This is a big show. Let's just get this started here. Don't drop
the tongus, by by by by Phil. The grill is back, Kyle,
you're behind barbed kubers bones. Oh you missed the hell of an interview.
Yeah, you didn't listen to it, did I know? You didn't
listen with your guess, get out of here, dude, you were scared
to coming. You know that's the word on the street, right, you
know that's the word on the street. Why wasn't Phil here? You know
he had restaurant things going on? Uh huh, you threw you threw shade.
You threw shade at him twice. Well now because he did do thing
but no do things? Well that's fine, but you had serious stuff going
Yes I did. I'll speak about what I was doing. So let's just
get this roll in here. I'm Barrel. Thank you so much for joining
us. Can you say the S word? No, let's let's just keep
it clean, all right. It's not a curage, that's word, it's
not a curag. Yes, they sessions deemed all right, So this episode
is gonna be a little uh, shall we say, it's gonna start out
a little a little serious. Yeah, a little sad and then we'll wrap
it up with some good news and some some fun. But h how many
times anyways? You do? Let's just let's just get started here, Phil,
the floor is yours. Yeah, let's see you all right? All
right, radio Land. So here's the deal. I been missing in action
for two weeks. And the reason why I've been missing in action for two
weeks is because I've been really struggling with the traphouse for a while now,
trying to turn dollars into profits um, coming out of the pandemic um and
having a landlord um, not giving anything to small businesses. Um. There
was a lot of promises um, but no delivery. Uh. Rent just
keeps going up and up. Downtown property values just keep going up and up.
I decided to shut down the Trap as of last Sunday, so if
you followed me on Instagram, my Pitmaster friends came and had a nice brunch.
For the last brunch at the Trap, we tore it up and then
we went to Smitty's house and hung out in a group huddle. I think
me and Smitty snuggled on the love patio couch while Craig Carter Craig Carter and
Mark uh Hutley and uh pox was out there. He didn't have box wines,
but he hadn't win. It's sad, man. I'm sorry that.
You know. You know, bro, how many times hit him up?
One hundred times? Bro? Are you doing okay? Like what's going on?
No? And I appreciate I appreciate that, you know, I uh,
you know, it's been a long road, right, So you know,
I just so, I just did my fifth year in last March,
and um, you know, in any business, right, So I graduated,
even though Barrel thinks I went to the School of the Vry, I
don't, but I graduated with my business degree, right. And so I've
been a project manager for many years in construction UM, working with developers,
UM, managing seventy plus contractors at one time. UM, I'm I'm on
point. Like my biggest strong point is to be able to think quick on
my feet and solve issues and analyze situations and put solutions together. Well,
my end game was to finally come out the food truck and open up a
restaurant that I could call my own. And that was going to be my
retirement. Your legacy, my my legacy, my retirement, you know something
that I can you know, now go with the family off to another place
and just kind of live life and just live off the residuals that come from
this restaurant. Well, I had another thing coming, so your first year
is always going to be a loss, right, And I just remember hearing
stories of other barbecue restaurants that was successful, and I'm like, how can
you make sixty thousand in one month? Because I'm coming off of a food
truck and I'm like, on the food truck, I was probably making like
two hundred and fifty thousand a year just in events and also on just weekends
because I had a full time job as a project manager. So I'm like,
how do you make sixty thousand a month and not be able to pay
yourself or be struggling? Right, Well, welcome to the restaurant game.
Where the first year was slow and five years ago downtown was a ghost town.
Right. We was closing at seven o'clock every day because there was nobody
out in the street. Then comes the sky risers and the apartments and now
they're starting to get filled up, and like, you know, year or
two was kind of paying back. The first year is deficit. Right,
So now I'm going into any business knows that your first two years or your
losses, and then your third year is where you start gaining profits. Well,
guess what third year I'm celebrating, you know, my third year anniversary.
I'm looking forward to the third year. Now I'm, you know,
getting caught up with my deficit and so forth. And mind you, I
came in on my own money, but nothing from the bank. Went over
budget by one hundred and fifty one hundred and twenty grand over a construction course,
right, so I had to pay back that debt and also survive and
keep my doors open in a slow market at the time, as it's gradually
starting to pick up. So now we're going into our third year, I
celebrate my year anniversary. What happens after the third year the COVID COVID pandemic.
Now everybody's shutting down, everybody's not knowing what to do. Blah blah
blah bob. I managed to pull my way through it. No thanks again
to what my governor asked, say, hey, speak to you, landlord.
Whatever. He never helped me out with nothing. I still had to
pay help or anything I asked. I asked, can I at least put
two months? I was like, hey, here, I got April's rent,
but can you at least put the next two months on my back end?
He basically cursed me out in the email, saying, I was you
know, why why should I do that? By bye bye? I had
my own expenses and so forth had to pay full rent. So managing through
that making you know, no dining service, um, I was just pushing.
You know. I had two employees at the time, and then um,
you know, one cook, one person taking, and we sense nobody
was out in the street. We kind of made Roosevelt a drive through where
people would pull up, we opened the back door, throw the food in.
I survived, right, But even when they kind of took the levies
off of the restrictions, nobody was still comfortable in coming back, you know
what I mean. So now we're going into the fourth year, where probably
towards the end of that year, people started feeling comfortable to coming back out
into society. Now, now you gotta look at first two years of loss.
Third year was the pandemic. Fourth year and yes, PPP right,
the PPPs only really helped businesses. And don't get me wrong. They helped
everybody, but the ones who got the fatter checks were long term businesses.
They were getting like two hundred and fifty thousand, you know, I mean
three hundred, kid, I got a little check for like fifty thousand dollars.
You did get some help from that. I got some help, but
very minded help compared to what everybody because all went off of your tax records.
How many sales. I told you my first two years were slow,
right, I was barely making ends meet. So yeah, you know,
you got a little fifty k, but that was just enough to get you
through that time. Like all the money was spent on keeping your doors open,
not any extra or how other people or other companies profited on the PPP
loans. So coming into the fourth year, you know, it was definitely
struggles and things like that. I felt like, now that people are coming
out, I did go ahead with an expansion. I went ahead with an
expansion, added on like about another five hundred yeah, about five hundred eight
hundred square feet. Was able to move the smoker out the way, give
a little more room to back of house, and then also capitalize on a
bar. People started slowly coming in. I got stiffed on my um TI
money, my tenant improvement money, um and what so. So you know,
basically, when you uh do a buildout at any commercial building, the
landlord usually helps with the build up the buildout, right, So his portion
of the buildout was fifteen thousand. It was a small The buildout was pretty
simple. Knocked down the wall, um, make sure the air conditions was
balanced. You know. Um, it wasn't much, right, So I
was like, okay, you know fifteen thousand. Well, this all happened
around the holiday season and holidays of twenty twenty two. Yes, twenty two,
six months ago. No, we're in three, right, We're in
twenty three. So may so six seven months ago, twenty one January January,
January January up last year, right, so January last year, I
had a contract to come in. I'm like, cool, he's gonna give
me fifteen thousand. That would be enough to pay the contractor you know,
his portion. I would probably have to throw in maybe a little three or
four thousand dollars on top of it. Well, guess what, because of
the holiday season, my check for my rent was a day late because New
Year's fell on the weekend or whatever. And we post to pay by the
third or something to that effect. He got it a day after he said
that I defaulted because I was a day late with my rent and because I
didn't pay on time, he does not have to give that TIA money.
