Heroes in Business - Jeff Kennedy, CoFounder Moes Original BBQ, top 10 BBQ chain in America

Episode Date: October 21, 2022

Grow the right way. Jeff Kennedy, CoFounder Moes Original BBQ, top 10 BBQ chain in America is interviewed by David Cogan, famous host of Heroes Show, and founder of Eliances entrepreneur community.  

Up in the sky, look, it's captivating, it's energizing, it's Eliance's Heroes. Eliance's is the destination for entrepreneurs, investors, CEOs, inventors, leaders, celebrities and startups, where our heroes in business align. Now here's your host flying in, David Kogan, founder of Eliance's. That's right. And how many, how many interviewers do you have that can go ahead and just fly in? That's right. Because of the show, I'm able to fly. We're all heavily empowered ability to fly, even if it's in our mind, right? So super excited. Again. We've just got so many things going on this morning. I couldn't, there is no other place that I'd rather be right here. And by the way,

too, I need to share a secret. Nobody knows this really, except maybe some of my close family. Literally, I told my family, and this is before I even knew who I was going to be interviewing. I said, if there's one last meal that I may be able to have, one last meal, and that last meal, you know what that would be? That would be barbecue ribs. That's right. Out of all the things out there, that would be my last meal. I literally swear to you that that's the truth. And so with that, of course, too, and by the way, too, one more thing before we get started and I reveal who we have on today. Thank you for the past feedback we continue to get when I head on the inventor and co-founder of the iRobot and the Roomba. You know, the thing that does all the work for you cleaning.

Well, they've come out with much more. So make sure you check out past interviews by going to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. So with that, let's get started. Are you ready for this of who our next guest is? Jeff Kennedy, co-founder of Moe's Original Barbecue Sauce. Moe's Original Barbecue Sauce. And not only that, they're the top 10 barbecue chain in America, according to USA Today. And you can reach them, go to Moe'sOriginalBarbecue.com.

Jeff, welcome to the show. Thanks a lot for having me. This is great. I love the intro. Could you believe that? I'm not kidding you. I swear this is the last meal. So now they know who to contact to go ahead and serve me or get me the last meal. Get your last meal.

Yeah. So, Jeff, first of all, how long have you guys even been in business now? We've been going since 2001, so just a little over 20 years now. 20 years. And has the formula changed at all over the years of when it was first created? You know, it's been refined a little bit to meet the volume and demands of our client base, customer base. But, you know, all in all, it's really the same and demands of our client base, customer base. But, you know, all in all, it's really the same basic idea of taking very simple cuts of meat and fresh vegetables and produce and cooking them the right way and serving them and keeping it real simple and really just a very value-based comfort food

you know and it's alabama style barbecue right right we're all from we're all from north alabama so um so we like to we like to go with the bama style because i think carolina is in memphis and they all get their texas um so yeah ours is ours ours is Alabama style. So we use a dry rub on everything. One sauce, it's kind of middle of the road, not too heavy on the black pepper, but a little bit of a kick. And then we also do a white barbecue sauce, a mayonnaise base. Yeah, but you started in Colorado, right? Right.

My partner, Mike Fernandez, actually started in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I worked for him while I was in college. And then he went to culinary school in Vail. Johnson & Wales had a culinary institute out there. And so when I graduated, I moved straight to Vail. And we started working for other restaurants and realized there was no barbecue out in Colorado. And I put a horse trailer and converted it into a legal health department, legal kitchen, and went into my landlord's junkyard and found a

single wide mobile home trailer and a 500 gallon diesel barrel and turned that into our first pit, which we actually still use. It's kind of our favorite cooking vessel still to this day. Absolutely incredible. And again, you're the co-founder of Moe's Original Barbecue Top Ten Barbecue Chain. Like, that's huge. According to USA Today, like, that's phenomenal. So how did that, like, come to be? I mean, you have so many people that would, you know, top ten out of the gazillions that are out there. gazillions that are out there.

