Brad Polachek, CEO of Red Beard BBQ - Encore
The primary focus of this podcast episode is an engaging conversation with Brad Polachek, the owner and pitmaster of Red Beard Seasonings, who shares insights into his journey of establishing a seasoning business during the pandemic. We delve into the genesis of his venture, which originated from a passion for barbecue, as well as the challenges and successes encountered along the way. Brad elucidates the importance of community engagement and the role of personal relationships in promoting his products effectively. Additionally, he discusses the intricacies of developing seasoning blends and the significance of feedback in refining his offerings. Throughout the dialogue, we gain a deeper appreciation for the dedication and resilience required to thrive in the competitive landscape of the culinary arts.
Links referenced in this episode:
- barbecue nation jt.com
- natural beef.com
- pigpowder.com
- oregon dungeness.org
- heritagesteel us
- redbeardseasonings.com
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Painted Hills Natural Beef
- Red Beard Seasonings
- Kroger's
- McCormick
- Shilling
- Emerald
- Pig Powder
- Heritage Steel
- Hammerstahl
- Oregon Dungeness Crab
- Ohio Cottage Law
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcript
It's time for Barbecue Nation with jt so fire up your grill, light the charcoal, and get your smoker cooking.
Speaker A:Now from the Turn It Go, Burn it studios in Portland, here's jt.
Speaker A:This is an encore.
Speaker B:Hey, everybody.
Speaker B:Welcome to the nation.
Speaker B:That's Barbecue Nation.
Speaker B:I'm JT along with my co host, hall of Famer, Ms. Leanne Whippen.
Speaker B:Dave and Chris are back there in the back somewhere doing something.
Speaker B:Who knows.
Speaker B:We'd like to thank the folks at Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Speaker B:Beef the way nature intended.
Speaker B:We're going to tell you a little later in the show.
Speaker B:They've got another 10 days on their special for Barbecue Nation listeners.
Speaker B:We've got Brad P. The owner and pitmaster of Red Beard Seasonings.
Speaker B:And if you look at the video, you'll understand why it's named that.
Speaker B:And so actually, my beard used to kind of be like that, but as you get older, you'll see these little streaks of gray and then you'll decide not to.
Speaker B:Not to imbibe.
Speaker B:Anyway, Brad, welcome to the show.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker C:Glad, glad to be here.
Speaker C:And I appreciate you guys having.
Speaker D:Of course.
Speaker B:No, no problem.
Speaker B:You met Leanne at the NBQA convention and you were down there taking it all in.
Speaker B:But the first question I've got for you is what prompted you to get into the seasoning business?
Speaker C:Kind of, kind of by a weird circumstance, I guess we were.
Speaker C:I've always enjoyed barbecue and grilling during the pandemic.
Speaker C:We actually started the beginning of the pandemic and it was kind of a joke amongst family and friends.
Speaker C:Hey, I bet you can't sell that.
Speaker C:So it went to us kind of.
Speaker C:I'd always just thrown stuff together at home to put on the meat that we were cooking and had no idea what the recipe was, no idea how much of what was in it.
Speaker C:So we went through the process of developing the actual recipes so that we could, you know, produce the stuff in the batches, started doing it at home under the Ohio cottage law, first for about six months and then at the six month mark, we decided it was time to seek out a co packer to start doing the labor intensive part of the work for us.
Speaker B:So I've never heard about that.
Speaker B:The Ohio cottage law, what is that?
Speaker C:Ohio has a cottage food law that allows you to produce certain types of food or baked goods from your home without doing it, like in a commercially approved kitchen.
Speaker C:There's just the difference being the way that the product is labeled.
Speaker C:There's a lot of stipulations on what you can and can't produce and sell retail for under the cottage food law.
Speaker B:That's interesting.
Speaker B:Do they have one?
Speaker D:I heard that actually because I always wondered when I went to little fairs and festivals how they and get away with, you know, just their name slapped on a label that they made at home and limited ingredients, if any at all.
Speaker D:And I'm like, is this really allowed?
Speaker D:And I had heard about that, the cottage food law.
Speaker D:So it's different state to state?
Speaker C:It is, yes.
Speaker C:Yeah, the Ohio, there's.
Speaker C:I don't know exactly what the list is of things.
Speaker C:The concoction of dry processed seasonings and herbs is one thing that's on the list.
Speaker C:As far as the cottage food law stuff goes.
Speaker B:So well, that would make sense because really you're not cooking anything, you're just blending.
Speaker B:So do they have that in Florida, Leanne?
Speaker D:You know, I don't know.
Speaker D:I'm sure they have some law about it.
Speaker D:I, I haven't looked into it, but they have lots of fairs and festivals around here and I do see a lot of, you know, like pepper jellies and that kind of thing and honey and that, you know, so they must have some sort of law.
