Unglossy with Bun B, Tom Frank and Jeffrey Sledge
Unglossy is a raw dive into the cultural forces shaping identity, creativity, and influence today. Hosted by legendary rapper, professor and entrepreneur, Bun B, alongside music industry veteran, Jeffrey Sledge and brand and marketing guru, Tom Frank, this is a conversation about cultural impact.
Through real stories and unfiltered dialogue, Unglossy explores how artists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries define themselves, move culture, and build legacy beyond the gloss of hype and headlines.
Tune in to "Unglossy" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you catch your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @UnglossyPod and join the conversation.
Unglossy is produced and distributed by Merrick Studios. Let your story take the mic. Learn more at https://wearemerrickstudios.com
Unglossy with Bun B, Tom Frank and Jeffrey Sledge
Chef Teach: Hustle, Heat, and House of Mac
Chef Teach (Derrick Turton) pulls up to Unglossy with Bun B, Tom Frank, and Jeffrey Sledge to chart a wild route from Luke Records and Pitbull’s early grind to Miami’s cult-favorite House of Mac. We get into the origin of that legendary mac & cheese, the food-truck-to-brick-and-mortar leap, COVID pivots, DoorDash math, SOPs that save businesses, and why your playlist is part of the plate. Bun shares how a nudge turned into a movement—and how mentorship boomerangs. Plus: Trillburgers x KD “Easy Money” drop, MySpace with Lil Jon and E-40, and the hard truth about scaling without losing your soul—or your margins.
🎙️ Tap in. This is Unglossy.
"Unglossy: Decoding Brand in Culture," is produced and distributed by Merrick Studio and hosted by Bun B, Tom Frank and Jeffrey Sledge. Tune in to hear this thought-provoking discussion on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you catch your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @UnglossyPod to join the conversation and support the show at https://unglossypod.buzzsprout.com/
Last week on Unglossy bun dude took his kid. Kid was probably five years old, he was on top of the bus, jumped off the bus on a table with his kid and then drank a beer out of a bowling ball from the top.
Speaker 4:I'm tom frank.
Speaker 1:I'm jeffrey sledge and I'm bud b welcome to ungloss real stories, unfiltered dialogue and the voices moving culture beyond the gloss of hype and headlines.
Speaker 4:So buckle up. Unglossy starts now.
Speaker 1:We are back for another episode of Unglossy.
Speaker 4:Yep.
Speaker 1:But before we dive in to today's guest, I got to ask what's new, what's?
Speaker 3:going on. I feel good, this is my like second show, so I can't act like I'm a newbie, no more. Like I'm here now. You know what I'm saying. So it feels good, though, like I'm getting my life scheduled around these recording times and dates for consistency, so it just becomes a part of the norm at this point. So that's yeah, yeah, absolutely, which is cool for me, because I like having to not do anything for this, like because I got to record at the crib so I can't be going nowhere. I can't be like no, I can't do it, I can't pull up right now. No, somebody else got to do that right now. You know, I got to go record the show I got to go record the show.
Speaker 4:I don't know how long I'll be able to use that shit for an excuse to get out of shit, but for now.
Speaker 3:I ain't going to lie. For now it works. Run with it. It works Because today's a crazy day too, like I had to get up early to get that set up. But today is actually the first day of our debut Kevin Durant burger here at Trill Burger. So we are one of the first collaborations that Cameron Durant actually has with anyone in Houston since he was traded to the Rockets. So we have our Easy Money Burger Meal that starts today, as well as the pre-order t-shirt, because we know Cameron Durant's an international star.
Speaker 3:People from everywhere would want to be connected to Cameron Durant in any way possible. I'm just excited to be fun as a Rockets fan to have him coming to the city. I'm excited about the potential for our team this year. You know we already had very high levels of potential, but it's even higher now. The expectations and then, too, to be one of the first people that he and Rich, his partner, call and be like yo.
Speaker 3:We want to hit the ground running in Houston. We want to start with Joe Bergers. You know it says a lot about not just the relationship that we have personally, but says a lot about the brand. You know what I'm saying. Rich and Kevin are partners in Boardroom you know what I'm saying which is focused primarily on entrepreneurship, the fact that, of all the people that they're going to potentially collaborate with because obviously the Rockets have team sponsors and he's got situations with Nike and other brands that he works with but to be able to be one of the first to collaborate with him in Houston, and it's for charity, it's all the money raised goes for charity, for Hill Country Flood Relief. Wow, that's fantastic. And you know he played at UT in Austin, which that's right there next to Hill Country, so we thought it was a good way to hit the ground running in Texas.
Speaker 1:I forgot. Yeah, he's back home almost. I know he's from my area, but he's also. He's a texas guy in terms of college, all right. I gotta ask, though, what? What is the burger? What is the meal? Can you tell us that?
Speaker 3:yeah, it's super simple. So the easy money burger is uh, american beef, slice of american cheese, dollop of mayo, dollop of ketchup and a couple of pickles on a potato bun.
Speaker 4:That's very easy, that sounds good, very simple.
Speaker 3:A kindergartner could create this burger. So you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I'm glad we didn't ask I mean this is kind of the perfect uh, the perfect transition to who we're about to talk to today, because I'm already hungry and we're only going to get hungrier here.
Speaker 3:So today on unglassy we're going to get real. Hungry, we're going to get, we're going to get real hungry with this.
Speaker 1:We're going to get hungry. We're going to get hungry. We are joined by Chef Teach, aka Derek Turton, the man who went from managing global music stars like Pickbull to serving up Miami's most crave-worthy comfort food. After returning to his culinary roots in 2013, he launched world-famous House of Mac in Wynwood, winning over fans with bold, soulful dishes like jerk salmon pasta and his legendary mac and cheese. I love a good mac and cheese. With locations across Miami, a fully mirrored plant-based menu and nationwide shipping, chef Teach has turned House of Mac into more than just a restaurant. It's a cultural movement built on flavor, community and creativity. Welcome to Unglossy the chef.
Speaker 5:I appreciate you, man. Thank you for having me Bung what's happening.
Speaker 3:How you doing. Chef, chef man, thank you so much for joining us. I'm excited to hear you, as always, to tell your story. I made sure I ate before we did this, because it's very difficult when people that have, like yourself, a real passion for food and cooking. They tend to make people salivate, just to be honest, if you haven't already eaten, and even if you have. So I wanted to kind of at least stave off the eventual hunger that would be created by you talking about this journey. But thank you for joining us today. My brother, I'm excited to have you on the show. Appreciate y'all having me.
Speaker 1:I am kind of curious to understand. You've had kind of a fascinating career right. You were managing global music and now you're in the restaurant business. Tell us a little bit about how that started.
Speaker 5:So it's been interesting. I started off actually I went to culinary school in 98. I didn't even finish but I started in culinary school. I I my first restaurant I had. My first job was in a restaurant hated it actually like working for somebody. First job was in red lobster and then, um, but the good thing that came out of that is I met my wife. My wife was a server at the time and I was a. I was a cook expo whatever. So you know that was a. That was a good thing that came out of that. But it was a cook expo whatever. So you know that was a good thing that came out of that.
Speaker 5:But there was a guy named Dewberry. God bless his dad. He got murdered about 10 years ago but he used to come in the restaurant all the time. He was a popular promoter in the area. He liked my charisma and he offered me a job. First he offered me a job as like a security dude because I was kind of big back then he offered me a job and then once I started working with him as security, he was like I had too much charisma to be doing just security, so he sent me out to start promoting in colleges and stuff like that.
Speaker 5:I went out, started doing basically street teamwork. That's how I kind of got my foot into entertainment, because the thing is would run into like the Def Jam reps and the I run into all the label dudes, but like it was like a different kind of promotion. Right, cause, like when you, when you're doing parties, like you basically promoting to survive, cause if you don't, if you don't promote and your party flop, then y'all make no money. You got to hear all. So I realized that like I was outside like every day, every night. You know we were like really going hard and like the label dudes was outside, like when an artist was in town or like you know what I mean, like you would see them every now and again. So you know, like I was, like I could do that. But my, I got into the music business on Karma. Like one night I was outside. I used to have this club in Miami called Amnesia. That was a club with like no top. I've been there, I've been there before.
Speaker 5:I was outside the club promoting and basically found this dude's two-way pager, jeff Sanchez, and didn't know who he was or whatever the case may be, but he was, you know, texting the pager like yo, you know, wait a minute in the pager like yo, you know, wait, you just found it.