So we just started, you know, we just started cooking food in the parking lot with that trailer that we built. The first summer we sold out, we were open about 100 days and sold out every day mid afternoon, realized that maybe this was something that would work. So brought on a couple of our friends around town, started opening little brick and mortar spots, and then grew down to Orange Beach, Alabama with Mark White on our first one and kind of took off from there. And we really kind of we like to keep it what we call kind of an organic type of growth. what we call kind of an organic type of growth. We've really, we go into these towns and, and stores will be opened by employees who want to take it back to their college town or their hometown or their favorite resort town. And, and so we're really haven't been out on the,

the market looking to grow. We're just, we're just kind of going to take it. And so you talked about, you know, others and being involved. So at what point did you start to franchise? napkin deals written out and had no idea who got what at the end of the year or who owed or what the deal was so we decided we should probably put a little bit of structure behind it instead of just flying by the seat of our pants which is what we seem to do best so we we kind of went in and looked at the franchise model and decided that was the best template to use. And then we still kind of call it a franchise because we really don't want it. Barbecue should not be a cookie cutter. It really should, I don't know, in our minds, it really feel that that soul needs to show in every single restaurant and it needs to be different in every restaurant so

yeah so that's where we're at that's phenomenal so now how many locations do you have uh we have 55 55 fantastic and um and and what where are they around so um alabama and colorado are two hubs and and then we go primarily up the east coast from there, from Mississippi, Bama, Georgia, up the East Coast all the way to Maine. And then Colorado being our other hub and one out in Lake Tahoe, California, in Ohio and up in Portland, Maine. So, yeah, a lot of growth up that eastern seaboard. When are you going to come to Arizona and open up where we're headquartered out of? Well, I love Arizona. So you find an operator and I am there.

Producer Glue. Producer Glue. I think she'd be an awesome operator. Excellent, excellent. Again, you're watching, listening me, David Kogan, host of the Alliances Hero Show. Make sure that you go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. Why? Because it's the only place where entrepreneurs align. And we have with us Jeff Kennedy, co-founder of Moe's Original Barbecue, top 10 barbecue chain in America, according to USA Today.

And you can reach him at Moe's Original BBQ dot com. So, Jeff, when did you find out about this huge thing of USA Today? I mean, that's that's like big out of all the ones that are out there. What was it like? all the ones that are out there, what was it like? I mean, it's a huge compliment to us just to be acknowledged by anyone because we're just out in the restaurants trying to serve up some good comfort food and create relationships and just really do the best job we can. So to have anyone, especially a big name like USA Today,

to name you in a top 10 of anything is great for us. Now, with 55 locations, Jeff, how do you ensure kind of quality across all of them and that they'll be, you know, just be able to follow everything, the secret recipes and that whole thing, like you said, kind of putting almost their heart and soul into their food. Right. So, you know, in the past, we somewhat, we stay on the road a decent amount traveling around. I'm actually on a three-week road trip right now. I left Colorado and I'm in Greenville, South Carolina today working with the team. We just served up a couple good caterings for lunch and then did a great lunch service.

And just getting in there and working with the team. And, you know, I think just trying to exude the passion that we have for food cooked correctly and hospitality that welcomes anyone and everyone into the scene. So now I have gone out and hired, we have several traveling support folks who work for us from different areas and spend about 75% of their time on the road. And so, yeah, it's just kind of getting in and being a part of their operation. And we really just get in there this morning. I just came in and opened with them and we talked about the food on the pit. We talked about seasoning,

the different side items. We talked about the, you know, how do we hold food the best to keep it most consistent for a couple hours through the lunch service and just always, always creating an atmosphere of discussing food and how to the customer. And so it's just, it's a really food-based, food-centric brand. It's really based all on that food, our passion to our partners and their employees around the country. What do you have to say for the young adults out there that, you know, they find this to be glamorous? It's that perception of owning your own restaurant, owning your own place. Right. And the glamorous, you know, open the doors and the people shall come. What kind of secrets, though, can you share about really what it takes to be owner, operator, be involved within the business, and also, too, is just following

the quality of what you provide. It really takes passion. We've been talking about this the last couple of days with the teams that I'm spending time with. Everyone, I think, encountered their own set of hurdles through the years. And so I think what we're realizing now is that, of course, it takes the hard work and probably harder work going into a business. Anyone who owns a business knows that it is harder than you could ever imagine until you just open the doors and start doing it. But really, it's the passion because if you don't just absolutely love the idea of cooking and welcoming people into your home for a great cooked meal and genuine hospitality all day, every day. Excellent. Well, Jeff, you definitely have the passion and I definitely have a passion. So we're a match here. You found your passion, created something special with your partner in Moe's Original Barbecue rated at the top 10 barbecue chain by USA Today.

Jeff Kennedy, co-founder of Moe's Original Barbecue. You can reach him at Moe's Original BBQ. or, of course, go visit his places, right? Colorado, Alabama, and soon, hopefully, Arizona. Arizona. Who knows, right? I hope. With that, again, that's a hero. This has been David Kogan with the Alliance's Hero Show.

Make sure you go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. Check this out. Have a student week. Thanks, David.