The Restaurant Guys

Southern Smoke Foundation: Caring for the Industry that Feeds Us

• The Restaurant Guys • Episode 125

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The Banter

The Guys discuss changes in how vintage port is aging and then (somehow) pivot to mezcal. Like wine, agave spirits are tied to the land and the magicians who create it.

The Conversation

The Restaurant Guys host the founders of Southern Smoke Foundation Chris Shepherd and Lindsey Brown to share the origins of the foundation and how it operates today. Southern Smoke supports hospitality workers and beyond by facilitating services for those in need. They host a festival with dozens of talented chefs, great music and even fly fishing.

The Inside Track

The Guys get the inside track on the Southern Smoke Festival. 

“It’s five hours of Heck, Yes!” Chris Shepherd on The Restaurant Guys Podcast 2025

Bios

Lindsey Brown

Lindsey Brown spent a decade as Director of Marketing and Public Relations for the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau.

In 2015, she co-founded the Southern Smoke Foundation. The following year, she launched her own firm, Lindsey Brown Public Relations, which she led until she became Executive Director of the foundation in 2023.

Chris Shepherd

After nearly a decade working in the city’s high-end culinary scene, Chris Shepherd launched Underbelly, a restaurant concept designed to celebrate Houston’s uncelebrated cultures. He published his first cookbook Cook Like a Local in 2019, to highlight Houston’s food scene and the people behind it. 

Through his work, Chris has been honored with a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest, two James Beard nominations for Underbelly, and several “Best Of” list appearances in national publications. 

Info

Southern Smoke Foundation

https://southernsmoke.org/

Eat Like a Local on YouTube

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE9Pqq0sa8JN0SYXuL82IdCd7Ep_oTexE&feature=shared

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the-restaurant-guys_3_08-05-2025_140530:

Hello everybody and welcome. You are listening to the Restaurant guys. I'm Mark Pascal. I'm here with Francis Shot. Together we own stage left in Ka Lombardi restaurants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. We're here to bring you the inside track on food, wine, and. The finer things in life. Hello, mark. Hey Francis. Uh, very excited about our guest today. We have Chris Shepherd and Lindsey Brown coming from the Southern Smoke Foundation, doing some pretty cool stuff. He's a James Beard Award-winning chef. Uh, she's pr former PR woman and they're, uh, running a, a nonprofit foundation that actually is pretty guard. Darn interesting. Yep. Um. I wanna talk about some, uh, something less interesting. No, that's I'm insulting. No, I wanna talk about some beverage related things that are unrelated, but they're just two experiences that I've had that are beverage related in the last couple of days that I think I would like to share with people. Great. So one, uh, is, is not culturally that important or not, you know, not, not that important to the environment or anything like that. So I, and boy, this is, uh, this is only for a couple of geeks. I promise we won't talk about it very long, but you love vintage port. Yes. You love port. We, I love Port. Yes. Port used to be used to go to a restaurant. Any fine restaurant would have a Tawny port and a vintage port, and a selection of vintage ports by the glass. And that just doesn't exist anymore. Um, that's not true. Well, very few. Well, we have several, but very few restaurants have vintage port available by the glass and the. Producers have been struggling with the declining market share for years, but it's still a, it's a wonderful beverage, but, you know, I have noticed something and if anyone does drink port out there, I, I'm, I love Port. I think it's tremendous. I opened a bottle last night, uh, had a party at my house. And there were some fancy pants people over, and I don't keep that much port around anymore. And when you open a bottle of vintage port, there's a expiration date on how quickly you have to drink it. Well, the expiration date on any bottle you open is two to three hours. I was gonna say, usually it's not a problem for me, but I opened this port and I decant it and. Sorry for the super geeky conversation, but it used to be that you would say that if you bought a vintage port, which is meant to age in the bottle, you would drink it within five or six or seven years, and it was in its young, fruity stage, and then it usually would kind of dumb down and then it would emerge on the other side at about. Generally you'd, you'd avoid drinking vintage ports that were between eight and 15 years old. Yeah. So 15 years it starts to show the characteristic of an older port, and at 20 years, certainly it has the characteristics of an older port. I have noticed of late that older ports wait. Still drink like younger ports that they've eliminated that dumb phase in the middle. But I, I, I had a 25-year-old port last night, a grams 2000, and it tasted like it was a, you know, from 10 years ago. You know, it's, you know, funny you say this'cause we didn't talk about this in advance. No, it did not. And I'm gonna advance the conversation a little bit. I recently, within the last 10 days, had a glass of port that was. 12 or 13 years old, it was from, let's say 2015, maybe it was 10 years old. Mm-hmm. Which should have been in that dumb face. Yeah. And the first thing I noticed about that port. Was it Absolutely it was not. It was still in that cherry red phase. Yes, they've eliminated the dumb phase, but in doing so now, I don't know whether they've eliminated it, but I, this was a 25-year-old port that was being, and was still drinking youthfully I was drinking. So they've removed the reward for aging. Look, I can't, I'm not broadly enough tasted to say that this is industry wide and any of our wine knowledgeable people who may be, we'd love to hear from you. The guys@restaurantguyspodcast.com. This is nothing I've read about, but this has happened four or five times that I had a, I'll say I noticed it again in the last couple of weeks. I tasted a port. There's no question about it. It, it was still in that youthful stage and totally was not in that dumb stage that, that we experienced for the first 25 years we drank pork. And look, if, if they've figured out a way to get rid of the dumb stage in the middle, I understand why they would wanna do that. And I don't think that's a negative side. But if at the cost of that is that you don't get the elegance of an older port that shows some oxidation and it hadn't even changed color. Mm-hmm. Like an older port should look a different color. I don't know. I'm not broadly tasted enough in recent times to say that it's a general trend, but I would be, I'm sad that I haven't had a mature port from, say. 2000 forward. So if that little intro was interesting to you, it means Jennifer is a spectacular editor. Okay. I got another one. Uh, shout out to a, another podcast that we really love. Tim McCurdy from Cocktail College. Mm-hmm. He just did, well, actually it's a while back now, but he did. Three part piece on agave spirits. Oh yeah. That's great. Holy come. It's great. Really dove in. All the deep dive. Entertaining was great. Interesting. Orally rich. Um, but, uh, really, and I learned a lot. I learn, I learn every time I listen to the cocktail college. Mm-hmm. I learn a little thing. It's usually with one bartender, often about one drink, uh, often about whatever city that bartender's from or wherever cocktail college has gone off to. This was a three part, this was journalism. Mm-hmm. You know, this was, this really went into the, the realm of journalism. You know, we're talking heads, but this was journalism, which is, I was about to say, which has nothing to do with what this show is. So don't, don't fool yourself. So, I, you know, one of the things that I realized at the end, I mean, this wasn't stated, but. Mezcal, it's about mezcal. Mm-hmm. Primarily. And it also has, you know, tequila is a type of mezcal from a specific place and the people within the tequila denomination, uh, have different interests that are often at odds with the o, the other mezcaleros. So you're really trying to get people to turn to Shaw off? No, I just wanna say one of the reasons that it's important, and I realize this most. Wine is all about the land. Wine is all about the vineyard. Wine is all about the winery. Wine is all about what did you cut down to plant this, or where is it? And the land management and the ecology. Most distilled spirits are not because if you're making it from corn or grain or you know, whether it's rye or corn or, or whatever, you're just potatoes. Whatever you're distilling, it's, it's that green to bottle movement. Francis and I have not seen. A lot of interest. I mean, rarely Waterford, rarely is it interesting Waterford in Ireland that went outta business. But the, the point is that agave is tied to the land. Mm-hmm. So the people who are the, the traditional old mezcaleros. they are tied to the land and the type of mezcal, the type of MAGA that they plant, where the kind of water it uses, where it's from, that really affects the land and what's going on. Right now is, pretty dramatic and Mexico's in a pretty delicate place. in Oaxaca, where most of the mezcal comes from is, um, there are a lot of issues to be considered and if you wanna learn more, I go to cocktail college podcasts. If you're not taking care of your agricultural areas. Your agriculture is not gonna do very well. Yeah. And, and this Cocktail PO Podcast talks about what you can do as a drinker and the kind of stuff that you should know. And, uh, Tim McCurdy's great at his job, but this is the best podcast I've heard. Three part series. Can't recommend it highly enough. Go check it out. We'll be back in just a moment with James Beard Award-winning Chef Chris Shepherd and Lindsey Brown to talk about the Southern Smoke Foundation. Don't go away. You can always find out more about us@restaurantguyspodcast.com.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Hey there everybody. Welcome back. Our guests today are Chef Chris Shepherd and Lindsey Brown. They founded the Southern Smoke Foundation. The Southern Smoke Foundation was founded in 2015 by James Beard Award-winning Chef Chris Shepherd and Executive Director Lindsey Brown. They provide access to NOCO Mental Health Services to restaurant workers, as well as emergency relief funding to food and beverage workers nationwide. This includes restaurant and bar workers, farmers, ranchers, winemakers, distillers, and brewers, and anyone in the industry faced with a financial hardship because of a medical emergency and accident, or other unfor, unforeseen things. And we know that in our industry there are lots of people without a sufficient safety net. So this is really important work to date. The Southern Smoke Foundation has granted more than$14 million to f and B workers nationwide. And since 2020 has provided access to more than 7,400 no-cost counseling sessions in 11 states, and we couldn't be happier to welcome Lindsay and Chris to the show. Chris and Lindsay, welcome to the show.

