Day In The Life of The #1 BBQ In Texas

Everybody pretty much when you travel to Texas they look up best barbecue and then if you're in that top ten they're gonna come to your restaurant. Texas Monthly it's a magazine for Texas. They have an issue that comes out every four years and it ranks the best barbecue in the state. I think they go to in the 400s like different barbecue restaurants throughout Texas. So it's a huge thing. It'll take your business from like one to ten. I mean we maybe used to do about 12 racks of ribs. Now we're cooking 40 to 50 racks of ribs. This is pretty crazy. They don't tell you before that you got number one. There's no like heads up. But the day it happened we celebrated maybe for like an hour then it was like all right we know it's coming so we gotta get to work. We're only open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday but it's a long process to get ready for just those three days. On Mondays we're pretty much just doing a lot of stuff for the sides, our desserts. We knock that out to that day. Try to get ready for the week. Everything's gonna be made from scratch here so that's why it takes a little bit longer to like our banana pudding. I mean we're stirring it constantly while it's on the stove. Everything just takes a long time because we all do it from scratch. When we bake our bread and we cut it on the weekend, this is like all the end pieces. We just save them and that's what gets used for the bread pudding. Lots of half-and-a-half, butter, vanilla, sugar, a little bit of salt. It's like 35-and-a-half. Just pour it all in. How much butter is in here? A lot of butter, but this is enough crumble for about 180 portions for the banana pudding. For the volume we're cooking right now, we really got to be in on Monday to get ready for that week. Like Tuesday, Wednesday are also like extremely long days where we take up the whole kitchen. So you can't really do some of that side prep and dessert prep before on those days. I like seeing the customers, like their reactions when they try to step on. I like when they come from all over the state, all over the country. I'm like, they really came here. That's fire. So every week we spend about $8,000 to $10,000 alone on briskets. Brisket is pretty much the most important meat in Texas barbecue. That's why they like to say brisket is king. That's kind of corny, but it really is. If you have a Texas barbecue restaurant, the brisket has to be the best thing on the menu. Tuesday, Chuck, Johnny, Lane, and Zane will trim all the briskets. That's like an 8- to 9-hour shift right there alone. It's crazy how they do it. It's got one big table and just piles of briskets. Yeah, just trimming it up for 8 hours straight. We're trimming it down to a certain amount of fat that we know that we can render. We make the sausage out of the scrap and the tallow out of the fat. How many are you guys going to have to go through today? So one half of the brisket is a completely different muscle than the other half, which is like this top part right here. And you can kind of see it right here too. So that makes cooking it a little tricky. You're basically leaving two different cuts of meat on and trying to cook them evenly, the same. When one has not as much fat, another one has a lot of fat. You want these nice, round edges that are more aerodynamic and smoker and don't crisp up as much. Same with the front of the brisket. You kind of make this nice and round as well. So what you're saying is a brisket is like a car. What we're trying to trim it down to is to look like that. There's a nice fat band on top and then the meat's right underneath. They all make it look pretty easy. It's not, though. I mean, we're just pretty good at what we do. To get as good as they're doing, I mean, they probably all trimmed into thousands of briskets at this point. I'm good also, but I'm just a little bit slower than them. They're all really fast. I could be Zane, though. Zane's not that fast. What would you say is your record time in trimming a brisket down here? A minute. A minute? Yeah, a minute. Zane, what's your fastest time? 59 seconds. 