Fork Grove Barbecue Pitmaster Dylan Cooke

[00:00:00] What you want, when you want it, where you want it.

[00:00:06] This is the mesh.

[00:00:08] In the Carolinas, BBQ is cooked low and slow and depending on where you are it could be

[00:00:15] whole hog with eastern style vinegar, pork shoulder with western Lexington sauce or smoked

[00:00:21] pork with mustard sauce Barbecue Festival. Dylan Cook with Fort Grove Barbecue, welcome to the Low and Slow Barbecue Show. Man, thank you guys for having me.

[00:01:40] Yeah, we're so excited to have you and looking forward to connecting with you at the Carolina

[00:01:44] Barbecue Festival, coming up here in just a few short weeks. Nashville. I've been all over the place. Really thought that was going to be my career. Yeah. And when COVID happened, music stopped and my wife had bought me a big green egg and I just started doing a little bit of toying around with stuff I used

[00:03:00] to cook out here that time and stumbled across. There's a video You know, just see what reactions are first week I posted on Facebook not knowing it was illegal, but We we sold like a ton of food And I was like, well, this is pretty cool. So kept progressing Probably six months after that my dad and I built my first offset

[00:04:22] It was a 250 gallon and man, we were like, this is a biggest smoker. We've ever seen, you know, this is crazy

[00:05:27] plant plates of food. And I can remember sitting with a, after we took pictures, of course, taking a bite of every single protein side. I mean, you name it. And I literally could

[00:05:35] not believe, like I'd never been somewhere and had food like that. That literally gave

[00:05:40] me a spiritual experience. So I remember getting like 12 years, but, um, he was willing to help me and take a chance. So we jumped on that last November, um, looked at several places, stuff kept,

[00:07:00] you know, wasn't panning out.

[00:07:01] I didn't know what was going to happen.

[00:08:01] would be as busy as we've been since. Like just really humbling.

[00:08:04] Like the community has completely just crushed us.

[00:08:08] You know, like Daniel Vaughn came within my first six months.

[00:08:13] Yeah. I want to talk a little bit about that experience,

[00:08:15] but before we kind of go down that road,

[00:08:18] let's talk a little bit more about your restaurant there

[00:08:20] and the experience.

[00:08:21] And obviously that was a huge part of it,

[00:08:23] but let me get this right.

[00:08:25] You're talking about May of 2023.

[00:08:28] Yes, sir. something normal. So you kind of have to give and take in some areas. Um, but just the secret I'd say is just, we focus on the food first. Like, you know, sometimes it's not always the most cheapest thing. You know, a lot of people get bent up on food costs and you know,

[00:09:41] which I understand, you know,

[00:09:42] businesses numbers and that's something I'm learning more about every day.

[00:10:43] What will somebody experience when they walk in the door to the time they sit down?

[00:10:44] So it normally rolls. Um,

[00:10:46] we've kind of got it streamlined where, you know,

[00:10:49] we don't always have a line or nothing. I mean, it,

[00:10:52] there's times it is definitely busier than others,

[00:10:55] but if there's a line,

[00:10:58] we try to entertain people like my guys that cut on the cutting board or find

[00:11:03] out they're cutting, like we'll cut up, you know,

[00:12:05] servers and stuff. We just, I have a couple girls that don't hawk the dining room, try to refill drinks and do things, but we don't really

[00:12:10] hold that to a standard. It's just kind of a mix of self-serve and somebody

[00:12:16] will help you if they get a chance. Yeah, well so what do you want somebody to

[00:12:19] remember when they've left your business, they've left a meal at

[00:12:22] there at Fort Grove? I. He's a lifer. Yeah, for sure., it kind of draws people there and then we always kind of try to throw in a special every now and then. Like some days we'll do burgers, we do different flavors of pork belly burn-ins, that's one of our bigger bigger things that people really

[00:15:01] flock to is pork belly. Yeah, that's a I've got space to make it happen. Okay. That was my thought process as well. We opened grand opening May the 20th was a Saturday. We sold out by five o'clock and the following week we sold out at three

[00:16:21] 30, the following week we sold out at four o'clock.