Speaker 1:Like you just found his page.
Speaker 5:Well, my homeboy found it and brought it to me because I was like hustle man at the time, like they know, I could get anything turned on, you know I. You know I was, uh, I was selling two-way pages, calla was selling like burnout. Uh, next tells like we was just all in hustle mode back then and, um, he brought it. My man found it. He found it in the club and brought it to me and I I basically took it for him. It was like yo man, get a man back. It's paging. But I didn't know who the dude was. He was paging it and all of that. I returned it to him. I met him at the Marlin on the beach, returned it to him, come to find out he was like a marketing director for Luke Records and you know, come on, man. And so I gave it to him. And then, but now, like every time he would be out, I would see him out and he would see my work ethic and he would see like I was there when he got there.
Speaker 5:I was there when he left and he was about to move back to New York. His wife at the time was like the GM for Fat Farm or something like that, and he was about to move back to New York so he was looking for somebody to step in at Luke Records to cover his spot. So he offered me a job at Luke Records. I talked to Dewberry, got his blessings and then that was kind of like my first intro to my first crash course in the music business. So I jumped in.
Speaker 5:I was like 2000,. I want to think, I want to say like 2000,. 2001. Yeah, and that was like my first job in the music business. And then you know, like it's crazy because I started working for Luke and then like two weeks later, I want to say we went on like a 52 city tour and the first person that Jeff introduced me to when I walked into the office he was like I want to introduce you to this kid, cuban kid he had. You know he's from he's, you know he's from a neighborhood, you know braids, you know like whatever. But he looked like a white boy with blue eyes but you know he spit right and that was Pit.
Speaker 1:And so I met Pit, and we're talking about Pit Bull for anybody who doesn't know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:So Pit was signed to Luke at the time and you know we went on tour. You know we built a brotherhood. We went through a lot of things on tour, learned a lot of things, a lot of things on tour, learned a lot of things, a lot of firsts and stuff like that on tour with Luke. And you know Luke is like one of my. You know Luke like you know what Luke means to me, because you know, like to this day, like I could tell Luke like yo, I need some advice, or like you know, just, I can get him on the him. I'm like one of the go-to people that they call to try to get things moving, because we just have like a friendship, a brotherhood, like that. So you know we went through the whole school of Luke and then in 2001, it was a lot of things happened. You had Aaliyah passed away in August and you had it was a popular DJ in Miami named Uncle Al. He passed away on September 10th and then September 11th, 9-11 happened. So it was just a lot of stuff that was happening and then Luke was like man, it's too much going on. I'm going to shut down until the end of the year and you're welcome to come back, but I need a break. So basically he shut down Same time Pitt had got out his contract and then, because I had been doing, I toured the country with Luke now.
Speaker 5:So, like now I had connections in LA and I had connections in New York and I had connections, and you know, all over the all over the country. I started my national marketing team, big Mouth Marketing, and then I started doing like promotion, like national promotion. So I elevated from doing like local street team stuff to like doing like national projects. So then I picked up Bad Boy and I picked up Rockefeller. I picked, you know, all the major label stuff. I was kind of like that guy in Miami.
Speaker 5:But I met Bun B, bun B in Houston. I was, I was in Houston with, with, with Pit, for a show through my man, lump shout out Lump. I met Lump, I met Bun through there and then you know, so it just me and Bun. You know, from the time we met it just always. You know we just kind of clicked and then anytime Bun would come to Miami he would hit me and you know if I'm out there, vice versa, whatever the case may be.
Speaker 5:But in between all of this stuff, like when I was in the role with Pitt, when I was doing music, and so fast forward I'm sorry, fast forward with the music stuff. Brian Leach, he's the one that initially signed Pitbull to TBT Records. Eventually he kind of went off and he started his own label, polo Grounds Music. So when he started the label he brought me on as VP to help him out with that and we had Hurricane Chris, we had Yo Gotti ASAP, rocky, everything ASAP. We signed Jock, like we had a bunch of stuff going on over there. So, like you know, I had a pretty decent run on the music side of things.
Speaker 1:Sounds like a great run. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got a couple questions on the music side and this is just a kid in me, I have to say, even though I'm probably older than you. This is the kid in me. You went across the country with Luke, right, which means you've seen Luke in, let's say, the most urban of environments and then the most milquetoast of environments. I would say, right, you played black colleges and white college crowds.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we used to call it the Chitlin' Circuit. I've done everything from. You know what the Chitlin' Circuit is. The Carolina is everything. We've done all of that. We've gone to the most.
Speaker 3:So who got wilder is where I'm getting at.
Speaker 5:You know what's crazy. I remember one time we were at like a Air Force base in the Carolinas somewhere and then, like this chick actually got on the stage and like wowed out. She actually got court-martialed and all of that because you know she was just doing too much. But it's just Luke, he has a way of just bringing them out Like you know what I mean Like without even no effort, it's just because his reputation and everything else. But it's just like I would. I would say I would probably say the others like you know what I mean. Cause it's like when you, when you, when you go to like the hood and stuff like that, you know you got, you got people that's going to show out. But I think, like I think it's like when you go to some of these more blue-collar places like a military base, you ain't expecting a soldier you know what I'm saying to come on a stage and start popping it. You know what I mean.
Speaker 4:So yeah, I mean, you know it's been interesting, Interesting is a good word, yeah, interesting.
Speaker 3:And you work with Southern artists, you work with East Coast artists. You know what I'm saying Midwest artists, artists. You know I'm saying midwest artists. You know I'm saying what's the difference between taking someone that's so deeply steeped in personal culture like a pit bull, and trying to get the industry to understand how this guy is viable in the space, as opposed to somebody that's so deeply embedded in the culture like a Rocky, like I'm sure there's pros and cons in trying to win.
Speaker 3:Jeff can probably speak to some of this too. There's some artists that you have that just have a bed of talent Like you just know. This person's got it, but it's not going to be the easiest sell.
Speaker 5:I think for me, and I think my approach with working with artists is just, first and foremost, just understanding it's not one size fit all, right. So pitbull is totally different from yogati, yogati is totally different from rocky. And then just the marketing side is just trying to just figure out, um, just how to like organically tap into the vein of whatever their core audience is right. And I think, like with me taking approach, because you know some people they just try to they take a one size fit all approach and it's just like you just try to do this cookie cutter approach and that you know like that wouldn't work for Pit, because if you're going to the same clubs with Pit that you're going to for Rocky, you're going to say that the record's not working. You got to go find his audience, right, like have to go to the spanish station, you might have to go to the top 40 station or whatever, and that's not on your regular route. When you're working in your goddy record, it's not on your regular route. You know what I mean. So, right, I think I learned that earlier on and I think, like also because I started off with an artist like luke, luke's records weren't like traditionally, like the easiest records to work, like we really had to work records because I I realized that when I started working like jay-z records and I started working like def, jam records and stuff like that, it was just like I was just servicing records because they already want these records.
Speaker 5:When I was working luke's records, I used to have to go in sell a story. I would have to like, you know, build, you know real relations with people where I could like get 30 seconds of your time to sit down and really you know, spell, spell this out and show you how you can, you know the records, this amount of BPM, just what you mix it with, and like really really work them. Like I had to like really work records and I think because I came from that and it wasn't the easy way, it made it easier for me. When I started like working on different types of records, like with Rocky, for instance, when I started working with Rocky, rocky already had like.
Speaker 4:Rocky had like a cult following already.
Speaker 5:Like I, you know, rocky was like a dude, sounded like he was houston. You know, when rocky first came out, he he sounded like he was from houston but he was from harlem. And then, but he, you know, but he was on his fashion and like you know what I mean. So it was like you know, I'm walking around and like, um, like, like, like working and stuff, and it was like people working with A$AP Rocky, like he wasn't even mainstream, like that yet. So it was like it was crazy to me because, like, how you even know about a dude like that? And he ain't, but it's like he had a whole internet stuff.
Speaker 5:And then with Pitt's stuff, it was like when I was working the team nationally, I had dudes going into clubs and they like, oh, it's not working. And I'm like, yeah, but what club did you take it into? And then I had to, like you know, I had to like, lean into dudes and like, say, like, listen, you got to step off your route and you got to go do this and that third. And then when they made the adjustments, then it's coming back like, oh, yeah, the Mexicans over here. You know, like Texas was a huge, was my approach Like just not one size doesn't fit all, and that's kind of what worked for me in terms of, like, working records, absolutely.
