How A Texas Barbeque Menu Gets Built

Barbecue gets talked about like it’s just meat and smoke, but the best places are built on something deeper: lived experience, regional technique, and the discipline to stay focused when everyone asks for “just one more thing.” Jennifer Norrie sits down with pitmaster and owner Gary Parker to unpack why BBQ2U is proudly a Texas-style barbecue joint in Gig Harbor, and why that identity shapes every decision from the pit to the menu board. 

We get into the real story behind the lineup: why brisket is a must, how Gary’s time in the Carolinas changed the way he thinks about pork, and what whole hog cooking teaches you that a standard smoker never will. We also talk about the nuts and bolts of running a smokehouse in today’s economy, including the shift from fixed trays to selling meat by the pound, sourcing sausage when kitchen space is limited, and keeping the menu simple enough to execute perfectly every day. 

Then we hit the crowd favorites and the curveballs: turkey that started as a family request, jackfruit “vegan barbecue” that surprised everyone, and classic southern desserts like banana pudding. Gary also explains why BBQ2U sticks to traditional rubs and avoids a house sauce that’s “too spicy,” plus we share a timely reminder about catering for holiday parties and those January and February corporate kickoff lunches. If you care about authentic Texas barbecue, smoked brisket, pulled pork, and the craft behind a real smokehouse, you’ll want this one. 

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Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Game Plan

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Good afternoon, Facebook and YouTube audiences. This is Jennifer Norrie and I'm here with Gary Parker as per usual. How are you, Gary?

SPEAKER_02 0:10

I'm super duper awesome. Good.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Good. You're looking uh you're looking not tired, refreshed. You must have cooked some barbecue or something.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Yeah, I had about four hours to sleep and I had some barbecue, so I'm feeling pretty good right now.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Yeah. So today, Gary has no time to talk about what we're going to do for topics for these videos. So sometimes I wing it a little bit and hope he'll come along. And it sounds like today he will. We want to hear some of his personal barbecue preferences, what he loves about the menu that they have at BBQ. And then also talk about what is it that is on the menu and why. And then are there any additions or fun crazies coming in the future that we're gonna, you know, people are always asking you to change your menu. So we're gonna talk about that a little bit

Why Texas Barbecue Matters Here

SPEAKER_01 0:55

today. So the first question is why barbecue and why southern?

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Why barbecue? That's how I grew up, right? Um, those are the staples, you know, and you're a poor kid on the wrong side of the tracks, and you know, and you're hanging out in the fields and you're plowing and you're farming, and you know, that's it's nothing to um, you know, to I at least for me it wasn't, it you know, to learn how to build fires and go put a bit of me, put a um, you know, a bunch of meat on the pit, right? And uh let that sit there and take care of itself all day while you were out tending the you know, plowing or spraying or doing whatever the heck you had to do that day, you know, and then by the end of the day, that barbecue's ready to go and you're starving. So why barbecue? It's just because it's in my soul. That's fine.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Okay, so why southern?

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Because I'm a southern, I was born in Texas, and and you know, that's just a southern thing. And then what was really cool about it later when I discovered more about the barbecue in and of itself, and I understood, you know, I spent all that time in the Carolinas and uh got to working with uh not Rodney, but the guys that um um that cook like Rodney Um and really got to understand pork, right? And as opposed to beef, right? That was really uh a big deal for me. Um and then meeting um people like up in Lexington and up at Snow's um where Tootie does the chicken, right? And understanding, you know, learning and observing and understanding what she did, you know, it really just cultivated the whole uh the whole barbecue experience, the southern barbecue experience, you know. Um so in short, you know, you're come, I I had had Texas and then I discovered Carolinas, right? And then I just kind of discovered the space in between, right? And um, and so that is in fact the barbecue culture. I don't talk about it much to your question point, but uh when I was an engineer, I had a team um in Massachusetts, and uh I used to go up there for barbecue as well, and it's not talked about very much. Um they had an interesting twist on barbecue as well, but uh and with their woods and things, and um, but it was a lot of fun, and you know, one of the things you learn out of that is how ubiquitous um, you know, uh barbecue really is among different people.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Oh yeah, for sure. Reminds me of eating seafood all over the place in the south. That

Carolina Whole Hog And Pig Picking

SPEAKER_01 3:20

can be very different as well. Yeah, some of it was young, some of it was young. So you said something about being in the Carolinas and you mentioned someone named Judy.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Someone named Judy. Oh no, uh Rodney. Um Rodney Schmidt is um is the uh the guy who won the um oh my memory fails me, the the famous cooking award.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Um right after mimicking a chef then.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