Wow, So now I'm stuck with a twenty thousand dollar contractor bill that he
doesn't care. He just needs to get his money right. So I was
counting on that. So now that puts you further down in the whole as
the pandemic and people are starting to come back, So it slowly gradually started
coming. Um, ever since the pandemic, I really haven't been able to
get the proper staff and that had the same passion and the same views.
Everybody was just coming back like there was going to get another round of checks
or some stimulus or something like that. And I was just getting like the
bottom of the barrel of people. Are you gonna be bringing barrels into the
I's got a segment on the show but called that but come on now.
So so you know, it was always a struggle, um, ever since
the pandemic to keep people properly staff. I was just getting you know,
you always had a great, good two people um that you took care of,
and you know they took it, but you kind of was like burning
them out, you know what I mean, because you was expecting them if
you weren't there for them to manage through, you know, the tough and
difficult times. And you know, I went from being open four days,
then I went to seven, trying to make that extra dollar just to pay
back expenses. I mean, you know it was a big sacrifice. I
mean family financially and just your mental right, like, because now you're talking
about something that you dreamed and put together for your family and it's failing in
front of your eyes, you know. So that's the hardest part to you
know, accept And you know, I'm the type of guy that if you
push me to the wall, I'm gonna fight. I'm gonna fight to no
end, right, I'm gonna fight. So I fought, and I fought,
and I fought and I fought. The last straw was the end of
last year, right, And I'll just kind of give a little tidbit of
how I was dealing with, you know, my landlord and my space.
There was a barbershop next door and he was up for his lease renewal.
And all he asked for a requirement for his lease renewal was to make sure
he kept up with the bathroom. So mind you, we're all sharing this
one building. We all have separate spaces, but the bathrooms are out back
because it's a community bathroom, community bathroom, and we all were puposed to
share space. This was supposed to be a development, which it never transpired
to be. It was supposed to be the blocks of Roosevelt. It was
supposed to be almost set up like Austin, right, because the way I
understand it, when not trying to terrupt people. But when that when I
remember before I knew knew you, but not in those wall as I know
you now. I remember that development was supposed to happen. Yeah, I
remember hearing about it that it was almost going to be like a yeah,
almost like a back east kind of field where like you could walk into the
front of the restaurant or the business, but go out back and go like
into an alleyway and walk to other future restaurants. And it was supposed to
develop the way I understand it, all the way south on going south because
they even correct wrong where the gas station used to be next to you.
They leveled that and that was all supposed to be part of that development.
But then that gas station become aps or something I became completed, But I
had heard that, so yeah, yeah, so I was curious about because
I mean, it was your spot was but I'm like, yeah, where
it stopped, like it was supposed to be this whole Yeah, it was
a whole development, and they was going to get a liquor license that so
long as you stayed on that property and that vicinity that it was supposed to
be a live stage. It was supposed to have music. That's what I
signed up for. That's what it was supposed to be. I understood that
it was supposed to be. Like it never had the whole vibe. And
they built, well, they built that that that complex behind you was that
supposed to be there, was that that was supposed to be there. It
was supposed to be between Fifth Street and sixth Street, that it was going
to be all kind of leveled out, you know, except that house that
is now kill a Whale. But all of that, the alleyway and all
that was supposed to be. He owns all of that, right, he
owns that whole city block so when those things started, you know, and
that was another thing, right, So one of the things I said,
I don't need the patio space. I want to put my smoker outside and
have the doors open up inside the restaurant. I don't need the patio space,
and that gives me room for walking coolers and things like that. So
okay, well let's go back here. So your barber or not your barber
to get next to you asked for maintenance on the bathroom. Because we have
a system where you have to give the customer key, they have to walk
out back. So guess who winds up getting the keys is all of the
homeless that's out there, right, So they're going in there, they're shooting
up drugs, they're you know, taking showers, they're washing up, they're
sleeping overnight. You know that they're being you know, a pain in the
ass for customers. So who wants to go in there? And then sometimes
there's no toilet paper, there's never any hands open there. It's like that's
what we deal with. We have landscaping. They put out trees, no
one trims them, no one keeps up with the property and so forth.
So the barber ass, hey, I'll be happy to renew my lease,
but can you put in my lease that you're going to maintain your property?
Guess what he said? No? So I said no, float out,
just no, no, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing it.
So not only are you paying some of your portion of your rent, but
you're also playing a portion for maintenance. And he's basically saying, you're not
going to get me on paper for maintaining. I'm doing the best I could
do. The dumpster pad is dirty and everything is you know. So after
all of that end of the year he told me Ray the barber told me.
He says, yeah, they would not accept putting that on the lease.
I'm out. I was like all right. He hits me back a
week later he says, yo, Phil, did you get something from the
landlord saying something about property tax? I was like, no, I didn't.
I was like, maybe that's what his fight back to you was,
because you're moving out and you don't want to resign. He's like, I
don't know. He's like, just keep a lookout. Well I got one
and it was thirty seven thousand dollars that you owe him. I owed him,
and I'm like, yo, Where's that on the lease? Well,
there was a little description of any kind of increase to the property or from
the city or whatever he can now push onto the tenants. Right, it
didn't say property tax, but it's any increases that he may bring on can
be pushed on. Well, he went back three years, retro died back
to three years. He said, I should have been paying it, but
I want my money, right, I'm like, well, I'm not sitting
on forty grand. You already ripped me off for like the fifteen right,
I'm still pay just got finished paying that off. Now you hit me.
