LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue co-owner and pitmaster Evan LeRoy on building an online audience, leveraging digital storytelling, and making Patreon videos.
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00:00 Welcome to Restaurant Influencers presented by Entrepreneur.
00:03 My name is Sean Walchef,
00:04 founder of Cali Barbecue Media.
00:06 In life, in the restaurant business,
00:08 and in the new creator economy,
00:11 we learn through lessons and stories.
00:12 Special shout out to Toast,
00:14 our title sponsor of this show,
00:16 for believing in the power of storytelling,
00:18 the power of technology for hospitality professionals,
00:21 for giving us the opportunity to share stories like this.
00:24 Today, we are in Austin, Texas.
00:27 So this is a road show,
00:29 and I've got one of the barbecue legends,
00:33 literally one of the legends in Texas barbecue,
00:36 Austin, Texas.
00:37 I've got Evan Leroy of Leroy and Lewis.
00:39 Evan, what's up, man?
00:40 Welcome to the show.
00:41 - How's it going, Sean?
00:42 Thanks for having me.
00:43 - I am honored to be sitting next to you.
00:45 New York Times, Texas Top 50.
00:49 You guys have come so far.
00:52 I've been following the journey.
00:53 Part of this podcast is to talk about storytelling,
00:57 but I like to start with our favorite random question,
00:59 which is where in the world is your favorite stadium,
01:02 stage, or venue?
01:04 - So my current favorite right now,
01:08 I have probably been to it the most
01:10 just because we got season tickets.
01:12 It's Q2 Stadium right here, Austin FC.
01:15 It is so much fun, the vibe of Austin,
01:19 and with this stadium, with the team,
01:22 with the supporter section, it's great, it's great.
01:25 - Awesome.
01:26 - A couple of our staff have season tickets,
01:28 and we go there all the time.
01:30 - Q2 Stadium, we're gonna go,
01:31 we're gonna talk to our friends at Toast,
01:33 we're gonna talk to Entrepreneur,
01:34 we're gonna talk to some other technology professionals,
01:36 Restaurant 365, I'm looking at you,
01:38 but we're gonna figure out the brands
01:40 that we want to be there.
01:41 We are going to bring the best of the best,
01:43 not just in the United States, but all over the globe,
01:46 people that care about playing the game within the game,
01:49 and I'm gonna put you right in the middle of the pitch.
01:52 I'm gonna say, Evan LaRoy.
01:53 - Yeah.
01:53 - Tell me, how'd you get here?
01:55 - Into the middle of the pitch, or into this?
01:57 - Into the middle of the pitch, into this.
01:59 - How am I sitting right here?
02:01 - How did you get here?
02:02 Tell us the LaRoy and Lewis story.
02:04 - Well, so I believe we, did we talk at the beginning
02:08 of kind of, like when we opened up LaRoy and Lewis?
02:10 - You and I-- - Or was I at Friedman's?
02:12 - I think you and I had a discussion,
02:16 when did we talk on digital hospitality?
02:18 - I feel like it was at LaRoy and Lewis.
02:20 - It might have been, you were at LaRoy and Lewis, yeah.
02:22 - Either way, I grew up in Austin,
02:25 I went to culinary school after I finished college
02:29 at Florida State, and then I moved to New York City,
02:31 worked in some restaurants up there.
02:33 It was my first barbecue place,
02:35 my first barbecue job was at Hill Country Barbecue.
02:38 I had a great time up there, I kind of started working there
02:40 'cause I felt homesick from Texas,
02:43 and eventually got tired of like the winters
02:46 and like the pace of the city, moved back down here,
02:49 started working at Friedman's,
02:51 and I worked there for about four years,
02:53 built up an amazing team, we had a lot of really talented
02:56 people there who now own places that are top 50,
03:01 and then after a couple years,
03:03 it was time to do our own thing,
03:05 met up with some friends of friends
03:09 who were in the industry,
03:11 who had some sort of complementary skill sets to mine,
03:15 and then we opened a food truck.
03:17 We wanted to open a brick and mortar right away,
03:19 but it was hard to find the right space
03:21 and everything within Austin, we thought we found a spot,
03:24 then the pandemic hit, and after that,
03:28 we got a lot of really good press,
03:31 we just kind of kept growing,
03:33 and we are about to open our first brick and mortar
03:36 restaurant, hopefully at the end of this year.
03:38 - It's amazing, I feel like you guys have had
03:41 so much success, except you haven't even started.
03:44 - Yeah, exactly.
03:45 - No, you haven't even, that's the coolest thing
03:47 about doing content like this, new media content,
03:50 it allows us to share the story and to be a blip
03:53 so that we can look back and remember we interviewed you
03:56 at the JW Marriott Restaurant 365 event,
03:58 we're here and we're having this conversation,
04:01 you guys hadn't even opened your brick and mortar,
04:03 and then come, what do you think it's gonna look like
04:06 in five years?
04:07 I mean, the crazy thing for us is people ask,
04:10 how do you do the media business, how do you do content,
04:12 and I say we build our media just like we build
04:14 our barbecue, and that's low and slow.
04:16 - Yeah, that's a very good point.
04:18 - You can't force things.
04:19 - Yeah, we've been building our own content channels
04:23 pretty low and slow through Patreon, through YouTube,
04:26 and hopefully in five years, those are sustaining themselves
04:32 as a separate business and doing its own income stream,
04:36 much the way that you've laid out the path
04:39 with what you're doing now.
