Redwood Smoke Shack Pitmaster Bob Roberts brings Craft ‘Cue to Hampton Roads

[00:00:02] what you want, when you want it, where you want it. This is The MESH. Carolina Barbecue Festival's fifth anniversary is almost here. Get your tickets today for the Queen City's biggest barbecue party April 17th and 18th, Victoria Yards in Uptown Charlotte.

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[00:00:46] Tickets are going fast, especially VIP early entry. Get yours today at CarolinaBBQFest.org. Then join us April 17th and 18th for the Carolina Barbecue Festival. One Pitmaster serving up the best bites at the Carolina Barbecue Festival came from Virginia, the Hampton Roads region to be exact along the Southeast Virginia coast.

[00:01:11] That's where our guest today founded and now operates Redwood Smoke Shack, which Texas Monthly called one of the best Texas barbecue spots outside of Texas. We had a chance to meet briefly at the Carolina Barbecue Festival, and I'm very excited to talk today with Bob Roberts, Pitmaster of Redwood Smoke Shack. Bob, welcome to The Low & Slow Barbecue Show. Hey, Chigger. Thanks for having me on today, my man.

[00:01:34] Yeah, fantastic. So by way of additional introduction for our guest here, I want you to envision in your mind the perfect barbecue meal, because we feel like that says a lot about somebody. So what is Bob Roberts' perfect, ideal barbecue meal? Well, I'm going to stick with the food that we make here at the restaurant. So I'm going to kind of craft that tray that I would get if I came through my room. Yeah, yeah.

[00:02:01] Of course, it's going to start with the Texas Trinity, right? I need a rib bone, I need a link of sausage, and I need moist brisket. Ah. I like to go jalapeno cheddar side. Like I like that creaminess with the cheese that invokes. Mm-hmm. And then I would add on a pork belly burnt end, which is one of the bites that we served at the barbecue festival. Yeah.

[00:02:31] And our pit smoked beans are very delicious. And then you got to have, you got to have some coleslaw. You got to freshen it up at the end. And then you got to hit a hard with our banana missoon for dessert. That's, that's my, and of course, big red all day. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Of course. Oh, that was a perfect list of sides for me too, Bob. I love the baked beans. And we know about that corn pudding here around the Carolina. So that's good stuff comes from down.

[00:02:57] They say that's a great way to introduce us to, to the, to the redwood smoke shack. So why don't you continue that a little bit about, tell us, tell us what it is and maybe what folks can expect when they come on a visit.

[00:03:07] So we are, uh, Texas, we say it's Texas inspired. Uh, we do kind of do a little Carolina flair every once in a while because we are here right at the, uh, you know, the Southern most point of Virginia and the, um, we're, we're an old school meat market, right? That's what our building is. It was a farm market meat market. So it's kind of cool to be able to tell that story up here in Virginia, because I know a lot of the greats down in Texas started that way. Um, so it's really nice that I can continue that up here.

[00:03:38] And, you know, you wait in line, you go up to the cutter and you just kind of craft that tray. So. Excellent. So it's Texas style. So that gives us a little bit of an idea of the, the way that you're leaning. Is there a popular, a most popular menu item there of all that stuff you mentioned on the platter? One thing's got to stand out. I mean, our brisket, right. It's two to one over anything else. Of course. Uh, the, the, the product that you make the least on is the one that is most popular. Of course. Of course. Uh,

[00:04:07] Uh, but you can't be Texas if you don't, if, if beef isn't your, your, your king. Right. So that, you know, our beef ribs on Saturday, we do the big ass beef ribs on Saturday. Yeah. Um, that was something that was unique for this area for a while because you just don't see it. Uh, but fortunately with my connections that I've made in this wonderful craft hobby of barbecue, right.

[00:04:30] Now we take it a commercial setting, but I learn what the, what the best restaurants use because I visit them. I talk to them. Uh, we're friends, right. If I got a question, you know, they call me if they have a question. So it's, it's, it's kind of like that nice ebb and flow where we're trying to help each other out to further craft barbecue.

[00:04:51] Yeah. Advancing a great cause there. Um, so three locations around Hampton Roads. What makes Smoke Shack different? Um, maybe from other barbecue or other barbecue folks would find in that region.

