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Oct. 1, 2026

Turning Passion into Brisket: The Story Behind Evie Mae’s Barbecue Success

Turning Passion into Brisket: The Story Behind Evie Mae’s Barbecue Success
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"Super" Dave Quinn visits Arnis and Mallory Robbins of Evie Mae’s Barbecue to discuss the evolution of their business. The conversation covers the transition they made from their landscaping business in Arizona to starting a barbecue business in Texas. They share the challenges of starting from scratch, building their own equipment, and the realities of running a small food business. The story unfolds from their early days selling barbecue on the side of the road to eventually establishing a destination restaurant in Wolfforth, Texas.

They talk about how community support and business-friendly policies in Wolfforth were crucial to their growth. Press coverage, like a key review from Daniel Vaughn of Texas Monthly, was a significant turning point, bringing immediate attention and boosting their customer base. The discussion also includes practical advice for entrepreneurs, the unique benefits of small-town business culture, the role of local partnerships, and the importance of perseverance.

Chapter:
04:07 – Building the first smoker and first cooks
10:23 – Launching the first food trailer
13:03 – Transitioning barbecue from hobby to side business
18:03 – Food truck operations and selling barbecue
23:12 – Moving to Texas and choosing Wolfforth
26:14 – Licensing and early days in Wolfforth
31:53 – Facing business challenges, Daniel Vaughn visit
34:44 – The Texas Monthly review and the business turnaround
38:07 – Scaling up and offers for brick-and-mortar
41:58 – Staying loyal to Wolfforth
43:48 – Community support and impact
47:38 – Comparing support in Texas vs Florida
52:10 – Advice for new entrepreneurs
56:03 – Running a family business and dividing roles


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WEBVTT

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I remember it was early May and we were sitting

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in the trailer waiting to open at 11. Evie was

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there with us. She was too. And me and Arnis.

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And I remember saying, I can go find a job. Like,

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I'll go find a job.

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Just a supplement. Supplement.

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We're this deep. Like, let's try to figure it out.

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I think I could, I'll go do something. And that

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was when Daniel Vaughn showed up. If you're not familiar

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with Daniel Vaughn, he is the barbecue editor for Texas

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Monthly Magazine.

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Welcome to Gone to Texas, the official podcast of the

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Texas Economic Development Connection. On every episode, we share the

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stories of business owners and CEOs who have relocated or

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expanded their business into Texas.

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Our goal.

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is to use these stories as a guide to help

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others who are ready to hang a sign on the

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door that says, Gone to Texas. And now, please welcome

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your host, the managing partner and chief inspiration officer for

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Day One Experts, Super Dave Quinn.

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And welcome back to the Gone to Texas podcast powered

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by Day One Experts, where we share real stories of

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business growth, relocation, and entrepreneurship right here in the Lone

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Star State.

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Today's episode is sponsored by our.

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Friends at the Woolfolk Economic Development Corporation. We appreciate Danielle's

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support of our show. And today we're talking about barbecue.

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But this really isn't a story about brisket. It's a

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story about Arnis and Mallory Robbins, who started Evie Mae's

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Barbecue in 2014 out of their little solution trailer they

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called the Black Pearl. sitting in an empty parking lot

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in Wolfwood, Texas. They named the business after their daughter,

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kept working at their craft, and eventually turned that little

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barbecue trailer into a destination that draws people to Wolfwood

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specifically to eat their barbecue.

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So I want to know, how'd they do it? How

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did they get here?

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And what has Arnis learned about building a business in

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West Texas?

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Arnis, Mallory, welcome to the show. Thank you for having us.

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So happy to be here.

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Well, and thank you. You know, it's Friday, and we talked.

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Y'all had an eventful morning already, so I'm just glad

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that y'all were able to fight through that.

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You know, what a great way to open a podcast. So,

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by the way, we had a little fire this morning.

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A little grease fire in one of our pits, but

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thankfully it was kind of an auxiliary pit that sparked outside,

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so there was no danger to anything other than the

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briskets and beef ribs that were inside.

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Well, in today's market, that's like a fortune, right? Like

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each one.

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It is, but it's cheaper than probably structural damage or

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personal injury.

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So we'll take it. Well, thank you guys for fighting

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through that.

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I love getting to hang out with entrepreneurs and go

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tell stories because it's never just easy, right? Like everybody

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is hoping, I think, that. Um, but it's not. And

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so what a great way to like, Hey, that is

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how it is. This is every day you show up

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and you deal with the problem that happened that day.

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Right?

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Yeah.

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We wouldn't have it any other way.

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Um, and honestly, uh, there are, aside from the financial

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side of things, it's, it's, it's not that hard, especially

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when you love it every day and have really good

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people that, uh, also love it.

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Well, I always say that, like I give them all

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of the bad, right? Cause they're thinking, I want to

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jump in.

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I want to do this. What do you think? I'm like,

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it's hard. It's, time consuming, it costs more, it takes longer,

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but man, it's fun, right? Come on in. It's a

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lot of fun.

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Yeah. I think part of why we love what we

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do so much is literally every day is different. You

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literally do not know. You have your routine and yes,

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we're open every day from 11 until we sell out,

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but what it's all overcoming variables daily, people calling in,

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A pit catching on fire. You know, whatever.

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We're working with human people, so you've got human stuff, right?

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You're dealing with the public.

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Absolutely. So it's just always different. So it's fun. It

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keeps it fresh.

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Right.

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All right.

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Well, let's go back. So I jumped right in. I

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love the origin story. The Black Pearl. Okay. Let's start there.

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Let's talk about the Black Pearl, how you guys started,

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why the name, and then we can move forward to

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where we're sitting now in evening maze.

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So going way, way back, Mallory and I are both

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from eastern New Mexico. I'm from a little town named Portalis,

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and she is from a town named Clovis. I grew

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up on a peanut farm, and growing up on a

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farm with my dad obviously being a farmer became pretty resourceful,

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how to shop.

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We were always.

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Tinkering with things, building things, learned how to weld, learned

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how to fix things. everything possible at a pretty young age.

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So I grew up, I ended up in Tucson and

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I wanted to get into landscape construction. So I went

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out to Tucson, went to a design school, went to

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work for a company, started a landscaping business in 2010

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in Tucson, Arizona. And Mallory and I worked side by

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side in that business until she got pregnant with Evelyn,

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Evie May, our namesake. And Somewhere in there, about the time,

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about a year before Evie was born, I was diagnosed

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with celiac disease, which is an autoimmune disorder. And the

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only treatment is a gluten-free diet. So we go from

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being pretty normal young adults to now I can't have barley, wheat,

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or rye.

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And this is 2011-ish.

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And even back then, the gluten-free fad thing.

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The diet being a fad thing was not as big.

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It was really hard to find. Yeah, that was kind

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of pre-eating.

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It was right on the front end of it. And

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we were living in a bigger city being Tucson. But

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it was hard to find groceries. It was hard to

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go out and eat. You couldn't get a gluten-free menu.

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And I am a country redneck boy. And the last

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thing I want to do is go into a restaurant

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and ask if something's gluten-free.

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To this day, I do not want to ask.

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He will not. He will not. I have to be like, hey,

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can you be careful with cross-contamination? And it's like this

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big old... Like he's not failing to thrive. Like he's

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he's healthy and fine. But when you're like he's gluten free,

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if you could just be careful with your cross contamination.

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So, you know, 2011, 2012, I'm learning how to deal

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with this new newfound autoimmune disorder that I have. And

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we stopped eating out as much and we started spending

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more money on.

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The food that we were preparing at home.

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Mallory was spending time and effort trying to figure out

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how to make edible food. You know, carb sides and

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desserts and things that we, you know, we grew up

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with good home cooking. And all of a sudden we

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couldn't cook with all-purpose flour anymore and we couldn't drink

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regular beer. And we had to figure out how to

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survive without multi-purpose flour and beer.

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It's a hard ask. Yeah, right. Eastern New Mexico, East Texas,

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hard ask.

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Uh, not, not nothing. I mean, it was a pretty

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big deal for us. So, uh, start cooking higher quality

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food at home. And, um, the easiest thing for me

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to do was to grill, grill steak, grill pork chops,

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grill all of the, the traditional meat that we would

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have grown up being accustomed to.

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Right. And I had a propane grill in the backyard.

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And we lived kind of in the foothills of a

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little suburb southeast of Tucson. And it was beautiful for

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seven months out of the year. And the other part

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of the year, it was brutally hot. But we spent

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a ton of time outside. I got way into propane grilling.

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And that's kind of where all of this started, was

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falling in love with the ritual of cooking outside, cooking meat,

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And I grew up, I think I always enjoyed cooking,

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but I wasn't doing anything spectacular. I just enjoyed it.

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Whether it was hamburger helper or Kraft macaroni and cheese,

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I enjoyed cooking. So this just kind of lent itself

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to that. After cooking on propane for a year or so,

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I realized that I really enjoyed the process of cooking

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outside and wanted to get into charcoal. So I went

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and got a Weber kettle grill, started cooking with charcoal.

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And not long after that, I really started getting into

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the idea of barbecue. We're in Tucson, so we weren't

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eating good barbecue. I wasn't exposed to good barbecue. I

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remember watching some shows on TV about competition barbecue that

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was like barbecue pitmasters and stuff and kind of being

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interested in that and thinking, man, that looks awesome. So

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at some point, I decided I wanted to build a

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wood-fired smoker and having... the skill set from growing up

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on the farm, that was just going to be my

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little project. So I sourced a propane tank, I sourced

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some steel, found a cross-section diagram online of a cooker,

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and this was a 320-gallon propane tank. So it was

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a good-sized cooker, and I wanted it to be mobile,

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so I found a used boat trailer in Tucson that

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I could mount it to. It became this whole thing,

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and I built this smoker in the side yard at

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our house in a cookie-cutter.

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So what are you thinking?

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I know you probably see my face. Well, no, I know.

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And I'm just like my wife, like, no, it was weird.

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Right.

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Like, I didn't grow up around barbecue. He didn't grow

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up around barbecue. We both enjoyed cooking. And but him

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building this pit like I could see it out the

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kitchen window, like I'm doing dishes and he's building. And

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it's not like a little grill. Like, it's a huge thing.

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propane tank and our neighbors were kind of like, what

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are y'all doing? You know, like it was kind of weird.

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Like he hadn't even barbecued yet. Like he hadn't even

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learned to cook yet, but he was building a smoker.

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And so I was just like this guy.

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But for me, that's who I am. It wasn't about

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learning how to barbecue. It wasn't about barbecuing. It was

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I wanted to build a pit. That was all I

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wanted to do was build a smoker.

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I wanted to see if you could do it.

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I couldn't even care less at that point if it worked,

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if I was able to cook on it. I just

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wanted to build a smoker. And I've always kind of

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been that way. And I've always had these little side projects,

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these little personal hobbies, because I think being in the

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landscaping business and being so available from a customer service aspect,

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we did a lot of homeowner association maintenance stuff. So

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you can only imagine the nonstop bombardment of people needing something.

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And that's great. I mean, we got into that business

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because that's what I loved. But this was my little

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thing that I could do in the backyard at home.

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So finish the pit.

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00:10:44.740 --> 00:10:48.769
And started learning, started teaching myself how to cook on it.

219
00:10:50.600 --> 00:10:52.860
And then I found this love for live fire cooking.

220
00:10:53.320 --> 00:10:56.340
After I had the pit, which I named the Black

221
00:10:56.379 --> 00:11:00.870
Pearl because this was early 2000s and Pirates of the

222
00:11:00.879 --> 00:11:05.039
Caribbean was big. I get the reference right away. I'm

223
00:11:05.330 --> 00:11:08.950
all in. It was a shiny black barbecue pit with

224
00:11:09.009 --> 00:11:11.870
rounded ends. I mean, it really kind of looked like

225
00:11:11.950 --> 00:11:12.570
a pearl.

226
00:11:12.889 --> 00:11:13.870
And I was just like, what?

227
00:11:15.049 --> 00:11:20.440
Um, so build this pit, start tinkering with it, start

228
00:11:20.460 --> 00:11:22.820
playing with it. And, um, I, I actually had a

229
00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:24.700
high school buddy who was having a bachelor weekend in

230
00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:31.299
Albuquerque middle of maybe March that year. And, um, a

231
00:11:31.320 --> 00:11:32.740
couple of weeks before I got done with the pit,

232
00:11:32.820 --> 00:11:34.320
I had realized I'm going to be getting done with

233
00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:37.159
this pit. I'm going to be going to Albuquerque. I

234
00:11:37.220 --> 00:11:39.539
called my buddy Brian and I told him, Hey, I'm

235
00:11:39.759 --> 00:11:42.460
building this barbecue pit. And if you're up for it,

236
00:11:42.500 --> 00:11:44.220
if you think it'd be something fun, like I could

237
00:11:44.279 --> 00:11:46.309
bring this to Albuquerque and we could, we could cook

238
00:11:46.389 --> 00:11:48.590
on it. So I ended up taking it to Albuquerque.

