Speaker 1: I'm Daniel Vaughn, barbecue editor at Texas Monthly, and this
this Fire and Smoked, the Texas Monthly Barbecue Podcast, brought
to you by Yetti. I'm Daniel Vaughan, and we're here
in the studio with Leanne Miller and Ali Clem from
La Barbecue. Thanks for coming in, absolutely, thanks for having us. Yeah, well,
I wanted to start off with, could you all tell
me why Texas barbecue is so much better than California barbecue.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a loaded question because I live in both places. Okay,
I think it's just because Texas barbecue, especially Central Texas barbecue,
is so it has so much deep seated roots. I
think California is just now trying to find their voice.
And I think, to me, when I think a California barbecue,
I think of the hitching post and I think, to me,
that's more cowboy style, which reminds me of Argentina, and
it's more like, you know, you're grilling. I don't know
if that stakes yes, but I mean, to me, that's
still barbecue. I think anywhere there's fire, that's barbecue.
Speaker 1: Well, and y'all found a particular challenge trying to move
out to La Right. You guys had a plan to
have a barbecue restaurant out there, but I guess the
folks in the health department had other ideas.
Speaker 2: Yes, we had actually had a pit built and everything,
and La County doesn't allow you to have offset smokers
because of admissions.
Speaker 3: In the in the city, well.
Speaker 2: In La County, right, right, So that's a huge problem
if you're going to try to open up a barbecue
place downtown or in the arts district. And so that's
where we really hit a wall. And I think Pearls
Barbecue is the one that really tested the waters and
the city wouldn't or the county wouldn't.
Speaker 1: Budge, yeah, because they've got that whole underground barb scene there,
and I guess it's all just tied to the fact
that those folks have to be doing it illegally in
order to be able to use those offset.
Speaker 4: Smokers, right. Yeah. We friended the Truty's underground barbecue guy.
He's a really nice guy, and I think that you know,
he was doing it out of his driveway and then
I know he's working for you know, or he kind
of pairs up with a lot of different people. I
follow him on those instagrams and everything, and you know,
I mean, you know, we also came into the fact
that you know, they wanted so much for a commissary,
and then they on top of the commissary, they wanted
you know, all your all to pay all the bills
as well. And then we only had one smoker, so
to even break even, we'd need six smokers for what
we really wanted to do with labor.
Speaker 2: The commissary bill just for the commissary loan before electricity
was seventy five hundred for what we needed. And I mean,
there's no way we're gonna cook it Smorgsberg for one
day and make that money to cover under the pit
with one pit.
Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, and I guess I guess y'all weren't willing obviously,
you weren't willing to go to a gas fired rotisserie smoker.
Speaker 2: No way, it's not even about that. I'm not willing
to have an investor. So you know, we have money
thrown at us all the time. But that's not my
motto of doing business. If I can't do it myself,
I don't want to do it. So I mean it's
not off the table. I mean I have the LLC
an EI in number, you know. But it's something that
I would look to in the future when the time's right,
But as if I rushed it, we would just be
dead in the water.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: We're not looking to, you know, change our business model
just for something like that. And what our business model
is is, you know, from the smoker you know, to
your plate, you know, and we want our smokers to
be there on site, and we don't want to travel
with our food, you know, long distances.
Speaker 3: It's just it's just not our business model, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: And just having those pits there on site is so
much of I mean, so much of what you expect
to see a barbecue.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's part of the experience. It's you know,
you eat with your eyes and so when you see that,
you can you know where your meat's coming from. And
I think that it's just one of the part of
the beautiful experiences of eating barbecue. And that's why I
think people love barbecue so much, because it's so I
hate this word, but primal.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, and people love to see and I think we
take it for granted every day because I go back
there and we have all these gigantic pits and you know,
we just see you know, work and you know, it's
just we don't see like the.
Speaker 3: Glory in them. And then when people come back there
like oh my gosh, like how do you cook on this?