[00:05:05] Okay. So the only people that I know that are doing craft barbecue well in multiple locations are going to be like a Terry blacks or a Hurtado's right. Um, and they, they're cooking on site. So what makes us different is that we cook on site at one of our locations. So our newest location that we opened up at the end of January of last year. Uh, so we've been open what 16 months has a pit room with all of our smokers and it has additional three smokers out back there. And that's our central kitchen.

[00:05:34] We're cooking. We're doing our sides, everything. We have a, um, a delivery driver and they, they doing pull sheets every morning and delivering what is forecasted for the day to the other two locations. So it's all done in one location serviced in three. So we do a quite a large volume out of this. We did 210,000 pounds of brisket last year. Wow. So that was, uh, I mean, our number is 70,000 links of house made sausage.

[00:06:03] So you know how long it takes to make sausage three days. Oh yeah. 70,000 links. We're going through about 400 pounds every five days. Wow. And we're only open, we're open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. or sold out. So that's our model. Interesting operation there. So I kind of want to go ahead and get, get on into the commissary piece. How, what kind of role is that played in your ability to try to build for the future for Redwood Smokeshide?

[00:06:31] Well, out of this location, we probably could add one more location I'm guessing, uh, for volume capacity. And then we'd be at our max. Um, I don't know where tomorrow leads for Redwood. You know, I, we purchased this property we're in now. So we have a rear building that has a test kitchen. I want to start doing Barbie class on the weekends. Um, we have a big field out back. So I'm actually talking with a local magazine tomorrow.

[00:06:58] Um, maybe partnering for a barbecue fest for next year because we got bit by that bug down at Carolina barbecue as, as one does. And my team, my team looked at me and they're like, dude, we can do this. And I'm like, well, with my connections, we could have a lot of cool people up here doing a nice throwdown in this backfield.

[00:07:16] And, you know, I wanted, I had one question when my team came back from that festival. I said, what did you, what did you take home with you? And each one of them got the message that I hope that they would get, which is all about barbecue culture, right?

[00:07:32] It's not just a, uh, I'm just eating something for fuel. No, it's, there's more to it than that. And with me and my trips to Texas and helping the Houston barbecue fest for five last five years, you know, I, I see it firsthand and it's hard to come back to Virginia and tell that story because it's not well known. But I did meet, uh, Nick, I want to say, was it Nick Hess with, uh, County Smoke?

[00:07:57] Oh yeah. Ken Hess. Your neighbor kind of neighbor. He's all the way up to the top of Virginia. But it's funny because the conversations that we had that night at a bar and he's like, dude, we got to do some stuff. We got to, you know, and I'm like, yeah, let's, let's, uh, you're, you're a few hours away. We can look at, hook up a trailer and do there in two hours. No big deal, man.

[00:08:17] Yeah. Connections happening there. And we'll talk more about the, the barbecue festival here. I kind of want to stick to the, to the smoke shack here for another minute or two. I know that you guys, um, have catering. How does that layer into what you're operating into the addition of the three locations? Yeah. So catering is probably, you know, this time of the year, we're starting to gear up for holiday or for, uh, graduations, right? Um, we are not full service catering, so it's pickup only. We just introduced, cause we have an old, we have a Sprinter van that we used to use for a

[00:08:46] delivery van back in the day. So now at a certain dollar amount, we will, we will offer delivery drop-off. Um, and typically I'm the one that's doing it because I'm trying to shake hands. I'm trying to introduce myself, introduce the brand. And I think it's that extra layer of customer service that people are looking for nowadays that a lot of people aren't giving. Um, so catering is a good thing. I think we're probably only in, uh, 5%, 7% of our business. Um, just like we do, um,

[00:09:16] online to go orders, right. DoorDash, Grubhub, we have an app. Uh, we have a full expo station that just does to go stuff. Um, and that probably runs about 15, 16% of overall, of our overall sales. So, uh, but with the backup of the history of Redwood Smoke Shack, you know, this all started out of my backyard. Yeah. Yeah. You know, brewing beer for a bunch of, a bunch of time. And, you know, a bunch of people would get together in my backyard to brew all day. And it's like, well,

[00:09:46] we probably should eat something while we're drinking. So, so I bought a smoker on Craigslist for $60. Like one of the old school Oklahoma Joe's ones actually have metal on them, not the crap that we have nowadays. Yeah.

