The Idea, Inlet, & Icon Behind Tubbs Seafood w/ Kyle Hardy

He quit a six-figure job.
Had a baby on the way.
And opened a restaurant in an old gas station.

In this episode of Double R Flowtown, we hear the story behind Tubbs—from Marlboro County roots to one of Florence’s go-to spots. This conversation covers business, failure, regret, and the kind of resilience you only get by going through it.

Transcript

Welcome And Local Legend Banter

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Double R Flow Town. I was AIing our guest this morning, and you know what AI said?

Reeves 0:20

He's the coolest man to ever live in Florence.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Oh, you got a local legend coming in today. That's what AI said, and I agree. Oh, thank you for coming, dude. I appreciate it. Thank you. Local legend. We're happy to be here. He said he's got the best beard in town. Yep. Yep. And you can do videos like no other, dude. You have naturally got the well, he he can feed us like no other. And you can feed us like no other.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

So yeah, man. We went from the back page of the newspaper. If you know anything about the back page of the newspaper, you don't want to be there. Yeah. To somewhere in the middle. There you go.

Seafood Roots And Papa Joe

SPEAKER_02 0:56

I think you're more to the front. You're to the front. Yeah. I we had somebody in town the other day from out of town, and they're like, oh, I don't know if you were with me. Tubbs was all they could talk about. They love coming to Florence just to eat at Tubbs.

Reeves 1:11

It's the look, it's better seafood than you'll ever get in Merles Inlet. I mean, so how do you do it?

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Um so like my my passion for for seafood is just like in my DNA. My grandfather was a fish monger my whole life. Um when when kids were walking into his little cinder block seafood market in Sunset Beach, going, it stinks in here, looking up their dad, stuff like that. And and I'd look at Papa Joe, he's like, smells like money to me. There you go. You know, I mean, like, I I fell in I fell in love with him and his work ethic, right? And that's and his love was seafood, right? So I guess that's where it came to me.

Reeves 1:59

My family, we vacation in Oceanile Beach every year, and we'll do we'll boat along the intercoastal waterway. My dad loves every time we go by Tubbs Inlet at Sunset Beach, he's like, That's Tubbs Inlet, that's Tubbs Inlet. Tell him telling his grandkids all about it.

The Sunset Beach Restaurant Regret

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Yeah, I grew up flounder fishing and just you know, just hanging out in Tubbs Inlet. Like I was super fortunate. Um, I guess from like the age of 12, I would just go up there and stay, stay for the summer, you know, and I'd be the first one in the seafood market. And and that consists of, you know, getting there at 6:30 in the morning, icing everything down, right? Everything in these ice, these big, big, huge displacles, icing everything down, getting all the lights on, getting everything cut on, and then here come my grandpa whistling through the door at you know, 7:30. And then I would just get to be elbow to elbow with him till about three, go home, wash, and then run upstairs to the restaurant and bust tables all night. And loved it. Like, like, like loved it. And then, you know, when you're not off, you just get to sit on the beach and you know, fish. And it's just I love Florence, but y'all can't keep me here the rest of my life, you know. I'm gonna be sitting on some kind of beach doing very little to nothing, you know.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Do you ever see putting uh uh another restaurant at sunset?

SPEAKER_00 3:14

So that's so before I had tubs, um, my last season working with my grandfather, I was I was in my early 20s, 21, 22. And so this is like seven, eight years grinding out with him. Um he looked at me and said, Hey, I'd like to, you know, give you a you know 10% of this business and then show you an opportunity to work and to owning more of this business, you know. Um and at the time, uh I had people in my ears saying, Hey man, that might not be the right move for you. Um come on back to Florence, you know, where I kind of had a home base established. My mom was here at the time. And uh, you know, and so I I left and I didn't do it. And then so fast forward three three years ago, he he sold it. I think he was 81, 82 at the time and had worked every day up until then. He was still working. Oh, hell yeah. Wow, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

Reeves 4:15

He probably started when he was 12 or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Dude, I mean, like, um, and so he sold it, and uh gentleman purchased uh Bill's seafood, which is the seafood market, and the convenience store downstairs, and they also uh got the the restaurant upstairs and when I mean it's a beautiful 200 seats overlooking the intercoastal waterway, like gorgeous, right? Um and and those guys have not been able to find success with that restaurant, right? It's it's they've had three or four different, they'll they'll lease it out now, three or four different guys come there and lease it out, and it's just it's not worked out well. I mean, I rode by there, I went to Sunset two weeks ago to go cut my grandma's grass, and I and you can't go there and not have it's right there at the roundabout.

Reeves 4:58

You gotta pass every time you go there, and I see it, and it's just like Is it right there on the bridge overlooking dinner coastal at sunset?

SPEAKER_00 5:06

So you know where the roundabout is to get it's it's the restaurant at the roundabout.

