Latest / Single Tree Nation Show / Matty Smokes Alot | From Backyard BBQ to Building a Brand

Transcript

Matty Smokes Alot | From Backyard BBQ to Building a Brand · Single Tree Nation Show

0:00
I stopped him.
0:01
He's home.
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 illustrious co-host, Mr.
0:09
Terry Wells with us today.
0:10
What's up, everybody?
0:11
How y'all?
0:12
For those of you who don't know,
0:15
it is October.
0:16
And we are looking at April Fool's jokes.
0:23
Oh, look.
0:24
Social media keeps it fresh, baby.
0:26
I love it.
0:26
It's great, man.
0:29
It wasn't even this April Fool's.
0:30
It was last year's.
0:31
That's how far back I was going.
0:32
I was digging deep.
0:33
That is outstanding.
0:33
That is outstanding.
0:38
That's like still carrying a MapQuest with
0:40
you.
0:41
You know, it happens.
0:43
It does.
0:44
At least it's my season.
0:45
It is your season.
0:46
It is my season.
0:47
It is your season.
0:49
I love the fact that you are now
0:51
embracing the jokes and rolling right in
0:55
with them.
0:56
I think it makes it even better.
0:58
You can only fight it for so long.
1:00
I'm glad you joined.
1:01
Introduce our host.
1:01
He's looking at us like,
1:02
what are they talking about?
1:04
We have like nine billion inside jokes,
1:06
man.
1:08
Look, guys,
1:08
we have a great guest on today,
1:12
Matt Vesalero.
1:14
Did I say it right?
1:16
You did.
1:16
All right,
1:16
from Matty Smokes A Lot out of Long
1:21
Island, New York.
1:23
He flew all the way down here just
1:25
to hang out with us today.
1:27
Definitely our farthest guest travel.
1:30
No reason for him to come down here
1:32
other than to hang out with us today.
1:34
I'm calling BS.
1:35
If you believe that,
1:37
I got some April Fool's jokes for you.
1:42
But, Matt,
1:43
thanks for coming to hang out with us,
1:44
man.
1:44
We appreciate you joining us.
1:45
Thank you, guys.
1:46
I appreciate you having me.
1:48
Now that you say the New York,
1:49
I can hear it.
1:50
Like that's, that was, it was that quick.
1:52
It like turned the switch on.
1:53
Uh, so, uh,
1:55
today is the first day that I've met
1:57
Matt in person.
1:58
Okay.
2:00
Um, we met, uh, it's been a while,
2:03
about five months ago.
2:05
Something like that.
2:08
Online, we have a group of restaurant,
2:14
real estate, retail leaders,
2:17
marketing people, tech folks,
2:21
all kinds of folks that get together on
2:23
Wednesdays and Fridays.
2:24
And Matt has joined us.
2:29
A couple of times when I was on
2:31
some of those shows,
2:33
and I thought since he was going to
2:35
be in Nashville,
2:35
it would be a great time for him
2:36
to come hang out on the show.
2:38
Yeah.
2:39
He cooks barbecue.
2:40
All the stars aligned.
2:42
I cook barbecue.
2:44
You cook barbecue.
2:45
I eat barbecue.
2:46
And we all love to eat barbecue.
2:48
So I thought it would be a spectacular
2:50
day to talk shop and BS for a
2:53
little while.
2:54
Good.
2:54
Let's do it.
2:55
Welcome, man.
2:55
So why don't you take a second and
2:57
tell everybody exactly who you are and
3:00
what you do and all the things,
3:02
and we'll dive into how we got to
3:05
where we're at today.
3:06
Cool.
3:06
Thank you.
3:06
So again, I'm Matt Vassilero,
3:09
Matty Smokes.
3:10
I do large scale catering all across Long
3:14
Island,
3:14
originally from basically from Long Beach,
3:16
New York.
3:17
And I also am chef, owner, operator,
3:19
JJ Cooper's as well,
3:21
restaurant and catering.
3:23
So I've been doing barbecue for almost
3:26
Twelve years now.
3:28
Just love it.
3:29
Low and slow, cooking for everybody,
3:31
bringing that hospitality experience to
3:33
your home.
3:34
So especially around Long Island,
3:36
people don't,
3:36
they're not used to the smoker right there
3:38
in their backyard.
3:38
That's what I was going to ask.
3:39
How does that go over with some of
3:41
the folks?
3:42
It's great.
3:43
You draw a crowd, don't you?
3:44
Yeah.
3:44
I mean, everybody wants to know,
3:48
how does this work?
3:48
What's that?
3:50
They see a cabinet smoker.
3:51
Is that a refrigerator?
3:52
No, it's a smoker, guys.
3:53
That's it.
3:54
Yep.
3:55
That's outstanding.
3:56
Yeah.
3:57
It's one of my favorite questions.
3:58
Is that a refrigerator?
3:59
No, guys, that's a smoker.
4:03
Wait until you introduce the filing
4:04
cabinet smoker.
4:06
Y'all ever seen those dudes that do that?
4:07
Yes.
4:07
That's great.
4:08
You need to get that on your rig.
4:10
Look,
4:12
I am not going to lie and tell
4:13
you that I would not be interested in
4:15
trying that.
4:16
The concept makes sense.
4:18
I mean, it's a cabinet.
4:20
There's got to be something in that paint
4:22
that is no good for barbecue.
4:24
I think it's no good for you.
4:26
But yes, either or.
4:29
Or there's something in that paint that
4:31
makes it great.
4:33
Don't know.
4:34
Just saying,
4:35
depending on what side of the scale you're
4:37
on there.
4:40
Do you like to see numbers or smell
4:42
colors?
4:42
Like which one you want?
4:43
And that's it.
4:45
I can smell the yellow.
4:49
That's right.
4:50
See, that's what I'm saying.
4:53
So, and you know,
4:54
it's a New York could be great.
4:55
I'm sorry.
4:55
I don't all the New York,
4:57
like stereotypes are coming to my mind now
4:58
that he's like,
4:59
cause I'm seeing his drawing a crowd.
5:01
He's got the barbecue going.
5:03
Nobody's expected it.
5:04
And there's people lining down the street,
5:06
like.
5:06
what's going on down there.
5:07
That's like, he's having a ball standing.
5:10
So outstanding.
5:11
So twelve years now you've been smoking.
5:14
What, what,
5:14
what made you get into smoking meats?
5:17
it just started as a as a hobby
5:21
my brother-in-law and I little Amazon
5:23
smoker a little offset and started making
5:26
ribs and then we started traveling for it
5:30
and and so for me it all started
5:32
I guess I wanted to open my own
5:34
restaurant and it was it was tough and
5:37
it was all about funding and where do
5:39
you get the money and how do you
5:41
do it and
5:42
I was twenty five years old and thought
5:45
I was something hot when I wasn't anything
5:47
yet.
5:47
And so when I was running through ideas,
5:50
I went to a food truck concept and
5:53
then it was like, OK,
5:54
all over New York,
5:54
finding a spot is a nightmare.
5:57
And where do you go?
5:58
And there's food truck wars for all that
6:00
stuff going on.
6:01
So I went back to my roots and
6:04
I had a guy, Buddy Barbecue,
6:05
that was doing this.
6:07
And he was originally from North Carolina.
6:09
And I called him up.
6:10
I was like,
6:11
what do you think about me buying a
6:12
grill like yours?
6:14
He's like, oh Matt,
6:15
I'll send you business.
6:16
There's so many people.
6:17
This is hot like We definitely could work
6:20
it out.
