City Limits Barbecue Pitmaster Robbie Robinson

[00:00:00] We know there's plenty of debate about the best state for barbecue in these United States.

[00:00:15] Some people say it's Texas, others say it's the Carolinas either North or South.

[00:00:20] Then there's some people who don't bother with the conflict, they just go for the best

[00:00:24] of both.

[00:00:25] That's exactly what today's guest has done.

[00:00:28] Robbie Robinson is an accountant who decided to wait into the world of barbecue and bring

[00:00:33] Texas style servings to South Carolina, but he couldn't leave his homeland Carolina

[00:00:39] roots behind.

[00:00:40] So now he's combined Texas and Carolina barbecue into one operation at City Limits, Barbecue

[00:00:46] and West Columbia, South Carolina.

[00:00:49] Since he opened his food truck around 2016, he's been getting plenty of attention from

[00:00:54] meat smoke with offset heat, just like they do in Texas.

[00:00:58] And now with a brick and mortar location, he's smoking pork directly over the coals

[00:01:02] like they do all around the Carolinas.

[00:01:05] The good stuff, Robbie and the City Limits team are churning out of laying at him in

[00:01:09] Texas Monthly's list of top Texas style barbecue trays served outside the Lone Star State.

[00:01:18] He's also been named a 2024 James Beard Simifinalist for best chef in the Southeast.

[00:01:24] Thanks to our partnership with the Carolina barbecue festival, we're talking to Robbie today,

[00:01:28] and you can meet him during this year's Festival April 5th and 6th at Victoria Yards

[00:01:33] and Charlotte.

[00:01:34] But if you want to go, you better hurry tickets are going fast.

[00:01:38] Hey, they may be gone at this point.

[00:01:41] Visit CarolinaBBqbest.org to find out how to get your passes for this year's biggest barbecue

[00:01:48] event in Charlotte.

[00:01:50] You can find out more about City Limits online at citylimitsq.com or follow Robbie in the

[00:01:55] business on Instagram under the same name at City Limits Q, the letter Q, city limits

[00:02:01] Q. For now, find out more about Robbie Robinson and City Limits barbecue during our conversation

[00:02:07] on the low and slow barbecue ship.

[00:02:13] Okay, Robbie Robinson's so excited to have you with us today.

[00:02:17] Welcome to the low and slow barbecue show.

[00:02:19] Thanks, man.

[00:02:20] Appreciate you asking me to be on.

[00:02:21] Yeah, I want to jump right into it.

[00:02:23] So where are you from?

[00:02:24] And how did you get into smoking meat low and slow?

[00:02:30] I'm from Lake Sinan, South Carolina.

[00:02:34] Met my wife about 20, over 20 years ago, and she was living in Houston.

[00:02:39] We're awesome at the time.

[00:02:40] We moved in and up, moving out there getting married.

[00:02:43] And I did a chef, a kitchen manager, a sous chef in Charleston and Columbia back in my

[00:02:50] college days back in the 90s.

[00:02:52] And since then, I became an accountant.

[00:02:57] And so well, that's no problem.

[00:03:00] When I was living out in Houston, I'm a Carolina boy and when I was living out in Houston,

[00:03:06] I don't recall ever having a Texas barbecue experience or going out to Texas barbecue

[00:03:13] because every time we went out to a barbecue restaurant in Houston, I always got a pool

[00:03:17] pork because I'm a carol.

[00:03:19] I'm with.

[00:03:20] Right.

[00:03:21] It was never any good.

[00:03:22] And so one day I said, you know what?

[00:03:25] The hell it is.

[00:03:26] I want to buy myself one of those little char, char broil, char grill from.

[00:03:36] I'm the ones that had the offset on it.

[00:03:38] About one of them and I said, I want to teach myself how to cook.

[00:03:41] Pull pork just like I had back home.

[00:03:43] Okay.

[00:03:44] So the whole time I was out there, I never figured out how to cook it.

[00:03:49] I had no idea what I was doing.

[00:03:50] And remember this was in the early 2000s.

[00:03:53] So this was before there was so much information out on the web.

[00:03:57] You know, very, very little information.

[00:04:00] So fast forward, we moved back South Carolina.

[00:04:05] And as we move back with my career, I decided you know, we need to do something else or

[00:04:16] see if we can do something else.

[00:04:18] And I don't know why this came to mind.

[00:04:22] But I said, well, what if somebody here in town, because at the time there wasn't any

[00:04:28] of this new school craft barbecue in town, you know, it's pretty much old school stuff.

[00:04:35] And so what if somebody did that this higher quality craft, you know, chef inspired or chef

[00:04:41] approach barbecue here in town and me being the counter and say, well, you know, if I

[00:04:47] can number one, figure out how to cook it well.

[00:04:49] But number two, figure out how to sell it in volume.

[00:04:51] I think we may have a business here.

[00:04:53] And so, you know, where does this passion come from?

[00:04:57] You know, I've always loved cooking and being a boy scout, you'll scout.

[00:05:03] I love playing with fire like just out most of my friends.

[00:05:08] And they started to combine this to end the whole social media aspect.

[00:05:12] I'm a photographer also and I really enjoy taking really pretty pictures of food.

[00:05:18] So all kinds of life experience has kind of converged.

[00:05:24] And as I was getting into it, I was telling myself, I can't believe this is the business

[00:05:35] plan.

[00:05:36] This is my brilliant idea for business is to get back into the restaurant business

[00:05:40] because I know how hard it is and it's very difficult to survive in the number two.

[00:05:47] I mean, unicorns make money at it.

[00:05:50] Most people struggle to get by in it.

[00:05:52] You know, I've just kept on going in every step.

[00:05:56] I was describing to somebody recently that every turn in this road, this journey that

[00:06:04] I've been on for eight years now, I've met the right person who helped me along in one

[00:06:13] way or another that kept the fire burning, if you will.

[00:06:18] So I've been at my own internal passion, but also meeting the right people at the right

[00:06:25] times, becoming friends with a whole lot of pit masters.

[00:06:29] Several that are going to be at this festival.

[00:06:31] I'm really good friends with that.

[00:06:33] I've been friends with them for years and all that stuff just kind of snowballed together

[00:06:40] to fuel this in.

[00:06:45] Probably my internal passion by itself wasn't enough if it wasn't for the camaraderie

[00:06:52] with some of these guys I've told them before, like I would have been out of this a long

[00:06:56] time ago.

[00:06:59] The passion, you know, it started, you know, just like a fire started out of a small flicker

[00:07:07] flame and now, man, it's some days it feels like it's burning out of control.

[00:07:14] But you know, it's been really fun and I'm just, you know, great analogy here.

[00:07:23] I'm just stacking logs on this fire right now.

[00:07:25] So I'm into, I think in a fun mode and hopefully it stays fun.

[00:07:29] Yeah.

[00:07:30] Well, hey, so tell me, you said you didn't know what you were doing when you got started

[00:07:34] in out towards Houston using your char grill and your offset smoke or so.

[00:07:38] Tell me a little bit about your barbecue learning.

[00:07:39] How do you feel like you progress from not knowing what you're doing to be in a James

[00:07:44] Beard Simifinalist and in Texas monthly?

[00:07:48] All right, so I'm going to count it.

[00:07:54] Right.