Speaker D:I don't know.
Speaker B:That's interesting.
Speaker B:So once, once you got your first batch, you know, mixed up and ready to go to market, what was your next steps?
Speaker B:Brad?
Speaker C:We, when we first consulted with a first of all, the hard part was finding a co packer.
Speaker C:Obviously being a small company at the six month mark end, you know, we weren't producing thousands of bottles.
Speaker C:So we had to find a company to work that had a lower minimum order quantity as far as the pounds or the price goes.
Speaker C:So we started with three original blends, our steak and brisket rub, a pork rub and a spicy chipotle.
Speaker C:Got those into some local stores, boutiques.
Speaker C:We did some local shows around the area here, selling them.
Speaker C:Once we got in with the co packer, then we were able to start putting out some new blends, putting some new ideas together.
Speaker C:We redid our labeling design, kind of jumped into the more professional realm of things from a quality standpoint as well as the, you know, the branding aspect of the side of the business.
Speaker B:So when you were doing this, when you were mixing them, I was involved in this stuff a long time ago.
Speaker B:Leanne's currently going huckle buck with pig powder.
Speaker B:But did you.
Speaker B:I've never asked anybody this question, but did you figure out your formulas with, with cups with ounces, the co packers and mixers, they like it in grams at Least the ones up here.
Speaker B:Did, did you do the metrics on that or did you just say, okay, we've got an ounce and a half of, you know, salt or whatever?
Speaker B:And then let the co packers do the math.
Speaker C:We, the first blends that we did was all like cups, tablespoons type deal.
Speaker C:And he's like, listen, if we need to, if we're going to do this, it's better to do them in grams.
Speaker C:So as we went, he was able to do the conversions for us.
Speaker C:But we started off with, when we were introducing the new blends, we measured everything out by the gram into the metrics of a five pound batch as like the base recipe.
Speaker C:Because the co packer that we used said that that was the easiest kind of threshold to be able to scale up to the, you know, to hundreds of pounds of stuff at a time.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:So I got a little bit of a math lesson on how the conversions work.
Speaker C:So it's something you don't think about until you have to do it.
Speaker B:So did you get a little scale?
Speaker C:I did, I had my little counter and got the recipes developed.
Speaker D:And, and the thing is, you got to think with a co packer, they're using a particular brand, you know, paprika or whatever it is, and so that changes everything.
Speaker D:So when you gave them the weights in the, you know, whatever tones or however you use, did they have to buy tones in order to do it or did you have to use their spices?
Speaker C:Initially we bought everything locally, when now we're in the process.
Speaker C:They have an R D bench that they can do.
Speaker C:If we have a base recipe, we can provide that to them and then they do it with the ingredients that they source regularly.
Speaker C:That way it keeps everything consistent.
Speaker D:Right, right.
Speaker C:All the way through the final production stage.
Speaker C:So yeah, I mean, I didn't really have any intention on scaling anything with the business and it just kind of took off and here we are.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker B:All right, are you able to do this full time now?
Speaker B:I notice you've got a Thermo King shirt on there, so you must work partly as someplace else just for right now.
Speaker C:Yeah, I work full time in logistics and operations for a trucking company right now probably.
Speaker C:We started doing catering last year.
Speaker C:So between the seasonings and the catering thing, we're pretty close to making a full time, full time gig out of it.
Speaker C:We had the shows that we do last year.
Speaker C:Compared to this year, we've doubled the amount of stuff that we're doing.
Speaker C:The catering stuff is taking off very, very rapidly.
Speaker C:So I think it's going to be a full time thing here pretty, pretty soon within the coming months for us.
Speaker C:So I'm pretty excited about that.
Speaker B:Just make sure you've got all your numbers in a row because both Leanne and I have seen folks that, you know, think they're ready to make that big jump and they make the jump and there's a couple of things pop up on them and then all of.
Speaker D:A sudden they jump ship.
Speaker D:Yeah,.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Nerve wracking thing to, to go through the planning stage, I guess of that from transitioning to, you know, from working full time to doing your own thing full time.
Speaker C:It's put a lot of thought and planning into it and it's, there's a couple more things that got to happen first, but I think by, definitely by the end of this year it'll be a full time thing.
Speaker B:So I'm, I'm gonna go ahead.
Speaker B:Leanne, I'm sorry.
Speaker D:No, I said that's great.
Speaker D:That's wonderful.
Speaker D:I love to see people, entrepreneurs and you know, making it, you know, for themselves and their products.
Speaker D:It's great.
Speaker B:I, when you just said a couple things got to happen, I wonder how many times that that phrase has been said in the spice.
Speaker D:That would be trademarking,.
Speaker B:Attorneys, attorneys, copyright, distribution, all that.
