Like we didn't do a big change or
24:56
anything, but it feels right.
24:58
And like,
24:59
we knew we landed where we were supposed
25:01
to.
25:02
And,
25:02
and sometimes just coming back home does
25:04
that to you?
25:04
You know, I'm sure there,
25:07
there's still memories of my grandmother's
25:08
house.
25:08
That's where my hometown is.
25:10
And like you said, those smells,
25:12
those sites.
25:13
And I had the opportunity recently to go
25:15
back up there.
25:17
And there's so much that's changed.
25:20
And there's so much that is still just
25:24
backwood Tennessee that I recall as a kid.
25:27
And those memories of thirty years just
25:29
come flooding all back all of a sudden.
25:31
And it's worth it, every single one.
25:33
I won't get teared up.
25:34
I'm an emotional guy,
25:35
so I'm going to try not to.
25:37
But well done on that part for coming
25:40
back home and kind of wanting to be
25:42
a solid foundation for Montgomery.
25:44
Because you can't erase those memories and
25:46
you can't change them.
25:46
And not that you want to.
25:48
I'm the person,
25:49
like I'm trying to instill,
25:50
me and my son still go hunt.
25:53
on my grandmother's property.
25:54
And that's awesome for him.
25:56
It's just like it's my great grandmother's
25:58
property.
25:59
For me,
26:00
it's where I grew up learning this stuff.
26:02
It's where and now I'm getting to pass
26:03
that on to him.
26:04
And
26:06
Yeah, but when he's forty with a family,
26:08
he'll remember every square inch of that
26:10
dirt.
26:11
Absolutely.
26:12
And every little bit of it.
26:13
Absolutely.
26:14
It's stuff you don't care about when
26:16
you're that age,
26:16
but when you get to thirty-five, forty,
26:19
you're like, ah, damn,
26:20
that was a great time.
26:22
He doesn't know it.
26:25
I have a favorite picture,
26:26
and he was twenty at the time,
26:30
and now he's talking marriage,
26:31
so that's a whole other crazy thing,
26:32
because I wasn't prepared for that as a
26:34
dad.
26:35
But...
26:36
We actually both took our first deer on
26:39
the same day.
26:41
And I'd been hunting my whole life and
26:43
never took one.
26:43
I've seen them, let them walk,
26:44
this kind of thing.
26:46
And December of,
26:49
we both took our deer that day.
26:50
And I'm just sitting here.
26:52
If that picture ever gets lost,
26:53
I will lose my mind.
26:54
That's one of the few I still have
26:55
printed.
26:56
It's not on my phone.
26:59
But like you said,
27:00
we'll know all that property,
27:01
we'll know the space, we'll know,
27:03
and that core memory there that you just
27:05
can't get away from.
27:06
And to me, that's what hometown is.
27:08
And so when you're like, hey,
27:09
I went back hometown,
27:11
that's that's exactly what that is and and
27:14
I think we just need more of that
27:15
more people that love their roots love
27:17
where they're from love what they're about
27:20
if everybody would go back to their
27:22
hometown or if you had the opportunity and
27:24
just invest in it don't don't don't be
27:29
the guy that just calls out the problems
27:31
get in the town invest in it open
27:33
a business so do something quick I mean
27:37
You can hire a monkey to point out
27:39
a problem.
27:39
Go in there and fix it.
27:41
Go in there and be part of the
27:42
actual solution and be the change that you
27:44
want to see in your community.
27:45
And it'll make a world of difference all
27:47
over the place.
27:49
we've got a segment that we call mac
27:51
or beans and so it's a this or
27:54
that and the first part is just the
27:56
title of the segment you go to the
27:58
barbecue shop you've ordered your protein
28:01
whatever your personal protein of choice
28:02
is are you getting the mac and cheese
28:04
with that are you getting the barbecue
28:05
back beans mac and cheese can't stand
28:08
sweet beans can't stand sweet beans all
28:11
right well all right
28:14
I kind of hoped, I'm not gonna lie,
28:16
that that was your answer.
28:18
I saw recently that you've brought the mac
28:19
and cheese back to y'all's restaurant full
28:22
time.
