This is Maddie Rempe
from Stevens, Ohio.
Enduro listening
to barbecue central.
Georgia cake.
Let's go. We'll do it live. Okay.
Do it live. I can I'll write it,
and we'll do it live. So to get
that perfect barbecue, you use wood. Are you
sure it's safe? Whatever. We put the lighter
fluid on, strike your match, and
Should we call the fire department? That might
be a good idea.
Hey, good evening, and welcome to
the really big barbecue
Central Show.
This is the show that talks about all
things important to the world of barbecue and
grilling.
This show is originating from the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame City,
Bomb City USA,
Cleveland,
Ohio,
the barbecue capital of the North Coast.
I'm your program host, Greg Riffey. Happy to
have you aboard here on your Tuesday
evenings live fire fun and frivolity
show.
If you would like to get in contact
with the show this evening, or better yet,
follow the show during off show hours,
here's how you do all that.
You can get in touch with the show
by sending an email to greg@bbqcentralshow.com.
Follow us on all the social media channels
atbbqcentralshow,
and be sure to subscribe to the show
podcast feed on your favorite podcast platform.
Anything else you wanna find out about the
show can be found at the main website,
thebbqcentralshow.com,
and here's what's happening in case you get
the newsletter.
Coming up in about 12 minutes from now,
one of the most recognizable
faces and names in the live fire industry,
especially barbecue and Texas barbecue. Our pal, Aaron
Franklin from Franklin Barbecue
will join us. A number of other things.
I just learned something about Aaron
an hour ago. Blew my mind. I don't
think he's even down to talk about it.
Doesn't wanna promote it.
Started asking him questions,
follow-up question after follow-up, and he's,
blew my mind. Let's just say it in
that way, and I don't think I can
bring it up. But if you ask me
about it after the show, I might be
able to tell you. So Aaron Franklin for
one segment, and then we will be joined
35 past the first hour
off of a little bit of a layoff.
Our barbecue central show's official fast food review
expert, our pal, Bill Oakley,
will stop by, play a little catch up
there. He's got a barbecue event that's going
on in October that he'd like to start
promoting.
So stay tuned for
Bill Oakley. That'll bring it close to the
first hour. We moved to the second hour.
I had somebody
scheduled.
They weren't able to meet their time commitment,
so I am backfilling
with the longest running embedded correspondent,
that being from Texas.
And the guy who was in the midst
of a little bit of a
rub,
meteoric rise in popularity,
So we're gonna keep tracking it. Last one
was in March. Doug Scheiding, Ro Cookers.
We'll see how that goes. I have an
open segment planned as well with a couple
hot takes and other things to get you
updated on. So we'll see how Doug's segment
goes and what time we have left to
fill. I have some things to give away.
Not the least of which might be the
Oh,
Mommy
that Matt Osman gave me a month ago
or whatever it was. Tried it on steaks
for the first time over the weekend. Winner
winner Ohmame
on my steak for dinner.
It's really good. So thanks to Matt once
again,
trying it on a number of things.
So
that's how the show's laying out. Aaron Franklin,
Bill Oakley first hour, big first hour, and
then Doug Scheiding in the second hour, big
second hour as well.
Don't forget you can follow me socially, Instagram,
the Tweeter, TikTok, Snapper Snaps, and the LinkedIns,
all with the handle atbbqcentralshow.
We say good evening to those of you
watching
through one of our video streaming platforms. You
can go to facebook.com/bbqcentralshoworthetwitters.com/bbqcentralshow,
or you can also watch on the YouTubes,
which is youtube.com/@bbqcentralshow
where we have a new YouTube poll question
of the week. And we're asking everybody this
because it was such a hot one last
week.
During the embedded correspondence, I'm asking you, do
you remove the membrane on spare
ribs?
And currently,
94%
of you are saying, yes,
You do. 6% of you are saying, no.
You don't.
So a lot of us are spending the
time to remove the
membrane off of the spare ribs. By the
way, as I had just mentioned, the umami
rub, a taste tester Steve was in, of
course, Maddie's boyfriend.
And I didn't go full on everybody's gonna
taste it whether they want to or not.
I know Steve, tad bit of an adventurous
eater when it comes to the spices and
the seasonings.
Gals, a little bit more, I know what
I like.
So I did one side with umami,
put them in the sousvides,
did them like that. So Steve and I
got to enjoy some of that. He said
they were good. Does he just talked about
there in the instant chat? So we appreciate
Steve's pallet when he stops by the house
for some eats.
Results from the poll question of last week,
Joe Martinez is really Martin. Martinez,
very close. 56%
of you think indeed,
Joe Martinez
is Martin
Martinez. And we'll start here tonight. So first,
I do wanna thank
a gal by the name of Mara Morrison,
perhaps it's Mara Morrison,
from a local plain deal I'm sorry, from
a local newspaper called The News Herald
for the big article
write up in the special edition of the
newspaper entitled Ready,
set, grill.
Most of the supplement was done with other
reporters
interviewing barbecue restaurant owners for some barbecue advice
and tips and tricks.
And around here, that's questionable
information for the most part.
So this reporter
decided to go with a suggestion
that one of the mayors
in the next city over gave her, my
pal Joe Sackas,
from the great city of Wickliffe, Ohio. He
said, forget about that. You should interview a
guy that has his own
barbecue and grilling show and podcast.
That being me, she bought into his pitch
and away we went. We met up,
I don't know, July
3rd or 5th or whatever it was, did
the whole hour long meeting.
Nothing new to the fans of the show,
How I got started in barbecue. How I
grew the online presence when I started the
show both in podcast and live format. How
it's grown and evolved over its life, all
that kind of info.
I don't think you can actually go anywhere
on the newspaper's
website and find it. They require you to
jump through a paywall or 2.
Also, and shockingly, it wasn't on stands
for sale on Sunday.
You actually have to subscribe to the newspaper.
And then
in addition to the Sunday newspaper showing up,
there was
an additional supplement called Ready, Set, Grill, but
you have to be a paying subscriber
in order to get it.
So I wanna thank
Mara or Mara Morrison once again for the
opportunity.
A couple editors notes here.
And I don't wanna come off like a
shithead,
but I will.
However, I don't want to or I do
wanna make a few corrections at her story.
First and foremost, please, 1st and foremost,
in the secondary headline, it reads, and I
quote, Willoughby residence,
the barbecue central show
gets
200
to
300000
live views
each week.
Gang, this is 100%
false.
It doesn't get anywhere near that many live
views each week. I wish it did
at most depending on the guest and what
Tuesday
and if the Olympics are on and if
you have to take a dump,
maybe 2 to 3000.
But
usually,
usually, it's a 1,000 or less during the
live show.
There have been times when I've seen it
peak to 10 or 12,000,
normally a1000.
There was also some competing information on the
amount of audio downloads the shows get.
One part of the articles is 20 to
30,000, but no time frame given on when
those numbers or how those numbers are collected.