It's always something so with that, with the staffing, with just going in
there and you know, kicking butt every morning and making all of the dishes
for the day, and then the ones that you've hired that you train,
you know, everything is when I'm there, it's but I'm going to sit
there from like because I get there guy early, right, I get there
at six in the morning, five thirty in the morning, and then to
stay to ten o'clock at night to just manage this, I mean, bro,
like I'm fifty two years old, I'm tired. Now I have a
whole family. Yeah, right, So like bro, I and then how
to do feel the grilled things? And I know you guys tease me and
stuff to be like, yo, Phil's never on time, or Phil can't
you know sign up? He's always waiting till the last minute. Well that's
the reason, Mike, I've been so much dedicated to this restaurant that's not
bringing me in any money. So it took me tears, prayers, struggles
mentally to figure out that cut your losses. So do I feel like I
failed in the beginning? I did, But once I took my emotions out
of the equation and went back to what I was taught in business. If
it doesn't make dollars, it doesn't make sense cut your losses early. I
should have probably cut my losses when the pandemic came, and it might have
been a better sponge in it, right because now it's oh, he tapped
out when the pandemic came. But I fought through that. I fought through
the construction thing. I fought through a lawsuit on tips, I fought through
you know, this whole property tax thing. Bro, I'm still not getting
my money back from what I've eventually, you know what I put in in
the beginning and just the construction budget. So I'm I'm done, right,
I'm done. I'm like, yo, this is not making sense to me
anymore. I'm walking away from it. So, you know, I put
my I got some legal counsel, and he show me how you know this
can work, you know, and you know, I'm gonna figure it out,
bro, I'll figure it out from here. But now what I have
gained is the experience I needed, and when I started looking at other chefs
and other successful restaurants, because on the other end, you have Aaron Chamberlain
at Taco Cello, right, how many restaurants that he'd been through and closed
and you know, and moved on and he's doing well. He's not in
there every day. He's not in there, you know, every day doing
tacos in He's got it to where he's got the knowledge on how to do
that. Where I was like, oh, I want to be, you
know, at this restaurant. And that's great for a while. But after
a while and you're you know, my biggest thing was and this is even
including family, and then this is when you start really looking at how hard
you're working and you're starting to start taking you're starting to feel certain kind of
way about everybody because you're constantly running at one hundred and fifty miles an hour
and everybody's, you know, doing fifty five, and you're like, why
are you not helping me? Don't you see I'm running with mine? This
is not the new field, like you know, you're you're running and I'm
telling this to you too, Kyle. In the beginning, you're so motivated
and you want to push your dream, you want to put your product out
there, you want to do those things, but don't burn yourself out because
it's a sad, dark place when you do, because you're just like,
man, I'm working so hard and I'm not getting the support from everybody else.
And that's when you start having grudges and it starts to ensing with you
mentally because again you're you're looking at everybody else like, well, pick up
the pace, you see me jumping rope, jump in here at anytime and
help out and and you're the only one. And then that becomes the new
you. Everybody expects. That's the new you. Don't worry about it.
Feel's gonna handle it. Don't worry about it. I just have to report
it to feel the refrigerator broke the smoker. You know, we joke about
the smoke of smoker broke. Somebody jump in there and fix it. I'm
just gonna figure it out. I didn't go to school for it. I
didn't get no manual to this crap. Like, I'm gonna have to go
figure it out. And everybody starts relying on you because you're doing everything.
The next business I ever get involved into, and this is my advice to
anybody that wants to get into a small business. It feels like they're gonna
have everything under control, right down your rolls, your r and age,
your roles and responsibilities of what you are going to do and who's going to
do the rest. If you go in there like I'm going to do it
all, that's great, but it burns out very quickly, and then you're
gonna feel overwhelmed and unappreciative because you're gonna be the new of everything. You're
gonna be the new person that everybody's going to rely on to do everything.
Oh, we gotta blown light, but won't change it like and then you're
gonna start getting aggravated like why couldn't you keep up? Like why can't you
because you know, because you're running one hundred and fifty miles an hour,
taking care of everything, you have to put everybody in place to this person
is going to do this one hundred percent. I'm gonna do this one hundred
percent and move on because otherwise if you don't have any time off. It
took a lot of motivational speeches and a lot of me listening to audio things
of successful people, and they all had the same result. You want to
work hard, work hard, but make sure you do not entangle you're day
off, right, So my day offs and this is what a lot of
people look at. Oh you're here, you're there, you're there here.
Yeah, but I'm at barbecue cops. Yeah, I'm you know, at
a TV set. Right, You're still working. That's not your time off.
And it came down to my daughter coming out last year, Sadie Johnson,
and she told me that you're getting older and I'm accepting that, but
what makes you happy? What do you want to do? And it stopped
me in my tracks because I don't know, I didn't know. I didn't
have an answer. I don't know. I like fishing, I like cooking,
I like doing but you lost all your motivation for that because all your
body, you train your mind to be a certain way. And if you
do something so actively every time, every day, every time, you now
traine your mind that that's all you do, and you have no enjoyment in
anything else because either you're doing this or you're doing that. You train your
body in your mind, and that's where it messages you up mentally. You
know what I mean, because now you lost your physical happiness because you devoted
a hundred and twenty percent into one thing that is not making you happy anymore.
So for those reasons alone is the reasons that I decided to walk away
and get my life back, which now I don't feel like when I first
thought about this as it being a sad thing. Be happy if you see
me outside, say congratulations from getting your life back, opposed to damn.
I'm sorry to hear, because I want I want to get the old field
back, but I want to get that old if spiring phil. I want
to still do you know TV appearances? You know I love the barbecue game,
but there's just so much more to feel the grill. But I've been
just trapped at the trap. So that's kind of like my next goal is
just to kind of give myself a mental break and do more, you know,
going out and competing and getting time for myself to you know, all
my kids have grown, you know what I mean, They all have their
own lives going on, and that's been me from my late twenties to now.
I gotta do stuff to make sure my kids are good and make sure
like bowns that have a legacy and something to leave behind, they don't need
that. They don't want that. And he guess what they want. They
want their dad. Yeah, they don't want that. So I'm working,
busting my tail around the clock and doing this and doing that and making all
these sacrifices and they don't want that. They're good, They just want their
dad. So once I started accepting it, and that was the biggest thing,
because when you hear it for the first time, it puts you down.
But once you accept it that this is what it is, then you
start feeling better. You start feeling better, like, you know what,
this is not a failure. This was a learning experience and it taught me
a lot. And I need to get back to what I like, what
I love, and what I wanted to give back to my community. So,
you know, you get knocked down, you learn, it happens in
life. It doesn't mean you have to be stuck there. Yeah. Yeah,
the hell of a run, man. Yea. So two questions,
okay, first one for you, Phil, what's next? Well, I
know right now I'm gonna take things slow. I really want to take a
mental break, but I have ADHD and I'm not going to assist still.
You know, I don't feel I'm going to go back to construction, but
I do feel like, um, you know, food is definitely in the
upcoming, you know things, But I'm gonna take a little break right now
from would you go work for somebody else? I will go consult and help
and let people know not to make the same mistakes. So if you're listening
out there and you're looking to open up a restaurant, I will be a
definitely good person for a restaurant, consulting to make sure you don't make next
I don't already already told we're gonna have a field the grill night at the
Feather. We're gonna have a field the grill night. Yeah. I mean,
I bet I've been through poss I've been through vendors. I've been through
payment terms, I've been with crappy ass agreements. I know what to look
out for and know what to ask for next. But any thing that I
do from here on out, trust and believe it's going to be not where
it takes over one hundred percent of my life, and it's going to be
something that I control a lot easier. I started looking. You know again,
I'm project manager by trade, so I analyze, right, So I
see the problem, and I start looking around, and I start thinking,
and I have to be in a quiet place to do all of these things.
But the biggest successful restaurants that I see that's up and coming are small,
put together supper clubs I call them. They open up at four.