Chris Shep:

Thanks for having us.

Lindsey:

Thanks for having us. We're

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

You know, describing the work you do, it makes me feel inadequate. Um, so let's start with the b basic simple stuff, and let's start with you. chef Chris, you are a James Beard Award-winning Chef 2013 Food and Wine. Best new chef, uh, 2014 Best Chef. And you decided that you're gonna go into the nonprofit sphere and eventually do that full time. How does that happen?

Chris Shep:

You know, it just got to the point where, you know, we got out, we, it was 2022. um, made the decision with my wife that, uh, restaurants were fun, but actually helping people and make sure our restaurant has a safety net was more important. and so I sold the restaurants started a new life and, you know, it's, it's, I don't work for the foundation., I just get to come in and give everybody high fives and be a part of it and see the work that they're doing. But, uh, you know, I, I now do tv. Other things in the city. So, um, but I get to be kind of sub and smoke adjacent here all the time, but yeah.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Well, so you're also doing a show called Eat Like a Local, right? You, you got over 50 of those episodes are up, uh, on, on a local show, television station in Houston. And online. And online. Of course, you can see it online. So that seems like you're having fun on that show.

Chris Shep:

Yeah, it's, it's really kind of something that I've fallen in love with. I didn't know that, uh, when we started having the conversations,'cause like when I decided to sell and I was like, ah, you know, I don't know what I'm gonna do. And Lindsay said, well just sit back. Something will kind of show its, know, show its face. And it was like, all right. And then we went and had a drink with the station manager for our NBC station affiliate. All of a sudden, next thing you know, I'm on tv. And it was like, okay, like this. You know,'cause it, it does, it, it does. The other side of what Sudden Smoke does is that get to help restaurants out every week when they're on tv.'cause they get an immediate bump, they get immediate, um, interaction with guests. People just travel to those restaurants as soon as that show airs. And so it makes a lot of sense for me. And so it's like still helping restaurants out the way I want to.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Well, I'll tell you one of the things Francis and I discovered back in 2005 when we first did this show. Uh, we didn't realize how enriching it was gonna be for us, right? We knew it was gonna be fun. We knew we wanted to, to do this daily show. We had knew we had a perspective and a point of view and a lot of things we wanted to talk about. What we didn't expect was. There was never gonna be a show we did where we didn't learn something ourselves.

