From House Kitchen to Award Winning Restaurant!

While talking to Matt and Trisha Stroud of Strouderosa BBQ in today’s episode, I realized something: some of the best businesses don’t start with a plan, they start with a problem.

What started as one smoked turkey turned into a backyard BBQ hustle that wouldn’t quit.

They didn’t plan to open a BBQ joint. But they said yes, worked hard, and turned it into one of Dallas’s most-loved spots.

This isn’t just about food. It’s about grit, grace, and turning hard times into something real.

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:22

This is what barbecue will do. You just let everything grow and you have patience. That's. We have Matt Stroud and Tricia Stroud. I say all the time internet guilt cooking. Just because there's so many different ways of doing so many different things. Simple is better tried and true. That's just what we do. It's a family run, family orientated restaurant.

00:00:23:23 - 00:00:46:13

We live in Texas. Barbecue country. How are you standing out? How are you winning these awards? What's. What's separating you from everyone else? You know, some of it is. That's all we want to do. I basically brought my backyard inside. And these are all recipes that we and I did cook a little, but it's the meats. The way he smoked it before and how our life changed.

00:00:46:15 - 00:00:54:21

And I was diagnosed with allergic to garlic. Oh.

00:00:54:23 - 00:01:15:13

Welcome everyone to the marketing for good podcast. We just rebranded it this week. I was taking a shower and I'm like, I want something different. I want something that's more on brand with what I feel we need to be doing with marketing. Marketing for good podcast. And today we're recording, the next episode of the local business legends series, which started a few weeks ago.

00:01:15:13 - 00:01:39:22

And I'm excited because it's really blowing up. And then a friend of mine reached out and said, you have to talk to these guys. Stroud. Stroud. I was trying to figure out, I've been hearing you. Stroud, Stroud, Arosa, Stroud or Roseau. You got to tell me that story in a second. But for now, we have Matt Stroud and, Tricia Stroud, Tricia Stroud, Tricia Stroud, thank you very much.

00:01:40:03 - 00:02:02:04

So before we get started, tell us a little bit about your story. Without going deep, how did we get here? Go ahead. Well, Matt was, And the natural gas pipeline. He was a welder, and we traveled all over the country for his job, lived in our camper, traveled with him, the kids, and we homeschooled the kids. It was just adventures.

00:02:02:06 - 00:02:21:15

He used to make jalapeno barbecue sauce just for fun. And we would people do that just for fun? Yeah. He well, it was, you know, he would travel to Ohio, West Virginia and take these and people would buy them. So we kind of came up with our straddle Rosa thinking, one day we'll retire, maybe sell barbecue sauce to grocery stores or something.

00:02:21:15 - 00:02:42:21

Right. And then the pandemic happened. So he was on furlough from his job and we were just kind of sitting there thinking cool, how are we going to make money. You know we're just sitting here with no job and a mom on the Lake Highlands Mamas Facebook page. There's always a Facebook page. It's always a Facebook page of the moms especially.

00:02:42:23 - 00:03:00:07

But, in November of 2020, she posted, where can I get a smoked turkey? And he had just bought the smoker that I was so annoyed about, but, he bought it and I said, hey, babe, can we can we do this for her? He's like, I can get eight turkeys on at one time. We're already doing one for a neighbor.

00:03:00:07 - 00:03:14:09

We're doing two with our family and two for us. So we're like, cool, we can fit a couple more. So I replied, hey, we can do that. And 32 moms messaged me, well, that I didn't know I was just a mom that said, hey, this is a great place to get a bounce house here, get your haircut here.

00:03:14:11 - 00:03:34:09

And now I'm saying I can cook you a turkey and 32 moms want their turkey from me. So we kind of just said, okay, cool. You know, text me, here's, here's my Venmo, because we just had the Venmo set up for Rosa since we were selling the barbecue sauce. And, then it kind of just progressed like, what do you do inside?

00:03:34:09 - 00:03:50:11

Or like one of the business, but hey, can we do it inside? He's like, cool, do your green bean casserole. Literally all the store bought stuff. But anyway, that's how we started. So I have to ask you. So she comes to you and she says, hey, we we got some some work, we got some orders. What are you thinking?

00:03:50:12 - 00:04:14:06

Well, the work wasn't the work. The doing of the turkeys was was, you know, it's a 3 to 4 day process on doing turkeys. I mean, because every turkey comes frozen, pair it so you get farmed out. And if you're brining that's 2 to 3 days, give or take on your brine method. And then if you inject, you know, there's our to inject and depending on how many turkeys you got.

00:04:14:08 - 00:04:41:05

So, I heard 32 turkeys. And that was just the orders, plus all the sides and fixings. I looked at her like, oh, well. And he loved me today, you know? But we sat there and rocked and rolled and I bought just about every igloo, 120 quart cooler I could find from here to Costco. Sam's in Academy and wiped them all, wiped them all, wiped them all clean.

00:04:41:08 - 00:05:13:22

And we we had turkeys and and coolers and cooling down and and you had a whole process. People were picking them up right out of the coolers and it was just, you know, see them. I didn't want anybody to see what was going on. I said a lot of trust, but I did right. But we bought every bag of ice I could buy and everything that I could think of store and, and bought an extra frigerator another freezer and off the ground we were going and then they started asking, what are we doing for Christmas?