They have somebody come in in the morning and prep and get all of their
stuff to a certain limit. They come in four o'clock, five o'clock,
hit the dinner plates, leave the dishwasher in the cleanup crew. I could
do that, you know what I mean. Look at dumb Yeah, you
got to chef John, I mean chef Jones, Like you know these small
bars. If you make a killer mixology, you gotta killer mixologist that could
make drinks and you can give some good quality food with your heart and soul,
because that's the passion that I have, right, I like to infuse
different ethnic backgrounds that I grew up with and put that on the plate.
So yeah, you might have lamb chops, but I never had lamb chops
like this. You know, I can infuse barbecue, but I don't just
do barbecue. I can do you know, oxtails. I could do a
lot of other things, you know, I could do benine in rose pork
and things like that. But that's what I would like to do, is
to go back into food, but after I'm completely ready and have it planned
out. But it would be something I can control and something that doesn't take
all of my time from morning tonight time and having on a control basis,
because it's very easy to get burnt out and then especially when you're not getting
a fat paycheck. Right, it's um not self gratifying, you know.
Okay, So yes, we say we're sorry, but we can graduate.
Thank you, thank you. I mean, it's obviously not not the day
you ever wanted when you began this, But at the same time, if
it helps your mental psyche and keeps you and brings you back to the person
that you were. Yeah, then go for it. Yeah, definitely.
Now with all that being said, we just had thirty minutes Kyle of Phil
just kind of just laying it out. It was good. I like it.
This is you a motivational speaker. You're opening a restaurant in a matter
of weeks, and I got I lean on him all sorre you what are
your thoughts about all this? What did you that? He said? Burnt
out? Burnout? Because I mean, I'm not gonna lie to you,
bro, You're going to have sleep. Yeah, my plans this though,
You're gonna live there. I know Cofini and I went through this and it's
one of those things that I want to try and stay open. We'll see
what it does. But I want to do Thursday through Sunday. Stay stick
to Thursday through Sunday, cook until we sell out eight o'clock at night.
Whatever it is. I want to run that program Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
I got Monday off. Tuesday, let's clean the restaurant. Wednesday's a
free day. However we work that out. But Coffini and I have talked
that you know, I'm gonna be there full time. But when there's gonna
be times where I'm like, yo, I'm I'm getting out of here for
a week, or there's a contest I want to go do. Kofini's jumping
right in, he's taking he's filling the shoes. He's gonna do my job.
And so him and I get not to interrupt. You do more than
just competition. Yeah, do you go on vacation because because those those because
because because because then and I'm just saying from my experience from the eyes looking
in, those look like your time off, but they are, but they
are your time off, but it's still and then that starts getting combineded together.
So everybody's like, oh, Coyle is good because he went from the
restaurant, you know, being closed Monday Tuesday, and you're already talking about
cluting in on on Tuesday, and then you're gonna be prepping on Wednesday.
So you only got one day off, and that one day is gonna be
like, oh, you know what the maintenance guys coming in because we're closed,
and you're gonna don't combine. You got to have time to yourself where
work is not being talked. Competition is not gonna be taught, because it's
gonna get combobulated together, and you're gonna be you're gonna feel like you're overworked.
And why is nobody seeing this? Why is nobody checking on me?
Because everybody's gonna be like, oh, Kyle just went to a rich field
to call he had time off. He and you're not gonna look at it
like that. You're gonna be like, bro, I just worked and didn't
get no sleep and I'm back here again and I'm living down in this damn
basement. If you so, I'm saying that because I heard Oprah say it.
She has two phones. One A select few has that number, and
that's the only one she operates off of on her time off, whether it's
Sunday and Monday, whatever her time off. It doesn't work, it doesn't
happen. She's not checking emails, she's not she's turned off. And that's
the only way you're not gonna get burnt out. And you have to make
sure you have more something that you like to do. Competitions is fun right
now, but when you start getting burnt out, it just comes combobulated altogether.
But like this, I don't know, man, I don't I don't
go off like cooking, this is my thing, This is my like I'm
serious, it is, but it's like, okay, but here's the things
it really is. And I'll say this, it's your vacation and it's your
release, and it's all that. Yeah now, because it's fun right now,
because you have a regular nine to five job that pays the bills.
When it's paying the bills and it's doing all that is when it becomes this,
Oh my god, I don't want to do this anymore, you know.
I think that's where Phil was saying that Phil had the same passion.
But Phil also was like, wait, like so when you're when you look
at a rack of ribs and your brain doesn't think, oh man, how
is this going to look in a box from a turning. When you look
at that rack of ribs and say, that's X amount of dollars I need
to move this many racks of ribs at this many dollars to pay my rent
for this month, it changes your outlook on anything, and that isn't just
food and cooking. Yeah, that's business as a whole or or or My
problem was, ah man, I can't wait to get to this comp I'm
gonna hang out with Kyle, I'm gonna hang out with my boy Smitty.
I'm gonna hang out with all my people's. I'm looking forward to it.
That was my thing. But then guess what, I'm back in the kitchen
last minute because I gave so much time to the trap last minute struggling trim
and meats chicken. I'm like, this is not fun anymore, like or
you get every day or you're they're hanging with the friends and the phone rings
and it's the business. It's the business. Yeah, hey, how many
times you've been out with me? We've been at comps and the restaurant's calling
me. So that in the middle the middle of turning, middle of whatever,
oh, because you become the problem guy. You become the immunity fix
you. But what and then you start getting mad at people that had no
business in that position. So that's another another motivational speaker that I really really
adapted to. I feel like I gave people positions they weren't qualified for.
Ye and I don't mean that by checking resumes, and I don't mean no
shots at Kofini or any other your business partners. But make sure everybody's dialed
in to what they're going to do, because if it all falls on you,
you're gonna start taking getting regret. When you start getting, you're gonna
be like, yo, bro, you're not doing nothing. He's like,
yo, bro, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Like it.
Shoot, it happened to me and Sonny. Yeah, you know.
I look at it like, damn you see me running Like why you not
you know, catching up and do it like it. It's going to happen,
bro, if you don't take and do something else elseide of cooking.
Like I know, Tyler got a boat. Yo, yo, yo,
get on that boat and keep it, you know. And in my best
vacations, it's been cruise because your phone don't work. Oh yeah, you
know what I mean. As you're gone, you're gone. Nobody could come.
And that's something again. I don't I'm not in the restaurant business,
but my job can be extremely demanding and it's weird. It's all this stuff.
And that's actually part of the reason why I didn't come down on Sunday.