Chris Shep:

Yeah.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

we start, I mean, we started enriching ourselves and frankly enriching our restaurants the, the day we started doing this show. A hundred percent. Because you start talking to people from around the country, from around the world about how they're doing it or why they're doing it, or their perspectives, uh, or their life experiences. You can't help but learn something as you go through that day by day. Uh, I, I assume that some of the, the, what you're enjoying of, uh, at eat like a local.

Chris Shep:

You know, it's. The amount of restaurants that I get to go to that have been here over 50 years and really hear their stories or even the young new ones. it really, it helps me out, right? Because it's like, wow. I come home and I tell'em, it's like, man, this new place that I just went to, you know, and it's like, but it's not new. It's been here for 50 years and like, did it so. Then you start to put all the pieces together of like, oh, this family immigrated from, you know, Korea via China and worked at this Chinese restaurant 52 years ago. And then they opened up their own restaurant 50 years ago. this is what we know as American Chinese. This is Korean, Chinese because they started in South Korea and now moved here. And so it's like, you see how the. The food's kind, the food waste kind of come together. I know that sounds confusing, but that's Houston and, and there's, there's little tidbits of those things all over the place

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

You know, it doesn't, it doesn't sound confusing. It sounds rich. And one of the reasons it sounds rich is, you know, we're, we own our own two restaurants here in, on a wine store. And we've consulted for mostly other small restaurants that, that are owned by, they people own one or two restaurants. And, I think it's just a much more interesting. Story. And there are places in the country like where you are and like in New Jersey where it's kind of the last bastion of small business, you know, the hardware stores, nobody owns a local hardware store anymore. Nobody owns a local grocery store anymore. But with the restaurants and only in some parts of the country, I mean there are lots of places I've driven through Northern Florida and thought, is everything a chain? Now there might be restaurants there that I didn't know'cause I didn't have the benefit of, I like to call it driving through Taco Hill. Yeah. So, um, you know, but, but those stories I think are what people crave. And one of the reasons that restaurants survive is I think local communities really wanna have that place to be and that connection with a story and that they, they know the owners are people, not a board of directors. Um, and helping to give that story is, is, is important to the, to the, the whole thing. And Lindsay, you came into this not as a restaurant professional, but by doing just what we talked about, you were helping to tell the stories you were in PR

Lindsey:

I

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

and, and, and a lot of pr, big corporate pr, you know, it feels like bullshit. It's like celebrity chefs, agents, getting them on the red carpet. Um, but a lot of PR we know from being in this business is, it's hard. To make sure that the new people moving into your town know your story to get on your show and, and to somehow keep that story in people's minds. So people keep coming to the restaurant so they don't go, oh, that place that was there for 30 years, they closed. I haven't been there in 20 years. I wonder why they closed, you know? And so you started in telling this story. Why don't you tell us where you came from and how you got involved and now you're the executive director, you do run the foundation full time now that's your. That's your job. So give us the story on on. And then you guys came together and sort of met, it was part of the beginning of your relations. It was all intertwined. This sounds like a complicated story. Go.

Lindsey:

I mean, it, it goes way back when. Um, I did PR for the Convention and Visitors Bureau for 10 years. So I was promoting the City of Houston and you know, the food scene is key to. Tourism in Houston and promoting Houston and people understanding the cultural diversity of Houston. And so there was one point where there were, you know, a couple of chefs in town, Chris being one of them, where I had noticed that they were getting a lot of national recognition. We barely knew each other at the time, I think. And so I, I pulled them into a room and said, you know, I've got a budget. I think there's something we can do here to elevate the food scene as a whole. Nationally, what do you guys think? And they. Ignored me completely and talked to each other about, oh, have you been to this new Vietnamese place in Midtown? Have you tried out this new dumpling spot in Chinatown? Have you been here? Have you been here? And what I realized as the person that was promoting the city, that only had I never been to any of these restaurants that they were talking about that inspired them, I'd never even heard of them. so. I said, well, that, I think that's the answer. And so what we did is we started the where the chefs eat culinary tours, and this was back in 2010. And we would put 16 people on a bus. They would, you know, spend$180 for, for tickets, two chefs would pair up and take them to the places that they eat on their days off. And they, the chefs were responsible for choosing the locations. We always paid for the meals that we ate. And we created menus. And so that way everyone that was on the bus with us that day could go back to this, you know, dumpling house in Chinatown and say, I wanna eat these things and something else.'cause we found that that was one of the things that was intimidating, to a lot of Houstonians, was didn't know what to order. They didn't know how to order, they didn't, they felt, you know, they feel welcome in some of these, you know, smaller restaurants. And funny part is, we created these for tourists and the Houstonians. Bought them all up.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