[00:09:59] Um, and I started with wings and, uh, ribs, short cook things and people loved it. And I kind of got bit by the bug and built out a, a whole hog trailer and we would do luau's once a year and did some whole hog and realized that, you know, Texas barbecue is more of my calling. I didn't like, I don't want sauce in my meat. Okay. I want, if, if, if you have a sauce, I will try it, but I want the option. I don't want you just to put it in there for me.

[00:10:26] Now I did have my best bite at the Carolina barbecue fest. I really wholeheartedly think that the Sam Jones whole hog, just because of the history that you're eating. Right. I mean, that just kind of, it's like going to snows. Yeah. Is food on the tray that good? Yeah, it's great, but it's the environment you're going in. The history, right. And the history says you're getting sauce with it.

[00:10:47] Yeah. So, uh, so I reached out to, um, when I was going to do a food truck, I went online and Facebook and I reached out to one of the Texas forums and said, Hey, I'm really interested in getting, uh, a bigger pit. And I want it to be one of these oilers rotisserie. I had just the ease of it. Right. At this point, I really didn't know a whole lot about fire management, tended fires, all that stuff.

[00:11:10] So any help that I could get, I was like, well, this is a professional pit, but it does a lot of it for you. So John Brotherton reached out immediately and said, Hey, I know some stuff about it. I use a Buley. And I got a guy that is oiler all the way. So he put me in contact with, uh, Breck Weber with Tin Roof barbecue.

[00:11:30] And, um, that relationship after the first call was formed. And, you know, I think a month and a half later I was flying down and spending the week with them and staging and just kind of learning the pits. And, and then every year that's where I go back and I help them at the Houston barbecue fest. So it's that small, you know, Bill Dumas is part of that conversation. You know, I mean, I've, it's nice that you could have these people's phone numbers and you could call and be like, yo, Bill, I got a question. Like what's going on with sausage? And he's like, he'll deep dive into it.

[00:12:01] So, yeah, it's great to have that, that network is, it's continuing education, right? In some professional realms, you're required to do that. In this realm, you're required to do it. If you want to keep up with what other folks are doing or, you know, keep up with what your customers and your clientele are expected. There's a, you gave us a great introduction to, to, you know, smoking it up in the driveway and selling it to your neighbors. You evolved into a trailer that you crafted out there to work around the original smoke, smoke shack, I suppose.

[00:12:27] How long did it take you to get from driveway to really that desire to finally say, Hey, we're good to go brick and mortar on this thing. We did the food truck for two, food trailer for, uh, two and a half years. So pretty much two and a half years. I didn't have a day off. At that point I was a food broker for K-12 in the military for the state of Virginia. Um, but it allowed me my weekends off my previous job. I ran food service for a whole university. So I mean, I was on all the time.

[00:12:57] So this new job allowed some free time and we found a trailer back where I grew up in the upstate New York area. On eBay and we flew or we drove up and bought it and came home and you know, it was so two and a half years. And of course, when you start, you're not out there. We weren't out every, it was supposed to be one, one weekend a month was the agreement with my girlfriend. And then immediately I went to two weekends.

[00:13:24] And then once we hit four, like every, every Saturday, um, I had to hire somebody. So. Yeah. You realized it was going places and maybe try to try to hold on to there. So you mentioned a little bit, you've got some, some history in the food service industry, um, serving probably large organizations in various capacities, obviously getting some experience there that no doubt plays a great role in restaurant business. But what about your earlier history? Talk about barbecue in early life. And I know you're kind of from up in Syracuse area.

[00:13:55] Any barbecue there that's discernible that you could really call out? What did you eat for barbecue? So barbecue where I grew up was more of a term of like a family function. Okay. Like you mean a cookout. Cookout. Yeah. We're going over for a barbecue. It's, you know, chicken and craft barbecue sauce on a grill. That's really what, what it was for me. Never. I didn't know what brisket was. I didn't know any of that stuff.