[00:07:55] I'm very analytical and when I decided to figure out how to cook Texas barbecue because

[00:08:03] what's crazy about the story, maybe it's stupid, not crazy that I decided to do Texas

[00:08:11] barbecue because nobody was doing that around here.

[00:08:15] And even though I hadn't experienced it first hand, the flavors, I could tell from seeing

[00:08:21] pictures of it seeing on TV that it was incredible.

[00:08:25] And I remember watching just as a fan watching barbecue pit masters, just as a fan watching

[00:08:36] Triple D, Diner's Drive in some dives.

[00:08:40] And both of those they really don't go deep into technique but they were leading a foundation

[00:08:45] because my brain the way that it watches these shows like okay, so he did this, he did

[00:08:49] this.

[00:08:50] And again, we're talking 2015, 2016, there was a lot more training, informational material

[00:08:59] on YouTube or on the internet but it's nothing like it is today, no way.

[00:09:07] But a significant amount of trial in America, like with a lot of guys who were part of my

[00:09:14] class of getting into this is that tremendous amount of trial in America because there

[00:09:21] were so many things that none of these videos would ever tell you about like how to hot

[00:09:26] hold.

[00:09:27] And that's where to calm Rotary with some of these other pit masters had a not-didn't-frontal

[00:09:34] with these guys and it was a two way street like hey man, I did this and this happened,

[00:09:41] have you ever seen that before?

[00:09:43] And he was primarily responding.

[00:09:45] Yeah, I've seen that, you know, I tried this and so then I go back the next time and

[00:09:48] so how did we figure this out and how has my brain approached this in city limits is

[00:10:03] the guiding light if you will was back to that original light bulb turning on in my head

[00:10:09] was.

[00:10:10] Somebody did this but did higher quality barbecue in higher quality side.

[00:10:15] So part of the journey for me was not only figuring out how to cook the meat properly

[00:10:23] and I wouldn't say that I really figured out what I was doing, although let me caveat

[00:10:29] that it's always evolving.

[00:10:32] You know, I'm always figuring out new stuff so it's not...

[00:10:36] I know what I'm doing but I wouldn't say that I know everything, not by any means.

[00:10:40] But it took years to years of a tremendous amount of mediocre and sometimes not so good

[00:10:49] barbecue to build a foundation of understanding all the things not to do and all the things

[00:10:56] to do to get me here and same with the sides and everything else that we have on our menu

[00:11:01] which I think collectively that's where the James Beard thing came in is that almost

[00:11:09] I can't think of anything on my menu that was just a totally good amount.

[00:11:16] There it is, that's the best thing ever.

[00:11:18] You know, in the way that we created city limits, kind of was very fortunate on how this

[00:11:28] all played out.

[00:11:31] From the get go, I said, you know, I don't have the money to go out and build a restaurant

[00:11:35] and I think also the accountant and me say, I don't think that'd be a smart idea because

[00:11:39] so many restaurants fell and I knew that trying to get traction with the customers was going

[00:11:46] to be one of the biggest hurdles.

[00:11:48] You got to cook good food but number two, you got to get people in there to eat it and

[00:11:53] you've got to spend a ton of money on advertising or just through longevity, create a following

[00:12:00] and that's what we ended up looking into is that I just stuck, I didn't give up, I just

[00:12:05] stuck around for so long that people just kept on coming and with so many of those customers

[00:12:11] we've become friends with, they were part of the process also that each week if I'm

[00:12:19] tweaking recipes because I've built this rapport with my customers that say, hey, last

[00:12:26] week, smack oroni, I thought it was really good when I sold it to you but check this out.

[00:12:30] You know, I just did this little tweak to it.

[00:12:32] You tell me if you like it better than what you had last week and so it really was a

[00:12:39] community effort that every week we are trying to make it better than the last with the

[00:12:52] unattainable and unrealistic expectation of making it perfect.

[00:13:00] The reality is you'll never make it perfect but as I've preached to my guys or my whole

[00:13:07] crew and what I've always preached to them.

[00:13:09] That's our standard and that's what we're trying to get to and if it doesn't meet that

[00:13:14] standard, it's got to hit and trash or we've got to figure out a way to repurpose it because

[00:13:21] that's not what city limits is and the accountant in me hates hearing me talk about this but

[00:13:33] this is evolved to being without a passion project more so than figuring out how to make

[00:13:40] the most money that I can because the way that we've approached how we do so many things,

[00:13:49] there are so many opportunities to cut corners and you know, we cut corners in certain things

[00:13:58] like we don't make our own mayo, we don't bake our own bread, we don't make our own ketchup

[00:14:04] but when we don't make our own pasta but we make our own bacon.

[00:14:08] We make our own pickles so we do all this stuff and so many things, vaguely remember

[00:14:17] your original question, so many things are on this bus together that are driving us down

[00:14:26] the city limits street with the focus of doing what we do is which is to serve you the best

[00:14:34] bite we can within price reason and so I hope that answered your question.

[00:14:41] Yeah definitely, you know and you definitely did a great job in talking a little bit about

[00:14:45] what your mission and your strategy is in the business.

[00:14:48] Talk me a little bit through the evolution of it.

[00:14:51] I know you got to get started as a food truck and now you've got to break a mortar location

[00:14:55] so how did you make those decisions to go from moving around different locations in the food truck

[00:15:01] to anchor and down and get in a location there in West Columbia?

[00:15:05] So the whole idea was to build this into a business.

[00:15:14] I've had plenty of hobbies in the past that I thought would be businesses but it turned

[00:15:19] out they weren't going to be businesses for one reason or another.

[00:15:24] So this from day one the idea was to make it into a business and but I knew that we had

[00:15:33] to create that energy with the customers because otherwise it doesn't matter how good

[00:15:41] the food is.

[00:15:42] If nobody comes to eat the food you want to fill out a restaurant, part of that equation

[00:15:47] is you've got to make good food to get people to come in and the stick and Westward gimmicks

[00:16:00] is only going to take you so long.

[00:16:02] The advertising is only going to take you so long because if people come in and have

[00:16:07] the food, they're not going to keep coming back especially if it's expensive and a

[00:16:13] dean that I get all the time is how pricey my food is.

[00:16:17] That's a function of how we're doing it, not a function of me trying to get rich by

[00:16:22] any means but how did we get to brick and mortar was that the first couple years let's

[00:16:30] me figuring out how to cook this stuff to where I felt comfortable say hey you know what

[00:16:36] I think that we got something that the people like that we can scale and so that started

[00:16:44] in 2017-2018.

[00:16:46] I started looking for brick and mortar and so you know that started crazy train of ups

[00:16:55] and downs which I'm sure a lot of guys in my position have gone through you know the

[00:17:02] biggest thing is that unless you have an investor it's almost impossible to open up a brick

[00:17:08] and mortar.

[00:17:10] Unless you're independently wealthy.

[00:17:14] Banks usually don't lend money to you unless you've already got money, right?

[00:17:20] So restaurants are risky to begin with they have low margins and there are high risk for

[00:17:29] lender so that's not the best option but I was held in on finding a place and you know

[00:17:38] figuring out a creative way to get myself into that place.

[00:17:41] So the other thing that's going on is that had a full time job and if we jump them to

[00:17:50] a brick and mortar spot that was going to be insanely expensive.

[00:17:53] That mean the numbers mean that you know if you got to make a $3,000 or $5,000 month rent

[00:18:00] then you back into the numbers that means you got to sell like a $100,000 worth of barbecue

[00:18:05] of Monter.