I know I'm being a little redundant in what I was saying before. People hear about, oh, well they're, you're a PR person, you're a publicity person, and you think Mad Men. You think, and look there, there's a, there are PR people in advertising, people who work for McDonald's and Burger King and Arby's and, and all the big chains, and none of them have four martinis at lunch anymore. It's so sadly. Which was the only reason we liked them to begin with. No, but, but also, but if there are cities throughout America struggling and small urs struggling to stay in your consciousness.'cause those big chains are always bombarding you with, messages. And you may have a place around the corner from you or five miles from you, that is really tremendous. And so our New Brunswick was a struggling city when we opened in 1992. And there were restaurants before us, Who really did this and the city kind of wisely said, let's promote the restaurants and New Brunswick becoming a restaurant town. And the nice thing about these independent restaurants is people I promote, I tell people to go to the Frog and the peach all the time to go to Salt all the time to go to Steakhouse 85 all the time. And they send people here because I think a. The residents, one of the reasons they want to live here is to be in that rich community and of all the businesses in downtown, you may shop for clothes once a month or twice a year. You may go to the hardware store once on a blue moon, but you may to go to the drug store when you need drugs or candy, but. The, the re the place where you interact are the bars and restaurants and Well, and that's, and that can build a community, you know, and that's becoming more and more important, right, as we become the only space where you interact, right? Yeah. It's, it literally the only space where you interact.'cause you don't, you watch Netflix instead of going out to the movies, you, buy from Amazon instead of, instead of going to the local store, you. You buy from Home Depot online instead of going to the hardware store to, to the hardware store store, which doesn't exist anymore. Which doesn't exist anymore. so those, those spaces become more important. Well, and I, I just wanna bring this around to your foundation, um, the Southern Book Foundation, the. Very often because restaurants are family run operations and they're often run with a passion and people are kind of making a living at it, including the owners. But they're certainly not getting rich. they're always at risk. I mean, the risk to return ratio is not there for most small operators and. People who work in restaurants and often including the owners, don't have the financial wherewithal always to have the safety net. That especially if something bad happens or maybe they need to take care of themselves, that they, they can't always do it. And, um, I think the restaurant industry provides jobs to a bunch of people who. Kind of might be in marginal situations where they have trouble finding any job at all. But when you're in that marginal area, you, you really don't have a safety net, and that's where your foundation comes in. So talk to us about, you know, the Southern Smoke Foundation, you take care of the people who are taking care of the people. Most restaurant, restaurant employees don't have a six month, uh, you know, safety account. So talk to us about on the side and how it started and, and what you do and, and who you help and how that works.

Lindsey:

Definitely. So we started, like we, like we said in 2015, but we started in sort of a totally different, framework. One of our friends who's a SOM here in Houston, came to us and asked if we could do a fundraiser for the MS. Society. Sure, but how come? And he said, well, I was diagnosed with MS this week, and we had just lost a chef who had not told anybody that he was diagnosed with ms. Lost the use of his hands, couldn't hold his knife, and died by suicide. So it was a huge shock to the whole culinary community. And so our friend Antonio, it was, you know, just a couple months later, he said, I wanna be the face. I don't need money. I just wanna be the face and raise awareness. so for two years, you know, we, we called our friends and threw a backyard festival. Aaron Franklin, Sean Brock, Rodney Scott. I mean, we started our festival with four chefs and, and a few local chefs. Now we're up to. 85 chefs this year, which is

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

That's amazing. That's fun. That's amazing. Good for you.

Chris Shep:

might be a little bit too much, but you know,

Lindsey:

Um,

Chris Shep:

we just have a hard time narrowing it down

Lindsey:

we

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Well, how do you say no to somebody who says they want to help? Right?

Lindsey:

It's so hard. And

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Yeah.

Lindsey:

the thing.

Chris Shep:

because.

Lindsey:

for two years we raised money for the MS. Society. We raised about half a million dollars. We were. The largest fundraiser in a five state area for them. Which was, which was cool. And then we were about two months out from our third festival in 2017. That's when Hurricane Harvey hit. And. there was a ton of fundraising happening at that time. JJ Watt was raising millions of dollars. There was a mayor's fund, the Red Cross, but we knew that none of those dollars were going into the hands of a dishwasher or a buser or a farmer. And so we, looked into our 5 0 1 C3 and realized that we could, and at that time. The Giving Kitchen was only in Georgia. And so we looked into their process, you know, what does their application look like, how do they grant? And we tweaked it to fit what felt right to us. And so we created our application, we translated it into and Vietnamese, and just told everyone that we knew that we were doing this and we were gonna have money and. To apply if you were affected by the hurricane. And it took a lot of trust for people in the industry to, to apply with us that first year. You know, there was a lot of concern, you know, people didn't want Chris looking at into their financials, which I completely understand. And

Chris Shep:

Nor do I want to.

Lindsey:

Right. And

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Yeah.

Lindsey:

you know, and they, they trusted us that we were actually gonna have the money that we said that we were raising and. Because of that, our process is still fully anonymous. You know, Chris not being an employee of Southern Smoke, he doesn't know that we fund or anybody that uses the Behind You program. Only if they tell him is how he finds out.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

let me ask about your process. Is, is it means tested or like how, how does the process work?

Lindsey:

So we have an application online and, uh, people apply and give us their statement of need. And so our first step is to verify employment. And our two qualifications, are that you must have worked in the food and beverage industry for six months, uh, 30 hours a week. So once employment is verified, then our case manager starts, um. Asking questions, you know, we'll do a full budget breakdown every. All the income that's coming into the home, all of the expenses that go going out of the home. If you're asking for rent support, we'll need a copy of your lease. If you're asking for medical support, we'll need a copy of your diagnosis or your medical bills, your prescription receipts, and then at the end of that whole process we see what is your true deficit. Based on this unforeseen crisis and many times that true deficit is more than what the applicant thinks that they need. Um, so that's, so that's how, that's how we do it. And so we feel very confident that we've done our due diligence once we're sending that a CH into someone else's bank account that they're gonna do. And they sign an affidavit that says they are going to use it for what they say they're going to use it, but we. We trust them spend the money

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

if they need the money for that, you know, they're, that's where it's going, right?

Lindsey:

Exactly. Exactly,

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

That debt is in their, is in their face, like it or not, so they're.

Lindsey:

So our, case managers are truly angels because they are, you know, working with people that are in the most vulnerable positions and they have to ask a lot of questions and that can get. That can get tricky. And it can be hard, but they're so, they're so good. And you know, last week we, we, granted, I think it was 34 people last week. It was a, it was a big week. Um, but it was, it's incredible. Every single, that's my favorite day is on Thursdays when I'm the last person on staff to see all the cases that are going to go up for vote. And I ask questions and I poke holes then we send it to, we have, um. A blind committee of volunteers. We have somebody in the insurance business, we have somebody in the medical business, we have someone in food and beverage, we have someone in communications and they are sort of the final look'cause they're seeing it from an outside perspective. And they'll ask questions. Um, and we

Chris Shep:

Yeah.