[00:16:24] So it was like, now we were trying to that we were rolling with for almost a year, which is like gold around here. It's not native to our region. That's true Texas stuff. You got to go to Texas to get it right. So some, some got the guys that I've been getting wood with since day one. They had a lot of it and unfortunately I had burnt through it and they don't, you know,

[00:17:43] it's just not't pan out. So it's not easy work. Yeah You know, you kind of have to be a little crazy to be honest Understand well, you talked about a lot of great things there that you've got on the menu the secret sausage and the burn-ins What do you feel like is the fan favorite that's on the menu? What did what do people order the most?

[00:19:04] Brisket is really close to number one

[00:20:05] Of course, that's coming April 5th and 6th and it's gonna be a Victoria Yards in Charlotte and everybody listening out there I can go online and in order tickets get a discount using our code low slow BBQ

[00:20:11] But I want to know how did how did Dylan and how did Fort Grove get hooked up with the Carolina Barbecue Festival this year?

[00:20:18] so

[00:20:20] last year

[00:20:21] Garin was down a guy and

[00:20:25] He was like man, I could use some help and I was like well, hey we get done Saturday probably most likely. Okay cool. Well so you know the Carolina Barbecue Festival it supports a few charities you know Barbecue for Calls mission and among those is the Operation Barbecue Relief. You know what does it mean to you to support those charities and in particular one that kind of helps out your brothers in the barbecue business when when maybe they need a hand up? Yeah

[00:21:42] man it's just that's what it's all about really you know it's people that need So Lawrence barbecue put me on something with him. I got a date. I'm not sure what it is But that's in May and we should be set until about September for euphoria again and Then I'm hoping to make it down the firebox on the bluff with the guys from Southern Soul

[00:24:21] Griffin Buffkin Mark Chan all them all them guys. Yeah

[00:25:24] And luckily knock on wood, 90% of the places that we're going on.

[00:25:28] I know enough barbecue fam that I can pay man, let me borrow your refrigerator. Hey man, let me borrow a cutting table or, you know,

[00:25:31] if we need to do something prep wise, but it's really just,

[00:25:35] it's about going having fun and like Charleston wine and food last year, man,

[00:25:39] we fed people from California or again. I mean,

[00:25:42] it was like all walks of life at that place. And it's just,

[00:25:46] it's really a lot of fun.

[00:26:44] Like you'll meet a lot of backyard guys that ask about the membrane on the back. We cook pork spare ribs.

[00:26:47] I don't do baby bags, but, um, you know, they get all been out of shape.

[00:26:53] They're like, Oh man, that thing's chewy or, Oh, I just, you can't

[00:26:55] cook good ribs with that on there.

[00:26:57] Well, I'm big to differ.

[00:26:59] So the trick is, uh, I actually learned it originally from Tay from Bobby's barbecue.

[00:28:05] say anything about a membrane, like what saves you so much time. The guys that pull napkins and forks and all the tricks to pull them off.

[00:28:09] Yeah.

[00:28:10] So that silver skin, the membrane that again, you said it, it's hard to get it off there.

[00:28:14] I've got my vice grips and I'm trying to rip it off of there.

[00:28:17] Yeah.

[00:28:18] I wouldn't get my teeth on the raw, but the pliers or something like that.

[00:28:21] I am in the toolbox trying to get that stuff out.

[00:28:24] But what you're telling me is you can leave it's just kind of like, man, this is work. This is tough. But I don't ever see it like that.

[00:29:41] Like this isn't work to me.

[00:29:42] Like we, I have fun in here every day.

[00:29:45] Like my guys, this is it. This is a bowl barbecue. Yeah, for sure. And, uh, fast forward to us, you know, we got, we're operating, rolling along, whatever. And a couple of days before my boy, Robbie in Columbia, that city limits,

[00:31:02] we were chatting and we were like, man, uh, like snobs in the area,

[00:31:06] like he might pop by.