04:41 And hopefully the restaurant is chugging along, doing great,
04:45 hopefully we have a brewery open,
04:47 or starting to open by then too.
04:49 So yeah, we have a lot of things we wanna do.
04:52 Nothing has ever come fast or quickly or easily,
04:57 and we're prepared for that,
04:58 but we just wanna do things the right way.
05:01 - Are you still doing content on Patreon?
05:03 - Oh yeah, every week.
05:04 - Tell me about, tell the audience about,
05:06 I mean, I remember, now I remember specifically,
05:10 out of all the people I've ever interviewed,
05:11 I think you're the only hospitality professional
05:13 that was doing something really cool and unique on Patreon.
05:16 - Yeah, 'cause that's how I think I sought you out
05:19 in the beginning, or how our paths crossed,
05:21 because nobody else was doing something like this
05:24 other than you.
05:25 And then I was like, this guy probably knows,
05:28 and he's a barbecue guy too, right?
05:29 It's not just in the hospitality industry,
05:31 but it's barbecue.
05:32 So we, as soon as the pandemic started,
05:37 I realized that nobody's gonna come out to the truck,
05:39 you know, we are gonna lose a lot of money,
05:42 and we need to bring whatever food
05:44 that we are serving to people in their homes,
05:48 not through a delivery service,
05:49 but through like whatever they're gonna be doing,
05:52 which is sitting in front of a screen.
05:54 And so we were already really good at taking photos
05:58 and like easy video, like real type videos
06:00 for Instagram and stuff,
06:02 and saw our other friend, Brad Robinson,
06:05 who you should have on here, Chud's Barbecue,
06:07 really huge on YouTube.
06:09 He was also kind of getting into this at the same time,
06:12 and so he started a YouTube,
06:13 we started a Patreon,
06:15 and his kind of grew, grew, grew
06:17 while he was working with us,
06:18 he separated eventually.
06:20 - So now explain to everybody,
06:21 so Patreon, we're talking about paid subscription
06:23 for content. - Yes, exactly.
06:24 - Video content? - Video content.
06:26 The idea was that we just film ourselves
06:28 prepping once a week. - Awesome.
06:30 - And do it dish by dish,
06:31 make our way through the menu,
06:33 and just kind of teach people.
06:34 - But essentially sharing the secrets.
06:35 - Yeah, exactly, but in--
06:37 - If somebody wants to learn how to do the,
06:40 like, oh, I wanna get in the barbecue,
06:41 I mean, how many people have told you?
06:43 - A lot, a lot, actually. - I wanna open up
06:44 a food truck, or I wanna get into the barbecue business.
06:46 - Quite a few. - I'm sure more here
06:48 in Texas than in California for us.
06:50 - Yeah, well, we actually see the Patreon,
06:53 the YouTube, and kind of our classes
06:56 that we do as like an education/media,
07:00 because that is like,
07:01 it's really about building up community,
07:04 and that's how we do it.
07:05 We do the online community,
07:06 and then they can't wait to come and visit Austin,
07:10 and then also the people who do come to visit us
07:12 with the classes engage on the Discord,
07:15 and on the Patreon, and do that online,
07:16 so it comes back around,
07:18 and it really is like self-fulfilling,
07:20 and we don't even have to do anything to it.
07:22 They just like interact with each other,
07:24 and sharing recipes, and secrets, and tips,
07:27 and everything with each other.
07:28 We have multiple people who have come to our classes,
07:32 and then have started channels,
07:33 and just say it on YouTube,
07:34 and just being like, hey, I did my first pop-up.
07:36 These are all the mistakes I made,
07:38 because I made this video
07:39 because nobody told me all these things before.
07:41 - Wow.
07:42 - All that kind of stuff,
07:43 and it's not just recipes on our Patreon.
07:45 It is stuff like that.
07:46 There's one where Sawyer, my business partner,
07:48 is basically talking to camera,
07:49 and she's like, okay, this is all the steps
07:51 we have to go through to get inspected every year,
07:54 and that stuff is, it may be boring for some,
07:57 but it's really helpful and insightful for other people.
08:00 - It's literally why we created this show.
08:02 - Yeah.
08:03 - It's those secrets, like a health inspection,
08:07 everyone else, the majority, 99% of the world,
08:09 would be, who the hell would give a shit about that?
08:11 - Yeah.
08:12 - We don't care about the 99% of the world.
08:14 You care about the 1% of raving fans.
08:16 - Right.
08:17 - That goes, thank you.
08:18 No one's made this content.
08:20 No one's given me the path.
08:22 You saved my ass by making this video.
08:25 You enlightened me.
08:26 You helped me raise money or not raise money,
08:28 open a store, not open a store.
08:30 These are all key things that are the guiding principles
08:33 of why we make the content.
08:35 - 100%.
08:36 - We were hoping that someone made the content for us.
08:38 - Yeah, right.
08:39 - And there were a few people.
08:40 I mean, there's so many people that have paved the way
08:42 for us for podcasting, for all the content that we do
08:45 on all the different platforms.
08:46 But for us, it's more about audio, video, words, and images.
08:51 Too many times people get bogged down by the platform.
08:55 Oh, I hate TikTok.
08:56 Or I hate, I don't want to do YouTube.