Speaker B:You'll, you'll get there, my friend.
Speaker B:You'll get there.
Speaker B:What's the biggest thing you've learned so far, Brad?
Speaker C:I think the biggest thing from a learning standpoint has just been the industry in and of itself.
Speaker C:You hear a lot of people, you know, there's a million seasonings and sauces out there on the market, right.
Speaker C:How, how do you fit in?
Speaker C:Excuse me?
Speaker C:How do you fit into that way?
Speaker C:Our principal, I get.
Speaker C:My dad owned a business growing up and just retired a couple years ago.
Speaker C:I've relied on his expertise and his business advice from financial standpoint, operations standpoint, a lot to kind of guide me on how to get to the next step.
Speaker C:It's been the biggest thing, I guess, is just the industry.
Speaker C:There's a million products out there.
Speaker C:How do we get ours in there?
Speaker C:And our philosophy has just been boots on the ground.
Speaker C:I've been going to stores, dropping off samples, talking to people.
Speaker C:We're scheduling more events this year.
Speaker C:The NBBQA conference in Orlando was huge.
Speaker C:I learned a lot of stuff from a lot of people down there.
Speaker C:It's just, it's, it's a pretty saturated market for us to be where we're at now.
Speaker C:Obviously it's not, you know, a million dollar business, but I think that we're, I feel like we're on the right track.
Speaker C:We just have to keep pushing and getting our stuff out there and, and see where things go.
Speaker B:So how do you separate yourself like you said?
Speaker B:I mean, we've talked, we've talked about this a lot on the show and Leanne can verify all this.
Speaker B:But you walk into a grocery store now, just a Kroger's or what have you, and where, you know, 10 years ago or even seven years ago, there weren't that many selections.
Speaker B:You had a McCormick, you know, you had a shilling and emerald, you had a few things like that on the shelf.
Speaker B:And now, God, there's a whole aisle full of stuff.
Speaker B:So how do you differentiate your products at Red Beard from everybody else?
Speaker C:So we're trying to do, through the development process of, to come up with things that are not on the market or that there's not very many of on the market, just to offer people something different to give them a reason to try our products.
Speaker C:And then with the intention of, okay, we like this.
Speaker C:Now we'll try this.
Speaker B:Got it.
Speaker B:We're talking with Brad Polachek, owner and pitmaster at Red Beard season.
Speaker B:So we got to take a break.
Speaker B:We will be back on Barbecue Nation with Ms. Leanne, Brad and myself right after this.
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Speaker A:This is an encore.
Speaker B:Welcome back to Barbecue Nation.
Speaker B:If you'd like to find us, just we send up a flare twice a day, so you can always find us that way.
Speaker B:But you can go to our website, which is barbecue nation jt.com or you can go to one of our Facebook pages, our Twitter accounts.
Speaker B:Leanne's big on Instagram.
Speaker B:We have a.
Speaker B:The show has an Instagram page too.
Speaker B:But Leanne does much more than we do.
Speaker B:But anyway, you can find us out there.
Speaker B:And if you've got a message you want to get to us.
Speaker B:Just send it our way and one of us will get back to you.
Speaker B:We're talking with Brad Polachek, owner pit master of Redbeard Seasonings.
Speaker B:I want to jump back, Brad, and talk a little bit about your military service.
Speaker B:It says on your sites and stuff that you're a veteran owned, which we talked about before the show.
Speaker B:And you also support veterans.
Speaker B:How did going into the military and, and the tour of duty you did over across the pond, as they say.
Speaker B:How did that work into you deciding to do what you're doing now?
Speaker C:It kind of honestly was unrelated.
Speaker C:I mean, there's things that you learn while you're in military that prepare you for everyday life.
Speaker C:You know, the discipline, the, the regimented schedules, the motivation, things like that that apply to, to any type of business.
Speaker C:But it was kind of unrelated to the seasoning thing.
Speaker C:That came a few years after I was out of the service at the time.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker B:Okay, so here's another question then for you.
Speaker B:Who gets to play the drill instructor at your house?
Speaker C:We have, we have four little ones at home, so most of the time.
Speaker D:Oh my gosh.
Speaker B:4.
Speaker D:Wow.
Speaker C:But yeah, Mom.
Speaker C:Mom does a good job of playing the drill instructor.
Speaker C:Sometimes I get.
Speaker C:Sometimes.
Speaker C:And sometimes it's the kids, you know, ganging up against us.
Speaker C:It just depends on the day.
Speaker B:I like that last one.
Speaker B:I mean that when our daughter and, and my wife used to gang up against me, hell, I never stood a chance.
Speaker B:I just, I just throw my hands up and go outside.
Speaker B:I, I never did that.
Speaker B:How involved is your wife in Red Beard?