[00:32:11] So that morning, my other buddy from Midland, Rod Scott, he does Scott's A1 barbecue. Really good buddy of mine.

[00:32:12] We talk all the time.

[00:32:13] He's helped me with some stuff through the years.

[00:32:17] He texted me.

[00:32:18] He's like, you'll never guess who I'm standing next to in line.

[00:32:20] And I'm like, shut up.

[00:32:22] No, you know, he's notorious about going places and people don't recognize that he slides in, slides out, don't talk to anybody, which, you know, it is what it is. I'm, you know, I'm thankful either way, but I really had that realization too. I'm like, you know, I'm not gonna sugar coat anything.

[00:33:40] I'm gonna be here when he walks in.

[00:33:42] I'll cut him what he asked for.

[00:33:43] And like, I want him to get the real deal.

[00:33:45] So, I can remember stoked that he was even here. You know, like I had a picture with Daniel Vaughn, like that was just, that's it for me. Like I was burnt the rest of the day. So we go out to the smoke house and we talked a little bit more and he chatted about some stuff. He said, well, I gotta get on back down. I'm going to Charleston. I was like, all right, man, I really appreciate it.

[00:35:01] And the last thing he told me, he's like,

[00:35:02] I'll reach out to you in a week or so.

[00:35:04] He said, people need to know about this place.

[00:35:07] I'm gonna do an article on you. got 500 people waiting to come in the door. Right. But I would say that second, the one we just got in December for best trays, Texas style trays outside of Texas. I just, the folks that do our plaques and stuff like that,

[00:36:20] I got that one in and I took a picture and posted it,

[00:36:23] just telling everybody how thankful we really are I learned it the best way I can and stick to it. And Texas barbecue is something that, one, I love that peppery flavor right off the bat. And then when I really kind of started learning more about the cooking side and the history of it and just the whole culture, it was just what I loved. And once I let people try it and got that response

[00:37:41] that people really were like, wow.

[00:37:44] And there's nobody else around doing it.

[00:37:45] I was like, this is kind It's just wild, man. Like, you know, people support you, support you or say they do. And then you start start making waves and they start putting, putting buoys out in the water.

[00:39:02] You know, it's just like, it's crazy.

[00:40:02] as unique as we can.

[00:40:09] Shoot man, I don't know. It's hard to say really. That's all right. Well, tell me about this. Who do you turn to when you need barbecue advice? You mentioned

[00:40:13] Garin and John J's.

[00:40:15] Most of the time, Garin. Yeah. Garin, my buddy Robbie, City Limits.

[00:40:22] That's really about it. We kind of keep it between us three most of the time. That's some good company to keep.

[00:41:25] way. You can't make barbecue that would. And if you had your choice, what's the wood you want to use?

[00:41:32] Uh, oak or hickory. Pecan if it was readily available. But yeah, I would bet, I would bet most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Really? So what, what is it about

[00:41:37] the oak and the specifically the post oak that maybe makes it stand out for you? So post oak I can't I can't put my finger on that one. There's a lot of good barbecue all the way across Come on you got a pick one Shoot man, I mean I've been eating. Oh, I don't know. Okay, that's Lightning might strike me if I say something wrong. Don't forget we're in the

[00:43:01] The low and slow barbecue show in North Carolina. So we're gonna go ahead and let that be your default answer today

[00:44:06] I'd smack somebody if I seen it put sauce on it, but you know good. It's just it's just to each his own I guess yeah nothing wrong with that so but this is important last one is barbecue a verb or a noun I

[00:44:14] Would definitely say it is a

[00:44:16] Verb and that my friends is the lowdown from the pit master at Fort Grove barbecue Dylan cook Dylan

[00:44:24] Thanks so much for being with us on the low and slow at the Mesh.tv network of podcasts. Most especially, thank you for listening to the Low and Slow Barbecue Show.