6:21
So he hooked me up with BQ grills
6:22
down in Rocky Mountain,
6:24
North Carolina Well,
6:25
I guess up from you guys,
6:26
but for me down and so I started
6:30
designing a whole setup really
6:32
wasn't sure what I was getting into,
6:34
but I'm like, oh,
6:35
how hard could it be?
6:36
We're going to we're going to go flip
6:37
burgers and hot dogs and I'm going to
6:39
make some ribs.
6:42
And it evolved, you know, it took time.
6:44
So by the time I got my trailer
6:45
built, I then, you know,
6:48
went down to a whole hog competition in
6:50
North Carolina,
6:51
cooked my first whole hog and
6:53
didn't do so bad and then went to
6:55
Memphis in May and started meeting people
6:58
so really just got down to you know
7:01
and and had no shame in just showing
7:03
up places and learning about barbecue and
7:06
twelve years later I'm pretty good at it
7:07
I love it I like that he was
7:10
like we'll flip a few burgers make a
7:12
few hot dogs make a living like we'll
7:14
just the basic restaurant tour like
7:19
how hard could it be right sure absolutely
7:22
throw some ketchup and mustard in there
7:23
what more do you need you know gosh
7:29
i have a chair and a table that
7:30
you got from a you know amazon right
7:33
now honest truth that's how it started
7:35
though did you grow up in the restaurant
7:37
business like where's the desire for
7:39
wanting to own a restaurant well so i've
7:40
been in the restaurant industry since i
7:42
was fourteen okay boston tables wait
7:45
waiting tables bartending food running
7:49
When I went to school,
7:51
I thought I was going to be a
7:52
graphic designer and found out very fast
7:55
after my first freshman year that that
7:57
wasn't for me.
7:58
And so then I went to school for
8:00
business and hospitality and just kept
8:02
building on it.
8:04
In the middle,
8:05
I managed a pool hall for about five
8:06
years.
8:07
It was a pool hall music venue.
8:09
So I've been all over the hospitality
8:11
industry, between diners, Italian,
8:14
Mexican, German, pool halls, dive bars.
8:19
And I landed barbecue.
8:22
The ultimate dive bar.
8:24
I love it.
8:25
I like how many, and I don't,
8:28
there's no way to know this statistic,
8:30
but the number of barbecue guys who
8:32
started out food truck, like, I just,
8:35
I like what I do.
8:36
Let's go out there and I,
8:38
I may make a buck at it.
8:39
I don't know,
8:39
but I like what I do.
8:41
And I know that's Charlie's background and
8:43
like there's several others.
8:45
And the,
8:46
the unique thing I think is funny about
8:48
that.
8:49
Is now we've come full circle where a
8:51
lot of people who had brick and mortar
8:54
are trying to get to the food truck
8:55
business.
8:56
And I find that comical.
8:57
I'll feel almost like it's cheating
8:59
because they didn't have to put in the
9:01
grunt work that y'all did to go get
9:03
your rig, you know, to set up,
9:05
to find somewhere to go on a regular
9:08
or whatever.
9:08
Cause if you're not set up,
9:10
you're not selling it.
9:11
If you're not selling,
9:11
you're not making any money.
9:12
I will tell you,
9:13
I I've done this my, my whole life.
9:15
As long as you know me.
9:16
Yeah.
9:16
And, uh,
9:20
I thought I knew how to run a
9:23
restaurant.
9:26
I had no idea how to run a
9:27
food truck.
9:29
And it's two totally different things.
9:31
And especially going from being an
9:35
executive in restaurants to now I'm the
9:38
cook, I'm the executive.
9:41
The help.
9:42
I'm the dishwasher.
9:43
I'm the cash register.
9:45
I'm the cash register.
9:47
I'm the smoker.
9:48
The CDL holder.
9:49
I'm the CDL holder.
9:52
I'm the everything guy, right?
9:55
I'm the plumber.
9:56
Right.
9:57
And plumbing on a food truck is different
9:59
than plumbing in your house.
10:00
Yeah.
10:00
Because it goes this way,
10:01
that way and all kinds of different ways.
10:04
And then, you know,
10:05
now you got to figure out all the
10:06
regulations and get all the permits and
10:08
all the things.
10:11
And none of it makes any sense.
10:13
I can only imagine what it's like in
10:14
New York, though.
10:15
Well, truthfully,
10:16
that's why I didn't do the food truck
10:18
and I did the open barbecue trailer and
10:20
stuck to the private events because in New
10:22
York, it's a mess.
10:23
Right.
10:24
So me now, I'm your private chef.
10:27
I show up to your home.
10:29
I cook for you, your family.
10:30
It's your...
10:31
It's somebody's birthday party.
10:32
It's a wedding.
10:33
It's a fireman's event.
10:35
It's picnics.
10:37
So I'll cater.
10:38
You know,
10:38
I just did an event Liz's day where
10:40
I did for breast cancer awareness,
10:41
two thousand meals.
10:43
But I show up.
10:44
I know what I'm cooking.
10:45
I cook that amount and I leave.
10:48
I don't wait for people to show up
10:49
and buy my barbecue.
10:51
It's been bought before I get there.
10:52
Okay.
10:53
So smart.
10:54
And now that you say that's because of
10:56
the New York regulation style,
10:57
does that help ease some of that?
11:00
Well,
11:00
I don't really have too much regulation
11:03
because I'm on private property for an
11:05
individual.
11:06
Yeah, so I'm not selling to the public.
11:07
So it really, I get to, I mean,
11:10
I don't need to tell everybody,
11:11
but I skate through a lot of stuff.
11:13
And I'm sure you're not the only one.
11:15
Oh, no, there's plenty of people doing it.
11:17
And that was the fortunate thing about
11:19
having a mentor who was doing it.
11:20
Sure.
11:21
That kind of was like, no, no, no,
11:23
listen, this is what you want to do.
11:26
Private events are a little bit different.
11:27
Yeah,
11:27
because we hear all the horror stories
11:29
about how awful it is in California,
11:32
New York, all the big places, big cities.
11:34
Yeah.
11:34
uh regulate this regulate that you're
11:36
losing money before you ever can get the
11:38
door open or get the window open or
11:40
whatever look it's different from
11:41
rutherford county to davidson county from
11:43
here to nashville seriously yeah so in in
11:46
uh so in the state of tennessee there's
11:49
counties that govern their own health
11:51
department and then there's counties that
11:53
are state ran okay so if you get
11:56
a permit in rutherford county which is
11:57
state ran then that permit is good for
12:00
any county that is state ran but if
12:02
it's ran locally
12:04
then you have to get a permit locally
12:07
davidson county is not state ran oh my
12:09
goodness so you have two permits to
12:11
operate if you go in across that may
12:13
have changed but but when i was out
12:15
as far as your weight right well even
12:17
for us we have suffolk county nassau
12:19
county and new york city so if i
12:22
go in an hour in either direction from
12:24
me i would need different permits wow
12:27
It's crazy.
12:29
That's the stuff that your common everyday
12:31
person who's walking into y'all's
12:32
restaurants and that they don't know.
12:35
That's what we don't realize.
12:36
Like we're like, oh,
12:37
there's a beer permit on the wall.
12:39
Somebody greeted me at the door.
12:40
Great.
12:41
I'm you know, burger fries, let's go.
12:43
They're not thinking about, you know,
12:44
that you had a different permit to drive
12:47
one hour east and, and how that changes.
12:49
And that's, that's really impressive.
12:51
I mean,
12:51
I also think that's what people get lost
12:54
on when it comes to y'all's pricing.