Lindsey:

because the person in insurance always wants to give them less. And the person in healthcare always wants to give them more.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Yeah, that makes sense. So what kind of turnaround are you getting, getting money to people? How's, how does that work?

Chris Shep:

Last week we funded 16 people for 30, almost 32. And so just last week.

Lindsey:

I was thinking the dollars instead of the people.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Is there a cap? Is there a cap on what an individual grant to an individual is? Is there, how does that work?

Lindsey:

not a cap. Although we have not given more than 10,000 in a, in a long time, back in, 2018, we granted someone a hundred thousand dollars. That

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Wow.

Lindsey:

um, it was brain rehabilitation after a really serious motorcycle injury, but that was in 2018. We were getting a hundred applications a year, and so

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

right.

Lindsey:

we had just finished festival. We had the money and we were, we saved his life.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

That's great.

Chris Shep:

It

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

So what.

Chris Shep:

of like his mom either had to put him in hospice and watch him pass, or we would do what we did and we did what we

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Uh, that's fantastic. That's a great story. It's a great story.

Chris Shep:

and he

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

So

Chris Shep:

this earth and doing better. So.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

amazing. Absolutely amazing. So what kind of turnaround can people expect from, from your organization if they, if they put an application in tomorrow and, you know, they're, they, they need funds in order to, to get the man off their back. What a, what? How can, how does that happen?

Lindsey:

It varies. So we'll triage by severity of a case. So if you have already received EV eviction paperwork, we will work your case and get you paid quickly like we have. We have handled those urgent cases in 24 to 48 hours. Really, really quickly. If it's a domestic violence situation where you need to get somewhere safe, we will do the same thing. would say typically we try to. close cases in three weeks, but a lot of that depends on responsive the applicant is and whether or not they have the documentation. There are so many situations where cases they just won't be able to provide the documentation. We would've been able to fund them more had we received, you know, the documentation on, you know. Their car repair, but because they weren't able to provide that to us, we aren't able to grant them that we can grant them for something else that they do have documentation for. But that's the thing that always banging our heads against the wall and we have a crisis toolkit on our. Homepage that lists like, these are the things, know how to get to your pay stubs. These are the documents you should have on file at all times. This is how you use Google Drive so you can, if you can't access, know, your work computer, you can do this from your phone. You know, just trying to make sure people are prepared in advance, because that's the, that's the hardest part is when we know we could have funded them more, but we just don't have the documentation to do it.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Well, I'm gonna make you feel really good about your organization right now. So in September 30th, 2021, my house flooded with Hurricane Ida. Okay? And. It was during COVID and funds were hard to come by and finding a new place to live was hard to come by. And there were, there were lots of obstacles in our way and the government had a bunch of programs in order to help us through that. And so in May of 2025, we got some of those benefits that. We really needed in October of 2021. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris Shep:

years.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

relief fund. Yeah. Four years came, came through this May, some of the emergency relief fund, uh, funds and basically their loans and things like that, that, that come through. and they came through in, in May of 20, 25 times. And, and if you were, if you didn't have credit or you didn't have a buffer, you, you would've lost your house if I didn't, if I didn't have friends, if I didn't have people who would, would vouch for me and stand up for me. my house doesn't get repaired in 2021. It absolutely amazing. three or four weeks is really different than four years, just so you know. It's got a really different vibe to it.

Chris Shep:

I feel like we're pretty fast, so.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

I, I think that's amazing. Listen, we're gonna take a short break. I want to come stick with this though. On the other side, we're gonna talk about a few things. One is the festival, which the next festival is upcoming. And it's kind of interesting how the festival came before the foundation.

Lindsey:

Exactly.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

talk about 80 chefs. We're gonna talk about, the sexy topic of mental health counseling being available to people in the restaurant industry. Uh, but this is really about people taking care of the people who take care of you and, uh. These are fun guys, and we wanna continue the conversation, so don't go away. We'll be right back. You can always find out more about us@restaurantguyspodcast.com. Hey there everybody. Welcome back. We are having a great time here with uh, chef Chris Shepherd and Lindsey Brown. They have the Southern Smoke Foundation, which is really doing great work for people in our industry. And you know, every time you go out to dinner or as waiters and bartenders and some people in this business make great money. and a lot of people are working their way up to a stable living and, and, uh, not working for big corporations has a, has a cost to it and the Southern Smoke Foundation is there and it's a safety net for a lot of people. So we're super thrilled with the work you do. But I also wanna talk about the fact that because you guys are restaurant people, the way that we do good is by, doing something. Well, the way that we try to do it is we try to translate, okay, listen, let, I don't need a volunteer work. We're gonna pick up garbage on the side of the highway, or I don't need you to come dig ditches. I need you to come out and we're gonna have a great fricking time and we're gonna divert some of those resources into helping people. So, you know, you can. Do good by doing well. Um, this started with the party, right? And talk to us about the party and, and also talk to us about the party coming up. So when people want to come down there and, and explore some of those 80 chefs, how they do it. I, I believe all great things start with a great party. So yeah. So yeah, yeah, yeah. All we know how to do, by the way, and if the whole, if all you've got is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail. So talk to us.