00:05:13:22 - 00:05:33:03

And I go, wow, what is going on? I was like, y'all just wait a second. And we turned around on Christmas and doubled our orders and had 64 turkeys and about 500 pounds of prime rib, plus all the fixings in the middles that go along with it on Christmas dinner. So I have to ask you, because I've noticed that this is something special for certain people.

00:05:33:07 - 00:05:58:06

It's like a passion. I have some friends. I think your aunt was doing barbecue stuff as well, like on competitions. Like, what is it about this type of work? And grilling and and all that. The. Okay. And I just get the tingly feeling. What? Get what gets me on a cook? It's not. It's the science behind it.

00:05:58:06 - 00:06:21:22

It's the cooking method. It's old school cooking. You know, I say, I say all the time internet killed cooking just because there's so many different ways of doing so many different things. I stepped back on my basic barbecue career, and I went back to what my dad taught me and what I learned from friends and family. Me, malls and grand malls and things like that.

00:06:22:00 - 00:06:43:16

Growing up and simple is better tried and true. Simple is better. And where did we learn how to how to how to barbecue? We learn from an old way of cooking, an old slave way of cooking. And they got the bad pieces of meat. And once they figured out how to cook them pieces of meat, guess what? Everybody's down there eating with them.

00:06:43:18 - 00:07:04:09

And and I owe all my homage to to that, that era. Because we wouldn't have barbecue without it. And it's, it's, it's a, it's a trialing time. But we would not have barbecue without that. And anybody can save face on that. But to go back to cook in the old days. Yeah, we're cooking on commercial smokers and stuff like that.

00:07:04:11 - 00:07:35:22

But just an open pit like East Coast does. Georgia does, that's cooking, that's cook and open fire cook and that's, that's, that's just, that's just a, a a passion on anybody who cooks on open fire. Anybody cooks in the kitchen is just a passion. And my dad installed that passion. And the first thing I ever cooked for my dad by myself, I was six years old and jumped on a gas stove and made some freaking French toast for me and my buddy Russell and my daddy.

00:07:36:00 - 00:07:51:13

You just made it happen. That's impressive. That was the first thing I said. Hey, y'all got to come over here and cook. In fact, I ran into Russell when he told me the same story, and I'm like, I forgot. That is a core memory for him. Two, 40 years ago was a core memory. And, yeah, it was it was dad.

00:07:51:15 - 00:08:09:15

I mean, dad could open up a frigerator, figure out what we're eating and based on what's in there, because maybe we were hunting and fishing, and that was a lot of our groceries when we were growing up. We only went to the grocery store to get milk and roughly, underwear. And that was about it for we hunt and fish every week.

00:08:09:15 - 00:08:25:07

Our fantastic guests, really insightful. And it lets me into the mind of these individuals like yourself because I couldn't understand it. Like, why do you want to sit out there for hours on end and, and cook for others? But clearly it's a passion. And she's a cook, by the way. She and she. And that was my next question.

00:08:25:07 - 00:08:47:02

She doesn't understand in any at all. When we started and started doing this through Covid and all this as a start up, man, people ask me, how long does it take to cook a brisket? It's like, well, that briskets going to be done on that brisket stuff. I mean, I I've had I've had a brisket done in eight hours and I've had one take every bit of 20 hours to go, like you get stuck on a stall.

00:08:47:02 - 00:09:02:19

And she sat there one day and it's like, hey, she's like, hey babe, why don't you just go to bed? I'm like, yeah, like that's going to happen. I'll take this watch. I was like, yeah, you know what? I'll sit back with with a case of Miller Lite and just watch that fire and that's what I did and pulled it.

00:09:02:21 - 00:09:24:11

I can't help but feel that there's a resemblance to that experience as there is to fishing. Absolutely right. You're just fishing and you just. You're just chilling. I've fished once in my life, and I remember that feeling like we're not doing anything, but I really feel fulfilled. I, you know, like you had some beers. Buddy of mine took me out to Gun Barrel, Texas.

00:09:24:12 - 00:09:40:20

We sat there and fished, and I, like, I could do this again. I haven't, but I could do that. I don't know. Yeah. I want to ask him what time he's coming over. He's going fishing. Oh, I know it's going to be. It's gonna be a while. Yeah, yeah, it's just the experience of it itself. Yeah. She started asking me is like, how many beers you got left?

00:09:40:22 - 00:10:01:19

All right. So we got about we got we got about it. We got about a case. It's like, I'll, I'll see you. Do you have another case? There's a just one. Call me if you go to the store. Right. So I can refill that. I have to ask you, what was that transition like for you to understand a man of this caliber and quality.

00:10:01:23 - 00:10:19:00

So all along that we've been together, he would smoke meats, you know, for our kids birthday parties for if we had, you know, any kind of party. We like to have people over at our house. So he would love to smoke meats. So I understood a little bit about it. I didn't grow up eating barbecue like that. My dad never did this.

00:10:19:02 - 00:10:42:13

I mean, he likes his steaks well-done. So this was a very different, different thing for me. And sacrilegious. And, you know, our ever growing up, I did retail, but I never did. Sorry, I never did restaurant. So I, I have no idea any. I had no food background. I didn't care about it. I didn't really think I it, you know, like, let me order my drinks and my food and I'm good.