Doesn't matter. Those were wrong too.
The monthly audio download average around 40,000 a
month at the current time, that is correct.
I have verifiable proof of that. And look,
if I'm being critical, and as I said
I am,
the whole thing could have been a bit
more well written. She did mention
that she was going to send me an
advanced copy to read through.
That never happened. I could have corrected some
of these things that I have been talking
about over the last few minutes,
but it never came. It just showed up
on Sunday to people's doorsteps.
Someone tagged my wife in a Facebook post
and was like, hey. Hudson's in the newspaper.
My wife was like, well,
where's our copy? I don't have any idea.
I didn't even know it was coming out
today. She said she was gonna let me
know.
She said she was gonna send me advanced
copies. I've emailed her subsequently and said, is
there any way I can get my hands
on a couple paper copies?
Haven't heard back from her. Don't know if
she's decided after my
interview that nothing is going to be better
than that, so she's cut bait.
But bad news for mom and dad, you're
not getting a paper copy.
I can't even get one,
and they weren't on newsstands.
The writing a little disjointed,
all in all if I'm being critical because
I do fancy myself a bit of a
creative writer.
I write a lot of the reads and
a lot of takes and all this other
stuff.
Outside of that though, always
so grateful and so happy to get the
show some extra exposure, which it deserves. Not
me. The show. The show deserves all the
credit, all the exposure.
So we thank Mara or Mara Morrison from
the local News Herald
for giving me the feature and the Ready,
Set Grill, the special summer supplement that comes
with the News Herald. And for also saying
that I get 200 to 300,000
live views each week, which again is totally
false.
I don't even know where she came up
with that number, and she recorded me.
It is so false. I don't even wanna
be associated with that stat. I'm owning it.
I'm telling you right now. I did not
say that,
And it's true. And if I said it,
my mistake, I I recanted.
It's false. It's a made up stat
by somebody. And I don't think it was
me, although I can't be a 100% sure.
But believe me when I tell you, I
wish, but indeed, if if I got 200
to 300000 live views a week,
I might be 4th or 5th to just
to Joe Rogan. I would be one of
the top 10 or 15 podcasts of all
time.
It's not the case.
But anyway, thank you Mara no matter what.
Plus great picture of me with the suit.
I was headed into work,
so she caught me in a good dress
day.
And no, you can't get your hands on
any extra copies if you live here locally
because I couldn't get my hands on any
copies Sunday when I was perusing through all
the
gas stations,
pharmacies, and any place else that was open
in the morning on Sunday.
That's alright.
Aaron Franklin is ready to go. Before we
get to him,
let's talk about the Member's Mark Gas Grill,
which you can find at your local Sam's
Club store.
Imagine a gas grill that offers precise set
temperatures
from a slow cooking 225
to a sizzling 450
like
degrees.
You have an oven.
You have no plug ins. You have no
battery packs. Nothing like this. Is this magic
is what you're asking?
Indeed not. It's all in the gas valve.
Think of it as your grilling genie. Effortless
effortless.
Wow. It's it's a tough one tonight. Effortlessly
sensing and regulating temperatures
just like your trusty up. Set it, and
forget it. No plugins, no gadgets, no add
ons, just pure grilling freedom and joy.
The game changing oven mode,
the traditional barbecue mode, and then you pick.
And by the way, you're not locked into
1 or the other. You wanna start in
grilling mode and then finish in oven mode
or vicey versa, you can do it.
I suggest this. Go to your local Sam's
Club store,
check out the Member's Mark pro series. They
have a 4 burner and a 5 burner.
I have the 5 burner in the backyard.
A sexy all stainless steel cooker,
huge amount of space,
and if you're just a little
unsure of your grilling skills and you would
rather dial in a temperature and cook, you
can do that. But you can also learn
to become a little bit more intermediate to
expert as well by using the regular grill
mode. Best of both worlds. Come on. Let's
go. Sam's Club is where you get it,
and it's the only place you can get
it with its patented thermostatic control technology.
We're back with our pal Aaron Franklin right
after this. Stick around. Be right back. You're
listening to the barbecue
central show.
Broadcast
team live from the Barbecue Central Show Studios
in Cleveland, Ohio.
You're listening to the Barbecue Central
show. Once again, here's your host,
Greg Rempe.
Hey. Welcome back to this portion of the
show being brought to you by cooking andpellets.com,
your number one source for quality wood pellets
for all your pellet driven cookers.
If you're ready to buy, don't don't go
to cookandpellets.com.
Instead, buy from amazon.comorwalmart.comorlowes.com.
Same great products as Cook and Pellets sells,
even better shipping rates as told to me
by the owner of Cook and Pellets. So
don't worry about that either.
Good folks over at cookandpellets.com.
My first guest tonight, one of the most
popular and recognizable faces in barbecue today.
You've seen him on things like barbecue pit
masters TV show. He also has a barbecue
master class over at the master class website.
Shot a barbecue show for PBS, authored books
on,
barbecue and other topics.
He is a 2020 barbecue hall of famer,
most importantly, a 2018
barbecue central show's guest
hall of famer.
We are, of course, talking about Aaron Franklin.
Aaron, we have a YouTube
poll question of the week that we're asking
everybody watching through YouTube and all guests.
Nobody better to ask nobody better to ask
than, than you on this question.
Do you remove
the membrane on spare ribs? Yes or no?
Absolutely not.
Wow. 96%
of the YouTube voting public is saying, yes.
They, in fact, do remove the membrane on
spare ribs. So Oh, they might. I do.
Let's
let's ask a follow-up question to the YouTube
poll question of the week.
In the backyard,
does Aaron remove the membrane on spare ribs?
Nope.
Alright.
So why not? I mean, there seems to
be a large fascination
with removing membranes on both the baby back
and the spare ribs. I did a big
8
rack of
spare rib rib cook a week ago this
past Saturday, and I was looking at them.
I was like, holy shit. Am I really
gonna remove the membrane on all 8 racks?
And then 5 hours later, I was done.
And I said, maybe I'm never gonna do
that. So I put it to the embedded
correspondence last month, and now a guy who's
both doing it in the backyard, but of
course doing it commercially with Franklin Barbecue. Why
not?
Well, I said the same thing to myself
a long, long time ago, and when you're
in a restaurant and you get there at
midnight
to cook 50 to 72 racks of ribs,
there
is no way I'm spending that kind of
time pulling off the membranes.
And also kind of what I learned,
I could talk for hours about this. I
know we don't have a a ton of
time.
But so, like and I don't really do
baby backs. You know, we we do full
spares as I hit Franklin, and I prefer
spares for sure. Yep.
But the flavors that I'm trying to get
on the ribs
totally penetrate that membrane,
and I like to cook my ribs
as almost overcooked as possible. And when you're
taking something that close to the edge, it's
nice to have that membrane intact to help
the rack kinda hold together. Because otherwise, you
got shiners, you got bones kinda poking out
and stuff,
and it just doesn't really matter. I I've
cooked them both ways so many times,
and,
you know, if you're cooking ribs to full
full full tenderness, I don't think it matters
that much.