Yeah, well the um um oh I'm so old that I can't remember obvious things. Um Aaron Franklin won it first for barbecue, the James Baird Award. Um Aaron won it first uh for brisket in uh when when he was on his climb or climb to fame. Um it wasn't too many years later where Rodney did um in the Carolinas, and it was it was very different. And I could understand why James Beard did what he did, uh, or the award team did what they did. Um, because what you what you learn when you're cooking in the air in the Carolinas is not only pork, but um you learn how to do um entire hogs at a time, right? And you don't build, you don't you don't use uh an indirect smoker. You know, we've talked about smokers and the different kinds. No, what Ronnie does um is he takes a set of cinder brooks and he builds a big square out of them, right? And he leaves a little room for a door, um, and then he puts a grate over the top of that. Okay. And then what they do, they butterfly the pig, yeah, they they uh put it on there, um, and then they don't build the fire inside there. They build the fire over in barrels and other things, and they're just throwing coals in there, which is which is a much different technique. I mean, it meets the principles that we've talked about here on the show, um, of you know, heat, smoke, all that kind of stuff, but it's all delivered differently, right? And so um it and if you do that right and you tend it um properly, you get these beautiful sucklet pigs, right? And so it's that's where the term pig picking comes from, because um when you're done with that, and uh basically all you do is is you put it up on sawhorses and you slice the skin down the back, right? And then you just open it up, and uh, and the meat in it is just just incredibly flavorful and moist. And um, and so Rodney really developed that. And and so learning how those guys do that kind of stuff on those kinds of pits and uh really understanding the nature of pork um by trying to do all the different textures of pork at once by doing the by doing the pig. Um, that was really uh enlightening, right? To do those things.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

So it is not accurate to think of you as an Austin-based bar only barbecue expert. You really have done barbecue in a few different places, and that's developed how you approach barbecue. Yeah, other than the fact that you're an engineer and when you talk about barbecue, you sound like a scientist, it's hilarious. Yeah, I can do that too.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Yeah, you know, there's a lot of different studies on that, right? I enjoy reading them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

I know you can tell. So why barbecue, why southern? Okay, yes, southern, but also it other influences. So, how did you formulate the original barbecue to you

Building The Original Meat Lineup

SPEAKER_01 6:44

menu? I mean, literally, did you just sit down at dinner one night and come up with what you wanted to serve?

SPEAKER_02 6:48

Or that was the menu, the original menu was fun because um we were coming up on the end of construction in that place, and uh, you know, Carlton and I looked at each other and we said, you know, there's two main things that we haven't done yet. We're like uh you know a week or two away from uh opening here. Um and the first one was to hire a staff, right? And so we were talking about that. The other one was menu and what to charge for things. Well, we knew we were gonna do brisket because all the guy, all the barbecue guys um around town and around the area, they were already coming in. You know, once we got kind of the kitchen up, but before we got licensed, uh, we were cooking briskets in there practicing on the on the JRs and um doing those kinds of things. And you know, so we knew we were gonna do brisket. Um, from the Carolinas, you know, I knew I was gonna do pork, pork and pork ribs, right? Um, the beef ribs actually came along as a novelty, right? Because uh seven years ago they weren't near as popular as they are today. And um, and so but we started doing them anyway, so that that gave me four meats. And then we we we actually started out the chicken, actually started out as quarters, um, chicken quarters. And um, and we did that one, we did chicken quarters and we did the one that we have today at the same time, and it was really customer's choice, um, because um uh and actually the quarters were done in the in the in the uh snows that that I learned, the stuff I learned from Tootie, right? And how she does it. Um it was really in that format, but uh but the people liked the flavor of the thigh, right? That that sweet barbecuey flavor, uh, smoky flavor. And so we ended up sticking with that over time, but we you know at one time we actually did the quarters. Um and then that became uh sausage time, right? Because that because I did that, and of course, you all you guys know the turkey breasts, right? We did that. Um, and then the light the seventh was uh um the uh the sausage, and for the longest time, um all the way through COVID, those kind of things, I was I stayed real authentic and brought in um Southside Market sausage out of Texas. I mean, we went through that trouble to um you know uh freeze it, to um um uh pack it in dry ice, three-day ship it. Um, and at those kind of times, we could bear that expense and and bring the novelty of that to the Pacific Northwest. Um, and then uh later it just became too cost, uh too costly. You know, went with uh right after COVID with all the um um increases and in um transportation. Right. So we went with the uh so we we looked around and um we were up at um uh Safecoat Field at the time, called Team Will Park today, but it was Safeco Field at the time, and we were watching the um the sausages that they were using, and we found out that we could get those out of Bellingham. And so we use those sausages today. As a matter of fact, a lot of people asked me, why don't you make your own sausage, Gary, right? Because I really could do that. Um and the reason is I just simply don't have enough space in that kitchen, right? I would have to, in order to do it safely and properly, I would have to pick a day, I would have to take everything out of the walk-in, I'd have to set up the walk-in, I'd have to make the sausage, right? And then put everything back in. And uh um, so making sausage is something that's uh a future for us. If we get a chance to remodel the store or get a chance to expand the store, um I'll do a uh sausage making room, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Nice, yeah. I was wondering about that too. So you talked a lot about