They invited me down there, and I thought about coming down. Yeah,
but I just gonna work in George straight the night before ye it's a
long day. I'd work all week. Yeah, And I'm sitting there Sunday
and Kyle reach out to me and I'm like, I was supposed to go
do something. I supposed to meet up with this girl and I was supposed
to do this stuff. And I was like, you know what, I'm
going and doing doing, doing, going, going, going, And I'm
like, you know what I'm gonna do the rest of the day, Absolutely
nothing because I turned my phone off and I watched them sports on TV and
I did nothing. Yeah. And I was funny as I was texting a
buddy mine later in the evening and I said, man, I go,
I have not talked to a human soul, yeah all day. Yeah,
I said, I've talked with my thumb. Yeah, but I've had zero
face to face on the scope and communicating him. And I go, it's
been amazing. And so it's crazy. So this upcoming weekend, I have
no events, I have no anything. I have nothing this whole weekend,
right, And I started looking at my calendar. Since the weekend after Christmas,
since the New Year's Eve, essentially the weekend, I've had something going
on every single weekend work related sometime it's been personally. I went to Vegas
and did that type of stuff, but still it was still going and still
doing something. It was always something I'm like, I have nothing this weekend
at all. Exactly. I'm like, I'm going to do nothing and I'm
going to check out because I think that's one thing. I mean, I
feel like we're having a mental health podcast here. It's a barbecue podcast,
But I feel like all three of us have very much so a in different
disciplines, in different areas. We all have a go getter, run through
a brick wall mentality exactly. That's what makes us friends. We were that
type of person. But at the same time, you can only run through
so many walls before you get it beat down and tired, and then you
start hate running through those walls. You start despising these things. You started
being like, oh my god, and look at this, and look at
this. Kyle, just to give you a perfect example, because I know
what he's talking about me. But if you look at Baryl right with what
he just said, you'll be like, oh, Barrel had a great weekend.
He hung out with George Strait and it you know what I mean,
and so forth. But he's just telling you right now, that's worked for
him. It is everybody's eyesight. It's like, oh, Barrel had to
kill a job because he gets to hang out. But that's worked exactly.
That's how competitions it's gonna be if you're messing with it every day. Nothing
kills me more than when somebody says to me. And I used to not
be like this, but peop would now would be like, Hey, do
you want to go out to this this bar? You know this this event?
Do you want to go to a concert? Do you want to do
this things? And I'm like, no, the last thing I want to
do. Oh, it's gonna be so fun. And I'm like, that's
work. That's gonna be work. It's gonna remind me of work. It's
going to be all these things. And that's part of what got me into
cooking and into the barbecue world, is because it was something that I could
do as a release. Yes, and I have said this before. I've
said this before, and it was funny as I've said this to an ex
girlfriend of mine, she was like, you just cook last night. Why
are you cooking again? And I was like, because this is my stress
relief yeah, I'm like, because this was my relief. It was therapeutic.
It was therapeutic. It was my way to like check out on it.
But like everything else goes in the world, it starts getting to where
you're like obsessed with it and then I'm like, but I'm like, but
I find myself going this was supposed to be a fun hobby and now I'm
sitting here reading and watching videos and I'm staying up late, and I'm thinking
about things and how to do this, and I'm like, Okay, this
isn't what the hell I want either, you know what I mean. It's
like, I don't want to do that. And I'll give you a great
example that it was an awesome thing, but also it was like are you
eff and kidding me? So Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year.
Yeah, It's just there's so much fun about it. I love the football
side of it. I love how Wednesday after well, I call it wild
Turkey Wednesday. You got that night before, right, and it's always when
the thing to go out and do, and you got Thanksgiving and then Friday
there's usually some college fool games in the Saturday after Thanksgiving, some Michigan house
they game a big Michigan fan. It is like a great week right there.
So this past year and it would end up be it was cool,
but it was just want to talk about work and everything kind of come together.
I finished the show and I was sitting at a sports bar having a
beer, kind of getting my Wild Turkey Wednesday started right and my phone goes
off and it's one of my co hosts and he's like, hey, Fox
ten or local Fox affiliate here, wants to see how you cook your turkeys.
I told him about this. I told him that you talked about in
the air a Spatchcock turkey and never do this. And I was like,
yeah, okay, and he's like yeah, they're gonna call you, and
I'm like okay. Initially I was excited. I'm like yeah great. And
they're like, okay, great, We're gonna beat your house Thanksgiving morning at
seven am. We're gonna do this. And I went through my head as
I was like, oh my god, my Wild Turkey Wednesday is now gone.
I'm now having to make sure my house is clean whill I got to
decorate the house for Christmas. So I stayed up all night doing this.
I'm driving around trying to find a fresh turkey, to get everything, gready
to go to get anything, prep to do all this, to go go
go, go, go go right, And it was just like NonStop.
They literally left my house at like eight thirty nine o'clock. I gotta run
to my parents' house to get over there to start cooking Thanksgiving dinner over there,
even though I just cooked two damn turkeys for television. I'm like,
go, go, go, go go, like like a crazy person.
Yeah, And that was like when I got to me is, I was
like, what's up. I don't know, I'm just but it's like it's
fun. But my point is, it wasn't that. It was that was
the moment I kind of realized. I was like, my hobby, my
fun has not blended into work because not my job that I do nine to
five, nine to five, but Monday through Friday essentially has not blended into
my hobby. And I was like, I gotta put up boundaries. Yes,
I gotta say I'm not doing these things anymore, because you gotta put
your own boundaries. And that isn't just saying you cow with the restaurant like
you're gonna find things. And obviously whatever you gotta find what you do then
makes you happy that you're just like cooking, bro, Yeah, but when
cooking, But when cooking is your nine to five that pays the bills.
But that's what it's gonna be. You're gonna have that burnout. It's not
a problem. You're gonna have that day where're gonna be like f this,
I want we have a plan for that. Well, then until you can
do that. Cooks my brother, My brother cooks, Coofeni cooks. We
have people and I cook you. We come down. We come down,
Like if I'm ever, I'll call Phil be like, dude, can you
come round my restaurant this weekend. I'm jumping on a cruise's And that's what
I Yes, you have to help, Yeah, and that's what you have
to You have to find that like and we have that plan set in place
because we've talked about this before. Coffini set down and we talked. And
that's the good thing about what you have that I did. So you didn't
have a team, Yeah, I was filled the grill. I gotta surround
yourself. You gotta surround yourself with the team and and even like even at
competitions, I mean, I was definitely envious that you guys that one you
had the time to prepare prior, right, And I know we joked,
I'd be like, oh yeah, I'm just winging it whatever had to because
I was deady. But but um, I was envious that you guys even
teaming up together because now I'm cooking the American Royal or even World Foods,
and and I'm like, all right, i gotta do this, this,
this, and that run the restaurant at the same time. Make sure you
gotta have you gotta you gotta have a break, you gotta have a separation.
And those are the ones that six CC like. I see small business,
family owned restaurants where the mother, the daughter, the father, everybody's
in there doing things, you know what I mean. And and you know,
you might lose one or two kids along the way. They go to
school and they're like, but you know, but those are the ones that
are succeeding, the ones that have a team and always everybody knows their position
and that the other ones need to be you know. That's if Kofini wasn't
involved in this, I don't think my dad and I'd be doing this.