28:24
I don't consider myself a huge macaroni
28:26
and cheese fan.
28:29
I could come to Montgomery,
28:30
Texas for that macaroni and cheese.
28:31
It looked that good.
28:32
I mean,
28:34
you did a great job with that.
28:35
I don't know who's knocking that around,
28:37
but well done, sir.
28:39
I'm not a big mac and cheese guy
28:40
either, but, man,
28:41
it's the one thing that everybody asks
28:43
for.
28:44
At some point,
28:45
you've got to give in and just give
28:46
the people what they want.
28:47
Absolutely.
28:48
Hey,
28:49
the other half of that is I saw
28:52
that one of your guys is absolutely
28:55
knocking out some ribeye steaks.
28:57
Yes.
28:59
I'm not a ribeye cut fan myself,
29:01
but holy cow, that looked right.
29:04
But on the heels of that,
29:06
then I see that you guys are rocking
29:09
– I wrote down a pork steak.
29:12
Yes.
29:13
If you're given that choice,
29:16
you going to go for that ribeye that
29:18
your guy's making,
29:19
or are you going to go for that
29:20
pork steak you're knocking out?
29:23
I love our head pitmaster with my whole
29:25
heart, Alec.
29:26
And those ribeyes are fantastic,
29:28
but those pork steaks are –
29:30
Man,
29:31
if I could stop selling brisket and just
29:33
sell pork steaks for a lot of reasons,
29:35
it would be great.
29:36
But I truly think those are one of
29:37
the best things we put out.
29:40
Is that somewhat offensive in Texas,
29:43
that pork is that good?
29:44
I don't care.
29:46
They can get over it.
29:47
It's that good.
29:48
I'll die on that hill.
29:51
I tell you,
29:51
I watched your description of that,
29:54
and when I kind of hung up on,
29:56
I think you said you cut them like
29:57
an inch and a half thick,
29:58
and I was like,
29:59
this guy is absolutely crushing that.
30:02
Oh, they're almost like a pork roast.
30:03
I mean, they're huge.
30:05
Well, not having tried it,
30:08
you've got a fan in me.
30:10
So I've never been to Texas,
30:13
but I feel like I need to make
30:14
a trip just to –
30:16
be able to authenticate some of these
30:17
things that we've had on as people
30:20
discuss.
30:20
So very, very well done.
30:24
I'm excited for that.
30:27
When you said you and your wife,
30:30
she was like, hey,
30:31
you guys start doing something to afford
30:33
this brisket.
30:33
You can't just keep buying them.
30:36
How much of spousal support when it comes
30:39
to a hospitality type business,
30:40
whether it's restaurant service, whatever,
30:43
because she knows the hours,
30:44
she knows the background,
30:45
she knows what that's going to take.
30:48
I often refer to Charlie, our co-host,
30:50
and he's the one that actually owns the
30:51
restaurant.
30:53
I'll tell him he's the owner,
30:54
but I saw his boss that day.
30:56
And obviously I'm referring to his wife
30:57
and she's a very sweet lady,
30:59
but she knows the restaurant.
31:00
Sometimes I think better than he does.
31:02
How much does that support mean?
31:05
When you know that you've got a big
31:07
thing going on, you got a big event,
31:08
you've got XYZ where she's in your corner
31:11
and that takes off.
31:14
Oh, she, uh,
31:16
You know,
31:17
she never really held me back at all.
31:18
She was always kind of pushing me forward
31:20
with it.
31:20
She was definitely apprehensive, you know,
31:23
leaving a great,
31:25
great sales career to go make no money
31:29
running a restaurant.
31:30
Why would you do that?
31:32
But now she's...
31:35
I mean,
31:36
I'm thankful every day that she's in my
31:38
corner and on my side.
31:39
So without a doubt,
31:40
she's an integral part of everything about
31:43
Barre.
31:43
You know,
31:46
she started out just doing baked goods for
31:47
us.
31:48
And then we taught her how to run
31:50
the cash register and the sides and the
31:52
garnish and then eventually cut.
31:54
And she's an incredible cutter.
31:55
I'd put her up against anybody in the
31:57
state when it comes to building a tray.