Speaker 4:And understanding artists. I got a funny Rocky story. So I lived on 123rd between Lennox and 7th. You know, some A$AP guys lived a couple of doors down from me so I, you know, I see them kicking. I see them down town kicking, sometimes Like the under ASAP guys, not like yams in them. And one day I was walking up the street going home and this kid is coming towards me on his bike and he's wheeling down the block. Right, I'm walking against the traffic, he's walking towards me, he keeps coming. I'm like is this dude going to turn? Keeps coming. I'm like, is this dude going to turn? Keeps coming, keeps coming. Literally, maybe two feet. He kind of does the wheelie dip. He's like you suck-ass nigga. And it was Rocky. Rocky almost hit me with a bike. That's my ASAP story.
Speaker 3:So y'all playing chicken on the block, that's what you're doing.
Speaker 4:Tell another story. I was like, oh it's Rocky Wheeling down the block.
Speaker 3:That was an interesting time, obviously, for us here in Houston. Right, like, some people were kind of torn about it. Right, I understand how the culture works. Like I understand that some people in different generations hip-hop in a time where the South really had more motion in the culture and was more dominant in terms of visibility than it was in terms of having a New York person to look at and look up to and be like yo, that's the vibe, this is what's popping. I want to be a part of that.
Speaker 3:For him it was Southern culture. You know what I'm saying and I remember being like. You know, I had people like Lord Jamar, like, look out for me when I was in New York and help me understand the city and the culture so I could navigate properly. So, by that aspect, I felt obligated to do that for Rocky Right. Right, if you fell in love with this culture and you want to be a part of this culture, let me show you how the culture should be seen. This is this, that is, that this is how we represent certain things. So if somebody is going to do it, he can do it properly, cause I remember being an artist and being rejected by certain elders in hip hop culture because I wasn't from New York you know what I'm saying and wasn't from New York you know what I'm saying and wasn't allowed a certain entry point into East Coast hip-hop culture and I never wanted to be a representative of that because Pimper and I were very resentful of that.
Speaker 3:That's where the whole idea of country rap tunes comes from, because we were literally it was literally a public statement made that if you weren't from New York, you're just rapping, you're not a part of hip-hop. Statement made that if you weren't from New York, you're just rapping, you're not a part of hip hop. So we was like, okay, well, cool, then we won't be. You know what I'm saying and we'll be proud of not being. You know what I'm saying. But in retrospect, we want everybody to feel welcome in this culture. Hip hop and black culture honestly are two of the most inclusive cultures on the planet and I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't a part of denying somebody the beauty of what all the hip-hop culture down here in Houston, and specifically the South, had to offer the fans, you know. And I got to be, honest.
Speaker 3:So if people wouldn't have been so stubborn, you know who knows what you could have got.
Speaker 5:So, speaking of that Southern movement, though right, so we also played a pivotal role in that right.
Speaker 5:So shout-out Brian Leach, because you know he was a great A&R, he was able to spot talent, movements and stuff like that. So like when I was doing street team stuff, lil Jon, so Disco Rick, shout out, disco Rick, disco. Rick hit me one day and was like Lil Jon is looking for somebody to help him work a record independently. And then gave me Lil Jon number. I hit Lil Jon. Lil Jon met me like in an alley on South Beach with his pimp cup and this was like those days when he was like moving around with Bishop Don Juan and all them dudes with the cups and all of that. And he met me. He shot me $500, and he gave me a box of vinyl and I think it was that Play no Games record he had with Trick Daddy and Fat Joe and something like that and Ubi and I serviced the record for him.
Speaker 5:But like when I worked the record and he started moving around me, everybody was like yo, you moving with that dude like teaches, that dude, like whatever. So they had TVT. He was on the TVT at the time. Tvt actually had a street team out here which was off the hook Edwin and Juan and them, right, that's my guys and Booga, and those are my guys. But John went to TVT and was like yo, y'all got to put this dude on to work my record. So they ended up splitting the retainer between because John was the biggest artist they had at the and they ended up like, okay, well, both of y'all got to work the record and they split the retainer and then John ended up hiring me personally and I ended up, you know, working, going across the country working all John's records and stuff like that. That was another situation.
Speaker 5:But that crunk movement is what I'm saying. It's like you know, that crunk movement was, you know, john, when I started working with john. You remember john had that run where it's like everything on the radio was either a john record or produced by little john and that whole. You know yin yang twins, bone crusher, um, uh, uh. What was what was doing? If we don't give a damn, we don't give a scrappy, not, well, scrappy, I wouldn't, I was, I was scrappy. She had a room with me his first time out of town. Like I worked, I worked while I'd be. We don't give a damn, we don't give a fuck. Scrappy, nah, well, scrappy, I was Scrappy. She had a room with me his first time out of town, like I worked while at BME stuff. Scrappy Trillville, nah, what's his name? If you don't give a damn, you don't give a fuck.
Speaker 3:Nah Bo Hagen. But what's damn, what's these dudes'?
Speaker 5:names from Atlanta Youngblood Bro. We did Summer Jam. We did Summer Jam, I want to say in 506. We did Summer Jam and John brought out that whole crunk set. We tore down 60,000 people and Pitt was a part of that. But Pitt was a white Cuban. Pitt was like a US Because there was no genre for him.
Speaker 1:There was nothing for him.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's kind of amazing to me a white cuban from down south that was comfortable speaking on um spanish on records, right, and then, you know, like everything in music is about like putting it in a box, putting it in a category. But he didn't really have a category because he would get on a record with usher and like spit a little bit of spanish, so it wasn't reggaeton, but but you know, and so like we would go to BET and they like he's too Spanish. And we go to the Spanish states and they say see, he's too urban. So we literally had to create a lane, we had literally had to create a lane for him.
Speaker 5:And you know, so all of that stuff was like part of that, like Southern movement, cause I'm from Brooklyn originally, right, so that that moment in time where you're talking about where, like if your music wasn't playing on Hot 97, if your music wasn't playing on you know certain things, and then North, it's like you didn't make it. And then so we were part of that thing where, like it started kind of shifting to the South and then it started turning to like if your music ain't playing on Hot in Atlanta, then you ain't make it. You know what I'm saying, because they were dominating that space, even regionallyally, like you couldn't get you when you're, when you're trying to sell a record and you're trying to, you know, tell people who, if your record wasn't playing on certain stations in in that southeast region, like nobody else is playing records. So, um, you know, I I just wanted to bring that up in terms of, like that whole southern movement with you know we were a big part of that I'm glad you brought that up, because that was.
Speaker 3:I remember TVT flew me out. I don't know if it was Spring Bling or what. Tvt flew me out First class ticket Because y'all were doing it big at the time. I know things got crazy a little later with the label and everything, but when y'all were on it, bro, first class flight, I didn't even know where I was staying. We pull up to the Mandarin and the Mandarin Oreo. This was maybe within the first two, three years of the hotel even being open.
Speaker 4:And I get out the car and I'm like look at this class.
Speaker 3:And then I and they got the whole lobby and bar sold up. I'm like it was the Southernist thing I'd ever seen, balanced up against this high society backdrop type shit.
Speaker 5:I'm like yo, these dudes is living a life it was an indie moving like a like, well, you know, like steve had won that lawsuit, that jaru lawsuit, he had gotten I think like 30 million and he, you know that's. I think that's part of the reason why they ended up like going under because he had, he had won that, that, that um, that lawsuit with the jaru thing, and then you know that's, I think that's part of the reason why they ended up like going under Cause. He had, he had won that, that, that um, that lawsuit with the Ja Rule thing, and then you know he was moving and then I think the lawsuit got reversed, so it went from like 30 million or like three million and then down. Yeah, so you know that was that. But I mean, you know, regardless of that, cbt had a crazy run and you know there was an independent that moved like a major and I didn't really it's a lot of things that, like we did when we was over there.
Speaker 5:That you know, because I started at Indies, like I started with Luke and I started with TVT, before I started working with major labels, before I started working with Brian inside of like the J Records building and Sony building, and all of that I worked with Indies. I mean, I worked with Indies and I didn't realize how much kind of how much they were doing and how much. You know, being able to have access to steve gottlieb and being able to have access the way we had in the building, I didn't appreciate as much as I did until we started, like working with these majors and you realize how many layers to shit you got to go down and all of that.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean, so you know I'm glad you brought up brian too, because I don't think he gets the props he deserves for the artists that he signed and what he did for moving the culture forward and not being so locked in the New York. You know he's a straight up Harlem cat but like not be afraid to sign like a pit or like yin yang or john that people from outside the area you know he reached back with Rocky but there's people would have been people were like why are you signing? A lot of people don't know about Brian too.