Speaker 4: And like, actually it's fairly you know, easy because we've
been doing it and there's a science and a method
to it, and people love to see, you know, where
it's actually cooked, you know, and the people who actually
do it and touch it and love it, and we
don't want to stray.
Speaker 3: From that at all.
Speaker 1: And remind me how long have has Loved Barbecue been
around and how many addresses have you had since the opening?
Speaker 2: Twenty twelve, November First Street Waller Caesar Shavez, Caesarshavez Caesar.
Speaker 1: And so now you're within the Quickie Picky building, Yes,
and you've been there for over a.
Speaker 2: Year now or over your it was a year in August.
Speaker 1: Okay, So does it feel like you finally have you know,
you have an indoor home. Does it feel like you
have a permanent home or are you guys still searching
for I know for a while you were looking for
a brick and mortar to have all on your own well,
I mean, and some things fell through.
Speaker 2: And for me, I'm a Pisces and a number five,
you know numerology. I don't ever see anything as permanent.
I mean I have lived in you know, California, New York, Texas, Texas, Texas, Texas,
and now back in California. I'm always moving and so
I always see the business will always grow. I mean,
I hope it's permanent for now. I mean I don't
want to go anywhere for a while, but you know,
I would like to have a build a business where
I could sell liquor, come up with a nighttime menu
and just kind of you know, expand on what I
want to do with the business, because right now I'm limited.
I mean, we have all these thoughts, all these recipes,
We travel all the time, and we're gathering all these things,
and I'm just a little bit limited on what i
can do. But I'm absolutely grateful for where I am,
absolutely because I mean, working that trailer for so long
it was grueling.
Speaker 1: And in July and Austin and a barbecue trailers, oh
my god.
Speaker 2: Well it's not just that, it's the health Department. I
mean basically, the Health Department came to us and they're like,
if you don't get in a brick and mortar, We're
gonna shut you down because now everybody thinks they can
do what you're doing.
Speaker 3: You have two trailers, three pits. You know, it's insane.
You should be in a brick and mortar.
Speaker 2: Which we were very fortunate enough that the owner, a
quickie picky, approached us. At the same time the health
department was saying, getting the brick and mortar. Yeah, and
you know, you know, it's been a really nice friendship,
so I am very happy for that.
Speaker 1: And you can get a cold beer there too.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm still twisting there. On put a froze machine
in there. I froze all day and barbecue.
Speaker 1: Come on, what barbecue cut? Does froze best pair with?
Speaker 4: Oh my god, pork?
Speaker 2: You think pork?
Speaker 3: I don't know. I'd drink it with everything.
Speaker 1: I think barbecue or not.
Speaker 2: I think a froze would pair it so sweet with
a nice fatty beef rib. Oh yeah, you know, cut
that richness down or brisket. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Well, Leanne, you talked about all the places you've lived in,
all the travel you do. I want to make sure
the listeners understand here. If you're listening to this podcast,
you probably know Leanne Miller from first or you know
the famous barbecue family she's from and also La Barbecue.
But that's not your only.
Speaker 2: Job, right, No, that's actually Barbecues's my second career. Yeah,
I'm actually a professional.
Speaker 1: Photographer and you go all over for that job.
Speaker 2: Yes, I actually work in the entertainment industry, so that
consists of album packaging, editorials for magazines such as like
Rolling Stone. I work a lot heavily with Texas Monthly
along with People Magazine, I don't know whire, and then
I also do advertising.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we were walking down the hallway here in
the office, we have a hallway full of all of
our covers and Ali, I think you were saying. You
were pointing out some of the ones that Leanne had done,
and how many covers do you think you have?
Speaker 2: N think between fifteen and eighteen covers at this point
since my career. Actually, Texas Monthly gave me my first job.