[00:14:20] Um, and then when I graduated college and moved to Syracuse, there was dinosaur barbecue, which is more of kind of a honking tonk biker bar barbecue. It's not going to be the best in a little fusion, but it was good. And when I moved to Virginia to get that job with the university, the first barbecue that I really came in contact with for the style was called curatuck barbecue, whole hog on the way to the outer banks.

[00:14:48] So I'd go to the outer banks in the summer, pass it. We'd get the, you know, the mince sandwich. And I was like, I really, it's different, right? It was just different. The vinegar that I thought it was great. And then I started doing some research and you know, I, I like crafting things. Brewing beer takes a week, two weeks, a month to age this. If you don't enjoy the process, barbecue is not for you. Yeah. If you don't enjoy the process, building out a business is not for you. Right. You need to enjoy that.

[00:15:15] And that's, what's cool about when you start being around people that have the same enjoyment out of that. That's when the magic starts to happen. Um, it's like almost like a, a, a beautiful dance. Yeah, definitely. That's a great perspective there to, to share with us. Um, you, you talked about kind of moving up from the driveway and then 2024, you get some notification from Texas monthly and the barbecue snob. Funny story behind that.

[00:15:43] I was standing in line with my wife on a, just a weekend trip to New York city just to before the real big, uh, construction phase of our build out, uh, started ramping up. And so we, we went up there for a long weekend. We were standing in the line at cat's deli outside waiting to get in. Yeah. Great place. And my production manager sent me a text. He's like, look at what we just saw. And it was that. And I was like, I can't be in a better place. I'm in line at this historical, you know, I'm going to have a great meal.

[00:16:12] And I just got this news. And then, you know, it was wild because I was in a meeting with my director of operations on the patio. And I looked up and Daniel Vaughn came walking through the door with a tray and I legit shit my pants. I was like, I go Daniel Vaughn. And he looks at me and he started laughing and I was like, oh crap. You know, my cutters, you know, I'm not there to watch. I mean, nobody. Yeah. That's how he likes it. You know, right. You get the legitimate experience. She knocked it out of the park. She did. It was so proud.

[00:16:41] And when we got those photos and we got that acknowledgement, it was just amazing. It really was. Yeah. And how do you feel like that has affected your business? Is that, you know, more people through the door or is it maybe a level of recognition and acceptance? Yeah. I think it's more a level of recognition amongst our four walls. Like our team can kind of stand up a little taller and chest out a little bit more. Or we're in Virginia, right?

[00:17:10] So, um, I don't think there's a whole barbecue scene here. You know, we have my friends, Chris and Alex that owns ZZQ. My buddy, Adam that owns Old Colony Smokehouse. We're trying to really do our thing in this area. And hopefully one day more and more will pop up that we can start stringing together like some cool barbecue crawls up here. And, you know, I mean, little trips from, you know, maybe Skylight. Skylight from me is only, you know, hour and a half, hour 45.

[00:17:40] So, and then you got Old Colony on the way. I mean, we can string together some really good places. Um, but recognition around here, it's just when I get some interest from a customer, then I will bring that up basically to say, Hey, you know, this is why. And a lot of it for us is this is why we buy the best quality meats, but we also have to charge you for them. This is why we're doing it because there's a level that you can't execute at.

[00:18:07] We get people in here that are, Oh, I just, uh, I want a bar. I want a barbecue sandwich. And we look at them and we're like, we already know what you want, right? You want pulled pork, but it's either, Oh, but do you want pulled pork? Do you want pulled chicken? Do you want brisket? Do you want chopped brisket? Do you want chopped beef? You know what I mean? There's so many different barbecue, but they're still seeing it. And I'm, I'm, I'm like, well, is this person going to get our message? Right. Why did I just spend $13 on that when I could get it for five at a gas station?

[00:18:33] You know, that's, that's, we're trying to find the people that really want to get it. And we, we are building that right. When I started in the food truck, we were probably four to one pork to brisket. And, you know, at that point I'm doing like four pork butts and one brisket. So, um, now we're probably eight to one brisket to anything else. So that's interesting. It sounds like, you know, in addition to kind of launching your business and figuring that out,

[00:19:01] you're educating the population about, you know, what Kraft and barbecue is and why it's not just a $5 sandwich there. Well, and if you go on any of our social medias, right, we're very active on that. We do a lot of lives. I want to show people in the pit room, not even just in the pit room. I want to take them and I want to walk them through the dish room to the prep kitchen and I want them to see it in real time. I want them to see the procedures that we follow and why we execute and how we can execute at such a high level.