31:59
Nice.
32:00
And she's ultra talented.
32:01
And now she, you know,
32:03
we're fortunate enough to have enough
32:05
catering business that we actually need a
32:07
body full time.
32:08
So she just handles our catering and
32:10
events and handles all of that business
32:13
now.
32:14
Do you find that the catering aids in
32:18
what you're able to do with the brick
32:19
and mortar?
32:21
Or does it sometimes feel like it's
32:23
operated as a whole separate business?
32:27
We...
32:29
You know, my,
32:30
my bookkeeper would love for me to say
32:32
it's a separate business and just make
32:33
sure, but, uh, you know, it,
32:37
it kind of all goes in,
32:39
into the same account right now.
32:40
So as of now, it's under one house,
32:43
but it definitely, uh,
32:47
know hospitality you've got to have
32:49
several streams of income that's why we
32:51
spend so much time on social media and
32:53
our merchandise and you know we got to
32:54
have a lot of different different ways to
32:56
bring in money and catering is just
32:59
another faucet that we can turn on and
33:01
you know when counter sales a little bit
33:03
slower it's slower time of the year
33:04
generally catering seems to be a busier
33:06
time of the year so they kind of
33:07
tend to offset each other and
33:09
You know,
33:09
the real magic on the P&L happens when
33:11
the counter sales are up and the catering,
33:13
you know, is popping off too.
33:15
So it's just,
33:19
it's a whole on beast in itself.
33:21
It's something that I stay completely out
33:23
of because I cannot stand wedding planners
33:26
and event coordinators are some of the
33:28
most just,
33:30
awful people to work with i don't know
33:32
any what a better way to put it
33:33
but i was just gonna say they're
33:34
opinionated that way good lord man they
33:38
are they are tough and i just i
33:40
have terrible bite my tummy at times so
33:42
i stay completely out of that realm let
33:44
her handle it but you know sometimes
33:46
knowing your own limits there and let
33:47
somebody else take care of that and step
33:49
in is one of the best things you
33:51
can do so i am if nothing else
33:53
i am self-aware
33:55
Uh, exactly, exactly.
33:56
And there is no shame in that you
33:59
brought up social media.
34:01
Um, and, and I'm,
34:03
I'm always interested in, uh, hospitality.
34:07
Are you running that yourself or is that
34:10
in house or do y'all have guys that
34:11
come out?
34:12
Because I got to tell you for what
34:14
y'all are doing, at least your Instagram,
34:17
that's the part that I'm most comfortable
34:19
with and tend to spend some time on.
34:21
uh y'all are doing a fantastic job and
34:23
i'm always curious as to who has farmed
34:25
that out who keeps it in local and
34:28
and how how y'all seek taking care of
34:30
that out or taking care of that and
34:32
what you're hoping to get out of that
34:35
yeah we uh we've never spent much money
34:37
on uh google ads or marketing so social
34:41
media was something that i i really uh
34:43
put a heavy focus on you know it's
34:44
the cheapest way to market yourself
34:48
absolutely uh
34:50
so we take a lot of pride in
34:51
it i've got a lot of time invested
34:54
into learning it and growing it and um
34:57
i just recently passed it off to a
34:58
company actually out of australia um that
35:01
i i met through some some friends of
35:03
mine and um they uh while i still
35:07
produce the content they help me uh
35:10
brainstorm ideas for content and kind of
35:13
we we kind of have more of a
35:14
plan now with
35:16
what we want to post,
35:17
why we want to post it,
35:18
what captions we want to use,
35:20
what trends we want to hop on,
35:22
what we don't want to hop on,
35:23
you know,
35:24
because some stuff doesn't really fit the
35:26
brand.
35:26
So you got to kind of stay within
35:28
a reasonable track on kind of who you
35:32
are, what you're targeting.
35:33
You know,
35:33
we're making a big push right now with
35:35
a lot of our baked goods because
35:37
You know, full disclosure,
35:38
they're just a very,
35:39
very profitable item within our realm.
35:42
So a lot of our content is scheduled
35:44
and built around some of those baked
35:46
goods.