59 seconds. Zane? 30 seconds. Nah, there's no way Zane can do it in 30 seconds. It'll be all scalped up. You see the lean's nice and round now. There's not a whole lot of pointy edges. See how Zane looks all weird. That's how it's supposed to be. That's how it's supposed to be. How is it not supposed to look? Get off my pile, dude. This is mine. You gotta take a break here and there, you know. What up? Gotta hydrate between the trims. You want a trimmed brisket? Do I want a trimmed brisket? Yeah. Hell yeah. Get it in here. Hey man, sell this brisket for like half of what you usually do. Just keep it flat the entire time. The Mohawk's trimmed down nice. Three scallops? Yeah. Alright. It's so hard. I gotta give it to you guys. It's not easy. Thank you, thank you. The way we trim, we'll probably lose about 30% of what's on the brisket. When you put it on the smoker, it shrinks about half. So at that point, you're down to about a third of the original weight. That's how we calculate what the prices of our brisket is. That's why we try to make it as good as possible. We don't want people going home paying that much money for subpar brisket. So on Wednesday, we do a lot of stuff on Wednesday. That's the day we start sausage. So that's when we're doing about 200 to 250 pounds of sausage. And then also, that's when we trim all our pork ribs. Anywhere from 120 to 150 pork ribs. I think we also trim beef ribs that day too. So that's the day we kind of do a lot of different stuff. Yesterday? Yeah. The tallow floor. What is the tallow? What the briskets are at. And it makes them look shiny. Zane, what are you doing? So we're grinding the brisket trimming from yesterday to make sausages. It's marinated with the spices and everything. So we'll grind it through. I always grind and grind, baby. Alright. Sausage, that's the tricky one. That's the one that you really got to do it a lot to get good at. At this point, I mean, I do enjoy making sausage. That's probably the thing I was best at when we started the restaurant. It is tedious, but it is fun. It's a good feeling after you finish all the sausages up, yeah. Those sausage wings, they like to pop a lot like you guys are doing right now. Is that what that bin is for? Yeah. Open up that bin. It's not too bad. I just got one popped in. This is also the meat for it right here. It's all the stuff that got mixed up. I thought you guys were number one. I don't know. Making sure they're tight. No. No one's called me the glizzy gobbler before. It's fine, though. I mean, I'm not mad about it. It's whatever. How many sausages total do you think you guys are making? 480? 480 sausages? That's a lot of glizzies. Where are you guys going? Peace City. Lunchtime? Yes, sir. Once a week, we like to go to another barbeque restaurant. We go hang out with the pitmasters. We're all pretty close. But yeah, you just want to go check out other barbeque restaurants. See what they're doing. See how we're still comparing. Still trying to learn stuff, even at this point. See how we can make our food better. So that's the Flaco's half-baked thing. It's like a twice-baked, but Flaco's is always baked. So we call it half-baked potato salad. We've got a regular potato salad. This is a spicy vinegar slaw. Thank you so much. Salad burritos. Pork belly. Burning poppers. We've got the brisket elote right here. And then all your standard crab here. We've got ribs, turkey, brisket. Our pork ribs are super good. This is my favorite. What was it like when you both got on the list? It was a shock. You know, you try to put your best foot forward all the time. But I think just making the list, you're still surprised. It's still such an honor. And so it was definitely a shock. It was a good shock. These are probably the best ribs I've had from Pepperson. I like whatever their glaze is. It's a nice, sweet one. But it's not, like, super fall-off-the-bone. It's got to get a bite to it. And it's cooked really well, too. I like the eyes, Dave. I like that. Mm-hmm. This has got jalapeno poppers on it, maybe. Yeah. Freshly seasoned real well. EJ, what do you think? It's kind of sweet. I like it. It's not fall-off-the-bone. It's got to get a bite. All of us, we all went to the same elementary. I've known Lane since kindergarten. Johnny moved in third grade to our elementary school, so we were all friends before that. Everybody started getting barbecue jobs. Johnny worked at Franklin. He worked at Valentino's. Lane worked at Micklewaite and Freedman's. I also worked at Freedman's. Eventually, it was like, all right, we should team up together and have our own barbecue restaurant and just run it the way we want to run it. Since then, we've been hanging out every day. Thursdays, me and Lane get there, like, in the early morning. Lane is touching up the briskets, which is pretty much just going back over the briskets, making sure it's trimmed correct. And then I will be on the other side of the table. I'll start seasoning all the briskets. Goldie-something? Yep. I can't tell if that's grass-fed. You can't tell if that's grass-fed. Why not? I'll give you $3. All right. I'll put it up here. Let it sit a little bit so it's softened off. It sticks into the meat, too, a little bit. Thermal exposure. Texas barbecue, especially for the briskets, you want to do it low and slow. Like, we start off at about 200 degrees. It doesn't