SPEAKER_03 5:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Before they had the big overpass bridge, they had the the pontoon bridge at sunset, right? Yeah, it was like the last the last pontoon bridge on the east coast. I loved it, you know what I'm saying? But on hour, every hour, that thing opens up, you know what I'm saying? Like, um, so they got it rid of that. So my grandfather's just right down there. I mean, beautiful real estate, great piece of property. Um, and a and a great business model. But this guy's coming there and you know, um, the restaurant's just going to shit. Well, they they're can't even they're not the restaurant's not even open and the summer season's coming. You know, they painted the whole building. Why? I mean, it just looks like I mean, I don't know if he listens this, but I'm gonna come buy that building from you and show you how to run it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was my dream, right? And then and and my grandpa wanted me in there to an extent, and it it just You're gonna end up with it.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

You're gonna end up with it.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

You know, it just didn't work out. And then so I get tubs and I get some some not, I don't know, success is the word, but um it is, I would say so. Just some operating experience. Yeah, and I was like, um, and it and my grandpa approached me again, hey, I'll finance it. Come take it. You know what I'm saying? And at the time, my partners, uh, I had two partners at the time, they were not interested in it. And so I just let it go. And uh, he passed away last year. Um yeah, just kind of like, I don't know. That that haunts me. That not not jumping on that place haunts me. Like my soul's there. Yeah. I want to, I want y'all to spread my ashes somewhere. Okay, we got you.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

Sometimes the timing's just not right. I mean, I think if if all the cards were different, you would have done it. You just didn't have the right people in the world.

Reeves 6:46

Do you know those guys?

Marlboro County Grit And Football

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Nah, when they when they came in and bought it, he he he dug in my ear a little bit, and I kind of said, Hey, you know, this is this is what I would do, you know, this is who I would rely on, this is who I wouldn't rely on. And, you know, I don't think you listen to much of it, but it is what it is. You know, I don't wish this industry is so hard. I don't wish bad days on even my enemies. You know what I'm saying? Like if they're in this industry, they can punish enough. Yeah, just trying to make it work.

Reeves 7:13

Yeah, but you grew up in Florence.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

I grew up in Bennett's.

Reeves 7:16

Bennett's okay. I'm from Marlboro County. There you go. Oh, I hear I'm Marlborough, man. I hear that.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

We'd have to cross the river if we needed husky bridges, right? Or we had to come over here a little date. We we'd bring them over here. Redbone Alley was the spot. Oh, yeah. You know, um, come to the big city. Yep. And uh, so yeah, I was born and raised in Marlboro County. Um, you know, football, I love football. I played Savelle Newton. So, yeah, I was a little older than Savelle, but we won the state championship in 2001. We had guys like Timere Zimmerman, greatest football player to ever come out of the state of South Carolina, like just amazing talent. Savel's older brother was a quarterback, okay, quarterback of something for us. He played uh, he don't play in the NFL too, the other Cam Newton. Yeah, yeah, the unforgotten. Yeah, and he's actually on the NFL choir, which is was kind of cool.

Reeves 8:02

Oh, that's neat. That is cool.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Yeah, I got to play with just some studs and stuff like that. Love football, love competition from like an early age. I can remember my dad saying, I think it might have been like a wee blow, not even a boy scouting like that. I'm six, seven years old. My dad's like, All right, time to put this little you know girl shit away. Sign you up for football, yeah. And that was all it took, man.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Those country boys, y'all are the strong country boys.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

I remember playing you guys when I was in high school here, and I'm like, ooh, these guys are stronger than us. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

When you have one high school in the whole darn county, I mean, you know?

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Yeah, yeah.

Reeves 8:42

You couldn't handle the boys from Marlboro. No, sir.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

No, sir, no, sir. They were like men playing with boys, but they are though.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

I mean, like the guys are, you know, um, these guys out in Clowo and McCall and Wallace, it's you know, seeing it's a it's a different breed. It is, it is.

Reeves 8:58

Um so you got your experience with your grandfather up at Tubbs Inlet, Sunset Beach, come back, you start open some restaurants.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Uh it wasn't quite that easy.

Door To Door Sales And Hard Lessons

Reeves 9:08

Well, I mean, so tell us about it.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Came back, got married, started having children, um, and then I went and worked for my other grandpa, okay, who started a business in the late 50s. He was the Watkins man. Do y'all know what the Watkins men are? Okay. So my grandfather would drive around door to door in um smaller communities and deliver or sell home goods to 99% older African American ladies, right? Out of a van.

Reeves 9:43

And when I say home goods, I mean Yeah, what are home goods?

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Bed-in-a-bags, pillow shams, bathroom sets, and stuff like that. But also salt and pepper hair wigs, you know, uh all the linaments, salves, hair grease, stove curlers. I might need some of that. So we wouldn't use a little something extra to make it grow. But that stage and sulfur, the bergamot, the horse grease. I mean, you know, all of them. So my grandfather started this business. My grandfather was raised in the depression, right? Went and fought World War II, came back, and he he he tells a story. He was working for a guy. Um imagine Walmart before Walmart, and instead of going into Walmart, they brought what you needed to your house. Genius, right? Oh, you need a little clock radio. Here I go, you know, pedaling up to your house. I'll, you know, say it's two-dollar clock radio, whatever it is. So my grandfather worked for another man doing this. And the story goes at the Christmas party, the man had got up in front of the Christmas party. He was feeding everybody steaks and baked potatoes, and he drew a circle on the chalkboard. He said, Now this is my pie, and I appreciate y'all helping me build this pie. And it pissed my grandpa off. So my grandpa walked up there at the Christmas party and struck to that man's pie, and he drew his own pie. Yeah. And he cut it up. He said, This is gonna be our pie. Who wants to come with me? Wow. Right? And so my grandpa started going door to door selling whatever. Fast forward, my my dad worked for him. Um, you know, my uncle worked for him, and then I worked for him.