239
00:11:48.649 --> 00:11:51.769
We bought a whole hog down in the Valley and

240
00:11:52.289 --> 00:11:54.289
me and high school buddies that I hadn't seen in years,

241
00:11:54.409 --> 00:11:56.529
cooked a pig and a couple of briskets and had

242
00:11:56.549 --> 00:11:58.259
a barbecue.

243
00:11:59.019 --> 00:12:01.139
And it was, I mean, it was awesome.

244
00:12:01.240 --> 00:12:03.320
Imagine hanging out with buddies that you hadn't seen in

245
00:12:03.320 --> 00:12:05.360
10 or 12 years and rolling.

246
00:12:05.179 --> 00:12:07.269
Up and, Like this is who I am now.

247
00:12:07.350 --> 00:12:11.820
Yeah, yeah, right. So that was just an amazing experience.

248
00:12:11.860 --> 00:12:14.480
The food probably wasn't that good, but just the fellowship

249
00:12:14.519 --> 00:12:17.679
and being able to spend time with old friends was awesome.

250
00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:22.580
So I'm driving back from Albuquerque to Tucson after that weekend,

251
00:12:22.700 --> 00:12:26.000
and I am just high as a kite on barbecue life.

252
00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:31.320
And I'm like driving and I'm all, I mean, even now,

253
00:12:31.379 --> 00:12:35.740
like I'm just always thinking about what could be, different opportunities.

254
00:12:35.779 --> 00:12:38.779
If I get focused in on something, I am going

255
00:12:38.820 --> 00:12:43.840
to be reckless about pursuing it until I'm not. So

256
00:12:43.980 --> 00:12:47.799
that drive home from Albuquerque, I'm thinking about, okay, How

257
00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:51.129
could I do this as a business or even a

258
00:12:51.190 --> 00:12:54.549
side hustle? What would be required from a permitting standpoint?

259
00:12:54.629 --> 00:12:56.029
You're an entrepreneur at heart, right?

260
00:12:56.070 --> 00:12:58.549
You're already tinkering like, all right, this has gone from,

261
00:12:58.570 --> 00:13:00.730
I wonder if I can build it to, hey, I

262
00:13:00.750 --> 00:13:02.110
wonder if I can make some money at this.

263
00:13:02.169 --> 00:13:05.259
No, right. And I think that we loved what we

264
00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:09.419
did and the landscaping company was great. but this kind

265
00:13:09.480 --> 00:13:12.500
of slowly started to become something that in his mind,

266
00:13:12.539 --> 00:13:14.840
he couldn't let it go. He was so focused on it.

267
00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:17.299
And yeah, I was like, okay, how could I pay

268
00:13:17.340 --> 00:13:19.600
my bills doing this? I love doing this. I would

269
00:13:19.639 --> 00:13:22.090
rather do this. And that's just where his focus went.

270
00:13:22.870 --> 00:13:24.370
Now, are you watching this going?

271
00:13:24.610 --> 00:13:27.570
Well, so I remember him calling me like I may

272
00:13:27.590 --> 00:13:29.110
be on that drive home and you were just like,

273
00:13:29.789 --> 00:13:30.389
so fun.

274
00:13:30.409 --> 00:13:31.210
So cool.

275
00:13:31.389 --> 00:13:32.889
You know, and I'm good.

276
00:13:33.409 --> 00:13:35.210
I'm, I'm pretty self-aware.

277
00:13:35.330 --> 00:13:37.370
So like there have been a lot of things along

278
00:13:37.389 --> 00:13:39.429
the way that I know, okay, I can't really talk

279
00:13:39.470 --> 00:13:43.000
about this because it sounds crazy. So I have to

280
00:13:43.029 --> 00:13:45.139
make sure that I have as many ducks in a

281
00:13:45.159 --> 00:13:48.419
row as possible before I start talking about it. Because

282
00:13:48.460 --> 00:13:50.340
if I start talking about it now, it's just going

283
00:13:50.360 --> 00:13:52.940
to freak everybody out and they're just going to tell

284
00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:56.200
me that's stupid and I should not think about that anymore.

285
00:13:56.340 --> 00:14:00.940
So I've always been a little bit cautious about how

286
00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:04.350
much I've talked about things you want to like these

287
00:14:04.450 --> 00:14:07.789
types of things these these crazy my wife.

288
00:14:07.470 --> 00:14:10.009
And I have this same sort of we have an

289
00:14:10.049 --> 00:14:11.950
agreement because she has to ask she's like is this

290
00:14:11.970 --> 00:14:14.129
something I need to worry about or are you just

291
00:14:14.149 --> 00:14:16.029
spinning right now like and I'm like no no no

292
00:14:16.370 --> 00:14:17.730
I'm just spinning give me a second.

293
00:14:17.490 --> 00:14:18.889
I'll tell you I'll tell you when you need to

294
00:14:18.909 --> 00:14:19.490
worry about it.

295
00:14:19.490 --> 00:14:21.500
You must worry about this one because I it's I'm

296
00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:24.679
in now right yeah So I'm on my way back

297
00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:27.259
from Albuquerque, high as a kite, just thinking about how

298
00:14:27.299 --> 00:14:28.379
much fun I had cooking.

299
00:14:28.460 --> 00:14:31.539
Not high, but like on a high on life.

300
00:14:33.759 --> 00:14:36.899
And I was just thinking about, man, that was so fun.

301
00:14:36.919 --> 00:14:39.690
And yes, it was hard work, but it was very

302
00:14:39.730 --> 00:14:42.129
enjoyable work. And it was very rewarding work. And how

303
00:14:42.190 --> 00:14:43.850
can I do this in a way that I can

304
00:14:43.870 --> 00:14:46.470
afford to do it more often? I wasn't interested in

305
00:14:46.570 --> 00:14:49.450
making money. I just didn't want to lose money cooking barbecue.

306
00:14:50.090 --> 00:14:52.330
And so I started doing research on what would I

307
00:14:52.389 --> 00:14:53.990
need to sell barbecue on the side of the road

308
00:14:54.690 --> 00:15:00.070
in Arizona. Get home, go to the internet, start looking

309
00:15:00.169 --> 00:15:04.600
for requirements. What I was able to find is that

310
00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:10.279
if I could find a mobile food vending unit, a

311
00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:13.299
trailer or a truck that had previously been licensed within

312
00:15:13.399 --> 00:15:16.299
the county's health department, that all I would have to

313
00:15:16.340 --> 00:15:21.600
do is a change of name and a really simplified inspection.

314
00:15:22.360 --> 00:15:24.850
And so I immediately thought that's the easiest avenue, find

315
00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:27.309
something that's already been licensed. And that's all I got

316
00:15:27.330 --> 00:15:28.789
to do. And I could be up and running within

317
00:15:29.070 --> 00:15:29.710
three or four weeks.

318
00:15:30.789 --> 00:15:32.570
And really, like you said, the goal was not to

319
00:15:32.610 --> 00:15:35.840
like start the separate business to make money. It was,

320
00:15:36.340 --> 00:15:40.440
he was spending money on proteins. I mean, back in

321
00:15:40.480 --> 00:15:43.480
an economic climate that was not that bad, right? But

322
00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:46.120
it's still like, two of us and a baby, we

323
00:15:46.139 --> 00:15:48.519
don't need to be buying five briskets a weekend to

324
00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:50.200
cook just for fun to try to get better. So

325
00:15:50.220 --> 00:15:51.419
it was like, what can you do to.

326
00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:52.830
How do I fund my education?

327
00:15:52.850 --> 00:15:54.710
You need to fund your experiment.

328
00:15:54.809 --> 00:15:56.610
And it's not like Mallory was begging for me to

329
00:15:56.649 --> 00:15:59.549
cook barbecue. Like, I was just, hey, by the way,

330
00:15:59.570 --> 00:16:00.950
we're having brisket again.

331
00:16:01.009 --> 00:16:03.419
No, and it, honestly, it wasn't very good for a

332
00:16:03.460 --> 00:16:06.980
long time. If I, like, I had to make so many, like,

333
00:16:07.019 --> 00:16:10.039
I remember pots of beans, like, having to cut up

334
00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:14.850
his tough brisket pieces. To like cook a pot of beans.

335
00:16:15.450 --> 00:16:17.870
If you've never had a bad brisket.

336
00:16:18.149 --> 00:16:18.909
A bad brisket.

337
00:16:19.090 --> 00:16:19.610
It's bad.

338
00:16:19.769 --> 00:16:23.490
There's nothing worse. And yeah, I remember just being like,

339
00:16:23.549 --> 00:16:27.769
good grief. Okay, well, let's recook this brisket four times

340
00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:29.279
and see if we can make some meals out of

341
00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:32.419
it while you're practicing for your new hobby.

342
00:16:32.440 --> 00:16:33.220
Sloppy Joes.

343
00:16:33.259 --> 00:16:35.440
Yeah, but that's what it was. And then we, it

344
00:16:35.480 --> 00:16:39.879
was fun though. Like I got past the annoying stage

345
00:16:39.919 --> 00:16:43.000
and I think it was more like, Okay, we're in this.

346
00:16:43.090 --> 00:16:44.730
He loves this. So what do we need to do

347
00:16:44.750 --> 00:16:45.629
to support this?

348
00:16:45.789 --> 00:16:46.889
Obviously, I'm going to have to find a way to

349
00:16:46.950 --> 00:16:48.169
fund this habit. Right, right.

350
00:16:49.289 --> 00:16:55.289
So relatively quickly, I was able to find a, it

351
00:16:55.330 --> 00:16:58.169
had been a roasted corn or like street corn trailer.

352
00:16:58.850 --> 00:17:01.789
But it was homemade to start with. And so it

353
00:17:01.850 --> 00:17:05.670
was pretty rickety, but it was right in my price range. Yeah,

354
00:17:05.789 --> 00:17:08.309
and it had already been licensed. So it was perfect.

355
00:17:08.329 --> 00:17:09.990
I found it on Craigslist, went and looked at it.

356
00:17:10.549 --> 00:17:12.150
And I can't remember if I told Mallory that I

357
00:17:12.170 --> 00:17:13.690
was going to look at it or not. Because again,

358
00:17:13.869 --> 00:17:15.910
this is one of those times where it's like, if

359
00:17:15.950 --> 00:17:18.670
I tell her and I go and it doesn't work out, well,

360
00:17:18.690 --> 00:17:20.849
now she knows about it and she's going to think

361
00:17:20.910 --> 00:17:22.369
it's crazy. If I go and look at it and

362
00:17:22.390 --> 00:17:25.630
it's perfect, I'm no worse off than I would have

363
00:17:25.650 --> 00:17:29.259
been had I told her in the beginning. So I literally,

364
00:17:29.339 --> 00:17:31.160
I am on my way home with this trailer.

365
00:17:31.180 --> 00:17:33.720
He called me. He called me on the way home,

366
00:17:34.380 --> 00:17:38.039
pulling this carny wagon that he spent our last like,

367
00:17:38.509 --> 00:17:41.210
twelve hundred dollars on or whatever it was twenty five

368
00:17:41.230 --> 00:17:43.190
hundred it was more than i thought he probably.

369
00:17:42.950 --> 00:17:45.809
Told me oh you got a steal of a deal right.

370
00:17:45.369 --> 00:17:47.549
Okay well in the moment he probably told me half

371
00:17:47.589 --> 00:17:49.750
of that is what he paid for it um but

372
00:17:49.829 --> 00:17:53.230
yeah i literally remember waiting out front yeah i remember

373
00:17:53.250 --> 00:17:55.990
waiting out front with evie as a baby and him

374
00:17:56.059 --> 00:17:59.740
pulling up with this little shack cart.

375
00:18:01.339 --> 00:18:03.940
It was hideous And it was, like I said, it

376
00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:07.309
was home built. So it started as a flatbed utility trailer.

377
00:18:07.349 --> 00:18:11.089
And then somebody had built like some really basic, uh, framing,

378
00:18:11.569 --> 00:18:14.549
steel framing and put sheet metal. And then they had

379
00:18:14.730 --> 00:18:18.950
like store-bought sliding plexiglass windows all the way around the thing.

380
00:18:19.470 --> 00:18:26.519
And then a roof and some fabric, um, awning. Uh,

381
00:18:27.099 --> 00:18:30.160
what do they call those on, um, on like a

382
00:18:30.559 --> 00:18:34.470
horse-drawn wagon? Um, They like the dangly.

383
00:18:34.490 --> 00:18:36.170
Uh-huh. Like the, I gotcha.

384
00:18:36.250 --> 00:18:36.450
Yeah.

385
00:18:36.549 --> 00:18:37.650
Anyway, it was, it was awful.

386
00:18:38.289 --> 00:18:39.970
And, and I get it home and I parked it

387
00:18:40.009 --> 00:18:42.250
in the side yard where I'd previously built a smoker.

388
00:18:43.009 --> 00:18:45.349
And I'm, I remember just kind of looking at it

389
00:18:46.029 --> 00:18:49.450
and it's crazy to think about on my way home.