00:10:42:15 - 00:11:00:16

So for us to look at this as like, okay, when let's turn his passion into something that can maybe give us money until he was going to go back to work and man, I'm still learning. Like this is five years in now at this point, and I'm still learning things, but I don't cook. I help him make the recipes.

00:11:00:20 - 00:11:20:23

Yeah, I'm the other, I'm the other that everything else, you know, he I, he does the kitchen stuff. I mean I help them prepare the caterers, I go with him and we do the catering together. I can serve. But yeah, this was I feel like I had good training being that I had high end customer service. I mean, I worked at Saks Fifth Avenue for 12 years, so I know how to deal with good customer service.

00:11:21:01 - 00:11:40:17

But the other side, that says a lot harder the cooking. Yeah, said the cooking itself. And then, just even running this joint, one of my best. I used to be in the grocery business. I was in management, for 18 years. So I can relate. And, the well done steak. Sorry. Everybody looked at me.

00:11:40:17 - 00:11:59:18

She she still looks at me the same way, whereas I go with that. Darn it. Where the heck was I go with that? Oh. One of the rules I had when I was, as I was aging and moving along, is I had opportunities to work at restaurants. I'm like, absolutely not. I refuse to work in a restaurant.

00:12:00:00 - 00:12:21:18

It's bad enough the customer service is the running and gunning. But in a restaurant now, you're in a little tight space. And the idea of trying to manage that and people's attitudes and just trying to give a good service, it's it's challenging. So is it fair to say that you'd never really planned on opening a restaurant? Oh, it's 100% fair to say it was never in our retirement, in our life plan, our five year plan.

00:12:21:18 - 00:12:36:15

It was never in anything. It was he was going to be a welder. I was going to stay at home. Mom, that was important for both of us to I was either going to die on the job or die after I get off the job, right? Like we thought he was going to be a welder until retirement or dying, you know?

00:12:36:20 - 00:12:52:18

I mean, of course we were hoping to retire a decent needs to be able to do things together and as a family, but I really thought we were going to be traveling the country and just on our adventures for decades. So what was that? What was the flip? When did you know? Hey, you know what? Let's let's open up a restaurant.

00:12:52:19 - 00:13:13:01

Covid. I mean, unfortunately and unfortunately for a lot of people, I lost my job on top of being in Covid and along with everybody else, trying to figure out what to do with your kids and money and things like that. And, you know, you you set aside a nest egg that you think is good enough. Well, you know, sometimes you're you're wrong in that, in that number.

00:13:13:03 - 00:13:31:19

And we were wrong on that number that year. And, it was either, you know, selling some steel or selling some meat and meat was a lot quicker to selling than steel because there was nothing going on, and it was absolutely nothing going on. It was so nice to be home to, you know, quiet kids at 7:00.

00:13:31:19 - 00:13:51:05

Don't run in the camper, you know? So it's nice to be at our house for so long. But once. Yeah, the end of 2020 and we got great feedback on the Christmas and we did New Year's Day, black eyed New Year's Eve, the Black Eyed Peas. Yeah, yeah. And we were like, you know what? We had 90 people order a 32 ounce container of black eyed peas from us.

00:13:51:05 - 00:14:06:06

We're like, you know what? Let's try to see if we could do. Because we had two friends that I knew in the neighborhood. They other moms that do meal delivery. And they had done it pre-COVID. But I was like, okay, let me pick their brains, let me do so. I check to see what days they were delivering, and I chose a date neither one of them are delivering.

00:14:06:06 - 00:14:23:04

So I said, Wednesdays we're delivering Wednesday. So we started doing family meals and this was just an idea to get us through. Maybe like the next year for when maybe the pipeline was going to pick up or reopen. We had every intention of him going back to work, to his career that he made great money on. I didn't have to work.

00:14:23:04 - 00:14:44:15

I could be with the kids and we can be with him. And then the job still never opened up the job. The Keystone was closed, so we were like, wow. So in 22 we were like, look, we need to figure out, are you shifting careers or are we going to go 100% into this food? And I was like, I don't really want to go 100% into this food.

00:14:44:15 - 00:15:02:02

I don't have a restaurant background. I don't, I have my associates in business. I, I don't know how to do this. So we were talking about it and just kind of prayed about it, and we were like, you know what? Let's know. We prayed about it and it was the good Lord that put a hand on us and said, hey, this is what you need to do.

00:15:02:04 - 00:15:25:20

And, you know, he he opened the door. And man, as soon as he opened the door, the other doors all closed and, that's what it felt like. It just it just I'm like, Lord, this is really what you want me to do, you know? Come on. And you sure you want me to do this? You know, and we went through a lot of trial and tribulation and and and trying to figure out the meaning to get it out of our hands and get going.

00:15:25:21 - 00:15:42:03

What are we going to do, a restaurant or keep going from our house, you know, and then it just things just kind of fell into place. He put things that were supposed to be here, the right and then the right, and then and then it all got taken away and it all went to crap. And then it's like, then we had to rebrand and build again.