[00:19:29] Um, and in a lot of people, like you said, they don't, if they don't know, they just don't know. So we have to educate them. And that's why I really want to do barbecue classes too. I mean, I got a lot of people ask about that. Um, a lot of people that email us, Hey, can I come up and just hang out in the pit room for a day? And I'm like, you know, we're, we're, we're cranking out, you know, Fridays, let's say Thursday and Friday. You know, we might have, you know, a hundred briskets on Thursday and on Friday, we might have 107.

[00:19:58] And, you know, on top of that, you got, you know, a hundred pounds of sausage, cold smoking. You got, you know, I don't know, 45 pork butts. Um, you got pork belly. I mean, so it's, it's a lot. It's a lot going on. Oh, my 15 does. And that's just the meat side. That's not your coleslaw that we're shredding ourselves. I mean, nothing that we do comes out of a box. It is all scratch made. There's not a lot of room for, for tourists to stand and watch, but certainly you can accommodate to a degree.

[00:20:28] So on Tuesday, we opened up a half hour early to have the local, um, high school culinary team come in. Oh, cool. It was 38 of them. Yeah. And the, the teacher, the chef is the first guy hired on the food truck. So he started this with me. So it's kind of cool to be able to get in 17, 18 year olds, but we did. They, we brought them through the line. We fed them. And then we took them on a tour. Q and a, uh, brought them back to the food trailer, show them how it started. Right.

[00:20:53] I think a lot of these young, young kids need to know that things aren't just given to you. It is, it is a lot of work. It is a lot of passion. It is there. It's going to break you down to the, to the, to, to your, just the puddle on the ground. And you just somehow got to get back up and form yourself into something that's functional. I mean, it was, it's, it's hard.

[00:21:16] It's hard, but it's also rewarding when you see that smiling face and you, and somebody comes up afterwards and just walks in the pit room and says, I just need to tell you guys that was the best thing I've ever had. That is cool. Yeah. And you're going to flip a switch somewhere along the way with somebody that says this could be a career opportunity for me. I can see myself doing this. So speaking of doing this, Bob, now that you're, you know, you're, you've run into a lot of locations here. You're not in the driveway anymore.

[00:21:41] How much time are you still spending doing the cooking and the smoking and that aspect of it? Not enough. Right. I'm a businessman now. Um, you know, when I used to brew, I would listen to a lot of podcasts way back in the day. And, um, it was the only way to learn back then. And, you know, I, I remember like it was yesterday. Um, Jamal Zaynishchev said brewing beer is the easy part, right? It's running the business. That's the hard part, right? Brewing beer is 10%.

[00:22:10] Business is 90. Same thing with barbecue. I don't, unless my pit guys, like we have for the next few weeks, um, we have a couple different going on vacation. So, you know, my pit master assured me that, you know, he didn't need me, but I love coming in and being the two 30. I'll be the two 30. I like the fires, get the ribs and chicken on and I'll just kind of hang and start getting, you know, I just like to stare outside. I'd like to take it in because that's all I used to do. I mean, in the beginning it was me, it was me cooking. It was me going on front and serving. And that's just what it was.

[00:22:40] And, you know, so many mornings and many nights, I'm just staring up at the smokestack being like, I can't believe this is actually happening. And now when I do it, I almost get that same goosebumps because I does, I don't do it very often. Um, so, and it's hard when you around the food all day, every day to get excited about it still. And that's where like going to this barbecue fest and seeing what other people do, different cooking techniques, different products.

[00:23:09] Uh, we stopped on the way down to damp good and, uh, talked with Nick for, for a while. And actually my pit master just had a call with him yesterday for like a half hour, just trying to pick his brain on a couple of things because we saw at his place that we just, you know, Hey, we kind of liked that idea. And explain it a little bit more. And that's what's, again, that's, was also cool about barbecue. It's almost, I equate it to craft beer. There's no secrets, right?