Chris Shep:

That's amazing. Um, I mean we, we started this, when our friend said he was diagnosed and what we were gonna do, it was, well let's call a couple of friends and see if we can throw a little dinner.'cause that's restaurant people that's know how, how we know how to raise money is basically throw parties and dinners and, know, the idea of a dinner was gonna raise five or$10,000. And then we, Lindsay and I were just like, that's not gonna cut it. And so, We were gonna throw a party in the back parking lot of the restaurant, and it was, we called Aaron Franklin and Sean Brock, and Roddy Scott and a couple friends here in Houston and said, do you want to do this thing in the parking lot? And we went to the mayor's department of Special Events just to kind of close the sidewalks around restaurant. And she looked at us and was like, Nope, we're shutting down all the streets around you. gonna give you the mayor stage so that you can have live music, and here's all the people that have the infrastructure for all of our events. And so here's lighting, here's fencing, here's this, here's that. And we're like, uh, what just happened?

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

That's great. It got big. That's what happened. It got big.

Chris Shep:

like, we had to call the guys and he was like, Hey, you know that thing for 200, it's probably gonna be more like 800, maybe a thousand. He was like, yeah, no problem, whatever. Um, and that was the goal was to raise a hundred thousand dollars that day and we raised 181,000. Um.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

So what did you charge back then? For, for, uh, for the, to come and, and be in the event. And what did people get? And this first time, what did they, what was there? What happened once they paid their engines fee and got in the door?

Lindsey:

So we charge, I mean, we haven't changed our prices that much now that I think about it. In

Chris Shep:

Mm.

Lindsey:

years, we charged$200. We, I don't believe we had any VIP that first year.'cause we just, didn't know we were just. Playing it by ear. So we, everyone was$200. of the things that we, which you guys own a wine

Chris Shep:

I think.

Lindsey:

so you'll appreciate this, but one of the things we made a pact to ourselves back in 2015 was that because we started Southern Smoke for Assam, we would never serve bad wine. So that first year we, we were pouring we were pouring Hirsch, we were pour, I mean our, our wide lineup

Chris Shep:

minor. Like all the people who have been with us since day one.

Lindsey:

wines. And these are all, you know, wineries that are still with us. You know, we just did an event in Napa a couple of weeks ago and they were all there pouring, you know, it's just, it's, it's wonderful.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

I just wanna interject here. Uh,'cause Mark and I go to civic things to raise money for the restaurant industry, sometimes to the, raise money for the theater, sometimes to do charitable events, sometimes. And I often think to myself, and we have obviously people use us for a lot of things, and especially if you're charging a high ticket, if I'm gonna spend an evening with you and sit down. I don't want a rubber chicken dinner. And, and very often we'll get people who go to a black tie affair somewhere in the county and then after dinner they come here for dinner'cause they would like to eat some food. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, and

Lindsey:

we do when we go to Kayla.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

well when I, when I give you$200 for an evening or whatever, charge me 2 75 and give me some good food and something to drink. And I, and I'll be happy there. Yep. And, and I think what you guys are doing, I, look. obviously everyone should do all their events with us, but, um, I think that it's really important to do quality, and I'm super thrilled that you guys do that.

Chris Shep:

I, I, I think that's why the VIP thing started for the next year is because when Gates opened, everybody, and, I mean everybody that was waiting outside ran right and stood in Aaron Franklin's line.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Mm, mm-hmm.

Chris Shep:

the restaurant in Austin, and it was just like we could charge more for that. So I was like,

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Yeah.

Chris Shep:

we made VIP and they get in an hour early, so they go get whatever they want before everybody else gets in. I think that's why that changed Lindsay.

Lindsey:

And one thing that's really important to us too is that we, we always

Chris Shep:

Yeah.

Lindsey:

costs. think it's hypocritical to ask all these chefs to come in from around the country and then we ask them to come out of pocket. So we pay for flights. We, our host hotel is the Four Seasons We will. Um, we will pay for your food costs. We will do our best to find, you know, sponsors for whatever they're cooking. But if, if we don't have it, we will pay you back.

Chris Shep:

And, and, and we went, we did grow, like we went from fours to eight chefs to. 16 to 20 and now to 80. Um, and, and now we're in the middle of downtown a discovery green on seven Acres. Um, we basically take over a giant restaurant that's in there for VIPA smaller restaurant for another venue. The stage is set like it's massive, um, and now it's 4,000 people.

Lindsey:

we're

Chris Shep:

But.

Lindsey:

demos with Yeti now. I mean, it's, there are all kinds of interaction, like we've got, um, do you know, paw up the resort in Montana? So they're coming and essentially taking over this, the small restaurant that Chris was talking about that is located in the park and turning it into Montana. You know, they're gonna

Chris Shep:

Yeah,

Lindsey:

fly fishing, they're gonna have a mechanical bull, they're gonna do roasting,

Chris Shep:

it's like a, a luxury dude ranch basically is what it is, you know.

Lindsey:

so we,

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

A luxury dude.

Lindsey:

yeah,

Chris Shep:

of me too. So, but I think that what has changed is that, and why it's the amount of chefs that are coming is because we really take care of them. And it's really one of the only industry events or one of the events that we get asked to do that gives back to somebody that you or may not know but is doing the same job you are doing. Right.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

And,

Chris Shep:

staff is.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

and maybe some of the people who are coming along to help you, it may be one of those people tomorrow or nextly year or next week. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Chris Shep:

Yeah. And so we,

Lindsey:

has been in the past.

Chris Shep:

so we figured out a way, just like, you know, I think we, I've always, I, I, back in the day when I played golf, I'd go to the restaurant association golf tournament, and each hole was sponsored by. And so we just had that conversation. It was like, why don't we just have each chef sponsored, like a golf hole in a tournament? And that gives us the ability to really take care of the team. And it helps raise more money just on the backside.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

And, and what have you created? You've created a better event because I'll tell you, I can't. Every one of these events I go to where I see other restaurants participating and I see them preparing food that's not as good as the food in their restaurants. And I never understood that. You know, whenever I go to one of these events, I, I wanna serve duck. I wanna serve fo gra I wanna serve you. The coolest thing that I might serve in my restaurant is what I wanna show you at, at these events. Why? Because I wanna, I'm showcasing my restaurant. It's an opportunity for me to

Chris Shep:

Yeah.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

showcase my restaurant. And now by you supplying and, but it's expensive to do these events.