Turkey And The Jackfruit Surprise

SPEAKER_01 10:35

pork, you talked about chicken, you talked about sausage. What about turkey? Did you was turkey on the menu from the very beginning?

SPEAKER_02 10:41

Oh, yeah, from the very beginning. And the reason turkey's on the menu from the very beginning is because when we first opened, my daughter worked for me, Lindsay, and she absolutely loved turkey. And she used to she gets it at uh at uh the original blacks down at Lockhart, and uh so I made it for her. That was that was why we started out doing turkey breasts.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Nice, nice, and then what about your vegan option? Is that always been on the menu?

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Uh not the not the first year, that came in the second year, and I was uh I was enjoying some fellowship time with um with customers, and um we were sitting at a table one night, and uh the guy was just um the husband was just going all at it, right, and getting his meat sweat on and all that kind of thing, and uh talking about stuff. And you know, the wife was just like, you know, I'm here because um, first of all, you got wine, and uh second of all, um because I love my husband, and then he gets this opportunity, but I don't have anything I can enjoy here. I'm a vegetarian. And so that kind of stuck in my brain that that these guys that want to come in and get these meat sweats on, they have spouses that would really like to come, okay, but they don't want to, they don't want to pound those heavy, you know, those heavy meats and and that kind of stuff. And so we made, we've discovered jackfruit. Now, young jackfruit, not not mature jackfruit, but young jet fruit is very stringy, okay. And um, so when that's properly prepped and and brine, um, it's easy for us then to take it, get that over either in a skillet or a pot, get it hot, get it going, and it's flavorless. It will pick up any flavor that you put in it, really. And so we started uh mixing some sauce and some uh spices and stuff together, and we developed the uh um the jackfruit recipe. And um, for the most part, people have really enjoyed that. It's been a surprise for me. I just did a wedding this weekend, um, and uh they were just uh enthralled with it, really, you know. And um, you know, they even yeah, and every time when I take it out on um catering, I can't put it out in the serving line. You guys have seen pictures of that serving line we set up. I cannot put it out with the one with the primary products, and the reason I can't is because people will find out that that's that's what that is. It's jackfruit, and all the meat eaters will sample it to the point when the vegetarian comes through and needs it, it's gone. Right. So we learned that lesson um the hard way a couple times. And uh so uh we carry we carry jackfruit with us most all the time when we're out on catering, but we keep it back in the hotel cabinet until somebody announces that they are um they are actually vegan and they're looking for it.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Yeah, a lot of people don't realize you have a vegan option.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

Yeah. But that's how it came about. Uh I was just sitting at the table that night with those customers and listening to her talk. And um uh you know, it it says if you're gonna be a good a good merchant, you always listen to your customers. And so that's how that came about.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Yeah, no, that's a fun story. So, and you've transitioned from serving in trays. I know when we started working together, we were talking about

Why We Switched To By-Pound

SPEAKER_01 13:50

trays, and there's still tray menus out on on the search engines, but you transitioned to selling meat by the pound about a year ago. Can you talk about that just a little bit?

SPEAKER_02 13:59

Oh, that was like that was a couple almost three years ago now. Um yeah, we at first we we were trying to do the trays, um, and what I learned as a restaurant owner that's they're impossible to price, right? Because I can say I'll give you just this for this price, right? But what happens if you want to skew it? Or if you say, well, I'll trade you this for this and trade you this for this. Yeah, and and like I said, back seven years ago, um we could deal with that, with you know, with that that shifting and and stuff, but um in today's world where pennies are everything, you know, or three years ago where it started right after COVID and all the way up through now, um, it's impossible. You know, the you know, the variation when you when you go into a matrix and a spreadsheet and try to figure out cost relationships for every possible variant on three different types of trays and um and plug that all into a PO it just got to be too much. And we asked ourselves, what are we really here for and what are we really trying to do anyway? And we are a smoke house. No matter how you look at us, whether you think restaurant or whatever, we are a smoke house, is what we are.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