390
00:18:49.559 --> 00:18:52.059
I had to have been thinking, okay, I've got this

391
00:18:52.190 --> 00:18:55.740
today and I, I need to be selling barbecue within

392
00:18:55.779 --> 00:18:59.329
two weeks. And so I immediately got home, went to

393
00:18:59.369 --> 00:19:01.410
Home Depot. It was going to, I thought that it

394
00:19:01.430 --> 00:19:04.849
would be easier to cover it in wood than to

395
00:19:04.910 --> 00:19:06.730
try to paint it and make it look the part.

396
00:19:06.809 --> 00:19:08.210
So I went and I got like a bunch of

397
00:19:08.329 --> 00:19:10.980
one by eights and then some one by twos and

398
00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:11.799
I like lapped them.

399
00:19:12.109 --> 00:19:12.650
Yeah.

400
00:19:12.910 --> 00:19:13.170
Laptop.

401
00:19:13.369 --> 00:19:14.009
Yeah. Yeah.

402
00:19:14.059 --> 00:19:16.220
With the little one by two over the seam. So

403
00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:18.460
it looked like a barn. Yeah.

404
00:19:18.680 --> 00:19:21.079
And then I built like a corrugated tin awning that

405
00:19:21.460 --> 00:19:23.200
once it was on side, I could flip it up

406
00:19:23.259 --> 00:19:24.720
and put these little kickers down.

407
00:19:24.779 --> 00:19:26.079
And and it turned into.

408
00:19:25.900 --> 00:19:31.730
This little walk up barbecue barn window trailer thing. And

409
00:19:32.109 --> 00:19:34.210
and so then I had it. And then I that

410
00:19:34.250 --> 00:19:36.210
was I probably did that within the first two or

411
00:19:36.250 --> 00:19:39.569
three days. And then I immediately scheduled an appointment with

412
00:19:39.589 --> 00:19:41.950
the health department and met with them. They came out

413
00:19:41.970 --> 00:19:44.759
and inspected the trailer. I had to get commissary space

414
00:19:44.859 --> 00:19:47.119
at an existing restaurant. So I was able to find

415
00:19:47.789 --> 00:19:50.509
back then, there was, I think, on the county's website,

416
00:19:50.529 --> 00:19:52.509
there was a list of restaurants that offered commissary.

417
00:19:52.529 --> 00:19:54.410
That was not a big thing back then, either. That

418
00:19:54.450 --> 00:19:57.579
was fairly common. Since COVID, that's really been more common.

419
00:19:57.630 --> 00:20:00.710
Now it is, yes. But back then, that was not a.

420
00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:04.740
I remember I met these really, really nice... This older

421
00:20:04.839 --> 00:20:07.240
couple in a neighboring town that owned a restaurant.

422
00:20:07.559 --> 00:20:08.089
It was a.

423
00:20:08.730 --> 00:20:12.509
it was a chain, but it was like a Midwestern, uh, breakfast,

424
00:20:12.549 --> 00:20:17.630
lunch cafe type affair. And so rented commissary from them, uh,

425
00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:22.279
set an opening date and, oh, I had found a

426
00:20:23.059 --> 00:20:25.160
golf course that had gone out of business and a

427
00:20:25.559 --> 00:20:28.539
guy had bought the clubhouse. His wife was running a

428
00:20:28.579 --> 00:20:31.009
dance studio in the clubhouse. And I asked him if

429
00:20:31.069 --> 00:20:33.930
I could set up in front of it to sell barbecue.

430
00:20:33.970 --> 00:20:38.019
And he gave us permission for that. And, um, it

431
00:20:38.059 --> 00:20:39.440
all happened so quick. I mean, I think I got

432
00:20:39.480 --> 00:20:45.539
that trailer in March and April like 20th. The was

433
00:20:45.640 --> 00:20:47.920
the first, it may have been the 21st of April

434
00:20:48.700 --> 00:20:51.210
in 2014 sold barbecue on the side of the road

435
00:20:51.230 --> 00:20:52.630
for the first time. And it was a one day

436
00:20:52.650 --> 00:20:56.009
a week venture. Um, but it started with that one

437
00:20:56.029 --> 00:20:59.069
day and I went down the night before we'd put

438
00:20:59.130 --> 00:21:03.009
Abby to bed. Uh, I went down, trimmed brisket, started cooking,

439
00:21:03.450 --> 00:21:09.349
cooked all night long. And I was, I was exhausted. Um, mentally, emotionally,

440
00:21:10.130 --> 00:21:13.470
and the sun was coming up and I remember being

441
00:21:13.630 --> 00:21:17.859
so scared and just thinking I am so far out

442
00:21:17.950 --> 00:21:21.559
of my comfort zone. And I called Mallory and I

443
00:21:21.619 --> 00:21:23.119
told her like, I don't, I don't think I want

444
00:21:23.140 --> 00:21:26.599
to do this anymore. Like I'm done. I don't think

445
00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:28.910
that I can do this. I don't think that I

446
00:21:28.930 --> 00:21:30.809
can stay here today. I've got no business trying to

447
00:21:30.869 --> 00:21:34.730
sell my food. And she was mad. And she said,

448
00:21:34.829 --> 00:21:37.690
you started this whole mess and you are going to

449
00:21:37.710 --> 00:21:39.329
see it through. You're going to get through today. And

450
00:21:39.369 --> 00:21:40.710
if you never want to do it again, that's fine.

451
00:21:40.730 --> 00:21:42.349
But you are going to sell barbecue today.

452
00:21:42.369 --> 00:21:42.440
Yep.

453
00:21:42.490 --> 00:21:46.930
Yep. And so we did. And we did.

454
00:21:47.730 --> 00:21:49.490
I can't remember the dollar amount, but I mean, we,

455
00:21:49.650 --> 00:21:53.220
we did four or $ 500 probably in barbecue sales. I

456
00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:57.000
think I may have had three briskets and sold one

457
00:21:57.039 --> 00:22:01.039
and a half. Um, but we sold food, like we

458
00:22:01.099 --> 00:22:02.839
sold barbecue and, and I think that we had a

459
00:22:02.859 --> 00:22:04.759
couple of people that came and got lunch and then

460
00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:06.799
they came back and got dinner. And so it was

461
00:22:06.839 --> 00:22:10.140
those little things, the very first couple of times that

462
00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:12.660
we did it, that I, that I thought, okay, like

463
00:22:13.109 --> 00:22:13.599
these are good.

464
00:22:13.660 --> 00:22:18.410
Positive signs. Um, and it just, it snowballed from there.

465
00:22:18.430 --> 00:22:19.650
And it was, it was a one day a week

466
00:22:19.690 --> 00:22:21.950
thing from spring of 2014 till the fall of 2014, um,

467
00:22:24.299 --> 00:22:26.059
We'd set up and sell barbecue one day a week

468
00:22:26.099 --> 00:22:28.259
on the side of the road in Corona Day, Tucson.

469
00:22:28.980 --> 00:22:32.099
And we got to know some regular customers. And every

470
00:22:32.140 --> 00:22:33.839
week I was trying to do better and we were

471
00:22:34.079 --> 00:22:38.589
doing more. And it was awesome. Our neighbor's mom made

472
00:22:38.609 --> 00:22:43.410
our potato salad. Mallory would make cornbread and pecan pie

473
00:22:43.450 --> 00:22:48.329
and cheesecakes. And I would do a barbecue bean, like

474
00:22:48.369 --> 00:22:50.970
a baked bean in the pit and made coleslaw and

475
00:22:53.329 --> 00:22:57.500
And had the most basic traditional barbecue menu there on

476
00:22:57.519 --> 00:23:00.299
the side of the road in Arizona for about five months.

477
00:23:00.700 --> 00:23:01.079
Okay.

478
00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:07.000
And so now from there to opening your food, was

479
00:23:07.059 --> 00:23:08.779
it the same trailer when you come to Wolferth or

480
00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:09.819
did you have a different?

481
00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:09.900
No.

482
00:23:10.140 --> 00:23:10.440
Okay.

483
00:23:10.500 --> 00:23:14.460
So the transition from Arizona to Texas, we had come

484
00:23:14.529 --> 00:23:16.130
home for maybe Labor Day of 2014.

485
00:23:16.109 --> 00:23:16.190
Yeah.

486
00:23:17.359 --> 00:23:19.759
My parents had just moved to Lubbock from Portales. They'd

487
00:23:19.779 --> 00:23:22.059
sold the farm. They were living in Lubbock. We come

488
00:23:22.079 --> 00:23:25.460
to visit for the holiday weekend. And I am ordering.

489
00:23:25.480 --> 00:23:28.119
I'm in the process of ordering a new trailer because

490
00:23:28.140 --> 00:23:30.660
I've seen this is going to work. We're going to

491
00:23:30.680 --> 00:23:33.869
continue to do this. But our trailer is a piece

492
00:23:33.880 --> 00:23:36.470
of garbage and we need something better. And I wanted

493
00:23:36.490 --> 00:23:37.809
to be able to do catering and I wanted to

494
00:23:37.829 --> 00:23:39.390
be able to do special events. And the trailer that

495
00:23:39.410 --> 00:23:42.730
we had wasn't really mobile. And so I was ordering

496
00:23:43.049 --> 00:23:46.490
a custom built trailer from a trailer builder in Georgia.

497
00:23:47.269 --> 00:23:50.779
And it wasn't, again, like we couldn't afford anything fancy.

498
00:23:50.819 --> 00:23:52.309
So it was just, it was a shell, but we

499
00:23:52.329 --> 00:23:53.829
told them where we wanted the window. We told them

500
00:23:53.869 --> 00:23:56.670
how many plugs we wanted. We wanted a hand wash sink.

501
00:23:56.710 --> 00:23:59.299
And then I was just going to buy used restaurant

502
00:23:59.339 --> 00:24:02.279
equipment to kind of fit in and outfit the trailer.

503
00:24:02.680 --> 00:24:03.799
And then I was going to build a new pit

504
00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:05.740
to go on the trailer. Because up to this point,

505
00:24:05.779 --> 00:24:09.019
we had a pit and then we had a vending unit.

506
00:24:09.359 --> 00:24:11.660
So we had two trailers.

507
00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:13.049
That's right.

508
00:24:13.369 --> 00:24:15.890
They sat next to each other. But I wanted something

509
00:24:15.910 --> 00:24:18.890
that if we were going to go cook somewhere, we

510
00:24:18.930 --> 00:24:22.130
could take one trailer. So I'm ordering this trailer. We're

511
00:24:22.170 --> 00:24:25.559
here visiting. And really, over the course of a weekend,

512
00:24:26.420 --> 00:24:30.769
we kind of decided we should move to Texas.

513
00:24:31.400 --> 00:24:34.430
So we also... Sorry, cut you off. Take the mic.

514
00:24:35.130 --> 00:24:40.369
Evie was one and a half. My family is out here.

515
00:24:40.549 --> 00:24:45.309
Arnis' family is out here. Grandparents. We loved Arizona. And

516
00:24:45.329 --> 00:24:46.690
we had kind of built a little life there in

517
00:24:46.730 --> 00:24:48.569
our landscaping company over the course of the 10 years

518
00:24:48.589 --> 00:24:52.119
that we lived there. But we really missed... Texas and

519
00:24:52.160 --> 00:24:56.059
being close to our family. And it really wasn't planned.

520
00:24:56.099 --> 00:24:59.279
We are landscaping company was going great, going fine, but

521
00:24:59.319 --> 00:25:01.759
we just kind of, we didn't love that anymore. And

522
00:25:01.799 --> 00:25:03.819
it was so stressful. And we kind of started falling

523
00:25:03.839 --> 00:25:06.259
in love with cooking and serving barbecue. We didn't think

524
00:25:06.299 --> 00:25:08.769
we could pay our bills doing it yet, but again,

525
00:25:08.849 --> 00:25:11.509
he was trying to order a better trailer and we, we, yeah,

526
00:25:11.549 --> 00:25:13.910
we decided we want to be closer to home. We

527
00:25:13.930 --> 00:25:15.849
want to maybe if we're going to do barbecue, why

528
00:25:15.890 --> 00:25:18.289
not move back home and do it in Texas where

529
00:25:18.309 --> 00:25:22.819
people take it pretty seriously. Um, So kind of fast forward,

530
00:25:23.109 --> 00:25:25.869
we sold our landscaping company. An opportunity came up and

531
00:25:25.930 --> 00:25:30.789
someone bought our landscaping company, absorbed all of our contracts, employees, everything.

532
00:25:30.890 --> 00:25:34.019
And it was sort of amazing. We sold our home.

533
00:25:34.680 --> 00:25:37.880
It all just happened. It wasn't really planned very far

534
00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:39.440
out in advance. It just happened.

535
00:25:39.930 --> 00:25:41.789
Yeah, one good weekend, you're like, let's do this.

536
00:25:41.809 --> 00:25:44.650
Yeah, and so we sold our house, sold our business.