[00:18:07] Just as an example.

[00:18:08] Well that's $25,000 of barbecue a week.

[00:18:13] Guys listening to this podcast that have a little pop up that have a small brick and mortar

[00:18:18] and don't understand the numbers that's a hell of a lot of barbecue.

[00:18:23] It's way easier to cook that much barbecue.

[00:18:27] It is exponentially harder to sell that much barbecue because there are so many factors

[00:18:33] that go into what how do you sell it?

[00:18:36] Are you open seven days a week?

[00:18:38] Well that's a whole another truckload of problems.

[00:18:42] So if you only open a few days a week you know are people going to be buying beef ribs

[00:18:47] on Thursday night.

[00:18:49] You know that's the high ticket item on my menu.

[00:18:52] We sell out on Saturdays when we have them but to generate big revenue those generate

[00:19:01] a lot of revenue because they're so expensive.

[00:19:03] But if we put beef ribs on the menu on Thursday they're not going to sell because most people

[00:19:09] in our part of the world in the southeast, we're not Dallas, Texas, we're not Houston,

[00:19:18] with Thursday night money to go out and spend.

[00:19:21] And so once I said in my brain, in my head, you know I think that we should pursue a brick

[00:19:30] and mortar.

[00:19:32] I looked at 15 or 20 places over the years.

[00:19:37] And again I'm sorry I think I started something and forgot to talk about it.

[00:19:43] When I looked at going into a brick and mortar it was going to basically require me to

[00:19:49] quit my job which is cash flow coming in being able to be useful for the restaurant.

[00:19:56] So burning that bridge or you know severing that tie, when we found these 15 or 20 places

[00:20:05] about half of them made it past the first wave of hey do we think we can do a brick

[00:20:12] and mortar here yes you know it.

[00:20:14] And so the half of those that made it, I think we can make it here.

[00:20:18] Each one of them had its own unique challenges and a great example is you're looking at

[00:20:26] a $3,000 or $5,000 a month rent payment.

[00:20:31] Well keeping the math as simple as possible.

[00:20:34] And let's say you've got to do 25 grand a week of barbecue sales.

[00:20:41] You break that down into like...

[00:20:42] You say the Saturday you do half of that 12, 25.

[00:20:46] Now you've got to sell $12,000 a few other days a week.

[00:20:53] Well a couple of these places that I initially looked at had like 10 parking spaces with

[00:21:00] no off street parking.

[00:21:04] Think about trying to sell Saturday $12,000 worth of barbecue in a small window of time

[00:21:12] with 10 parking spaces.

[00:21:13] Right, not enough money.

[00:21:16] And so but over the years these I can't remember what numbers be like 7 to 10 places that

[00:21:25] I thought well I'm going to try it.

[00:21:30] Okay so those 7 to 10 places I tried to lease or buy one way or the other they didn't

[00:21:37] work out.

[00:21:38] Each one was its own unique thing that I had to forget.

[00:21:40] Well this doesn't have this that I think we really need but I don't have any other options

[00:21:45] at this time or no other prospects at this time.

[00:21:49] And so just dead in after dead in and man I'm not going to kid you it was last spring.

[00:21:59] I was renting this warehouse and I had some cash and say well I can't find any place else.

[00:22:05] I don't mean just go ahead and build a commercial kitchen here.

[00:22:09] And I started to I started on the build out and the whole time I'm thinking you know I mean

[00:22:17] this is going to be tough to do this here because we were want to do a food truck model

[00:22:20] not like a brick and mortar restaurant.

[00:22:22] It was going to be more like a ghost kitchen that we were going to send the food truck

[00:22:27] out to somebody else's place two or three times a week and I'm trying to generate revenue

[00:22:37] and be very difficult.

[00:22:40] But I didn't have any other options and the other option was to quit.

[00:22:45] And around the time I had a name appendicitis in the middle of a book.

[00:22:53] And that was all side story of craziness that at 5 p.m. on friday with the smoker loaded

[00:22:59] with brisket and the other smoker loaded with shoulders I was pain level just came out

[00:23:05] of nowhere and I called my friend and he asked hey man are you working on the I think

[00:23:09] I need to come so I dream hospital this is a separate story for a certain time but so

[00:23:13] anyway there were all these challenges last spring last late last winter last spring

[00:23:18] and I'm like man you know I don't know and where I'm sitting at right now was this really

[00:23:30] sketchy funky looking place that I'd never been in it had been two restaurants before

[00:23:36] but I had noticed on facebook that they had had a this it appeared at this grunneled employee

[00:23:46] had posted some some unflattering pictures and they killed the restaurant they basically

[00:23:52] closed well when I saw that in this place like literally right down the road from where

[00:24:00] I was at and I little eduro over here almost immediately made contact with the owner

[00:24:05] of the restaurant and say hey you might have to take this out real quick she said no and

[00:24:10] I was thinking you know what maybe I can help this person out you know if they're closing

[00:24:14] and you know they're in their lease or something maybe I can jump in and save them because

[00:24:20] what what this place had and this is a nice any any you know pop up guys food truck guys

[00:24:25] or whatever what this place had that there's there were two types of places that I was finding

[00:24:35] those were nice restaurants that were very expensive that had full kitchen to them or there

[00:24:42] were buildings like in the right location that didn't have a commercial kitchen on that was going

[00:24:48] to require up to it for you know fire suppression system and all and all that stuff both of those

[00:24:54] worksmence of in their own way yeah but this place I mean it looks it looks ragging from the road

[00:24:59] and but it was it was a permanent kitchen uh-huh and I was like you know let me check man it's got

[00:25:05] a permit a kitchen it's got a vent hood you know it it's permitted which means that it had to

[00:25:10] check everything off and uh got in touch with the owner ASAP um and uh we we made a kind of a

[00:25:18] handshake good old boy bill pretty quick and uh next thing I know you know we we had a lease on

[00:25:25] and um no it was uh this this was the right building at the right time the right land lord

[00:25:36] all that being said this building's tried to kill me uh in so many ways because um if you ever

[00:25:43] have a chance come anybody watching this podcast we when you have a chance to come here um 90% of

[00:25:50] all the floors here are not flat um there's been so much craziness that we've had to deal with

[00:25:58] that at this location um uh that being said every day I think you know and I tell people

[00:26:09] when you drive up this is undoubtedly a funky barbecue joint because there's so I show you

[00:26:16] something right here it's really funny can you see this window behind me oh yeah for sure all right

[00:26:21] so a country boy built this place mostly out of scrap from his farm this window there's six of them

[00:26:29] in this dining room this is a sliding glass door turned sideways so that's the kind of uh country

[00:26:41] boy ingenuity that that was used to build this place and that's why I'm saying that um I'm so

[00:26:48] fortunate that um none of the other places worked out um this this place checks so many of the boxes

[00:26:58] that I was looking for right um yeah I would have liked to have had the smokers out front where people

[00:27:04] can see them driving by um you know I've always done that or called that barbecue theater um and I

[00:27:11] thought that that was going to be important to our success that people could like drive by and see

[00:27:16] wow that's that looks like a real deal barbecue joint but um we we've we've

[00:27:22] we figured out how to make that happen in the back so that when people are standing in line to water

[00:27:27] I designed our smoker layout so like there's a window you're like 10 feet away from the smokers and

[00:27:33] you can like literally see us you know doing the work there they're not they're not hidden in the back