Okay. And that offered sides. And so we just got it, we just got it down to being really simple. You can still have a tray. I still list the trays in places so that it gives you an understanding of how to what to order in order to make a tray. Okay. And uh you can put as much or as little on the tray as you want, right? Because I've got people that'll eat six pounds of meat when they come in, and I've got I've got people that come in and half a pound is about all they can muster, and they're still taking some home. Right. I mean, seriously, um the the diversity of of how much somebody wants is just uh infinite.

unknown 15:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

And so, you know, so we had to do that.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

It's good to hear you say that, to call yourself a smokehouse, and that secondarily you all you have sides and you have desserts, which you have many delicious of both, but you are primarily smokehouse, and I think that is your central expertise, and it's what you're good at, what you're good at serving. So it's good to hear you say that. And I know from watching your social media, we you get pulled a lot of directions of people that want more sides, different sides, this meat, that meat, this meat, whatever. And I think I see you all the time come back to that central focus of hey, what we really do well is smokehouse.

Gary’s Go-To Orders By Season

SPEAKER_01 16:20

That's that's what we are. So we do need to talk about sides, though. That said, we do want to talk about sides. So, what's your most famous side? What's what's what's Gary Parker's favorite meat and side together? What's your my two favorites?

unknown 16:32

Right?

SPEAKER_02 16:39

I mean, I'll eat that for breakfast, I'll eat that for dinner. I'll you know, whatever I need a snack, I go and grab one of those things and pound it, right? It's uh it's just what uh what I love the most is because I love doubled eggs to start with, and and uh I don't think they should uh that that flavor should be reserved for just holidays. Let's eat it every day, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Yeah, if it is good.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

Um I'm a good guy.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Is it is it correct to assume that brisket's your favorite meat?

SPEAKER_02 17:05

Which one?

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Brisket is your favorite meat. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 17:10

I all my meats are my favorite meat, that's why I make them. Um so for example, uh winter time or if we go into fall like we are right now, I will typically um take lean brisket. You know, I'll trim it out uh you know off the off the brisket and um and trim it out and then put it over a bed of um mac uh uh mac and cheese, right? And so it's kind of like a uh a macamiat. And then I'll I'll counter that with the boat um this time of year. Um as I move deeper into winter, um, then I will be on the Frito pie, which is why I added it because I kept eating it myself. And um uh and people kept asking me, what is that? What is that dish? Where's that on the menu? And um I said, well, it's not, it's something that I make, it's called Frito Pie. So you lay the bed of Fritos down, um, and then you put uh chili over the top of it with a lot of cheese, right? So um I'll typically shift out of the mac and meat over the time, and then I'll go to the boat, you know, or the um uh or or the uh or the the well, slow down, Gary. Uh we'll go to the um um brito pie. As I go as I start to come into spring, you know, I start to get um you know it's kind of spring fever-ish kind of thing, right? I kind of stay on the boat, um, but I will start to move into chicken. Right. So I love to have our my chicken sandwiches, and I bury them in those bill picks in those um still pickles that I have, right? And onion. And I will go on that into the spring. Um and most of the summer I will do that. Eventually, when um when I'm start feeling heavy, I'll get rid of the bread and just do it, do it diced up, right? Um, and then um, yeah, and then there's the inner I interlace in um I love the sausage. I love the brat sausage with mustard, right? Um I pick that up because I used to go to Oktoberfest every year, and and I miss my uh my brats and and mustard, right? So that's a really good way to do that. Um I love my pulled pork sandwiches, and I just uh I just can't get enough of them. So I do that a lot. Um and then when football, like Super Bowls and um and college bowl season comes out, I am all about the uh the pork ribs. Right, you'll see me there in the store, and I'll have six of them all done up. And you know, uh sometimes during those those sessions, I'll go get me a shiner and and um pretend I'm home again, I'll watch UT play or or what have you, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Trying to show the finger. I don't think we have the beer here. Oh, yeah, we do. There it is. Yeah. So if you want a nice visual of the menu, this is the best place to go see it on the website. There's also a PDF available, but this is easier. And then, of course, on the channel now system, you've got pictures, but I think this is the best place to really see the menu. You just go to the website and click menu.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