[00:23:35] If you need something, you pick up the phone and you say, Hey, I need a thousand gallon pit for a festival. Can I borrow yours? Or, you know, Hey, you know, what brisket are using? Cause I'm getting shorted. And, you know, it's, it's everybody's, if you're going to put the time in like we do and you're going to stare at a fire to get this goodness thing at the end of that road, we're all just a little crazy in the mind. And I think we all can get along. So.

[00:24:02] Yeah, it's definitely a collaborative community of people with, you know, can appreciate the same hardships and also kind of have some end goals in mind whether working on it. And we're talking with Bob Roberts, the pit master and founder of Redwood Smoke Shack in Hampton Roads, Virginia. He was among more than 20 pit masters participating in that barbecue Saturday at the Carolina Barbecue Festival, April 18th in uptown Charlotte. Add the Friday night kickoff on the 17th, 30 pit masters serving up some of the best barbecue bites that you'll find around.

[00:24:32] It's a great spring weekend to block on your calendar every year. Be sure to visit. I had a good time. Yes, definitely. It was. Visit bbqfest.carolinabbqfest.org. You can stay connected with the festival. You'll be the first to find out the dates for next year, as well as the stuff about the fall pig picking last year. That was a big time at Mac's speed shop. You don't want to miss the 2026 installment of the pig pick and stay tuned for dates and ticket details.

[00:25:00] So Bob, talk to us about the barbecue festival. First, how did you get involved with Sweet Lou in the game? It's so funny because at a Houston barbecue fest a few years back, he came up to me when I was working the tin roof tent. And he started talking to me about, yeah, I know this place. And I told him, I was like, well, I don't work here. I just came down. He's like, oh, well, I own this barbecue place. And he's like, do you think they'd let me tour their building? And I was like, yeah, Breck, no problem.

[00:25:28] So if you're going to hang out until after the fest, follow us back to the restaurant. So he toured the tin roof, which is a very impressive piece of property. It's got so much history. It's just got that what I would assume be a Texas, like the best Texas barbecue joint feel. So I met him just on a whim. And then when I was in line at TSA flying out, he was right in front of me. So we talked a little bit longer, but he reached out. I mean, we've been, he came up with his sons a couple of years back and ate at the restaurant.

[00:25:57] And he reached out probably six, eight months ago saying, hey, I think it'd be cool if you could make your way down for this. And I told him, hell yeah, man. I'm just, I've been waiting for an invitation to like a real barbecue festival to represent ourselves rather than, I don't mind helping other people. But I think we are, we can stand on our own now that we can be in the same conversation with a lot of these people that I look up to. So I'm, you know, it's good that I can say that.

[00:26:27] And I'm thankful for the army that's behind me. Um, so I was thrilled and we just had a blast. I mean, it was a great time from the pre-party. It was a very well in me coming from events and all that other stuff. It was a well-run festival. It really was. The weather was spectacular. The food was amazing. The drinks were amazing. The music was great. Turtle box and that DJ was phenomenal.

[00:26:53] Um, I got to meet a lot of people, you know, that I have read about or follow. So that was kind of cool. And then, you know, when we get these little nuggets, these little, uh, blogs that get dropped about, oh, the, you know, Redwood smoke shack with their pork belly. I was like, that's amazing. Right. And then I, I think, uh, I, I hope that there's another festival in the future that we get invited to. I know we're already slated for next year, but, um, you know, I got that bug now.

[00:27:21] Like I want to go out there and showcase who we are and, and, and put out some really bad-ass food. Yeah. And that's definitely what everybody got to enjoy on Saturday and Friday of all that food. Were there any that, that you, that stood out to you? What did you enjoy the most? And maybe what surprised you outside of, you know, Sam Jones? I know we spoke about Sam Jones. Yeah. Right. I've had it before at skylight. I've had it before at Sam Jones.

[00:27:49] So I didn't think I'd have that same, um, aha moment again, twice. Right. So that was a surprising one. The one that I wanted to try is my boy, John G's right. Garrett. And he brought his brisket fried rice and you know, I've, I've heard about it and I'm, I'm four and a half hours from him. So I'm not going there on a Saturday. I'm open on a Saturday. So I got to be at my restaurant, but, um, being able to have it. I have that brisket fried rice. It was, it was amazing.