08:57 I don't have a big enough video budget to do YouTube.
09:00 And like, stop overthinking it.
09:02 - Yeah, people really need to get over the fact
09:04 that the first thing that they're going to do
09:06 is going to be bad.
09:07 Anything you do the first time--
09:08 - Are you saying you made bad barbecue
09:10 when you first started?
09:11 - Oh, of course.
09:11 I made bad barbecue.
09:12 I made bad videos.
09:13 I made bad everything.
09:14 When I did the first thing I ever do of anything is bad.
09:17 - Yeah, everybody is.
09:18 - Yeah, it's going to be bad.
09:20 But the next one's a little bit better.
09:22 And the next one after that's better.
09:23 So, I mean, the part of, you go back
09:25 and watch our old videos, right, on Patreon or YouTube now.
09:28 And you can watch us make a lot of mistakes.
09:30 (laughs)
09:31 And that's part of it.
09:32 And it's also rich for content
09:35 because you can just do another one of the same thing
09:38 and be like, okay, well, here's what we updated.
09:40 And it has value and it's interesting.
09:44 - What do you think prevents people,
09:46 so we talk about the reason why we make this show
09:49 is we know that there's a creator economy
09:52 and what we believe in is the business creator economy.
09:55 So creators, people that are really good
09:57 at making B2C content,
09:59 they can make a fantastic TikTok channel
10:02 and have hundreds of thousands, millions of followers,
10:04 but they don't own a business.
10:06 They're hoping that TikTok pays them.
10:07 Same with YouTube, same with Instagram.
10:10 There's business owners who are really good
10:12 and they understand that people are on social media.
10:14 They know that for their restaurant,
10:16 they need to make content to get people to come in.
10:18 But very rarely are they willing to do what you're doing,
10:21 which is sharing the secrets,
10:22 talking about the business behind barbecue,
10:25 letting other people know,
10:27 essentially the game within the game.
10:30 So for you, when you think about
10:32 this big opportunity that's out there,
10:35 you said yourself, this YouTube channel
10:37 that you guys have started, the Patreon account,
10:39 you're making an investment.
10:40 And I'm sure there's been people that have come to you
10:43 and said, "Why are you doing that?
10:45 "What's the ROI of aren't you wasting your time
10:49 "doing a YouTube video
10:51 "when you hit top five of the Texas 50?"
10:56 Texas top 50, you're top five.
10:58 You have lines literally for days
11:00 and you're taking the time to take your smartphone out,
11:03 walk and give your thoughts.
11:06 Why aren't you in line?
11:08 - 'Cause I mean, it makes us money, very simply.
11:12 It makes us money.
11:14 Putting it out there, if I can cook a brisket
11:18 and cut it up and serve 10 to 20 people with that,
11:23 then that's an exchange for a good or a widget.
11:28 It's a thing.
11:29 It is a one for one.
11:31 And if you make a brisket and film it and it's beautiful
11:36 and you cut it up and you put it online
11:38 and you serve it to thousands of people,
11:42 you're gonna make money on that two times.
11:45 And so every time we're testing a new recipe,
11:47 we're selling it to the people
11:48 and we're also selling it online.
11:50 It just makes sense.
11:52 It's also marketing and advertising for your business
11:54 that pays for you.
11:55 You don't have to pay for marketing and advertising.
11:57 You do it yourself.
11:58 And then it also is another income stream.
12:01 And it also grows your audience at the same time.
12:03 It's just a complete no-brainer.
12:05 The only thing holding other people back from it,
12:07 I think, is just a little bit of fear
12:09 of being on camera and stuff, of which, I don't know.
12:12 I think with the generation with everybody now
12:15 and just kind of on the phones all the time,
12:17 I think that's gonna be,
12:18 I think we're gonna see a lot more people doing it
12:19 is what I'm saying.
12:21 - When you think about your restaurant space,
12:23 how do you look at it from a content lens?
12:26 - It has to be well lit.
12:27 (laughing)
12:29 It has to be a lot of natural diffused light,
12:33 which we are looking for,
12:36 which we're working on in the new space.
12:39 We have essentially a space,
12:42 like a retail space in the new restaurant
12:44 that is gonna have a to-go counter.
12:48 But that to-go counter is gonna be multifunction.
12:50 It's basically where we're gonna set up
12:51 and do any kind of like shooting or filming
12:54 or anything that's like talk to camera,
12:56 intros, outros, that kind of stuff,
12:59 different people on.
13:02 There's also plenty of room and stuff outside
13:05 and over outside by the pits,
13:06 over in the back kitchen, over in the barbecue line.
13:10 So, I mean, we're just,
13:11 I'm just excited about all the prospects of this new place.
13:15 Like there's gonna be a bunch of new menu items
13:16 that we need to shoot.
13:17 Like then also the entire process of opening it.
13:19 So it's every single thing that we do now
13:23 is an opportunity for content.
13:26 It's awesome.
13:27 - Because you're documenting the journey too.
13:29 - Yeah, and people,
13:30 well, so the staff gets really into it too.
13:32 And it's also a recruiting tool.
13:34 People see it from wherever else and they say,
13:37 "Oh my God, I wanna come work with you guys so bad.
13:39 "It looks like so much fun."
13:41 And then they do.
13:42 And they're awesome employees
13:44 because they're already bought in.