12:55
things like that and so it is a
12:57
big deal when y'all change prices and you
12:59
go in you see a new menu it's
13:00
the first thing we all think is the
13:02
public but i always like now that i've
13:05
talked to you enough i got props like
13:08
okay something happened like whether it's
13:10
permit whether it's costs whether it's
13:11
whatever something changed because the
13:14
last thing y'all want to do is raise
13:16
your prices and so i always and now
13:18
i know there's that permit side of things
13:20
I wouldn't have thought it.
13:22
Truthfully,
13:22
most people that tell me they want to
13:23
open a restaurant, I tell them don't.
13:28
No, you don't.
13:28
You better really want this.
13:33
Anybody that opens a restaurant to be
13:39
wealthy, to make money, essentially,
13:43
is sadly mistaken.
13:45
It's a passion.
13:47
It is.
13:47
It is.
13:48
And you can make money as a restaurant
13:50
owner.
13:50
I'm not saying that.
13:52
But the profit margins,
13:54
it's one of the lowest profit margins in
13:56
any industry.
13:58
You know,
13:58
the average restaurant makes ten percent.
14:01
So, you know, if you do, you know,
14:04
a million dollars a year in revenue,
14:07
which is not that much in the restaurant
14:10
world.
14:11
i mean you brought home if you ran
14:12
a an extremely good restaurant that means
14:16
you you brought home a hundred thousand
14:18
dollars well that's a hundred thousand
14:21
dollars that's gonna pay you that's gonna
14:23
pay in taxes and gonna pay anything that
14:28
might break next year that anything you
14:30
gotta save for so it's not like you
14:33
made a hundred grand you're not making six
14:34
figures a year right you probably really
14:37
brought home twenty
14:39
Right.
14:39
Right.
14:39
Right.
14:39
You know,
14:40
because then you got to go because you
14:41
got to take all the taxes off of
14:42
that.
14:42
You got to take all the other stuff
14:43
off.
14:44
Gosh, it's you know,
14:45
you start really dwindling it down.
14:46
You didn't really make that much money.
14:48
Right.
14:48
It's it's not easy to it's not easy
14:51
to make a living as a restaurateur by
14:52
any means.
14:53
So, you know,
14:54
it's a total a total gentleman today.
14:57
um i do this because of the the
15:00
legacy that i want to leave i do
15:02
this because of the impact that i want
15:04
to make right i'm not doing this because
15:07
i want to become rich you know yeah
15:10
that's that's a fantasy and that would be
15:12
wonderful right but if i want to do
15:13
that then i'm just going to go play
15:14
the lottery a lot right you know i'll
15:16
get a job and go play the lottery
15:17
you
15:19
Maybe I can get lucky enough.
15:20
Buy a six-pack and a bunch of tickets
15:22
on the way home on Friday.
15:22
You know what I mean?
15:25
That's how quick I'm going to get rich,
15:27
quote-unquote, in the restaurant business.
15:29
It's the same odds.
15:33
To really...
15:36
impact the community and some of the stuff
15:38
that we've done,
15:39
the reason we don't have a beard anymore,
15:40
right?
15:41
Those things is, is what's important,
15:44
right?
15:44
Being able to,
15:45
I'll never forget the look on Mason
15:49
Asher's face when he opened up that box
15:52
and found out that he was going to
15:53
Disney world to build a lightsaber, right?
15:56
I'll never forget the look on the,
15:58
on his face when he actually made the
16:00
lightsaber and his mother posted that
16:02
video.
16:03
Oh, did she?
16:04
I hadn't seen that.
16:04
That's awesome.
16:05
And it's incredible.
16:06
Yeah.
16:06
Right.
16:06
You know,
16:07
and to know that I had a small
16:09
part in that,
16:11
that I impacted that little boy's life
16:13
that much in some small fashion.
16:16
It wasn't a hundred percent me.
16:18
You had a hand in it.
16:19
Trent had a hand in it.
16:20
We've this, you know,
16:22
the shows had a hand in it.
16:24
Minutes Wisely, Richard Fleek, the whole,
16:27
the whole team, like, you know,
16:29
Rooster Fries, all those guys did.
16:31
That impact that we had that day is
16:35
why we get up and do what we
16:37
do.
16:39
It's the same thing for you.
16:40
You get up every day to go be
16:42
a teacher that is probably one of the
16:44
most thankless jobs in the world.
16:47
You don't do it.
16:48
I jokingly asked a kid today,
16:49
I was like, hey, I said,
16:52
who's your favorite teacher and why is it
16:53
me?
16:54
And he kind of looked at me.
16:55
He goes, are you okay?
16:57
I was like, probably not.
16:57
That is outstanding.
16:58
And then,
17:03
He's like, well,
17:04
you are kind of laid back.
17:05
And I was like,
17:06
I'm not the only laid back teacher.
17:08
He goes, well, I didn't say you were,
17:09
but also I have more than one favorite
17:11
teacher.
17:11
I was like, all right,
17:12
this conversation is over.
17:13
Like, just, you know,
17:14
but because you get those kids who like,
17:17
and me and this kid could probably not
17:19
be more opposite.
17:20
uh but we've got this common ground where
17:23
we can have that funny talk right and
17:24
like he's just a good kid and you
17:27
know i know that years down the road
17:29
that that will be a kid if he
17:30
needs something if he reaches out to me
17:32
if he whatever i'm gonna be like you
17:34
need a resume you need whatever you need
17:35
a just a handshake i mean i'll do
17:38
what you need man so um and that's
17:40
that's funny that you say that just
17:42
because i i get the excitement of when
17:45
you watch guys and ladies who are looking
17:49
for
17:50
the, the pot of gold,
17:52
so to speak at the end of the
17:53
restaurant rainbow versus guys who are
17:56
just out here trying to serve community or
17:59
just trying to be an impact.
18:00
Like it's,
18:00
there's a different group of folks there
18:02
and you could tell in just how they
18:04
operate.
18:04
So I, I told an individual today, um,
18:08
it takes a village to raise a child
18:11
and it takes a community to build a
18:12
business and, and.
18:16
As much as I depend on my community
18:19
to support us, if I don't support them,
18:23
it's not a reciprocal relationship.
18:26
And we're never going to be successful
18:28
unless I support the community more than
18:30
they support me.
18:33
All right, let's take a quick break,
18:34
and we will come back and continue
18:37
chatting with Matt.
18:41
welcome back guys we are uh having a
18:43
good time right here at single tree nation
18:45
with our illustrious co-host mr dairy
18:46
wells and and uh the owner of matt
18:49
smokes a lot i loved i just love
18:51
saying that it's a great name it's a
18:53
wonderful it's such a good name how did
18:58
you come up with matt i mean i
18:59
know your name's matt but how did you
19:00
come up with matt smokes a lot where
19:01
did the smokes a lot come um so
19:04
truthfully it was just okay now me and
19:07
my wife just spent our life savings on
19:09
a
19:09
grill to flip some burgers and dogs.
19:13
What was her thought in all this?
19:15
Is she gung-ho, or is she like,
19:16
he's lost it?
19:17
She had my back the whole way.
19:21
Don't get me wrong.
19:22
She questioned it a little bit,
19:24
but it was...
19:26
one of those things where she knew i
19:27
was i was i was really neck deep
19:31
into just trying to get something off of
19:33
the ground and and the research and the
19:35
development and i think she just got tired
19:38
of every business plan that wasn't working
19:41
and then finally this one was just like
19:43
yeah let's do it so we did it
19:46
and it was okay what are we going
19:48
to name this and then we
19:50
We were like, okay, the barbecue boys,
19:53
the smoky boys, I don't know.