Speaker C:She's kind of the behind the scenes taste tester.
Speaker C:She, her expertise is in the kitchen, cooking area.
Speaker C:She does all the baking, the, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker C:She's pretty darn good.
Speaker C:Makes up some good dishes.
Speaker C:So when we try and come up with a new blender, we're trying to come up with a new idea with the seasonings as well as like, content creation stuff.
Speaker C:She's kind of the mastermind behind that.
Speaker C:As far as she'll tell me, oh, that's good.
Speaker C:Or oh, nope, not going to work.
Speaker C:Just start over from the beginning.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker C:Yeah, she, she does help a lot.
Speaker C:She also helps out with shows and stuff as well.
Speaker C:So got a lot of support from my, from my family in the background background.
Speaker B:So I think.
Speaker B:And Leanne can.
Speaker B:Because she's already in this.
Speaker B:But you know, boots on the ground, especially when you're starting, you're just trying to get a product out there.
Speaker B:I think that is so important.
Speaker B:I mean we've had people on the show and they mix stuff up and all of a sudden they want a co packer, they want major distribution.
Speaker B:Well, that takes time and money.
Speaker B:But if you don't build a, if you will, a fan base, you might not be that successful.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:That was our focus from the start, was the local.
Speaker C:We're in some couple ace hardwares, locally, local boutiques, grocery stores.
Speaker C:The majority of the locations are in Ohio.
Speaker C:I think we're up to 76 now.
Speaker C:Our second biggest market outside of Ohio is the eastern North Carolina area.
Speaker C:We did some barbecue competitions down there and kind of got in with some people, introduce ourselves and yeah, the boots on ground thing, people like meeting people in person.
Speaker C:I think it does a lot better justice from a business standpoint of meeting people, you know, who you're dealing with.
Speaker C:You can present them your products and tell them, you know, in person why they should try it.
Speaker C:I think it's more of a valuable.
Speaker C:Builds more of a valuable relationship than just kind of, you know, blasting out email.
Speaker D:Ultimately they're selling the rub for you, you know, so when somebody walks into a store and says, hey, what should I get?
Speaker D:They're going to go and push yours because they have that relationship with you.
Speaker D:I agree.
Speaker D:And I still continue to this day boots on the ground.
Speaker D:If I go into a new grill shop, I always have my pig powder.
Speaker D:And I totally agree with you.
Speaker D:And even if you can even bring a sample of it on the food so they know the flavor profile after it's cooked on the meat, the wow factor there, then they're confident in selling something that their customer is going to be happy with.
Speaker D:And what goes around comes around.
Speaker D:Sure.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:When I was involved with this, we did the same thing.
Speaker B:I did some, some samplings in some stores and went to a couple of local food shows in Portland, which you all have done.
Speaker B:And that was the only way I really got it out the door was that there's.
Speaker B:It's kind of a well blazed trail, but it's about the only trail you can use for a successful venture to get it out there.
Speaker B:Unless again you're McCormick or Shilling and they just put it on the shelf.
Speaker B:Whatever they come up with, they just put it on the shelf.
Speaker B:And because they.
Speaker D:Well, they can also do a great price point too.
Speaker B:Yeah, well, they.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:When you're, when you're mixing up batches.
Speaker B:Brad, how.
Speaker B:I mean, are they 300 pound blocks and not like a building block, but are they 300 pound units?
Speaker B:100 Pound units.
Speaker B:Do you know how much they're mixing at one time?
Speaker C:We're doing a couple hundred pounds of each seasoning per batch.
Speaker C:Right now we just hit the point to where we don't have any debt in the inventory side of things, so we're able to.
Speaker C:We're ordering smaller batches now at a time.
Speaker C:That way it's paid for.
Speaker C:I'm trying to not.
Speaker C:There may come a point, obviously we don't have any big distribution channels yet, but sure, we're trying to keep things to where we're not borrowing more money until we have to, but it's the CO packers very close to us, so we're able to go.
Speaker C:I just go up and pick everything up from them when it's done.
Speaker C:So we're not paying the shipping as well on that.
Speaker C:On the price point a lot as well, too, so.
Speaker D:Well, it keeps the product fresh, too.
Speaker B:Yeah, it does.
Speaker B:It really does.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:I had.
Speaker B:I made a mistake when I did it, and if anybody's listening and trying to do what Bradley Ann do, I got like 500 pounds of each one.
Speaker B:I had four different ones.
Speaker B:And so I had a ton, literally a lot, and had it all bottled and ready to go.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And then when I decided I didn't want to do that anymore, I still had a whole room full of spices.
Speaker B:Smelled good in there, but it took years to get rid of it, and I wasn't going to throw it away, so I just gave it away to family and friends.