In two thousand and six. I stopped by Leslie Baldwin's
office on my way to move to New York and
I dropped off my portfolio and she was like, okay,
well on your way to New York, Do you mind
going to shine a Brewery and shooting it? And this
is when I was shooting nothing but film, and so
I shot it, went to New York, processed the film,
scanned it, and gave it back and I only had
to turn in one image and I think I've turned
in one hundred and two.
Speaker 3: That sounds like you, yea.
Speaker 2: So I've had a relationship with Texas Monthly ever since then.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, and you said you also did some work
in the two thousand and eight Barbecue issue as well.
Speaker 2: They contacted me. I was actually living out in California
and they contacted me shoot the cover of the two
thousand and eight Barbecue issue, and they asked me to
go around and shoot the top five barbecue restaurants, and
my dad, of course, was one of them. And that
was my first time to actually go outside of barbecue
other than Rudy Mkiska's, which was right next door to
my dad's place in Taylor, and actually try krit Smitty's.
Luling's No Blacks wasn't in it. It was Snow's. Snow's
got number one that year, and so that's the first
time I met t at Sea and Carrie and.
Speaker 1: So you took advantage of this time to go out
and not only meet these people and photograph I mean
you were also eating their barbecue.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But my favorite part was not to tell him who
my dad was until after I did the photo shoot
and then they're like, oh, you know, it's like, oh.
Speaker 3: By the way, my I'm Leam Miller.
Speaker 2: My dad's Bobby.
Speaker 1: They're like, yeah, so tell us about your dad. You
you guys have a saying in Bobby, we trust in
law barbecue. So so who is Bobby?
Speaker 2: Bobby is my dad. He's literally worked the pits at
Louis Miller's, I guess ever since Fred left. I'm not
sure the years on that, but yeah, the man like
woke up every day, worked eight I'd say eight days
a week, but pretty much seven days, no, it felt
you know, yeah, totally seven days a week, just you know,
busting his ass to make sure us kids had a
roof over our head, you know, were I think we had,
you know, college cars anything. You know, we didn't take
vacations growing up because my dad works so much, which
is totally cool with me, but he was just I mean,
you know, you just saw a man like just always
being there for his family, and he truly, you know,
loved doing what he did. He came from his butcher
you know, working in my grandpa's grocery store and being
a butcher, working behind the meat counter, you know, just
to hear him when we go out to like steakhouses,
and he would tell us about dry aging and know
the cuts and all of this. It was just really
cool because when he talked, he talked with a purpose
because he was a man of very few words, but
when he was really passionate about something, he would really
share that with us, and that was pretty beautiful.
Speaker 1: Well, so, Ali, how did you get wrapped up in
this whole barbecue business?
Speaker 4: Well, let's see back in was it two thousand, Well,
the end of two.
Speaker 2: It's when John opened J Mellen bar Lee and.
Speaker 4: I started dating and I was working as a bartender
downtown and I just moved to Austin, kind of got
out of a relationship and just picked up my stuff
and wanted to live in Austin. And I met Leanne
and her brother had textas I think it was like
I don't know, two am, and they were prepping for
this first day and I was just getting off of
my bar shift.
Speaker 3: And he was like, I need onions and blah blah blah.
Speaker 4: And so we went to a GB and picked up
the stuff he needed and we got there and it
was him and Kevin Kelly.
Speaker 3: And Kevin Kelly has never worked in.
Speaker 4: A restaurant before in his entire life. He didn't know
how to chop onions. Blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: And he looked like a chicken with his head cut off.
Poor guy. His eyes were dilated.
Speaker 1: But he was working with John Miller, who's a really
patient teacher.
Speaker 3: Yes, John, if you're listening, I know you are. He
knows he's not patient.
Speaker 2: Well, we have to I do have to say one thing.
The reason John and I both do not have patients.
If you would have met my dad, it's either you
pick it up on the first right or I'm going
to be passive aggressive to you until you do pick
it up. What and no, And so it's basically like
sink or swim. You didn't have a choice.