19:55
We were going back and forth on different
19:56
stuff.
19:57
And then Maddie smokes.
19:59
All right, well.
20:01
I mean, I did smoke a lot then.
20:03
But Maddie smokes a lot.
20:04
And then it just fell into place.
20:07
And then Logo was just us drunk on
20:10
the Long Island Railroad one night with me
20:12
wearing her sunglasses.
20:13
And we sent it to a graphic designer
20:15
and said,
20:16
so make this work fast forward i got
20:19
a a caricature of myself with maddie
20:22
smokes a lot with a big cigar in
20:23
my mouth that's just fantastic i love when
20:29
there's a a like the fact that that's
20:31
you and your character it wasn't something
20:33
that was made up and that's obviously
20:35
pre-ai so i mean it makes it even
20:37
better like so that's that's wild no it
20:39
was a late night on the long island
20:41
railroad
20:43
If you were going to describe your style
20:46
of barbecue,
20:47
how would you describe your style of
20:48
barbecue?
20:50
So for my barbecue,
20:51
what I'd say is I don't put too
20:55
much smoke on.
20:56
So it is a subtle smoke flavor with
21:00
a lot more of a finish in a
21:03
braising format matter.
21:04
So the barbecue's got a lot of moisture
21:07
to it.
21:07
It's got a good texture.
21:09
Um, so it's definitely not your,
21:11
your typical Southern or,
21:13
or Texas barbecue.
21:15
Um,
21:15
I'm definitely applying way more of a
21:17
braise to finish when I'm then serving it
21:20
out to the catering.
21:21
Um,
21:21
so almost like that crock pot feel with
21:24
that smoke flavor to it.
21:26
Right.
21:26
Okay.
21:27
That's when you said your stuff's already
21:31
sold cause you're doing a private events.
21:32
Yes.
21:33
Are they picking out your, the menu?
21:35
Are you giving them a little bit of
21:37
a heads up, like go this way or.
21:39
I mean, so when we're talking about it,
21:40
there's a menu with all the choice in
21:43
proteins.
21:44
So it's burgers, dogs, it's ribs,
21:46
it's brisket.
21:47
We do smoked chicken.
21:48
I do regular grilled chicken.
21:51
I'll dabble with the pig roast.
21:54
Is that wow the New Yorkers?
21:57
So it's funny.
21:58
When I first learned to cook the whole
22:00
hog,
22:00
I was doing more your North Carolina style
22:03
where you'd butterfly it and put it down
22:05
on the grill, get your crunchy skin.
22:08
New York just didn't take to the whole
22:11
open of the pig.
22:14
So then we kind of went in more
22:15
of the running style in the crouch.
22:20
And then lastly, even now,
22:22
I've been stuffing it.
22:23
So the last few events I did,
22:24
I did cornbread stuffing with chorizo
22:26
inside of it.
22:27
Oh, my goodness.
22:28
So kind of just bringing that whole...
22:30
Yeah, we were talking about that earlier,
22:31
and I was like, ooh.
22:33
Yeah, man.
22:34
So I've developed my own style.
22:37
I've taken a lot of influences that I've
22:39
seen, and I'm not going to lie,
22:41
also AI has been...
22:43
very crucial,
22:44
because I'll just talk to chat GPT, right?
22:48
It starts giving me ideas to be new,
22:50
fresh, unique.
22:51
And then I'm just make it happen.
22:53
That's so talk to me about.
23:00
So a couple of things,
23:01
like I'm looking through your your
23:02
Instagram,
23:03
and I was doing this the other day,
23:04
and I'm glad I went back and looked
23:06
at it, because it reminded me,
23:08
if I'm looking at your stuff,
23:09
I see a lot of Asian flair.
23:12
Well, so the Asian,
23:13
what you're checking out is my Maddie
23:15
Cooks.
23:16
Because also I've got J.J.
23:17
Cooper's restaurant in Long Beach.
23:20
So J.J.
23:20
Cooper's is all American cuisine,
23:24
new American.
23:25
So we've got everything from the ahi tuna
23:27
that you're probably seeing.
23:30
But we do burgers.
23:31
We do seafood.
23:33
I will tell you what really got me
23:35
excited.
23:36
Because I love chicken wings.
23:39
Okay.
23:40
And,
23:41
and a twice fried Kung Pao chicken wing
23:44
topped with peanuts and scallions.
23:47
It sounds very traditionally Asian,
23:49
like with the peanuts and the scallions.
23:51
Yeah,
23:51
but like I'm thinking like on a chicken
23:53
wing.
23:53
Right.
23:54
It was delicious.
23:58
It was delicious.
23:59
That's all.
23:59
We're good.
24:00
We're good.
24:01
Next.
24:02
You read it all.
24:02
It was delicious.
24:03
It was.
24:03
But like I would have never thought about
24:09
making Kung Pao chicken wings.
24:10
Right.
24:11
Well,
24:12
so that came because we do a Kung
24:13
Pao calamari there,
24:15
and when I was running specials.
24:16
I would have never thought about Kung Pao
24:18
calamari.
24:19
It's one of my hottest sellers at the
24:20
restaurant.
24:21
Of course it is.
24:21
I bet it is.
24:22
Of course it is.
24:23
Because I am a calamari nut.
24:24
We even fry some bananas and red peppers
24:27
in there with the calamari and then toss
24:30
it and scallions and peanuts,
24:31
same kind of topping.
24:33
I going back to, uh, uh,
24:36
we had Douglas keen on and,
24:39
and then we had at cowboy Trent or
24:42
cowboy Kent and then, and like,
24:44
just to hear how y'all talk about these
24:47
things.
24:49
In such a different way even rodney scott
24:51
the way he was talking about barbecue I
24:53
think too many times we get stuck in
24:55
this rut and it's almost like we got
24:56
blinders on here's where i'm going We want
25:00
chicken wings.
25:00
And so we just go make chicken wings
25:03
and the way like I mean even uh
25:06
Douglas keene said that he'll take months
25:09
to come up with something And he wants
25:11
to get it just right and tweak it
25:12
whatever and now you're sitting here
25:13
saying it's just it's it's what I wanted
25:16
I bought some peaches the other day
25:18
And they are sitting on my counter at
25:21
the restaurant right now.
25:22
Because I have this...
25:25
peach hot sauce in my brain,
25:29
but it's not like a Tabasco hot sauce.
25:32
Um,
25:33
but it's not a barbecue hot sauce either.
25:35
Like it's somewhere Sriracha slash like
25:41
sweet chili kind of like, uh,
25:45
like I'm just, it's really like the,
25:48
I have the flavor in my palate and
25:50
I just,
25:50
I hadn't figured out the spices and how
25:53
to make it yet.
25:54
And but I've been thinking about literally
25:56
been thinking about it for a week since
25:59
since I was since I went to Florida.
26:02
I don't know where it came from,
26:04
but it just popped in my head.
26:05
So it's like it's like the barbecue
26:08
burrito and the deep fried potato salad,
26:11
like the shit just come.
26:12
Excuse me.
26:14
you had to have slip up in a
26:15
really long time well done that's how
26:19
excited i am yeah but it's the same
26:34
thing like i i got the flavor i'm
26:36
ready for it but i just hadn't figured
26:38
out and then once i figure out the
26:39
sauce i got no idea what i'm gonna
26:41
do with it
26:43
I want to try this Kung Pao calamari.
26:45
That's what I know.
26:46
And the cool thing for me at the
26:47
restaurant is we do a tapas menu on
26:51
Wednesday.
26:52
I do specials on Friday and Saturday.