There is a large
belief amongst live fire cooks that leaving the
membrane on is some type of a
flavor penetration
inhibitor.
Do you find that to be the case?
No. Because the good smoke particles
that you want, like, from a clean fire
or,
water soluble, which means they'll penetrate penetrate
protein. Man, I can't talk either.
So in in that, you know, obviously, that
membrane is water based, so it's it's protein.
So the flavors are gonna go right through.
Salt's gonna go right through.
I mean, yeah, it's fine. It's it's paper
thin.
When you're talking about cooking a rib to
total tenderness
in a restaurant setting, do you jam a
Thermapen in there? Are you looking for readings?
Or is it, like, what's the gauge for
you? Is it just time because you've done
it so long?
It's all by feel. Yeah.
Yeah. So, you know, in Franklin,
we'll do about 3 or so, 3 and
a half hours
unwrapped,
meat side up, get them looking pretty about
2 shades darker than you want them to
be later,
sauce them, flip them over,
let them hang out for a minute, and
then we wrap them up in foil with
a little bit of sauce, a little bit
of vinegar sauce,
and then wrap them super duper tight. And
we never see them again until
they get unwrapped on the cutting board during
lunch in front of guests. So that means
you can't poke a hole in the foil
because you'll lose the juices.
You'll, you know, compromise the whole package, so
it's all by fuel. And then you also
pull it when you have about, like, half
a rib left to get tender because you
have to, of course, figure out, like, your
carryover and all that
stuff. But I will also say Yes. That
sorry. You got me talking about ribs now.
Please.
You know, the trick to to cooking it
that way where you'd never unwrap them and,
like, check because you don't wanna unwrap them
because you'll they'll steam out and stuff like
that. You know, you just kind of worked
really hard to get all the juice and
the liquid and stuff in that bag. But
the trick is is that you don't wanna
render
really any fat or anything,
or dry out the meat until after you
wrap. Once you wrap it, you can push
the temps because you cook the fat out
of the ribs, and it mixes with the
sauce. So it creates more of a, like,
a confit kind of texture.
So are you putting the ribs back on?
After you've tightly wrapped them in foil, do
they see the cooker again for certain amount
of time?
Yep. Yep. They go right back on, and
they probably stay on there for an hour,
hour and a half, something like that. Okay.
And then you have, like, some type of
a a holding tank to, hold the ribs,
and that's where they would remain tightly wrapped
until they hit the slicing board?
Yeah. So we use warming cabinets,
you know, and they you'll you'll pull them
off
a little bit earlier,
you know, in the summertime, a little bit
later in the wintertime,
let them rest, let them hang out, and
when they're ready to go, we just throw
them on sheet trays and put them on
a speed rack. And then from there, we
wheel them into cabinet warmers for service.
Why not indulge me? And we're going way
off topic, of course, because that's what we
do here on the show. Here's what I
did for my big rib cook. And I
hate to tell you what kind of a
cooker I used, but I had both a
Traeger Timberline,
just because it has some decent capacity. I
don't usually cook 8 racks of ribs, but
we had a party going on that was
a surprise birthday party for me that I
didn't know about, and that's why I was
cooking.
And then I used my Primo XL. So
2 completely different flavor profiles, but I tried
to do the same process.
So we had the cooker running at 275,
both of them. And then,
do my rub procedure. They go in, so
meat side up, run it for about 3
hours,
and then into,
foil with some butter,
a little bit of honey, some brown sugar,
the normal bullshit that you see. And then,
a non measured amount of water,
just a little bit to kinda soup everything
up, I guess. And then tightly, as tight
as I can, double wrap and foil back
on the cooker
for about an hour.
And then I only unwrap 1 because I
try and get racks the same
as close as I can.
And I only unwrap 1. If that one
is where I want it, I assume that
everything else is kind of in the general
neighborhood.
And then I'll hold them in a 150
degree oven,
you know, anywhere between 20 minutes to an
hour or so after the fact as we're
starting to bring them out, slice them 1
by 1. Is that a
a generally good operating process, or do you
see some holes?
Yeah.
I I I have some comments. Yes, please.
The first one is,
next time or if we ever get to
hang out again,
around ribs, let me show you how to
take a towel and actually feel your way
across
a rack of ribs and know exactly when
it's done so you don't actually have to
open them up. There's a really specific feel,
and I describe it in in the books,
but it's it's one of the hardest things
for me to train somebody at the restaurant
on how to do this because you just
can't tell somebody the words and have them
figure it out. I'm like, okay. Here, touch
this, feel this. What do you think? And
then, like, how to kinda collect the data.
So I think that's pretty valuable to kinda,
like, get the the muscle memory a little
bit. It's hard when you're not doing it,
like, every day, of course. You know, if
you're doing it every weekend or or maybe
every other month or something like that, of
course, it's different.
But there's a certain set of, like, criteria
that you're kinda using your fingers for, and
I think that would be helpful. And,
that that was really the only thing.
Did you let them rest before you put
them in the oven?
So they went from the cooker onto a
sheet pan. I walked them in to the
house. I I let a couple sit out
because I knew those were, like, my best
racks that I wanted to showcase. And then
everything else went into the 150 degree oven.
You know, some of them sat in there
for an extra 15 minutes. Some of them
sat in there for an hour as we
were working through. So
Yeah. I think, you know, for for me
and ribs,
I usually like to let them kinda just
rest for maybe
30 minutes to an hour or so, depending
on the weather,
because I think they'll, like, reabsorb a lot
of those flavors. And a lot of the
the flavors that you like, like on a,
you know, good barbecue brisket or or rack
of ribs or pork butter, something like that,
a lot of that happens actually in the
carryover.
And in the foil?
Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. For sure.
My mind is telling me
they're gonna be meat mush
if I let them rest even longer. I'm
afraid I'm I'm
so I'm usually taking them
so a lot of these racks, I felt
like if I would have been
a little bristly in their handling,
they might have kind of fallen apart. So
I felt like I was right to the
end of where I could still slice them,
but they weren't, you know, shit. You could
just pull the bones right up.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So
ironically enough, if you let, racket ribs rest
and get cold,
the muscles will actually tighten back up, and
you could fake out an overcooked rib a
little bit Oh. If it's not piping hot.
But if you pop it right in the
oven, it's gonna keep cooking.
So enhancing the the mushiness, of course. Got
it. Tomato, tomato. There's a thousand ways to
cook ribs. And if I leave the membrane
on, maybe I get away with being able
to hold them a little more. Right.
Alright. So what we've learned tonight is 96%
of us need to chill the fuck out
and leave the membrane on, and that's what
we're gonna do. I'll report back next time
we're on together. Yeah. I think we cook
ribs too. Yeah. Alright. Well, let's get together.