[00:27:39] or in a closed-off smokehouse so um you know how did we go from food truck into Sybilinus you know

[00:27:45] where we're at here we call it we call it smokey hollow um uh it's city limits but the building itself

[00:27:51] we call smoky hollow how do we get here man it it was nothing short of the roadless travel a crazy

[00:27:59] train yeah uh uh uh uh uh ups and downs and all be damned if they didn't um uh workout that I think

[00:28:07] that I'm in the right building um time will tell but um yeah yeah so from that building you know

[00:28:15] and let's talk a little bit more about that experience you kind of started going down that path

[00:28:18] you know if I show up on a Saturday or Sunday tell me what to expect what can somebody expect when

[00:28:23] they they arrive there at it's smoky hollow so we are a Texas barbecue joint um and

[00:28:34] and maybe to take a step back because I enjoy I enjoy talking about barbecue in business but

[00:28:41] I enjoy talking to the customers and explaining what we're doing because most of them um

[00:28:47] we've become really popular really quick so we got a lot of new people coming in that

[00:28:51] that don't know what we're doing and while we're doing it and so um excuse me

[00:28:58] we are a Texas barbecue joint and that was a strategic decision early on because I didn't want to

[00:29:04] compete head-to-head with the local pork barbecue places I thought the accountant and me said you

[00:29:09] know that that was going to be excuse me um we could cook incredible pork barbecue but I really felt

[00:29:16] that um just like me that uh you go to have the fancy barbecue the fancy pork barbecue this

[00:29:24] weekend and then the next week you you fall back into what you're accustomed to you know

[00:29:28] with your OPD and and so that really helped drive us down the Texas barbecue road and as I got

[00:29:34] into the Texas barbecue I realized that this was after the right decision because the the camaraderie

[00:29:41] the network the the the Texas barbecue family um it I'm so glad that I realized that early on

[00:29:50] that this was the right decision so um that doesn't mean that I didn't want to cook incredible pork

[00:29:55] barbecue so all right because there's a carolina piece of it too right yes and for years

[00:30:02] I struggled and so this is part of the it has taken a long time to figure out how to do this

[00:30:08] for years I struggled to get pulled pork where I thought that it tasted good you know we had always

[00:30:14] surged it without sauce um I thought I always put out a good product but not until the last about

[00:30:20] year or so that I really have that light bulb go off and so now back to your question so what do

[00:30:28] people expect whenever they come here um they're going to see a Texas style lime service and or

[00:30:33] counter service and that means it um you show up we open up and and and this really originated

[00:30:39] originated out of the meat market style um barbecue joints in Texas where you'd have a butcher

[00:30:45] a meat market that would have cuts and meat that were uh that weren't sold that needed to be

[00:30:51] repurposed and so they would cook them turn them into barbecue but they have it have a counter

[00:30:55] setup and so people would come in order food at the counter um and I guess eat it there or

[00:31:02] or take them so um in the spirit of modern Texas barbecue we have this counter service where

[00:31:08] people come in they line up and um what I always thought was really really important to how we

[00:31:15] would be successful is that direct personal interaction where um I'm I'm really big on making sure

[00:31:23] that we uh try to ask a uh a candidate hey how you doing you know not uh at the line that McDonald's

[00:31:34] drive through you know not even looking at you with the thank you here's a change but like really

[00:31:38] engaging with with the customer so that we can start to build a rapport with them and then have

[00:31:45] the opportunity to explain what we're doing number one but number two um this counter service is very

[00:31:51] unique for our area um nobody else is doing a counter service at a brick and mortar I'm trying to

[00:32:01] make sure that I'm not um missing somebody new nobody's doing a direct interaction counter service

[00:32:07] here in the middle and South Carolina apologies if I forgot uh y'all I'm sure y'all let me know

[00:32:12] with comments but uh um and we're weighing me st- or I'm sorry uh yeah we're we're weighing

[00:32:20] me st- or but what that allows us to also do is to engage with the customer to explain what they're

[00:32:27] looking at and so be frips is the best example because um a lot of people know what risk a lot

[00:32:33] not everybody but around here a lot of people know what brisket is um there's 10 20% that don't

[00:32:41] quite understand what brisket is and so you know we explain it to them and we have the opportunity

[00:32:45] right in front of them say here's a brisket take a slice off they ask well how much uh

[00:32:50] shit our order is like well tell you what we'll do you know let's slice a couple pieces off let's

[00:32:54] put on the scale and you can tell me you don't that too much or you want me to keep on adding

[00:32:58] spices to it and so that's a very unique model beef ribs is the opportunity maybe

[00:33:05] 16 70% of the customers who come in understand what they're ordering but uh

[00:33:13] the new customers um you know they see it on tv or they hear about it through a uh

[00:33:18] Facebook post or something say hey uh let let me get uh let me get a rack of beef ribs and

[00:33:22] so I'll pull out a rack of beef ribs it's like are you okay so this is the beef rib rack

[00:33:27] it's three bones and then I go into the um uh the spiel of um you know this is how we the

[00:33:33] the way do we do beef ribs is because because they're so expensive we actually take out the center

[00:33:38] bone this we use the uh short plate rib for rebound rack we take out the center bone

[00:33:43] and we do what's called a double cut so you're getting more meat to bone ratio which is um

[00:33:50] it's a better deal it it makes the beefer a bigger and way more expensive but I try to explain

[00:33:55] them the economics that way of painting for less bone so yes I don't see a smist of however

[00:34:00] it's tied with the best bite in barbecue with a couple other bites of barbecue that we may have

[00:34:06] on our menu and so um

[00:34:10] that's the Texas aspect of it but now back to the pork barbecue aspect because I think that

[00:34:16] that's an important part of our story this podcast is sponsored by Jackson Creative

[00:34:21] a custom communication agency located in downtown hickory north carolina specializing in

[00:34:27] online content creation to learn more visit the jacksoncreative.com Jackson creative we tell your story

[00:34:37] that what I figured out about a year and a half ago we'll take it step back

[00:34:45] I had this 500 gallon offset Texas style cooker that I couldn't sell and um it was just sitting

[00:34:52] there because I had a thousand gallon pit that I was using as my workforce and um this little 500

[00:34:57] gallon it just wasn't being used and I was cooking all of the pork ribs and in the in the buts

[00:35:06] or shoulders on on the thousand gallon offset style Texas style with a rub and um

[00:35:12] so I started playing around with the uh with the 500 gallon to why don't I throw a couple sheet

[00:35:21] pans down in the belly of it and and I played around with this on the thousand gallon but you

[00:35:27] it was it was too risky because there was too much oil and fat in the bottom of for fire risk

[00:35:32] but but the 500 gallon it was clean it was pristine because I was trying to sell it said well

[00:35:37] let me throw a couple sheet pans underneath there let me experiment with um

[00:35:41] uh cooking directover coal so I think I started off with maybe a couple uh

[00:35:45] just regular butts and in I was like wow okay I was like wow this has that direct cook flavor

[00:35:54] uh directover that carolina style directover coal flavor and and so um that started um

[00:36:01] me working on trying to figure out how how do I get really close to whole hog without doing whole

[00:36:08] hog because um you know whole hog to do it right takes a lot of practice I mean

[00:36:19] you gotta be very in my opinion you gotta be pretty skillful to cook all those different proteins

[00:36:25] on that hog without overcooking any of them but they're all connected and so um that's one