I don't think we would. Yeah. I mean it's just it's too much
stress on him. It's stress on me, you know. But you know
as soon as Kofini gets in, I mean his whole family is cooks.
Yeah yeah, yeah, I mean again, you're not gonna have they ye
are right. Yeah, We're like, hey, like one night, can
we come in here and can we do a special? Like yeah, what
do you want to do? Yeah, they're gonna come in. They're gonna
come cook a special. That's fine. We have who knows, we're gonna
see what's gonna happen, But we have a plan in place of like my
brother's like, you're going to America Royal, right, Like, no,
the restaurant's gonna be open. He's like, no, no, no,
no, I'm running the restaurant. You're taking your a up to and that's
and that's what you're gonna need. You are gonna need that. That tell
you like, that's my that is my good A way. I know it
sounds weird, I might and again again you can test, well, let's
be real, my thing, let's be real. I'm the same way as
in a different regard audio, radio, editing, audio, all that stuff
is what I find fun. Will I do what I do for living no
offense to you two lovely gentlemen. I'll get paid a damn dime to do
this podcast. Yeah, yeah, I mean we do this recal. Thank
god. I appreciate you boys not coming in earlier and we used to ye,
but yeah, I mean today will be a eleven hour day. Yeah.
But I do this because I love it. I enjoy it. Sometimes
it's almost therapy for me. But you gotta find that. But but I
have told you guys before. I'm like, hey, by the way,
this podcast ain't going up till Thursday exactly. And you'll be like, Okay,
yeah, we record on Tuesday. Today suck. Tomorrow's gonna suck even
more. I'm hoping having up Thursday, and it might be Friday. And
you've got a problem with it. Sorry, And I was like, Okay,
you guys gotta know where your boundaries are. And I think that's in
all things, and that you got in where your boundaries, because if you
don't, then you bottle it all in and then you go just shit creasy
exactly, and and and and that's and that's the thing that I worry about
you, Kyle, because we have the same mindset, right you you you're
gonna, You're gonna go hard, You're gonna go strong. I got this
stay to heck out my way. I'm gonna. I'm gonna and that's our
thing. When it starts becoming time to where yo, we got this big
catering gig, but I'm still trying to pack to go to an event or
you know what I mean. And then you're like, damn, I ain't
get no sleep man, Coveni's just chilling sleeping and I'm throwing briskets on and
I'm still trimming chicken for my my comp or this, so that that's when
it starts setting in like why am I doing all of this? Well,
okay, so for the catering, right, all right, hands up.
I hate cater I hate it. I think it's but it pays. It
does. My dad absolutely loves it. He loves catering. Well, now
you got a catering man. Guess what I told him. I got him
an email address. I got him. He's got menus, he's got this
whole deal. So now anybody ever inquires is that give him the email?
Hit Jerry up. Jerry's running the whole catering thing. He's running the whole
thing. He needs help. He's gonna ask me first. He'll ask,
you know, he'll ask we got employees something like yo take him him and
him. Yeah, I'm not doing that. I'm running the restaurant exact like
catering someone that your baby. A team. You need a team, you
need a good team. And we thought about all this. Well, that's
good, he thought about it. So who knows how it'll go. But
you know, we gotta pay. It looks good on paper. No,
and and and and I'm not knocking it at all in the least bit because
I want nothing but for you guys. Give me real life, give me
real life. But I'm glad to hear you are setting boundaries for yourself,
like Barrows saying, because I know you're your heart and your soul and your
passion is in cooking. When Nate, when you become the one man show
like I was, I'd be deaf. I don't think I couldn't do it.
That's like I'm saying, like if Kofini wasn't down for this, him
and his family were not down for this whole restaurant teaming up him and I,
let's do it. My dad ain't gonna be doing this. I'm not
gonna be doing this. I can't do it. All right, nice job,
I can sid that. I mean, I'm oh, we can't be
doing this exactly. So we've been going fifty minutes about this. We could
probably go another fifty, but we got some other stuff we gotta get to.
Yes, yes, we need to. First off, throw a little
congratulations to thank mister Burs and bones Y Kyle Manicato were here because you went
up to sholo. Yeah, and it's funny. I love something about this.
This guy doesn't never he's so humble. He never shares his success.
Yeah, yeah, or his dad's success right away. Yeah. I have
to see it on Instagram of a hey by the way, and I'm like,
start digging. I'm like, well, there you go. On Friday
in the Monster Burger contest. Yeah, you took second place second, but
you basically tied for first essentially right point two point two whatever, damn close.
And then Pops took first for grilled cheese. Dude. The funny thing,
it's like fifty mile an hour wind gusts up there. It was bad,
dude, it was windy, and the biscuits down horrible, and my
dad looked over. My dad, we got about ten minutes to turn in.
Mine's done, ready to go. I'm looking at him. He's struggling,
bro bad, and I'm like, all right, Huntley's over there helping
him. Kofini's trying, everybody's trying to help him. He's getting flustered.
And I laughed at it. But you're how did you fit in a box?
By the way, what's that you're burger? No? No, no,
no, not the burger. I was stood up. Your monster burger
was tall? Was that monster burger? There was fifty patties on there,
fifty smash patties. Yeah, fifty patties. That thing was incredible. You
haven't seen it. Check it out on Kyle's Instagram. Absolutely awesome. Bro
trying to walk I don't know two hundred feet and that I had almost everybody
at the camp. Everybody had platters in their hands. That's awesome. Congrats
to you for winning that. So not only that barrel, he went up
did with some heavy hitters. He up did with Craig Carter Miller and Hotly
and still got fifth first place in Steak first Place, Steak By first place,
Steak be in sixth place steak. How many golden ticket is you gonna
claim this year? Bro, I'm gonna run. I'm gonna keep going.
I want to keep going. I'm something right now. Bro, that's like
it's hitting. I know it's it's good for you. So you win first
place steak A or steak based six steak A, you win, you take
tenth place, dessert, tenth places or eighth place hot dog and second place
you gotta call and everything everything. Yeah, the Grand Jambion him, No,
they don't do it like that. Well, because if so, you
would have won the damn by the way, we need a call show.
That trophy is uglier than you are. Crazy, that's the best trophy.