get any hotter than 300. And that's a long process, so it takes about 12 to 14 hours just for the briskets. Same thing with the pork ribs. That's about a six-hour cook. So it's a really long cook. You get a lot of smoke on it, but it just gives it that great smoky flavor, though. It's pretty hot. It's hot in that smokehouse for sure. So in the summer, it's not really my favorite time to be out there smoking briskets or just being in that pit room, especially when it's, like, over 100 degrees. I think our pit room's at about, like, 115 when you're in between both those smokers. You open a door, you get a big gust of, like, heat, and then smoke, like, fills your eyes up. It's pretty crazy, but I think that's why people love smoking this way, yeah. I think I like really how long it takes. I really like a long cook. It's just you and the fire just hanging out. It's really relaxing, honestly. Boom. Right on the dot. That scales off a little bit. We are shaping the bread loaves right now. We got our boco right there. Usually at a barbecue restaurant, bread is, like, a throwaway item. You always see it in the trash, like, it's just a waste of money pretty much, so we wanted to make it so good that people, like, didn't do that. We do about 50 loaves a day. People always come up and ask if they can buy the bread. We're like, no, we give our bread out for free. Do you like dealing with bread? Depends what type of bread we're talking about. What kind of bread do you like? You ain't never taught me that move. I did. I taught everybody that move, and nobody did it. What is that? For what? Smash? Yeah. You got a poncho? If I beat you, I get a chubby sandwich? Oh, yeah. If you beat me, I'll make you guys cookies. Oh, that's a great deal. That's a great deal. After all the meets go on, we like to just hang out. We goof around. We brought a Switch up here. We were playing Smash Bros all day pretty much. Johnny's the best. He does play the most, too. He kind of no-lifed it for a little bit. Yeah, I'd say Lane's probably second. I'm last. I'm terrible. I might get better. I don't know. Why are you standing up? No, there's no standing. I'm standing up. I'm going to pop off. There's no standing, man. Let's go! We got stuff on the line this game? Cookies and chocolate. Oh, yeah, hit him. You know? Johnny pulled some real cheeky moves. I wouldn't say it's the most sportsmanlike thing I've ever seen, but I think I can beat him, though. There we go. Maybe I was sandbagging a little bit, because I love making cookies. I'd say they're my favorite meats. They're just so rich and so good, but brisket is more of a challenge, so I like briskets better. Isn't it hot over there? Yeah, it's pretty hot. That means that the fat is rendered, and these are just going to be so delicious because of that. All around perfect beef ribs. Chuck is our head pitmaster here. She's a really quick learner. She does finish the brisket and the beef ribs, too. So, I mean, that is the main attraction to the restaurant. Her shift is critical just because it kind of comes down to that last pull. If you pull too early, it's going to be undercooked. That's when it's going to be tough. If you overcook it, it's going to be mushy. It's not going to have a good mouthfeel. There's a sweet spot right in between, so that's what we try to shoot for every day. I think they're beautiful. Yeah? I didn't know they could talk. My job is basically controlling fire, so I love it. I mean, it's only getting higher. Right now, it keeps on going up 160. Chuck, I'm sweating. It's a nice job. Fridays, I mean, that's crunch time, so that's when we got to start getting the restaurant ready for service. Everybody's pretty much everywhere in the restaurant, so Del will start portioning banana puddings in the actual dining room. We'll have stuff on the cutting board that's not in the kitchen, too, so it's a little hectic, but now we got it down pretty much to a science where everybody knows what they got to do. It's a lot of stuff, but we knock it out pretty quickly. Have you tried one of the puddings already? No, I haven't tried any puddings. You want one? I want one? Yeah. Oh, yeah, I do. I'll have this one. Oh, this one? Oh, yeah. Thanks, man. Mmm. That's great. I'm wrapping some turkeys up right now with a little bit of butter in there. A little bit? We're going a little bit lighter on the butter. We used to do a lot more. What happened? The butter's pretty expensive. We didn't need all that butter. Yeah, these are pretty much done. Just wrapping up for the last bit of it. Most of the time, you get smoked turkey. It's got to be dry. Usually, people get here around 6 or 7. That's where we get our first couple customers. And it's always nice to see, like, you're like, all right, so