26:54
I'll do football specials on Sunday,
26:56
Taco Tuesday.
26:57
We got a steak night on Thursday.
26:59
So my team,
27:01
I got a great team in the kitchen,
27:03
a lot of people that I'm working with.
27:04
So we're just constantly...
27:07
taking ingredients and reinventing things
27:09
in different ways to just keep it fresh
27:11
for those regular customers that are
27:13
coming in.
27:13
Yeah,
27:15
we're we started making our own sausage a
27:18
while back and I was teaching I was
27:21
teaching one of my guys how to case
27:23
it, which is very difficult.
27:25
Yeah, it's it's it's a pressure sensitive,
27:30
right?
27:31
Because we do it manually with a crank.
27:36
and I tore my rotator cuff and So
27:40
I'm just now getting to where I can
27:41
get back to doing it So we're gonna
27:43
start doing it again,
27:43
but that's where we do a lot of
27:46
expression self-expression in our sausage
27:50
Because you can do just a plain pork
27:54
sausage
27:55
And it'd be really good,
27:56
but you can also come up with some
27:58
crazy things that, you know,
28:00
like now I'm kind of thinking about what
28:02
I can do with those peaches in a
28:04
sausage.
28:05
See what happens?
28:06
Yeah.
28:07
See where this is going?
28:08
You need to be taking notes.
28:09
Like I'm thinking about like a peach
28:11
cobbler pork.
28:12
Right.
28:12
Sausage.
28:14
Now I'm going to, I looked at your,
28:17
your Maddie cooks page also,
28:19
and that's a little bit on the higher
28:21
scale of things compared to just,
28:23
it's a little smoking, right?
28:25
Yeah.
28:25
All right.
28:27
So we've got a segment called, uh,
28:29
macro beans.
28:30
Okay.
28:31
And it's our, this or that.
28:32
So the first half of that,
28:33
I want to ask you is you go
28:36
to a barbecue joint, you walk in,
28:39
are you getting the macaroni and cheese or
28:41
are you getting the barbecue baked beans?
28:43
I did it yesterday.
28:44
I got the mac and cheese.
28:45
There you go.
28:45
He's like, done.
28:46
I got it.
28:48
Did you go somewhere local?
28:49
Yeah, I went to Peg Lake.
28:51
As soon as I got off the plane,
28:53
that was my first stop with barbecue.
28:55
That's awesome.
28:55
I was telling him,
28:56
Kerry's a pretty good fella.
28:57
Yeah, Kerry's fun.
28:59
Every time I see Kerry now in his
29:01
glasses,
29:01
because he always wears some rose-colored
29:03
glasses, I can't help but see him.
29:06
We had him on the show,
29:06
and he's just a top-notch guy.
29:09
So the other half I got for that...
29:12
You obviously have some talent with the JJ
29:14
Cooper's.
29:15
Is that it?
29:15
Is that right?
29:16
You got talent there.
29:17
And then you've got the barbecue trailer,
29:21
the private chef side of things.
29:24
Which one of those are you going to
29:25
do?
29:25
Are you going to do the JJ Cooper's
29:27
higher cuisine?
29:28
Are you going to do the smoke and
29:29
barbecue?
29:30
Barbecue is my love.
29:31
Barbecue is your love?
29:31
Absolutely.
29:34
I love my private events, too,
29:35
because my cooking,
29:37
I like being hospitable.
29:38
I like being with the clients.
29:39
I like being out there.
29:41
And so it's a combination of, again,
29:44
it's just that interaction with people.
29:45
And that's why we do it.
29:46
I mean,
29:47
it goes back to exactly what you were
29:48
saying when you help the kid out.
29:50
Or just when I see somebody bite into
29:53
a rib and smile,
29:55
that's what you do it for.
29:56
That's great.
29:57
That is great.
29:59
You said your last event was about two
30:00
thousand people.
30:01
Is that right?
30:02
Or something like that?
30:02
Yeah,
30:03
it was the last event I just did.
30:05
How do you go about making sure that
30:07
the last person that comes through the
30:08
line or the last person that gets served
30:10
or whatever is just as excited?
30:13
Because, I mean, two thousand people,
30:14
it's hard to make sure they all eat
30:15
at the same time, right?
30:16
Oh, yeah, of course.
30:18
Like when you know the night's winding
30:20
down, you're still giving it your all.
30:23
How are you making sure that those last
30:25
guys are getting just as everything as
30:27
good as you as the first person that
30:28
came through?
30:29
So it's a lot about pacing and it's
30:32
a lot about your equipment.
30:34
So one piece of equipment I love is
30:35
my Cambros, my hot boxes.
30:38
I'll be honest,
30:39
some of the food you put into there,
30:41
it could be better after six hours that
30:43
that last person might be getting a better
30:45
bite than the person who got it in
30:46
the beginning.
30:47
just because they're sitting there and
30:49
it's just kind of just marinating in its
30:51
flavors and becoming a little more tender.
30:53
So it just depends on the equipment and
30:56
what you're doing and how you're handling
30:58
it.
30:58
I mean, obviously,
30:59
I'm not going to put mac and cheese
31:01
in there for six hours,
31:02
but that's how you just,
31:04
through the service,
31:05
you're continually still putting out new
31:08
product.
31:08
Right.
31:10
But something like ribs,
31:12
I'm just going to let that rest and...
31:15
Let it do what it does, right?
31:16
Let it do its thing.
31:16
That's it.
31:17
I don't do anything.
31:18
It just does it on its own.
31:20
I've started cheating a lot when I do
31:22
my backyard smoking.
31:24
And I've got my little system down where
31:26
they're on the smoker for about two or
31:28
three hours,
31:28
depending on where they're at and
31:29
whatever.
31:31
I wrap them, throw them in the oven.
31:33
And my mom was at the house one
31:35
day, and she's like,
31:36
what do I do with the ribs?
31:37
I said, just turn the oven off.
31:39
What?
31:39
Just turn the oven off.
31:40
That's all you got to do.
31:40
Turn it off.
31:41
Walk out.
31:42
They'll be fine.
31:43
We came home.
31:45
I'm talking about, they were just,
31:47
I couldn't have done it better if I'd
31:48
stayed right there with them, you know?
31:50
And just something,
31:51
just turn off an office.
31:52
She was so worried that that was no,
31:55
there's gotta be more.
31:55
I was like, no, I'm, I'm cheating mom.
31:57
Like the hard part was this morning when
31:58
I had, but the funny thing is,
32:00
is you're not cheap.
32:01
No, but you know what I'm saying?
32:03
You're just not using it.
32:04
You're, you're,
32:04
you're changing your heat source.
32:06
That's that's all it is.
32:06
Cause once they're wrapped,
32:07
you're not putting any smoke on it,
32:10
but so what difference does it make?
32:11
Because mom thinks that,
32:13
and like a lot of people, I'm sure,
32:15
the smoking process is so hard and it's
32:17
so balanced and delicate.
32:19
I'll get all kinds of hate for this
32:21
and I don't care.
32:23
Once you wrap...
32:27
If you put it in a source that
32:29
is going to stay consistently even,
32:36
it changes the product.
32:36
It's going to be a thousand times better.
32:39
So why would anybody not want to produce
32:43
the best product that they can?
32:45
Now, in my restaurant, I can't do that.
32:47
I don't have ovens big enough.
32:51
My restaurant's not big enough to have
32:53
thirty ovens to be able to put that
32:56
amount of pork and brisket in.
32:58
So we have to use the smoker to
33:01
finish it, which is fine.
33:03
And I feel like we do a decent
33:05
job at it.