537
00:25:45.150 --> 00:25:47.799
Evie and I moved to Texas, and Arnis stayed in

538
00:25:47.819 --> 00:25:50.059
Arizona for about a month to help with the transition

539
00:25:50.099 --> 00:25:53.460
of the cell of our landscaping company. Bought our new trailer,

540
00:25:53.779 --> 00:25:56.980
and he immediately went to work outfitting that food truck

541
00:25:57.079 --> 00:26:01.650
with used restaurant equipment. So we went from the shack

542
00:26:02.789 --> 00:26:06.460
barbecue trailer to a much nicer food vending trailer. Wow.

543
00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:10.200
So where did you how did you find a spot

544
00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:11.140
in Wolford?

545
00:26:11.460 --> 00:26:15.240
So we get moved and it wasn't until we were

546
00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:19.759
actually living in Lubbock that now I started doing research

547
00:26:19.980 --> 00:26:22.400
on what what was going to be required to do

548
00:26:22.460 --> 00:26:26.240
mobile food vending in Lubbock. And I just I called

549
00:26:26.660 --> 00:26:29.400
the city one day and I said, hey, I'm starting

550
00:26:29.420 --> 00:26:31.839
a barbecue trailer. What do I need to have as

551
00:26:31.900 --> 00:26:34.640
far as licensing goes to be able to serve in

552
00:26:34.660 --> 00:26:37.809
the city? And they said, well, you there's nothing that

553
00:26:37.849 --> 00:26:41.930
you need because you can't do that. And they said

554
00:26:42.599 --> 00:26:45.680
they said the only way that you can set up

555
00:26:45.799 --> 00:26:50.500
or sell food from a mobile food unit in the

556
00:26:50.539 --> 00:26:53.480
city of Lubbock is if you're in an industrial zone.

557
00:26:54.240 --> 00:26:57.880
And that was just an old ordinance to keep to keep.

558
00:26:59.250 --> 00:27:02.759
Roach coaches from setting up, you know, in front of

559
00:27:02.950 --> 00:27:04.079
nice businesses and things.

560
00:27:04.599 --> 00:27:05.269
I understood it.

561
00:27:05.400 --> 00:27:07.420
But and the city knew that it was it was

562
00:27:07.500 --> 00:27:10.210
quite antiquated and they were working on on revising it.

563
00:27:10.500 --> 00:27:12.039
But it was going to be months and months before

564
00:27:12.059 --> 00:27:15.240
that was changed. We don't have time for that. We

565
00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:17.740
we are on the clock fast. Yeah, we needed we

566
00:27:17.779 --> 00:27:19.500
needed to be generating revenue.

567
00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:24.940
Yeah. So Lubbock was out. I call Wolferth.

568
00:27:25.920 --> 00:27:28.599
And at the time, I mean, Woolforth has grown so

569
00:27:28.660 --> 00:27:33.269
much since we opened here. Uh, but back then, I mean,

570
00:27:33.309 --> 00:27:36.170
Woolforth was, so people talk about Woolforth, uh, when they

571
00:27:36.190 --> 00:27:39.910
would talk about friendship and they, and yeah, yeah.

572
00:27:40.029 --> 00:27:41.089
Friendship, no D.

573
00:27:41.829 --> 00:27:45.150
Um, and, and that was, that was the well-known entity

574
00:27:45.190 --> 00:27:47.609
that kind of defined Woolforth as a whole at that point.

575
00:27:48.190 --> 00:27:51.470
And anyway, I call Woolforth, uh, city hall, uh, And

576
00:27:51.569 --> 00:27:53.910
explain the situation. And they said, you don't need anything

577
00:27:53.950 --> 00:27:56.609
from us. You just get a license with the Texas

578
00:27:58.390 --> 00:27:59.259
State Health Department.

579
00:27:59.339 --> 00:28:00.140
Yeah.

580
00:28:00.339 --> 00:28:02.980
And make sure that you have all of your tax

581
00:28:03.059 --> 00:28:05.500
licensing in place and your sales tax in place. And

582
00:28:05.559 --> 00:28:08.279
you can set up anywhere that a property owner gives

583
00:28:08.299 --> 00:28:12.240
you permission to set up. And so we immediately started

584
00:28:12.279 --> 00:28:13.980
looking for a place to set up. And I found

585
00:28:14.069 --> 00:28:15.710
I needed a storage unit because we have this big

586
00:28:15.750 --> 00:28:17.869
trailer now. We had I wanted to be able to

587
00:28:17.890 --> 00:28:20.930
warehouse some stuff. And so we found a storage unit

588
00:28:20.990 --> 00:28:22.670
right up the road from where we're at right now.

589
00:28:23.589 --> 00:28:26.839
And I called the owner of it and happened to meet.

590
00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:31.119
That's how I met our landlord at the time, Dave Neufeld,

591
00:28:31.660 --> 00:28:35.539
and met him. And again, kind of having the self-awareness of.

592
00:28:36.410 --> 00:28:38.509
I don't want to sound too crazy, but imagine, like,

593
00:28:38.549 --> 00:28:42.329
telling this native Texan that we just moved here from

594
00:28:42.390 --> 00:28:46.910
Arizona so that we could operate our barbecue trailer in Woolforth, Texas.

595
00:28:46.930 --> 00:28:49.690
I mean, it was embarrassing. We didn't tell our neighbors.

596
00:28:50.410 --> 00:28:51.730
Like, to the point that.

597
00:28:53.579 --> 00:28:55.299
I mean, people were like, well, what do you do, though? Like,

598
00:28:55.599 --> 00:28:58.160
what is your real job? You know, like, this is

599
00:28:58.180 --> 00:28:58.960
just for fun, right?

600
00:28:59.000 --> 00:28:59.519
What do you do?

601
00:28:59.539 --> 00:29:01.670
And we're like, no, this is what we are going

602
00:29:01.730 --> 00:29:01.890
to do.

603
00:29:01.910 --> 00:29:03.170
We sell food every day on the trailer.

604
00:29:03.210 --> 00:29:05.269
Yeah, that's the plan. Yeah, it was... I mean, it

605
00:29:05.289 --> 00:29:07.029
was weird. It was weird to tell people that that

606
00:29:07.049 --> 00:29:09.150
was our plan. And we were renting a storage unit.

607
00:29:10.440 --> 00:29:13.279
But over the course of... first few weeks that we

608
00:29:13.319 --> 00:29:15.880
rented that storage unit, Arnis started working immediately. We started

609
00:29:15.900 --> 00:29:20.579
buying used tables from garage sales, mismatched tables and chairs

610
00:29:21.140 --> 00:29:22.960
in the front of the storage unit. So we had

611
00:29:22.980 --> 00:29:25.519
the food truck, the trailer in front of the storage unit.

612
00:29:26.039 --> 00:29:30.609
The front part was a dining room. The back part

613
00:29:30.710 --> 00:29:36.430
was like wood, a shop, a sink. Yeah, it was crazy.

614
00:29:37.789 --> 00:29:38.589
And that's how it started.

615
00:29:38.930 --> 00:29:41.509
And so the whole idea there was that the storage

616
00:29:41.569 --> 00:29:43.450
unit was going to be home base.

617
00:29:43.910 --> 00:29:45.230
And we were going to travel around.

618
00:29:45.369 --> 00:29:47.220
And then when Lubbock got their stuff figured out, we

619
00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:49.940
were going to go to Lubbock as well. Well, this

620
00:29:50.019 --> 00:29:54.039
was February of.

621
00:29:52.440 --> 00:29:55.759
15, and it kept snowing. Like, it was snowing every week.

622
00:29:56.240 --> 00:29:57.980
And so we would just set up in front of

623
00:29:58.019 --> 00:29:59.619
the restaurant because we didn't want to be out on

624
00:29:59.640 --> 00:30:01.609
the highway. And so we just started setting up in

625
00:30:01.660 --> 00:30:02.450
front of the restaurant.

626
00:30:02.470 --> 00:30:02.569
Right.

627
00:30:03.240 --> 00:30:05.420
In front of the storage unit, sorry. And that way

628
00:30:05.440 --> 00:30:08.019
we could be plugged into the power and it was

629
00:30:08.059 --> 00:30:10.359
just so much easier. It was very easy. We were

630
00:30:10.400 --> 00:30:14.349
right off the highway. And so that's how we started

631
00:30:14.660 --> 00:30:19.230
doing business. And that's kind of people started expecting us

632
00:30:19.250 --> 00:30:22.509
there and people started showing up and we got regulars.

633
00:30:22.630 --> 00:30:27.200
And it wasn't a big business, but we were... we

634
00:30:27.240 --> 00:30:29.130
were seeing the same faces over and over. It just

635
00:30:29.150 --> 00:30:34.009
wasn't enough faces. And so we struggled through February to

636
00:30:34.089 --> 00:30:38.309
May of that year. And I remember one morning thinking,

637
00:30:38.329 --> 00:30:39.950
I don't think this is going to work.

638
00:30:40.390 --> 00:30:42.859
I don't think that. Not enough volume there to make it.

639
00:30:43.720 --> 00:30:46.420
This episode of Gone to Texas podcast is brought to

640
00:30:46.440 --> 00:30:49.660
you by our friends at the Wofford, Texas EDC. Looking

641
00:30:49.680 --> 00:30:51.839
for a place that will help you grow your business?

642
00:30:52.279 --> 00:30:55.269
Wofford is one of the fastest growing communities in West Texas.

643
00:30:55.859 --> 00:30:58.779
Located on the South Plains in the Lubbock Metro, Woolforth

644
00:30:58.799 --> 00:31:02.740
gives you access to Texas Tech University, a skilled regional workforce,

645
00:31:02.960 --> 00:31:06.500
leading healthcare, and the amenities of a growing metropolitan area.

646
00:31:07.240 --> 00:31:10.740
But here's what makes Woolforth special. It's a community where

647
00:31:10.779 --> 00:31:14.619
relationships still matter, where a handshake still means something, where

648
00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:18.220
people know your name and neighbors celebrate success together. And

649
00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:21.160
they're not just talking about growth in Woolforth, they're making

650
00:31:21.240 --> 00:31:25.740
room for it. With major infrastructure improvements, New commercial and

651
00:31:25.779 --> 00:31:30.839
mixed-use development, great schools, and a business-friendly environment. Wolfrith is

652
00:31:30.880 --> 00:31:34.460
creating opportunities for businesses to expand and families to put

653
00:31:34.509 --> 00:31:37.150
down roots. It's the kind of place where you can

654
00:31:37.230 --> 00:31:41.329
grow your business without losing that personal connection that makes

655
00:31:41.390 --> 00:31:42.849
a community feel like home.

656
00:31:43.369 --> 00:31:44.269
Wolfrith, Texas.

657
00:31:44.890 --> 00:31:48.170
Small city, big momentum. We're proud to have them as

658
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sponsors here on the Gone to Texas podcast.

659
00:31:51.250 --> 00:31:54.329
And I remember it was early May and we were

660
00:31:54.349 --> 00:31:56.230
sitting in the trailer waiting to open at 11. Evie

661
00:31:57.579 --> 00:32:00.720
was there with us. She was too. And me and Arnis.

662
00:32:01.119 --> 00:32:03.960
And I remember saying, I can go find a job. Like,

663
00:32:04.779 --> 00:32:05.680
I'll go find a job.

664
00:32:06.019 --> 00:32:07.799
Just a supplement. Supplement.

665
00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:10.569
We're this deep. Like, let's try to figure it out.

666
00:32:10.619 --> 00:32:14.109
I think I could, I'll go do something. And that

667
00:32:14.150 --> 00:32:18.539
was when Daniel Vaughn showed up. If you're not familiar

668
00:32:18.579 --> 00:32:21.019
with Daniel Vaughn, he is the barbecue editor for Texas

669
00:32:21.059 --> 00:32:25.670
Monthly Magazine. Someone had told someone, and that's his job.

670
00:32:25.710 --> 00:32:28.349
He travels around Texas and eats barbecue. Literally, that's what

671
00:32:28.390 --> 00:32:30.890
he gets paid to do. So one day, it was

672
00:32:31.049 --> 00:32:34.069
pouring rain in May. Our very first customer was Daniel Vaughn.

673
00:32:34.329 --> 00:32:36.539
I didn't know who this guy was. Like, I didn't

674
00:32:36.559 --> 00:32:37.500
know anything about Texas barbecue.

675
00:32:37.519 --> 00:32:38.700
Just another guy, another face in the crowd.

676
00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:41.900
Yeah. Arnis followed his blog at the time. He had

677
00:32:41.940 --> 00:32:44.140
like a blog that was not really even associated with

678
00:32:44.180 --> 00:32:44.779
Texas Monthly.

679
00:32:44.799 --> 00:32:45.180
Is that right?

680
00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:47.720
Yeah. Um, anyways, he had like a side blog where

681
00:32:47.740 --> 00:32:51.380
he talked about barbecue that he ate and found and recommended. Um,

682
00:32:51.619 --> 00:32:54.410
so Arnis tells me that's Daniel Vaughn. And I'm like, who? Like,

683
00:32:54.890 --> 00:32:56.970
so anyways, our first customer is this guy that supposedly

684
00:32:57.009 --> 00:33:01.150
knows barbecue that could have some say in who should

685
00:33:01.170 --> 00:33:01.710
come eat there.