[00:36:32] thing that's probably the yield on its problematic the the amount of wood you have to burn this

[00:36:37] problematic and so I was thinking I wonder if if I can replicate whole hog but just with the best

[00:36:46] parts of the whole hog and um I started with just shoulders and I used what's called a long cut um

[00:36:52] skin on long cut which is picnic in the butt and um and then I was just so lucky that

[00:37:02] that that pit that I had that the distance was just for enough that it didn't burn up to me

[00:37:10] the first you took because I would have given up yeah you know burning you know a couple hundred

[00:37:14] dollars worth of me as I will I need to stop wasting money um it's raining I don't know if you

[00:37:19] can hear that rain but uh so I just kept on tweaking and tweaking and so I was getting a really

[00:37:27] really really good direct over coal flavor um uh from the shoulders and so then I go to scots

[00:37:36] in himmingway and um and so my gripe with whole hog is that it's it's like maybe getting lottery

[00:37:47] tickets or scratch offs you know nine out of ten you don't win jack spot but then that that

[00:37:53] tenth one you know you you won ten bucks so pay for it to take or it's like golf you go out and you

[00:37:59] know you hit um uh you play around and you have like two or three good shots and so like

[00:38:05] my experience with whole hog is that I'd go get these trays and um you know if it wasn't like a

[00:38:10] backyard pig picking where you could like kind of manage what you were like if you were at a restaurant

[00:38:16] you know something it was like a lottery sometimes you get a great tray sometimes you didn't

[00:38:20] and you know sometimes you get that loin that was really dried out but then sometimes and this is

[00:38:24] what happened at scots um two January's ago so January last year I was at scots with my son

[00:38:31] I got a tray and at this time I'd already been experimenting with the direct over coal and uh

[00:38:37] and I got a piece of belly at it and I was like oh my gosh and I had that light bulb go off yeah um

[00:38:45] I was like how do I incorporate this into my pool port so then that started this process where

[00:38:51] I'm at today is that um we're not doing whole hog uh I joke around that we're doing like eighth of a

[00:38:58] whole hog but um uh we're not doing whole hog but I think that we're putting out something

[00:39:04] that uh is a pre-dan solid by the barbecue where we're cooking the shoulder skin on

[00:39:11] we're cooking skin on pork belly beside them both of them direct over coals and then Saturday morning

[00:39:18] where um we're pulling them like we would normally do and we're mixing that pork belly which pulls

[00:39:23] spaghetti style just like whole hog but we can far more precisely manage the cook of it

[00:39:30] that is that it's none that I want to say perfect that is cooked the way that we want it to be cooked

[00:39:36] and pull it off the pit so that you know if you do whole hog the belly sticking with that whole hog

[00:39:41] the whole time you know just like the warnings going to stay with it the whole time unless you pull

[00:39:45] it off mid-cook so um what do people just dovetell them back into your original question what do people

[00:39:53] expect whenever you come here they want to expect the Texas Line service and they're going to expect

[00:39:58] I think really good text a great representation of Texas barbecue um but on the down low

[00:40:06] I think that we've got incredibly solid Carolina style barbecue so we do we do the pulled pork

[00:40:13] but we also do the ribs direct over coals as well and no I thought we could you know pull the rib meat

[00:40:21] just like whole hog you know I mix it all together but I think the ribs stand out on their own so

[00:40:26] decided to just sell those separately but um one one thing that's really

[00:40:33] unique that I'm not sure who else does there's other guys who do Texas barbecue and Carolina

[00:40:41] barbecue at their barbecue joint one thing is I think maybe unique to us is that we um

[00:40:48] we we package all of that pork that we pull Saturday morning into individual containers

[00:40:54] and what I found over the years is that if you pack all that pulled pork into say a four or six

[00:41:00] inch pan that over a course of 30 minutes or an hour or two that if there's any fat left with

[00:41:06] that pork it'll drip down to the bottom of the pan and if you're unfortunate that you didn't get

[00:41:12] it stirred before you got served excuse me um if you got that pull right off the top you know sometimes

[00:41:19] it has a high risk of being a little bit drier than what maybe at the bottom of the pan so

[00:41:26] what we started doing and this is part of uh something that we learned in the pandemic just to serve

[00:41:31] food faster number one but then I realized that um if we individually packaged all this stuff

[00:41:38] into half pounds and pounds before we even open um I think that we can make sure that any fat

[00:41:47] that was with that that half pound stays with that and so that customer gets that by of our pulled

[00:41:55] pork without any sauce but the thing that I think we may have a um have a little unique twist on

[00:42:04] is that there's a lot of places around here um that are buffets and and they'll have um

[00:42:12] they'll phrase it like they have three types of barbecue and and um you know being a careline

[00:42:17] boy when I say we've got three types of barbecue we're talking about three types of pulled pork

[00:42:21] um you got yellow sauce for you got vinegar for and you got red sauce or heavy tomato for

[00:42:27] well the reality is those are all same barbecue pork just with different sauces

[00:42:33] and so what what we're doing and what we have the uh the way that we've kind of design how we do

[00:42:39] our services at since everything's packaged up pulled pork you step up to the counter if you're

[00:42:45] there for Texas bar if you definitely want to take care of you for Texas bar if you but um where

[00:42:49] we're at we we are in a hook over cold country um pulled pork um country and uh people come in um

[00:42:58] and we got a lot of North Carolina transplants here as well but um people come in here and uh

[00:43:04] they start reading the menu so we you can have pulled pork but we also offer actual chop

[00:43:08] pork where we do a little splash of vinegar sauce to this you know Sam Jones would describe

[00:43:13] him in dressing it when I'm trying to sauce it we're just dressing it with a tad bit of vinegar

[00:43:18] it has a tabitite heat and tad bit of um um salt in it and then now back to the technique of the

[00:43:24] pork that we're cooking is that we're cooking skin on shoulders and we're cooking skin on bellies

[00:43:29] well the skin on shoulders we crisp those skins up and we sell those skins whole and we call them

[00:43:37] cheats around so people don't get roast out that we have skins um but the skin on belly it's only

[00:43:44] on the smoker for about four hours or so so it doesn't have to be quite as much of a deep flavor profile

[00:43:52] and so that that skin we will crisp it up also but we'll save that for a eastern eastern north

[00:43:59] Carolina style chop with skin which is um one of my barbecue ahah moments similar to that

[00:44:08] experience at scots to two jammersco was um I was at euphoria greenfield 2017 or 18 and

[00:44:14] they stuck me beside sam jones and I'd never had high quality whole hog like that before

[00:44:20] and so I was right there right beside him I got one of the first bites that he had chopped up and

[00:44:26] he had chopped in the skins with it and without it out that was one of my mind blowing like wow

[00:44:32] sight we've been living a lie here in in lexington you know why have we ever had this before yeah

[00:44:38] there's so many things on my menu like the beef rib like the brisket like the sausage the beef

[00:44:44] sausage is like why hasn't anybody ever done this here before and I realized that you know we're

[00:44:48] not in beef town uh we we're not a beef town we're a pork in a chicken zone here in the southeast but

[00:44:57] that being said you know why hasn't anybody ever done the chop pork with skins I mean it's it's

[00:45:01] phenomenal and so back to your question um let me let me move on to your question here because

[00:45:08] I feel like you really got me got me a good response a good feel for what I'm gonna get there