Speaker 5:Brian got a classically trained ear. Brian, he has a classically trained ear. It's been in a lot of meetings I've went into and I'm hearing certain things that I ain't hearing what he's hearing. And then to kind of see it grow from what it was Even Hurricane hearing and then, you know, to kind of see it grow from what it was, like you know, even like Hurricane Chris, and he had the A-Bay Bay record. Like you know what I mean, like you know I remember going to Shreveport. You know Bay Bay, you know Bay Bay. I remember going to Shreveport. Yeah, I remember going to Shreveport and going to this club, coco Pellies, and yeah, yeah and yeah, yeah, I've gone to Coco Pelly 15 years, bro, damn it.
Speaker 5:20 years I've never seen nothing like that in my life. I've never like Bebe. First of all, bebe walks in the club and he got like theme music and it's like and it's like everybody passed away and this dude is like walking, like a fighter walks to the DJ booth and then and this dude is like walking, it's like a fight or something he walks to the DJ booth and then yo, like this dude just starts playing records and everything that he's. Clap your head, everybody, start clapping, sit down on the floor, spin around. Everything he tell a whole crowd to do.
Speaker 5:Everybody started doing exactly what he was doing.
Speaker 3:No artist never was more famous in that building than Bebe was. I don't care how hot your record was or how hot you were, Bebe was the star of the show.
Speaker 5:Absolutely not.
Speaker 4:But you know like.
Speaker 5:I'm like yo, we in Shreveport Louisiana and I think Smurf found Hurricane Chris and brought him to Brian. But it's like you know, being out in like Shreveport Louisiana, in this club, and witnessing this thing and then seeing it come to life, and then you know what I mean Like it's it's, you know it's it's, it's been a hell of a run man, it's just, you know. But you know, like a lot of people wouldn't have seen that, a lot of people wouldn't have seen that in the artist.
Speaker 3:You know what I'm saying was and we'll be right back welcome to merit studios where stories take the mic and culture comes alive we're not just a network, we're family, bringing you smart, soulful, unfiltered conversations in this season.
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Speaker 1:And now back to the show. So you're rolling in. The music industry Sounds like you're having wild success. Yeah, what makes you make this change, which is a pretty big change, going back to the world of food, in essence?
Speaker 5:So it's a couple of things. So. So I used to cook, like for certain people all the time, like I, when I used to be in a studio with Rocky and I'm like Rocky, you know Rocky was like pescatarian, so like they would, they would get this studio budgets and be like yo, just give it to teach, and then I would cook and bun would come in town. Bun followed me on Instagram. He seen my lobster mac. He like man, I need that next time I come down. And it started turning into every time he was in Miami. Yo, I'm staying here, I'm staying in a style and bring me this and that third right. So you know, the food was always like a way, like you know, we were tall, we was on the road, we was whatever the food.
Speaker 5:I used to do these barbecues in my house. The food was always the way to bring everybody together. We could go to the club or we can go have some drinks and hang out, but we ain't going to see each other kids and parents and families and whatever. So the barbecues was a way to bring everybody together. So when we'd come off the road, I would do these barbecues in my house and I would cook the whole spread and the thing that always stood out the most was the mac and cheese. Everybody would be like yo, I need that mac and cheese.
Speaker 5:So it got to a point where, like I would just do barbecue and like when I went to school, like my family makes my family's Trinidadians, so they do like macaroni pie, which is like the more like you know mac and cheese, you could cut a slice of it. And then when I went to school, they taught me how to make the mac and cheese with, like the rules. You know cheese sauce and all that. But when I started playing around with the rules, I'm like you could, I guess like the creative music side of me made me like, kind of look at you know, I'm like, but if you take that rule and you add this to it, then it's this. And so I would just be having these ideas at the barbecue and I would just try stuff. I would just, but you know they don't know, they my test kitchen. I'm like, let me try to do this chicken parmesan and I would just throw it out. I wouldn't say nothing, I just throw it out there and see how people react to it.
Speaker 5:And you know that was yo. What is that man, you know? So that started off to be my test kitchen Bun. Bun was always like the guy in the background, just always encouraging me like yo, I know you're doing your thing with the music, but you got something special with this food. And you know I'm at the time like pit was pit, pit, we flying private. I'm. Last thing I'm thinking about is like going back into a kitchen, right and um, bun would just always kind of like, just not, not I want to say throw a battery in my back, but just like I don't think you understand what you got. You got something special.
Speaker 5:And then one one time the gumball 3000 was leaving from miami. I remember he was staying at the w hotel you stand in a in a suite in a w and he called me and he told me to bring, like you know, a bunch of food over there. So I brought a bunch of food. He had like a talk with me and I was like yeah, yeah, yeah. And then so he calls all the dudes from the Gumball 3000 down to his room and then they start opening up the food and they're like yo, this is crazy, order another plan of this, yo, and so, before they came down, bun told me to go stand in a corner and just watch. And so then, you know, they're tearing the food up and he turns around, hit me with the shrug, like you see what I'm saying? And I think that night was the night where I gave him my word. I'm like yo, look, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, shoot my shot with the food thing.
Speaker 5:So I made the decision, and I think that was like October of 2014. And so I committed to that, and then I bought my first food truck and we lost it. We launched the first food truck, um, um, I want to say May, may 2015, and I just know the date because we launched it on the night of the many, the Mayweather Pacquiao fight, and we did it. We did it at Kool and Dre's studio, and the reason we did it like that is because I had Hennessy sponsor it and then we were the only source of the food. So, you know, we had everybody was looking for somewhere to watch the fight. So I had a captive audience and we launched a truck and I was able to like, have a line down the block on the launch of my truck to, like you know, set up. So a big part of the reason why, like I even, you know, took cooking.
Speaker 5:I'm going to say that like, if Bun ain't throw the battery in my back, I probably wouldn't have took it, I probably wouldn't have took it so seriously because a lot of people used to say it. But I just have so much respect for Bun and you know just his words just mean something to me and I know he ain't going to just be saying something to me just to say it and as much as he's saying it. So, um, that day, and that you know, and I always every story, I don't care what platform I've always been on, I've always let everybody know, um, you know what, what, what bud means to me and and the role he played in me, um, getting this thing started I think for me, you know, I meet so many people right from so many different walks of life and I'm introduced to them usually through a common shared experience, right Like I'm in the music industry.
Speaker 3:You're in the music industry, I'm from Texas, you're from Texas. These kind of things happen, but every now and then you meet somebody and that person is predominantly known for you know skill A, and then you get to spend extended period with these people and through time and and you realize relationship like this person is actually really good at skill b. You know, I'm saying, and even though you found, like, great success in the music industry, you y'all were doing great, you know, I'm saying, and I wasn't trying to convince you necessarily to leave the music industry, right, but I didn't want this opportunity for you to actually have to show that you have other passions in life to really pass you by, because at that time it was such a big machine Pip was such a machine that a lot of your daily things were being delegated to other people. If you were ever going to be able to step back for a minute and try something without necessarily losing your footing in your other space, I felt like that was the perfect time and, quite frankly, I was a lot fatter than I am now. I'm not as big-backed as I was. I still have that big-back mentality and selfishly, bro, I just wanted to be able to consistently eat your food. I thought in my mind you had the best food going in Miami. You know what I'm saying. You were a friend, I felt like I could get it when I wanted to eat it. You know what I'm saying. And I just wanted that teach mac and cheese to always be available to me. But usually when you find something like that and you take to it in that way, regardless of what it is it could be food, music, you know fashion, whatever it is you want other people to know. And so my thing was like I wanted other people to know Teach Could Cook. I knew a lot of people knew him from the industry, like yo, when you go to if y'all got anything, y'all doing any release parties, like yo, teach, cook, hit, teach, make that nigga cook. I'm telling you you're gonna love it and what's happening. And I knew I knew other people would love his food. You know what I'm saying, man. This was I had just started my blog with pete. You know I'm saying you got to eat this. I just started a food blog.
Speaker 3:I was very involved with the food truck scene in houston and um, you know, I had to smoke in front of City Hall and I was just trying to encourage people to enter the space. I knew it was the new thing in food. I knew it would be a very easy entry point as opposed to a brick and mortar restaurant, which I'm sure we'll discuss that in a minute. But I was just like this. I see everybody with these little ideas and concepts get a truck. It's a very, very low cost, engagement, very low risk. But you know I'm saying there's room to grow greatly and if it the shit take off, you could have a brick and mortar. You know I'm watching other people do it quite frankly, whose food was maybe comparable, but no one really had anything better that I was eating at the time and I just wanted my guy to win so you jump out on the scene?