Chris Shep:

Mm-hmm.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

events are, they're expensive to do. And so I understand why restaurant's like, well, I'm investing$3,000 into this event. I don't wanna invest$6,000 into this event. Right? You're putting in the labor, the time, the transport, and all that, and you're like. Well, what do I have left to spend on food? But by you covering the cost of the food that they're putting out, you now are encouraging them to produce better food. So by definition, your event is going to have better food than an event that doesn't do that.

Chris Shep:

Well, and, and, and the, and the level of talent that that comes to this is, is pretty amazing.'cause like we, we have a partnership with Food and Wine Magazine. So on September 9th this year, the Food and Wine Best New Chefs will be announced for this year. And then in October all of them are cooking in Houston. And so, when it comes down to it, like it's, we try to style out the chefs that are and the, and who's coming to town, you know, it is, it's, it's our kind of goal that they leave wanting nothing and knowing more about this than they ever would before. And you know,'cause it's, they get in on Thursday, we have a party for'em, then we have an after party for that party. Friday, it's a mental health breakfast, and then there's a pool party later in the day. And then we work with, one of our partners is Lexus. And so there's a fleet of Lexus that take them wherever they want to go in the city to eat. and then Saturday, you know, they, they cook for 4,000 and, and I tell'em, Hey, do something that's very significant to you and do something that's not overly complicated. Just really a delicious bite so that you can enjoy this moment of being together with your industry. And helping your industry and being a part of this and learning the message. Don't work yourself so hard you forget why you're here.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Yeah.

Chris Shep:

And, and I, and you know, we've all done these food festivals and things like that, but I will literally tell'em before, Hey man, if you want to take a break, just put your sign down,

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Mm-hmm.

Chris Shep:

take 20 minutes, take

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Right. There's 84 other chefs.

Chris Shep:

And yeah. And then come back and put your son back up and put some more food out. It doesn't matter.

Lindsey:

it's physically impossible to eat every bite.

Chris Shep:

Because

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Well, so talk, talk to me about the one thing about the festival, and Mark and I go to a lot of, have gone to a lot of food festivals in the last 30 something years we've been in the business. and some are great and some are like, you pay a fee to go into an area to stand online a lot to, to maybe get four restaurants by the end of the day, we'll just use the words less. Great. So what's I mean, I'm, I wanna sell your event, but I also wanna find out about your event. When somebody pays their 200 bucks or they pay for the VIP, what is their experience like? Because I think a lot of people are very leery about going to these events to stand online to, to spend half of the time online and not have anything interesting.

Chris Shep:

I,

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

what happens if I'm coming to your event, I

Chris Shep:

I think the only real line is the self-imposed ones. Um, there's always the Franklin line because there just is, that's just part of. Texas, right?

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

right.

Chris Shep:

Franklin. Everybody wants to stay in that line, but everything else is like three, four people deep because there's so much food.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

right. 85. You have 85 chefs cooking.

Chris Shep:

There's

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

not, it's not gonna be an event like that.

Chris Shep:

there or getting a glass of wine or getting a cocktail or getting this or walking around, there's really very rarely ever any lines. I mean, they're not very long.

Lindsey:

we have, you know, mobile stations. So we've got somebody that is mobile serving oysters. We've got a mobile ice cream cart. We're gonna do a mobile margarita station with alcoholic and non-alcoholic margaritas.

Chris Shep:

Hopefully I want

Lindsey:

of

Chris Shep:

theta cards. Yeah.

Lindsey:

have the underberg cart, you know, the bicycle. Um,

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Under Berg Bicycle. I like. That's my.

Chris Shep:

around then they just hand out unders to people while they're standing

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Oh, that.

Chris Shep:

know?

Lindsey:

very helpful at a food festival. And

Chris Shep:

Yeah.

Lindsey:

for VIP there's a lot of activation. So we have H Chefs and VIP this year and we try to make each. Station is not the right word, but section for the chefs as personal to them as possible. So we are literally building a barn for a Blackberry farm. We are building the facade of pool's diner for Ashley Christensen. We're building Red Hook Tavern for Billy to serve his burgers. it's really fun. We're gonna, we have a spin the wheel where people get prizes inside of VIP. We have a whole room that's all New Orleans, so we'll have Neil from Cure. We'll have Mason from Turkey and the Wolf, Anna from Akamai, and bringing a DJ in from New Orleans. So it's just the whole, the whole New Orleans vibe up there. So it's, it's just, it's fun. And if you don't want to eat or drink something at that moment, you can go over and like learn how to fly fish with paws up or. Watch a cooking demo on, on the stage, on the Yeti stage. So it's, we try to keep it as diverse as possible.

Chris Shep:

Or go sit and watch music on the giant stage.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Dude,

Lindsey:

We have live music

Chris Shep:

there's, it's, five hours of heck yeah.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Chris and Lindsay, it sounds like a great party and more importantly, it sounds like you're doing great work and, uh, thank you for it. We are, we are so looking forward to, getting the word out on this. Uh, we also want you to know when e like a local goes national, we'll see you in New Brunswick. Yeah, yeah. We're very much looking forward to that trip.

Lindsey:

it.

Chris Shep:

Bruns.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

We, yeah, we're gonna call it eat like the Jersey guy.

Lindsey:

and if y'all find yourselves in Houston on October 4th, just let us know. We've got tickets with your name on it.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Yeah, I think I'm looking at Mark right now. I'm looking at you right now. Uh oh. Jen's looking at me with an eye to the budget. Oh, no. Jen's, yes. Who knows? Maybe we'll be there.