Need to cook ribs. I know. I could
I could teach you a few things. You
could teach me a few things. I bet
you could. You know, it's, it's a give
and take. So I noticed that Franklin Barbecue
is on
vacation for a week or so.
How do you decide on this particular
portion of time to be on vacation?
Well, we do it about the same time
every year, and it's usually the tail end
of July getting into August.
It's flipping hot. It's flipping hot, and it's
our slowest
usually our slowest week of the year,
because it's so
flipping hot.
So, yeah, we do it. And, you know,
when you cook 24 hours
a day at a restaurant, you know, 6
and a half days a week, a lot
of maintenance issues pop up. So that kinda
really, it's a closure for maintenance, but it's
also closure to let the staff go off
and have vacations and and do all that
kind of stuff. So the people that are
going to be making the pilgrimages,
I would call them the barbecue
pilgrimages,
know if, hey, if I'm going to Austin,
yours is the place most people wanna go.
They know around this time then that they
should either
go a week before or a week after?
We usually have a couple people that show
up and and, you know, the old Marty
Moose has to tell them that we're closed
to clean and repair.
But if you look on the Internet or
look on social media stuff, we we put
the dates out there of, like,
6 or 8 months in advance. I mean,
it's like, we really we really get it
out there.
But every year, we do get some people
that show up and and are really angry
that Wally World disclosed.
I wanna talk about
food trucks.
I've done a couple things I call over
the last couple years where a couple of
my
barbecue associates have decided to go into business.
And instead of opening a traditional brick and
mortar restaurant,
they're gonna do a food truck or a
food trailer for whatever reason. There's a guy
out in Utah that's been doing a bang
up job, but I also had a guy
this past podumentary
out in El Paso that was, opening a
food truck, and he just recently closed for
good after closing an initial time.
Couple months later decides he's closed for good.
If I were to come to you and
say, Aaron,
I wanna open a barbecue food truck.
What do you tell me as far as
things I need to take to con into
consideration
to have at least of a puncher's chance
of success?
Yeah. I you know, and and a lot
of people actually do ask. We get a
lot of people that email questions and, you
know, like, hey. I cashed out my 401
k. I really wanna do this. Hey. I'm
gonna retire. I wanna do this. I'm so
passionate about barbecue. I love it so much.
It usually
you know, like, obviously, we started off in
a food trailer as well, you know, back
in o nine,
and that's that's how Franklin Barbecue started for
sure.
But I think it's it's realistic
or it's smart to be realistic about how
much work you're really gonna have to put
into it, and that goes with any restaurants.
I mean, restaurants,
food trailers, food trucks, whatever,
are so, so, so hard. You
work your tail off. There's very little money
and, you know, long hours. It's hard to
get people to eat there.
All the stuff. Like, restaurants are really, really
tough. It's one of the toughest ways to
make living. But then you throw barbecue into
the mix where you don't get composed dishes.
You don't get,
you know, all the stuff that you would
get to put on a on a plate,
you know, at a normal restaurant. You're just
selling expensive protein.
And,
you know, it it sucks because you can't
really charge what the barbecue's worth. You know?
If people were charging what it really
would equate to for a normal restaurant, you'd
be charging, like, 60, $70 or so a
pound. You know? Like, it's pretty ridiculous. But
you got this meat that you pay a
premium for. It cooks down,
you know, by about a third of what
you paid for. And then you give people
pickles, you give people onions, you give out
the bread, you give out the sauce, you
give out the butcher paper. All that stuff
really stacks up. Right? So
knowing how the economics work in a restaurant
is the first thing to kinda be like,
well, does this make sense?
Do I really feel super passionate about this?
Am I gonna spend a lot of money,
that maybe I'm gonna regret later? Like, you
don't wanna you don't wanna be too risky,
of course. And I think that's the biggest
thing.
You know, you don't
wanna have such a huge liability,
for the money stuff, but also you gotta
think about how much of your life it's
gonna take. You know, if
you have kids and you wanna go to
baseball games and you wanna have weekends free
and you wanna sleep in on a Saturday
and you wanna take a vacation,
a barbecue truck's probably not gonna work out
for you because Saturday's game day, and it
takes a lot of work to make that
happen. And it takes overnighters,
and it takes all this stuff.
So I think thinking about that in a
really unbiased way. Like, it's I guess what
I'm trying to say is take the emotion
out of it and how much you really
love something, says the guy that started a
barbecue truck because he loved it so much.
You know, but just try to be realistic
about how hard it's really gonna be. And
I think that would probably mitigate the the
chance that you have a failure,
later on if you kinda know. Mhmm. And
one thing that I did before we opened
up Franklin Barbecue
is I went and got as many barbecue
jobs as I could, and I didn't get
paid at some of them. I just hung
around.
But I really wanted to, like, work,
you know,
60, 70 hours a week
and just work myself,
you know, just to the bone and,
you know, see if I still liked it,
if I was still really excited about barbecue.
And it turns out I very much was.
So that was kinda like the green light
for for Franklin Barbecue to exist.
But in hindsight, I didn't realize how many
hours it was really gonna be. You know,
when you get to your first, like, 76
hour workday,
you kinda find yourself thinking, oh my god.
What have I gotten myself into?
And then, you know, when food costs are
at 80%, you kinda think, oh my god.
What did I get myself into?
You know, and realizing that Franklin Barbecue is
such a unicorn. Yeah. You know, it's just
the most freakishly
lucky and magnificent
special place there is,
but not all of us are that lucky.
You know? And it really it takes a
lot of luck in a in an insane
hard amount of hard work.
So I would say, for someone thinking about
opening up a food trailer,
don't spend your life savings,
go get a job, work at somebody else's
food trailer for a while,
and see if you really like it. And
if you do still really like it and
you are still super passionate about cooking barbecue
or or anything else,
go for it.
Appreciate the insight on that. A lot of
people are gonna get a lot of value
out of that. Before I let you go
this evening, I do wanna ask you about
how the pit building side of the business
is going currently.
The pit building side of the business is
going great. Yeah. We're building pits.
Are you selling them? They're really awesome.
What's that? Are they being sold?
Well,
that's what I was kinda set it up
for, but, yeah, they are. They're getting sold.
Yeah, barbecue pits are doing good. We,
you know, post COVID kind of times for
for cookers in general and barbecue stuff is
pretty tough.
Starting to turn around a little bit, but
I think,
you know, we're we're doing pretty good. I'm
super happy with them. They're we we're building
better pits than we've ever built,
and, you know, we're not pushing the same
numbers that we were pushing, like, toward like,
in COVID, obviously. Yeah. So it's kind of
you know, the quality is kinda getting there,
and we've had some time to to go
back and learn how to do this a
little bit different and maybe adjust these welds.
Super proud of them though. They're they're chugging
right along.
From a dealer's growth
standpoint, are you at Benchmark where you would
like to see the brand and the number
of dealers in the country?