00:15:42:05 - 00:16:06:14

Be close. Within the first month to we got rid of almost our whole entire kitchen staff. So this is your second round new? Well, no. So we opened the end of May 23rd. Okay. We are open for barely one week and we were like this is not right. And it it cost me it cost it cost us a little bit of money on a bunch or on a bunch of, food I gave away.

00:16:06:15 - 00:16:32:06

It wasn't the right stuff for the with me, the right staff and was. So we closed, we revamped and reopened, hired some new people and started going and started training. And those people are here anymore. And then right now we're we're we're in a position with the kitchen staff is straight a game. We got our 18 and we got our 18 from the front end to the back.

00:16:32:08 - 00:16:46:23

And it took a while. It took a year and a half to figure it out. It's a different skill set. It is running and managing, waiting. And no, I mean I'm going to hire you because, look, you've worked at six restaurants. You're great. You're going to do it. You're going to teach me, because I didn't always happen. So the reason they worked at six restaurants.

00:16:46:23 - 00:17:06:05

Yeah. Well, I tell you, the more you have on a resume, you almost don't want them. The more be, the more boss. It is. The more things on a resume, the more BS it is. And what we experienced. And it wasn't that I'd rather have somebody I can come in here and train and and show. And that's where we started back with.

00:17:06:07 - 00:17:25:10

That's fantastic. But you know, as far as as far as getting it all out of the house, we got it out of the house and then shut it down. And then we looked and we looked we looked for almost six months to find this place. And it I'll be honest, this wasn't our favorite option. This wasn't this is the area that we wanted to be in.

00:17:25:12 - 00:17:47:19

It was what we could afford. We. If we were going to make this jump, we had no idea what it was going to cost. How much. So sure, we have, like about 120 customers that were pretty regular, or at least but always order for holidays or whatever. This. But that doesn't mean they're going to come in. And so we were like, we need to have a somewhat affordable rent in cases backfires on us.

00:17:47:21 - 00:18:04:00

And boy, did it backfire because those people don't necessarily come in. And I mean, there were people that maybe were ordering regularly and then think maybe they haven't even come in the restaurant at all. Wow. You know, some of these we were doing meal delivery. We were dropping off at your door. So we were like, oh yeah, that's different for sure.

00:18:04:01 - 00:18:25:05

It's a different, different concept. But yeah, we found we took about six months to find this place. And July of 22, we signed the lease and it was a quote unquote move and ready. It was fully ready for rent. Ready to go. Yeah. Had tables, chairs, had everything in the kitchen. And we were like, great, let's do this.

00:18:25:07 - 00:18:42:12

And three months later, we're still not done. Still three months later then, well, then my dad had a stroke and I had a I had to step back and take care of him. So it was really him in here and my cousin and my brother and one of his friends, like some friends just coming in on to help to come.

00:18:42:13 - 00:19:11:09

And I couldn't do something by myself. We didn't have investors, we didn't have loans. We came in with that said retirement that we had. And a three month turnkey move in ready place took 11 months to open. Oh my goodness. And so in a lot more money than it was supposed to, we basically we rebuilt a whole we got we got in it and rebuilt everything from the floor of the only thing that's here is that let's meet here sign ironically was here.

00:19:11:11 - 00:19:29:16

Okay. When do you feel that you did turn the corner and like you see promise. Because correct me if I'm wrong, but you wanted some type of award. Is there a trophy for it? Yeah, we've got a couple. We we've been do we got entrepreneur entrepreneur of the year from the East Dallas Chamber chamber. Right. We've got that.

00:19:29:16 - 00:19:59:17

And then we did best barbecue 2023 for observer. And done some stuff with the advocate. Can say second place on advocate. Last couple of years that we really pushed even when we were in our house, we got second place for two years. So, in East Dallas and, a bunch of other things, or there's some things that popped up on Facebook and Instagram and all that ticky tacky crap.

00:19:59:19 - 00:20:21:12

You know, because I'm this old school and do it, but I'm going to, you know, we won, got best overall on our reviews and everything, got this barbecue through our reviews and Google and Yelp and all that. Great segue into we live in Texas barbecue country, and Texans are very particular about their barbecue. How are you standing out?

00:20:21:12 - 00:20:42:06

How are you winning these awards? What's what's separating you from everyone else? Because, that's a pretty impressive resume. You just spit. You know, some of it is surprising on me. On, on, on when I see that. Because they're just some of these folks have gone in and just looked at all the reviews of Texas barbecue, and we rank up there pretty high.

00:20:42:07 - 00:21:05:12

They had they physically come in, I do not know, but the ones who have and we have delighted, have raved about us left and right. You know, each pitmaster and each barbecue restaurant's going to have a good day and it's going to have a bad day. It's happens with everyone, everybody and any corporate or job or anything, whether you're a housewife, pitmaster or president, it doesn't matter.

00:21:05:12 - 00:21:24:23

You're going to have a band that you know and I would just like for everybody out there to know, like if you have a bad day, come back next week, it's going to be in the it's going to be different. Different. It's going to be a different brisket. You know each meats different each each rubs different. You know sometimes in the woods going to be different.

00:21:24:23 - 00:21:44:15

Every other smoke know there's so many ingredients. There's so many different things to deal with that the, the the common the the common person on barbecue that doesn't know it doesn't understand the factors. Well, you know, I can't just have barbecue ready to go in 30 minutes or it just doesn't work that way on my end and my work that way on somebody else's.

