Reed St. BBQ Owner Gil Barnes

[00:00:02] What you want, when you want it, where you want it. This is The Mesh. We're going to meet Gil Barnes, who's building a catering business based in the same hickory North Carolina community where our podcast originates. But our guest fruits have

[00:00:44] spent plenty of time and the same dirt as your intrepid host, Sweet Home Alabama, as well as some of my favorite places to play in Charleston. Before we meet Gil and learn about his Reed Street BBQ catering business, a quicker monitor to be sure to visit our website,

[00:01:00] lowslowbqshow.com, that's where you can subscribe to our weekly newsletter at the Low Down. It arrives in your email box every Tuesday and is loaded with the latest Carolata BBQ News, Link Store, most popular podcast in blogs and a weekly recipe shared by some

[00:01:17] of our favorite pit masters like Gil Barnes, who we're going to welcome and excited to meet in today's episode of The Low and Slow BBQ Show. Welcome, Gil. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. So let's start with the most

[00:01:32] basic thing. Gil, what is Reed Street BBQ? So Reed Street BBQ is my obviously catering company that you mentioned. I'm also a private chef for people so I do a little bit of everything.

[00:01:45] I have about 20 years in the restaurant industry and I've always loved BBQ and a couple years ago. I decided I was going to chase the dream of having my own barbecue place and do my own

[00:01:56] things. So that's what Reed Street is, is just 20 years in BBQ and chef experience for people to call me up and see what you need. Okay, well cool. So you touched on it just a little bit.

[00:02:09] But how did you get started a couple of years ago? What really made you wanted to side that hey catering is what I'm going to do and then BBQ is what I'm going to cater.

[00:02:18] So touching on that I'm from Alabama, I actually started in Jim and X barbeque many, many, many years ago before 725 was not the national minimum for pay. I was actually lower than that

[00:02:36] and I've chased barbecue ever since. I worked at Jim and X. I worked at full moon. I mean, I could go on and on how many barbecue plates I worked for over the years. And a few years ago

[00:02:48] I just kind of when COVID happened, the restaurant industry was rough. I just went through job after job. I just could not find anything. I was happy with it and I just decided

[00:02:59] I was going to chase the dragon as they say and try and know my own place. So I started looking for a trailer, I started looking for whatever I could find. I really just started going to cater my way

[00:03:11] and that's about two years ago. I found they found something so when I started my LLC, started getting my name out there and started doing events slowly and truly trying to keep things

[00:03:22] going. I'm still trying to get off the ground but we're hey, every week's a new challenge. Yeah, well so what's your end in mind? What's your goal? Where are you hoping to take this street barbecue brand and the catering experience? I'm hoping that the catering

[00:03:39] leads to a brick and mortar. It was funny when you invited me on the show, I started listening to the past episodes because I wanted to know more about the show and everything. It was funny

[00:03:51] where the John G's had. I was listening to that episode and he mentioned that he had seeing this building in 2016 and he just knew that was the spot. It was very funny because

[00:04:00] there's a building here in Hickory, I'm trying to keep where it is but there's a building here in Hickory, I saw when I first visited Hickory in 2018. I wanted that to be my barbecue place

[00:04:11] and I've kept my own head ever since and it's still vacant. I'm trying to chase down who owns it so there's a brick and mortar on the horizon. That's where I'm hoping to take.

[00:04:20] This is one day I have my own place to do everything I wanted to do. Okay yeah, well keep that a secret. Don't tell anybody otherwise I could go to snatch it away from

[00:04:28] you and put out something bad that don't work. We want to see some street barbecue in that place and maybe get some more good barbecue here in Hickory, Metra. So speaking of good barbecue, you know how would you describe your barbecue? What are you generally trying to produce?

[00:04:41] What would you compare it to? What is the street barbecue flavor? So as you know, every region of the country has the care lines of Texas, Alabama really doesn't have that just signature flavor. Yes, we're known for Alabama

[00:04:58] white barbecue sauce but when it comes to that there's Alabama barbecue is kind of a hotspot of everybody. I grew up with a lot of people putting brown sugar on things and I always burned it.

[00:05:08] I never, I never could get the brown sugar on in a smoke right now. It's my flavors are a little bit of everybody but it's not so much just salt and pepper. I use garlic powder, onion powder.