Yep. Yep. I feel really good about the
number of dealers we've gotten. They've all been
handpicked,
for for some very specific reasons. They they
fit us well.
We've got some distribution overseas. We've kind of,
you know, pushing that kind of stuff right
now. We've, do pro smoke in the UK
out there, so we ship, you know, a
couple shipping containers out there. And,
yeah, I'm really our our dealer network,
you know, we're always sorta like, if somebody
cool comes along that we really like, like,
hey. You wanna sell some Franklin Pitts?
But we're not trying to get them just
everywhere. We're not trying to saturate the market.
We would just want really,
you know, like, kinda like mom and pop
cool cool little spots.
Wanna get your take on
a menu item that,
the
unfortunate late,
barbecue writer for the,
the
the the Post Express or the Chuck Blount.
You remember Chuck by chance that name ring
a bell?
I'm not saying the name of the paper
right, but he was, you know, outside there
are other barbecue editors aside from Daniel Vaughn
if, people listening can possibly believe it. But
Chuck was a a very good guy, good
friend of this show. He he was really
keen on seeing barbecue restaurants across Texas because
that's where he's covering, Having
smoked
burgers
on the menu, and it was now I
know probably some do, but he said, you
know, this is something that's gonna be a
game changer, and every place down here is
gonna have a smoked burger on the menu.
What do you think about that?
I think they're great. They've been around for
a really, really long time.
They're super delicious.
Leroy Lewis
is a place here in Austin that
does a really great burger that I like
a lot.
But, you know, it's really good for barbecue
spots because if you got extra meat,
you're making sausage, you can grind it, make
a burger, if you've got a way to
cook it. It's easy to cook them in
a firebox while you're cooking briskets and stuff
like that. So,
yeah, I don't know that, like,
a barbecue restaurant
would, like, be so successful with it with
a burger. They're like, we're not doing barbecue
anymore. We're a burger place now.
I don't know if I could see that
happening necessarily,
but I do love a smoked burger. And,
you know, if you do it right and
don't overcook it on the on the smoker,
you can get a lot a lot of
flavor in there.
Aaron Franklin joining us here on the show.
We got way off topic on the rib
stuff, but I certainly appreciate that. And I'm
getting a lot of good instant chat on,
all the stuff they're gonna be trying as
we do our next rib cooks here. So,
Aaron, appreciate the time as always, and let's
do it again sooner than later.
Heck, yeah. Good talking to you. You too.
Aaron Franklin right there.
Well, gang, I hate to say it, but
we are all
going to be not taking off our membranes
from now on, and that's a show mandate
if I can say that. So forget.
Save yourself time in the prep process. No
more removal of rib membranes,
at least on the spare ribs. I don't
I'm not a baby back guy myself. We'll
ask Bill Oakley if he likes baby backs
or not.
But I'm a spare rib guy, and I'm
not doing it anymore.
See, Joe Martinez was right.
No more
taking the
membrane off of spare ribs.
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the Bill Oakley.
Stick around. We'll be right back. You're listening
to the barbecue
central
show.
Howard Stern,
Jim Rowe, Dan Patrick, Patrick, and Greg Murphy,
the mountain Rushmore of talk show entertainment.
Now let's get back to the barbecue
central show. And we thank Aaron Franklin for
joining us last segment. This portion of the
show being brought to you by the Fireboard
Pulse.
New wireless thermometer from Fireboard.
Now, you can't just go out and get
it. You have to be invited, so be
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a longtime Fireboard customer. Otherwise, check out the
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you might be a purchaser down the line,
fireboard.com,
or call 816-945-2232
with questions. My next guest tonight, accomplished fast
food reviewer on social media, Instagram to be
specific,
doing those videos,
one minute time limit. You can also find
him right here on this show occasionally talking
about fast food and other food items as
well.
We welcome back our pal, Bill Oakley to
the show. Hey, Bill.
Hello. Great great to be back.
We have a YouTube poll question of the
week, Bill, that we're asking everybody including all
guests. So we'll ask you.
Do you remove the membrane on spare ribs
when you cook them? Yes or no?
No. I'm not even quite sure
how to do that or or,
I think I've seen what the membrane is,
and I think I just like, I think
I better leave it on. I don't wanna
tamper with it. So that's what,
that's my expertise in that area.
I feel so I just had Aaron Franklin
on, obviously,
a well known barbecue guru.
And I said, do you take them off?
He said, oh, hell no. And I said,
okay. Well, if you're doing it, I'm in
the backyard. Maybe in the restaurant, I can
see because you're doing, you know, a 100
racks of ribs or whatever is during the
course of the day. But in the backyard,
is it different? He said, oh, no. It's
doesn't matter. I'm just not doing it. He's
listed out the reasons why, and I feel
like I have somehow been
lied to or let astray these last 18,
19 years
of having to remove the, membrane on a
rack of ribs, whether it's
baby back or spare ribs. I like spare
ribs the most, because they were like a
flavor condom of sorts. But he said, no.
Absolutely not the case. And so this would
have been a great interview to have 2
weeks ago when I did a 8 spare,
or an 8 rack spare rib cook because
I could have saved myself some time. But,
nevertheless,
just know this. If you're gonna do ribs,
don't take the membrane off, and you'll be
much better for it, I guess.
I've never had any complaints, and I don't
think I even knew what a membrane was
really. So so far so good. Are you
doing a food podcast, Bill?
I am not doing a food podcast yet.
I appear on a number of food podcasts
and and food,
news
programs and things like that from time to
time. I'm also on the food that built
America on the history channel
all the time. And, I do have a
podcast
that will be coming out hopefully sometime soon,
regarding the history of In N Out Burger.
But, we're still kinda getting the business angle
of that worked out.
So that's going to be a
retrospective
of sorts? Like, here's the history of it,
and you it's like a episode by episode
building into where we are today? Yeah. It's
yes. Not only the history, but also the
food. And it's kind of a deep dive
into the whole organization,
from from top to bottom, from 1948 to
now, and it's one of the weirdest stories
in the whole world of food. It's an
incredible story, and I hope that we can
get it, to the out to the proper
channels,
provided the business thing works out.
Aren't you just doing a podcast because you're
passionate about it and you want the information
to get out here? I mean, that's why
I do this. I don't do it because
of the money. I have no business channels.
Shame on me. In this particular case,
we
my my partner and myself were actually paid
money,
by a large corporation to do this podcast.
But then, like, everyone got fired and the
corporation got all disbanded and whatever. And it's
you know, this business is you know, how
how business is. So that's part of where
this thing lies. It's it is it is
I don't I don't want the rights to
it. So I can't do anything with it
at the moment. So a company
came to you and another guy
pitch you the idea and hire you, and
then
somewhere along the line, it it falls apart?
Well, it was actually kind of our idea.