686
00:33:01.730 --> 00:33:05.750
And he came right at opening and he was the

687
00:33:05.910 --> 00:33:08.230
only person that came for like, he was, he was

688
00:33:08.250 --> 00:33:10.210
there for an hour plus and he was the only

689
00:33:10.250 --> 00:33:11.029
person that had come.

690
00:33:11.569 --> 00:33:15.819
So, so not a great, uh, Right. If he's looking

691
00:33:15.859 --> 00:33:18.559
around going, I wonder if anybody else. Yeah, exactly.

692
00:33:19.920 --> 00:33:23.329
So we go about our day like Mallory had gone

693
00:33:23.349 --> 00:33:24.700
in to check on him. He was sitting in our

694
00:33:24.740 --> 00:33:30.029
little shop dining room. And I remember thinking that afternoon

695
00:33:30.049 --> 00:33:32.269
like this could be it because because he had such

696
00:33:32.309 --> 00:33:35.789
a strong, faithful following and such a presence. We didn't

697
00:33:35.809 --> 00:33:38.450
have any social media at that time. We didn't have Instagram.

698
00:33:39.130 --> 00:33:45.829
We had a Facebook. We had a Myspace. We had

699
00:33:45.849 --> 00:33:50.470
a Facebook. We weren't taking great pictures of anything, but

700
00:33:50.490 --> 00:33:52.089
we were trying to communicate some stuff there.

701
00:33:52.109 --> 00:33:53.549
You're one of the most small business owners, right? You're

702
00:33:53.569 --> 00:33:56.450
busy doing the thing. Yeah.

703
00:33:57.089 --> 00:34:01.650
And so I kind of felt, okay, if he likes us,

704
00:34:01.690 --> 00:34:04.779
if he gives us a good review, this could be

705
00:34:04.859 --> 00:34:08.500
a turning point for this business. But at the same time,

706
00:34:09.369 --> 00:34:13.889
That could be a month before he reviews us. Or

707
00:34:13.929 --> 00:34:17.630
he may not even review us. So the next day,

708
00:34:17.690 --> 00:34:20.449
the very next day, we're sitting there, Mallory and I,

709
00:34:20.469 --> 00:34:23.119
we're sitting in the trailer. We're open for the day.

710
00:34:23.820 --> 00:34:27.420
Nobody's there. Nobody's waiting when we open the window, which

711
00:34:27.539 --> 00:34:31.440
is just normal. And we're chilling, like literally sitting on

712
00:34:31.579 --> 00:34:35.590
our coolers in the trailer waiting for customers. And I

713
00:34:35.690 --> 00:34:38.329
go to his blog. I'd been refreshing it, I think,

714
00:34:38.510 --> 00:34:40.829
all day, like, just to see in hopes that maybe

715
00:34:40.869 --> 00:34:43.230
he would say something. And I open it, and there's

716
00:34:43.269 --> 00:34:48.000
this fresh review on us. And the opening line was,

717
00:34:48.079 --> 00:34:50.059
the best barbecue in Lubbock is in Woolforth.

718
00:34:51.039 --> 00:34:52.239
That is an awesome line.

719
00:34:52.260 --> 00:34:52.480
Yeah.

720
00:34:53.340 --> 00:34:56.909
And so I... That is an awesome line.

721
00:34:56.929 --> 00:34:59.030
It's such a long time ago. And it's still like

722
00:34:59.090 --> 00:35:01.989
every time. And it seems silly. And even to me,

723
00:35:02.050 --> 00:35:04.170
when he's reading it to me, like on his phone

724
00:35:04.190 --> 00:35:07.190
in the trailer. And I'm just like, well, that's cool.

725
00:35:07.429 --> 00:35:10.070
But who's going to see that, right? Because I don't really,

726
00:35:10.170 --> 00:35:12.969
I don't comprehend Texas barbecue yet, really. Like I'm a

727
00:35:13.010 --> 00:35:19.510
New Mexico kid. Like that, whatever. That day, that afternoon. Well, okay.

728
00:35:19.610 --> 00:35:23.139
A semi truck pulls off the road. A semi truck.

729
00:35:23.159 --> 00:35:27.210
This dude jumps out. walks through the ditch, hands me

730
00:35:27.230 --> 00:35:29.190
his phone through the window. He said, you know this guy?

731
00:35:30.010 --> 00:35:32.210
And it was barbecue snob. And I was like, no,

732
00:35:32.610 --> 00:35:33.929
I don't know who that is. And Arnis was like,

733
00:35:33.989 --> 00:35:36.880
that is Daniel Vaughn. That's the guy that came yesterday.

734
00:35:36.900 --> 00:35:38.500
And he was like, yeah, he said that if you're,

735
00:35:38.579 --> 00:35:40.900
if you're anywhere within however many miles of Lubbock, you

736
00:35:40.920 --> 00:35:42.780
should come eat here. That's why I'm here. And I

737
00:35:42.820 --> 00:35:45.380
was like, oh my gosh, this guy does have a following.

738
00:35:45.460 --> 00:35:48.480
Like maybe he is somebody. Love you Daniel.

739
00:35:48.500 --> 00:35:48.659
Yeah.

740
00:35:50.699 --> 00:35:53.579
Well, and this was 2015. So this was kind of

741
00:35:53.679 --> 00:35:57.840
fresh off. Everybody's super excited about Franklin because Franklin has

742
00:35:57.909 --> 00:36:00.719
changed the game in Texas barbecue.

743
00:36:00.760 --> 00:36:03.530
He made it cool to have a line. Yeah.

744
00:36:03.769 --> 00:36:06.590
And so we had these these trendy kids that were

745
00:36:06.869 --> 00:36:10.030
at Tech that were kind of keeping up with the

746
00:36:10.050 --> 00:36:13.519
barbecue scene. Then we had these other, you know. barbecue

747
00:36:13.539 --> 00:36:15.190
bros in the area that were keeping up with the

748
00:36:15.210 --> 00:36:18.630
barbecue scene so they're seeing this and um and we

749
00:36:18.650 --> 00:36:21.610
get busy all of a sudden we go from just

750
00:36:21.809 --> 00:36:25.070
absolutely praying and begging for business to we are busy

751
00:36:25.900 --> 00:36:28.980
through this summer through this first summer of 2015 we

752
00:36:29.039 --> 00:36:31.940
go from staying open till eight o'clock at night because

753
00:36:32.059 --> 00:36:35.590
we have food that we need to sell uh to

754
00:36:35.679 --> 00:36:38.309
we can't cook enough And I go to work on

755
00:36:38.349 --> 00:36:41.809
another pit. We start trying to scale. We start looking

756
00:36:41.829 --> 00:36:43.719
for help. Because up to this point, it's me and

757
00:36:43.739 --> 00:36:45.519
Mallory half the day, and it's me by myself the

758
00:36:45.559 --> 00:36:46.030
other half the day.

759
00:36:46.059 --> 00:36:48.800
Are you just, like, researching on your own? Are you

760
00:36:48.900 --> 00:36:50.679
talking to people about how to do this? Or are

761
00:36:50.699 --> 00:36:52.739
you just, like, grinding it out?

762
00:36:52.760 --> 00:36:54.480
Nobody can tell me how to do this any better

763
00:36:54.539 --> 00:36:57.739
than I can figure it out on my own. If

764
00:36:57.780 --> 00:37:00.440
there was a book for this stuff, everybody would do it.

765
00:37:00.449 --> 00:37:02.730
I'm, like, talking to other barbecue guys who went from,

766
00:37:02.789 --> 00:37:04.309
you know, one pit to, you know.

767
00:37:04.429 --> 00:37:05.250
No, no.

768
00:37:05.389 --> 00:37:05.679
And I.

769
00:37:07.150 --> 00:37:10.210
that's not an ego or pride thing. That's just, I

770
00:37:10.329 --> 00:37:13.610
want like something that was important to me was I

771
00:37:13.730 --> 00:37:16.380
wanted to learn how to do it my way.

772
00:37:16.550 --> 00:37:16.699
Yeah.

773
00:37:17.360 --> 00:37:19.360
And I didn't want to just learn how to copy somebody,

774
00:37:19.440 --> 00:37:21.260
which that wasn't a big deal back then. Now you

775
00:37:21.280 --> 00:37:23.639
can go to YouTube and you can, I mean, you

776
00:37:23.679 --> 00:37:26.980
can watch somebody's 12 hour brisket cook online and just

777
00:37:27.059 --> 00:37:29.800
emulate everything that they do, which there's nothing wrong with that.

778
00:37:29.920 --> 00:37:32.940
You're spending big bucks on On expensive meat, like, by

779
00:37:32.980 --> 00:37:34.739
all means, do whatever you can to try to make

780
00:37:34.780 --> 00:37:37.599
sure it's good. But I wanted to do it my way.

781
00:37:37.699 --> 00:37:37.880
Yeah.

782
00:37:38.179 --> 00:37:40.360
And I wanted to do it my way because barbecue

783
00:37:40.420 --> 00:37:43.820
on paper doesn't make financial sense at all. And so

784
00:37:44.360 --> 00:37:45.900
you kind of have to figure out how to do

785
00:37:45.940 --> 00:37:48.579
it your own way. Otherwise, it's not going to work.

786
00:37:48.739 --> 00:37:48.860
Right.

787
00:37:48.880 --> 00:37:50.300
Because it shouldn't work. You've got to figure out how

788
00:37:50.320 --> 00:37:51.780
to make the numbers your way.

789
00:37:51.800 --> 00:37:52.090
That's right.

790
00:37:52.110 --> 00:37:53.489
What you can afford to do and what you want

791
00:37:53.510 --> 00:37:54.389
to do and that sort of thing.

792
00:37:54.409 --> 00:37:54.489
Yeah.

793
00:37:55.170 --> 00:37:58.530
So I just start trying to figure out how to scale,

794
00:37:58.670 --> 00:38:01.030
if there's anything that we can do with our process

795
00:38:01.090 --> 00:38:04.690
to make it easier or more consistent. And that's what

796
00:38:04.730 --> 00:38:06.670
we did. By the end of the summer, Dave, our

797
00:38:06.730 --> 00:38:09.469
landlord who was leasing us our storage facility, came to us.

798
00:38:10.250 --> 00:38:13.670
And we had kind of joked before that about, you know,

799
00:38:13.869 --> 00:38:15.570
one day we're going to need a brick and mortar.

800
00:38:16.210 --> 00:38:17.809
And he came to us and he said, hey, like,

801
00:38:18.829 --> 00:38:21.199
if y'all are serious about doing this, I own this

802
00:38:21.260 --> 00:38:24.269
property down on the corner. And I think he'd had

803
00:38:24.309 --> 00:38:26.590
it for seven or eight years at that point. And

804
00:38:26.809 --> 00:38:29.110
he just couldn't, he didn't know what to build on it.

805
00:38:29.360 --> 00:38:32.260
It's a great corner. It's a wonderful corner. Yeah. You

806
00:38:32.280 --> 00:38:32.960
don't want to waste it.

807
00:38:33.179 --> 00:38:33.699
No, no.

808
00:38:33.780 --> 00:38:34.719
And that was the thing.

809
00:38:34.820 --> 00:38:37.280
He told us that he had several people that had

810
00:38:37.320 --> 00:38:40.800
approached him and nothing felt right. It didn't feel like

811
00:38:40.820 --> 00:38:43.849
the right thing. And he said, he told me and

812
00:38:43.869 --> 00:38:46.750
Mallory one day, if you guys want to move into

813
00:38:46.809 --> 00:38:50.989
a restaurant, I will build you a restaurant. You meet

814
00:38:51.030 --> 00:38:52.969
with an architect, you pay for it to be designed,

815
00:38:53.050 --> 00:38:55.710
and I will build you a restaurant. And that's what

816
00:38:55.730 --> 00:38:56.010
we did.

817
00:38:57.190 --> 00:39:00.389
And really like telling the story almost seems not real

818
00:39:00.469 --> 00:39:03.239
still to this day. We literally, it was on a handshake.

819
00:39:03.840 --> 00:39:06.780
He built this building for us. He owned this, he

820
00:39:06.860 --> 00:39:09.099
owned this corner. We have since, we bought this property

821
00:39:09.139 --> 00:39:13.260
from him just before COVID, but back in 2019. But he,

822
00:39:13.280 --> 00:39:17.230
I think that he truly saw Just these two crazy kids.

823
00:39:17.590 --> 00:39:18.909
Crazy enough to sit there.

824
00:39:18.929 --> 00:39:22.300
Right. And he was like, they've always paid their rent.

825
00:39:22.400 --> 00:39:25.500
They are hard workers. And he just built this building.

826
00:39:25.579 --> 00:39:27.409
We had to do everything. We had to get all

827
00:39:27.429 --> 00:39:29.269
the equipment and we had to design it and we

828
00:39:29.309 --> 00:39:32.269
had to do the architect stuff. But he, on a handshake,

829
00:39:33.130 --> 00:39:35.289
built this building for us and had faith in us

830
00:39:35.429 --> 00:39:36.380
to make something happen.