35:47
And our barbecue classes, you know, again,
35:51
very,
35:51
very profitable thing for our business.
35:53
So we're finding ways to use social media
35:58
where it actually is producing income for
36:01
us versus just a way to just market
36:04
that, hey, we're a barbecue restaurant.
36:06
Um, and while I still produce the content,
36:10
they edit it for me,
36:11
they get it scheduled for me.
36:12
They handle, uh, you know,
36:14
replying to the comments, um,
36:17
the DM stuff like that.
36:18
And they kind of flagged me on when
36:20
I need to step in and answer something,
36:21
but it's just cool.
36:24
There's a lot I got to do and
36:25
they helped me kind of narrow down some
36:26
of that list for me.
36:28
Well,
36:28
I think that's important where you can
36:30
still trust them to you,
36:32
put your touch on it and not just
36:34
have it become so generic that it's not
36:37
representing bar a barbecue.
36:39
Um,
36:41
One thing that I think goes hand in
36:42
hand with the social media,
36:44
and maybe this is just an outsider looking
36:46
in,
36:47
I'm always amazed at y'all's ability to
36:52
make and build merch.
36:54
And I tell you the thing that jumped
36:56
out at me,
36:56
because I'm impressed that any...
37:00
smaller or one or two or three unit
37:03
restaurant chain or company or group can
37:06
always put their logo or their name on
37:08
everything.
37:09
But it's when y'all start getting
37:10
creative.
37:11
And there was one that jumped out for
37:12
me on your social media page.
37:15
It was Post Oak and Diet Coke.
37:19
What's the source on that?
37:20
Was it a joke?
37:21
Was it something that you knew just would
37:23
take off?
37:24
Or is that a personal reflection?
37:25
And how does that become a t-shirt where
37:28
you're going to throw that out there to
37:29
the world?
37:31
I'm not into drugs, not into alcohol,
37:33
not into sugary sweets or anything like
37:37
that.
37:37
But man, Diet Coke,
37:38
I have a problem with Diet Coke.
37:42
Okay.
37:43
all whatever whatever they find out about
37:45
aspartame i'm gonna have a lot of issues
37:47
somewhere down the road okay take the
37:48
chances man um i've always got to
37:52
generally always have a diet coke with me
37:55
and uh you know obviously post oak is
37:57
the wood we smoke and we were actually
37:59
we were uh messing around in the
38:00
smokehouse one day and a buddy came by
38:03
and i think i ended up saying the
38:04
two lines together and i was like yeah
38:06
that's we gotta put that on a shirt
38:08
now and uh
38:10
called up our merch people and like, hey,
38:13
print the shirts, let's go.
38:16
When I was scrolling your page,
38:18
obviously y'all got a ton of content,
38:19
a lot of food stuff and a lot
38:21
of things related.
38:23
But the moment that shirt popped up,
38:24
I thought, man, these guys,
38:26
the barbecue community as a whole just has
38:29
a unique knack
38:30
for finding their own.
38:33
And sometimes I wonder if that's what
38:35
makes the barbecue community so unique is
38:38
your ability to find your own,
38:40
because even like you said,
38:42
you've got a ton of guys that are
38:45
around you that are barbecue restaurants,
38:47
barbecue sales, barbecue, whatever.
38:50
and try to differentiate yourself in a
38:53
world that can sometimes feel so overly
38:56
saturated um i think the social media like
38:59
you'd mentioned before makes that a little
39:01
easier makes it able to throw yourself out
39:04
there get your word out but the way
39:06
y'all can market and the way that y'all
39:07
can kind of come up with these taglines
39:09
and
39:10
uh just the merch line it is it's
39:13
something to behold for sure so uh well
39:15
done on that aspect but the diet coke
39:18
that the postdoc diet coke that was that
39:19
was a personal favorite for me
39:22
I've been waiting on a season assist from
39:24
Diet Coke for a while now,
39:25
but we're still rocking so far.
39:28
You know, I wondered that,
39:31
but at the same time,
39:33
it's not a bad thing.
39:34
There's no bad pub with it.
39:36
Like, you're rocking.
39:37
I mean, heck,
39:38
I think it'd be probably just as easy
39:40
as, hey,
39:40
we served Diet Coke in the restaurant.