Speaker 1: So you come into this barbecue business. You've got Leanne
and John both working there. Totally you're getting like double
passive aggressive. Yeah, well, I mean actions from both of them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, I mean I played sports, you know, growing up,
and I've been in the restaurant industry, you know, since
I was eighteen, you know, from you know, from back
house to front of house, waiting tables, to working lines.
Speaker 2: What sports, passive aggressiveness, lots.
Speaker 3: Of things, and so.
Speaker 4: Leanne and I stayed and we helped prep for his
first day of opening and then we were like, we
looked around and it was him and Kevin Kelly.
Speaker 3: And that's it. And we were like, do you need
us to come back? And he was yeah, like yes please, and.
Speaker 2: So pretty much you and I were working there.
Speaker 3: Yeah ever since then?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well and Ali, you were working the pits. I
mean you ended up learning quite a bit about, yeah,
the art of barbecue there.
Speaker 4: I actually think I'm the only person and I think
that John says to this still to this day, I'm
the only person who knows how to cook John's barbecue correctly.
Speaker 3: And he'll say that.
Speaker 4: And I was thrown to the wolves on that when
he went to the hospital and you came in the
second day, I was cooking and I wanted to shoot
myself in the face. But I feel like I found
the one brisket that I could be very proud of.
Speaker 1: I remember it being good.
Speaker 3: It's just hot and fast and that's very nice.
Speaker 1: Well, and you guys don't really cook that way at
the barbecue, right, you have your own style, So describe
that to me.
Speaker 2: Well, I actually had to, and it's been adapted throughout
the years.
Speaker 3: Of course, of.
Speaker 4: Course we've We've definitely evolved, you know, through the through
the years that we've been open.
Speaker 3: But because I'm.
Speaker 2: Always screaming for more peppering. Yes, I love pepper, and
to me, that's.
Speaker 3: What I want.
Speaker 4: Our joke in the in the back of house is
five handies of coarse ground pepper, salt and call it
a day.
Speaker 1: Well, in the sausage making is also a big thing
at Love Barbecue, absolutely and plenty of heat in those
sausages as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the sausage is definitely my baby, Like I mean,
it's all like my baby. But the sausage to me
is so personal because it is something that my dad
and I would do together and I would just beat
him down, you know, until I was like, Dad, come on,
we have to do jalapeno sausage. He was like, why
would I want to do valipino sausage? I was like,
because I go out to eat Austin all the time,
and you know there's jalapena sausage. It's gonna change, you know,
the way thing people look at it. He caved and
found did that, and then Chipotle started coming on. This
was like in the late nineties. I was like, we
have to do Chipotle sausage. I mean he would just
I would just you know, wear him and wear him
down until he agreed to it. I think the one
sausage that didn't work that we did down there is
because we were using a long horned cheddar is we
did the valapena cheddar and it was just too greasy.
It would just like drip through.
Speaker 1: So for anybody listening who's trying out their their recipes
for klipani your cheddar, don't use the longhorn cheddar.
Speaker 2: No, it's it's it's way too I mean you can,
but it's just going to evaporate and you're gonna be
cleaning your pits forever and ever and ever every day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's grazy.
Speaker 1: Well, and then, uh, I know that sausages is dear
to y'all. I just got a T shirt delivered to
me here. Sausage is my safe word.
Speaker 3: Is I didn't know I'm quoting.
Speaker 1: I'm quoting off the back of the T shirt. But
the T shirt I'm wearing, it's just feminizing barbecue. Since
briskett feminize. Sorry, it's it's on my back feminizing barbecue.
One brisket at the time. So so what is feminizing
barbecue to me?
Speaker 2: It was about like for me, feminizing barbecue as I think.
You know, I feel like I've been telling my dad's
story this whole time, but I also feel like my
mom's being left out because now I'm gonna start crying.
There wouldn't be my dad if there.
Speaker 3: Hadn't been my mom.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm, stop, well in your mom, because let me finish.