33:05
But if I'm at home and I'm cooking,
33:08
in my eyes,
33:08
cheating would be going on gold belly.
33:11
Bringing something in from Terry Black's.
33:14
And put it in a tray.
33:15
Yeah, that's cheating.
33:18
That's cheating.
33:24
You call me and say, hey man,
33:25
I didn't buy a brisket.
33:26
I'm going to swing by and pick it
33:28
up.
33:28
And just leave it in the butcher paper
33:30
for me, would you?
33:30
And then you take that to your mama's
33:34
house for Tuesday night dinner and go,
33:37
hey, look what I cooked for you.
33:39
That's cheating.
33:42
That's an idea, though.
33:43
It is an idea.
33:45
Next time I call you on a Tuesday,
33:46
I hate that extra brisket.
33:47
I know what it is, yeah.
33:48
You're going to take a half a brisket
33:51
over there.
33:52
I'd love some of it at home.
33:53
That's it.
33:54
That's it.
33:54
My mom, she was concerned.
33:56
I said, no, just turn it off.
33:57
Turn the oven off, Mom.
33:57
It's fine.
33:58
It'll be there when we get back.
34:00
No worries.
34:02
Absolutely no worries at all.
34:03
And he's going to post it on his
34:04
Facebook.
34:04
Doggone right I am.
34:05
Yeah.
34:05
Hey, look.
34:08
Look at this brisket I made, y'all.
34:11
I might give you one just to do
34:12
it.
34:12
Oh, stop.
34:13
That'd be fun.
34:13
That'd be fun.
34:15
You have to FaceTime me.
34:16
Yeah, that's exactly what I'll do.
34:25
Oh, Lord, I love it.
34:26
And we've talked a lot,
34:27
so I'm trying to go through some of
34:28
these without some of the questions I've
34:30
already asked in our conversations today.
34:33
Matty and I have been together all day,
34:35
so...
34:35
Right.
34:36
I was putting two and two together.
34:37
Yeah.
34:39
So I'm trying to ask questions that I
34:41
have already asked.
34:44
When it comes to smoking barbecue,
34:46
what's your protein of choice?
34:49
So I love cooking ribs.
34:51
To me, ribs is just like...
34:54
It's not too long of a smoke.
34:56
It's not too long of a cook.
34:57
There's lots of options with them.
35:02
So for me, six hours,
35:03
it's just a nice cook time,
35:05
apply different flavors.
35:06
And I just love eating ribs.
35:07
Me,
35:08
I'll eat a rack of ribs right off
35:09
the smoker when I'm done with it.
35:11
Well,
35:11
we're going to go get some ribs in
35:12
a little while because I've been dying for
35:14
some ribs tonight too.
35:18
What's the craziest thing you've ever
35:20
tried to smoke?
35:22
And this is a personal question,
35:23
because I always love...
35:29
I love just waking up and going, hmm,
35:32
I've never smoked a banana before.
35:34
Let's see what happens.
35:35
I mean,
35:35
I've definitely cold smoked a bunch of
35:37
cheeses.
35:39
They didn't really come out the way I
35:41
thought they were going to.
35:42
They kind of just tasted way too smoky.
35:45
It's tough.
35:46
Yeah, it was just the flavor pro.
35:49
And then they said to vacuum seal it,
35:50
like from what I was reading,
35:52
to let the flavors settle in.
35:55
I just think it's better to smoke the
35:56
protein itself.
35:57
Yeah.
35:58
the craziest thing I put in a smoker.
36:00
I smoked hard boiled eggs.
36:01
Yeah.
36:02
Yeah.
36:02
That's really cool.
36:03
They weren't boiled, but it was a raw.
36:04
Yeah.
36:06
And that was cool because it actually did
36:09
i didn't think the flavor was going to
36:10
get through the shell and they were they
36:12
were good yeah um and they actually look
36:15
like they're smoked you ever done that i
36:17
had it at your spot didn't i didn't
36:19
know you had the deviled eggs yeah yeah
36:21
that was a good deviled egg that's what
36:22
i'm saying it was it was good man
36:24
yeah yeah they're good it was tasty what
36:28
is the most surprising thing that you've
36:30
tried to smoke and it like it obviously
36:32
come out and you're like oh or it
36:34
you were like man i thought that was
36:36
going to be really good and it wasn't
36:42
So I smoked, well, it's not surprising.
36:45
I mean, I was doing for Thanksgiving.
36:46
I was smoking a ton of turkeys at
36:48
one point.
36:49
And I got to say,
36:50
the first time I did it,
36:51
it came out so dry.
36:52
It was horrible.
36:54
But then I learned from there that I
36:57
was injecting it with like Creole butters
37:01
and kind of altered it.
37:02
And now it.
37:03
Now that's a family favorite that every
37:05
year I'm kind of stuck now making smoked
37:08
turkey.
37:08
You worked yourself into a job,
37:09
didn't you?
37:10
I stopped selling smoked turkeys,
37:12
but now I just have to make it
37:13
for probably about seven families every
37:16
year.
37:16
They're like, well, it's our tradition.
37:18
And I'm like, okay.
37:19
I sell twenty a year.
37:23
Like that's your max?
37:24
That's all you want to do?
37:25
That's all I'm going to sell.
37:26
Okay.
37:26
What do you fill the smoker up once?
37:30
I actually cook them two different days.
37:33
My logic is turkeys, Thanksgiving,
37:36
Christmas are two holidays.
37:39
It's just like somebody's wedding.
37:41
You get one shot.
37:44
One shot.
37:46
And you are feeding that entire family.
37:49
Yeah, there's some logic there.
37:51
And if you screw up,
37:54
that entire family will hate you.
37:56
Right.
37:57
Forever.
37:57
Not dislike you.
37:59
Not just not eat at your restaurant.
38:00
They will hate you.
38:01
Yeah.
38:02
Because you screwed up their Thanksgiving,
38:03
their Christmas, their wedding.
38:04
You don't know how many showed up.
38:06
Or mitzvah, whatever.
38:07
Like that could be.
38:08
You don't know how many people are there.
38:09
Eight families that you just pissed off
38:11
because we brought in the second cousins
38:13
this year.
38:14
So we do twenty.
38:15
All right.
38:15
Because I know I can hold twenty.
38:17
I know I can cook twenty.
38:18
I can brine twenty.
38:20
I don't inject anymore.
38:23
That's a lot of work for twenty turkeys.
38:25
And I'm the only one that cooks the
38:28
turkeys.
38:28
I don't let anybody else cook them.
38:30
Same thing.
38:31
If it's going to get screwed up,
38:33
I'm going to be the one to do
38:34
it.
38:35
I'm not going to let I'm not letting
38:36
my team take that hit.
38:38
That's that's going to be on me.
38:39
It's funny you say that because I've done
38:40
a few weddings and I got a wedding
38:42
story that should have been.
38:44
Well, it turned out.
38:46
good in my eyes.
38:48
The bride and groom were very happy,
38:49
but I took a barbecue gig for a
38:52
wedding for a hundred and eighty people,
38:55
family style, on the beach.
38:58
So we had to bring plywood to lay
39:02
down around the trailer just to make a
39:04
platform.
39:06
I had never done an event of this
39:09
caliber before in my life.
39:11
A friend of mine in the wedding band
39:12
got me the job.
39:14
And I just remember when we got there,
39:15
it was the hottest day in the summer.
39:17
The pastor actually painted in the middle
39:19
of the wedding ceremony.
39:20
It was so hot out.
39:22
So at that point,
39:23
there was nothing that was going to top
39:24
that.