13:45 They already know the score.
13:46 They already are like into the food.
13:49 And now they're like,
13:50 it's like being in your favorite show, right?
13:53 - Yeah, that's exactly right.
13:55 I mean, the way that we look at
13:58 our barbecue restaurant and media center is,
14:02 the old way was an open kitchen
14:04 where essentially there's a wall
14:05 and instead of having a wall,
14:06 you can see into the kitchen.
14:08 Well, now a true open kitchen in the new economy
14:12 is on the internet.
14:14 - Absolutely.
14:15 - It's like, how do we share as much as possible
14:17 of our process, of the things that we do?
14:20 I mean, I posted probably our most popular TikTok video
14:23 on our Cali Barbecue channel has 1.3 million views,
14:27 which isn't a lot for TikTok,
14:28 but for us, it was our first million plus views.
14:31 And it's Bernice, our pit master,
14:33 during the pandemic, just taking ribs out of foil,
14:35 part of our process.
14:36 Another video that I posted was her just loading
14:40 racks of ribs onto the smoker.
14:44 Half of the video are people bitching and complaining
14:46 that the smoker is nasty and dirty and needs to be cleaned.
14:49 Like obviously never run a barbecue restaurant before.
14:52 But like when I talk to restaurant owners
14:55 and business owners about social media
14:57 and about posting content,
14:58 I can hear and I can see the fear of them
15:03 posting that video, like that video would prevent them
15:06 because someone said your kitchen's dirty.
15:09 Why aren't they using gloves?
15:10 Why is there not having a hairnet?
15:12 Like things like micro problems that they see in the video
15:16 that they don't understand the context,
15:18 but then that says, okay, well, I don't want my kitchen
15:21 not to be in the best light.
15:23 And the truth is-
15:25 - Everything is revealed on the internet.
15:26 Like it's the best and worst place.
15:29 - It's the best and the worst.
15:31 It's reality.
15:32 - Yeah.
15:33 - Like what happens on the internet happens in real life.
15:36 - Yeah, everybody's there.
15:38 - Yeah.
15:39 - Everybody.
15:40 - Everybody.
15:40 - Even the people that suck.
15:41 - Even the people that suck.
15:42 - They're definitely there.
15:43 - And there's people that suck
15:44 that come in real life to our restaurant.
15:45 - Oh, for sure, for sure, yeah.
15:47 - Huge news, Toast, our primary technology partner
15:50 at our barbecue restaurants in San Diego
15:53 and the primary technology partner of so many of the guests
15:56 that we have on this show have announced
15:58 they are expanding their business offerings with Google.
16:03 So now if you search on Google Maps
16:06 and you sign up for Toast Tables or Toast Waitlist,
16:09 you will have the opportunity
16:11 to improve the digital hospitality experience of the guest,
16:15 allow them to book through the maps
16:17 into the Toast reservation system.
16:20 One of the biggest difficulties that restaurant guests have
16:24 is when they search for your restaurant
16:26 and they want a table,
16:27 they do not have an easy solution to book a table
16:30 or to get on a wait list.
16:32 This is huge news for the restaurant industry,
16:35 huge news for guests,
16:36 and huge news for you, the restaurant owner.
16:39 Check out Toast Tables today
16:40 and find out the new integrated solution that they have.
16:44 This is something that we've wanted for a long time.
16:46 How do you integrate reservations, wait lists
16:50 into your point of sale?
16:51 Toast has done it, check it out.
16:53 So what do you do when you talk to people,
16:56 you have so many friends that are business owners
16:59 that have looked at what you guys are doing
17:01 on YouTube and on Patreon,
17:02 what kind of encouragement do you give them?
17:05 - I mean, I tell the same thing to them
17:08 that I would anybody else.
17:10 The first ones are not gonna do good,
17:12 it's gonna take a lot of very small incremental advancement.
17:18 It does nothing if any of that stuff happens overnight.
17:22 So we have this guy working for us now
17:25 who has a couple other barbecue places
17:29 and a whiskey distillery who he's working for,
17:32 and we all do a lot of work together too.
17:34 So Brad used to do a bunch of content for us,
17:36 now he got too busy,
17:38 and we hired this other guy who's awesome,
17:40 and he also does stuff with Interstellar Barbecue,
17:43 and they are doing an awesome job.
17:45 I definitely encourage everybody to go check out
17:47 their YouTube channel. - Interstellar?
17:48 - Yeah, 'cause they're number two in Texas,
17:50 we're number five. - Wow, sweet.
17:51 - But they-- - Who's number one?
17:55 - Goldies. - Goldies?
17:56 Do they do content?
17:57 - I mean, kinda. (laughs)
18:01 - That's a no.
18:03 Goldies, if you're watching, there's a whole playground,
18:05 it's called the internet, we should be posting on it.
18:07 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
18:09 - I mean, that's the crazy thing is that,
18:11 I mean, for me, I've come here to conferences
18:15 and I go to the National Restaurant Association show
18:17 and I'm talking to brands that do hundreds of millions
18:20 of dollars in sales, publicly traded companies,
18:22 and they have marketing departments,
18:24 yet they don't appreciate social media for what it is.
18:28 - I feel like once you get so big,
18:30 a lot of those people really try not to
18:34 put everything out there the way that we're trying to.
18:38 - Too many levels of approval.