831
00:39:37.739 --> 00:39:45.329
As an entrepreneur in this world, throw any measurable, tangible

832
00:39:45.570 --> 00:39:50.170
level of success out the window. There's still value in stick-to-it-ness.

833
00:39:50.730 --> 00:39:55.380
And people see that and people appreciate that. And stick-to-it-ness

834
00:39:55.449 --> 00:39:58.980
may not pay the bills, but it goes a long

835
00:39:59.059 --> 00:40:07.340
way when it comes to community goodwill, relationships, landlord goodwill. Um, and,

836
00:40:07.400 --> 00:40:09.539
and he saw that in us. And then he also

837
00:40:09.639 --> 00:40:13.190
saw that we had taken this nothing now into something.

838
00:40:13.230 --> 00:40:15.409
And we were, and we were growing with it because

839
00:40:15.449 --> 00:40:18.530
a lot of passion-based business. is not able to scale,

840
00:40:18.630 --> 00:40:21.170
is not able to take care of the business side

841
00:40:21.190 --> 00:40:21.530
of things.

842
00:40:22.199 --> 00:40:25.559
Also, we looked at moving into Lubbock. I mean, we

843
00:40:25.579 --> 00:40:28.380
were actively looking for buildings and what do we do?

844
00:40:28.480 --> 00:40:30.860
We need a bigger boat now. And when Dave offered

845
00:40:30.920 --> 00:40:32.659
to build this building, we were like, that's amazing because

846
00:40:32.679 --> 00:40:35.000
we didn't want to leave Woolforth. People were coming out here.

847
00:40:35.500 --> 00:40:40.170
There were also some who's who of Lubbock that now

848
00:40:40.250 --> 00:40:43.650
were telling us, hey, we have this lot. We have

849
00:40:43.690 --> 00:40:46.349
this lot on Milwaukee. We have this lot on 82nd.

850
00:40:46.389 --> 00:40:49.800
Why don't you come come build a brick and mortar there. Um,

851
00:40:49.980 --> 00:40:51.619
but at that point it was like, it had kind

852
00:40:51.659 --> 00:40:55.280
of become a thing. Um, early, early on, whenever things

853
00:40:55.320 --> 00:40:58.579
were starting to get busy, we had this group of

854
00:40:58.840 --> 00:41:04.380
Texas tech athletic coaches, retired coaches, athletic directors, um, that

855
00:41:04.420 --> 00:41:06.679
would come once a week. And that was, that was

856
00:41:06.719 --> 00:41:09.159
their thing. There was always four to eight of them

857
00:41:09.639 --> 00:41:11.179
and they would come and they'd sit in the storage

858
00:41:11.239 --> 00:41:14.960
unit and they'd eat barbecue. And, uh, It had become

859
00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:16.320
this thing that, no.

860
00:41:16.659 --> 00:41:18.989
We're Wolferth. You don't want to change that. Yeah, we're Wolferth.

861
00:41:19.010 --> 00:41:21.710
People that live in Lubbock, who have always lived in Lubbock,

862
00:41:21.750 --> 00:41:26.769
are coming to Wolferth to have this experience. And we

863
00:41:26.809 --> 00:41:29.199
don't want to take that away from them. And Wolferth

864
00:41:29.239 --> 00:41:33.539
was there for us whenever we couldn't sell barbecue in Lubbock.

865
00:41:33.699 --> 00:41:36.099
Why would we want to pick up and go? We

866
00:41:36.119 --> 00:41:40.360
have everything we need right here. So that's why we

867
00:41:40.380 --> 00:41:44.239
stayed here. And this corner is most excellent for what

868
00:41:44.280 --> 00:41:47.619
we wanted to do. And Dave, I mean, Dave was

869
00:41:47.760 --> 00:41:51.780
a huge blessing to us in, in several, you know,

870
00:41:51.820 --> 00:41:55.489
key moments throughout the development and growth of this business.

871
00:41:55.550 --> 00:41:59.190
There are, there are checkpoints that you can immediately go

872
00:41:59.230 --> 00:42:02.050
back to and think that that was something completely out

873
00:42:02.070 --> 00:42:03.909
of our control, that if that didn't go that way,

874
00:42:04.170 --> 00:42:07.650
then none of this ends up where it's at. Dave, Dave,

875
00:42:08.500 --> 00:42:13.539
Offering to build us a restaurant in exchange for $ 2, 500

876
00:42:13.440 --> 00:42:17.519
a month rent for a brand new space is outrageous.

877
00:42:17.579 --> 00:42:22.050
That's not normal. That's not something that you're going to

878
00:42:22.219 --> 00:42:25.889
go and find if you're looking for. But I think

879
00:42:25.929 --> 00:42:28.309
he knew if we didn't work out, he had this

880
00:42:28.349 --> 00:42:29.889
building and he was going to build it on this

881
00:42:29.929 --> 00:42:31.449
corner and he could do something else with it. So

882
00:42:32.090 --> 00:42:36.349
it was just divine intervention there. um, along the way that,

883
00:42:36.409 --> 00:42:40.130
that got us to here. And now Mallory and I

884
00:42:40.190 --> 00:42:43.710
consider ourselves kind of stewards of, of what the community

885
00:42:43.730 --> 00:42:45.190
has built.

886
00:42:45.250 --> 00:42:46.730
Like, um, okay.

887
00:42:46.750 --> 00:42:48.840
So you've got here, you got the foothold, you know,

888
00:42:48.880 --> 00:42:51.099
you've got these breaks that's kind of kept you here.

889
00:42:52.619 --> 00:42:55.679
Talk a little bit about that because that's the, that's

890
00:42:55.719 --> 00:42:57.659
the piece why we do this show, right? Like on paper,

891
00:42:57.679 --> 00:43:00.179
you can look at the perfect place and all these things.

892
00:43:00.840 --> 00:43:03.639
What you, What's hard for an entrepreneur who's watching this

893
00:43:03.699 --> 00:43:07.820
coming from California, Tucson, Oregon, New York, New Jersey, a

894
00:43:07.880 --> 00:43:10.559
lot of them have never even been in Texas. Maybe

895
00:43:10.579 --> 00:43:14.550
they've flown through Dallas and that's kind of it. And again,

896
00:43:15.369 --> 00:43:19.190
what we try to help them understand is the culture

897
00:43:19.230 --> 00:43:21.469
of the community is so important. Look for not just

898
00:43:21.510 --> 00:43:24.679
the perfect spot, but the perfect spot in all aspects, right?

899
00:43:24.699 --> 00:43:25.070
Because.

900
00:43:25.889 --> 00:43:28.949
you're raising a family here. Like you're, you're now the,

901
00:43:29.090 --> 00:43:30.670
these are the people you see in the grocery store

902
00:43:30.730 --> 00:43:32.750
and that sort of talk a little bit about what that,

903
00:43:33.090 --> 00:43:35.250
what Wolfert has meant from that aspect.

904
00:43:35.289 --> 00:43:40.159
What, what kept y'all here? What's, what is it about Wolfert?

905
00:43:40.179 --> 00:43:42.739
That's kind of giving you that. I want to stay here.

906
00:43:42.840 --> 00:43:46.980
And I mean, you just talked about, Oh yeah. I

907
00:43:47.019 --> 00:43:49.159
just wanted to say it's, we're doing business in a

908
00:43:49.179 --> 00:43:51.909
small town. I mean, we're, we're doing business in a,

909
00:43:52.000 --> 00:43:55.590
in a town that, that, I don't want to sound

910
00:43:55.630 --> 00:43:57.869
like we're a big fish in a small pond, but

911
00:43:58.010 --> 00:44:02.150
we kind of are here. We weren't just another restaurant

912
00:44:02.230 --> 00:44:06.289
in Woolforth. We were this exciting new thing that the

913
00:44:06.469 --> 00:44:10.329
city was excited to get behind. I remember we were

914
00:44:10.409 --> 00:44:14.360
two or three years in and the city manager called.

915
00:44:14.780 --> 00:44:18.880
He was a regular customer, huge fan, very supportive. And

916
00:44:18.920 --> 00:44:21.199
he called and he said, hey, I just wanted to

917
00:44:21.239 --> 00:44:25.570
tell you, You guys had your sales tax for last

918
00:44:25.590 --> 00:44:26.690
year was the same as Sonic.

919
00:44:27.809 --> 00:44:28.550
That was a big deal.

920
00:44:28.690 --> 00:44:32.800
Like that was like, man, we're doing Sonic numbers. But

921
00:44:32.949 --> 00:44:34.590
you're not going to get that in Lubbock. Like the

922
00:44:34.639 --> 00:44:36.400
city managers are not going to call you up and

923
00:44:36.480 --> 00:44:39.840
tell you, hey, like, good job. Your gross revenue is

924
00:44:40.619 --> 00:44:41.559
similar to Sonic.

925
00:44:41.579 --> 00:44:42.260
That's awesome.

926
00:44:42.920 --> 00:44:48.099
But back to the people. And I know Lubbock is wonderful.

927
00:44:48.159 --> 00:44:50.820
And Lubbock and Woolforth are basically one now just because

928
00:44:50.860 --> 00:44:54.250
everything has grown so much. But I mean, from the beginning,

929
00:44:54.349 --> 00:44:59.690
we were feeding the farmers, the school teachers, the blue

930
00:44:59.730 --> 00:45:04.880
collar workers, the electricians and linemen and plumbers and the

931
00:45:04.920 --> 00:45:06.500
guys that were just on a quick lunch break to

932
00:45:06.519 --> 00:45:09.159
get a chopped beef sandwich. And it is so cool

933
00:45:09.179 --> 00:45:13.280
because those same people still come. And I see people

934
00:45:13.300 --> 00:45:15.940
that I remember serving them at the trailer 11 years ago.

935
00:45:16.559 --> 00:45:18.760
And it's so neat to have grown with them.

936
00:45:19.050 --> 00:45:19.409
Like they.

937
00:45:20.219 --> 00:45:21.699
they are still here for us and they were here

938
00:45:21.739 --> 00:45:23.820
for us when it was small. And I mean the

939
00:45:23.860 --> 00:45:27.579
city too, and, and the Wolfroth economic development, I mean, gosh,

940
00:45:27.699 --> 00:45:30.500
there's been stuff that we, that they've helped us do

941
00:45:30.519 --> 00:45:34.679
with the building with here, you go ahead.

942
00:45:34.889 --> 00:45:40.389
Well, I too, specifically the, the, the Wolfroth economic development committee,

943
00:45:41.150 --> 00:45:43.690
we expanded, if you can see in the video where

944
00:45:43.730 --> 00:45:45.849
this yellow line is, that used to be the, the

945
00:45:46.070 --> 00:45:48.590
dining room. That was, that was the end of our restaurant.

946
00:45:48.610 --> 00:45:48.730
Yeah.

947
00:45:49.269 --> 00:45:52.449
And a year in, we realized we need a bigger

948
00:45:52.489 --> 00:45:54.570
dining room and we need another kitchen because of all

949
00:45:54.610 --> 00:45:58.579
these gluten-free desserts that we're making. And so Dave said, okay,

950
00:45:58.599 --> 00:46:01.760
I'll finish out that other unit for you. And the

951
00:46:01.780 --> 00:46:04.059
city came in or the fire marshal came in and said,

952
00:46:04.300 --> 00:46:06.480
you have to have fire suppression. Yeah.

953
00:46:06.820 --> 00:46:10.340
That's a big thing. Financial barrier.

954
00:46:10.800 --> 00:46:11.059
Yeah.

955
00:46:11.119 --> 00:46:14.989
And it was going to be like 90 grand. We

956
00:46:15.010 --> 00:46:19.019
could not put in... fire suppression, $ 90, 000 system. Like, what

957
00:46:19.039 --> 00:46:19.659
are we going to do?

958
00:46:20.659 --> 00:46:22.539
And we didn't, we didn't own the property, but Dave

959
00:46:23.039 --> 00:46:25.119
worked through with the city and then they were like, Hey,

960
00:46:25.139 --> 00:46:28.880
we have this grant money available. And they, they worked

961
00:46:29.000 --> 00:46:33.320
out a, it was a 50, 50 deal where we make,

962
00:46:33.360 --> 00:46:35.340
we make a payment on an interest-free loan for X

963
00:46:35.360 --> 00:46:37.190
amount of years. And then the rest is forgiven if

964
00:46:37.230 --> 00:46:40.110
we're in good standing. But that that's the value of

965
00:46:40.150 --> 00:46:42.429
doing business in a small town and doing business in

966
00:46:42.469 --> 00:46:44.929
a town that wants to do business with you is it's,

967
00:46:45.840 --> 00:46:49.320
it can't be replaced. And we didn't even know about that. Um, that,

968
00:46:49.360 --> 00:46:53.070
that was something that was solicited to us. Um, you know, like, Hey,

969
00:46:53.090 --> 00:46:53.630
we problem.

970
00:46:53.750 --> 00:46:55.170
Somebody else was trying to help you solve.

971
00:46:55.250 --> 00:46:55.369
Yeah.

972
00:46:55.409 --> 00:46:56.650
Hey, we, we can help you with that.

973
00:46:56.849 --> 00:46:57.050
Yeah.