Speaker B:After that, we're going to take another break.
Speaker B:We're going to be back with Brad Polachek, owner and pitmaster of Redbeard Seasonings, right after this.
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Speaker A:This is an encore.
Speaker B:Welcome back to the Nation.
Speaker B:I'm JT along with Ms. Leanne, and we're talking with Brad Pulacek today, owner and pit master of Red Beard Seasonings.
Speaker B:I would.
Speaker B:Again, we'd like to thank the folks at Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Speaker B:Beef the way nature intended.
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Speaker B:Leanne's father, who was called Trim Tab, his real name was Jim Tab, he developed it.
Speaker B:It won the best rub on the planet award.
Speaker B:It's been used by winning pit masters for over 30 years and is@pigpowder.com and I use it a lot, in fact.
Speaker B:I got to interrupt.
Speaker B:Yes, it's very versatile.
Speaker D:So a little bit of heat, but the heat, it's got a good back heat to it, but not overwhelming.
Speaker D:So it does work on a lot of foods, even French fries in your baked beans, on popcorn, on your scrambled eggs.
Speaker B:It works really well.
Speaker B:Fact, I need to get another couple of.
Speaker B:I'll order it, I'll pay for it.
Speaker B:You know, I got to do that.
Speaker B:But anyway, go to pig powder.com and order some pig powder today.
Speaker B:So we're talking with Brad Polachek from Red Beard Seasonings.
Speaker B:How big of a discussion was it, Brad, to name the company and the seasonings, not the individual mixes.
Speaker B:But was it obvious between you and your wife that it was going to be Red Beard?
Speaker C:Yeah, it's kind of one of those things.
Speaker C:Like the whole beard concept in the United States is a whole nostalgia all in of itself.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:We were just like, oh, people called me Redbeard all the time because I have a red beard.
Speaker C:So I'm like, let's just make a red beard seasonings.
Speaker C:It wasn't really much of a process.
Speaker C:It was just kind of one of those things that was.
Speaker C:Okay, That's.
Speaker B:It just kind of fell into place.
Speaker D:Right?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, you know, Leanne, you could always go lawn bomber or something.
Speaker D:Yeah, I gotta keep it real.
Speaker D:My dad, you know, he developed it.
Speaker D:He.
Speaker D:He should get the credit.
Speaker D:Yeah, I stick a little face on there because, you know, I have a different last name than Tab, so, you know, just to kind of bring it together.
Speaker D:But anyway.
Speaker D:And I'm not growing a red beard that's good.
Speaker B:That's good.
Speaker B:We don't.
Speaker B:We don't know.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:That wouldn't look very good on you.
Speaker B:I think Brad would agree with me on that.
Speaker B:It looked kind of funky with the big red beard on you.
Speaker C:And I'd pass on the beard, unfortunately.
Speaker B:I'll leave that joke alone.
Speaker B:Anyway, as you're doing your development, your R D between you and your wife, what happens when you come to a loggerhead, a stalemate on a blend that you think is good?
Speaker B:Maybe the other people in the household or your R and D team say, no, Brad, that's not it.
Speaker B:How do you deal with that?
Speaker B:Because that's gonna happen if it hasn't already.
Speaker C:Usually my wife wins.
Speaker B:Smart man.
Speaker G:We have a bunch of stuff that.
Speaker C:We were working on that just hasn't made it there yet.
Speaker C:We just kind of put that stuff on the side.
Speaker C:We've got 10 blends now, one that's going to be coming out next week.
Speaker C:So the goal, I guess at this point with the size of the business, is not to just push out any more products than what we have now.
Speaker C:We're going to stay where we're at.
Speaker G:For a little while and keep things.
Speaker C:Going for obviously because of inventory, storage space, production costs, that kind of thing, we have some stuff on the back.
Speaker G:Burner that's just kind of hanging out.
Speaker C:So it's there.
Speaker C:We need it.
Speaker C:We haven't really had too many.
Speaker G:When there's been.
Speaker C:Something that we were.
Speaker G:Working on that people didn't generally like,.
Speaker C:It was like, okay, set that aside, or we've made changes to it or put it on the back burner to work, come back and work on later at some point, because it's not.
Speaker G:We're not in a position right now.
Speaker C:Where we need to be pushing out new products.
Speaker C:So we kind of have the luxury of just sitting back and waiting on those.
Speaker C:We can work on them later, make adjustments as needed.
Speaker B:When you're creating a blend, a rub, whatever you want to call it, how many times through the trial and error process does it take on average for you guys until you get to where you're happy with it?
Speaker C:It's a few at least.
Speaker C:Because when we.
Speaker C:I try and use the same products or the same ingredients, our co packer does, but obviously we don't have the luxury of just getting the stuff from them.