39:24
So you were fine.
39:25
You had a little buffer there.
39:27
I mean,
39:29
I'm talking just getting the trailer on to
39:32
the beach, my truck getting stuck.
39:35
So like, look, everything went.
39:38
but it could have been that day that
39:40
like you just said where if you ruined
39:42
it if i ruined their wedding and didn't
39:44
bring the meal to the table um it
39:47
was a it was a tough day um
39:51
it was a very very i mean just
39:53
but i i've learned that there's just
39:55
certain things that now i i i don't
39:57
put myself in those situations um it's
40:01
similar maddie's over on the trailer
40:04
preacher went down
40:08
My day's gold.
40:11
We're good.
40:12
Check these burgers one more time.
40:14
Somebody get the hot dogs.
40:16
It took me almost two hours to get
40:18
that trailer on the beach.
40:20
That would be such a... I'll never forget.
40:25
It wasn't bad,
40:28
but one of the scariest times I had
40:30
in my business was similar.
40:32
I had never done an event to that
40:34
magnitude.
40:37
And
40:39
got a phone call from a friend of
40:41
my father's and hey how you doing hey
40:46
Charlie wait what's going on buddy hey I
40:50
can hear that man's voice and I said
40:52
I've met your dad I can hear his
40:54
friend you know what he said hey I
41:01
What's the most amount of people you've
41:03
ever cooked for?
41:07
That's wrong.
41:08
Leading right there.
41:13
I don't know.
41:15
Couple thousand.
41:16
I was gonna say not whatever you're about
41:17
to suggest.
41:18
And he goes,
41:20
do you think you could cook for, uh,
41:22
four thousand people?
41:26
Yeah.
41:29
the side of my head i'm going maybe
41:34
i don't know is four thousand four
41:36
thousands a lot of people two thousands a
41:38
lot of people i mean it was an
41:40
in service for teachers in bedford county
41:45
okay um but it wasn't just bedford county
41:48
it was i think three or four different
41:50
counties that were all came to them came
41:53
to bedford county
41:56
And I was like, sure,
41:58
let's figure it out.
42:04
Someone had the great idea to do an
42:07
off menu item for this event.
42:13
And we were talking earlier about whether
42:15
you can sell out or not.
42:18
I did stuffed potatoes, which I don't do.
42:24
for the specific reason of you can only
42:27
cook so many and then be good for,
42:31
you cook a potato,
42:32
it's good for an hour, right?
42:33
Forty-five minutes to an hour.
42:34
After that,
42:36
you're cutting it up and you're using it
42:39
for potato skins.
42:39
Like that's what your resource is.
42:42
You're going to cut the guts up and
42:44
use that for a potato soup or some
42:46
sort of something, right?
42:49
Not something solid.
42:50
No.
42:51
deep fry it right you're gonna do
42:53
something with it but um so i only
42:56
cooked like a hundred potatoes that's what
43:00
i brought because for four thousand people
43:03
because i thought hey whoa well you want
43:09
jesus to step in and like i had
43:11
the rest of them i had the rest
43:14
of the menu too but i just i
43:18
just had a hundred potatoes
43:21
You went like with a quarter percent right
43:23
there, man.
43:23
Like that's not even,
43:25
it was one menu item on the entire
43:27
menu.
43:27
I thought, man,
43:29
there's no way I'm going to sell a
43:31
hundred chicken and a hundred of you get
43:33
potatoes.
43:37
I had other things on the menu.
43:39
It's not the point.
43:40
So long story short,
43:44
I sold out of potatoes in about ten
43:45
minutes.
43:46
I
43:49
Every single person that came up to the
43:51
truck, can I get one on potatoes?
43:54
That looks good.
43:55
Can I get one of potatoes?
43:56
That looks good.
43:58
And you've seen my food truck.
44:00
Yeah.
44:00
You know,
44:00
I had a big TV on the side
44:03
and I thought it would be a good
44:04
idea.
44:05
because i was didn't want to have potatoes
44:07
left over to do one early so i
44:11
did one as soon as we got there
44:12
took a picture of it and uploaded it
44:14
into it and had it on the screen
44:20
to make sure that i sold all of
44:21
them sold them all
44:24
So for the next three hours,
44:27
can I get up?
44:28
No.
44:29
Can I get up?
44:30
No.
44:30
That's when you learn to carry a
44:33
whiteboard and a magic marker where you're
44:35
out of potatoes and just.
44:37
That's when I learned not to put it
44:38
on the menu and just have whoever's
44:41
working the register.
44:42
Tell them we have a special today.
44:45
There you go.
44:46
And then you run out of it and
44:49
you don't have to mission it any longer.
44:54
Next funny story.
44:55
I'll tell you about larger than life
44:57
events that hang on.
44:58
I need to know if Matt has ever
45:00
only brought like,
45:01
one percent of a food source for somebody
45:05
now his two thousand.
45:06
He rolled up with fifty rolls.
45:08
It goes along.
45:09
It goes along with the same.
45:10
Well,
45:11
it's funny you talk about the roles
45:12
because they I wasn't responsible for the
45:14
food,
45:15
but they we didn't have burger and hot
45:17
dog rolls when we showed up there that
45:18
morning.
45:19
and we had to use uh p pod
45:23
for from costco oh man so we didn't
45:26
have rolls that day so it's coincidentally
45:28
said that but we got them we had
45:31
been open for and tell me if you've
45:33
done this we've been open for two months
45:37
three months maybe and there's an event
45:39
venue here in town called hop springs
45:43
um it was a brewery now it's just
45:45
an event menu but they they had some
45:49
large musical acts and one of them had
45:52
a big country singer named josh turner
45:54
come out and it was the first big
45:58
big big event that we did with multiple
46:01
food trucks and you know the whole nine
46:04
yards and we walk in and we get
46:06
there and we set up and and they
46:08
told me that there was going to be
46:11
five to six thousand people at this show
46:15
but they were going to have six food
46:16
trucks including me four of the four of
46:20
those were going to be uh dinner entree
46:23
items two of them were going to be
46:25
desserts and
46:27
So the way I do the math is
46:29
I take how many people they tell me
46:32
are going to be there and half of
46:34
them are going to eat.
46:36
So if you tell me six thousand people
46:37
there,
46:38
then three thousand of them will probably
46:39
eat.
46:41
Now you take that number and you divide
46:42
that into how many vendors you have about
46:46
an estimate of what you're going to serve
46:48
that day.
46:51
So I did my math off of those
46:53
numbers.
46:56
We opened up at five o'clock on the
46:59
dot for this event.
47:03
We sold out at five twelve.
47:06
I know I can't.
47:08
Josh Turner takes the stage at seven
47:11
o'clock.
47:11
Yeah.
47:13
At six forty five.
47:15
I am completely out.
47:18
I don't even have French fries left.
47:20
Gosh, man.
47:21
I had four hundred pounds of barbecue.
47:25
gone in an hour and forty five minutes
47:28
that's a wild concept when you looked out
47:32
my trailer door we had a line of
47:35
about two trucks didn't have a person oh
47:46
no they were waiting on you to sell
47:50
out Miranda who you've met the manager of
47:54
the place
47:58
I walk up to her at six and
48:00
say, Hey, uh,
48:03
I don't really know how to tell you
48:04
this.
48:05
Um, I'm out of food.
48:09
We have four or five more hours of
48:13
event left.
48:16
We just got there.
48:18
She goes, I figured as much.
48:21
That's why everybody else was complaining
48:22
and said they were about to leave because
48:24
you were taking all the business.