18:40 - Yes, exactly, it's too much red tape,
18:43 too much kinda corporate stuff,
18:45 and so this is what's nice about our structure,
18:48 our business right now is that we're small enough,
18:51 but we're kind of like semi-known enough
18:54 to where it's really interesting for people to watch,
18:56 but we don't have to deal with all this corporate stuff.
19:00 I'm the owner of the business,
19:02 one of the owners of the business,
19:03 and I'm the one who's putting it all out there.
19:04 - Yeah, that's awesome.
19:06 Can you tell me about this list, this magical list?
19:11 - Tex Monthly Barbecue List, so it's done every four years.
19:14 - Every four years.
19:15 - It's essentially like the Olympics or an election
19:18 or something like that. - Wow, I didn't know
19:20 it was every four years.
19:21 - And it is-- - And who puts it out?
19:23 - It's put out by Texas Monthly, but--
19:25 - And it's picked up by every other periodical.
19:27 - Yeah, absolutely, it's known--
19:29 - New York Times picked it up.
19:30 - Yeah, it's known-- - Or did they run
19:31 their own separate-- - They ran their own thing,
19:33 which was essentially what has happened in Texas barbecue
19:37 since Aaron Franklin opened,
19:39 'cause that was a big turning point,
19:43 and there's just a lot of different people
19:45 doing different stuff, and it's all real exciting,
19:47 and it's better than it's ever been, really.
19:49 And that's the conclusion that everybody's really come to,
19:52 but Daniel Vaughn, the barbecue editor at Texas Monthly
19:55 is the one who takes on the project.
19:57 He's not the only one who tastes everything,
19:59 but I think he has approval over the ultimate list.
20:01 And it's a big deal, it launches people's careers,
20:05 it solidifies places as being generational,
20:13 or legendary, it is a, and I put it this way
20:16 to our team too, it's a historical document.
20:20 It is a periodical that will live on the internet,
20:24 but also probably like microfilm in libraries.
20:27 Like this is a chance to kind of make a really big impact
20:32 in like culture and food in Texas,
20:37 which is really important to me, 'cause I like barbecue.
20:41 And it's, we got number five this past time,
20:45 it came out in 2021, and kind of leading up to it,
20:48 we were really talking about it a lot,
20:51 our entire team was like putting together
20:53 who they thought would be on which spots,
20:56 everybody's like thinking about it constantly.
20:57 - Did you think you'd make the list?
20:58 - Constantly, constantly.
20:59 I thought that we had quality enough to make the list,
21:02 and we also serve only some things on certain days.
21:07 - Did you serve Daniel?
21:08 - Yeah, we did.
21:09 - So you knew when he was coming?
21:11 - Kind of.
21:11 - Yeah, I mean, you know who he is,
21:14 so like when he comes, you know.
21:14 - I know who he is, we knew that he was kind of doing
21:19 like the final judging, 'cause I would have to turn him in
21:22 to go to print. - You don't have to submit,
21:22 right?
21:23 - No, no, no, he just comes, goes around.
21:25 - He just knows, he knows.
21:27 - And we knew that there were only like
21:28 a couple different Saturdays he could come,
21:30 and then, 'cause we only serve like this bacon rib
21:33 and our like bris, like the kind of things
21:35 that he was gonna come and taste.
21:37 It could only be on a Saturday, so it was like one of two.
21:39 And we saw like, you know, saw him getting out of the car,
21:42 and then we just, you know, made the plate,
21:43 it all looked great, we were really happy with it,
21:46 and afterwards, I was just like,
21:47 (exhaling)
21:49 (laughing)
21:49 I was just, I just felt like kind of a weight
21:52 off the shoulders, 'cause what we needed to do was done,
21:55 but then there was another couple like weeks
21:58 or at least a month of waiting and just like,
22:00 oh God, what about this, what about that, God,
22:03 what about this?
22:04 But when it came out, it was--
22:06 - How did you find out?
22:08 - Well, the list leaked. - Digital?
22:10 Oh, really? - The list leaked.
22:11 So, you know, a bunch of us were kind of texting
22:14 and everybody found out.
22:15 - You're not gonna reveal who told you?
22:17 - No, but you never know who,
22:20 but you never know if it's exactly correct until--
22:24 - Until you see it. - Until it comes out.
22:26 And so that morning, I think it was a Monday,
22:29 it came out, we--
22:30 - Digitally. - Digitally, yeah.
22:32 - Is there a print version as well?
22:33 - Yes, there's a print version as well.
22:34 - So it's like an actual magazine.
22:36 - It's an actual magazine, but it came out digitally
22:38 and it was done really well, like all the,
22:41 I don't know how to describe it,
22:42 but all the scroll features
22:43 and it was just designed really, really well.
22:46 - Photos. - Photos, yeah.
22:49 It looked great.
22:50 We were, like our tray was the lead photo.
22:52 - Like links to your website?
22:53 - Yeah, I'm pretty sure they had a link to our website.
22:55 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. - Some good SEO.
22:56 - Yeah, absolutely. - Juice.
22:58 - Yeah, for sure.
22:59 They didn't say anything about the Patreon or YouTube.
23:03 - It's okay, that's what entrepreneurs are for.
23:05 - They also didn't say anything about us sourcing locally.
23:10 As far as I know, we're the only barbecue restaurant
23:12 in the top 50 or maybe possibly within Texas
23:14 who just pays really close attention to sourcing.