39:41
Can't be that big a deal.
39:42
So, you know, tell them to calm down.
39:45
No.
39:46
That's not legal advice.
39:47
Please don't take that because I'm not
39:48
going to tell them that.
39:50
I'm keeping their light bill plan.
39:51
Doggone right they are.
39:53
Somebody needs to know how much Diet Coke
39:55
you're taking in there, don't they?
39:58
Hey,
39:58
we're going to take another real quick
40:00
break right here, and we'll come back.
40:04
Welcome back, guys.
40:05
Again,
40:06
we have Cooper from Bar A Barbecue in
40:09
Montgomery, Texas.
40:11
And it's been a fun time here going
40:14
into this.
40:15
What does twenty twenty six look like,
40:18
Cooper,
40:18
for you guys going forward is I know
40:20
you said you have opened a second unit.
40:22
Does does a third unit ever appeal to
40:24
you?
40:25
Do you think, hey,
40:26
I'm maxing out on what I can handle
40:28
or where does that line get drawn in
40:30
the sand of, hey,
40:32
this is what I want to do?
40:34
my uh my focus is is uh i
40:38
really want to we're going to end up
40:41
uh we've already captured the name for it
40:43
we've got the legal stuff taken care of
40:45
but uh full-scale catering company is next
40:48
and then we're going to start working on
40:50
a pizza concept soon so um we've already
40:54
gone down as far the road as securing
40:56
um
40:57
the names we wanted to use for that.
40:59
And we're looking at locations now and
41:01
kind of starting that process.
41:02
So pizza is kind of my next thing,
41:05
hurdle we want to tackle because I can't
41:07
get enough of this hurt with the
41:09
restaurant world.
41:12
It's a pain that you enjoy way too
41:15
much, isn't it?
41:16
Why pizza?
41:17
Where's the compilation of that with how
41:19
it works with barbecue?
41:21
Or is that just a personal brand that
41:23
you're wanting to see get off the...
41:26
I love pizza.
41:27
My kids love pizza.
41:30
A lot of the friends that I have
41:34
now in this world are chefs and they,
41:37
a lot of them are in the pizza
41:38
world.
41:38
And it's just kind of another love that
41:40
I've, I think is really, really,
41:42
really unique.
41:43
And I think can be, again,
41:46
it's just something that I think is a
41:47
good fit for our community will be a
41:50
good asset.
41:51
So it's just kind of that thing that,
41:52
hey,
41:53
this will be really good for the city
41:54
too.
41:54
Let's do it.
41:55
Let's bring it to them.
41:56
as as i've gotten older i shared this
41:59
with some friends the other day uh
42:01
commercially bought pizza um and maybe i
42:05
want to show my age or my fragileness
42:07
i don't know which um commercially bought
42:10
pizza has gotten to a point where if
42:12
i don't eat it before about one pm
42:15
it's it's the heartburn it's the
42:17
uncomfortable it's the whatever and what i
42:19
have actually found
42:21
is when I go to the local joint
42:25
and we've got a local Italian place here
42:27
that has a wonderful calzone and one of
42:30
my very best friends makes all his pizza
42:32
in-house, it doesn't have the same effect.
42:36
And I don't know what the specific
42:37
ingredient that is causing me to not feel
42:41
the warm and fuzzies when I eat pizza
42:42
the way I used to as a young
42:44
man,
42:45
but uh i i come back to it's
42:48
got to be something probably in that sauce
42:50
preservative something along those lines
42:52
when you're looking at developing any sort
42:55
of concept whether it's a new item at
42:58
the the barbecue restaurant if you're
43:01
thinking about this pizza line now
43:04
what parts of those things relay into we
43:07
want to be to the greater good of
43:09
the community and damn all the other
43:12
decisions i'm going to draw this line in
43:15
the sand because this means the most to
43:17
me you know it uh there's a lot
43:24
to unpack on that one but you know
43:25
to
43:27
If you want to do any concept in
43:29
a community,
43:29
I think you need to first do your
43:31
market research and kind of figure out,
43:32
identify, you know, what are people for,
43:36
for, for pizza?