00:21:44:15 - 00:22:12:20

And that doesn't work like that on me. But it's, it's, it's, it's a struggle to, to, to to have the straight line consistency and, you know, there's been a time that I wasn't consistent on, on one thing that I've struggled with and that would be my ribs. I have, I have a bark issue that I had a problem getting through on, on a smoker that I was really wanting to smoke all my ribs on.

00:22:13:01 - 00:22:34:04

When we end up pulling back and going back to the old school way and then started being just fine again, just revamped him, went back. Okay, well I think so I think it's we listen to people and, and in the feedback we, we, we really like feedback. Good bad great whatever. Because if we get enough feedback on one certain thing like we did or something, then we only had one sandwich.

00:22:34:04 - 00:22:50:00

So people were like, I need a smaller sandwich being a smaller sandwich. So after two months, now we have two sandwich sizes, you know, little things like that. But I think that we try to talk to everybody if we're here, especially one of us, you're going to get at least one of us one time. And we ask people, please, hey, how did you hear about us?

00:22:50:02 - 00:23:08:22

So like, oh, Nextdoor, Google. Okay, will you pay it forward? Will you leave us a review when next door? We leave us a reduced review on Google. And so I think that's probably how we're getting back to good reviews. And I mean, but also how we're getting the good review right? You're giving good food, but also to me is just as important as you're winning awards in your space.

00:23:08:22 - 00:23:28:14

Yeah. And it seems to be pretty competitive. You guys, I have a friend on, on Facebook. There's always competing every every other weekend and some, some were driving over there. I'm like, that's crazy. So it's somewhat competitive. People are particular and yet you still seem to have done well. You're you're pulling these awards and you're you're killing it.

00:23:28:15 - 00:23:53:00

Frank. People are coming in. Is that what it is? We're we're finally getting over that, that hump and and that that struggle in the first year. I mean, that struggle in the first year. Now we're in the struggle of the second year. We go now and it's all the time. It's they're going to close. It's a little bit different, you know, and and what we have to do on that when we start even talking about that is like we start talking about it for a minute and we go and pray about it.

00:23:53:00 - 00:24:13:08

And and that's just how we run this business now is, is it's a faith based business. And we try to go and try to run it to our best ability. It's good to hear. I have to ask you next, you're natives of this house. This morning we went to the Lake Highlands High School together. Both of you graduated from Lake Islands.

00:24:13:10 - 00:24:31:12

Was it important to stay in East Allis? No, no, no, no. I know people want us to say yes, but no. Well, what it was, I stayed because of my dad, and I wanted to be close to him and my my stepmother. She, my mother and, my parents, her parents. And were within a mile of both of them.

00:24:31:12 - 00:24:53:01

We purposely bought our home to be close to them. Luckily, our parents were just a block apart, so we're just the next block over. So because our parents were in the same original homes, that more like when we were in high school. So for us it was especially me and for him thinking with us traveling, if I can be home with the kids by myself and then I have my family, then you got to support us.

00:24:53:06 - 00:25:12:02

Yeah. So and we did. We have a great support system on boat, I mean, with our family. So I'm grateful for that. But that's I mean, I hate to say it, that's the only reason we were here was our family. I mean, my I'm the third generation, like Highland in the same house. So what about for the business?

00:25:12:07 - 00:25:34:22

Was that intentional or like, hey, it just worked out that way. It just kind of worked out that way. But no, we were looking to to to to the best bang for the buck is how how we're how any, any business. We did want to stay here because we live here and because our client base was here. I mean, we did deliver a little bit to Richardson and Highland Park, but during the pandemic, we're delivering everybody in Lake Highland.

00:25:35:02 - 00:25:58:17

So we needed to be here one to be close to home, but to to be where our fan base was. Yeah. So that's technically the only reason we're here. Here, I was thinking you're going to give some mallow to to East Allison I would okay. Rewind that. Yeah. No. I mean, I hate to say that, but it's like we aren't married to this location at all necessarily.

00:25:58:22 - 00:26:15:21

We would have loved to have been closer to, like, a highway that's, you know, more popular, like, or 75 or something like that. Because and maybe we would be busier. You have this bridge going over here is sexy. So what's that going to happen here? Right. My first home. My first. The first time I moved out of the house and really started to be a man.

00:26:15:23 - 00:26:34:07

We got it. I got an apartment on the other side of that, bridge of forget is that was 30 years ago. Yes. Is way different. I was over there recently in a crap. What the hell happened over here? Yeah, there's not a single business over there except for Burger Street, you know? Yeah. There used to be a bunch of small little, little mom and pop shops.

00:26:34:09 - 00:26:53:17

But having said that, I do. I'm curious. Do you. Do you see yourself growing? Do you see yourself expanding now? Is there a vision for that? If things happen, there's dreams of it. Okay. There's absolutely I don't know if it's actually achievable, but there's dreams of it. Because if we're going to do this, we want to keep going and we want to do bigger, better.

00:26:53:22 - 00:27:10:22

The whole thing is straighten it up. Word is that that's what we joke about. So we used to say like we're we want to do this. We'll we're going to start it up because we're going to go to the next level. We're going to keep going up. So we try to do so. We're literally like big go big, go home.