SPEAKER_03 11:15

All right.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Literally. How you doing, Miss Lottie? Good to see you. It's, you know, first week of the month. Um first of the month. First of the month, right? Money's there. You know, and but it but what I'm doing, I'm provide, you know what I'm saying? Like a lot of these families on fixed incomes, yeah, they don't have, they didn't have$100 to go buy a bed in a bag, right? Or whatever it is, a new bedroom suit for their grandchild, or whatever it may be. So I had the opportunity, and when I say opportunity, it was an opportunity, and it was a tremendous blessing. Like since I can remember riding with my dad on the route, and I'd be laid in the back of the van on like comfort sets. You know, there ain't no, you know, I'd ride around with him to Heartsville, and he'd take me to Yogi Bears Fried Chicken, and we'd go to Lincoln Avenue, and we'd knock on doors, and and the people would, they he'd get anointed with oil, and he'd get he'd get to eat meatloaf sandwiches with these people, you know what I'm saying? And he'd stay and watch the younger wrestlers. And then fast forward 30 years, and I'm getting anointed with oil. I'm I'm pall bears at funerals, I'm bouncing little babies on my knees, uh, you know what I'm saying, watching younger wrestlers, eating pigs' feet, and and calling it a life. I think I was making$300 a week, right?$400 a week. But I mean, it literally, so I, you know, had kids, you can't yeah, you know,$400 a week. Um, and so I told my grandpa I was gonna go get like a real job. So I started working at monster.com, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:42

Yeah.

Growing Up Broke And Finding Empathy

SPEAKER_00 12:42

So they were out here at Florence and they had a sales center, 200, 250 salespeople in there. And inside of that sales center, they had two salespeople specifically called winback reps. And and they they had me call everybody that hated us, right? And and bring them back to Monster. And I was good at it. I bet. Um, and and the next thing you know, I'm making six figures, health insurance, 401k. Never, you know, dreamed of anything like that, right? Never dreamed of it. I could pay my bills for the first time ever in the history of my life. I mean, ever, I grew up not being able to pay my bills. Like, like uh I grew up in in, I guess, less than ideal situation. Right? Um my parents weren't really around much, and uh and there wasn't a lot of money, and so I kind of just had to fend for myself. And I had two little sisters, and so a lot of my time was spent raising my sisters. Wow, and uh yeah, uh you know, yeah, a lot of wild stuff.

Reeves 13:51

Before we get to the monster and everything since monster, I want to hear a little more about how you feel like how you were brought up and uh circumstances and all of that, how you think that shaped the man you are today?

SPEAKER_00 14:07

When I when I see people hurt like I hurt, like I think it's an like an inflated sense of empathy, I guess. Like to the point of where like I just know to struggle. Like, you know, I know what it's like to not have food in the fridge. I know what it's like to not know if your parents are dead or alive or coming home, or you know, I know what it's like to have every possession you have repossessed, and you know, you know, not not really know what's going on.

Reeves 14:39

I there's a humility that comes from that experience that that you don't learn unless you've been through it.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Yeah, uh hum I guess humility. If you if I'm able to talk about humility, I don't know if that makes me qualifies me as being humble, but yeah, resolve, a sense of resolve, yeah, a sense of, I mean, I can just be utterly kicked in the teeth and I'm just gonna keep getting back up with no questions asked.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

And is and is that connection with people and other people struggling, you kind of understand it deeper.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Dude, a lady came in the tubs yesterday, she just said she was hot, asked for you to cool down. Like, I didn't ask no questions, please. You know what I'm saying? She was uh black lady in her 80s, please have a seat. Can I get you something to drink? I want a little water, I don't have no money. Okay, please. Yeah, and I go to the server, I say, hey, whatever she wants, you feed her. Wow, you know, don't and I'm not saying this to say, hey, everybody, I look how amazing I am. I'm just saying, like, look, I know what I know what that's like. Yeah, I know what it's like to not have a dollar in your pocket and you know, watch people thrive. You know, it's it's it's it's hard. Initially, what it builds is is resentment, right? Yeah. Like initially, like if you had my neighbor had my neighbor had a two basketball goals in his backyard, right? Every everything imagine trampolines and stuff like that. And I, you know, like at 13, you should be resentful at somebody. I mean, and I can remember being, you know, resentful at people that had stuff just simply because I didn't have it. Now, looking back on it, how ignorant was I, right? Um but that comes with time, experience, you know, being able to see your own.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

There's a bigger purpose for all of it, I think. You know, sometimes you get those those experiences because God's kind of got a bigger plan that we don't see at that time, you know? I know there's a lot of lives you've already blessed just having that kindness in you that a lot of people just don't understand.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Well, I can also be an asshole.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

We all can. None of us are probably.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

I'll cuss your soul, but it's so fast.

Reeves 16:56

Welcome to being a man.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Yeah, yeah. I was raised by a mountain of a man. Like, I mean, my father, for all his flaws, was an absolute, like a like memorable, remarkable person. You know what I'm saying? Like he battled addiction and different stuff like this, but you can still go back to Marble County today, and even people that he might have done wrong, they still love him. It's it's kind of it's kind of wild, man.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

Like, hey, I might say he's a local legend.

Monster.com Success And Corporate Friction

SPEAKER_00 17:24

In Marlboro County, I promise you. I um I'll be doing things and I'll hear like people say, You're from Bennettville. I'll be like, Yeah, I'm from Bennettsville. I swear to God, I was I can remember that, and my memory is so horrible, but I can remember this was probably eight, nine years ago, table six at Tubbs. So if you're ever at Tubbs, it's the back right table. My sister at the time, Riley Joe, was serving there, and these people eating there, didn't know them from Adam, da da da. And they mentioned they were from Bennettsville. And I'm like, oh, I'm from Bennettsville, da da da da. What's your name? Hardy. And the lady stopped and she said, Did you know a Ronnie Hardy? I said, That was my dad. Why would he do to you? Yeah, you know. Um, no, my daughter was in a horrible accident, and the car, she was pinned in the car, and this random man just pulled up and pulled her out of the car and rushed her to the hospital to save her life. It was your dad. You know what I'm saying? Like, yeah, I still, you know what I'm saying? Like, how cool is that? And but then you get here, oh, he just, you know, broke somebody's neck with a baseball bat. Like, you know, two sides of a coin. Yeah. Yeah.