43:37
What are people paying in Montgomery now?
43:39
What are they used to paying for pizza
43:41
now?
43:42
You know, most markets it's,
43:43
or at least here, it's that like,
43:45
eighteen to thirty dollar range.
43:47
Yeah.
43:48
So, you know, you look at your,
43:50
I look at it from a, when we're,
43:52
as we're going on this process is we
43:54
have to develop.
43:56
a pizza that can fit within a food
44:00
cost is gonna allow us to stay within
44:02
that sell price range.
44:04
And so it's our job to find and
44:08
source the highest quality ingredients
44:10
that can fit within that food cost amount.
44:14
And there are some ingredients with that,
44:18
for instance, and I'm just,
44:19
I'm using pizza as an example because it's
44:20
fresh,
44:21
it's what we're working on right now.
44:21
Sure.
44:23
Just the certain flour that we're going to
44:26
be using, it's one that no matter what,
44:29
just like brisket,
44:30
We're going to use it no matter the
44:32
cost.
44:32
It just it is what it is.
44:34
We'll figure out how to make our changes
44:36
elsewhere.
44:36
But it has to be this because it
44:38
brings a certain value that we can market
44:41
and sell and push and we know makes
44:44
a really, really high quality product.
44:47
you know uh i think it's really hard
44:49
especially in this climate of to try and
44:51
open something that's not high quality you
44:55
know absolutely you just it's it's got to
44:59
be kind of a big focus for you
45:00
which it always should be but um i
45:04
think you can get away with with with
45:07
um
45:09
I don't want to say low standards,
45:11
but you know,
45:11
mid tier to slightly high above mid tier
45:14
standards is maybe your ambiance and
45:16
atmosphere and guest service are great.
45:18
Cause there's places I go to, man,
45:20
I eat a ton of sushi cause it's
45:22
like the furthest thing away from barbecue
45:25
that you can get.
45:27
And there's several places that serve very
45:30
average sushi, but man, I walk in,
45:33
they know my name, they know my order.
45:35
I sit down,
45:36
I've got my food in front of me.
45:37
I don't even order it.
45:38
You know, they've already got my order,
45:40
my drink in front of me in two
45:41
or three minutes of sitting down.
45:42
Right.
45:42
You know, and it's just, it's like,
45:44
I don't really care how good the food
45:46
is.
45:47
I will go sit there for three hours
45:49
and have a meeting or whatever,
45:51
because they take such good care of me.
45:52
Absolutely.
45:53
Absolutely.
45:54
Yeah.
45:55
so yeah just you know pizza it's just
45:57
it's kind of that thing that i think
45:58
it'll allow us to kind of have a
46:02
very homey atmosphere a lot like barbecue
46:04
has allowed us to do
46:06
I think that the concept of going out
46:08
to any sort of meal and eating away
46:13
from the home,
46:14
while convenience plays a heavy part of
46:16
that,
46:17
I think the consumer has really gotten
46:19
wise.
46:20
Like you said, the importance of flour,
46:24
that's a non-negotiable.
46:26
The importance of brisket,
46:27
that's a non-negotiable.
46:29
um and some people are going to say
46:30
the importance of atmosphere or service
46:32
are going to be the non-negotiable it's
46:34
funny that you bring in sushi i recently
46:37
discovered a a local sushi restaurant here
46:40
and it's average sushi a little bit
46:43
slightly above average sushi i really
46:45
enjoy it just because it's a good value
46:47
for where it is and what it is
46:50
my wife's favorite thing is they have the
46:51
little service robot
46:52
that comes around to you and that's like,
46:55
that's what sold her on it.
46:56
And I was like, this is comical.
46:58
It's not even a person and which I
47:00
get and they only come to your table
47:01
like once or twice.
47:03
But it's I think each consumer has that
47:07
value.
47:07
But at the root of it,
47:09
we're still going to have that one element
47:11
that we want to see.
47:12
And I think I'm always I'm much more
47:15
aware now with what hospitality sees
47:18
It can't always be food cost.
47:19
I know that when Charlie informed me
47:23
recently of what his brisket costs
47:27
currently are compared to what they were
47:29
when he first started in the business,
47:31
I was blown away.