974
00:46:57.170 --> 00:46:59.150
I think so many of our entrepreneurs who come from

975
00:46:59.210 --> 00:47:02.590
other places, I tell them the city, like I connect

976
00:47:02.610 --> 00:47:03.739
you with people who want to help you.

977
00:47:04.030 --> 00:47:06.219
And, and they're like, okay, well, what's the cost? Like what,

978
00:47:06.320 --> 00:47:08.539
what do I got to give up? What, what's the blood?

979
00:47:08.579 --> 00:47:10.780
What's the arm I got to sell or whatever. I'm like, no, no.

980
00:47:10.800 --> 00:47:13.559
I'm like, they're, they, they want to help you. There's no,

981
00:47:13.579 --> 00:47:16.179
they're like, Nobody from the city ever wants to help, right? Like,

982
00:47:16.300 --> 00:47:17.449
it's like they're trying to figure out how to get

983
00:47:17.469 --> 00:47:18.130
more out of us.

984
00:47:18.170 --> 00:47:21.530
Yeah. And I'm like, like, that is why you're looking

985
00:47:21.590 --> 00:47:23.869
in Texas. It will be different. And they're like, okay.

986
00:47:24.309 --> 00:47:25.690
And then they come and start meeting with people and

987
00:47:25.710 --> 00:47:28.090
they're like, holy crap, everywhere we go, people.

988
00:47:27.929 --> 00:47:31.380
Want to help us. Like, their vested in interest is

989
00:47:31.469 --> 00:47:35.199
making us win and succeed. They're like, this is not normal.

990
00:47:36.260 --> 00:47:41.960
So we opened a second Abby Mae's barbecue in the

991
00:47:42.039 --> 00:47:45.309
panhandle of Florida two and a half years ago. And,

992
00:47:45.429 --> 00:47:48.630
you know, Florida is, I would consider it kind of

993
00:47:48.670 --> 00:47:51.690
a sister state to Texas as far as local and

994
00:47:52.030 --> 00:47:56.610
state government and being business friendly. I can tell you

995
00:47:56.670 --> 00:48:01.949
for a fact that even in that kind of business

996
00:48:02.010 --> 00:48:06.780
friendly state, the county and the city out there, they're

997
00:48:06.840 --> 00:48:09.159
not offering to help us with anything. In fact, they

998
00:48:09.239 --> 00:48:11.980
are beating our door down asking for their next dollar,

999
00:48:12.000 --> 00:48:16.800
their next Right. Their next cut. And that has been

1000
00:48:16.840 --> 00:48:20.699
extremely eye opening to me. The difference between here and there.

1001
00:48:20.719 --> 00:48:25.739
Yeah, I think that we we knew like so we

1002
00:48:25.780 --> 00:48:27.760
don't know any different because we've never really operated a

1003
00:48:27.780 --> 00:48:30.239
business besides our little food truck in Arizona. But we

1004
00:48:30.280 --> 00:48:36.199
have been so spoiled. Truly by customers, by the city

1005
00:48:36.239 --> 00:48:39.679
of Woolworth, even by Lubbock, to the point that when

1006
00:48:39.699 --> 00:48:41.480
we opened in Florida two and a half years ago,

1007
00:48:41.639 --> 00:48:45.059
it was like. It was a humbling experience. And we're

1008
00:48:45.079 --> 00:48:48.159
just like, wow. We know we're thankful to be here

1009
00:48:48.239 --> 00:48:50.559
and that everything is wonderful and this is great. And

1010
00:48:50.579 --> 00:48:52.619
we work really hard, but it's worth it. And we

1011
00:48:52.639 --> 00:48:55.099
have a lot of support from all angles. But holy crap.

1012
00:48:55.760 --> 00:48:59.139
This place is special. You can't just do what we

1013
00:48:59.199 --> 00:49:02.159
did here in Wolferth. You can't replicate that somewhere else.

1014
00:49:02.860 --> 00:49:05.329
It literally doesn't exist. Maybe another small town in Texas.

1015
00:49:05.849 --> 00:49:07.670
But it's just not normal.

1016
00:49:07.849 --> 00:49:10.119
That is... It's why we exist.

1017
00:49:10.199 --> 00:49:14.469
And I hear this over and over again, that this

1018
00:49:14.510 --> 00:49:18.619
story is like yours. We had a problem. Someone actually

1019
00:49:18.639 --> 00:49:21.420
helped us solve it. And again, the committee, it wasn't

1020
00:49:21.460 --> 00:49:24.099
just the EDC and just not the city. You mentioned

1021
00:49:24.139 --> 00:49:25.579
the customers.

1022
00:49:25.099 --> 00:49:25.519
And the thing.

1023
00:49:25.679 --> 00:49:28.039
Everybody's sort of like, no, no, we want you to

1024
00:49:28.099 --> 00:49:30.989
succeed and we want to invest in you. And I

1025
00:49:31.010 --> 00:49:34.210
think that's a wonderful sentiment that doesn't, you know, not

1026
00:49:34.250 --> 00:49:34.929
everybody gets it.

1027
00:49:36.210 --> 00:49:39.809
Well, it's a two-way story. agreement.

1028
00:49:39.849 --> 00:49:44.349
It's a two-way contract. And we pay our taxes, the

1029
00:49:44.550 --> 00:49:48.469
community members pay their taxes, and those taxes are used

1030
00:49:49.650 --> 00:49:52.090
for things. And we can all complain about our high

1031
00:49:52.130 --> 00:49:54.289
property taxes, but at the end of the day, they

1032
00:49:54.409 --> 00:49:59.199
are used for improvements and to support the local economy.

1033
00:49:59.219 --> 00:50:01.380
When you have a fire and you need the fire

1034
00:50:01.420 --> 00:50:02.219
department to show.

1035
00:50:02.079 --> 00:50:05.090
Up, you kind of want them in place. Those Those

1036
00:50:05.110 --> 00:50:07.210
firemen are getting paid because of the taxes that we pay.

1037
00:50:07.230 --> 00:50:09.949
But it's cool to operate in a city.

1038
00:50:11.909 --> 00:50:12.760
That it's so visible.

1039
00:50:13.099 --> 00:50:18.579
That the two-way contractual agreement between a business and the

1040
00:50:18.599 --> 00:50:21.219
municipality is so obvious.

1041
00:50:21.719 --> 00:50:22.059
I love it.

1042
00:50:22.920 --> 00:50:25.380
We've had things that have happened over the years that.

1043
00:50:27.309 --> 00:50:30.400
Like we had a huge, uh, the Texas tech going

1044
00:50:30.440 --> 00:50:33.099
band had their, was it a hundred year, hundred year,

1045
00:50:33.099 --> 00:50:35.559
50 year. What was their, I don't know, anniversary. I

1046
00:50:35.579 --> 00:50:40.760
think it was a hundred, um, huge alumni event last

1047
00:50:40.800 --> 00:50:44.789
fall and the brewery next door, good line, uh, beer

1048
00:50:45.289 --> 00:50:47.949
and us, we're going to do this big collaborative thing

1049
00:50:48.050 --> 00:50:51.650
for their, their, their coming together night. Um, and it

1050
00:50:51.670 --> 00:50:54.110
was going to be like 5,000 people. This is like,

1051
00:50:54.699 --> 00:50:56.679
Like we might could fit 300 people in here. And

1052
00:50:57.800 --> 00:50:59.579
I think Danielle has numbers on that, but I think

1053
00:50:59.599 --> 00:51:01.780
that there were like three to 5,000 people on this

1054
00:51:01.860 --> 00:51:04.780
corner that night. But when we were planning it, I

1055
00:51:04.800 --> 00:51:07.070
was like, well, we have four bathrooms. Like, what are

1056
00:51:07.090 --> 00:51:09.110
we going to do? And I was like, you know what?

1057
00:51:09.130 --> 00:51:11.309
I'm going to text Danielle and see if they can

1058
00:51:11.329 --> 00:51:13.849
get like a mobile restroom out here. I text Danielle

1059
00:51:13.869 --> 00:51:15.369
and she was like, yeah, absolutely. What are the dates?

1060
00:51:15.409 --> 00:51:17.699
What do you need? And the city of Woolworth had

1061
00:51:17.739 --> 00:51:19.760
a restroom here for us for these 5,000 people. Like

1062
00:51:19.780 --> 00:51:22.539
there's stuff like Stuff like that. That's not.

1063
00:51:22.900 --> 00:51:26.340
It doesn't get calculated in spreadsheets. It doesn't get calculated. And,

1064
00:51:26.559 --> 00:51:28.199
you know, when you're talking about taxes and those kind

1065
00:51:28.219 --> 00:51:30.460
of things, it just didn't get registered.

1066
00:51:30.500 --> 00:51:30.840
It's just.

1067
00:51:30.920 --> 00:51:31.159
Right.

1068
00:51:31.179 --> 00:51:32.340
It happens. Yeah.

1069
00:51:32.699 --> 00:51:35.090
So anyway, it's just super cool little things that it's like, man,

1070
00:51:35.139 --> 00:51:37.150
like I'm telling you, that would not happen in Florida.

1071
00:51:38.969 --> 00:51:43.250
But what's really cool is we can text Danielle. And say, hey,

1072
00:51:43.289 --> 00:51:45.769
we're doing this thing this week or with some this

1073
00:51:45.829 --> 00:51:49.030
person is coming this week. And she gets equally as

1074
00:51:49.070 --> 00:51:51.639
excited about it because we're at the end of the day,

1075
00:51:51.659 --> 00:51:54.980
we're all in this together. So there have been opportunities

1076
00:51:55.039 --> 00:51:57.099
where we've been able to tell her, hey, we're doing this.

1077
00:51:57.340 --> 00:52:00.599
And then she's able to kind of take it to

1078
00:52:00.619 --> 00:52:03.519
the next level and make it more about the city

1079
00:52:03.559 --> 00:52:06.880
or the community than just than just somebody coming to

1080
00:52:06.900 --> 00:52:07.380
the restaurant.

1081
00:52:08.019 --> 00:52:12.199
So this has been a phenomenal conversation. I usually tell people, look,

1082
00:52:12.239 --> 00:52:14.179
it's like 18 to 20 minutes. We're like, we've been

1083
00:52:14.199 --> 00:52:19.539
at it almost an hour. This is phenomenal. For our listeners,

1084
00:52:19.599 --> 00:52:23.099
for those who are, you know, like thinking about Texas,

1085
00:52:23.119 --> 00:52:25.929
thinking about doing that, y'all have obviously been through some

1086
00:52:26.610 --> 00:52:27.260
challenging things.

1087
00:52:27.320 --> 00:52:28.739
It's not easy. Like we talk about it.

1088
00:52:29.269 --> 00:52:31.349
Seems like everything you got breaks, but there were moments

1089
00:52:31.389 --> 00:52:33.849
where it was hard. Do you have any advice for

1090
00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:37.869
that person thinking about, you know, they're looking at South Plains,

1091
00:52:37.909 --> 00:52:40.389
maybe they're looking at Lubbock and the surrounding areas, but

1092
00:52:40.769 --> 00:52:43.510
what's a piece of advice that you would give that

1093
00:52:43.590 --> 00:52:47.150
business owner couple? A lot of times our audience are

1094
00:52:47.469 --> 00:52:50.130
husbands and wives who are picking up a business and

1095
00:52:50.170 --> 00:52:52.110
moving to a place they have nothing, they don't know

1096
00:52:52.170 --> 00:52:54.989
anything about. What's a piece of advice you might give

1097
00:52:55.050 --> 00:52:59.039
them in their considering that? Both of you can answer

1098
00:52:59.079 --> 00:53:00.099
so you don't feel like you have to.

1099
00:53:00.670 --> 00:53:04.130
I wish that there was a good piece of advice.

1100
00:53:04.510 --> 00:53:08.630
You have to be stubborn. You have to be steadfast.

1101
00:53:08.710 --> 00:53:11.780
You have to truly believe.

1102
00:53:11.320 --> 00:53:12.119
In what you're doing.

1103
00:53:13.260 --> 00:53:16.039
In a situation like this, and we did it here

1104
00:53:16.079 --> 00:53:18.219
and now we're attempting to do it again in Florida,

1105
00:53:19.099 --> 00:53:25.280
if we could have afforded to quit, if we would

1106
00:53:25.320 --> 00:53:27.300
have had a plan B, if we would have had

1107
00:53:27.340 --> 00:53:32.429
an out, we might We might have jumped ship, but

1108
00:53:32.469 --> 00:53:34.820
we didn't. We couldn't afford to quit. We didn't have

1109
00:53:34.860 --> 00:53:37.880
a plan B. We were all in. And sometimes you

1110
00:53:37.960 --> 00:53:40.539
have to be that committed that you are so all

1111
00:53:40.719 --> 00:53:47.460
in that you're going to die trying. And that, for

1112
00:53:47.480 --> 00:53:49.579
better or for worse, that's kind of gotten us to

1113
00:53:49.639 --> 00:53:53.230
where we are. We didn't have an out. And so

1114
00:53:53.269 --> 00:53:54.269
we just stuck to it.