I will add to things that are fan favorites that I don't particularly eat myself a lot is any of the things over the fries, right? So uh pork fries and and those kinds of things. Um, they're really good. It's just uh I just as at 63 years old, I don't need that that level of uh a carb, right? So so I really I love them, but I really just can't eat them. I have to go down. Oh, and I forgot about uh I love my salads. Um, you know, and uh uh the guys will tell you that there are times like in the middle of the summer, you know, I'm busy, I've got two uh two caterings going on that day. Um and uh and I need to stay light, and I'll go grab that chicken Caesar and have that, right? And that'll fuel me uh really well. And uh of course then we got the uh the brisket gorgonzola uh that is that people just died for that one. And um, it's kind of fun. Yeah, you you stop to think about having hot meats on cold salads and how does that work, right? But um when you get it all mixed together, it's just it's just uh it's really uh an impact to the palate and people love it.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

Yeah, I used to think of chicken as a real secondary meat, and um your euro chicken is anything but secondary. I mean, it's it's so delicious. I mean, it's not a salad with that bland, gross, grilled chicken you get at a grocery store. This is super flavorful, flavorful, moist, yummy chicken. So yeah, it's really good salads. I agree.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

Yeah, and don't forget the turkey sandwiches. I fit them in there somewhere too, and I always make them with the dill pickles, but I will uh I will put cheese on it. Right. Yeah, and I'll do turkey cheese and pickles, um, and sometimes a little bit of mustard and um and have a turkey sandwich.

Banana Pudding And Blue Bell Logistics

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Mm-hmm. Yeah, wow. So many things to enjoy. So what about desserts?

SPEAKER_02 22:05

Desserts? Oh, that's banana pudding, baby.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

That is such a classic Southern dessert, man. Um, so what is in what's in banana pudding? What's in the bark new banana pudding?

SPEAKER_02 22:17

We've never talked about the famous debate. Do you know the famous debate around banana?

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Oh my uh vanilla wafers, no wafers. Can't remember.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

Yeah. Which one is it? You know, do you like them pinky or do you like them crispy? Um the argument will never get so never getting sourced.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

That's super fun. Yeah, and it's delicious. Um, and then you have pecan pie. I know you have the ice cream that people say is very difficult to find, the bluebell brand.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

Um light on the bluebell this year. It's just uh I've just been really busy and um we've been doing a lot of menu adjustments and we've been doing a lot of things. And so um I went through most of the summer with Bluebell, and I just got to get off my duff and um get the order in again and get it shipped up here. There's been some changes on the Bluebell side too, and um that that's also conflicted things a little bit because uh they've hired they've outsourced um direct ship to uh the um you know doing the B2B business. They've outsourced it. And so that held us up for a little while too, and those things will um um stop the availability. And and the reason is if they don't ship it correctly like Bluebell used to do, um then the the dry ice wears out and it gets a little soft. And when it gets soft, you have a bad experience in the cup because you'll take the top off of it and then you'll see where it's been liquefied and all falling down on one side, and going, well, you know, that's not real fresh um bluebell ice cream. And so they've had some they've had some shipping problems. And so I know people ask me all the time, um, how come you don't have it right now? And it's just there there's a number of issues that that come up with trying to bring ice cream, you know, 2800 miles and keep it frozen and those kinds of things, going through UPF and you know, FedEx and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. Um, so I I heard that there's been several people online that they will go to barbecue to you just to have the ice cream because they can't find that ice cream.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

So there's another guy, there's another business in town, or not here in Gig Harbor, but in the area um that brings in um a larger variety of blue bell than I do. Because they're bringing in the pints and they're bringing in the half gallons and things as well. They're making a deal out of it. So I was happy to see that. I was hoping that maybe even maybe I could take a little bit of credit for influencing that, but um, but no, they're uh they're a good bunch of guys, and um, I'm trying to remember their name right now, so I'd have to you know tell you later.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

I didn't know it was anywhere else. So we we would be uh bad to not mention the olala wines and you do serve, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

Yeah, Mary Ellen, she does such a great job up there at the winery, and um, she's uh you know, she's a very special person, and um, she runs that thing all by herself. That's uh that's what's really amazing that you know that to run that vineyard. And I think she's got some helpers that will come, but for the most part, she runs that whole thing by herself. So you gotta be really proud of what uh what uh Mary Ellen has created.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Yep, and it's not available everywhere, but it's there's a large selection of Olala wines at RQTU. Um, you only serve one beer. Why do you only serve one beer?

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Because it's a Texas beer. I'd serve two if I could get Lone Star up here, but uh Shiner's the only thing I can get because

Texas Candy History And Sauce Choices

SPEAKER_02 25:40

you can't sell uh Lone Star beer outside of Texas, it's not licensed for it.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

So okay. And what about the candy that you sell, the pecan candy? Can you talk about that?