Speaker 1:did you, did you, did you kind of keep a foot in both the music industry? How?
Speaker 5:did that work. So one of the things I forgot to mention. So E-Class shout out, e-class from Po' Boy. E-class is you know stand-up dude out here. You know he helped start it off with Flo Rida and Ross and you know a bunch of guys out here. He got a lot of success in the music business and he had just started a company called Finger Lickin' the Lickin' and so when he started that restaurant he had been hearing about the Mac and cheese. He class brought me a blank check and he was like yo, everybody keep telling me about this Mac and cheese. I need the recipe. Just write whatever number you want on the check, I need the recipe. And that's very interesting, yeah, and I was just like all right, so maybe I got something with the Mac and cheese.
Speaker 5:But when I initially started I started on a food truck because you know grassroots is what I know. So I figured you know we start on a truck and I can move around in this truck and that will allow me to kind of penetrate the market, kind of feel things out, figure out like what areas work for me, what didn't work for me. So by the time we decided to plant our feet, which was in Wynwood. We knew that, you know, because we had been there at the breweries and pulling up to a bunch of spots and every time we would go to Wynwood we were selling out. So we knew that Wynwood was a good fit for us.
Speaker 5:But you know, starting on a food truck, you know it had its challenges. But it's a quarter of the cost and even you know the overhead that it costs to operate it and stuff like that. So initially I would be on a Sony conference calls and I would be on a call and I got the phone and I'm cooking chicken and they would be like somebody's making a bunch of noise in the background. Put your phone there. So I'm like I'm trying to do both. First year on my truck I did, you know, mind you, like I paid my truck off, paid my truck, bought my truck cash. I paid my truck off, paid my truck, bought my truck cash. And you know my overhead was like basically nothing. I only had like three or four employees. And my first year I did like $2.4 million on a truck. On a truck, yeah, on a truck.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 5:Right, but you know, like $2.4 million on a truck, $2.4 million in a restaurant, if you understand, like the, the profit margin you like man, like because I'm like at 40, 50 percent profit margin, like my food cost unheard of, unheard of no cost is maybe 25, 30 percent. And then my late, because my truck is paid for, I'm not paying a bunch of overhead, light bills, this, that, and the third, I'm paying for propane, paying for gas, and I only got four employees. So so you know, I realized that like, first of all, I can make some real money doing this, but second of all, that like I'm not, because it was the food truck was a lot of work and that's, you know I it's a lot of things that I didn't take into consideration when I jumped into it. And then you know, like my first truck that I bought was a lemon and so I had like a lot of issues breaking down and this and that. Third, and that's when I learned that, like when you buy a truck, you don't buy anything from from Tennessee and above anywhere that it snows, because the truck could look great on the outside, but then my first truck, the chassis was rusted, right. So because it, because it was in snow and it was sitting in all this and all that stuff. So I learned that hard.
Speaker 5:So my second truck was like a pre-owned but basically brand new truck and that one, you know, we ran it up with that one, but with the music I was, I was one foot in and one foot out and I just felt like I had to make it because I, you know, like, from an integrity standpoint, I felt like I wasn't giving my artists a hundred percent anymore. You know what I mean and I know the. I know the energy, the time and the energy and the dedication it takes to break a record and I didn't have it to give it anymore. So I had to make a decision on if I was going to bet on myself or if I was going to go back into that, and I just chose to bet on myself. So I jumped out the window. Like maybe, like a year and a half into it, I jumped out the window and went full fledged with the pool stuff.
Speaker 1:I got to ask a question. I want to rewind back to the blank check. Was there any part of you that that guy slid you a blank check to give you the recipe? Was there any part of you that said hmm, maybe I could just do it?
Speaker 5:Like I wasn't thinking about doing food at the time, so like it didn't really. When he brought me, when he, when he, I considered it only for the, for the, for the, for the fact that I was just like I'm not going to be your competition because I don't want to do that, like I don't want to get in the kitchen. So I was like all right, well, if it's some value to you.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. I'll give you a recipe.
Speaker 5:You know what I'm saying. I'm not going to tell you like my recipe. So you know I'm like, yeah, I can give you a recipe. But Mike Gardner from Headliner was also my brother. Mike Gardner, they do like live on Sundays and doo-wop and you know they've been like a major force on the promotion side out there. I was with him to help him out because you know he he's not I'm a food guy, like I'm a. I went to out but it wasn't about the check. So when I considered it it wasn't really about the money, it was just more about like helping him.
Speaker 5:But, um, yeah he does well so real quick, real quick.
Speaker 4:When you, as you started cooking, were you cooking like this? As a kid, you know, being around your mom and your grandmother. How did you pick that? Yeah, I started cooking, so when I was a kid.
Speaker 5:When I was 16 years old I went to jail. I shot two people in New York and I went up north from like 16 to 23. So I started cooking in prison. I started cooking in the mess hall. That was my escape. And then, like the creativity like my mom used to bring me, like my mom brought me, like this I wonder if I still got it she brought me, like this soul food cookbook. But you know, in there we got to like we don't got flour but we got pancake mix. We don't have this but we got. So we had to. You got to improvise with everything to make things happen.
Speaker 5:And it got to a point because I started off in a max. I started off in like Comstock and Clinton and Cagsackie. I was actually in Clinton. When Tupac was there, I was in Clinton at the same time. Yeah, he was in PC though, but like you know, I seen him like the day he was going home and all that kind of stuff, but I was in. I was in Dannemora in what is it? 96. So I believe that was the same time. Pop was there.
Speaker 5:And then by the time I got down to like mediums and champs, it was like more open and we had ovens and we had all the stuff where we could actually really cook. So it got to a point I remember I can't remember I was in Bear Hill. I was in one of these spots and I was making patties, like fish patties and beef patties and a soda, and I'm selling them for a pack of cigarettes as a brick, and beef patties and a soda, and I'm selling them for a pack of cigarettes as a brick. And it got to a point where my peoples ain't had to send me no commissary, no, none, because I basically had lines around the corner pulling up. That's crazy. So when I came home, I'm like yo, I'm going to be America's top chef, I'm going to go to culinary school and blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 5:And it's like I came home, I stuck to the script, I went to school, but then when I started working in the restaurants, I just felt like overworked and underappreciated. You know what I mean. It's just like, you know, a server, go to the front of the house, you just cook the well-done steak and an eight-ounce lobster and she drop it and then come back to the kitchen blaming you and you rush another one back out there. You don't get no appreciation for it. You know what I mean. So it's just like I was just like you know what. And then, like the two busiest days in restaurants is um, valentine's day and mother's day, and I remember like it was like mother's day and the checks wouldn't start coming out of the machine. It was like it just kept like the receipts just kept coming out. It wouldn't stop and I just had the Scarface moment. I was like I'm walked out of here, I'm out of here. So I got around to working a job in a restaurant, versus like owning your restaurant where you can just do your own thing.
Speaker 5:You ever seen the movie Chef? Yeah, you ever seen the movie Chef? I have seen it. I don't think so. Jim Johnson sent me that movie. He gifted me that movie because he was like yo, this movie reminded me of you and the same thing. He started a truck. He was working in a restaurant with somebody else.
Speaker 1:It's a great movie, yeah.
Speaker 5:But it was literally like that, like that's how I felt working in a restaurant and then stepping out and like getting a truck, and it's like I got. You know, if I want to switch the menu right now and I from, though, like I started cooking in prison.
Speaker 1:So you're making a killing on the truck? What makes you decide to go to a brick and mortar?
Speaker 5:So because we kind of outgrew the truck, like it's like it got to a point where every night we were selling out. Because you know, with the truck you ain't got limited space, you ain't got limited refrigeration, you're running on a generator, you're running on a generator, you're running on, so you can only operate for so long before. And it's like every night, like, and the night, people showing up, it's like yo, we sold out, we sold out. Then it comes to a point like shit, we leaving money on the table, like every night I'm probably leaving a thousand fifteen hundred on the table and more shit that we could have sold. So the natural next step was, um, stepping into brick and mortar and we went from doing $2 million to $5 million in a brick and mortar. But the difference in a brick and mortar is like your profit margin is only like you know, if you healthy, I went from like 40%, 50% profit margin to like maybe 10% profit margin. Yeah, like you're paying for it, the overhead, you're paying for them to pick. I was paying for them to pick, I was paying. I'm paying for them to come pick up my garbage. I'm paying for, you know, light bill, water bill, gas bill.