Speaker C:Give him the idea or the base ingredients and they make up a test batch of it.
Speaker C:And then when we get it, we test it out and provide feedback to them.
Speaker C:But it's it's usually, I think we've only ever had one blend that we did that was like two adjustments and done.
Speaker B:So what, what.
Speaker B:I'm just curious about this.
Speaker B:Do they, when they send you a sample to try, is it like a one pound box?
Speaker B:It's, it's got to be more than just one, you know, two ounce bottle or something.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Do a one, one pound sample batch every time we make an adjustment or come up with a new idea.
Speaker B:And what do you do with the.
Speaker B:I mean, do you use it all up?
Speaker B:I'm just curious because when I did it, they sent me three pound boxes and you couldn't use it all.
Speaker B:You know, if it was a bad.
Speaker D:Blend, two ounce container, you're lucky.
Speaker D:Get one pound.
Speaker D:I mean, you can put it on food very easily a pound and test it out on different meats.
Speaker D:Right?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:We get it in, we usually send it out.
Speaker C:We've got some brand ambassador people that work with us.
Speaker C:I usually give it out to friends and family, people who I know are going to who I trust to use it and give me honest feedback and not just say, oh, that's awesome, that's great, you know, but I usually give as much of it out as possible just to get as much feedback as we can.
Speaker C:That way we're making sure that we're putting something out that's worth it and we're not wasting our time.
Speaker B:Okay, well, let's talk about your pitmaster experience.
Speaker B:Did you start prior to going in the military?
Speaker B:Were you cooking then or did you work with your dad when you like a lot of people did when they were little, if they were at a Weber Kettle or whatever in the backyard?
Speaker B:How did you develop to where you are now?
Speaker C:Yeah, lots of, lots of grilling with dad back in the day.
Speaker C:The one time, actually, it's funny, When I was 18, I was lighting up the gas grill on his back porch and there's a pool, the deck was built up around the pool and that's where the grill was.
Speaker C:And for whatever reason, I had the hood of the grill open and I started that thing up and it flashed right in my face and I went jumping in the pool.
Speaker C:I thought I was on fire, but it did take a little bit of a hit on my beard and my facial hair.
Speaker C:It's pretty scary.
Speaker C:Thankfully, the only time that's ever happened.
Speaker C:But yeah, lots of time.
Speaker C:You know, learning from family grilling back in the day, the barbecue thing really came about about five or six years ago.
Speaker C:And then when the pandemic hit, it was really, you know, everybody was cooking at home.
Speaker C:And I really deep dove into the whole barbecue thing probably about three, three and a half years ago.
Speaker B:I know when the little town that I live in, when the, when the pandemic hit and lockdowns came on, all of a sudden you could smell the, the grills and the smokers all over, up and down the street, which you never did except at my house.
Speaker B:Normal.
Speaker B:But you'd smell them all over the place and it was like, oh, that's a good sign, I think, you know, did like that.
Speaker B:Did you.
Speaker B:Did you ever suggest to your superiors in the army that they should use better quality seasonings on their food?
Speaker C:I. I wish.
Speaker C:That's one thing I don't miss about the army was the food.
Speaker B:Well, I eat army food a few times and I would agree with you on that in your.
Speaker B:Have you.
Speaker B:Do you compete at all?
Speaker B:You said you met with some folks down in North Carolina, I think, and you did that.
Speaker B:Are you on their team or you created your own team now?
Speaker C:We took our own team down there at the time.
Speaker C:The first one that we did down there is a non sanctioned event we did.
Speaker C:There's not a whole lot of KCBS events in Ohio.
Speaker C:There's only two this year.
Speaker C:We actually have one doing this weekend, Friday and Saturday in Marietta, Ohio.
Speaker C:So we'll be down there for that.
Speaker C:We're trying to put another one together for next year that's in the works.
Speaker G:And then we're going to be doing.
Speaker C:A couple SCA events later on this year, too.
Speaker B:What's your favorite thing to cook?
Speaker C:Probably ribs.
Speaker C:Pork ribs.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Leanne, how many people do.
Speaker B:When we ask that question, do they.
Speaker B:A lot of them are die hard brisket people and a lot of them are rib people.
Speaker B:We don't get.
Speaker B:A lot of.
Speaker D:Everyone has their little favorites.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:And it's usually what they do best.
Speaker B:That's true.
Speaker B:That's true.
Speaker B:You what?
Speaker C:I love to eat brisket.
Speaker C:That's my least favorite thing to cook, though.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, it happens.
Speaker B:It happens.
Speaker B:It's when you're, when you're evolving into a business owner, a pit master, as, you know, a seasoning company and all that.
Speaker B:You got to be pretty dedicated to the craft, especially the cooking aspect, so you can tell people honestly, hey, I use this on steak or a chop or whatever, and it's, you know, it's good, it's good, it works.