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Well, the Lance candies, they're my favorites too. And I've I told on on this um on this series, I've explained the story of the of the pecan pralane, how in the um in the late 1800s, after they had built the Capitol in Austin, um, and you know, uh the the the street that runs up to the Capitol is called Congress, and um it used to be lined with these really beautiful, really large uh pecan trees back in those days. Um and there was a candy maker who uh who opened a store and uh he was making various kinds of candy, and the story goes he lost it in a poker game.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

And he lost it in a poker game, and his son um was so distraught over this thing. He went and and uh pulled resources together, went to the guy that um that uh the his dad had lost the store to, bought it back for the gambling debt. And um, and then he was it was the son that actually picked up started picking up the pecans off the ground right in fall and storing them, and then he made the burk caramel that goes with it, right, and and combined the two to get the Texas praline. Um, and uh so it's a very uh Austin-centric thing. Lambs candies makes all kinds of stuff, but it's the pralines and the chocolate-covered pralines that are the star of the show.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

Yeah, it's delicious. And you have a hot uh jalapeno version of it as well, right?

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Yeah, harmony uh uh brick cream, and there are people that are just fanatics over that.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

Yes, I know it sells well. I sit there and watch people buy it. Okay, so the big question though is are you going to meet the demands of any of these people who are asking you to add things to the menu? Like cream corn comes up a lot. Um I don't know which ones you hear the most of, but are you going to adjust your menu, your flavors or your sauces? Are you gonna make a spicy sauce? Goodness, I hear that all the time. Why do you only have a sweet and own hot sauce?

SPEAKER_02 27:55

Well, because my spicy stuff hurt people, and uh so I don't make it commercially. And uh what I consider apparently, what I consider spice and what others consider spice are two different things, right? Um, so this is the whole reason why we have the sriracha in the store, is because it's a nice way to complement the uh the sweet and tangy of the sauce, and you can mix it to taste with the with the sriracha, and that's what I encourage people to do. Um, you know, because I don't I don't make the um I don't make the one million scholar you know sauces anymore. It's just uh it hurts people.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

What about the rubs? Are the rubs that you have for sale the only rubs you use, or are there other things that you can use? No, okay.

SPEAKER_02 28:39

Right. You gotta remember that um um the the store is created as a nod to the founding families of Texas Barbecue, right? And so everything we do here is that is that hundred-plus year old recipe that the the founders, the the uh the immigrants that founded the area um used, right? The wood, the the salt, pepper, um, learning the technique of how to how to make that into bark. Um the the red rub, right, that can that can do you know chickens and and you know some of the more flavor flavorless uh products, you know, and kind of bring some some pop into it. Plus the red rubs in the sauce too. I'll be gonna give you that secret.

unknown 29:24

Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Oh, okay. Wow. That is that is an insider too. So so you're not going to add Hawaiian to your pork, you're not going to add Asian or ja any of these other flavors. Because that's you know, some of the pressure that comes to us from the north in Seattle is all those kind of variations of the multicultural flavors. And it sounds like what you're saying is no, we're gonna stay focused on basically Austin and other type um barbecue.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

Yeah, because barbecue to you is a single uh it is a single focus, right? And if I was gonna do something more formal, like you're talking about, or exotic, I'd open a different restaurant to do that with. This one is a joint, right? In the true sense of a barbecue joint. That's why you walk in there, that's why you the the smoke is allowed to penetrate everything, right? Um, that's why the TVs are up on the wall and the and the things are haphazard and um and organic in there, because it is in fact a barbecue joint, okay, not a barbecue restaurant. There's a very new difference. If I wanted to be Terry Black and have you know this these really uh ornate uh um you know lobbies and you know highly filtered airs and and all this kind of stuff, I would do that, right? But no, this is a barbecue joint. Much in the way I grew up. Um, if you ever go down to Texas and go to Lockhart and see the original, the original places, you'll understand completely what um you know what barbecue view is. It's about as basic and and organic as you can possibly be.