Speaker 5:You know, now you got, you know, you got like all this. So now you got front of the house staff, back of the house staff. You got to have management on every ship that's moving. Then you got inspectors pulling up and you got to have certified you know. So it just you know. It's a learning experience because then it's like now you step into that space. Now you got to understand those numbers because now it's like, you know, you got to make sure your labor cost is under 30%. I mean, keep mine under 25%, but you got to make sure your labor cost is at a certain place. You got to make sure your food cost. Now you got a restaurant and walk-in coolers and now people still in and now you got to make sure that they're not walking out. You know lobsters ain't mysteriously popping up. You had 15 in the morning. By the time lunch comes, only two lobsters left and and so, yeah, and so, and when COVID happened, and it's like man, I had to hire armed security. I got to enforce social distancing. I got to, you know, so it's a lot. Um, insurance, you know property liability insurance like it is just a lot. You spend a lot of money. So it's like you're making money. But you got to understand making money and the illusion of making money. It's not about how much you make, it's about how much you keep at the end of the day.
Speaker 5:And I wasn't a wrestler. When I do that, I was a food dude, so it was like a crash course and just figuring it out. And it grew so fast, it was like growing so fast, so it's like trying to keep up with with the growth of it. And then when we started expanding into multiple spots and we did well, like we did well when we started opening up the multiple spots, but then when covid hit covid, covid humbled me and made me realize, like, how spread thin I was, because then when covid hit, the way that people like, for instance, I had a location in North Miami Beach Did really well, did about two million hours a year.
Speaker 5:When COVID hit, you know, covid had everybody feeling like yo, I'm going to go outside and breathe and die. So people stopped coming out to eat. And then they just started ordering on Uber Eats and DoorDash, which was cool. But the thing with a lot of people that are not in the business don't understand is that DoorDash and Uber East take anywhere from 20 to 30 percent. So there's your overhead, right. So it's like, wow, I'm basically I'm keeping it going, but I'm basically working for Uber East at that point. You know what I'm saying. And so you know it's like what's the point of having a hard location that people not really coming into, and then I'm paying for that, but on top of that I'm paying all these fees and all of a sudden I'm not really making any money. So what's doing that? So we have to, you know, just kind of reconfigure and you know, and it's like, well, this location is making a lot of money. We're covering payroll for this location with this. It was just a lot.
Speaker 5:But again, like you know, I think you know what do they say? Rough seas, make a smooth. What do they say? What's the thing they say about the sailor? Smooth seas, don't make a skilled sailor, or something like that. It's like you got to go through that to get to the knot, because even like when Bun started his stuff, you know, I was able to pass on information that, like I had to experience the hard way when he was starting out.
Speaker 5:I'm like you got your SOPs done. You got this done. Sops are standard operating procedures. I'm like you got SOPs, did you make them sign an employee handbook, did you make them sign blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like I'm telling you this stuff because I got sued already. I haven't had people go to had had. I've been audited, I've been sued, I've had. I had a dude that I bailed out of jail. He couldn't even call his family and I got. I got. I got audited by the Department of Labor. And because so what happened was when I had the food truck, when I was transitioning from the food truck to the restaurant, it was like a six month period where, like, dudes were working on the food truck to the restaurant. It was like a six-month period where dudes were working on the food truck and in the restaurant.
Speaker 5:They were two different things. But I wasn't going to start a whole new company. So on paper it looked like they were working all this overtime, but it was actually two separate things. So the Department of Labor was like, nah, you can't do that, you have to separate it. And you got to pay them overtime. So I owed this dude basically $600 in overtime. It was like, alright, fine, I paid in overtime and this is a dude that I bailed out of prison.
Speaker 5:When you get audited, they send everybody that works for you something basically saying like yo company's being audited, let us know. And instead of him just coming to me and he already had the check, I already sent him the $600 check instead of him just cashing checking whatever, he took it to a lawyer and the lawyer was like, no, I'll get you $25,000. And so he came back and sued me for $25,000. I had to settle, for you know, and those lawyers they're like ambulance chasers, so they know that it's cheap for me to settle and me to go back and forth and litigate and do so. I ended up settling for like $14,000, $15,000. The lawyer got like $8,000, $9,000, and dude got like maybe $5,000 out of that and it's just like After all that hassle, that's all he got.
Speaker 5:So the lawyer made all the money in that. You basically did that to me for $5,000. But I said that to say yeah.
Speaker 1:Ruined the relationship. Ruined the relationship. Hey. So let me ask you this You're in that food industry. You started out in the music industry and now you're watching and Bun is the guy who kind of was a big catalyst to that and now he's in the food industry. Right, Bun, was there any? Did he push you at all, or what was that?
Speaker 3:relationship. I had no idea right at the time that sewing into Chef would reciprocate in him sewing directly into me, like the industry that I kind of urged him to go into, right and gain. All of this experience was handed right back to me when I found myself in this industry, because this was not like having a business was a want, right, it was a goal, but it wasn't a passion, right. Like chef came up with the recipe, you know, I didn't come up with anything. I was brought a great product and brought it to the world.
Speaker 3:But when I was presented with what Teach was doing, I was like people have to get to get this food. People deserve to try what you're cooking and people did from all over the world. Come to Miami is one of the top tourist destinations in the world and he's cooking in the part of town where everybody wants to come. When they come to Miami they're coming to Westwood and they're coming to see all the art and all the action and the energy and his truck with him Understanding the vibe, he energy and his truck with him understanding the vibe.
Speaker 3:He could park his truck right there in the heart of everything and get all of it. And people walk up hey, is this good? Oh yeah, I eat this every week. Like I went out there, like before I went to the truck and showed him I was at the truck, I'm watching the truck, I'm asking questions about you know I'm saying y'all come here, whatever getting the feedback and it's beautiful that you get an opportunity to help people and you don't even know why you're helping people or what the end result of it's going to be.
Speaker 3:But by helping teach, I ended up helping myself, which is bananas to think of. You know what I'm saying, that I found myself in this space you know what I'm saying and getting encouragement and pertinent information. You know what I'm saying and getting encouragement and pertinent information. You know what I'm saying From somebody and it's crazy, because I've done this with artists my entire career. I've tried to be somebody that people can come to get information. I pride myself on being able to give people game about things. You know what I'm saying, saying, but to be fed game by somebody that you gave game to or encouraged man, it's just, it feels different, like being successful in this burger space is one thing, but being able to now go back to somebody I sold into, who is now successful, that could be like yo, we doing this and doing that, and then him being perceptive enough to realize this dude might not notice, these guys may not notice because we went from a tent to a brick and mortar within, you know, eight months.
Speaker 3:You know what I'm saying and there were a lot of things that we understood from an operations standpoint. There were a lot of things that we understood from a branding and marketing standpoint understood from a branding and marketing standpoint. But when you actually get inside those four walls and start dealing with emotions and staff and all of this stuff and management, there are a lot of things that you may not know, because you don't realize these things until you're in the building. It won't come in a manual, right? You won't see a YouTube video for it. Someone that has already dealt with it has to tell you these things and give you these things. I mean the advice that we got from teaching those first two, three months of operation man. I mean it's priceless information Because we could have been done before we even got started, quite frankly, by a seasoned employee that understood the system better than we did, and that's the difference between the wisdom and the knowledge, right?
Speaker 5:It's exactly what you just said. It's things you're going to learn. It's things that I learned in the books when I went to school, that the things that I learned when actually operating a restaurant. It was never in the books, Right? And those are the kind of like the little nuggets that you pass along because you know it's like you learn techniques. You just learn how to kind of move through things to actually operate. You just learn how to kind of move through things to actually operate.
Speaker 5:Let me say this too, though Bun is like one of the most humble you know, like for Bun to be the legend that he is, like I've never met somebody that's just so humble as he is and just like keeps his word. So Bun told me yo, when you open up your restaurant, I'm going to be the first person in line and I'm going to be your first customer and yo. So, when I open up the restaurant, right, I'm in there and I got the councilman, I got the, I got the commissioner out there, I got these people out there about to cut the ribbon, and all of that, Bun and Quinny pull up in the suburban, jumps out the truck about to cut the ribbon. Bun comes cut the ribbon with me and Bun is my first customer in line when I open up a restaurant.