Reeves 18:24

So, so Monster.com started having a little bit killing it.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Killed it.

Reeves 18:30

Killed it.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

Oh my god. Yeah. First time I got like fly on the airplane, they flew me to Boston for training. I hate, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm hate that stuff. I mean, it was a lot of first there. You know what I'm saying? Like, I became somewhat of an adult, right? Monster.com, right? Um they bring in, you know, it's all about your numbers. I'm great at sales. I'm just not built for for HR departments. Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Yeah, me neither.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Um, just does not sit well with me. And and and also some some things in that environment, it's not like a meritocracy where, like, hey, my hard work has dictated that, you know, I'm taken care of in this way. It's like a lot of favorites and offices and stuff like that, man. And I just don't believe that shit. So um, but in the meantime, my manager there, his his boss, or excuse me, my manager's brother worked for Mark Burnett Productions, and they did Survivor, The Apprentice, and all this stuff. And he was telling him about me on the spread route. And this guy's like, I don't believe it. I was like, Oh, I yeah, it's all legitimate. So they, this guy had me go around with a handicam or and and film myself. And I didn't do it. Steve Toniolo actually did it. He was he was promoting this, like he saw the petition. He saw the vision. He saw the vision. Anybody else? So Steve's like following me around with a handicam watching me knock on doors and do my thing. And I also didn't mention if they don't pay for it, you gotta repossess it too, right? So their stories of my dad like snatching people's curtains off the wall and lighting them on fire on the front porch. Like, why, you know, I told him, you know, pistol in my pocket everywhere I went. You just don't ever know. So this guy sees this video and he's like, holy crap. So they fly down, they fly a whole production company down here and they put GoPros in all our vans and they like They're ready to do a reality TV show. They film a three-day sizzle reel, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:22

Really?

SPEAKER_00 20:22

And they have and huh, yeah. And then they shopped around in in Spike TV, which was a thing at the time.

Reeves 20:30

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

And I think it was TNT, one of them, whatever one that did uh the repo guys.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

That network was interesting. Like, this is gold.

Reeves 20:44

Marlborough County Boys, gold we have here.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Oh, like Chancy Man, like, and you get to see behind the scenes like how script and then how stage and how much they just want me to look like a dumb redneck because the more like a dumb redneck I look, the more money they make. Yeah, yeah. And so we kind of kill that that deal there.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

Uh if they would have just let it be natural, that thing would probably be like the top show ever.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

It was, I mean, but but that was just a wildlife. So so fast forward, I'm still at Monster filming that reality show.

Reeves 21:16

I mean, that's crazy. You could have been, I mean, that could have been a big deal.

unknown 21:21

I don't know.

Reeves 21:22

But you just didn't.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

I'd have messed it up somehow. I'd have messed somehow. It should have been a big deal. They messed it up. They tried to script it. Um they didn't try to put you in a box. Let me loose. Yeah, just let that man do his thing.

Reality TV Almost Happened

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Uh, but that was, you know, unique experience, you know. Um, so I'm I'm back at Monster, and uh Steve Tonyola Toniolo and I were eating lunch, and we were I was eating shrimp somewhere in town. And I said, Man, this shrimp sucks. Sucks. You know, I wish I could just drive down to my grandpa's and just bring people good shrimp. Steve, Steve, I don't know if y'all know Steve. Oh yeah. Like entrepreneur through and through. Awesome. Maybe I I don't know that I've ever met somebody better at conceptualizing an idea from start to finish.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

And the restaurant world's in his DNA.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Yeah, Stefano's, Chivos. I mean, they they you know they do a great job. So Steve and I, at this point, we weren't conceptualizing a restaurant, but we were like, hey, we'd get off a monster on Friday, we'd get in my truck, we'd drive down to my grandpa's, I'd fill the back of my truck up with like diver, scallops, yellow fin tuna, you know, beautiful North Carolina flounder, soft shell crabs when they're popping off like all the stuff. We'd sit beside Stefano's on that little slice of earth right there.

Reeves 22:51

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

And we'd pedal our wares Saturday morning. And, you know, we'd set up a cornhole table, or you know what I'm saying, like whatever it may be, and and we created the brand Tubbs Shrimp and Fish Company. Tubbs is Tubbs Inlet. You know, a lot of people ask that, but right there, you know, my grandpa's back porch. So so we kind of developed this brand. This was I guess 14, 15 years ago. Um, you know, we'd get on Facebook and make like a dumb meme, you know, and then we'd show up and there'd be 20 cars.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

So you'd sell out pretty quick.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

No, not not initially.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Uh it took a little time.

Building Tubbs From A Gas Station

SPEAKER_00 23:30

It took a little time. But what the great opportunity when we weren't selling out, we were taking the seafood and we were just walking into Stefano's and and cooking meals for ourselves. Uh I go, God dog Steve, that's the best strip of grits I ever had. What the? Well, and we and we would say that and they go, why do we have a seafood market? Not seeing that natural, that's not the fit, right? The fit is the restaurant. The restaurant. So, next thing, you know, over the course of time, like we would sell out. Like there would be people waiting on us before we could even get set up, there'd be 50 cars waiting on us. Um, and then hey, let's let's pull the trigger. Steve left Monster First and helped uh, you know, found that location where Tubbs is currently. It's the only thing we could afford.