48:26
Maybe they'll get some people to eat their
48:28
food now.
48:31
I'm like, I'm sorry.
48:34
That's a good feeling though,
48:35
but at the same time, like,
48:36
but just massively undershot, you know,
48:40
I mean, I could have,
48:42
I could have produced.
48:44
Twelve hundred pounds of barbecue that day
48:46
and probably would have still sold out.
48:50
Well,
48:50
or you could have sold four hundred and
48:52
been stuck on eight hundred.
48:53
Right.
48:53
Because I've had it happen that way as
48:55
well.
48:56
Oh, yeah.
48:57
Yeah, you never know.
48:58
That's kind of why I stopped selling per
49:01
item and doing the catering because...
49:03
You like the catering side?
49:05
Well,
49:05
I like taking the gamble out of it.
49:08
Again,
49:08
this business is hard enough for
49:10
everybody.
49:10
So I used to do a music festival
49:12
similar to the style of what he's talking
49:13
about.
49:14
But you had to pay for the extra
49:16
board of health permits.
49:17
You had to...
49:18
You had more staff for the day.
49:20
There was no consistency.
49:22
And then depending on what other food
49:24
trucks were there or what competition was
49:26
going on,
49:26
or maybe the guy next to you is
49:29
also selling mac and cheese,
49:30
but he sees yours at six bucks.
49:32
So he takes his down to three bucks
49:34
just so he could start selling.
49:35
I don't know.
49:37
I just didn't like the games that went
49:39
on at that stuff.
49:40
And then
49:41
You know,
49:41
or a storm comes through and they tell
49:44
you five thousand people and three
49:46
thousand show up and you got food for
49:49
five thousand.
49:50
So it just I don't like the gamble.
49:53
Yeah.
49:53
I've done those, too.
49:55
That's taking the gamble.
49:56
I mean, like
49:57
all the logic that you have there is
49:59
all i can hear is taking the gamble
50:00
out of it but again as the non-restaurant
50:05
tour here the general public's not
50:08
thinking about those things because we
50:10
show up and y'all got it hot and
50:11
ready and i'm like here we go oh
50:13
great just a couple hard lessons teach you
50:15
yeah what to avoid about that third time
50:17
you over serve you're like wait a minute
50:20
speaking of lessons
50:22
So you've been cooking barbecue for twelve
50:24
years and you got your own business,
50:27
rock and rolling,
50:28
doing really cool things.
50:31
If you could go back to twelve years
50:34
ago and take one lesson or one piece
50:37
of advice that was given to you,
50:41
what would that piece of advice be that
50:45
changed the way you look at things today?
50:51
It would be simplicity.
50:53
I've always,
50:54
the creativity is the fun of it all.
50:57
But on the other hand, the simplicity,
50:59
taking the chaos out of the business is
51:01
what makes us good at what we do.
51:05
So yeah,
51:05
I had a lot of people that were
51:07
telling me simpler, always charge more.
51:12
I mean,
51:12
I had a lot of lessons that were
51:13
told to me and I didn't listen to
51:14
most of them and I wish I did.
51:17
I thought I knew everything when I was
51:18
doing it.
51:20
You know,
51:20
there were there were just a lot of
51:21
people giving me advice,
51:23
one to charge more for what I was
51:25
doing.
51:25
And I always was worried about getting the
51:28
business.
51:28
And it was like, no,
51:29
if I charge less,
51:30
I'm going to get more people.
51:31
I don't want to scare people away.
51:33
But it always did become harder to charge
51:35
more as you were going.
51:36
Once you'd set your price point,
51:38
people became comfortable with it.
51:40
Um, so I had to give myself advice,
51:43
you know, back then,
51:44
it would be to kind of focus and
51:47
streamline,
51:48
and just make sure that whatever I'm
51:50
doing, I'm doing well.
51:52
And I'm profitable at doing so to move
51:54
forward, because it is a living,
51:55
it's not
51:56
we're not just cooking barbecue for fun
51:58
i'm cooking barbecue to to pay my bills
52:01
um so it's you know when i bought
52:04
that first smoker and was just putting
52:06
ribs on for me and the friends that
52:07
was way different than when i really
52:10
needed to to turn it into something for
52:12
you know to put food on the table
52:14
for my family right the other way right
52:18
right yeah i love that you um
52:19
You got a Friday feel good for us?
52:20
I do.
52:21
And just based on today's conversation,
52:24
it goes right hand in hand with with
52:27
what you're talking about,
52:28
because lots of the parts of owning or
52:30
operating a business can be overwhelming
52:33
at times.
52:34
But you kind of know my backstory a
52:37
little bit of doing the whole house
52:38
buying,
52:39
selling thing that I've been going
52:40
through.
52:40
And I have been stressed and felt
52:43
overwhelmed.
52:44
And my wife sent me this today and
52:46
she doesn't know this is going to be
52:46
the Friday feel good,
52:47
but like it nailed it.
52:49
What a privilege to be overwhelmed by the
52:53
growth you've dreamed about.
52:55
And a lot of times we lose sight
52:58
of what that is and how perfect the
53:02
overwhelming factor can be.
53:04
But we were hoping for that.
53:06
Yeah, we put it on ourselves.
53:07
And we put it on ourselves.
53:08
And that's what you were hoping to get
53:09
to.
53:09
But y'all know what to do.
53:10
Find somebody you know,
53:11
tell them you love them.
53:12
I love that.
53:12
I love that.
53:14
Matt, if people are trying to find you,
53:16
get a hold of you,
53:17
all your Instagram stuff, socials,
53:19
et cetera, how can they do that?
53:21
So you guys could find me on Instagram,
53:22
Matty Cooks.
53:24
I'm on Facebook by Matt Vassilaro or
53:27
LinkedIn, same Matt Vassilaro.
53:29
Matty Smokes Barbecue and Catering.com.
53:33
You could find me on there as well.
53:35
And as well, JJ Cooper's.
53:37
So I've got the JJ Cooper's Instagram,
53:39
JJ Cooper's Facebook page.
53:40
Nice.
53:41
So I'm all over.
53:42
You can find all the spots.
53:43
I love it.
53:44
Look out for next year's April Fool's
53:45
post.
53:46
Yeah.
53:46
Probably won't be sugar.
53:50
Probably won't be sugar,
53:50
but it had me hooked and I was
53:52
ready.
53:52
It could be sweet.
53:55
You had me going.
53:55
I forgot about that.
53:58
I smoked sugar.
53:59
What's this guy talking about?
54:02
I smoked ice cream,
54:03
so I was really interested in it.
54:05
I'm just saying.
54:06
I mean,
54:06
I might just have to go home and
54:07
try it.
54:10
it's like just face value like oh yeah
54:13
like you know keep scrolling bud like
54:14
that's yeah i love it i love it
54:18
absolutely matt good to meet you man yeah
54:20
my pleasure no thank you for having me
54:22
guys appreciate you coming to hang out man
54:23
look y'all know what to do go follow
54:25
my man matt he is cooking it up
54:27
doing some crazy things up there in long
54:29
island
54:30
We are super excited to have him on
54:32
the show.
54:33
More to come.
54:34
Some really cool things coming out very,
54:36
very soon.
54:37
Stay tuned.
54:38
Make sure you like, subscribe,
54:39
and share the show.
54:42
You know what to do if you want
54:42
to get involved.
54:43
Please email me at charlie at
54:45
singletreebbq.com.
54:47
You can call me at six one five
54:48
three zero seven zero one two zero.
54:51
And until next time, guys,
54:53
we'll see you then.
54:53
Y'all be good.
54:54
Thank you.