That terrible? Well was it carved out of a stump? Yeah? To
set out to cowboy John, this is the first show low comp. I
just gotta say, man, you know and that that hurts place? How
bad are those trophies? I love them? Maybe I gotta see it in
person, But maybe I also have a flashback of just recently, because we're
going on a little off topic here, I had a buddy of mine had
a boy's weekend a couple of weeks ago, went up to his cabin right
getting talking about thought it was not gonna be about working up being all about
work. Get up there. He bought a life size grizzly bear carved out
of a tree, and they placed it up north and pine. They placed
it the wrong spot. We had to move it. Me and the bear
fun. All the way down is slanted driveway made out of rocks with this
tree something and I look at I look at anything carved down. I just
flip it off right now. Yeah, they got talents up and down that
thing. Of all these wood carves, they're intense. So that's the best
trophy. Congrats to you for doing that. That's awesome. So what's the
next competition? Going to rich Field? Doing it? Going to a quad
in rich Field and that's where June. Yeah, yeah, we need our
I love I love, I love Utah. You have them right, we'll
have our boy fat had made up. So you guys are when is that
we probably need security? We might When is that end of June June twenty
third, So it's not for a while June twenty three. All right,
good for you. That'll be fun. Yeah, it's gonna be Yeah,
that'll be good. We got the GM. They got a pizza anteller,
we get the GMG pizza attachment. Yeah, we're gonna just a I'm who's
gonna make Tony Island pizza win the damn thing. I got something else in
mine. I know, I have something like he's saying, but it's different,
different. I got, I got something else of I got something else
to do it, and it's got a trailer. Throw your gm G in
there, your pizza boom, come into the pizza one other one's grilled cheese.
I don't like grilled cheese that much. Pizza. Cook a steak,
I might. I might just do Can I just do my pizza? Yeah?
Yeah, you do. Come up five bucks for your pizza, might
box and say good luck. Because the thing is, what that sucks about
that pizza is it's not pretty appearance. You're gonnak at that thing and gonna
think when you bite that and you put yo, put all corners in it.
Oh, I agree, it would be all corn hear that. But
my thing is, you look at that pizza. It ain't pretty pizza.
But when you crunch down, baby, but you can make it, you
can make it look pretty. But it's chili. Yeah, I'll help you
Chi Chili Chili be coming out looking like after Phil's Jack the box does man
that stuff starts doing the slimmy slimmy slipping. So maybe you know what,
I might consider that. I'm thinking about everybody's looking for you, Barrel.
I think they think you're the unicorn because they're like, where's Barrel. There's
a lot of people which Barrow which Barrel? I thought Barrel was coming?
Yeah, I thought Barrel. I never said it was coming to Sholo.
No, but I forgot where I wasn't that Sholo It was the last cop.
Yeah, it was like I thought Barrel was coming. I might consider
it. I might do this. I wouldn't even say that. I just
walk around with us. People be like, who who's that Guy's Barrel?
Oh Barrel? And I would say he's security. You judges been to keep
back. They might not let us back. I don't know it's gonna be.
It's gonna be he's gonna be like, but he didn't say anything wrong.
Yeah, this is the reason why I don't think I can just see
you think you drop grabbing. I didn't know the podcast. Are you with
this, dude? We'll get we'll get Barrel liquored up a little bit before
awards. Start fighting people. That's gonna be a good tip. And we
just gotta hit h KFC early, bro, we got got that one.
The awards are nine o'clock ago on Saturday. How far as a dry to
Redfield? Redfield? Uh? What is it called? Not rich Field?
Sorry, it's seven and a half hours from my house. So you go
through Vegas. It's a long time in a car, go up Moab and
all that. Yeah, and it's a pretty job. We'll get him to
stop a couple of times. We got I get guess and I'm on the
dropping. We're not taking fast and furious walkers stayed at that Ye were gonna
We're gonna stop at Burger King on the way up. Yeah, you're gonna
stop at that gas station. No, So Phil, I gotta say this.
So Kyle, Kyle is trying to call me out. He was talking
to some smack of me on Instagram, trying to be all so. I
don't think I didn't see it. He called me out because so talking about
work and stuff combining, right, Obviously social media's a big thing with my
job. Yeah, Hey, we want you to post cooking things, these
things good, good web traffic. You gotta do this, Heason. I'm
like, dang it, not something I enjoyed doing. Yeah, I gotta
do it for it. Yeah yeah, yeah, So I posted should I
do chim cherry steak tacos for sincle to mile or shady street corn chicken tacos?
Yes? I did a vote street corn chicken tacos. One. First
off, I'm gonna say the street corn chicken tacos absolute fire, straight fire,
and it's interesting as I incorporated both of your rubs in it. Yeah,
I did. I made the street corn and for a spice I used
I did the street corn out on the flat top. I use your rub
me all over. I'm there. I made that straight fired up on that.
And then I used some green chewy bacon for my on my chicken,
and I just you know, did it and they came out fire. They
were great. Good. What did you present that on? Oh? My
cutting brother I got for Christmas? Have you I got a cutting boards I
gotta so Barrel got super money bro over here. Yeah, I got a
friend of mine who got it for me for Christmas. My buddy of mine
got buddy Adam loved the dude to death, but he straight burned water.
He can't he actually heat his kids that came over last night as his wife's
out of town. Yeah, and I broke the deep for out and made
chicken fingers, and you would have thought I cooked the most gourmet thing in
the world. He was like, what is this, Like, it's a
deep fried brother. Yeah. I dropped some chicken tingers in there for six
minutes. I pull him out and put him on a plate and drop some
fries in there for four and I served your kids. Yeah. I was
like raising canes over here. But anyways, he bought me that cutting board
and it's really cool. Bought it for me for Christmas and it says,
uh something like barrel Boy. In the middle of it. It says the
man to meet the Legend and it says hosting and entertaining since like twenty twenty
two one. It's awesome I got as a gift, So I mean,
it's sick, commented on Instagram. He was just trying to throw him.
He's trying to throw me. I'm like, must be nice over here.
Coles over here trying to troll me. I'm like whatever, but I'll tell
you though those street corn chicken toccos I dropped the tongs. I shared the
whole recipe how to make them damn good and super super cheap. Girls Can
Grill just did a recipe with the tortilla thing, you know, the tortilla
you put the soap, smash the sausage. I got a couple of d
ms about how to do it, and everybody was saying, how we talked
about it is the way you have to do it. At BBQ All Things
Barbecue. He did a real good tutorial on it. And that's a couple
people send me that video. Look at look at Girls Can Girls. She
made us she made a breakfast one fire. Oh no. But what everybody
is doing is they're proving the point. What I said is when you just
put the and you smash that burger with just a tortilla on there, it
ain't cooking through, it's it's gross, it's whatever. Everybody's like, you
gotta smash it. And then when you flip it, put the tortilla on
there, give it a light little smash again. Yeah then you happen.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I'm gonna try it. I hate
those internet recipes, but I think I'm gonna do it's good. I mean
because I've done it. I've tried it the way they showed it and it
comes out all right. So what do they use? What you see?
What did um? What they're using for garnish for on a lot of the
smash burger tacos is just straight you're just smashing or smash burger tacos. You're
just pushing down there. And then people are doing I've seen people do everything
on there from like taco garnish where people are putting like yeah, people do
like tomatoes and cilantro and like pico and all that on there. And then
I've seen people just do it almost like a like we put like a burger,
like some lettuce, some tomato, some uh mustard and ketchup on there.
Like what if you do a smash burger Big Mac? What did that?
Didn't they with all the layers? No? Well, I mean not
even with the layers, but just the flavors right with you. Well see,
it's funny, said, so I'm back to trying to eat clean again.