Chris Shep:

know what? Come set up, set up at the Four Seasons, or set up at the festival and do do the podcast there,

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

I think we should do podcasts from, from your event on October 4th. I think. That'd be,

Lindsey:

that. We

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

that would be, that would be a lot of fun.

Chris Shep:

steps throughout, man,

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Exactly. Exactly. Okay. Okay, so this goes out to podcast listeners. If you think the restaurant guys should go down to the Southern Smoke Festival on October 4th, and maybe you even wanna meet us there, email us at the guys@restaurantguyspodcast.com and uh, and we'll see it's time for you guys to step up and tell us whether we should go or not. And if you are a restaurant person and you need help, or you know, someone who needs help, Southern smoke.org is where you go to find out about how you can access this. And we're gonna put that in our show notes. And, uh, this has been a really important show. Super. You guys are awesome. Super, super. You guys, you guys need to know that you're awesome and I'm proud of this show. Yeah. Yeah. You're here.

Lindsey:

thank you so much for

Chris Shep:

Thank you.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_120210:

Alright, we'll be back in just a moment. You are listening to the restaurant guys. Of course. And you can always find out more@restaurantguyspodcast.com.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_124730:

Hey there. Welcome back. Wow. Super important work. when you talk about a, a subset of people that are totally outside, where everybody is getting help. That's the group that they're helping. I can't help but think, and this is a serious moment, and then I'm gonna, I wanna go, I'm gonna lighten this up a little bit for the end, Francis. Um, uh, I just think of in our 30, 40 years in the business now, uh. How many people do we know and look as employers, we have leaned in to help a lot of people. Sure. Absolutely. And, people who need help, and we've been able to lean in because we're close enough to them. But how many people that we're either not close enough to or just they didn't have the resources and. How many people could have benefited who, who really bad things happened to? I think it's 10 off the top of my head. Who, if they, I think if I could go back in time mm-hmm. And, and put them in touch with somebody like this who could come up with some mental health counseling or a one time grant who transplant or needed afford it or who needed. To not get evicted. Mm-hmm. Which started a spiral of, you know,'cause look, the restaurant business, people often look at the restaurants and they say, oh, there's so many people in the restaurant business who are, are marginal. And there are plenty of people in the restaurant business mm-hmm. Making a fine living. But one of the reasons the people in the restaurant business are marginal, it's not people on the way down, it's on the way up. Or it's a lifeline to people who aren't nine to five Monday to Friday people. Or like they're building their life. if you have. Uh, basic health insurance and you need a kidney transplant, right? Well, you, you're gonna owe$50,000 for the rest of your life, or you could have something bad happen and you know, mm-hmm. If you get robbed and you have, you have very little saved having something like this super important. I, can we go back something a little lighter? Yes, I'd love to. Okay. Geez. Okay. So, um, we were both talking about how it needs to be fun when you raise money. Mm-hmm. And I, again, we do go to rubber chicken dinners and it's like, spend whatever you charge me, charge me 20% more and gimme something to eat. And what we found is some people who've been doing events with us are spending top dollar and charging top dollar. Mm-hmm. And their donors are giving them great feedback and saying, I will come to this again next year. Um, but I remember when this whole thing started, the, the restaurant fundraiser started with Taste to the Nation. What was that? Nineties? In the nineties. That's a long time ago. Late eighties. And Taste of the Nation was great. Started in New York. I think Danny Meyer was, was in, in, in. Pivotal to it and it was this big once a year thing and we used to go get asked to work at our friends who are wine sales reps or we go and work the thing as for cocktails or wine. And it was great. But then it devolved into, everybody copied it and it was like Taste of Princeton, taste of North Brunswick, taste of South Brunswick, taste of East Brunswick, taste of North Jersey, taste of South Jersey, taste of and taste of Somerset and everybody copied this. And so restaurants who were. Predisposed to say, yes, you're sending your chefs out 10 or 12 weeks a year to put on stuff and that's when the quality of food began to decline. And schitz on a cracker, schmutz on a cracker is sch a cracker, we used to call it. I go to all these benefits and I get, I go to these restaurants and get. Different kinds of schmutz on different kind of crackers because it's all they could do and it had nothing to do with the initial restaurant. And I think right before COVID that had sort of faded away to where people now I think restaurants are selective again. Mm-hmm. About like, listen, we can do a couple of events a year and we wanna make sure there are events that actually make money for an actual cause that we actually support. Um, I, I'll tell you an event we went to recently that was spectacular and. Magically done with City Meals on Wheels. Oh. City Meals did their annual benefit. It, it was, it was a first rate, first class event. And it, it sounds like this is gonna be that too. And shout out to Rob Oppenheimer who helped put that event mm-hmm. Who really put that event together. Yep. Uh, it was tremendous thing, but Yep. To go for Audrey Saunders, who had done it for a lot of years. For Yeah. Our friend Audrey. Wonderful. And she was pioneer. if you're gonna go and, and help some way, make it a great event, pick a few events and do them well. As a chef, better to do one or a restaurant owner. Do one or two events. When you're at that event, serve food that is similar to or exactly like the food that you serve in the restaurant, something you are proud of. Right. Something you're proud to serve and would be happy to serve in your dining room, and that will help the organization that you're trying to help. It will be the promotion that you deserve if you're out there doing it and will give people an idea of your restaurant and give you some outreach. People out in the business don't realize is the amount of money it costs to send a chef, two cooks, to send the van out with stuff to prep the day before prep two days before, not mention taking them out of your restaurant for that take right? Then you gotta cover often in overtime the people who are missing from your restaurant. It's a lot. Or the chef works is day off to go do those things. There's a lot of cost to that and it's great that the restaurants do it. We should just do it very carefully and you guys should really appreciate it when chefs do that. We hope that you have appreciated this episode of The Restaurant. Guys, I'm Francis Shot. And I'm Mark Pascal.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2025_125357:

We are the restaurant guys, and you can find out more@restaurantguyspodcast.com.