00:27:11:00 - 00:27:31:05

I mean. It's actually it's either feast or famine and and we're go big or go home. And that's what we're going to do. We're going to go and we're going to go big. And if and if we can't get there, then we're going to go home. We have to. We're big, you know, personalities, both of us. Somehow it still works, but we kind of feel like that needs something.

00:27:31:10 - 00:27:49:00

We need some dish. No, I haven't you mentioned that he has an epic mustache. Make sure you get that. I tried to get do that. It's non-word. Oh that's another that's another top. That's a whole another. But this is somewhat new. Just this is what this is what barbecue will do. You just let everything grow and you have patience.

00:27:49:01 - 00:28:05:18

Yeah. So we just would love to go the next step. I mean I we have ideas of if we could get a bigger space with a patio and have a great smoke room, we would love to be able to have like people walk back because, I mean, you can go look at our smokers, but it's right in the kitchen.

00:28:05:18 - 00:28:21:16

So it's really tricky to give tours to people. We love it to be able to guys, you know, go kick the tires and be like, hey, you know, we love for the guys to be able to. Yeah, exactly. Drink your beer and we'd love to do classes. Like we could teach people how to drink and season and then like, the magic of TV.

00:28:21:16 - 00:28:42:23

Then here comes the smoked brisket and then slice it. And he would. That's that's him. He's a show. He's a storyteller. He loves the experience. And he would love to do that whole shebang epically. Yeah I love it. Yeah. So and and that's that's the goal. That's the goal in life is to teach somebody that doesn't know how to do it, how to do it.

00:28:43:01 - 00:29:05:17

I mean, we can each pitmaster cooks however many briskets and turkeys and chickens and all this, but let's help you focus on that one. We know how to focus on that one, but now we're focusing on 1,000 pounds of meat at a time. And that's the other thing that's behind the scenes that some people don't understand is like, hey, you're doing all this, but I want to eat that one right there.

00:29:05:18 - 00:29:21:13

And that's the one I want to eat. Well, must focus on that one. So it'd be great to. Hey, I'm smoking a brisket. Matt, what do I need to do here? Here's my phone number. Call me up. Oh, he's done that. He just did that last week. Yeah, we had a customer that got stuck in out of town, had a barbecue competition.

00:29:21:13 - 00:29:39:22

Hey, can you turn us? Can you trim my brisket? Bring them up. Bring it up. The wife and the wife I had, we showed the, Mr. Oliver's wife what was going on and what we did and how to do it. And here's my number. Got any questions? I was like, well, my husband will be here about 9 or 10:00, and I'll release it to him.

00:29:40:00 - 00:30:00:07

And I in fact, I ran into, her husband company the Saturday. The Saturday he's like, hey, everything was great. You talked the wife up and the wife was taking charge. And I was like, hey, that was great. That's how I needed to be. So it was pretty fun. You know, I think I figured out why why you're doing starting to do well, transitioning into the next, next phase.

00:30:00:07 - 00:30:19:12

Y'all are good people. Y'all are investing in people. Y'all are willing to make it an experience. And, people are. I think there's only so much even if the food is great, it only goes so far is the other part. And this is through my own marketing experience, is the experience itself. The experience is what creates that that extra.

00:30:19:14 - 00:30:37:01

And yeah, if you come here, people remember the most terrible service. You're not gonna want to come back. You know, we and we were first open and I'll tell you the best experience in almost two of them. They go right along with it. And I had a customer that ordered through us and had stuff delivered, but she calls up and says, hey, man.

00:30:37:03 - 00:31:06:20

It's like, hey, my kids don't eat anything, I'll eat is McDonald's and chicken nuggets like every other kid? That depends on McDonald's. It's like, do you mind if we bring that in? I was like, all right, y'all bring it in. But on top of that, I'm gonna try something. And I'm like, okay, so now that family comes in every other Friday night and they don't bring in McDonald's and I tempt am tempted them with the turkey, our smoked turkey and, green beans.

00:31:06:20 - 00:31:25:11

And they ordered that every time they come out they won't try anything else. But they were the first try that first time. And after about a week or two of them come in with McDonald's, I got them hooked on turkey and that, and they were like, hey, this greatest thing. And then another thing, a young man named Connor says, oh, he melts my heart every time he comes out.

00:31:25:13 - 00:31:43:22

And, for some reason, I don't even know how to say it's the grace of God is. All I can say is that he put that young man in my life, and that young man melts my heart every time he comes in. And he's, what, six, five, five, six? And he's the only kid that will come back there if I'm not out here, open up the doors and go, hey, where's Matt?

00:31:43:23 - 00:31:58:21

He says, Where's Matt? Where's Matt? As he walks in the door, the parents will go sit and take a table. I'll talk to them. He's like, Where's Matt? He will go look. Yeah, no. And he will not talk to anybody else. Give you his order, tell you what he wants to drink until he talks to Matt. What did you do, Matt I don't know.

00:31:59:02 - 00:32:13:20

Look, Sam, he's. I got to interview and he boops them on his nose. Yeah, he comes and he'll come. He comes up to boost me on the nose, puts his big arms around me and I just bear hug him. And we were like, that's adorable. And we we're we're family. We're family. Isn't that? And that's the main thing that we like to do is, is your family.