Yeah, so I do this stupid thing. I make this thing and
I call it a big Mac bowl. Well Kyle showing yeah, sorry,
look good. Yeah, girls, could girl tore that up? Oh yeah,
yeah, I do. I do this thing I call it I called
a big Mac bowl. You take just straight ground beef, Yes, you
just browned up on that flattop. Put some grilled onions in that, but
boy, I may put some grilled mushrooms. Yeah, And then I put
little sesame seed in there. I put some mustard in there, and I
put some burger sauce on there. Mix it all together. That is straight.
I'm gonna drop fire. I'm gonna drop the tongs. So dessert contest
Craig Carter, Ancillary World Champion. Right, So he's got a dessert idea
he wants to do, and I'll go ahead and say it because I'm stealing
the recipe. So he had a peach cobbler. He had peach peach pie
mix, okay, and he bought uh wanton rapping, wanton rappers the egg
So we put in a bowl, We put the peach cobbler, we put
the pie filling in there, We added some other stuff to make it really
pop, and then we loaded it in a eggro wrapper Deep Friday, and
then we rolled it in a bunch of cinnament like a churi mix on the
outside with a small scoop of ice cream and some caramel on them. This
was by fault and it was because it was cold. So he's like,
yo, since it's cold, serve them something warm. You serve the judge
the something warm. Yours will stick out because they're cold. They wanted something
more. Craig's got all these ideas like science. He pulled that out of
the fryar. We did the whole thing and we put ice cream on in
a karmel and we tried it. Dude. I looked at him and said,
nobody's touching you and Broye, nobody's tough, even me. I had
some you know bs little things I made. Yeah, bro, he didn't
even get a call. I'm talking like sixteenth place for this thing. It
was good, bro, it was so fire. But you know those guys,
those girls always have kind of bad luck when they come out here and
cook steaks. You know, they're just trying to figure it out. But
it was a good time. Bro. Yeah, yeah, no, no,
it sounds like it. And this is I felt sad because I signed
up for the comp and I was a no show at Big John's camp out
of all because that's the one comp I love to go too, because I
mean that's where we all started from, right, and that just became our
barbecue family, you know, just going out there and chilling and you know,
but just dealing with the restaurant and closing the same weekend that um,
that comp was, I just had to Yeah, I just had to make
sure that we had coverage and every nothing was gonna go wrong because I just
know once you go out there, then the calls start coming. But I
love I love Sholos Comp. You know, Um, did Shelley reach out
to you? Yeah, she sent me, sent me a no show email.
Yeah, I don't know if it was on. She was very nice,
but I know she didn't know the details. I just told her I
was understaff. But I just reply back. I was like, Shelley,
you know, I always me comps. I went even back onto my sign
up and was trying to figure out how to cancel. I didn't even think
about just well, it just got so combobulated to give them an email at
the time. But um, but yeah, I said, yo, you
know I don't never ever miss comps. But uh but yeah, so I
replied back and just told her I was short staff. And it was a
last minute decision. I was apologized it won't happen again. But uh but
yeah, I mean yo, for me, bro life goes on no more
in my attached to barbecue traphouse. Good for you. It's uh, pil
the grill. Johnson's back, baby, fill the grill down. Hold up,
So now you can work on rubs now, right? Yes, can
we get this back in the game. Yes, so I'm uh, I'm
we got a new contract with Old World Spice. We're bringing out two more
rubs. Said no, I know, but but they they they sat down
with all of their pit masters that they had on this uh program roster Yeah,
and uh some got cut yea, and some moved on. Um and
I was one of them that moved on. And we're gonna put a lot
of marketing behind the uh you know, filled the Grill brand. And um,
I already booked for oh yeah, yeah, so I'm booked for so
uh the Iliana Resort in Utah. No, it's in Washington. Yeah,
that's the one that what's your name is gonna be on the we had on
the podcast for weeks ago. Um, yes, yes, but dude,
you are being so humble if you see if you've seen the cast on that
thing. Yeah, yeah, it's a it's Mike so So, Mike Simon.
Uh jet So I'll ask him why he thank you because I saw him
on the news last night. No, he was on the cooking thing on
said yeah he was doing like a cookie meal for Foxton. Yeah yeah,
like go bro, you kind of just hit me up and like ask him
why he wasn't on our podcast. I'm talking. And then um, yeah,
it's gonna be a great lineup. My sister Erica Blair is gonna be
on there. Uh, Missy's gonna be there, Big keV Bletso's gonna be
up there. So I'm up there with the big dogs. And then um,
I just got off the phone, went the Today Show. They're flying
me to New York right after that, and I'm gonna do the Father's Day
Say so, that's what I enjoy, right, I think I enjoy I
enjoy it more when I have the time. Right. So again, I'm
just all about, you know, prioritizing and making it work for me,
knowing that everybody's good now and I don't have to work so hard bro for
you, bro, yeah, good for you. Yeah, that's awesome.
And then we have that big event at the end of August where Mike Mike
from a Sugar Fire is going to be there. But I can't wait to
go to that one that's in h in his hometown. Saint Louis. Ice
Cube is gonna be there. Sugar Hill Gang's gonna be there. Yeah,
so we we're partying. They since I'm the jay Z of barbecue, they
want um yeah, well yeah exactly. Yeah, well you know, you
know, you know, I'm gonna be talking crap because um the dude,
the father of uh he did h Larossa back in the days, but now
he's a producer. Um. He came out to my food truck when we
did an event over here one time, and he was like, bro,
this is good stuff. I was like yeah. I was like, yeah,
I'm trying to get Warren g to get up in here because he's like
sniffing grill. He does some barbecue stuff to that. Yeah. Yeah,
he came in. He came in when we cooked at them. Yeah yeah,
so he came in out. You know, I just I my My
whole goal is not to just outdo people. My My goal is to create
flavors and give my new And I think this is kind of how Barrel cooks
as well, is um, bring that hometown flavor, right, represent New
York. Right, So every ancillary I ever did, or any kind of
contest or cooking demo, I'm always kind of incorporating New York flavors in my
dish, in in in my rubs and stuff like that, just to bring
home, bring that hometown flavor to other places of the Naja making five spice
baby, I know. So that's good? All right? So man,
we've had quite the podcast here. Yeah, I mean, I feel like
we had a Doctor Philip podcast on a little Doctor Philip here. But we're
good, So I say we wrap this one up, yes, and next
week the Unicorn. Yeah, I just made sure. Yeah, right,
it's official official? Were good? Which which unicorn? Not the not the
not the original unicorn? The one is? This is this is the pink
Unicorn, the blue Unicorn, the unicorn, but the original Unicorn. His
company, the he's associated with, said you will not be on this podcast.
Is that confirmed? That is about ninety percent confirmed? Because we are
anyways, we will have to get you know, you know what, you
know what's crazy about that barrel, and there was there was a um no,
no, don't go there, don't go there. No, don't go
there, don't there. You're going leave in love, all right,