Reeves 24:19

Yeah, so I want to ask about that location because it's iconic. It's an old gas station. Oh, I hear about it every day.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

Turner's open air market.

Reeves 24:27

I wooden windows. Who it's awesome and it's perfect, but it takes some out-of-the-box thinking. Hey, let's put a restaurant with all kinds of rules, regulations, D hack, everything inside an old nasty gas station. And you've done it, and it's awesome. In fact, I'm going to dinner there tonight. So, I mean, either all the, you know, but anyway, how what what was the thought process behind it? All we can afford.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Wow. Cheap. Rent was I think eleven hundred dollars first year a month. You know, like we went in there and knocked down walls and laid tile, and my at this point, um, so we realized we were gonna do a restaurant. So then I gotta go to my wife, who's actually eight months pregnant with my third child, and say, hey, you know this nice little thing we like to call six-figure inchrome and health insurance and 401k? Kiss it all goodbye. And and and so Steve quit, I quit, and I literally like would have a baby in a jumper right there, and I'm like uh putting down LVT tile and you know, all night long. Yeah.

Reeves 25:37

If just real quick, first podcast, Gary Finkley, we go back to it all the time. What is what does a city need? It needs risk takers, and you just described a monumental risk. You jumped from comfort, from ease, you know, into this might work, it might not work, but we're gonna do it, we're gonna give it a shot. So good job.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

Yeah, I appreciate it. I've also taken a lot of risks that didn't pay off, you know.

Reeves 26:05

Well, that's gonna happen. That's part of it. That's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

Yes, sir.

Reeves 26:08

Yeah, so laying tile, your how how does your wife respond to this? What what the go for it?

SPEAKER_02 26:15

Okay, that's good. Um she knew that's what you always wanted to do.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

I like to work, man. Like um, and I'll bet on myself. I you know, I haven't had the opportunity of relying on other people a lot. You know what I'm saying? Like, um, I was very thankful. My my grandparents have been were big parts of my life and like helped us out a lot. Yeah. You know, I live with them for times, my sisters and all. But like, pretty much, if I wanted anything or needed something, like, that's on me. It just they don't they don't fall down from heaven. You know what I'm saying? And they blessings do fall down from heaven. But I used to have a guy that said, you can sit in a corner, you can sit in a closet and pray for a hot dog, your ass is gonna starve to death. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like, you you gotta get it and put you put in your part.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

That's right. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

So I've been willing to do that from day one, I feel like.

SPEAKER_02 27:08

We need a lot more of that.

Reeves 27:09

So, what year did y'all open tubs on second loop?

SPEAKER_00 27:13

13, 13, 14 years ago, something like that, whatever that is. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Reeves 27:18

Uh and it opened 13, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

Is that to we we kind of soft opened it and just absolutely got punished like from day one, people busted down the doors. Wow.

Reeves 27:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

I I still, it's like lightning in a bottle. I mean, because at this point I have been a part of owning, operating, or opening six restaurants um in the Florence community. Um and to be able to do it successfully once is unreal. To be able to have done it somewhat successfully twice with King Hefe and Tubbs is to me like odds divine, right? It is.

Other Restaurants Wins And Failures

Reeves 28:00

So for people who don't know, let's just put them out there very clearly. Tubbs.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

Yep.

Reeves 28:06

King Jefe.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

Yep. Then we went, then we went Revival Burger. Yep. Best damn burger in the history of Florence. I still stand on that. Uh location, location hurt. Just that location, you think? Also, the concept, I mean, you got to think about it. This was probably seven, eight years ago in Florence. Five guys, you know, was kind of a thing, but people already complain about that a la carte style, all that. You know what I'm saying? Like, yeah, I should have been more considerate when developing the menu. Um, if you put if you put a revival burger today beside in any major college town, it would crush it.

Reeves 28:40

God, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

Crush it. Unreal. Like, I still believe that that brand, even from the logo, the I mean, just all the work we put in there. It was it was phenomenal.

SPEAKER_02 28:50

And the recipes in that burger was really I love that you still have that burger on the menu.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

It's not the same at FA, it's not the same. Yeah, but it's as close as I could get it without diving fully into burgers.

Reeves 29:01

Well, maybe we go to Sunset, we buy your grandfather's old building, we put tubs number two in there, and then we put a revival burger somewhere on Sunset.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Dude, moneymaker right there. Yeah, like my granddaddy says, You got a hundred, you got a hundred days to make money down there. That's your whole thing about the beach, right? It's not Myrtle Beach.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

Is that not a little more full year? No, it's still that same.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

You got a hundred days. Okay. So in that hundred days, you don't take a day off. You don't, you know what I'm saying? You grind for a hundred days. And then day 101, you start fixing shit.

SPEAKER_02 29:35

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

Getting for ready for the next hundred days. Wow, that's interesting.