She's like, my mom was one of the best cooks
I've ever met in my life. Like she had like
all these Julia Child's you know books. Growing up, we
were eating like homemade like as cargo, we were eating
all this stuff. She was always like pushing us to
try different things, which I think really reflected in the
way that my dad cooked. And they literally stuck together
with each other to thick and thin, like I mean,
through the irs problems. You know, my parents lost us
their house at one point, and they really showed me
what it was like to be a couple. To stick
through barbecue is pretty fantastic.
Speaker 1: Well, and so often I think so many fans, I
think so many family, family run barbecue joints are like
you're describing, where you have a male pit master who
gets the glory and is the face of the business.
But there is a wife or a girlfriend, or there's
somebody supporting that person, whether supporting them at home or
supporting them in the business, you know, providing just as
much energy and as much effort into the business as
the pit master who gets all the glory. And often
because they're not the name pit master, maybe because they're
a woman, they don't get that the same level of accolades.
Speaker 2: I would agree with that, I mean, because if they
if they didn't stick with each other through the thick
and the thin and work together and play off of
each other, I don't think my dad would have had
the success that he had, you know. And I just
really feel like, you know, the same with Litle Barbecue.
If I didn't have Ali, if we didn't work together
as a team, there's no the way that we would
still be open to this day. And you know, it's
really hard being women in this business, especially gay women
in this business.
Speaker 3: You know, no one you.
Speaker 2: Know, they come into the restaurant the like I want
to see the pit master, and they always immediately go
to the guys.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: But we don't call anybody pitmasters in our place because
everybody's a team. It's the little barber crue because I
look at it also is that I can't, you know,
say one persons more important than the other. You know,
we all work together to make sure that those doors
open every day. Families get fed, customers are happy, and
you know, cooks come and go. The heart of the
business stays the same if you treat everybody the same.
Speaker 3: True.
Speaker 1: Well, and are you' all the only wife and wife
barbecue business in Texas?
Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't know, probably not. After this podcast,
that's going to be the next trends in barbecue.
Speaker 1: Well, say, you all make it look easy like the
the barbecue is always great when I go in there,
I need to get back there. I've brought my kids
down to Austin this time, and maybe we need to
head over to Little Barbecue after the.
Speaker 4: Interview here, Yeah some food left, okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, so when do you all usually sell out.
Speaker 2: We've tried to make it every day to now we
don't sell out. We have so many pits. I think
we've got it down to knowing which days are slow,
which days aren't. And if we do, you know, run
out a slice brisket, you'll always have chopped or pulled pork,
just because I don't, you know, there's always I want
something to always be there and it's always fresh. It's
not like we're you know, doing any reheating or anything,
but we just have this. We have it down to
like this weird science to where you'll always get something
until six o'clock until six.
Speaker 1: O'clock and then nowadays you're taking some of your extra
sausage and taking it over to forty North Pizza. Right.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well not with the casing, so we're doing
just we're doing it like a pant sausage pan sausage.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So tell us about that collaboration and that how.
Speaker 3: That came up. Oh man, well well here, hold on.
Speaker 1: Sorry, let me interrupt you, because I want to I
want to tell everybody I went over there and I
ate all the pizzas the other night. So there were
there were two pizzas. One has sausage and jalapeno's kind
of what you'd expect to get from a barbecue joint
pizza joint collaboration. There was a pulled pork cal zone
as well, again kind of what you'd expect. And then
there's this spicy pickle pizza, which not only have I
never had pickles on pizza, but certainly not the first
thing I think of with a barbecue joint collaborating with
a pizza joint. But it worked so well, Like those
the spicy pickles on there, and then there's fresh deal
that goes on there and it hits your table and
that's the only thing you can smell at your table
is that is that dill and then those spicy pickles,
and it was really great. I mean, you changed my
mind about what pickles could be like on a pizza.
Speaker 3: Well, this came up.