SPEAKER_01 31:05

Yes, I agree. And it and it does, it preserves that southern appeal, it preserves kind of that rough and rugged everyone's welcome appeal. You know, sometimes when you make a restaurant so fancy and and perfect, it doesn't make everyone feel comfortable. And I I mean I think moms can run in there and grab

Catering Timing For Holidays And Work

SPEAKER_01 31:20

food for their kids, or you could go out to dinner there for a date night. I mean, it's it serves a variety of purposes, hang out for the game, things like that. So yeah. I love that. I love that you're holding on to that identity as a smokehouse joint and not um not trying to be something you're not, that's for sure. So I'm gonna go ahead and remove this uh this menu, this menu here. Hold on a second. Um and I think we should wrap up just by talking about catering, because I know that uh you're coming up on a big demand season, and I think it would be good to remind people that if they want catering, they should be calling you now. And maybe it's too late now. Is it too late now? Right? Is your holiday book?

SPEAKER_02 31:56

No, we got lots of we got lots of holiday parties, and I will point this out. Um January, February planning right now. You may not you may not you may not want to accept the fact that you're in the holiday season, but here's my message to you. You're in the holiday season.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

And right after the holiday season, if you're a business, you have your coordination meetings, your your your your yearly kickoff lunches, um, your face-to-faces, what whichever name you use in your corporation, and you're gonna need catering. All right. Um, give us a call. Could we do we can do the box lunches or the um the um you know the the larger trays or whatever, just as easy. Yeah, they're both the same. So don't only think about holiday stuff, even though I want to encourage you to get your um orders in for turkey, right? Can we do the turkey breast, you know, that you can pick up the day before and we give you heating instructions and you know, now can we do so much of that? We do about 500 pounds of that, I think. Um the day uh uh the the day before Thanksgiving. It's it's really insane.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

You run out every year, you run out every year.

SPEAKER_02 33:05

And um, and that's awesome. And then the brisket gets popped really good for Christmas, right? And that kind of thing. Um, but don't forget that now's really a great time. If you're gonna, if you're a company and you're going to you know have those face-to-faces and those meetings to kick the year off, right? Um, let us come in there and feed you. Right. Um, I promise I won't make it so heavy that they everybody takes a nap, but right. But we want to start the year off good. And um, so let's get those orders in.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, sounds good. The numbers there on the screen. You can also just go to TexasBarbBBQTU.com and click on catering. And there's a full catering menu and a form you can fill out. If you don't want to have a conversation, you just want to submit it all online, you can do that. Um, or you can call the store number and you know ask for Gary or any of the can anybody there help them with catering or do they have to talk to you?

SPEAKER_02 33:59

You or uh mostly the young ones will pass it on to one of the senior guys, but um, but the thing that the that's different now than it was previously because I used to do all the catering by myself. Okay. We now have there's now three of us that are answering these uh these catering calls, right? And I've got people now that uh because I just got worn out, I couldn't do it all by myself, and I was missing calls and you know, upsetting customers and stuff. And so I've had to I've had to figure out a way to get others to respond to these things while I continue to work and do the things I got to do. Um, so yeah, there's three of us now, um uh Jason, Connor, and myself that could answer them. And which really gets uh messed up sometimes is they all use my email to go back to the customer, right? Um, but um I think Connor's now got his own email. Jason's got his own email, and so um you'll see one, so whoever's available. And uh, for example, Connor's really good if you're what we're talking about here. You want to get a turkey order in, or you got 12, 15 people, and you need to make sure it's ready and you come in and pick it up on a certain day. Connor's really good at those things. Um, and then Jason is the guy that goes with me on the weddings and the uh memorial services, and a lot of times sets up the the the concessions for fairs and stuff like this. And so um, so I've kind of got it distributed a little bit, right? And then they both work directly with me for our so that we keep coherence in the calendar.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Yeah, got it. Okay, so it's had to grow, sounds like. Well, we

Listener Questions About Bread And Sides

SPEAKER_01 35:35

should wrap up. Um, but we have a couple comments that came in while we've been chatting. Lance says hello, good afternoon. We say hello Lance. Um, and then Doug Fike says, My favorite way to enjoy smoked meats is with sliced pickles, sliced sweet onion, and plain white bread. Oh, I like this guy. That sounds like style Texas. Any chance adding these maybe as a side? So you do have rolls, you don't have white bread, right?