1115
00:53:54.269 --> 00:53:55.219
I love it.

1116
00:53:56.150 --> 00:53:57.210
I would say, too, just.

1117
00:53:58.730 --> 00:54:02.530
Your relationships with the community and with people and with

1118
00:54:02.570 --> 00:54:06.739
your customers. Um, there have been times in years past

1119
00:54:06.760 --> 00:54:13.860
that it was like, we probably couldn't, shouldn't have donated

1120
00:54:13.880 --> 00:54:16.440
the food to this or donated the food to that

1121
00:54:16.500 --> 00:54:19.539
or done. But I, but I, I, we have always

1122
00:54:19.579 --> 00:54:22.340
felt like if you just feel, do what you feel

1123
00:54:22.360 --> 00:54:24.260
like is the right thing and help people out when

1124
00:54:24.280 --> 00:54:28.280
they need help, it will come back to you. And

1125
00:54:28.320 --> 00:54:31.340
that has happened to us time and time again. And

1126
00:54:31.389 --> 00:54:33.949
there's been times when I felt like, man, I don't

1127
00:54:33.989 --> 00:54:36.750
know if we can afford to do that. But I

1128
00:54:36.769 --> 00:54:38.250
feel like if you take care of people, they will

1129
00:54:38.289 --> 00:54:40.289
take care of you. They really will.

1130
00:54:42.690 --> 00:54:43.750
Kind of an extension of that.

1131
00:54:43.969 --> 00:54:48.590
I have always felt that if we do everything the

1132
00:54:48.630 --> 00:54:51.670
right way, if we put quality first, if we put

1133
00:54:51.710 --> 00:54:54.530
our employees first, if we put our customers first, if

1134
00:54:54.630 --> 00:54:58.860
we if we try to do better every single day

1135
00:54:59.019 --> 00:55:01.539
and try to improve and we keep the restrooms clean,

1136
00:55:02.780 --> 00:55:05.860
if we do all those things and we still fail,

1137
00:55:06.699 --> 00:55:08.800
if we still can't do the business that we need

1138
00:55:08.820 --> 00:55:13.519
to survive, I'm okay with that because we, because we

1139
00:55:13.539 --> 00:55:16.989
didn't compromise. We didn't cut corners. We didn't sacrifice to

1140
00:55:17.110 --> 00:55:20.050
try to make a buck. And that, that's how I've

1141
00:55:20.309 --> 00:55:21.829
felt here. And that's how I feel in Florida. I

1142
00:55:21.869 --> 00:55:25.489
told our crew in Florida when things were looking pretty grim, um,

1143
00:55:26.710 --> 00:55:30.389
If we fail here, there's not going to be anything

1144
00:55:30.510 --> 00:55:33.869
to be upset about. We're going to fail doing our

1145
00:55:33.929 --> 00:55:39.480
very best, and we can all just know that this

1146
00:55:39.579 --> 00:55:41.760
area didn't value what we were doing, and that's okay.

1147
00:55:41.920 --> 00:55:43.739
We did the best we could. All right.

1148
00:55:43.820 --> 00:55:48.050
One last piece of advice I'm going to ask. My

1149
00:55:48.110 --> 00:55:50.469
wife has said, I will never work with you.

1150
00:55:52.809 --> 00:55:54.170
She's not kidding.

1151
00:55:54.550 --> 00:55:57.369
So what is, like, how do y'all manage that? Because

1152
00:55:57.590 --> 00:56:00.349
it is truly not an easy thing to do. So

1153
00:56:00.389 --> 00:56:00.869
how do y'all?

1154
00:56:00.909 --> 00:56:01.610
We don't work together.

1155
00:56:02.250 --> 00:56:02.590
We don't.

1156
00:56:02.670 --> 00:56:03.050
We did.

1157
00:56:03.110 --> 00:56:06.289
We tried. Early on, we tried. And I mean, I

1158
00:56:06.369 --> 00:56:08.030
cut meat for the first three years that we were

1159
00:56:08.070 --> 00:56:10.030
open here right there. And she was on a register

1160
00:56:10.090 --> 00:56:12.559
right there. And we had to have three people in

1161
00:56:12.579 --> 00:56:16.340
between us. Because even at that, I mean, even at that,

1162
00:56:16.380 --> 00:56:20.199
we're yelling at each other. in front of customers and

1163
00:56:20.619 --> 00:56:21.670
we cannot work together.

1164
00:56:24.030 --> 00:56:27.090
So we've, we figured out pretty early on. There are

1165
00:56:27.130 --> 00:56:29.090
things that he is very, very good at that I

1166
00:56:29.150 --> 00:56:31.070
am terrible at. There are things that I am very,

1167
00:56:31.110 --> 00:56:33.369
very good at that he has no business doing. And

1168
00:56:33.389 --> 00:56:36.429
I think the quicker you figure out your role in

1169
00:56:36.449 --> 00:56:41.110
your business, Arnis is really good at like behind the

1170
00:56:41.130 --> 00:56:46.019
scenes stuff and numbers and all of those things. I

1171
00:56:46.099 --> 00:56:51.039
am the customer person. Yeah, I want to be here

1172
00:56:51.139 --> 00:56:53.380
from open to close. I want to be cutting meat

1173
00:56:53.539 --> 00:56:56.079
on a register, helping with catering. Arnis does so much

1174
00:56:56.179 --> 00:57:01.190
with quality control and numbers and other things. I think

1175
00:57:01.230 --> 00:57:03.510
the quicker you can figure out what you're good at,

1176
00:57:04.090 --> 00:57:06.530
the better. I mean, honestly, even if we cater together,

1177
00:57:06.590 --> 00:57:10.170
we fight. I mean, we just don't anymore because we know.

1178
00:57:10.190 --> 00:57:13.219
No, we're fine if we stay in our own lanes.

1179
00:57:13.280 --> 00:57:16.539
But when we do overlap, if there's a situation where

1180
00:57:17.130 --> 00:57:20.260
We're working in the same space. It does not go well.

1181
00:57:20.320 --> 00:57:23.579
We have gotten much better. But it's just.

1182
00:57:23.599 --> 00:57:24.480
You grow and mature.

1183
00:57:24.539 --> 00:57:28.619
But now Mallory is so... Like, this is her domain.

1184
00:57:29.360 --> 00:57:31.059
And so if I come up here and I start

1185
00:57:31.420 --> 00:57:34.059
pushing buttons, like, it's going to be a problem.

1186
00:57:34.460 --> 00:57:36.300
So I just... I'll just walk out.

1187
00:57:38.539 --> 00:57:40.300
No, we really do. We've gotten a lot better. And

1188
00:57:40.579 --> 00:57:44.000
I think we respect each other and appreciate what each

1189
00:57:44.059 --> 00:57:47.090
other brings to the business. And we're just... We tried

1190
00:57:47.110 --> 00:57:48.010
to stay in our lanes.

1191
00:57:49.510 --> 00:57:51.860
Early on, because of where we were in life and

1192
00:57:51.880 --> 00:57:54.599
we had a young daughter and Mallory was mom first,

1193
00:57:55.440 --> 00:57:58.699
there were years that I felt like this was my thing.

1194
00:57:59.119 --> 00:58:04.400
And she was very supportive from both emotional and helping

1195
00:58:04.420 --> 00:58:05.460
with the business where she could.

1196
00:58:05.519 --> 00:58:07.889
But it wasn't her primary responsibility. It was mine.

1197
00:58:09.190 --> 00:58:12.369
Since we expanded into Florida, roles have kind of switched.

1198
00:58:12.550 --> 00:58:15.670
This is now Mallory's primary. This is what she.

1199
00:58:16.719 --> 00:58:19.059
this is what she lives for outside of our kids.

1200
00:58:19.699 --> 00:58:20.679
And this is her thing.

1201
00:58:20.719 --> 00:58:23.429
And I have been focused on this new little baby

1202
00:58:23.469 --> 00:58:26.889
and trying to get it grown up and operating. So

1203
00:58:27.130 --> 00:58:29.989
for me personally, that's been really, really cool because she's

1204
00:58:30.030 --> 00:58:35.960
experiencing things nine, 10, 11 years in that I experienced

1205
00:58:36.019 --> 00:58:39.019
early on. And I felt like she didn't understand completely.

1206
00:58:39.119 --> 00:58:41.360
And now she's going through all those same things. And

1207
00:58:41.500 --> 00:58:43.989
now she's, You know, we haven't tried to work together

1208
00:58:44.170 --> 00:58:46.829
in years, but I think that there is this new

1209
00:58:47.050 --> 00:58:51.429
appreciation for each other and just the daily grind that

1210
00:58:51.869 --> 00:58:56.610
we've both matured a ton this late in this business

1211
00:58:56.809 --> 00:58:59.030
that I think that things are so much different for

1212
00:58:59.050 --> 00:59:01.710
the better now than they were before. Okay.

1213
00:59:01.989 --> 00:59:02.389
Definitely.

1214
00:59:02.690 --> 00:59:04.710
Guys, Arnis, Mallory, thank you.

1215
00:59:04.929 --> 00:59:07.849
And thanks to Danielle for allowing me the opportunity to

1216
00:59:07.869 --> 00:59:13.139
come do this with Wolfroth EDC. She's a phenomenal cheerleader

1217
00:59:13.179 --> 00:59:15.179
for you guys and for the community. And she does

1218
00:59:15.219 --> 00:59:17.719
have a lot of heart and passion for trying to

1219
00:59:18.000 --> 00:59:22.079
build the community. And I just appreciate the opportunity. I'm

1220
00:59:22.139 --> 00:59:23.579
grateful every day when I get up and get to

1221
00:59:23.619 --> 00:59:26.059
go tell stories. I mean, I'm like, I pinch myself.

1222
00:59:26.099 --> 00:59:26.860
I get to go do this.

1223
00:59:27.019 --> 00:59:30.250
Like, I love the story. So thank you all. I

1224
00:59:30.269 --> 00:59:32.570
wish you the best of luck on your new endeavor.

1225
00:59:32.929 --> 00:59:35.579
And I appreciate the business. Thank you for coming to

1226
00:59:35.639 --> 00:59:38.320
Texas and investing in our community and in our state.

1227
00:59:39.000 --> 00:59:40.000
And I wish you all the well.

1228
00:59:40.519 --> 00:59:43.079
Thank you. It's awesome. We're thankful to be here. Thank

1229
00:59:43.099 --> 00:59:43.619
you for coming.

1230
00:59:44.760 --> 00:59:46.079
Thank you for having us.

1231
00:59:46.179 --> 00:59:47.699
Just like you said, we are so thankful to be

1232
00:59:47.719 --> 00:59:52.050
able to operate in Woolforth and work with Danielle. It's

1233
00:59:52.090 --> 00:59:56.530
incredible to have support and have somebody going about for

1234
00:59:56.590 --> 00:59:58.909
you every day. When you're just trying to make a

1235
00:59:58.949 --> 01:00:03.070
business run and we are working within a municipality that's

1236
01:00:03.150 --> 01:00:05.510
looking out for our best interests and calling us and

1237
01:00:05.530 --> 01:00:08.190
being proactive and telling us how and where they can help.

1238
01:00:08.349 --> 01:00:10.940
So it's incredible, and we're just so thankful to be here.

1239
01:00:11.260 --> 01:00:12.059
All right. Thanks, guys.

1240
01:00:14.139 --> 01:00:16.780
Well, friends, thanks for joining us on another episode of

1241
01:00:16.820 --> 01:00:17.940
Gone to Texas Podcast.

1242
01:00:18.139 --> 01:00:18.739
Do me a favor.

1243
01:00:18.980 --> 01:00:21.679
Please like, share, and subscribe so more business owners can

1244
01:00:21.699 --> 01:00:24.050
discover what's possible right here in the Lone Star State.

1245
01:00:24.670 --> 01:00:27.409
If you're tired, red tape, high cost, feeling stuck where

1246
01:00:27.429 --> 01:00:30.570
you are, This is your invitation to come to Texas.

1247
01:00:31.030 --> 01:00:34.380
The Texas Economic Development Connection exists to help you skip

1248
01:00:34.780 --> 01:00:38.340
the runaround and connect directly with the people, places ready

1249
01:00:38.380 --> 01:00:38.900
to help.

1250
01:00:38.780 --> 01:00:41.820
Your business grow, like those folks right here in Texas.

1251
01:00:42.619 --> 01:00:47.199
Visit TexasEDConnection.com to schedule your free call. I'm your host,

1252
01:00:47.280 --> 01:00:49.769
Super Dave Quinn, and saying bye for now. And until

1253
01:00:49.829 --> 01:00:51.510
next time, make it a great day.

1254
01:00:52.739 --> 01:00:55.659
Thank you for tuning into this episode of Gone to Texas,

1255
01:00:56.030 --> 01:00:59.969
the official podcast of the Texas Economic Development Connection, powered

1256
01:01:00.010 --> 01:01:04.190
by Day One Experts, a collection of the country's best-known

1257
01:01:04.309 --> 01:01:09.960
economic development professionals offering on-demand services to communities across the nation.