[00:05:20] I put a little chef's pan on things but I don't get too crazy. It's basic flavors but my rub is a little more advanced than just salt and pepper and there's nothing on the salt

[00:05:29] and pepper but I dial mine up just a little bit. Okay so what is your most popular item when you go out and do something what are people most fond of or what are they requesting the most?

[00:05:42] So since I've moved North Carolina, I've actually done mostly pig-pickings. That's been my big thing it's whole hog. I got a little bit of experience in Charleston. I got to meet Roddy Scott

[00:05:53] and a few of those boys because they always come down to Charleston and do all kinds of events. So I got to learn some whole hog from some of those guys but that was kind of the

[00:06:02] when I moved to Hickory some people were like hey can you do all pig and I was like let me see what my spoker can because let me see how big my smokeer can hold and we kind of figured it out

[00:06:11] and then I've done several whole hogs since then. That's kind of been my go-to is whole hog lately I would love to just do whole hog but whole hogs. It's not a cheap thing and it's a lot of foods

[00:06:24] that typically I got to have a bigger crab for I take on one of those. Yeah sure, well so you mentioned the smoker and we talked a little bit about that and the warm up here

[00:06:33] door or broadcast but it taught to me about your smoker and what are you using in your wood preference? What is your cooking setup generally look like? So my smoker is I'm going to call

[00:06:44] it's redneck engineer. It is a home built smoker by some I don't know who built it about this second hand for my guy. I'm the third owner of this smoker. There is definitely some redneck engineering

[00:06:56] going on this thing it's an old propane tank so cast iron propane tank. It was 180 gallons it'll do it'll do a decent load I can get about 100 pound whole hog in there little wiggling to get him in

[00:07:09] there but he'll get in there but they built like a fish fry on the front of this thing so it's like a big bowl on the front with a drain and a propane burner. They did fish fry as off this thing

[00:07:22] it's it's a very interesting build. I just call it heart because HART is welded in the front of the barrel so it's just the heart smoker's just when I call it. I don't feel like changing

[00:07:33] the name I think it just fits it well. I typically woodwise is kind of right now whatever I get hold of. I love I would rub to use hickory all the time but hickory I've found is not super

[00:07:47] abundant in this area at least from like where I'm looking I might be looking in their own places but I've did you know Facebook marketplace looking for season wood that saw I use my smoker

[00:07:58] just not having the propane assist it is all wood. It is not the most efficient in the world so it does burn a lot so whenever I do a cook I need um I don't know exactly what when it comes to

[00:08:11] a chord half chord I'm not sure how much I'm burning I just know that I'm burning I'm burning a lot of wood to do about 16 17 hours so I'm right now I've got a guy who's selling me I'm getting

[00:08:22] a lot of the con at out from him and it's it's well seasoned the guys knows how to season sift a con and it comes out excellent some of the best what I've had in the while so right now

[00:08:32] it's kind of whatever I can get hold of but I would love to just be strictly hickory. I mean that's that's out no barbecue as you know um this is a big hickory world down there yeah and it's funny

[00:08:43] we live in a town called hickory but you know there's not an awful lot of hickory wood a bun and other some hickory trees around but you know it's not just all over the place right

[00:08:52] no it's really not it's a there's a lot more oak and con around here and you know I did this effort to find the right guy it works and I'm happy with it. Yeah well maybe we need to talk

[00:09:01] I got a bunch of countries out in my yard so I used to tell you that when I put them all my smokers some of that wind fall stuff I cut it up and season it and then I use it in my

[00:09:11] my thanks maybe we can connect on that sometimes so while we're talking a little bit still about your business where it can folks find out more maybe getting touch with you if they want to

[00:09:19] try to bring you on board to do a catering job or a private chef for it. So easiest thing is I have the best ways I have Instagram is just read street barbecue all lowercase all one word

[00:09:31] and it's our ED street barbecue. Sam is my email is just all one word read street barbecue at gmail.com either one of those are great um I'm cons and my instagram will go off if anybody ever messages me

[00:09:48] on there or if you send me any amount of pops up on my phone but yeah those are the two easiest ways you can touch with me right now. Okay well where did the name come from read street or WDST

[00:09:59] BBQ? So actually read street is an actual street in Tuscosa if you on the strip there's that BP station on the left as you're going to the downtown to the right there's a little street