Speaker C:The catering thing, people don't realize how much work and time and effort goes into the, into a catering business, specifically doing Barbecue food.
Speaker C:And that's one thing that, that I always tell people when, you know, when you're giving people quotes and stuff on pricing.
Speaker C:You know, it's like, well, if you're gonna go to McDonald's and pay 13 bucks for a cheeseburger and fries and a Coke, why wouldn't you pay 14 bucks for, you know, pork and two hot sides?
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:But the, the catering side of things is really found out real quick.
Speaker C:That's a lot of work.
Speaker C:I enjoy it.
Speaker D:And it's, it's, that's where the money is, too.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I, I've done a little of that and Leanne's done a lot of that and it is a lot of work.
Speaker B:But like he said, that's where the money is.
Speaker B:And that also gets your name out there consistently, right?
Speaker G:Yeah.
Speaker C:We have every one of our recipes.
Speaker C:Not everyone.
Speaker C:The majority of our recipes that we use for our catering stuff, we've tried to incorporate one of our seasonings into that recipe to kind of cross contaminate the two.
Speaker C:That way people like, oh, that smoked Mac and cheese is great.
Speaker C:Okay, well, it has the seasoning in it, you know, just to try and.
Speaker D:Keep things connected, like how you said, cross contaminate.
Speaker D:In a good way.
Speaker B:In a good way.
Speaker B:In a good way.
Speaker B:We're going to take another break.
Speaker B:We're going to be back with Brad Polachek from Red Beard Seasonings.
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Speaker C:This is an encore.
Speaker B:Welcome back to Barbecue Nation here on USA Radio Networks and an incendiary of stations around and multiple platforms and streaming and makes my head spin most mornings.
Speaker B:It does that.
Speaker B:We're talking with Brad Polachek, owner and pitmaster of Red Beard Seasonings.
Speaker B:It's, I will say, you know, from the pandemic, Brad, to right now and doing what you've Done.
Speaker B:I think you're to be commended because it's been a tough road for the country in a lot of respects.
Speaker G:It was kind of, it was kind.
Speaker C:Of, I guess, the scariest time you could think, try and start a business.
Speaker G:But the reason that, I guess the.
Speaker C:Avenue or the approach that we took.
Speaker G:Was starting it during the pandemic was there was so many people cooking at home and there were so many people getting into barbecue.
Speaker G:Like, I feel like there's more people barbecuing now than there ever has before because everybody hit YouTube and hit the Internet to figure out how, you know,.
Speaker C:How do I smoke a brisket, how do I do this?
Speaker G:Because a lot of people were cooking at home and looking for alternative methods.
Speaker G:We kind of use that, I guess, to our advantage to launch the seasoning side of things because it depends on how you look at it.
Speaker C:But for us, it was kind of.
Speaker G:The perfect time, especially locally in the look for a local market perspective to market our products to everybody.
Speaker B:So I think that made sense, you know, and there was a lot of people, we've had people on the show, and Leanne and I both know people that during the pandemic that owned restaurants.
Speaker B:Some of them went away, but the ones that stayed open tried to work with other operators that maybe had closed their, their business.
Speaker B:But the guy that was still in business, you know, leased their storefront property.
Speaker B:What have you made ghost stores out of them?
Speaker B:Ghost.
Speaker B:And there's a lot of stories like that.
Speaker B:So your catering fits right in with that.
Speaker B:What's the biggest pain in the ass about the catering business for you?
Speaker G:Just the preparation time the night.
Speaker G:We do, we do have a food truck too, that we set up occasionally, trying to once or twice a week here locally.
Speaker G:But the biggest, I guess the biggest benefit to the catering thing is, you know, when you know how many people and you know what you need to cook.
Speaker G:It's just the preparation time and getting everything ready.
Speaker G:We don't have employees.
Speaker G:It's.
Speaker G:We're a family run business, so we do everything from start to finish.
Speaker G:And it's just the time aspect of that.
Speaker G:I guess it would be the most time consuming or the worst aspect of the catering side of things.
Speaker B:And what's the best part of it, besides putting the check in the bank?
Speaker G:Just watching people, you know, eat the food that you're preparing and having a positive experience with it.
Speaker G:That's why I like the, the catering thing all together is just knowing that you're providing people with good food to eat and you're getting Good feedback.
Speaker G:Obviously, if it wasn't good, we wouldn't be here, but I think just the satisfaction of being able to handle an event for someone.
Speaker G:They don't have to take care of the food aspect of it.
Speaker G:We've got it.
Speaker G:And then the feedback from the people that are, that are consuming what you're putting out there, I think that's.
Speaker B:I think that's a really fair assessment.