23:17 We only purchase animals from Texas
23:21 that are raised in Texas. - Wow.
23:23 - So very, very high attention to quality,
23:26 but that also was not mentioned.
23:29 But we had a huge staff party.
23:32 We were obviously super excited
23:34 and then we just prepped and prepped and prepped and prepped
23:37 and ever since it's been,
23:39 we've had a long line and it's been great.
23:41 - You said you've doubled sales.
23:42 I mean, at least your YouTube videos.
23:43 - Well, that doubled sales.
23:44 - Your YouTube videos. - Yeah.
23:45 And then "Somebody Feed Phil" came out
23:47 and that tripled sales. - Who did?
23:48 - "Somebody Feed Phil" on Netflix.
23:50 - Okay. - Yeah.
23:51 That was like, that's the biggest piece of press
23:53 we've ever gotten. - Really?
23:53 - Yeah.
23:55 - When did that come out?
23:56 - Actually, one year to the day
23:57 after the Texas Monthly list came out.
24:00 - No way. - Yeah.
24:01 - That's insane. - It was wild.
24:03 - So that was actually even more impactful.
24:07 - Hugely impactful because people see--
24:08 - Because Netflix is global.
24:10 - Yeah, people see Texas Monthly as a state periodical
24:14 if you're not in Texas,
24:16 if you don't understand the significance of it.
24:18 But Netflix has however many,
24:22 a hundred million subscribers. - Hundreds of millions
24:24 of subscribers. - And they're seeing
24:25 "Our Burger" as the main picture for that episode
24:30 and that season.
24:31 It's pretty sweet.
24:32 - That's insane. - Yeah.
24:33 - That's really, really cool.
24:35 It's very impressive.
24:39 So for you, when you think,
24:41 I mean, one of the cool things for me
24:43 is sitting here with you.
24:44 You sent me an email earlier this year.
24:48 Basically like, "Hey, Sean, do you wanna pitch
24:51 "South by Southwest about new media content and food
24:56 "and why it's important, why we're doing Patreon
24:58 "and why you're doing this content with this podcast
25:01 "and the shows that you're doing?"
25:02 - Yeah.
25:03 - And I'm like, "Of course.
25:04 "Of course I wanna go pitch South by Southwest."
25:06 So if somebody from South by Southwest
25:08 happens to see this episode,
25:11 why do you think we should have a panel
25:13 or we should get something going
25:15 for the things that we're working on?
25:18 - 'Cause I think there's an entire hidden industry here
25:21 and an entire hidden economy here.
25:23 There's a lot of content that I would just be down
25:28 to just watch, to just view.
25:30 Even the very simplest stuff that I watch on YouTube
25:34 is just like a POV camera of somebody in service.
25:37 And I will just watch that end on end on end.
25:39 I will watch them make--
25:40 - There's some TikToker, Subway Shop TikToker
25:43 that literally just makes Subway sandwiches.
25:45 But he has tens of millions of followers.
25:48 It's unbelievable.
25:49 - Everybody here is probably,
25:51 or everybody who's listening to this
25:52 has probably McDonald's once in their life.
25:53 There's POV, working the line at McDonald's,
25:56 like things online and you're just like,
25:58 "Whoa, that's how they do that."
25:59 Or it's just like, "Huh, they really are
26:01 "cooking back there, huh?"
26:03 - No, but that's--
26:04 - It's interesting.
26:06 - It's very interesting.
26:07 And that's what I talk to all these brands,
26:10 hospitality brands, from anybody that does,
26:13 if you do grease traps, if you do fire suppression,
26:16 there's somebody somewhere.
26:18 You don't need hundreds of thousands of followers.
26:20 You just need the right recruiting person
26:22 where it's like, maybe somebody's really
26:23 into fire suppression.
26:25 Making sure restaurants don't burn down.
26:27 - Yeah, exactly, man.
26:28 I mean, there's also, I mean, you employ people
26:31 to come here and to shoot this stuff
26:33 and to do audio and to edit and to produce
26:35 and to write it all, so all of that could exist
26:38 under a shorter umbrella of just the food industry.
26:42 - Correct.
26:44 Food media.
26:45 - Yeah.
26:45 - I mean, there's so many, you know, David,
26:48 there's not so many, there's very few people
26:50 that are doing it, but this is a growing economy.
26:53 You know, the world that we live in,
26:54 understanding that storytelling in real life
26:57 has built traditional brick and mortar businesses,
26:59 but now we're at a point where people start to understand,
27:03 well, every single person coming in here
27:05 has a 4K camera in their pocket.
27:06 - Exactly.
27:07 - So not only is it the user-generated content,
27:09 but what can the business do?
27:11 And the more that you learn how to do it,
27:13 the better you get at it, and then you can start
27:15 to find different revenue streams like Patreon,
27:17 like YouTube, like everything else that you're doing.
27:20 - Yeah, we're all just telling a story, right?
27:22 With the food, it's the story of, you know,
27:26 where you learned how to cook it, or why you're cooking it,
27:29 or what you wanna do for your community,
27:32 and there are so many other tools to tell those stories
27:35 that are just not being taken advantage of.