[00:10:14] with a handful of apartments in houses and that was the street I lived on in college and that was where I first really started messing with food and cooking for my friends and stuff like

[00:10:24] there was six months lived in a house and I enjoyed cooking so I was always like grilling, smoking, cooking dinner for people that was really where I kind of fell my passion for

[00:10:35] cooking was at read street. So it's a little bit of an homage to days gone by where I was hanging out with friends we were sitting out the backyard doing all kinds of just messing with food doing

[00:10:48] all kinds of stuff trying recipes, making up stuff so if not so good some of it fun we ended up actually trying to smoke a whole pig in the backyard. It turned out okay I wouldn't say it was

[00:11:00] anything what I'm doing nowadays but it was it was just one of those days in the past where we just had fun with food and I always just wanted to I did it a lot for more from my friends because I

[00:11:12] wanted them to like remember every time they like came to eat with me they remembered like hey this is where we came from this is the fun times. Yeah that's cool so you kind of talk a

[00:11:21] little bit about how you got started smoking your meat low and slow and then you mentioned you started on a gym gym and next you why did you decide to go into the restaurant working world

[00:11:32] or was that connected to your you know your college experience again at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloos there right along the strip and doing stuff they're off a read street to that

[00:11:41] did that kind of fuel your fire to get into gym and next or was it something else? So I started in gym and exit high school and eventually ended up at full moon of all places

[00:11:50] and down the street at kind of a competitor. Yeah working with some friends and when I went to college full moon was nice enough to let me just go down and work with them and test

[00:12:01] loses so basically I just moved down to another store and was just working for a little bit but school and work and everything was kind of hard to balance so I didn't stay with them very long

[00:12:14] but I just I kind of got that I kind of got a bit by the book and after school I didn't finish my degree at the time I just I wasn't the degree I was trying to be an engineer and

[00:12:29] did not pan out very well so I went back to Birmingham and ended up at full moon for a few years and ended up somewhere else and I just enjoyed cooking so I ended up going to culinary school

[00:12:40] at just a day of all places and getting them to associate's degree and it up in Charleston eventually ended up working for home team and I really like the guys at home team barbecue down there

[00:12:51] and that really just got the bug because they were doing shift it's like their shift inspired barbecue were there doing all kinds of they're they're they're they're doing barbecue but they have fun

[00:13:01] with it like their specials are always kind of over the top they've I see I was working with them when they're making house made deloni some kind of some kind of wild things down there and that kind of

[00:13:10] really got ball rolling was like I want to do barbecue I like what's fun with barbecue I like open wood fire I love that just that's just a passion of mine is just cooking old school with

[00:13:24] your hands with a fire with wood having to do all that stuff that's just that's the right of my eye yeah so you know in all those spots between Jeff stayed and you know kind of in the on the

[00:13:35] read street with the boys cooking up and you know and then I know you've got some heads of other positions and sort of leadership shift type positions at locations throughout Charleston you know how do you feel like your experience in that career working and either the hospitality

[00:13:49] industry or the shifts how does that really flavor or season what you're trying to do with your read street barbecue catering? I would say that like sometimes I will say that I will use

[00:14:04] Jeff terms that people are like wait what are you talking about I'm happy to kind of down myself back sometimes because I have some fringe words in my head that when I'm making things

[00:14:13] but I think that working for 20 years and doing all kinds of different culinary stuff where it's fine dining barbecue bar food I've played with a lot of flavor profiles and it

[00:14:26] I feel like it gives me a little bit of an advantage to where I know some things that people have done in the past that don't work and I know some things that people do that do work so I kind of like

[00:14:37] I can see a little bit of everything so like I know like hey ginger and a chicken brine is really delicious when you smoke it just right and a lot of people wouldn't think to put ginger

[00:14:49] and they're chicken brine when you come as to smoke but it's one of those things like I've seen a lot of stuff that I think gives me a little bit of an advantage and I have some some chef techniques

[00:14:58] that I can I can sneak in there and still have some fun words it gives it elevates the barbecue a little bit more but it's not like fancy it's not too over the top it's it's little things it just like

[00:15:12] I'm also buying a sauce just right so that the barbecue sauce is a little bit smoother and has a little bit of a different flavor things like that I think it gives me a little bit of an edge because

[00:15:21] I can I can play with things a little bit differently in the way people see okay well so on the other side of the coin you spend a lot of time on the business and and the the kitchens and doing those types