Reeves 29:39

But there's a third business. I mean, you did Revival Burger.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

Yep, so revival did Revival Burger. We um we we used Tubbs as our incubator. I'm guessing people kind of saw that along the lines. Like, yep, we took Tubbs on Tuesday, started doing Taco Tuesdays because I we knew King Jefe was coming, right? Yeah. So we used that to perfect the King Jefe menu. And then once we had the menu settled out, hey, here's King Hefe. And then we did like Moo Mondays at Tubbs, right? Yeah. Burgers, burgers, burgers, burgers, burgers, revival burger, right? Cool. Um, you know, Revival Burger didn't work out. Um, I went to a two-year technical college for about four years, didn't get a degree. Um, but that was my college education, like Revival Burger. Oh, yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_02 30:21

That's way better education than you get anywhere else.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

I think it called ended up costing like$300,000. Like starting all you want to talk about starting over again and like gut punched, and are you meant to do this? You got a doctorate. Yeah. Yeah. I'm teaching classes right on how to get punched in the face. Yeah. But that's that's I guess that's business. I'm good at it. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Um, so you know, failed horribly and like really shook my confidence. Um affected my and shook my confidence in a way where it affected my desire to take risks. Yeah. Right? Like, look what you just did, dumbass. Why didn't take a risk, right? Right, yeah, yeah. You know, um, it was a just a but it was a great learning experience. But it didn't stop you. Uh it didn't stop me. So we went, I'm trying to remember now. We went from that, um, somewhere along the line, away I'd bought a bakery sweet, you know. Um, this is Entrepreneur Steve. Love him for all his great things. The bakery wouldn't it, Steven? Um you know, and at the time I could not afford to eat the cupcakes that sweet and somehow let him convince me into buying a damn thing. Yeah. Uh so yeah, that's whatever it was. Um, Pizza Meo.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

I remember. We jumped in that. Remember that? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:39

So that was um Steve's dad, big Steve, um, had that spot. And they were gonna do a pizza, they were gonna do their own pizza concept. And um, he got locked in with some rent and stuff like that, and then um he'd had some health problems, right? And so Steve came and was like, hey, you know, I think we have an opportunity to not only help my dad, but to make some money. And I like, I'm good with both of those things. Yeah, you know, so jumped in that business. It's it's cool to um, I enjoy learning the different processes of these different things, like dough. You would just think, okay, dough is dough, you know, not many things, four different things in it, but like dough is a science, yeah. Dough is a process, dough is a is a logistics nightmare, right? Like um learning things like that about the industry. Is it still there? Uh it is not, it's now some wing place. That's right, wing stop. Wingstop, yep.

Reeves 32:29

God, I was at West Florence Monday night. I had don't eat all day Monday until five o'clock. Just do that's my thing. I had to go watch my son play tennis. I wanted to go somewhere that I thought was somewhat healthy. I went to Wing Stop. You don't own that, do you? No, no, God, it sucked. It was porn. Oh, he owns it. Oh, he loves it. I showed over this bag that I've they call it food. I don't know if it was. And my daughters who goes to West Point, she's like, you should have known not to go there.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

That's I look, wings are my thing. Like my death row meal was probably like meatloaf, wings, a banana milkshake. Yeah, and I can't, it is sad. I wings just I haven't found the wing spot in Florence for me yet. Well, it's not there's a lot of them. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, so uh, you know, pizza me oh, it ended up not working out, but not because it wasn't a good concept or good quality food. Just, you know, I'm saying, like, it just didn't work. Sometimes these things don't work. That's right. Um, I we now own and operate Tubshrim Fish Company. I now own and operate Tub Shrimp and Fish Company, um, King Hefe, and Down Country Grill, which is located inside of Hope Health. It is open to regular customers, all you people out there listening, inside of Hope Health Downtown. We do breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday, daily lunch specials, daily breakfast specials, like hand, like we're making stuff from scratch back there. The burgers are phenomenal. Actually, I had a burger from there Monday. It might be my favorite burger in Florida right now. We need to go. So is there a cool little area to eat? Yeah, I mean, there's places to sit down and eat. Cool.

Reeves 34:14

Downcountry Grill.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

Downcountry Grill.

Reeves 34:16

On Hope Health corner of the world.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

I think it's 134 Urby, yep. Yeah. Um is the address there. Right there in the back, right where the pharmacy is. Yes. If you pull around the back, there's parking that says Hope Health. I mean, uh, Downcountry Grill parking. Oh, really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

I mean, you're really a nice campus right there. And it's right, I mean, it's really kind of walkable from all the downtown stuff.

Payroll Pressure And Community Impact

SPEAKER_00 34:36

Mike, the Mike Rickenbaugh guys have been killing us lately. Love it. Good. Good. That's good. Uh yeah, and and and so, and and it really is quality food. I mean, I I enjoy it. And we do wings there too, and our wings there pretty damn good, right? Well, there we go. We got a robot. And and I have um, my manager, Jess, is running that place, and actually Jess has been with me. She's she has been every position in every restaurant I have. Wow. And that's valuable. Works harder than any man back there in a kitchen, is sharper than you know, just about anybody. And I try to, I try to surround myself with people of my own ilk, you know what I'm saying? Like, and I'm not supposed to surround myself with, I'm not a, I don't want a vacuum like an echo chamber. Yeah, you know, I don't want 10 carbon copies of me. But what I want do want is people that are that that will just work and grind. And they might, you know, they might, they might operate out of frustration or a little chip on their shoulder or whatever it may be. But I like to, I like to watch people build themselves up and pull themselves up and just like gain confidence. That's awesome. Um and and and be able to find stability and stuff on their own.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

And how many people do you employ?