00:32:13:20 - 00:32:35:12

Once you walk in the door, we want to treat you like family. In. And you got any questions we're going to answer? And you know what? When you leave that door and you leave behind and and those doors closed, one might even curse you like family. You never know, you know? But that's just what we do. It's a family run family, family up, family run orientated, just restaurant.

00:32:35:12 - 00:32:54:15

I mean, that's that's all we want to do. I basically brought my backyard inside. Yeah, that's the line of the show up there now. I brought my backyard inside. And these are all recipes that we and I did cook a little. The green beans are my recipe. We'll make sure to feature that. Well. But it was it was it was things that we made at home.

00:32:54:17 - 00:33:19:14

The carrots. The Kenny carrots he's been making sustained his whole life. Right. The potato salad we did kind of come up with together, but it's the needs. The way he smoked it before. Until our life changed and I was diagnosed. Was allergic to garlic. Oh. Divorce. That was. That was her. There was some talk about it. I like joking.

00:33:19:14 - 00:33:39:19

No, but he had to change the recipe. The recipe for all the rubs. So, I mean, it's salt and pepper. I thought this was going to go really dark, but it did kind of go dark. Him like, oh no, oh, are we going to have some, some, therapy here? Okay. Yeah. I mean, she was diagnosed with, with, being allergic to garlic, cauliflower and corn, which is Arklow.

00:33:39:20 - 00:33:54:14

Wow. Which is just when I was eating gluten free. That's how I found out. I turned clean and gluten free, and I was eating, like, cauliflower rice and, like, you know, and that's I found that's how I found out I was allergic. So I had having a headache. Having a headache was I. We'll figure out what we're having.

00:33:54:14 - 00:34:15:07

Headaches, migraines. I'm not talking. So I'm not giving you the headache. No, but yeah, I'm out. If. But you know. So we had to tweak some things for that just because, I mean, I guess we didn't have to, but I can eat it. Yeah. And I'm I'm back there helping, do the dishes, like, whenever, because we do have jalapeno corn, and we couldn't take that off because it's a number one seller.

00:34:15:07 - 00:34:29:07

We have two customers that only ordered that corn every holiday. They don't come to the restaurant any other time. But I'm like, well, I can't take that away. So I don't do the dishes on a clean up after that, just in case, you know. But we're we're careful with that. But other than that, it's it's like I said, it's food that we've made.

00:34:29:13 - 00:34:52:11

We just kind of brought it here. We have tweaks and things. We get some feedback. You know, but we we just want to make yummy food. Yummy yummy, yummy sides, yummy people. We're definitely in a in a time, I think, where there's, a massive movement to connect with businesses like yours. I think there's individuals myself, I tried to, as much as I possibly can, is not go to the major chains.

00:34:52:13 - 00:35:09:13

Because they don't know us. They don't care about us. They're not going to sit down and talk to us, which you just described. And with, especially with a young, a little boy, like nobody else is going to do that. People are starving for real connections with real humans. And what you do, it's the food is great.

00:35:09:18 - 00:35:30:11

I'm hearing that is great. I'm going to have to have some, I just had some yesterday because it needed to be tender because of my missing tooth story for another day. Guys, but you you create something that that's missing in the culture and in popular, like, everything that's popular is this impersonal, like McDonald's. They don't give a flying food about you.

00:35:30:13 - 00:35:45:21

But what you're creating is an experience and a memory, and, and obviously people are going to talk, are going to share, and it's going to continue to grow. Obviously. Obviously, the key part there for me is it takes time. When I started my business, it took about 4 or 5 years before I started to gain traction. Luckily was just me.

00:35:45:23 - 00:36:09:02

She was along for the ride, but you guys clearly are doing something right. And personally, I would love for you to continue thriving. And, don't shut up. Don't shut it down. You know, like, when we talking about shut it down. Wrote it down. Well, you know, and I'm sure you're kind of half joking, but now and and there was a time that that I looked at her, and I looked at her, and I looked at her hard, and I said, hey, babe, I'm done.

00:36:09:02 - 00:36:25:07

But he made me cry. And he had something that I've said that before, and I'm always like, look, we put our whole retirement into this and it's gone. So, no, we're going to keep going. We're going to we're going to see it through. We're going to see it through. We're going to be like, we're going to make a name for ourselves.

00:36:25:09 - 00:36:36:18

Well, I trademark it. So technically we own it. But you know, we're going to keep going. We're going to keep trucking. And at some point this is going to pan out. And I know that everybody's like, you make it the first year, okay. You're great. You're gonna make it. The first three years are great. Make it seven then you're in.

00:36:36:20 - 00:37:01:00

Yeah. It keeps barely made it one. So how many more? You know. But last summer I was like, I'm. I'm done. I'm tired of stressing to be. Where am I going to pay payroll? You know, we're using our own personal money to pay. I'm maxing out my credit cards to make sure I can get food ordered. You know, it's it's it's robbing Paul to pay Peter.

00:37:01:00 - 00:37:23:04

And it's really it's what it is. And we're just floating. Like, we make enough every week to pay payroll in order food for the following week. I don't make enough to pay rent, taxes, insurance, anything. That's all that's coming out of our pockets. In those pockets are gone. So it's like, not what do we do? I don't want to go get like, another job to support us while we're doing this new dream.