[00:45:13] I want to talk about the the carol on a barbecue festival and how you got in hooked up with those

[00:45:17] guys and and why you decided to participate and and really you know it's supporting some great

[00:45:22] causes and the barbecue for a cause with operation barbecue relief and what's it mean for you to first

[00:45:27] be a part of that and how did you do that and what's it mean for you to support these these

[00:45:31] worthy charities yeah love supporting charities when they're working in uh uh

[00:45:37] uh yeah I love feeding the public I love hanging around my barbecue buddies and so um up till now

[00:45:46] yeah we haven't really gone through a whole uh festival season now that we're finally a brick

[00:45:51] and mortar um you know we do stuff occasionally back when we were food truck but um

[00:45:59] having been on the outside for a few years you know seeing the the carol on a barbecue festival going

[00:46:04] on as I am and you know that'd be cool if I could go up there um one day and you know

[00:46:08] pre-chargothful so you know as you've probably seen in this you know I'm I feel that I'm pretty

[00:46:14] passionate about what we're doing and um I think I think I know what we're going to serve up there

[00:46:18] which is going to be you know uh I'm not gonna say what it is right now but uh no it's going to be a

[00:46:23] representation of um of my little click of of the world here uh with respect to Carolina barbecue

[00:46:32] so I'm excited to come up there and I won't say show off but just you know uh show show

[00:46:38] everybody you know what what we're doing down here yeah very cool so you know obviously you

[00:46:43] said you've definitely got a lot of passion about the barbecue and the business and what you're doing

[00:46:47] but you know what do you feel like you enjoy most about about being a pit master in an operating

[00:46:52] city limits barbecue um making people connect either with my food and make a core memory or whenever

[00:47:05] people remember one of their core memories that probably related to barbecue you know

[00:47:13] enough had people tell me some of these stories and you know that that's kind of

[00:47:18] in part why the stuff that we cook is the way that we cook it and so um the collar greens for

[00:47:26] example when when we have people from all walks of life tell us they're um they're experienced with

[00:47:35] our collar greens now they were better than their grandmas or you know their grandmas want to

[00:47:41] get mad if you know if she finds out and so that makes us all um worthwhile that I just I joked

[00:47:53] to myself since I've been I hope I'm not making a mistake doing this but when I get that feedback

[00:47:58] there resonates with me that my original vision was to create you know the best food that I can

[00:48:06] um you know with my limited skill set but the could to produce the best food that I can

[00:48:12] to make people happy and and the way that I've purchased as a as a business I've honestly I've

[00:48:18] felt that if I could do that the business side of it would take care of itself that people line up

[00:48:24] in um I'm incredibly blessed that people people are lining up and um you know

[00:48:31] work it doesn't matter if you're a VIP it doesn't matter if you're a hobo that comes in here

[00:48:37] everybody's going to get the same service um and the same uh food that everybody's going to get

[00:48:46] in um it all goes back to me trying to connect with you or have you

[00:48:53] remember one of your connections to have that warm fuzzy filling inside

[00:48:59] yeah yeah fantastic so you know we mentioned the James Beard nomination and the semi-finalist

[00:49:04] recognition how do you feel like that's affected your businesses that news came out a little bit

[00:49:08] earlier this year honestly I had no idea that uh I'd ever be here you know doing interviews with

[00:49:15] people talking about me being a jays beer semi-finalist and so um uh it's definitely held the business it's

[00:49:23] uh it's definitely created a lot of pressure but in the past when I've had VIPs come in

[00:49:32] well long long before the brick and mortar when I knew that somebody famous or a writer or

[00:49:37] somebody was going to come have our food um early on I had this one experience early on where

[00:49:44] where I freaked out it's like oh my gosh so it was oh my gosh oh my gosh and then I took a breather

[00:49:50] in a realized well we're not going to change what the guys here's your point

[00:49:59] if I'm going to change something how I'm cooking it for this person

[00:50:04] why wasn't I doing it that way to begin with and so once I had that realization this is about five

[00:50:10] years ago um it's been um it's been like a guiding force I like if if we're not doing it the way

[00:50:17] that we think we should be doing it we need to change the way that we're doing it or we need to

[00:50:20] not do it at all and so now fast forward to the jays beer thing that we're going to keep on truck

[00:50:25] and doing the exact same thing that we've been doing we're continually um adding to our menu because

[00:50:32] we're still I feel like we're still in the growth phase with the brick and mortar and I mean we

[00:50:36] will be for the next year two three years and we will continue to evolve but um we're continually

[00:50:42] adding stuff that I want to on the menu for example um our stone ground um rips on the menu they're

[00:50:48] just rips and that's what I do on the menu so we got collards we got um charo beans we got grits

[00:50:54] slaw and um in potato salad and we don't go into the insane descriptions of what what all

[00:51:00] this but our grits for example um uh I I consulted with multiple uh big time shelves like you know

[00:51:09] how would you do this and then I did my own research and so we're making um uh peridane solid grits

[00:51:16] for for grits that like with I think the other thing you saw in the menu when you come in and just

[00:51:21] opposite whether you know that we're jays beer or not you're going to have a bite of this stuff and

[00:51:25] like well we mean that that's that's something pretty dang good grits um people so those rolled out

[00:51:33] what two weeks ago um on the menu so uh we're I guess having to I want to say we're having to pay

[00:51:43] more attention to everything that we do because before anything anytime we rolled something out we

[00:51:48] were already gotten eyes cross and tees and freaking out like are they going to like it and

[00:51:53] the executed is the menu right yeah not the menu right but it's the it's the recipe right on this so

[00:51:59] um you know we're just going to keep on trucking doing what we're doing

[00:52:06] that's a nice segue to my next question what is coming next what do you feel like your next goal

[00:52:11] or your next to your next achievement what what's next for city limits barbecue we're um

[00:52:17] we want to figure out how to how to add service another day and you know what you know this

[00:52:26] is a great segue to maybe a couple other points that we we briefly touch on the fours

[00:52:32] we do our full barbecue menu on Saturday um and we're open 11 to five um

[00:52:41] we do what I call a freestyle menu on Sunday and um the way I've kind of just started describing

[00:52:47] as the people was at um and it's not entirely right but it's a it's a fun way to think about this

[00:52:53] is that on on Saturday our menu is our James Beard menu that um where we've really tried to

[00:53:01] pay attention everything that being said our Sunday menu we tried to really pay attention

[00:53:05] to anything but it's more fun so Sunday I describe it as our triple D menu and so um we've got all

[00:53:11] kinds of sandwiches like our smoked pork belly bon me we've got frequently showing up on the

[00:53:19] menu as a Chicago style shot and brisket Italian beef um we've got smoked wings we've got a different

[00:53:27] style of rib on Sunday and so we have really completely different menus on Saturday versus Sunday

[00:53:36] and um the reason is is because we only have a couple smokers and our smoker utilization

[00:53:46] getting all nerdy real quick we use our we use our primary smoker one and a half days um for our barbecue

[00:53:53] saturday so the last thing comes off around 10 30 11 a um Saturday morning for that full barbecue

[00:53:58] serves and if we were to do that exact same menu on Sunday we've already got we got food in the

[00:54:05] pit for Saturday when we need to have had food in the pit for Sunday and so um we need to add a

[00:54:12] smoker or two which I'm working on and the goal is is to add another day of service but