SPEAKER_00 35:58

I mean, at one at one point, I think my highest count, I had 80 employees in Florence. And I now I'm a little over 50 employees. That's a lot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:11

I mean, it's like you said, that's a big payroll every week.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

Yeah, that's a it's a big response. What it is for me, it's it's a lot of house payments that have to be made. It's a lot of it's a lot of medical bills for a lot of kids that have to be paid. You know what I'm saying? It's not I'm probably wrong for operating like this because it leads me to make decisions that aren't best for the business. But like when when COVID happened or things like that, like I'm gonna pay my bills. I'm gonna get out, I'm gonna do things, I'll do illegal things probably to pay my bills. I'm gonna do what I need to do to pay my bills. Right. I'm gonna dig ditches, I'm gonna go, you know, kill possums and sell to pelt, whatever the hell I got to do, I'm gonna do it. But I'm also gonna do whatever I have to do so that their bills are paid too, as long as they're working with me.

Reeves 37:11

And that's the beauty of local operators, local owners, and the community supporting local business because we're all invested here. It all kind of synergizes together. We go, we go eat at tubs, you make some money, it helps pay your employees so that their kids can get health care, and it all just kind of synergizes.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

Richie Skipper told us it turns local business turn that money turns seven times. I believe it in the local community.

SPEAKER_00 37:41

I believe it. So I mean, like employing a mom and then a couple years later employing her daughter, and then watching the mom buy that daughter's first car, and then watching the daughter pay her own car insurance. That's awesome, right? Like, it's awesome to see, but I carry those as responsibilities and burdens, right? Wow. Um, if if uh if an employee can't pay their house payment, well part of that, I I know it shouldn't be, but I feel like part of that's on me. Like, what kind of asshole am I? You know what I'm saying? Like paying somebody a wage that they can't not only, you know, have a little bit of fun, you know what I'm saying, take their take their kid out in the damn China buffet and make a house payment. What kind of, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, how can I live with myself? And so I'm gonna make sure they eat before I'm gonna try to make sure they eat before I eat. Wow, that's that's powerful.

Reeves 38:39

And this is all from a guy who grew up in Marlborough County, sold curtains to little old ladies on the street, found a job at Monster, found a passion that connected back to your childhood with your grandfather, and you've built some incredible businesses, some incredible responsibility. He's just getting going, Really? Yeah, and the sky's the limit for your best is yet to come.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

The sky's the limit.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

If this is all I get to do, like if you're like capped out, Kyle, this is it, like I'm I'm happy. Like, as far as like things and stuff like that, I don't need a whole lot. Like I I'm I don't and I'm not ever going, I don't, I don't ever have the the the dreams of getting rich. It just ain't like in like I just don't think it's a reality. Like my my hard work is not going to I'm not gonna see the reward for my hard work in hundreds of thousands of dollars in bank account and beach houses and you know luxury trips. That's that's not how it's gonna come to me. Now, hopefully, I work hard enough that my children have an easier life than I have. I just want to be able to get a little car when it's 16 and maybe go to college if they're smart enough.

SPEAKER_02 39:57

You know what I'm saying? Like, and you've already got your daughter helping you in a big way, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

So, so my oldest daughter, Olivia, um, she graduated from South Florence. She, and when she graduated, she jumped right into um uh EMT. So she, when she graduated high school, she was already like uh an EMT, advancing EMT. Um, I mean like saving lives. Like literally, my 18-year-old daughter would come home from work and I'd say, Hey, baby, how's your day? And she like, oh, you know, gunshot wound to the head, you know, guy impaled in his car. Um it was okay. How's your day, Dad? I'm like, oh my God. Yeah, you know, like I'd have to go, you know, soak in a tub. You know what I'm saying? Like, how do you wash that off of you? Yeah. And I had a, you know, an 18-year-old daughter just dealing with that like nerves of steel. And so fast forward this year, she quit her job in uh as a first responder, and she's joined me at the restaurant full time and has taught herself every executive function function required to offer those places more successfully than I've been doing them thus far.

SPEAKER_02 41:05

Honestly. That's awesome. That's good. And if somebody's choking on a fish bone, she can save them. Literally.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

You have no idea the people she stitched up in that office. She gives me my B12 shot in that office every, every, you know, whenever I get like that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 41:20

Um, yeah. That's gotta be fun working with your daughter.

SPEAKER_00 41:22

Oh my God. My and my so and then my 16. So Olivia has been working, she started in the bakery when she was 12 years old, right? So she's been working for me for you know the last 10 years roughly. Yeah. My middle daughter, Laura Grace, she attends uh West Florence. Um, and she's there, she's in the STEM program there and like just excels. That's intense. Like, and she kills it, like absolutely kills it, puts a lot of pressure on herself. Um, you know, we're working with that, but like just so smart and so good and works so hard. She don't know this yet. We recently started an employee of the month, um, uh an employee of the month thing at Tubbs, and uh and it's no nepotism. She is going to be named our second employee of the month at Tubbs. Like our, you know, Miss Kelly won the first month, and so this month um it's gonna be my daughter Law Grace. And I didn't decide that. That's like from her peers. That's awesome. You know, at six years old, they see her working. Yeah, if she could legally run alcohol, she could run that restaurant right now. Wow, honestly, at 16 years old, sharp. And then my son Colton, he's 12, he just wants to hang out in the dish pit and like like you know, talk junk. He likes the back of the house of the restaurant. Okay, he wants to tell your mama jokes and you know what I'm saying, do all that. Hey, you need a good back of the house guy. Hey, you got you have to have that, you know what I'm saying?