We were gonna do it as as and
we also kind of were developing a TV
show that was based on In N Out
Burger, and this was gonna be
part of, like, the sales package. And as
it turns out, the,
it just kind of been stalled out due
to all the business angles that have to
be worked out. But believe me, when it
comes out, it will be incredibly entertaining and
very well worth to listen. A lot of
the company spent a lot of money producing
it, and I hope that they wanna get
that money back somehow.
Am I just
a bit aloof because I'm I'm not a
West Coaster? Is this do let me rephrase
this. Do people on the West Coast, will
they be more of an appreciator
of this because of in and out? Like,
I'm in Cleveland. I don't know where the
nearest in and out might be, maybe Texas
or somewhere even west of that.
Well, In N Out is part of In
N Out is it's only been text it's
only been in the west for a long
time, but it's expanding. They actually just recently
they've decided to open a giant hub in
Tennessee,
which is gonna service, like, the south and
the Midwest, and that that's also covered in
the podcast.
So it is, to be honest, it has
been a thing, the California thing for decades.
Yeah. But now it is kind of gradually
creeping across the country. It's in Texas, and
it's gonna be in the south in a
few years. Like tri tip from the West
Coast proliferating
across to the East Coast. Now we're gonna
see In N Out. Alright. So we'll look
for that podcast, whenever it makes its way
to the daylight. In the meantime, you're still
doing your thing, doing the reviews.
I see you were at Tim Hortons for
the first time,
But you're not taking part in
what I would normally do, which is coffee
regular, 2 creams, 2 sugars, which
I'm not a coffee kind of sewer by
any stretch of the imagination, but I don't
think there's any better
I
have I have to go down to Columbus,
which is 2 hours and a half away
from me to the south. That's the nearest
one, or I gotta go
about 2 hours directly east over towards Erie,
Pennsylvania. There's no Tim Hortons
at all in Cleveland, and they just started
coming in here within the last 10 years
or so.
Well, I'll tell you what hap you know,
Tim Hortons is mainly known as a Canadian
thing, And it's it's, you know, it's it's
one of the biggest chains in all of
Canada, and it's basically essentially, they're Dunkin' Donuts
for people who don't,
who don't, have never been there. And we
don't have I've certainly never been to 1
in my entire life. I've never seen 1,
until I went to Canada last month. And
all the Canadians were telling me, you gotta
go to Tim Hortons, and we want you
to try the pizzas. And I'm like, okay.
I knew that my leg was being pulled.
I knew okay. I know that they're famous
really for coffee and donuts, and that's pretty
much the only thing. But like Dunkin' Donuts,
they're constantly expanding the menu into other areas.
And they just recently unveiled these pizzas, which
are not very good. And I knew people
were sending me to get the pizzas because
they wanted to see me react to them,
and that is what happened. The pizzas
were, it ranged from mediocre to bad, and
that, you know, I well, that's what I
won. I knew it would make an entertaining
video or at least a moderately entertaining video,
so that's why I went. And all I
ever had at Tim Hortons was 4 pizzas
and a diet coke. So You didn't even
get a coffee video on there? No. I
did not. I got a bottle of the
Diet Coke. So that was the end of
the story of my Tim Hortons visit. I
did get it later. I got a maple
donut in the airport version of Tim Hortons
on the, on on the way there, but
it was not,
I didn't have the regular Tim Hortons experience.
But that was my first visit, and I
think it was a noteworthy one. I wasn't
gonna ask you about Dunkin' Donuts, but since
you broached the subject,
I don't think there's any
place that sells coffee and
then associated breakfast foods
that is worse
than Dunkin' Donuts. They're wake up wraps, they're
bacon snack. I mean, all that is ass
or worse. What do you think?
I have only eaten there once in the
past 30 years. We don't have them out
here. And I think I ate at the
one I got a sandwich or something in
either Penn Station or Grand Central Station in
New York when I was there one time,
and it was real nondis it was it
was unmemorable. Yeah. So I can't really go
into a deep dive on good donuts. Yeah.
My youngest, especially, is a huge wake up
rap champion
and supporter, but I've tried them, and I've
tried a bunch of stuff through there just
see. Because I was like, wow, this is
bad. I wonder if everything else is bad,
so I'm foolishly wasting money. And everything is
worse than the next. And by the way,
I don't know when they decided to take
a shit on their quality of doughnut,
but they are some of the worst doughnuts
that I have had over the last 20
years, and they used to be the best.
Like, when the guy did the TV commercial
with time to make the donuts, and he's
in and he's out and he's in. I
think they were really making them at that
point, but at some point, they started trucking
them in. They're held in, I think, refrigerated
coolers and just brought out to defrost. It's
a sham.
You know, the bigger these companies, the bigger
that these chains get, the more they have
to please Wall Street. And that always involves
cutting costs
and
everything. And it's very rare that that a
company will continue to get bigger and everything
will improve.
Actually, that's one of these in and out
burger that's interesting is it's still privately held
by this incredibly strange family. And so it
doesn't have to answer to Wall Street, which
is one of the reasons why the food
is consistently good there,
except for the French fries.
2024
finds Bill in Chicago at the
National Restaurant
Association
show. What are you doing there?
I love I went last year as well,
and I love it. This is like I
don't know how to describe it. It's I
guess it's a Coachella
for food people. Okay? It's like there's it's
okay. I can fortunately, I I'm able to
get in as press. I'm sure you could
get a press badge as well. Should I
go? And,
yes. You'll love it. And, I mean, it's
interesting. It's it's a huge company. It's first
of all, it's in McCormick Place in Chicago,
which is enormous.
There's 3 halls,
each filled to the brim with stuff, all
sorts of things. Like, first, there's maybe a
third of it is, like, restaurant equipment, like
the latest robotic grill or whatever. But then
it's also like things that restaurants
might want to use, like Coca Cola or
Heinz and Kraft mayonnaise and things like that.
And then there's also just other things,
everything related to restaurants from all around the
world. There's a whole section of, like, Chinese,
food manufacturers, Italian
food manufacturers, and there's free samples galore.
Like, it's delicious. It's incredible. You could fill
up 6 times a day. And so, basically,
I just like to go there, And I
like to see what's available, what's new on
the horizon, what new things Heinz is gonna
be introducing, for example, trying out food, I
got to try the,
a Korean fast food chain that's gonna be
opening in Los Angeles. And for example, things
like that. And I also got to meet
a lot of people from some of my
favorite foods, like the hot several hot sauce
brands that I have loved for years, such
as Zabs
and, Clark and Hopkins. I got to meet
people behind them, and maybe we'll do some
sort of collaboration online
in near future.