[00:28:19] Um, I don't eat seafood, so I didn't have the pleasure of having the rock, the redfish, but I did have the little, um, the pepper chutney compote that they put on top of it. I had that and it was, that was very flavorful. Oh, it was. I can imagine what that was like. Um, and I, you know, the, uh, tomahawk steak from TMG pits, you know, when we were all cleaning up and eating. He finally, you know, from the live fire cut into that tomahawk.

[00:28:49] That was phenomenal too. Yeah. Yeah. So what about the other pork belly, the burnt end? We had a few dueling scenarios or a couple of wings or a couple of sauces, three sausages. And then you and Dylan, Dylan cook for Fort Grove barbecue. Not the same thing, similar, not the same, but what are your thoughts on his? And do you guys compare notes? So we didn't compare notes. I, that was the second time. Again, I met him at a Houston barbecue fest too. Okay. Um, but that's the second time that I've run into him.

[00:29:19] And, you know, I was just in pit envy, just looking over his rig that he's got. I mean, you can't, dude, you can't design a better pit. I was like, that is the pit of pits. Um, and you know, looking, we, we do our pork bellies completely differently. Okay. Which is the beauty about, you know, any type of barbecue is that you cook the same thing and it's your procedures are going to be different. Um, I love the, uh, the, uh, the jalapeno relish, the, um, cowboy candy.

[00:29:48] Yeah. I love that. I love that. The sweet heat that lingered. Um, for me, my ideal pork belly is the, the, the jiggly like melts in your mouth. His was a little bit cause smaller cubes, uh, his a little bit firmer, um, but still delicious. Way more smoke flavor on his and ours. Cause I think every time we glaze ours, we're covering up that layer of, of smoke. Um, and we burn clean fires as, as a rule of thumb, we're just kind of, if someone's

[00:30:17] like, oh, what's your, what's your cooking technique? We burn clean fires, our pits. Uh, there's only one, um, the M and M rotisserie that we do our pork butt and pork ribs in. We can give it a little bit more dirty smoke. And by design, that pit's going to give you a little bit more dirty smoke. So those are kind of our smokier items, but by design, we do a clean fire across the board. I mean, we have M and M thousands. We have primitive pit thousands. Uh, we have a Bually and we have a 500 too. So. Yeah.

[00:30:45] And, and all real wood smoking too, right? Yeah. We go through a quart and a half of wood every five days. So. Seems, seems like a lot. So anything that you guys, as you're coming and thinking about next year, anything that maybe you'd try to do different when you come back to the festival next year? Um, you know, I don't know different. I think, yeah, actually I do know different. I did not. I was so consumed with working our tent and like being in the moment that I did not go around

[00:31:15] and try everybody's food. And I didn't go around and network me and my business enough to the vendors that were there. So that was the one thing that it's like almost in my mind running a business. I blew an opportunity in some regards, um, because we're doing nothing different and probably at a higher volume than 90% of the barbecue people out there, uh, with just the volume

[00:31:41] we pump out that, you know, I, I kind of want to be in that like, Hey, turtle box, you know, Redwood smoke shack. Yeah. Hey, you know, we, they, they use our turtle box in the pit room. Right. I mean, I think if other people can do it, I can do it. Um, and I want to do it. I want to be proud of what we do. And I want to show this area that, you know, a little old barbecue joint can bring some national, uh, spotlight in this area. And that's kind of the conversation that's going to be with that magazine, that local magazine

[00:32:11] because, you know, they try to always get outsiders in and I'm like, well, I can, I can pull on my connections and we can get these legit people in here. And now you're going to get people from, you know, hours away that are coming here specifically for that event. So, uh, I don't know. I'm going to have to call Lewis and, uh, be like, dude, you got to give me your timeline of how you plan this thing. Uh, cause they did, they did a really good job. Lewis and Aaron, they did a killer, killer job. So.

[00:32:40] They always do get on his calendar. Now start planning it now for, you know, next year, obviously keeping it realistic. But like you said, the festival over his five years has been a great incubating space, both for itself and for other pit masters. And I'll say for our podcast itself, it's, it's grown as the festival has grown. It's been an exciting time for us. So I didn't ask you, I got a question for you, man. Okay. Putting questions. So break down our bite that you had at the festival.