Reeves 42:45

Well, and I just think it's so cool because when we talk to guys who own them businesses and you're in your first generation, but the second generation's coming, and I think that family legacy is so cool. Oh, yeah, that's so awesome.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

Yeah, I haven't um, you know, my my I feel like my family's legacy up until this point is kind of murky and and not been positive a whole lot up until now. I mean, you know, you come from a small town, everybody knows your business. Yeah, yeah, you know, everybody, you know, everybody knew what was going on in that wild ass house.

SPEAKER_02 43:24

But there's a lot of people that love you guys there too. Yeah, there's there's more stories about your dad helping people you haven't heard yet.

SPEAKER_00 43:31

Oh, a thousand percent, you know, and and legacy ain't legacy ain't leaving my son a Rolex. No, you know, that's not, you know, and for a while though, I thought That's what it was, you know, when my father passed away, I was like, I got a pair of boots, you know what I'm saying, and a bunch of debt. You know, what kind of legacy was this? But that you know, that's that's not legacy. Legacy is I'm working hard to give them a better name, right? That's like legacy. See my hard work and the way I treat God's children. Hopefully, people will give them an opportunity because of that. Wow. That's awesome, man.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

I tell you, I'm proud of you, dude. You're Florence is blessed to have you here. You're honestly a bigger part of this town than you probably even realize. And keep on keep on trucking.

Reeves 44:24

Well, and like you said, Robert, I think, you know, the best is yet to come. And my wife and I, we love to go King Hafe on Friday evenings. We love to go to Tubbs. Typically, we'll hit Tubbs Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. We'll try to hit King Hefe on a Friday. But the best is yet to come, Kyle. And I'm excited for what you've done. I'm I'm thankful for you. I'm excited to hear your story. I didn't know it, so that's really cool. And whatever is coming next, I think it's going to be some cool things. So good job.

SPEAKER_00 44:56

Good or bad is coming, right? That's right. That's right. That's right. I just got to, you know, my granddaddy, he'd look at I can I can my favorite, my favorite three things about my grandfather at the beach, Papa Joe. Papa Joe. He whistled like the best whistler you ever. And he'd just be there cutting flounder all day long. And I just I could sit there and listen to him whistle all day. I'd get one dirty joke a day, right? And then I'd get one, and then every now and then he'd throw out this little, you know, little cherry that I get a hold of for the motivational thing, right? Yeah. My favorite one was if it ain't one thing, it's your mother, right? But then, you know, I could also truth in that. How you eat an elephant? Sam? Like that's his thing. How you eat an elephant, so in one bite at a time. That's right. I suggest you don't do more than that because you'll choke. You know?

SPEAKER_02 45:46

That was you know as you're living life, those little sayings just come to you, don't they? I could say and they they molded you.

Stoic Thinking And Fewer Opinions

SPEAKER_00 45:53

Dude, nothing sticks in my brain, but the things that stick are like intended, you know what I'm saying? Like God absolutely wants it there because I can't leave it behind. Yeah. That's awesome. I get overwhelmed. I mean, you know, this week I'm like, one body at a time, Boba, you gotta do it. That's right. That's what it is. I um I so about a year ago, I started reading like stoic, I started getting into stoic philosophy. Um I really like some of the principles that that helps me focus on on a daily basis. Um I think that that's done, that's that's been pretty helpful to me recently. A big thing, uh so it might sound dumb, but my reading a couple weeks ago, and it's just like it rolls around in my head every day is it's okay to not. Why do I feel like I have to have an opinion on everything? Right? Like they the the philosophy, it was it was referencing like something Marcus Aurelius had quoted. Um, and then it then it goes on like uh a recent application on you know the the negative consequences of have feeling like you have to have an opinion on everything. And so I'm practicing that. And I find it comforting to realize that one, my opinion really doesn't matter all that much, especially doesn't have the depth and weight that I consider it to have, right?

SPEAKER_02 47:26

Um and it opens space in your brain for other things. You're like clogging your brain up with some opinion that doesn't matter to you.

SPEAKER_00 47:36

The outcome, whether I go A or B on that opinion, um life moves on, right? Like whether it was a poor choice or a bad choice, whatever you're you know, or a great choice, like life still moves on, and I still have an opportunity the next day to do either something good, bad, right, wrong. You know what I'm saying? The the choices never stop.

SPEAKER_02 47:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

So I'm trying to make less choices.

SPEAKER_02 47:58

Interesting, right?

SPEAKER_00 48:00

Interesting to just kind of be. I don't, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 48:03

Yeah, we need you freed up because we need your restaurants to keep doing great, yeah, and we need you to add a few more. Well, I don't have an opinion on that. Good, good, good, good. Let it happen. Just let it roll.

SPEAKER_00 48:16

Things happen, you know.

SPEAKER_02 48:17

Thank you so much for coming, Dave. This was awesome. Thank y'all. I appreciate it. Yeah, it's awesome.

Reeves 48:22

We're gonna have you back.

SPEAKER_02 48:23

Yeah, we're gonna have you back. You are back on an uh at least a yearly and and next year when you're back, I'm so excited to see what you've got going on. It's gonna, it's gonna be you, you, you've got some pretty cool things ahead.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

I appreciate it. I'm grateful to this community. Like, Lawrence has given me the opportunity to like learn a lot more about myself, become a man, raise a family. Like, um up until this point, I was I had I was incapable of like looking people in the eye. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, and through the gifts this community has given me, I can sit at any table with anybody and be myself and be totally comfortable with that. And like that's probably the greatest, the greatest reward from all this.

SPEAKER_02 49:08

That's why AI says you're a local legend. You are. Thank you, dude. Yeah, absolutely. See you.