[00:15:32] now that you've got the L.O.C. and you're starting your business and it's you know re-street barbecue what are some things that you've learned that maybe it didn't expect we're some some surprises that you've encountered along the way in the in the actual catering side of things

[00:15:48] you can plan as much as you think you can and you're still going to forget something you can make every list in the world on my laptop I've every kid ever done I've always made lists like

[00:15:59] hate or forget spoons don't forget this because like it's just something was branded me and every time there's always something in the last second I'll look at why didn't I think of that every time

[00:16:09] I will always it doesn't matter how much I try I always managed to forget some little detail that's one thing that's really been in learning curve is always just triple check everything you got

[00:16:20] because like there's always going to be something and the other thing is taxes business taxes it's been a lot it's trying to make sure I'm like keeping thorough records of all this dust

[00:16:32] that when taxis and comes around I'm not like scrambling to try and find something here there yeah that business side of it don't worry about the taxes we won't tell anybody just everybody

[00:16:42] out there in the world is listening to the podcast now you've got a business now but otherwise I may know attention to those taxes I'm sure that gets you in trouble and we don't want that to happen

[00:16:52] but you are here in Hickory North Carolina and you got reached in Barbecue operating I know you've done a couple of events around here and got some hot praises from folks that I know tell me what brought

[00:17:02] you to North Carolina after spending you know a few years in the Charleston area my wife actually we were living at the beach down your hill and I was very happy down there

[00:17:14] my wife wanted seasons as she says it she wanted to have cold weather she didn't want it to be 80 all the time she has some friends and family in the area so when our lease came up last May she was like

[00:17:28] would you move to Hickory I'm like can we just go look around Hickory because I don't know if it's really might be I'm I'm a small town guy like the less people there are around me the better

[00:17:38] I know that it's not great for business but I'm good living out the woods by myself on 100 acres and there's nobody for 20 miles but she dragged me up here we checked to play so I ended up

[00:17:49] liking it a lot so when our lease came up we moved up Tickory I know she's a lot happier out here I can't complain I enjoyed it we've had we've found a great place to rent we're staying there right now

[00:18:03] Hickory's not too expensive which is nice that was kind of one of the things that was worried about it's where we were at was fairly cheap to live at but so that was one of the things but yeah

[00:18:11] she kind of dragged me up here kind of kicking the screw mix and it really wanted to be choose kind but I've enjoyed living up here because I like the mountain I didn't realize how much I like mountains

[00:18:22] that's been kind of fun is getting up through the up in the apple actions and being around the blue bridge and stuff like that yeah definitely is very convenient to the you know being

[00:18:31] here in the foothills is convenient up to grandfather mountain in the blue ridge but you know we're still only about four hours away from Charleston and like you're like said we get four seasons and

[00:18:40] that's really nice really nice thing and you know there is some good barbecue around but in Hickory there's a little bit of a void so maybe Reed Street can feel some of that void there you know

[00:18:50] kind of speaking of Hickory and Kerala on a barbecue you know how have your barbecue practice is changed since you've spent time in either North Carolina or even Charleston. Pepper vinegar I'm

[00:19:03] going to just go ahead and I had never heard of pepper I'd heard of Kerala on a barbecue I knew that the vinegar was a thing but I had never seen it used I got Charleston and home team

[00:19:13] puts pepper vinegar in their pork when they pulled the pork they make some pepper vinegar. It's not like you said it before and I'm drawing a blank on the way when you're talking to Sam Jones and he was

[00:19:23] he used a little bit to like add a little flavor to the pulled pork that's kind of what they do and that's something I actually incorporated myself was now when I pulled pork I'll keep a quarter

[00:19:34] of my own pepper vinegar and I'll dip my hands in it as I'm pulling the meat so it gets just a little bit of flavor as I'm going um but I don't doubt sitting in pepper vinegar either and I don't want to

[00:19:46] I don't want my views of barbecue to affect how people do so if you want to put a sweet sauce mustard whenever I don't try to put too much into it I'm still trying to figure out is it Western North

[00:19:58] Carolina is the tomato sauce and eastern is vinegar I think it's backwards I keep getting those in trouble for that one people I know it's the other one I get on the same one sorry I'm not

[00:20:10] trying to I'm still getting I'm still getting the hang of eastern in western North Carolina barbecue because man people are very it is it's this or that when you get a mixed up they will let