47:32
I did not know that...
47:35
a cost of such an item could rise
47:38
so quickly and be used the way y'all
47:41
do it day to day.
47:42
So I think the consumer is becoming more
47:44
aware.
47:45
And so that gives you a unique advantage
47:48
as you all start trying to play with
47:49
those non-negotiables and the parts that
47:51
you want to make sure represent who you
47:54
are as a company, as a person,
47:57
as a restaurant.
47:57
Yeah, I mean,
48:04
It's, again, a lot to unpack.
48:07
I mean,
48:09
it can't all be about the profit,
48:10
but it also can't all be about the
48:12
people.
48:12
There's got to be a healthy combination.
48:14
You got to figure out where you can
48:19
maximize certain areas that maybe are
48:21
deficiencies over here.
48:22
And I think there's been a pretty heavy
48:29
push the last several years to kind of
48:32
demonize people that you know are
48:34
successful within hospitality that there
48:36
are these awful people that are making
48:37
money and doing things at the end of
48:39
the day guys every successful business in
48:41
your area is producing jobs is producing
48:44
income it's it's producing it's allowing
48:48
people to put food on their table to
48:49
then go spend more money in your community
48:51
you know it's it's
48:53
it's my duty to make sure that the
48:55
business is healthy and some of that
48:57
sometimes that requires us to have to
49:00
raise a price on a certain thing because
49:01
we have at the end of the day
49:04
it's a business we have to make money
49:06
absolutely um but that that means again
49:10
you know when we get a when we
49:12
get a bad review and and ninety nine
49:15
point nine percent of our our bad reviews
49:19
are almost always with the price
49:22
You know,
49:25
and I tell our guys and say, look,
49:28
it's not really about the dollar amount,
49:30
guys.
49:31
We failed to meet the expectations for
49:35
that value that was at the register.
49:38
You know,
49:39
if someone's going to spend forty bucks on
49:41
this,
49:42
it's our fault for not providing enough
49:45
value in other areas.
49:48
And maybe it was the food.
49:49
Maybe we didn't present it the right way.
49:51
Maybe.
49:53
who knows you know there's a million
49:54
different things that go around a
49:55
restaurant to where a portion of food is
49:57
not um it's exactly how you want it
50:00
every time you know we we're fortunate
50:02
enough to do enough volume that you know
50:03
we're cooking thirty forty briskets a day
50:06
not every single one of those briskets end
50:07
to end is gonna be perfect uh it's
50:10
our job to present it the best way
50:11
and to cook it the best way but
50:12
it's just the reality of of the nature
50:14
of the beast you know um
50:17
So I said, and again, I'm long-winded,
50:19
but when we get a bad review,
50:21
it's almost always back to the price and
50:23
it's ownership and us and it's our fault
50:25
for not presenting it and doing our part
50:28
to make it worth that value that they
50:30
had at the register.
50:32
You know,
50:33
I love the way you frame that,
50:34
that it's not what we offered as a
50:36
value,
50:37
because I know there's a couple of
50:39
restaurants here in town who have shared
50:43
some thoughts, if you will,
50:45
on their price.
50:46
And literally their wing prices are maybe
50:49
a dollar to a dollar and a half
50:50
more than what somebody else's would be.
50:54
however that dollar and dollar and a half
50:56
winds up being the big that's the tipping
51:00
point for whatever reason how what i see
51:03
though as a consumer i see a much
51:05
different wing i see labor i see flavor
51:09
i actually see a physical size difference
51:11
of the wing like they've got the b
51:14
grade c grade whatever while somebody's
51:16
still ordering an a grade box
51:19
and i love that ultimately it's going to
51:21
come down to that value being met or
51:24
exceeded uh for what they think that price
51:26
is and i just find it unique that
51:27
the consumer can be that one dollar be
51:31
the part that says to them well that
51:33
wasn't worth it to that point i i
51:37
i will die on this hill you have
51:40
never and no one listens to i mean
51:42
no one has ever gone to a a
51:45
bar a restaurant anything
51:49
And I even just food,
51:50
just anything in general,
51:51
you have never gone anywhere.