SPEAKER_02 36:00

We've tried the white bread a bunch of times in different ways. In fact, when the store first opened, I had the big um bread um containers out there next to the coke machine, right? Yeah, it just got to the point where we've been throwing so much away and bread got so expensive that we said, okay, so then we tried again, and so then we started getting loves of bread in, and we would take and make you know three, four pieces um and wrap them in cellophane. Yeah, and um, and then so but it was the same effect again. Um the um, you know, people people see it there, um, but only a very few people ask for it, and so it goes bad. I have to throw it away, and I'm just not into loss, right? And so, so but the whole and rolls, on the other hand, they seem to fit the need in the here in the Pacific Northwest. People love them, they'll get two or three of them, um, and they'll sop up their uh their sauces and gravies with that, and um, you know, go figure, right? So you always you always work yourself into what the majority of your customers will you know will uh will enjoy. Yes, and uh I apologize to the folks that um you know that want the other, and I just can't give it to them right now.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

Yeah, well, thank you, Doug, for the feedback though. We love hearing from you. And then he also says he loves the signs on the hallway. Um he loves the signs on the hallway. Um I can't read the rest of what he said here. And then Donna Lormore says hello. So hi Donna. Joining us here. I don't know who the rest of these crazy cats are that have been watching us, but thank you guys for giving us input. We would love to get questions if you want to come next month and bring your questions. We're happy to answer them live. You can comment them in and then I'll uh yeah, it'd be fun. So, but thank you, Gary. Thanks for reviewing with us your favorites and the menu and why the menu. And it's just always fun to hear you talk about the history. I think that one of the things I learned is that this is not just Austin

Schools Authors And Literacy Support

SPEAKER_01 38:00

influence, but there's other parts of the country you've had barbecue and picked up things and developed your menu. And uh, and thank you for explaining about why you're selling by the pound now, because I think a lot of people uh would really like the trades back, but it makes sense what you explained about the smoke being a smoked meat house and staying central to that vision. So um I don't know if there's anything you want to share about philanthropy or anything I've missed today, but we probably should wrap up.

SPEAKER_02 38:22

Yep. I just want to say continue to support my schools that are running the counter takeovers. Um we have a new one every week. Um, and then please support my authors because especially right now, one of the one of the I'm gonna take a minute, so just hold on. Um, you know, especially right now as this economy is slowing down, right? We don't have the the bigger lunch rushes like we did in the summer. Uh tourism is down, right? And so we're not getting a lot of the um of that kind of business coming in right now. Um, and while the store is equipped to deal with downturns, right, the authors that invest their time and effort into that, um, into that authors area um will struggle, right? And so I want to encourage everybody, uh especially here as we come into the holiday season, come check out their books. They're really good authors. I have 42 authors that cycle through that space. All their books are up on the on the shelves back there. They're all plugged into the POS systems up at the counter. So the author doesn't have to be there for you to buy one. Um, you know, support these guys. And um, you know, it uh it it you know it'll make them happy and it'll make me happy. And then uh also help us encourage your students uh to sign up. Um I do partner with the authors uh for uh each uh Peninsula High School seniors and uh Gigarbor High School seniors um have the opportunity to sign up for the barbecue to you literacy um scholarship. It's a thousand bucks, right? So I do a thousand to each school, and uh and what I'm trying to encourage through all this is um literary, um literary, you know, reading, writing, book librarian stuff, um what have you, literary stuff, right? And um we have a lot of we have a lot of STEM, you know, math and science, stuff like that. And as you guys know, I'm very capable of that stuff, but it all starts with being able to read, right? And um, and people who and write, you know, one of the things I enjoy doing is is writing, and hopefully there'll be an announcement here in the in the not too coming future about writing. Um, but uh when I find my extra five minutes a day, I'll try to work on that, right? Um so that there's that kind of thing. I also want to encourage we support through the author's area there, um, the uh the Dolly Parton uh Mash Dairy Library um sign-ups, okay. Um and um if you have a toddler, you know, that you're trying to prep for school, you know, it it there's no harm in signing up. You get a you know, there's a free book a month that will come to you, right? It's no cost to the parents, right? Yeah, it's a great resource that um the Dolly Pardon does, and we partner with the uh Gig Harbor Rotary in order to facilitate that. And so um, you know, get you know, get these free books coming to the kids, you know. Uh one of my favorite things I did with my kids, you know, when they were in is to read those books, right? Every day, you know, and get that repetition started so that they uh they wanted to learn how to read them too. Yeah, and as a family, we had a good time with that, and and I'd like to

Final Thanks And Eat More Barbecue

SPEAKER_02 41:30

recreate that in every every young family there is today as well.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

Yeah, we need less screen addiction and more book reading for sure. And even as Gary's friend, I'll tell you that he encourages you to read read books. He's not just saying that, he really he really does hold that as a belief. So thanks for pushing that. I love that. So all right, we're gonna wrap up. Thanks, Gary, and we'll see you again next month. And we'll be I'm sure we'll be talking about holiday happenings coming in. It is the end of October, so we'll be sharing more about that next month. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

All right, guys, have a good time. Eat more barbecue.