00:37:23:06 - 00:37:40:11

And I know that's a broken record. Every small business does that, and I get it. But at the same time, I'm in it. Right? And I think, you know, if it's going to affect our kids in or affect us, we're out. You know, we're eight, 19 years together at this point. Like we're going to we're going to stick it out, you know.

00:37:40:11 - 00:37:59:06

So if it means for Clinton this we're quitting this, I get it. Then it's like, oh, we're going to try, you know, always family comes in two years in June. And so we're just trying to do things that set us apart. And we just keep trying to step up something and come up with something new to get us out there more.

00:37:59:11 - 00:38:18:02

Well, I hopefully this podcast will help do that. My expectation is that it will with every, every ounce in my heart. Yeah. Once you come in, we've got you. Like, I think even if, you know, you came in, you weren't sure about the food, but there's going to be something that you like. I think when you come in, you come back.

00:38:18:04 - 00:38:44:21

It's just getting them in. Final thoughts, because that's actually a great segue to in today's podcast. What would you like to say to the people? Actually, I could end right there, but what would you like to say, Matt? In terms of, people to giving it a shot? I mean, just we strive on customer service. I've not beaten it, but relayed it to our our servers to stay off your phone.

00:38:44:23 - 00:39:03:06

Stay off your phone. And that's a battle everybody's battle it a ten. But you know what? A ten to the needs. Pay attention. You know, let's take it back to old school free service. Let's talk, let's visit. Let's do this. And yeah, let's hang out. Let's not sit down at the table and visit. Let's stand up and visit and interact.

00:39:03:07 - 00:39:18:12

Stay off your damn phones. Stay off the phone. I mean, and in fact, I had a customer stop me in church two weeks ago and said nothing about the food. There's a great there's going to be good. What does that mean? It. I was like, it was like, well, how was the food is like, oh no, no, no, it was great.

00:39:18:12 - 00:39:45:12

But here's what I want to tell you is all I walked in there Friday night, 5:00 wasn't super busy, but your employees were not on the phone. They were all talking to me. They were all communicating with me, explaining the questions and and all my questions that I asked. All the answers were given and and he just went above and beyond to tell about the service that we had here.

00:39:45:15 - 00:40:02:06

And, you know, I had to mention the me is like, how was the meeting? But I do want to hear yeah, I want to hear. Tell me about that. You know, but the fact that the fact that were found and stay off your phone, let's do customer service. Don't get caught doing this doing that. And and it works and it works.

00:40:02:06 - 00:40:17:19

If I got to flag you down to say, hey, I'd like to order, you know, a $30 steak or a $50 steak. You know what? I'm probably going to go to Jack in a box and go to their little computer and order their own stuff, not have to talk to anybody and know it's going to suck. But but I'm paying that.

00:40:17:19 - 00:40:34:22

I know it's going to suck. And I'm out in and I'm out. Yeah, yeah. I'm not going to go to a place to beg for your service. It's a big deal and it is a big deal. And I'm back to where this is. If it's impersonal, I might as well go to a impersonal place where I can pay cheaper prices and not have to worry about it.

00:40:35:00 - 00:40:55:08

So your fight is a legitimate. It is an and it's hard to define. But when we find them, we reward and we, we, we keep our, our our our servers to the best that we can and and to to what we can do. Right, right. And but we want the servers to, to treat our customers the best that they can.

00:40:55:10 - 00:41:16:14

And if we can't do that, then we find somebody else. Unfortunately, that's just how the how the world works, the nature of it all now. But you know, we want the A-Team and we've got our A-Team and we're working on it, and we strive every bit to have the A-Team. And that's it. You know, if anybody's got any questions, call me, ask me, email me, text me whatever ticket talk to you.

00:41:16:14 - 00:41:34:19

Ticky tacky me. Oh I'm like I don't. Oh yes that's right. You. So everybody's like tick tock. This tick of like tic tac that, tic tac toe this. Thank you so much for being on the show. We're going to make sure to include address social media in this podcast to make sure that people know where to find you.

00:41:34:21 - 00:41:56:13
I'm looking forward to having a meal here soon. Bringing the family, and the other family. I got more kids. We'll have one more, when she's in town. What? Yeah. I love barbecue, so it's just finding good places. There's one next to me that I'm pretty fond of. Luckily, it's like, right next to where I lived, off the bone.

00:41:56:15 - 00:42:16:06
But I actually, I'm always open to new spaces. She's always looking for spaces as well. She she's off the bones. Good. Yeah. I mean, slow bone, all the all these all these barbecue guys that are popping up that have been up, man. They're they're awesome. Yeah. You've been there forever. What I understand, I mean, there's something they're doing, right, you know, and and that's what it is.

00:42:16:06 - 00:42:37:05
It's a community that needs to support the community. Yeah. Even so, I look forward to putting this out, sharing it with the world. You have a fantastic story. And I'm curious to see you in ten years. Me too. With that, my name is TV. This is the marketing for good podcast, and today we have been talking to local business legends.

00:42:37:05 - 00:42:45:15

Thank you very much for tuning in. Make sure to subscribe. Like to talk to us. Anything that you like. See you soon. Take care. Bye.