[00:20:21] you know yeah I mean it's almost as competitive as as Alabama and that other school down the road yes down east is vinegar and pepper and then anything like sington and west is generally

[00:20:33] got that tomato sauce in there ketchup in it as well all right I tried to make some of the other than an event and I was told it was okay but it wasn't right so I'm still trying to figure out

[00:20:47] the tomato vinegar sauce that's still a sauce that alludes me I'm gonna try I'm working on it I'm gonna get that figured out so I can appease everyone and know what else at me yeah well hey

[00:20:57] at the risk of giving up all the low and slow barbecue show secrets check us out at lowslowbbq show dot com I've got my me malls or my wife's me malls Lexington barbecue sauce recipe there

[00:21:08] it can she's from Davidson County she lived in Lexington she knew the people from barbecue center in the monks there at Lexington and I'm not gonna say it's the same thing but it is really

[00:21:17] good so it's a foundation for you to start and work from I know you know what you're doing there but maybe it'll offer you a little bit of help but let's go and I'll always I'll always take a

[00:21:26] foundation like my Alabama white sauce is based on big bob gifts and dress speed like I looked at his and was like that's good but I think we can fix it just a little bit and so it's I'll always take

[00:21:38] a foundation because I don't know everything and I'd love to learn that's one of the other things about barbecue is I love learning because there's so many styles there's so many ways people do

[00:21:47] things that's on the other side it's just so much fun to learn how to how to cook barbecue as you learn you always learn from somebody yeah that's cool well speaking of learning

[00:21:57] who do you turn to for advice to do someone that learning now that you're kind of in a foreign place I do just ask around town I got a couple of guys that work with that were chefs

[00:22:08] that had lived in the whole area I've got one guy that worked with through group and bird county so I asked him about what's going on in the area and like food and stuff and then um I'd like to

[00:22:19] actually get on YouTube because Texas always get this miss that Texas quarterly the Texas miss barbecue there's a lot of people who do videos on like who's number one who's number two they're gonna like interview those guys so I get on YouTube a lot and see what they're

[00:22:37] doing and seeing how they're doing stuff and just kind of like taking some hints here and there I'm like what they're doing especially like when coldies won if you uh I think it was a

[00:22:46] couple years ago and there's time about their banana pudding and I was like oh cool I do something right because I love the banana uh do that kid there's not enough banana pudding in the world

[00:22:56] I can't put it every day of my life um but to see somebody who's like one of the best Texas to have been at a pudding maybe feel better about me doing banana pudding because I'm like

[00:23:05] I know golden rule this banana pudding and I shouldn't doubt myself but like it's not a it's not a common thing I'm up but I just need banana pudding it's still I don't know some days

[00:23:15] I'm I'm not sure I'm married the right person when she told me that I don't know about that one oh wow maybe you don't tell her about being on this podcast no I don't know yeah we'll see what happens with that when it comes around

[00:23:30] you've mentioned out some of my favorite barbecue brands from Alabama full moon and I grew up on golden rule and in Jim and Nick maybe a little bit below those other guys you know definitely Alabama is a hard podger barbecue but how do you feel like the audience

[00:23:46] has expectations here in the Carolinas different from maybe what people in Alabama are looking for in terms of barbecue I would that's a good question actually um I feel like my barbecue is going to be

[00:24:11] man I'm gonna say that they're gonna expect a little more spice in mine is not going to be as spicy like I look at Carolina barbecue robbs just kind of like when I moved here like what what's

[00:24:23] a barbecue robb of Carolina and then I saw like cumin and some other a couple ingredients and I don't know how I was with the right thing but I hope I was but I everything I read wasn't it it was

[00:24:33] a little bit spicier there was a little bit more of a heat to it um I'm really does not have a lot of heat to it I really am more garlic powder onion powder smoked paprika salt pepper I really don't

[00:24:47] use a lot of spice I use just a little bit of vinegar in it there's more of a sweetness to my barbecue because I am from more of that side of the country where there's a little more sweet

[00:24:58] little more mint it's a more Kansas city but it's not sugary either it's it's it's more savory but not so much spice that makes makes sense yeah definitely definitely so um you shared one of

[00:25:11] your recipes with us and we're gonna get that onto the blog there at lowslowbqshow.com is for macaroni and cheese first tell me what does somebody and it don't give all the details here