51:53
And if the product or service you received
51:58
met or exceeded your expectations of what
52:00
you thought it was going to be,
52:02
you have never checked the price tag on
52:04
it.
52:04
I have never gone to a restaurant,
52:06
eaten the food and been,
52:08
and been blown away by the food and
52:09
even looked at the damn receipt.
52:11
I don't care.
52:12
Right.
52:13
No one does.
52:13
You only look at it.
52:15
when the food wasn't great.
52:18
It wasn't hot enough.
52:19
The server was rude.
52:22
And maybe that's just a
52:23
thirty-three-year-old young kid who
52:26
doesn't know what the hell he's talking
52:27
about.
52:27
I'm an idiot.
52:28
You know, I didn't balance a checkbook.
52:30
I don't know.
52:31
But I'm just,
52:32
I have never been around anyone that's had
52:33
a great experience somewhere and looked at
52:36
it and go, oh, shit, man,
52:36
that was a lot of money.
52:39
right it doesn't matter if it was a
52:40
great experience if you go to a brilliant
52:42
steakhouse you know you're going to spend
52:45
a lot of money right when you go
52:47
and it's it's great and the service was
52:49
incredible you don't care you're going to
52:52
go back there probably three or four times
52:53
you may only go there three or four
52:54
times a year correct but you're going to
52:56
go back there because it was absolutely
53:00
absolutely it's uh people are just more
53:02
aware
53:05
And there's higher expectations to meet a
53:07
bar that's been raised.
53:09
That's all it is.
53:09
I love it.
53:11
I absolutely love it.
53:13
Well, Cooper, where can people find you,
53:16
whether social media,
53:17
your physical address,
53:19
either one of your units,
53:21
where can they find you guys to make
53:22
contact with you down there in Montgomery,
53:24
Texas?
53:25
Yeah, Instagram,
53:26
we're bar underscore A underscore BBQ.
53:29
It's the same thing on Facebook and
53:31
TikTok.
53:33
We're also on YouTube,
53:35
bar underscore A underscore BBQ.
53:39
We post on everything almost daily.
53:41
YouTube is once a week.
53:43
Restaurant is two one one four nine Eba
53:46
Street in downtown Montgomery, Texas.
53:49
The other location I will update when they
53:52
actually have the address up.
53:53
So, yeah.
53:54
Are y'all open?
53:55
What's y'all's hours?
53:56
Are y'all the kind that we're open till
53:57
we sell out or do y'all keep regular
53:59
restaurant hours?
54:00
We, you know,
54:02
we do have regular hours posted.
54:04
Unfortunately,
54:04
with the nature of what we do,
54:05
it is until we're sold out.
54:07
I will say this, though.
54:09
We rarely sell out before the hours
54:11
posted.
54:12
We try our damnedest to...
54:15
not sell out i do not want to
54:17
sell out early we we oftentimes cook too
54:19
much because i just i don't want to
54:20
sell it early we have we have to
54:22
pay rent twenty four seven if i want
54:24
to collect every dollar we can while we're
54:26
open so absolutely we rarely sell out
54:29
before closing time now we may run a
54:31
brisket at three o'clock instead of six
54:34
but we try to not do that as
54:36
well absolutely i love it
54:39
hey guys look our friday feel good for
54:41
this week is unfortunately some people
54:44
were not put into your life to evolve
54:47
but to remind you of what happens if
54:49
you don't make sure you're out there
54:52
tweaking yourself becoming the best
54:54
version of you daily so that you can
54:56
become the best person of you next year
54:58
and the year after that y'all know what
55:00
to do find somebody you know that
55:02
tell them you love them cooper man we
55:04
really appreciate you sharing your time
55:05
with us bar a barbecue guys down in
55:08
montgomery texas if you're ever in the
55:10
area make sure to find them y'all know
55:12
what y'all can do y'all can help us
55:13
out by like subscribing and sharing to our
55:16
pages and our social medias for single
55:18
tree nation and until next time y'all be
55:21
good thanks fellas thank you cooper man we
55:25
really appreciate you taking time i see it
55:26
got dark on you