Speaker 5:That's awesome. So you know what I mean.
Speaker 5:Like you know I can't make none of this up, I can't make the brotherhood up, man, you know Bun knows whatever with me, like you know what I'm saying. Like I can't, you know I can't, I couldn't. You know my story is my story and you know it's authentically my story, right, and so, like you know, when I tell it, it's what it is. But, like I think it's important to give people a flowers, I think it's important to give people a flowers and let people know what it is. With Bun, with Luke, with Pit, with you know just everybody that's been a part of my story. Like I think it's just important because, like my really played a really pivotal role in everything what's happening. He played a really pivotal role in in um and what I'm doing and he's, you know he's, he's kept his word with me and you know, like listen, you know entrepreneurship and, like you know, like in our space, like when we're the leaders of, like you know, the leaders of the culture per se, right, it's, it's, it's a lonely place in that, like a lot of times people look at you and they think you got shit figured out right, like because they expect you to. You're supposed to have your shit together and you're supposed to have everything figured out and, like you know, like I'm not, you know, like nobody's asking me if I'm good, right, because I'm always the person that's moving around the room like yo, because I'm always the person that's moving around the room like yo, you good, you good, you good, and trying to make sure everybody else is good. And then sometimes, like in the case of like Bun, it's like sometimes you need somebody to like. You need, like Bun, saw something that I didn't see Right, like I wasn't thinking about going in no kitchen and like so.
Speaker 5:And also my logo was a picture of my dad. So, like that's like a, it's like a legacy thing for me that, like I'm, I just wanted to kind of, my father passed away in 2013 and I wanted to like, make him like, kind of like the chef boy idea, my brand, to kind of like carry legacy. But, like you know, I needed somebody to tell me that, like yo, you got something special in you that I didn't see in myself at the time. And you know, sometimes you know that was important to like man, like sometimes you need, you know, although we, you know, we might move like we got to figure it out all the time. Sometimes you need somebody else to kind of check in and be like yo, like you know, like you good, or like yo you see what I'm seeing, and and, and that was one of the moments that like was like, uh, you know, a breakthrough moment for me. So I salute you, sir thank you so much, man.
Speaker 3:I'm honored to be a part of your legacy brother, and you and me as well. At that point, we're inseparable, bro, and keep in mind we're both transitioning from a shared space into another shared space, which is crazy.
Speaker 1:That is crazy. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5:Yeah, no, it's absolutely crazy. It's just sold out. Man, it's like when he first launched Trillburgers and then it was Art Basel.
Speaker 3:It was one of those weekends.
Speaker 1:It was an Art Basel weekend it's so cool that you guys have figured out how to intertwine that. It's just the relationship that you have.
Speaker 5:But it's so natural, it just makes sense, it just makes sense it makes sense Because we're part of each other's story.
Speaker 5:So it's just like for me to be like and all my followers know what Bun B means to me. So for me to be like yo, bun B is doing a pop-up at House and Mac House and Mac times, trill Burger pop-up it's just a natural and it's sold out and it's sold out. I had everybody from the sneaker stores to the whatever Yo, make sure you hold me three burgers and it's done. You know what I mean. So that's a cool story, kind of bounce things off each other and just, you know, support each other and you know, like, just information wise, it's just things like operationally that, like it's things that he's, because you know, bun's been able to scale into, like these, these arenas and throw the rodeo and like all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 5:I haven't, I haven't hit those levels yet. So it's times where, when I do decide to try to, I'm going to be checking with bun Like yo. So how are you doing this? But you're maintaining it, you know, and so you know it's great that you know we got the brotherhood where we could bounce things off each other.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry about that for Chef.
Speaker 5:T, what's next? I was actually having a conversation with Bun the other day because obviously I think the natural progression with a restaurant is to scale. My concern with scaling? We ship nationally right now on Gold Belly. We ship all over the country in Canada and so that's been a good filler for me. What cities is working for us and what's not working for us? Obviously I want to scale, but I want to. I want to scale at a rate that we don't compromise the integrity of the brand and even locally scaling.
Speaker 5:It showed me like how that can happen because you have to have systems in place, you have to have operators. Me and Bun was talking about this other day. He's like talking about like you know, when you look at like brands like Chick-fil-A and stuff like that, they invest in operators because the operators cost a little bit more up front but they're the ones that's going to pay attention to your labor and pay attention to your food costs. They understand operating a restaurant versus somebody that's just getting a check and coming to work and they don't care about all that stuff, they just want to just get through their shift and get home. So I need to make sure that I can have, Because I also don't want to be a slave to anything, and it's like when it comes to a point where, if you're not there, things don't operate correctly, or the days when you don't show up, the food doesn't taste the same, and all that kind of stuff there, and it's just like now you become a slave, because now you feel like every, every when you got to just put out a fire over here, you got to go put out a fire over there and imagine having a spot in New York and California and like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I went as far as, like South Florida and Orlando, and even you know having to jump on these 45 minute flights to Orlando to go put out fires and stuff like that. It's just a lot, it's just really draining.
Speaker 4:It's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot.
Speaker 5:So I want to scale, but I just want to make sure when we scale we don't compromise the brand. And you know it's not just the food right, it's an experience. You know, it's everything from the service to the food to the music. Like even the music, the playlist that we play in the restaurant is curated because music is emotional. You can hear a song right now that you haven't heard in 20 years. Music is emotional. You can hear a song right now that you haven't heard in 20 years and you hear that song and that was your joint and you can remember exactly what you had on, what it smelled like. You remember everything about it. That's how emotional music is.
Speaker 5:So even down to the playlist that we curate is that? But then there's times when I ain't in a restaurant and they playing Sexy Red and they playing their own playlist. You know what I'm saying they playing sexy red and you know they playing their own playlist. You know what I'm saying? No disrespect to none of them, but I'm just saying like they not playing it Because my playlist is Anita Baker. My playlist is like I want a frequency of, like, love and happiness. That's the vibe that I want in a restaurant, but I also want it to be family friendly. I want you to be able to bring your kid in there and you're not worried about oh, the curse, you know what I'm saying, like somebody talking about the whole ground and you know like again, no disrespect, but it's just. I want you to be able. I want you to feel comfortable with bringing your family, your kids, your grandma, everything in there.
Speaker 5:So like the frequency of music that we're playing in there is more or less that. And if you don't understand, that's what I'm going for. It's intentional, it's not like I'm just you know whatever. It's intentional and we're doing that and and, and that's the thing. Like if you go into another city and they don't care about that and they plan whatever they want to play, it's not the same experience, because people walking in there and it's just like what the? I just brought my kid in here and I just heard what, and you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5:So everything is important. All of those elements are important in terms of operation, and if I can't connect all of those dots, I just don't want to do it. So I need to find a way to be able to execute it, where I can connect all the dots and and and deliver, cause I want somebody. If they came to Miami, right, and it's like yo, I went to this restaurant in Miami, oh my God, yo, like I felt like I was at home, and they talk about the experience and then then I bring it to your city and it's like, well, this ain't what we went to.
Speaker 3:In my end, that's what I don't want absolutely no, you're thinking right you're thinking right from a brand perspective too, because you can scale too quickly. It's very easy to scale too quickly, and the first thing that's going to be compromised is going to be the food quality, and the second thing that's going to be compromised is the surface, and those are the kind of things you can't get back I just had. There's a little kid on social media. He's a little black kid. He's been with his mom for a while. He speaks very, very adult. He's years ahead of his age.
Speaker 5:He's from Louisiana or something like that. He wear glasses. Yes, I know who you're talking about.
Speaker 3:He came to Right. Really, he came to Trillburgers recently and the day he came in, for some reason there was reggae music playing. Ok, and I've been kind of like off and on, like yo, y'all need to be playing Southern music, but this went kind of viral because the kids popular online should be open, and so because of the fact that the kids online, the spot went viral. And then now we're looking like the kids, like yo, I don't know if I should be expecting a burger or a beef pad. You know what I'm saying. And so I sent this to the group text and I'm like.
Speaker 3:See, this is why I say, like people come to Trill Burgers, they're expecting an experience, expecting a certain thing. Those that are going for the culture are expecting a soundtrack to an experience.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 5:Music plays a big role. And that's the other thing you never know who's coming in the restaurant, right? So it's like you know, we gotta be in your peas and coops. I remember one time you remember Sonny used to be on Hot 97 and then she was a cook.