Speaker B:When you've prepared for 10 people to 200 people, whatever the number is, and you get a few compliments as they're either eating or, you know, headed out the door, something like that, it kind of gives you this warm and fuzzy feeling.
Speaker B:Either that or you just had a stroke.
Speaker B:One of the two, I don't know.
Speaker B:But do you get that sensation, Leanne?
Speaker B:Not the stroke part.
Speaker D:I know that, no.
Speaker D:You do?
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:It's personal.
Speaker B:It's personal.
Speaker B:I think anytime you prepare a meal for somebody, it's personal.
Speaker B:Even if it's a peanut butter and sardine sandwich or something, it's personal.
Speaker B:I agree.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Where do you see yourself in five years, Brad?
Speaker G:Hopefully we end up with getting into some distribution channels for the products, the seasoning side of things.
Speaker G:We have some teams that are using our stuff in competition, so hopefully that continues to, to be a thing and we can get our name out there.
Speaker G:The catering side of things where we live at in Ohio, we live in a very remote rural area.
Speaker G:So it's kind of the catering thing, I think, is going to be huge.
Speaker G:There's not a lot of options for catering around here, specifically with barbecue catering stuff.
Speaker G:So I think the catering thing's going to be the, the bread and butter of the business.
Speaker G:But the goal is also to grow and expand on the seasoning side of things and get into, you know, like I said, all the distribution that we've done has been boots on the ground, going into places, meeting people, handing out samples.
Speaker G:We'll continue to do that and we'll at some point, you know, in the future, in the next few years, start looking at distribution channels and that's one area that we're obviously not familiar with at all.
Speaker G:So that's going to be a learning experience and it's going to be some, some work, but more willing to put it in to try and, and keep growing the business.
Speaker G:So do you have a website, Redbeardseasonings.com.
Speaker D:Do you have your catering on there as well?
Speaker G:Yep, catering menus on there.
Speaker G:We also started doing corporate gift box type things for companies that's.
Speaker G:That's been a Positive thing.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker G:All of our catering information, all the seasonings and the limited merchandise that we have is on the website as well.
Speaker D:I know it's only April, but you have to definitely, like, get in on the holiday gift packs and start putting together your promos for that, because that's always.
Speaker G:We did gift boxes last year.
Speaker G:Pick your own.
Speaker G:And we sold a ton of them.
Speaker G:Yeah.
Speaker B:So good for you.
Speaker B:Good for you.
Speaker B:You know, Leanne's gonna be the queen of QVC here shortly.
Speaker B:Did you know that, Brad?
Speaker D:That's out of the bag.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I probably wasn't supposed to say that, but.
Speaker D:But, yeah, no, it's fine.
Speaker D:We just got the date.
Speaker D:Got the date.
Speaker D:So May 21, pit boss.
Speaker D:I will be talking about our Pit Boss portable on qvc.
Speaker B:There you go.
Speaker D:Thank you.
Speaker D:Very excited about it.
Speaker B:If you ask her, Brad, she'll send you an autographed picture, too.
Speaker D:That and a dollar will get you 50 cents.
Speaker B:Have you ever thought about your OCO in the army or something, Brad, that you could send some samples to?
Speaker G:I probably send out too much free stuff.
Speaker D:No, you don't.
Speaker D:No, you don't.
Speaker D:I want to give you.
Speaker D:I want to give you a little story on that.
Speaker D:So my dad used to go to barbecue contests all the time, and he was constantly giving it away, and I was like, dad, dad, dad, you're not making any money.
Speaker D:And that's what he did.
Speaker D:And seriously, I do think that pig powder is where it is today because of him giving it away.
Speaker D:I think there was an ROI Return on investment on that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:And I'm going to say I agree.
Speaker G:With it, and I agree with that 100%.
Speaker G:I think to that point, Leanne is some of the best.
Speaker G:Watching my dad and working with him in the pizza business when I was a teenager, I think that sometimes the most underappreciated ROI is not the cash, it's the value of what you're doing to promote your business.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Brad Polachek from Pitmaster and owner of Red Beard Seasonings.
Speaker B:We're out of time.
Speaker B:I'm sorry, bud.
Speaker B:But we really appreciate you being on the show.
Speaker B:We wish you a ton of luck with that.
Speaker G:Yes.
Speaker D:It's awesome that you took the time.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:I appreciate.
Speaker B:We'll be back next week with another edition of Barbecue Nation.
Speaker B:Until then, remember our motto.
Speaker B:Turn it, don't burn it.
Speaker B:So for Ms. Leanne, Brad, myself, you take care.
Speaker B:Have a great week.
Speaker A:Barbecue Nation is produced by JTSD LLC Productions in association with Envision Networks and Salem Media Group.
Speaker A:All rights reserved.