[00:25:20] what the folks can find it on the blog but what does somebody need to keep in mind when they're preparing that recipe low and slow actually is a is a key to this mac and cheese um it is

[00:25:33] it's a I'm gonna use a fancy furniture but it's a belutee style sauce do one so yeah exactly um so it's a cheese sauce so you're gonna make a cheese sauce first and you want to heat your milk

[00:25:50] and cream up slow let it come up slow because you don't want to scald that milk and cream you don't want that burnt flavor so slowly let it come up to that simmer before you add

[00:25:59] you cheese and stuff and then you're good to go from there if you do it too quick you're going to burn that milk it's gonna taste awful it's it's uh I've I've burned it a few times

[00:26:10] trying to be under a rush trying to do it too fast and I'll learn to just low and slow as the best restaurant's people this mac and cheese take your time and I promise it'll be delicious

[00:26:19] yeah well how is it different for maybe somebody else's mac and cheese so it is a baked mac and cheese and a lot of people they'll just like mix their stuff mine is you make a cheese sauce and then

[00:26:30] your noodles will basically be floating uh it's gonna look like there's way too much cheese sauce when you make this um I promise you don't make it enough because the noodles will absorb a lot of that

[00:26:40] cheese sauce and it will just my wife I can't I'm not gonna say on the podcast it's not perfect with my wife told me something when I made this that it was better than other things

[00:26:51] in my life she told me I was not doing something's right in our relationship and this was better than that and I was like oh okay um I guess this mac and cheese is really that good so

[00:27:02] very good well that's good to know for anybody else who tries to make it home maybe they can compare it to other things in their life yeah okay so you talked a little bit about the hard

[00:27:12] part of of own and the barbecue busing the taxes and some of that stuff you know what do you enjoy most about you know doing the re-street barbecue in the catering piece that you've got going

[00:27:24] getting to just sit back to relax it is barbecue is not a you gotta have a lot of patience it's not anything quick that's one of those things kind of bugs me it's like oh we're gonna have a barbecue

[00:27:35] and you're talking about grilling burgers it's not the same thing um barbecue is is low it's slow it's patience it's time it you just you just get to sit back that's the best part about it is

[00:27:46] like when you're doing these things it's like you just get to sit back with your friends sit down on the lawn chair let things cook just keep an eye on it and just it used to

[00:27:55] get to relax whereas a lot of my experience when I was cooking over 20 years is how fast can I get this ticket out how quickly can I make this how fast can I do that and barbecue it's the

[00:28:06] exact opposite it's it's calm it's peaceful and it's me probably gonna listen to like barbecue is not calm for me barbecue is so peaceful maybe I can just for a couple pieces wood check on it sit

[00:28:18] back relax have a drink have what do whatever and I can just I'm good it can just be easy so that's for me it's it's the best of all we're gonna get to cook I get one of my food

[00:28:29] and I don't have to just stress and just be miserable trying to crank food out of spaces I can okay so tell us what's next for Reed Street BBQ and hopefully we get you a bunch of orders there again

[00:28:41] you can reach out to Gill um at Reed Street BBQ that's RWDST BBQ at gmail.com and he's got an Instagram page there under the same name RWDST BBQ so check him out there you place your next

[00:28:56] catering order you get a get an event plan but what are you hoping is next outside of some of these catering events there Gill I'm hoping to do my first pop up at the end of August that is okay all right now

[00:29:09] just hit Amazon Prime up on Prime Day for a few little things here and there that I got to go got a little bit of paperwork to do and a couple little things I got a wedding mid August so

[00:29:20] I'm gonna do it after that but my goal is the end of August maybe right here on the more days do my first pop up all right well Labor Day I thank you me in there end of August so

[00:29:30] definitely keep us in mind let me know once you get that set we'll put it out on the load down newsletter and let everybody know about it and help you promote that and we've already followed you

[00:29:39] there on Instagram so definitely look forward to sharing that story with with our audience there and wish you the best of luck now before we get out of here you may have heard this on some

[00:29:47] of our other episodes we're gonna take you through the low and slow showdown now these are quick hitters with just a little bit of an explanation when prompted but really just kind of one

[00:29:56] answer one word answer so your first of all Gill gas charcoal pellets are wood wood and what your favorite wood? Pickery. It was that. It's just what I grew up on man it's just it's all