Speaker 4:Yeah, son, sonny used to be on Hot 97. Yeah, you know, sonny, she's a chef, right.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and then. So the one day Sonny ordered something from the restaurant and then they sent us some wings. The wings were short, they wasn't this and that, and then you know, luckily she was around, nori and Nori hit me. But I'm like yo, you don't know who you're sending your food to Like. You got to make sure that you always, because that one time where you're trying to cut a corner or you're trying to rush something out, you send it to a lady from the Food Network, or you got like a food blogger because you don't know their face. They in there recording content, or they got a million followers. You don't even know who you, who you.
Speaker 5:So you know it's, it's just a lot and like, like, like you said, bon, it's like you know, dude in there, he's streaming here in there, he's streaming here, he, whatever, but he going viral. And you know this might be the day where, like you know, they supposed to be playing whatever, but this is the day they chose to put on the reggae thing and it's like you don't even know how that's translating to this guy's audience, whatever case may be. So you know. So it's, it's, it's. It's been a learning experience, still learning. Um, I think like with, with, with the pandemic, I don't think anybody had a like I've always been smart about, like you know, six months reserve saving, you know doing all this kind of stuff. But I think, like the pandemic has been like just as an entrepreneur, I don't think many people had like a two-year contingency plan, like yo, the world is shutting down, they shut down sports, Like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:There is no way to plan for that.
Speaker 3:Huh, yeah, that was the era that I said. We're going to find out who got hustled and who got lucky. Yeah, that was my thing for COVID. We're going to figure out who knows how to get up in the morning and figure it out, or who kind of been getting shit handed to them. Yep. And so long enough to pacify.
Speaker 5:So I would say that I think one of the biggest things that I walked away from the music with the music business with is critical thinking, like going back to when we first started talking about this, like being able to work with all these different artists and every day is a different day. Every single day is a different day. You don't know what's going on and you got to just sit there and you got to adjust. You got to figure it out. I'm in the middle of Chicago, I'm in the middle of whatever, whatever, whatever Artists coming in to do a show.
Speaker 5:He missed his flight. Like you got to figure it out, right, and I think, like being able to be able to have critical thinking going through things like that, I think it made it a little bit easier for me to be able to maneuver through COVID, where a lot of people was just panicking. I was able to stay calm and just like, all right, well, we can't do this, let's do that. That's when I started shipping nationally. We started shipping food. First, we just started doing it on our own and then Goldbelly found out about us and came and signed us up and now it's like, boom, I got an extra 15,000 coming in a month from shipping mac and cheese to Beverly Hills and shipping it to Brooklyn.
Speaker 5:So I had to be creative. You know what I mean. But the, you know, you know, like a lot of people, that was just going by the textbook. The textbook don't? They don't teach you all of that. You know what I mean. It don't teach you all of that. So you, you know, that's exactly what Bun said. That's, that's what showed, like, the and a lot of like.
Speaker 5:So there was a lot of companies that was around for a long time, like pizza spots and like, and they couldn't adapt because they were like I'm not getting on an Uber, I'm not doing deliveries, but then now that you need that, now you're trying to catch up and it's like it's too late because you're already behind the eights, too far gone Too far gone.
Speaker 4:Yep.
Speaker 3:That's how it was in the industry, though, like I was one of the first people from my generation to adapt to social media right To open up an Instagram account, to open up a Twitter account, to open up a Facebook account. The only person from the area that was even active in that space was chameleon, and we thought he was a little crazy because he was. He was trying not to live off of the system and the industry. He was trying to be more self-sustained, but he didn't make beats, so we didn't understand initially, but he was allowing the internet and social media to do a lot of the heavy lifting for him.
Speaker 3:you know what I'm saying, so I remember my first, my first time getting sponsored for a tour was for two trill. My second solo album, and we got sponsored by Microsoft. And Microsoft is like here here's a still camera, here's a video camera and here's a laptop. We have you an account on this thing called Facebook and just put all your pictures and all your videos up and then at night, just talk about what you did that day. And.
Speaker 3:I didn't get it Like it, like I didn't what they were trying to sell to me. I didn't. I didn't get it all like the idea. I'm very like. I'm not the dude that rides around listening to himself. You know, I'm saying I don't even like keeping music around because I feel like I get a lot of kids and people in and out of my car. I don't like having that type of intellectual property being available for people. So and I'm not facetious, I just want to hear myself and ride around with the windows down blasting me, type of thing. And so because of that, I was still so.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly so technically I was still three years behind technology, but actually five years ahead of my contemporaries.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can see that.
Speaker 3:And, to be fair, just like you said, by the time other guys caught up with it. You can see the gap. You know what I'm saying. You can see that, not a generational gap, but a cultural gap.
Speaker 3:A technology gap yeah, I'll tell you a funny story. I'm on the new Bryson Tiller album, right, and so I realized Bryson Tiller is a younger bass that he deals with. They're talking different. So I referred to Queenie as fine shit on the song, which is the new terminology for younger kids. That's what they call bad bitches, it's fine. Or a sexy man is fine shit. So I played it leaving the movie theater with my nieces and my grandkids in the car and they're listening to music and all that. I'm like, oh, here's a song I did with Bryson Tiller and they're listening. It's like fine shit. Oh, okay, Uncle Bud.
Speaker 3:I see you Like, they were like like, because typically I'm playing everything they say. But they heard me say fine shit. And they're like whoa, hold up, wait. Like where'd you learn that old man type of shit? You know what I'm saying and look, I can't wear the clothes right, I can't. I can't do other things that other artists can do, but every now and then I can put just enough in it to keep that divide as thin as possible.
Speaker 3:To where I'm not role playing, I'm not cosplaying or anything like that, but I know how to talk to people through music, you know.
Speaker 1:And that's what you do with food, my brother that's what you do with food.
Speaker 5:Yo, I signed Lil Jon and E-40 up for Myspace. We was in Vegas and I forgot that she passed away. The chick who used to work for MySpace, rona I think her name was Rona. She passed away recently but this was when they were going around and trying to like yo, you could get this MySpace page and you could put music up on a page and this and that there I signed up. I was in there signing up and then John came to the room. Little John came to the room. He's like what is MySpace and I'm like explaining to them what MySpace is. That was like the first social media.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely Maybe.
Speaker 3:Black Planet.
Speaker 5:But that wasn't for us Because at the time, facebook was like you had to be, you had to have like a college. It was a college thing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, a college thing.
Speaker 5:MySpace was like the first MySpace was Tom was everybody's first friend and I signed up. Yeah, I signed up to go to E40 the same night for MySpace.
Speaker 1:That's right, wow All right, chef, before we leave, you got to give us all the places that we can find you. You don't have to give us your MySpace account, but everywhere else. Give us where we can find you. You don't have to give us your MySpace account, but everywhere else. Give us where we can find you. Where can we find the?
Speaker 4:restaurant. Where can we find you? Are you a black panther?
Speaker 5:I'm trying to spy you, baby. So you can find us in the physical restaurant. You can find us at Miami, 1951 Northwest 7th Avenue, suite 190, right in the corner 7th and 20th. On Facebook, suite 190, right in the corner 7th and 20th. Um on facebook, um, instagram, facebook, uh, world famous house of mac. Um, and my personal joint on instagram is, uh, big teach 718. But I appreciate you guys, um, I appreciate the hospitality, I appreciate, appreciate you guys. You know taking the time I have to chop it up when you hear my story, bun, I appreciate you, I love you, man and um, you know anything y'all need from me on this end, man, man, I'm here.
Speaker 3:Only thing we need is that mac and cheese recipe.
Speaker 5:I'm kind of hungry right now. I ain't got a plate of check though.
Speaker 4:Give me a challenge. You got salt and pepper and what.
Speaker 3:That recipe again, All right folks, that's why Miami had the first stop.
Speaker 1:That is Chef Teach. And, man, I appreciate it, man, man, I appreciate it, man.
Speaker 3:It was good to get to know you, Absolutely Everybody you got to follow the show on Instagram at UnglossyPod.
Speaker 1:Subscribe to Unglossy on Apple Spotify. Wherever you listen to podcasts, leave us a comment on Instagram and spread the word Until next time. I'm Tom Frank. I'm Bun B. I'm Jeffrey Sledge. Follow the show on Instagram at UnglossyPod and leave us a comment. Subscribe to Unglossy on Apple Spotify, youtube or wherever you catch your podcasts. Unglossy is hosted by Bun B, jeffrey Sledge and Tom Frank. It is produced and distributed by Merrick Studios.