we're going to have some customers today. Like, right when we pull in, it's like, all right, I think it's going to be a good one. How long have you guys been waiting for? We got here about 5 after 7. I definitely ate light yesterday. Would have liked to have slept a little bit better. I didn't want to be so far back that we might miss out on something, you know, that gets sold out. Mission accomplished. How did you guys hear about this place? Texas Buckwheat. What's going on, guys? You would have only had to get here 45 minutes earlier to be first in line. We actually were before you. We just left to get coffee. After we got number one, I'd say half the line is maybe not even from Texas. We get a lot of people from out of state now. It's a good feeling that people are waking up this early, waiting in the line before we open up. I mean, we open up at 11, so people are waiting, you know, 5 hours before we open up. Every morning, we'll cut ourselves an actual tray of our food pretty much to see how we're doing, see if everything's, like, tasting right. It's all for you. What do you think, Lane? It's good. I've eaten brisket so far, and that's it. Made my day. Everything's spot on? Everything's tasting good. I think it's going to be a good day. What do you think? Is that good? I think it's amazing. Anything you want to give it to the customer? Oh, yeah. Right at 10.59 is, like, when you got to get your face on. That's when we're all ready. We're sitting behind the cutting board, and pretty much for the next 4 hours, we're going to be slammed with customers. Awesome. Thank you for coming out. How much brisket have you got here for us? About 30. I figured out a little extra pork ribs for you. 1 1⁄2, 1⁄2, 1⁄2. 1.2 beef ribs! So your total today is $55. All right, man, you do this for years to go today. For here, please. That first hour, that's the crazy hour for sure. We try to move as fast as possible, because, I mean, it's 100 degrees out there, so you really got to be quick at this. When I'm super tired, I got, like, 3 hours of sleep. That line will literally get me going. Like, I can get through the day, like, especially when it's super busy. That's why I love it. You have a good day so far? All right. One beef rib. One beef rib! Half pound pork ribs. I'm going to throw the saucepan on the house while we go off the track. 1.6 beef ribs! Cheese grits or coleslaw? You said here to go? Pound, pound, half. Three smalls. Can you just sign the screen for me? In an hour, we go through, shoot, probably about 20 briskets, like 18 racks of ribs, maybe, like, five or six turkeys. We're in a good flow, too, where, I mean, it looks easy, but this is because we've done it so many times. We'll do little samples. We call them samples. They're burning. It's great. It's, like, the best part of the brisket, but we give those out for free pretty much to everybody in line. So, that's kind of like a thanks for waiting in the line, and then, also, this is what you're about to eat. Three pounds of turkey, three brisket, three turkey. Any sausage? One sausage. Nice. Any sides? Yeah. For the first two hours, like, you know, it's a breeze. Like, I don't feel it. And then it's when that third hour, when it kicks in, that's when it kicks in, I'm like, oh, man, it's a little tiring. You got tallow going everywhere. You're slicing away. Especially, like, at that final hour, it's where I'm pretty dead, but, I mean, it's all worth it to see the customers happy, so. All right, you're all set, man. Thanks for coming out. Worth the four-hour wait? Totally. Oh, yeah. Definitely worth the wait. This is awesome and everything. I haven't tried everything, so the brim's still out, but it's up there, for sure. Yeah. Somebody's got a dishwash. Got to make sure everything's clean. Thank you, man. Yeah, we're all chilled out. Sorry? Yes, ma'am. It's Sunday. After service stops, like, we're not done working. Like, we still, me, PJ, and Della up here cleaning up, and then, like, they're back there still on the pits. What I like so much is just seeing everybody, like, super happy that we cooked something really good. It's great to hear people come back after eating and be like, this is the best barbecue I've ever had. I mean, that's probably the most satisfying part of it. I mean, that makes it worth it pretty much. We weren't trying to get number one. That's not why we opened up the barbecue restaurant. We were pretty much just trying to cook the best barbecue we could. It was a really good feeling, though, to see that we got rewarded. Like, our hard work paid off. A lot of people do think what we do is easy. I know. I used to think it was easy. But, I mean, we're going to have this title for the next four years. We're going to keep this up.