Speaker 2: We were just recently spent a month in Asia with Dino,
who does our PR and does their pr and she's
always on bin and one of the owners of forty
North to put ranch in the restaurant because she likes
ranch with her pizza, and he refuses, he doesn't want
ranch with him.
Speaker 3: He's a midwester guy.
Speaker 2: Though, Okay. So I was like, you know, we're sitting,
we're in the lift, and you know, we'd had two
bottles of champagne. We're going home, and I'm like, well,
why don't we just use the barbecue's pickles. We throw
fresh dill on it, and that's you know, that deal pickles,
fresh deal garlic. That's a profile of Ranch. We can
sneak Ranch on a pizza without him knowing Ranches on
a pizza. And I was like, we know, we'll do
like we'll do a creamy cheese, like we can do
a Fontina togia, you know that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, We've got I was.
Speaker 2: Like, it's all on there. He's just never going to
know it's on there.
Speaker 1: Now, he's not going to have this on the menu anymore.
Speaker 2: I think it might be a permanent thing on the menu.
Speaker 4: Yeah. We we mimicked like what Ranch is.
Speaker 2: But through our homemade pickles at the barbecue, which is
a play on my mom's my mom's mom Nina her
homemade pickles. When I was growing up, i'd get for
my birthdays, I'd get a jar of movie pickles for
my dad's grandma and a jar of homemade pickles for
my mom's mom because I was like a pickle fiend.
I just love pickles.
Speaker 3: It's weird, we both.
Speaker 4: Have an unnatural especially for our dog's name is mister
all of our pickles.
Speaker 1: That's right, all right.
Speaker 2: So we just found a way to sneak it in.
You know, that's what a few bottles of champagne will do.
And then we're like, well, why don't we do the
sausage pizza. That's just a no that's a no brainer.
And you know that went through a few passes and
then ended up with the fennel and the charred leaks,
are the chard scallions and you know the port col zone.
I mean it's just right there. So it's just like,
it's just fun. It's fun playing with food at this point.
You know, we've been doing barbecue for so long and
it's nice to see how it can go in a
different direction. I know we can't do it at the restaurant,
we don't have the capability, but you know, playing with
food that sounds weird with other restaurants is really nice
and it's really fun to see how far you can
push what you're doing in different directions.
Speaker 1: So how long are those pizza is going to be.
Speaker 2: At forty North right thirty first so far no to
January twelfth, Yeah, no, they're running it, yes, but so.
Speaker 1: It must be it must be selling while they just
keep moving the date, I guess so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that I think they're going to keep the
pickled pizza on the menu. Yeah, I think they could
keep them all on the menu. I think they all
play really nicely with the whole vibe. I'd like to
see it live on.
Speaker 3: That's me though.
Speaker 4: We really like the people over at forty North. They're
they're very nice and they love.
Speaker 3: What they do.
Speaker 2: Taz actually, which is weird. I didn't realize that forty
North took over our space on South First when we left,
so they moved into the trailer spot.
Speaker 1: The trailer spot, okay, so they were where or Love
Barbecue originated. This is where they started.
Speaker 2: So it's like a nice kind of like full circle.
Now we're working together, which is kind of nice. It
was meant to be, maybe I believe in that's right.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, thank y'all for coming in. It was
great talking about Love Barbecue, about ranch pizza. Now il'
call it. Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to.
Speaker 3: That's the first time.
Speaker 1: No, all right, well, thank you, thank you so.
Speaker 3: Much, thanks for having us happy holidays.
Speaker 1: Happy holidays. Texas barbecue is built from the ground up,
from the wood to the smoke to the meat. You
have to have the right tools to create a masterpiece
on but your paper yedie coolers have you covered? Built
to be indestructible. Keep ice for days, to keep a brish,
get hot for hours. Yetti is built for Texas barbecue.
You've been listening to Fire and Smoke Texas Monthly is
Barbecue podcast. I'm Daniel Vaughan and I'll see you out
there on the barbecue trail.