27:37 - So since this is gonna be a historical piece,
27:41 a content piece on Entrepreneur,
27:44 I want you to tell the audience what your thoughts are,
27:48 your hopes are for the upcoming restaurant,
27:50 so that we can look back and go, oh my gosh,
27:53 that's what you were thinking, and look at what happened.
27:55 - Yeah, for the upcoming restaurant.
27:58 - So restaurant one.
28:00 - So hopefully-- - Food truck to
28:01 restaurant one.
28:02 - Yeah, hopefully we open before South by Southwest of 2024.
28:07 That is really what I would like.
28:09 I would like to be open in the first quarter of next year.
28:13 - The first quarter of next year.
28:14 - I would like to maintain focus on whole animal butchery.
28:22 I would really like to, our entire goal has always
28:25 to just been to get people to stop asking for brisket.
28:28 Just get something else, just ask for something else.
28:34 We are trying to reveal other stuff.
28:38 Every other cut on the animal is just as good.
28:41 And there's different ways to do 'em all, so I don't know.
28:45 It's just like, you know brisket, root, bye.
28:48 But that's okay, that's okay.
28:51 Because a restaurant that's for everybody is for nobody.
28:55 You gotta have your thing, you gotta have your niche.
28:58 We wanna be the place to have a bunch of different things
29:02 on the menu that's the only place you can get 'em.
29:05 And if you want the brisket and ribs and beans,
29:07 potato salad and coleslaw and banana pudding,
29:10 then there's a lot of other places you can get those.
29:12 But our place is the only one that you can get
29:14 everything on our menu.
29:17 - What kind of advice would you have as someone
29:19 that's listening about partnerships and business?
29:21 - I would say complimentary skill sets
29:25 are really important.
29:26 I'm a chef, my wife does PR
29:29 and outward facing communication.
29:31 Our partners do business development/brewing
29:35 and front of house, you know, everything.
29:39 Front of house, top of house.
29:40 So we have a really good ownership team.
29:44 Also, complete honesty.
29:48 Really giving your partners the benefit of the doubt.
29:51 I've seen partnerships dissolve because of greed
29:55 and just lack of communication.
29:57 It's a relationship.
30:00 So you have to put work into that relationship.
30:04 - How does technology play a role
30:06 in how you see rolling out the restaurant,
30:08 getting barbecued to people?
30:10 - Technology's gonna be huge because we have been
30:15 really limited in bottlenecks at the food truck
30:18 for a long time.
30:19 We're also, you know--
30:21 - Who do you use at the food truck for point of sale?
30:23 - Toast now.
30:23 - Oh really? - Yeah.
30:24 - I didn't even know that.
30:25 See that Toast? - We do.
30:26 - Look at that.
30:27 - And at Mama Fried, our other food truck.
30:29 Yes we are, that's why I made the switch.
30:31 - See that? - Yeah.
30:32 - I can't even write this.
30:33 This show writes itself.
30:34 - We used to use another iPad based POS system,
30:39 but we just recently switched
30:41 and it's a lot more functional.
30:43 We like it a lot better.
30:44 We used to have to call out the order
30:48 and then it's just like,
30:49 you gotta make it real quick and remember,
30:51 but now there's the nice screen,
30:53 get the double tab.
30:54 It's great. - Amazing, right?
30:55 - It's great.
30:56 - Kitchen display screen.
30:56 - I know.
30:57 - No tickets.
30:58 - I know, it's nice.
30:59 - We were at a--
31:00 - Never again.
31:01 - An unnamed restaurant in an unnamed hotel
31:04 and we were sitting there waiting for our dinner
31:07 and the dinner did not come for 45 minutes.
31:09 The restaurant wasn't full
31:11 and the server came up and goes,
31:12 "I'm so sorry, the kitchen dropped your ticket."
31:15 I'm like, "Ticket?
31:15 "You guys don't have a kitchen display screen?"
31:17 It's like, "No, we're on micros."
31:18 I'm like, "Ah, that's why you guys
31:20 "need to be on the television."
31:21 - Oh well, oh well.
31:22 - Oh well.
31:24 - But yeah, so we have bottlenecked a lot recently,
31:26 so we are gonna have to use online ordering through Toast.
31:31 - Yep.
31:32 - Handheld ordering in the line for beer
31:34 and appetizer stuff through Toast.
31:37 And obviously we're gonna have to have,
31:40 so we're gonna have a barbecue line
31:42 and then a back kitchen
31:44 and stuff's gonna have to make its way to the right places.
31:46 So trying to use technology to kind of disperse the food
31:51 as fast as we can to all the different people
31:54 as opposed to just bottlenecking everything.
31:56 - Slow food fast.
31:58 - Yeah, yeah.
31:59 That and we're gonna keep going forward
32:01 with everything online, everything with the Patreon
32:05 and YouTube and hopefully starting other things
32:09 with wherever that takes us.
32:11 - That's awesome.
32:12 What's the name of the other food truck?
32:14 - Mama Fried.
32:14 - Mama Fried, are you gonna keep that open?
32:16 - Yeah, absolutely.
32:17 - That's the plan.
32:18 - Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
32:19 That one's a lot of fun
32:20 because we take some of our extra barbacoa and chili
32:24 and other stuff and we kind of put it on fries
32:25 and they do smoked and fried wings
32:27 and it's more of like a festival brand.
32:30 Like we had people asking us to do like a bunch of
32:33 kind of big like ACL type festivals
32:35 and we're like, "We're not gonna do that much brisket
32:37 "ever in our lives.