[00:30:12] I can think it was like driving home by my parents house we've passed full moon all the time and you could just that's all you can smell is that hitry burrow and that's just it just home in

[00:30:20] my mind so that's just what I love to use. Yeah okay so pork beef chicken or something else turkey. Actually chicken is like my go to if I can if chicken is my go to I know I'm in pork country

[00:30:34] in the south east but you know I think my chicken is some of the best. Excellent so what's your favorite song? My mac and cheese if I'm making it but if somebody makes a good colse I actually do like

[00:30:51] a good colse song but sometimes people either do weird combinations so I like it a little bit sweet but not like sugary at that makes sense like yeah I think like white or the vinegar slow

[00:31:06] you know actually I had I can't remember who I had but they had it was a man-a-s-based but they put a little bit of vinegar in it so it kind of cut that sweetness but it had a little bite

[00:31:14] out of delicious. Yeah okay so what is the best state in these United States for barbecue? Oh man you gonna give me a trouble for this one? Um I gotta say South Carolina I know I'm from Alabama

[00:31:30] but I've had some of the best barbecue I've ever had has been in South Carolina. Fair enough what is the best Carolina barbecue style? Is it Eastern Western that's the step with the tomato sauce or South Carolina mustard? I'm gonna go with Eastern the vinegar sauce.

[00:31:48] Okay is I've tried the mustard it's not bad it can be really a mabite sometimes. I don't understand Western tomato I'm sorry maybe I've just had bad versions of it

[00:32:00] I would love to try it when it's done correctly so I'd be able to go to like some tin and try the ears yep um yeah that pepper vinegar man they they did something right with that one. Yeah that's

[00:32:11] for sure I can't complain too much there but let me ask you this do you want Eastern vinegar style or Alabama white sauce? If it's pork it's the vinegar if it's chicken it's Alabama white. There you go so is the meat better with or without the sauce?

[00:32:30] Me I'm no sauce. I know that I'm no sauce I I'm gonna see how you try rub and how your smoking ability is I want that plainest day because I'm gonna try that first.

[00:32:43] Okay so we'll take you down memory lane here these last couple best ribs archa balls or dreamland. Dreamland. Oh man all the people in Tuscaloosa just shouted best barbecue golden rule or gymnastics. I gotta go with gymnastics I know that one's a hard one but I like gymnastics.

[00:33:12] Salves or full moon you know that I gotta get full moon in this one because I didn't get a chance to eat Salas as much as I wanted to only got to go to once or twice before I'm moved so

[00:33:24] I gotta get with full moon just because I know them a little bit better I would I need to go back and try Salas again. Go back and try Salas again they're good but I'm with you full moon's really good

[00:33:33] that smoke turkey sandwich where they stack the turkey sideways in their man unlike anything other onion rings their onion rings are super underrated that's I'm sorry but that's one of the best sides of our head is they make those just massive onion rings they're so good excellent I'll

[00:33:50] check them out next time I'm back home and sweet home last question Gill is barbecue of verbal or noun? I say it's a noun because I don't think you can like because I hear people like

[00:34:03] we're gonna go barbecue it's not you're gonna have a barbecue I think it's I think it's a noun and that my friends is the low down from Gill Barnes to pit master from Reed Street BBQ Gill

[00:34:16] thanks so much for joining us today. Oh thank you I really appreciate you having me on the show. Definitely you've been listening to the low and slow barbecue show on the mesh dot TV network

[00:34:25] api cast be sure to visit us online at lowslowbbqshow.com that's where you'll find the blog and you can hear other podcast stuff as so. You'll see Gill's recipe for mac and cheese and some

[00:34:36] other stuff remember if you like what you hear in the low and slow barbecue show please be sure to give us a five star rating in your favorite podcast network I don't know if other people find

[00:34:45] or five cast you remember when you visit lowslowbbqshow.com subscribe to the low down newsletter we'll send you the latest podcast vlogs recipes barbecue events like Gill's pop up coming soon and more all to email inbox every Tuesday morning. Special thanks to our guest Gill Barnes from

[00:35:02] Reed Street BBQ thanks as well to our producer Andrew Moussen the whole team at the mesh dot TV network api cast close to specially thank you for listening to the low and slow barbecue show

[00:35:13] remember for the best barbecue in the best barbecue podcast to make it low and slow.