[00:33:09] Cause I never talked to you about it. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I would say that it was one of my top bites. Um, I've reported it out on the podcast and I shared that with the smoke sheet, uh, out of 20 different bites and you can't pick just one, but it was definitely one of the five or six that I enjoyed the most at the festival. It was a big bite. Just like you said, it had a melt in your mouth quality, a great flavor on it. I love the slaw and the pork rind that came along with it was really cool as well.

[00:33:38] Um, I think you and my friend Tank Jackson got some things to talk about with pork rinds. Maybe y'all can, I think you got something on him there. Well, the masses are pork rinds. You take that pimento cheese and you use that pork rind as like a spoon. Woo. Yeah. It's really good. Love to see that. So, um, I thought you guys did great. It was a fantastic. And like you say, it's nice to have some new folks from new places and new bites out there. Yep. Yep. Yeah. So we enjoyed it very much.

[00:34:08] Thanks for asking me the question. You're right. I don't, I'm always the interviewer, not the interviewee, but we're going to wrap up this interview, Bob, and I want to put it to you. What keeps your fire burning? Then why do you keep doing all this stuff, thinking about a new festival in your town and expansion in your business and learning all along the way? What keeps that fire burning? I mean, it's gotta be the customers. It's gotta be, it's gotta be the people, the ones that actually care about what you do.

[00:34:33] You know, I understand I can't please everybody, but if we can, if I don't have to wear a shirt and tie anymore and I can kind of what I call my pajamas, right? I wear wild clothes. That's just kind of my MO. Um, but if I can do that every day and barbecue allows me to do that, yeah, I'm going to have some bad days, but it's, it's the fact that I can craft something that people actually want to get in their car and come back for. Uh, I can make a connection, right?

[00:35:00] I got a lot of friends now that started as customers, people that come in on a regular that hang out for, you know, an hour, hour and a half, just shooting the breeze. That's cool. Right. I'm creating something that wasn't up here before. And that's all I'm really trying to do. I'm not, I'm not saying that mine's better than the dudes down the street. Never once am I saying that, but if you want this and you want to execute it here, it's going to be consistent every time I can guarantee you that.

[00:35:25] And that, my friends, is a final word from Bob Roberts, founder and pitmaster for Redwood Smoke Shack with three locations around Hampton Roads. That's, uh, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Suffolk as well. All around coastal Virginia and the southeast part of the state. You can learn more at Redwood Smoke Shack, all one word, all spelled out, redwoodsmokeshack.com. And be sure to follow Redwood on social media, Instagram and Facebook. Like Bob said, always got stuff coming up there. I caught a live moment today.

[00:35:55] You guys were stirring up the collard grains. Very cool. Bob, thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for having me, Jager. You've been listening to the Low and Slow Barbecue Show sponsored by the Carolina Barbecue Festival. Visit carolinabbqfest.org, sign up, stay in touch, and be sure to follow Carolina Barbecue Festival on Instagram and Facebook. These are the best places to see all the cool things being created by the Carolina Barbecue Fest family of pitmasters, including now Bob Roberts.

[00:36:23] And to find out the latest news about what's coming over the event schedule coming soon. To our audience, thank you for listening to the Low and Slow Barbecue Show. If you like what you hear, share our podcast with your food-loving friends. And please give us a five-star rating on the favorite stream. Visit lowslowbbqshow.com for the complete library of podcasts, interviews, for the best pitmasters in the Carolinas and beyond. We've got a blog there as well.

[00:36:46] Some of my opinions, reviews, news, festival stuff, all that at lowslowbbqshow.com, where you can also sign up for a weekly newsletter. The Low & Slow Barbecue Show is proud to be part of the Mesh.TV network of podcasts. That's where Andrew Moose is the producer of our podcast and many others on the Mesh network. You can find them all at themesh.tv. That's where you'll find the Low and Slow Barbecue Show as well.

[00:37:11] And I'm your host, Sugar Willard, reminding you that for the best barbecue and the best barbecue podcast, make it low and slow. You've been listening to The Mesh, an online media network of shows and programs ranging from business to arts, sports to entertainment, music to community. All programs are available on the website as well as through iTunes and YouTube.

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