[00:54:19] and this is where the business aspect of it is um what I want to do is I want to do a uh um

[00:54:27] a slightly a slightly unique barbecue menu like maybe a pure west Columbia south Carolina barbecue

[00:54:35] menu which would have very little to any beef on it it'd be more of a pork menu and that

[00:54:41] dove tells in um to uh the issue with the price points um with with the area that we in because

[00:54:49] what day am I going to do on am I going to do a barbecue lunch on Wednesday or a barbecue lunch

[00:54:53] or Thursday or Friday um and the reality is is um we could sell um 30 plus dollar a pound brisket

[00:55:02] on Wednesday but we're not going to sell a lot of and so the time and effort it goes into that but

[00:55:07] I think that if we we had a pretty quick and easy to get in and out on barbecue sandwich menu um

[00:55:13] you know some hash and rice potato salad slaw sweet tea um I think that that'd it work so

[00:55:18] you know what's the next step for city limits we've got to figure out how to add another day of

[00:55:23] service we're going to continue to evolve what's on our menu we're working we're selling so much

[00:55:30] food right now it's um I want to have this concept of a grab and go fridge where people can

[00:55:37] not have to deal with the line or come when we're not having our normal service come in you

[00:55:41] know grab a pine a hash a pine of um or pound a chop uh brisket or you know some full pork take it

[00:55:50] home eat it you know whenever you want some chili all the stuff that we have so um but

[00:55:57] the blessing of becoming popular uh of late is that we're so busy um we're uh

[00:56:05] uh some days it's like catching fallen knives um uh in a good way and so and for sure um

[00:56:12] if i if it sounded like I was complaining at any point here I am absolutely not I am

[00:56:20] beyond blessed unfortunate um for the position that we're in that um so this is not an easy

[00:56:28] business um yeah and you know recognize that the problems I have are problems that people dream of

[00:56:36] having you know how how do we cook more food because we keep selling out situation and so um I don't

[00:56:43] I don't want to come off um uh it sounded like um uh i'm complaining you know it's just

[00:56:51] I'm I'm working as hard as I can as much as I can trying to figure out how to solve some of these

[00:56:56] good problems that um from fortunate problems that we have yeah fantastic and a fortunate problem

[00:57:02] we have we're coming up on the end of our time you've been very generous with that time and

[00:57:07] before we go i want to take us through our low and slow showdown um and these are just kind of

[00:57:11] quick hitters maybe one word answers and i'll follow up if if anything kind of peaks the interest

[00:57:16] a little bit more but we're gonna dive right into it with you know do you use or prefer gas charcoal

[00:57:22] pellets or wood wood what kind free free but apart from free you can't be free i mean i got

[00:57:34] the countries out in the yard that's what i want to use but but what do you generally try to use

[00:57:38] there at city limits so um uh back to that whole hog yeah uh uh the way that we're cooking over

[00:57:44] coal so one of the crazy things that's happened since the pandemic is prices of of far

[00:57:50] wedding on up like insane and uh so excuse me um for my big thousand out pit i use a pre cut

[00:58:01] hickory um i do that because of the coal and the heat um i feel like i can burn less of it versus oak

[00:58:12] but over on the on the direct over coals we use a scrap product that's a mix of hickory

[00:58:18] in oak and and what i was able to to get my hands on is a commercial lumber place um when they do the

[00:58:26] processing for the the cut sticks well every tree doesn't come in the precise length and

[00:58:33] and a lot of trees come in with with knobby branches and all this stuff and so they have to clean

[00:58:38] all that up and so they had this massive scrap tile that's a lot of really good hardwood

[00:58:43] and so um we burned that into burn barrel and um uh dollars and cents it's way cheaper burning

[00:58:50] that than the um than the hickory and so i used to cut as much wood as i can into reality is

[00:58:56] as i turned 50 a couple months ago um barbecue my shoulder um is my shoulder my hip my bag my ankle

[00:59:04] my knee my whole right side needs needs to be um um totaled in uh in in rebuild but otherwise

[00:59:12] i'd be splitting my own wood because no uh um it's crazy how expensive this stuff has gotten

[00:59:17] yeah for sure okay so you prefer pork beef chicken or something else

[00:59:24] if the chicken's fried i prefer fried chicken um if the uh

[00:59:31] is like picking your favorite kid man uh if it's barbecue um i've had no i've traveled all over

[00:59:40] the day in place between here um and uh in Austin and up north now south having barbecue at all

[00:59:48] at i've had barb getting credible places i've had barb getting horrible places um i've had some

[00:59:54] mind blowing almost everything that you just described i've had mind blowing bites of all them

[00:59:58] and depending on how the winds blowing one day um i say give me a bite of beef rib but another day

[01:00:03] say give me a bite of that chopped barbecue with skin on another day if i could have that tender

[01:00:10] smoky smoke chicken um another day pork ribs direct over coals and another day in direct cook ribs

[01:00:19] with sweet sauce on them um i i can i don't think i could i could pick one but i can i can say that

[01:00:28] if you if all those choices the fried chicken was a choice i'd probably pick fried chicken

[01:00:33] on that and fried pork chops would be number two yeah hey nothing wrong with that what is your

[01:00:38] favorite side uh my go-to so i ain't no way to figure that out this what i when i go to a new barbecue

[01:00:46] joint or when i go to an old barbecue joint um what am i go to um uh potato salad

[01:00:53] and map are my two go-tos in part because i'm always number one i really enjoy but this the number two

[01:01:00] i'm always looking to try to improve what we're doing i think we got a really good product now but

[01:01:05] you know if i have if i go to some random place and i have this potato salad and it's just my

[01:01:11] amulet like oh my gosh you know what what are the flavor components here i gotta figure out

[01:01:15] know how do i get that but my my favorite barbecue or my favorite side i guess is my favorite barbecue

[01:01:24] side is um chili's barbecue which is a buffet they have these green beans that i've been eating

[01:01:33] since i was a kid and they are probably the most unhealthy green beans uh they they must have a

[01:01:40] tremendous amount of fat in them or something but um when i go there um i'll get like half the plate

[01:01:47] as green beans and the other half is fried chicken pork chops and in some barbecue and so

[01:01:52] those green beans and my opinion are oh my gosh and if anybody's watching this that knows

[01:01:58] their recipe uh feel free to feel free to shoot me an email yeah hey that's the secret we've been

[01:02:04] looking for chili's green beans or where it's at we gotta check those out so if we keep

[01:02:08] it moving here do you have a favorite barbecue celebrity pit master um favorite barbecue celebrity

[01:02:18] pit master um i don't know no i'm i'm friends with so so many guys that are like uh uh uh

[01:02:31] major leagues you know i feel like i'm like in the double a triple a mode getting into the brick

[01:02:37] and mortar i pumped up from instructional league to uh to to double a i jumped singly but um

[01:02:44] um i'm not sure you know yeah thinking about it like no if i could go cook with one person

[01:02:52] no who would that be yeah i'm not sure um who that would be no i got tremendous respect for so many

[01:03:00] these things because you know important thing to point out when i talked about how when i

[01:03:06] when i got it when i bought that first pit back into 2000 there was nothing on the internet

[01:03:10] what i mean there was but there really wasn't anything i didn't i didn't teach it and then in the mid 2000s

[01:03:16] you started to see a trickle of stuff coming on and that really came out of people being inspired

[01:03:21] from barbecue pit masters and posting content on the youtube or other platforms and so