32:38 "I don't ever wanna do that."
32:40 But I will like fry a frozen corn dog
32:42 and just like make it efficient and make it good
32:46 and like do chili fries and stuff.
32:49 So that's what that's for.
32:50 - That's awesome.
32:51 So every single Wednesday, every single Friday
32:54 on the Social Audio App Clubhouse,
32:57 10 a.m. Pacific time, 1 p.m. Eastern time,
32:59 come up on stage, tell us about your restaurant.
33:01 If you're a creator, if you're a food influencer,
33:04 if you're in sales, marketing, technology,
33:06 we have a growing group.
33:07 It's a micro community of digital hospitality leaders
33:10 but we want you to join us.
33:12 Every week we also do a social shout out.
33:14 This week's going to @BBQHunk.
33:17 That's Stover, the producer of the show.
33:20 Stover, we know how much work you do in Portland
33:23 to support all of the media and storytelling
33:25 in the Clubhouse Calls for getting me connected with Evan
33:28 and who we've kept in touch with digitally.
33:31 That's the beautiful thing about storytelling
33:32 is I feel like we've already met so many times
33:36 and I know your story and I tell other people
33:38 about your story.
33:39 I told every single person here at the conference
33:41 that I've got the barbecue legend himself coming in here.
33:44 So get you to sign some autographs on the way out.
33:47 But do you have a shout out,
33:50 someone that you'd like to let them know
33:52 they got a shout out, an entrepreneur, one person?
33:54 - One person, I'm going to shout out my friend
33:57 Christopher McGee @Brisketts here in Austin.
34:00 You guys should if you have any time.
34:02 - @Brisketts? - Yeah.
34:02 - You got @Brisketts handle?
34:04 - Brisketts512, it's spelled like biscuits.
34:07 - Okay.
34:08 - @Brisketts512 'cause he does barbecue biscuit sandwiches
34:13 for breakfast.
34:15 His sausage is amazing.
34:16 We work together at Freedman's.
34:17 We're a co-pit master at Freedman's.
34:19 Everything at his food truck is incredible.
34:23 Right now it is our heat week,
34:26 which is the week of the year where Leroy and Lewis
34:29 does five different spicy specials, one each day,
34:33 and they get increasingly spicy.
34:36 And if you make it through,
34:36 you get like a gift card and stuff.
34:38 But we're collaborating on one with him
34:40 that's going to be like a spicy biscuit, pepper jelly.
34:43 Christopher McGee, Brisketts in Austin.
34:45 - Awesome, there you go.
34:46 We'll put that link.
34:47 And then how can people subscribe to Patreon?
34:49 Tell us a YouTube channel.
34:51 How can they follow you personally?
34:53 - Yeah, follow me mostly on Instagram
34:55 @EvanLeroyBBQ and @LeroyAndLewis.
34:58 Follow us on Patreon, definitely subscribe.
35:01 We have a couple different tiers.
35:02 We have like an $8 tier that is just our
35:05 once a week videos, brand new every week.
35:08 We have a $30 tier, which allows you to come stage with us,
35:12 to book a stage, to come and see our kitchen,
35:16 to make your own plate, to come visit us
35:18 and see actually in person how everything works.
35:21 Then we also have a YouTube channel.
35:24 We are about a year back on our Patreon videos.
35:28 We're kind of cataloged all of them.
35:30 One video a week on Patreon, two a week on YouTube
35:33 until we catch up.
35:34 - Separate content?
35:35 - It's the same content, but once we catch up,
35:37 we will have new content, exclusive to YouTube.
35:41 - Awesome.
35:42 - We'll always keep Patreon one week,
35:43 and then that will continue to premiere
35:45 like a month late, essentially, lag time.
35:48 And then once we catch up, this will be
35:50 probably early next year, we'll start doing
35:52 exclusive content for YouTube.
35:54 - Very cool.
35:55 Well, we appreciate you guys.
35:56 As always, stay curious, get involved.
35:58 Don't be afraid to ask for help.
36:00 If you want to reach out to me, it's @SeanPWalchef,
36:03 S-H-A-W-N-P-W-A-L-C-H-E-F.
36:06 That's on Instagram, TikTok, Xthreads, LinkedIn,
36:11 all the platforms, I'm weirdly available.
36:14 But we care about you, your story, your restaurant,
36:16 the media that you're creating.
36:18 Evan, thank you.
36:19 - Thank you for having me.
36:20 - Can't wait to do our South by Southwest
36:23 keynote together.
36:24 And can't wait to come and visit the new restaurant.
36:27 - Yeah.
36:28 - Appreciate you.
36:28 - Thank you, appreciate you.
36:30 - The best way that you can help us with the show
36:32 is to subscribe and write a review.
36:35 We love the opportunity to connect with you
36:38 no matter where you are on the globe,
36:39 no matter what restaurant you are running.
36:42 Please send us a DM on social @SeanPWalchef.
36:46 If you are interested in toast,
36:48 if you want to improve your digital hospitality,
36:51 please send me a DM.
36:52 I will get you in touch with a local toast representative.
36:56 We appreciate you listening to the show.
36:57 The best way that you can help the show
36:59 is share it with a friend,
37:00 and we will catch you all next week,
37:02 or we will see you on one of the digital playgrounds
37:05 that we call social media.