But you so I recommend it. You can
go and, you know, the the the the
the bar for getting a press credential for
this is not that high. And I think
every prop many of the people listen to
you and and also you, could easily get
a press credential and you go and you'll
have a blast. Anybody that wants to go
to the show next year, it sounds like
Bill's probably making plans to go there. So
we should all,
get up there together. Chicago, only 5 and
a half to 6 hour drive for me
depending on traffic. So hop, skip, and a
jump. If you wanna go, just let me
know and I'll set you up as barbecue
central show executive producer title, and that'll help
you get a media credential. And we never
have to see each other if we don't
want to. But if we all wanna do
a little meet up or something like that,
we can meet in one of the many
halls there
and, do that in 2025. So we'll put
that on the top. Barbecue
barbecue, barbecuing equipment, barbecuing supplies, and that kind
of thing is very well represented at this
convention.
Bill, are you satisfied with the newly released
$5
McDouble meal at McDonald's?
Yes. I think that's totally fine. I don't
it's not it's not composed of things that
I would normally get, but I think it's
a good I do think it is a
pretty good deal. I mean, from what from
my recollection, it's either a double cheeseburger or
a McChicken,
fries, a 4 or 6 piece nuggets, and
a drink for $5. I think that's pretty
good.
Normally, I don't get those items.
But I but, you know, certainly for a
budget conscious,
person, that's a great deal. Now the thing
about this is remember what that is is
trying to get you into the store. Yep.
If you go into McDonald's, they want you
to drive to the store to get that
and then order a $6,
you know, mochaccino type thing or whatever on
top of it. So keep in mind that
what it really is is a thing to
get you in the door and make you
tack on other items or bring your kids
along and they're gonna want ice cream, they're
gonna want McFlurry's that are like 4.99 a
piece. So, you know, you gotta
you gotta watch your wallet when you go
in the door. What's your favorite McDonald's item?
It is the quarter pound. Okay. Well, I
don't wanna take the whole show. I could
spend an hour and a half talking about
McDonald's and shortcomings and some of the things
I like and don't like about it. Maybe
we can have a whole special episode about
that right now.
And for the past 2 years, it has
been the Quarter Pounder Deluxe. You recall that
a few years ago, they switched to having
the Quarter Pounders used to be frozen. Yep.
In 2018, they switched to having them be
fresh beef, and there is there is an
improvement, noticeable improvement.
The quarter pounder deluxe is the one that
is a quarter pounder with cheese with lettuce,
tomato, and mayonnaise. And I say that that's
the best
nationally available fast food burger there is.
You can get it all, you know, from
sea to sign sea to shining sea. Now
it's not as good as Culver's, which we
don't have here. I wouldn't say it's as
good as maybe as In N Out either,
but for the for the price and its
easy availability, the quarter pounder deluxe is the
best fast food burger in America.
I don't know if it happened or if
it was a nationwide rollout or not, but
did you see that Arby's released
potato cakes for a limited time?
I did see that, and I've never had
the potato cakes. And I feel like I
should try I should
you mentioned this before and and that I
feel like maybe I should drive out there
and get some. All the Arby's are closing.
Like, every Arby's near me seems to be
going out of business, and then they closed
that famous one on Hollywood Boulevard,
with the giant neon cowboy hat, like, last
month too. And I it's I I have
a serious concern that Arby's is closing up
shop, you know, because I love Arby's. I'm
not I'm not ashamed to admit it. I
think that all they're like I love that
they have an unusual menu filled with all
sorts of stuff that you don't get at
other fast food places. That's generally pretty good.
And they got those sandwiches, the market fresh
sandwiches. Mhmm. I love the roast beef and
cheddar.
I love their curl I love their crinkly
fries and their curly fries. So, like, I
feel bad that they seem to be closing
up shop. That has to be
a West Coast thing because Arby's out here
in the Midwest and East Coast thriving. I
see new locations being built on the regular,
so that just must be a pocket of
location that is experiencing a little distress.
Or maybe they're just the older locations that
they're they're gonna knock down and and renovate.
That could be it as well.
Bill, spoil or spoiler
alert if you get there before they
recapture the potato cakes. Ain't that good.
They're not that good. I mean, I I
was never a fan when they were a
regular menu item.
Now, that being said, and it's a a
divisive topic in the house, my wife, a
huge
potato cakes fan. In fact, when she saw
they were coming back out, it was like,
we gotta get Arby's tonight because the potato
cakes are back. And I'm like, well, they
got rid of the piece of shit. Why
are they bringing
the piece of shit back? It's almost like
when McDonald's brings back the McRib every year,
and then Yeah. They fish it out, and
then they take it back, and they realize
they had a great marketing ploy to pull
on those chumps every year.
So maybe this is what the potato pancakes
turns into as years pass from now.
It could easily be. And I think that
a lot of that has to do with,
like, the distributor has a warehouse full of
these things, and they're gonna cut the price
by 10% if you buy them now. You
know? And I'm sure that's how Burger King
operates too.
You making
money on the Instagram videos
at this stage?
Well, I think, you know, I should I
should say that I probably make almost $9
a month on the Instagram video. Really? So,
you know, not yeah. Enough to go to
Arby's and get some potato cakes. I'm not
like,
Instagram is not a really great source of
making money. And I think,
where I to want to make money, I
would probably to go to YouTube
and try it because YouTube is very good
at monetization now, but still, you're still gonna
have to get a 1000000 followers, which is
far more than I have,
to really make a living
off that. But as far as Instagram goes,
I like it because it's easy and it's
fast, and I don't wanna do 10 minute
videos. I wanna do 1 minute videos or
minute and a half videos
because I think the topic is I feel
like when I watch these ones on YouTube
where they take 12 minutes to review the
new burger, I don't need a 12 minute
dive on it. I need a minute to
telling me, is it good? What's it taste
like? Is it worth getting? Boom. You know?
And that's what I try to do.
I thought there was money to be made
on Instagram. Like, when you find your niche,
I don't think
there's any question you found the audience that
really thinks what you're up to and your
subscribers
are or your subscriber count is saying that
41,000
and a half, at last check.
So that's, up from the last time that
we talked where companies
get in touch with you and they wanna
collaborate and Yeah. And so you make a
deal. It's not through, like, views or anything
like that. You can just command the money.
Well, I hope to be doing that sometime
in the near future. I mean, yes. Ideally,
I would get a call from Miracle Whip,
for example. One of the products that everyone
else hates that I love, Miracle Whip. Oh.
And I wear a Miracle Whip t shirt
in all my videos. And I'd say, this
review of Arby is brought to you by
Miracle Whip, and they'd pay me a fortune
Yes. To do that. So if really anyone
from Miracle Whip is watching,
please, you know where to reach me, that
below on Instagram.
I will immediately
prostitute
my self and my channel to hype up
Miracle Whip
if you pay me the right fee.
What is it about? For other major brands
too and breweries. So come on.
Bill Oakley is ready to whore out is
what you're saying.
Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Certainly. Certainly. I think I've
I've waited long enough. I've paid my dues.
It's time to get rich off this crap.
What what is it about
Miracle Whip that you actually like? Because aside
from you, I've met no other human that
voluntarily
likes it. They're tricked into eating it usually.