[01:03:26] you know there's a there's a legion of or there's a core of guys who really um cut their teeth

[01:03:34] in texas in the mid 2000s um that really were trailblazers with um differentiating this new school

[01:03:43] craft barbecue versus the old school um barbecue and so i don't think that i can pick

[01:03:53] any one particular guy and what if i gave you a name after we get off this podcast i probably say

[01:04:00] oh gosh i totally forgot about so and so which is probably who i really want

[01:04:04] but knowing

[01:04:10] nah i can i can't know it down the one sorry that's not that's okay that's a great non-answer

[01:04:16] you answered it without answering it onto the next one what is the best state in these united

[01:04:22] states for barbecue what's the best state yeah um man i don't know um

[01:04:35] well four so i'm gonna change your question a little bit you know as well i don't know man that's

[01:04:43] that's an impossible question um

[01:04:50] you know the carolinas and texas i think definitely have a leg up on on most of the states

[01:04:57] and let me let me do a little cheerleading for South Carolina um i think you know texas will always

[01:05:04] be texas um we're a texas barbecue joint we're not in texas but we are a text of barbecue joint

[01:05:09] but texas is always going to be texas um north Carolina um

[01:05:16] yes north Carolina you know you got your reges up there and here in South Carolina you know we have

[01:05:21] all reges but you know i think that um uh we've got a look i don't know how to describe this i

[01:05:31] feel like um because i don't want to throw anybody any state under the bus but but i think that we've

[01:05:37] got some really good energy going on right now in South Carolina um we got um Dylan

[01:05:42] yeah Dylan from Fort Grove who's gonna be at Carolina festival um he's up in Anderson

[01:05:48] there's Tay and fountain in um and you got all the guys down the trolls you got calmyra

[01:05:54] hector has just opened them stuff but you got uh Lewis's flagship you got home team you got swig and

[01:05:59] swine you got rocky scots um and so um you've you've got this kind of like new way north Carolina

[01:06:07] again north Carolina has their way but i'm trying to chill you for South Carolina shiver i think

[01:06:12] that we've got like a lot of really good vibe and energy going on right now and so maybe

[01:06:20] if i have to pick a state because of the of the diversity that we're also bringing it to

[01:06:24] table can you still hear me yeah it's raining like crazy here yeah okay so um okay you're forcing me

[01:06:34] into an answer um South Carolina that's nothing wrong with that so if you're gonna pick a favorite

[01:06:40] carolina barbecue style what is it is it gonna be you know the eastern carolina is it gonna be

[01:06:46] like lexington style with the tomato or is it mustard well i grew up on mustard um and that's my

[01:06:58] preference in any note to to talk about this being a business that i didn't touch on before um

[01:07:07] part of this was figuring out what people wanted to eat but also part of this was me

[01:07:11] uh figure now um sit on come out sit in the box um me for going on how to do what i think is

[01:07:18] the best representation of something so we consciously have tried to make the meat the star to show

[01:07:27] and on the sauce but at the same time i've always told people i don't mind if you put sauce

[01:07:33] on our meats um there's some of our meats where whenever i eat it at home i put sauce on it because

[01:07:40] that's what my personal preference is and so you know it depends on the meat but when we're talking

[01:07:45] about Carolina barbecue um where i'm from you know when we talked about earlier about you having

[01:07:52] that core memory taking you back to when you were barbecue with your dad one of my core memories

[01:07:59] is when my mom and dad would cook barbecue chicken or barbecue ribs on the grill and in yellow sauce

[01:08:06] which has sugar in it when you would get that magic bite of where caramelized perfectly because

[01:08:13] the reality was is at least half of what they cooked was burned is all burned out of hell crispy um

[01:08:19] but there was at 10 or 20 percent that was in the perfect zone and it was with the yellow sauce and

[01:08:26] so i enjoy yellow sauce on um on the pork particularly with with the pork we don't we don't sell

[01:08:33] any yellow sauce pork ribs and we don't sell any yellow sauce pork um but when when i'm at home you know

[01:08:41] if i got some yellow sauce i'm gonna pour some of that on my pork ribs

[01:08:45] good enough right last question i know this is going to be a tough one but it's barbecue a verb or a

[01:08:49] noun you know um when i was at my first year to have half a college i filled english three times

[01:09:03] in a row um and i wasn't English how could you fail english i wasn't the sharpest got

[01:09:10] and so anytime i hear this and i i'm watching your your interviews in the past in the past uh

[01:09:17] uh uh past years of the barbecue festival and i heard this and i kid you not when i hear

[01:09:23] some things i'm pretty quick on but when when i hear stuff like no is it a noun or a verb

[01:09:30] um i got to sit down i got to get a piece of paper and i've got a map out okay so what's the verb

[01:09:36] what's now so what did they mean by being a verb what do you mean by a noun um the reality is

[01:09:42] is that here at city limits because we have that Texas barbecue and we have Carolina barbecue here

[01:09:50] um

[01:09:55] we have we live in both the noun and the verb world and so i know that oh my gosh

[01:10:05] i noticed some people don't like hearing that but um

[01:10:07] um

[01:10:14] it's uh

[01:10:16] well no i don't want to go there i'm trying to not stick my foot too far into the amount here

[01:10:23] there are no wrong answers oh my gosh what you need to hang out with me a little bit longer

[01:10:28] and uh you may you may you may find out there are some wrong answers uh um but uh i'll go with a noun

[01:10:36] i guess and that my friends is the lowdown from robby robinson the pitmaster at city limits barbecue

[01:10:43] robby thanks so much for joining the low and slow barbecue ship my pleasure uh

[01:10:48] thanks for having me on definitely you've been listening to the low and slow barbecue show on

[01:10:55] the mesh.tv network of podcasts be sure to visit us online at lowslowvbqshow.com

[01:11:02] you can learn more about the carolina barbeque festival and the other pitmasters participating

[01:11:07] in this year's event at lowslowvbqshow.com you can also hear from operation the barbecue relief

[01:11:14] CEO Stan Hayes as well as pitmasters like Dylan Cook from Fort Grove barbecue we talked about him

[01:11:20] in this podcast you can also learn about Jake Wood from Lauren's barbeque plenty of others as well

[01:11:25] remember these great carolina pitmasters will be at the carolina barbeque festival April 5th and 6th

[01:11:31] at victory at yorgan charlie visit lowslowvbqshow.com for all the details or get your tickets if

[01:11:37] they're still available at carolinavbqfest.org if you like what you're here in the low and slow

[01:11:43] barbecue show follow us and subscribe in your favorite podcast stream and please consider our show

[01:11:50] for a five-star rating and review that helps other people find us a big thanks to all those folks

[01:11:55] who've given us the five stars on apple music already you can also help people find us by sharing

[01:12:00] the show with friends special thanks to robby robinson from city limits barbeque thanks as well

[01:12:06] to our producer andrew moose in the whole team at the mesh dot tp network of podcast most especially

[01:12:13] thank you for listening to the low and slow barbecue show remember for the best barbeque

[01:12:17] in the best barbeque podcast make it slow and slow

[01:12:28] you've been listening to the mesh an online media network of shows and programs ranging

[01:12:33] from business to arts sports to entertainment music to community all programs are available on

[01:12:40] the website as well as through itunes and youtube check us out online at themesh.tv

[01:12:47] discover other network shows and give us feedback on what you just heard