Well, you know, I've discovered over the years
there's 2 things that make food
social media go crazy.
One of which is the debate over whether
it's okay to put ketchup on hot dogs.
Yes. The other of which is mayonnaise.
Mayonnaise
with its even just putting mayonnaise on anything,
a lot about seems like about 60% of
people think mayonnaise is fine. 40% of people
hate it with a passion. And amongst the
people who hate it, they hate miracle whip
more than anything. I would say only a
tiny fraction of the audience
of any group
likes miracle whip, and I am among those
people. I like that it's a little sweeter.
And, honestly, there's other brands of mayonnaise that
come close, like, have a little bit of
sweetness like, craft mayonnaise does and so does
blue plate, which have just a slightly light,
sweeter,
angle, which I I I like that in
things. And it's also perfect on certain things.
It's not good
necessarily like on on a sandwich on a
sandwich where you wanna taste the meat, but
it is good in things like,
tuna salad or whatever, stuff like that. So
it has its place. And I,
I always,
it raises my hackles when people start crapping
on Miracle Whip. So, anyway, they should be
funding my Instagram is the point of this
conversation.
Have your hackles be raised a little bit
more.
It's not mayo.
It's salad dressing.
It's not you know what? It's mayo. It's
miracle. It's the reason it's a miracle is
it doesn't eat any eggs. And because it
was invented
in during the depression, this is one of
the things I learned on doing food that
built America. Yeah. If I recall correctly,
it was invented during the depression when eggs
was were at a premium, and also they
couldn't be those you know, egg products couldn't
be stored that well because refrigeration was not
commonplace, and Miracle Whip gave people kind of
a mayonnaise
type of
spread that didn't require eggs or extensive refrigeration.
And that was why it took off and
remained popular,
when a certain quarters to this day.
Could there ever be a collaboration
between
Bill Oakley and the snack daddy,
Stephon Johnson?
Of course. I feel like we probably have
a lot of crossover in terms of things
we're interested in. Do you know where he's
from?
I don't, but I know I've seen snack
diet online. Cleveland.
He's from Cleveland.
You know,
how good of friends we are?
How good of friends are you? We're not
any friends. I don't understand it.
We're right here. We're probably within 15 minutes
of each other at the most,
and I can't get this guy on the
show to do a barbecue review
or to talk about Cleveland food.
But I guess when you hit over a
1000000 subscribers on all your platforms,
you forget you came from the 216
like, your pal Greg Rempe over here, and
I'm sniffing Heinz teat for whatever reason. But
if I could ever do it, as long
as you're open to it, I'll I'll make
the connection if I can.
For sure. I'd be up for it. Absolutely.
Tell me about this barbecue event that's coming
up in October.
Alright. This is exciting because I've been one
of the things that I I want to
do in my new career
as a food influencer
is have live events where people you know,
ticketed events where people come and there's a
menu that is that is made up or
partially made up by me. And then I
do humorous I tell humorous stories,
you know, throughout the evening and whatever and,
you know, make it a generally amusing event.
So
I have I've met when I was in
Austin last year, I was introduced
to Bill Dumas. I'm not sure if you
know him or if he's been on this
thing. The sausage sensei. Yep. Has he been
on here? Not as a guest, but, of
course, I know Bill. Yes.
He well, he's the sausage sensei and and
says and some say he is the most
well regarded sausage maker in the in the
nation, especially in the Texas barbecue scene.
He,
was in residence at Brotherton's,
and he has since moved to Schultz Pitts
Room in Seguin.
So Bill and I have become,
friends, and we decided to collaborate
on a ticketed dinner that we're gonna have
at at,
at Schultz Pitt Room outside of San Antonio
in October.
And the menu I we kind of collaborate
on the menu, which is going to be
sausages and sa sausage dishes and sausage
containing dishes that are inspired by by various
American regional
specialties.
So for instance, you might have a Chicago
style hot dog sausage
or Saint Louis Saint Louis toasted ravioli
sausage or things like that. It won't all
be sausages. Some of the dishes will just
be like here's a little piers of pizza
with sausage on it, but they will every
one of the dishes will be, for instance,
a,
you know, a Hawaiian Loco Moco
sausage or something like that. A variety of
dishes from around the country,
regional specialties made into sausage or using sausage,
and then there will also be paired cocktails
and also entertainment
such as it is provided by myself,
you know, being the recontour of the evening
about these items, telling you about the history
of the Cuban sandwich or the Atlanta lemon
pepper wings as we have the sausage, that
type of thing. It should be fun.
Where do we get tickets?
You we haven't gotten the tickets yet, but
it will be if you follow either Bill,
who is sausage sensei,
or myself, that Bill Oakley on Instagram or
x,
formerly
Twitter. We will be hyping the crap out
of it so you will know when the
date is, and there will be link to
tickets and so forth. I hope that every
people you know, all your listeners can make
it to Seguin, and it will be a
memorable evening for sure, late October.
Outside of that event in Seguin, which I
can't believe anybody,
like, really knows about, but, there's a barbecue
place
called Burnt Bean Barbecue in Seguin, Texas.
If you have a moment to go there,
I'll make an introduction to the pit master
and it's easily rated some of the best
barbecue in Texas and across the country, and
it's in Seguin.
I would love to go there, and I
would appreciate the introduction. So thank you. We'll
see how that happens. Bill Oakley is here,
and
if you're gonna be in or if you
want to be in Seguin,
Texas for his
first ever event, then make sure that you're
following him on Instagram at that Bill Oakley.
41 and a half 1000 of you are
already doing that. We'll appreciate you coming back
on the show. I will do my part
to make sure this is a better recurrence
as far as the lapse time since the
last one, and always appreciate the insight. Thanks
so much for coming up.
Absolutely. Thanks very much, Greg. You got Bill
Oakley right there.
So
let's go ahead and get caught up on
the clock here. We're already past the first
hour, which means a bridge to show open.
In fact, our 2nd hour guest is chilling
out in the green room already.
So just chill out, we'll be there in
a second.
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Let's wrap the first hour.
Stick around. We'll be right back.
Continuing to produce incredibly
mediocre
content
in an exceptionally
professional way. You're listening and watching the barbecue
central
show. Once again, here's your host,
Greg Rampey. And we thank Bill Oakley for
joining us last segment at that Bill Oakley
Oakley on Instagram. No website that I know
about.
He's got the sausage
fest coming up in Seguin.
Go to that event, and the day before,
make sure burnt bean barbecue
is open.
And then stop in there and get some
barbecue that's gonna blow your face off.
Alright. Let's go ahead and get rid of
this.
Alright. We're all set here.
That was the first hour. We are
racing to the second hour.
We'll get you up to date on the
latest
famous Dave's All Star Barbecue series, a little
bit of best of,
and then we'll fold right into our pal,
Doug, from Rogue Cook.
You're listening and watching the barbecue central show
right here on the barbecue central network. Stick
around. Be right
back.