The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Valley Mobley And Nicholas Ross & Tamara Rykal Joined Alex Urpí & Xavier Urpí On "Today y Mañana!"

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

Valley Mobley of The Yellow Mug and Nicholas Ross & Tamara Rykal of Pit & Pastry joined Alex Urpí & Xavier Urpí On “Today y Mañana!” “Today y Mañana” airs every Thursday at 10:15 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Today y Mañana” is presented by Emergent Financial Services, LLC, Craddock Insurance Services Inc, Charlottesville Opera and Matthias John Realty, with Forward Adelante.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Today y Mañana. I'm Alex. this is Xavier. We're very excited to have you joining us on a chilly and definitely fall, wintry morning here in Charles, Virginia. Yeah, it feels almost a little wintry. I know, it really does. Wait till the rain comes. Then you're really going to be, trust me, if you're not already feeling like you need to be inside with your café con leche, you will be feeling that way about three hours when the rain starts.

Maybe even dos café con leches. with your café con leche, you will be feeling that way about three hours. Maybe even dos café con leches. Maybe two café con leches. Yeah, exactly. As many as it takes. We do not judge how many coffees you require on today, mañana. We comprehend it completely. That's right, exactly. So good to be on here with Xavier.

Same here. It's always enjoyable. Great to be on here with Xavier, I have to admit, yes. It would be tough for you to be on here with Xavier. Same here. It's always enjoyable. Great to be on here with Xavier, I have to admit, yes. It would be tough for you to be on here without Xavier. Exactly. That would be a challenge. That would be really tough. That would be definitely tough.

But good to be here. Of course, love being on the Out of Seville Network set. Love being presented by Emergent Financial Services and working with our fantastic partners at Credit, Sirius Insurance, Mattias Yon Realty, Charlottesville Opera, Forward Adelante. financial services and working with our fantastic partners at credit serious insurance matthias yone realty charlottesville opera forward adelante and thank you all for for tuning in this morning always appreciate our fantastic viewers we have a great show lined up for you we're going to be joined shortly by valley mobley owner of the yellow mug and then later in the show by nick and

nick ross and tammy reitle the owners of Pit and Pastry. So we've got a great show lined up for everyone this morning. Already got some people liking the show. Carla Giacovino, Kim Heddy, thanks for liking the show. I didn't even have to say don't forget to like and share. They're already doing it. They don't even need it anymore. They're ahead of you. All right.

I like that. Actually, they reminded me I'm supposed to say that. As soon as you said that, I said, hey, that's my line. That's the only line I'm supposed to remember. Like to share. The audience spared you. Exactly. They liked to share what you were telling them.

Monica Miller from Montana is joining us this morning. Thank you for tuning in. One of our favorite viewers. And, of course, Dr. Elizabeth Erpe viewing this morning. She loves her favorite podcast host. That is me. Every time that's said, someone jumps in and says, either you or Michael.

Both of you have jumped in and said, that's me. We have the same kind of sense of humor, I guess. I think you do. I think you do. So yeah, the last week or two weeks ago, I was on with Michael and he goes, oh, thank you, Elizabeth. I know you meant me.

And I said, said okay nice try but we love all our viewers we love everyone for tuning in got a great show lined up don't know about you but I'm ready to jump right in yeah sure why not and then later on yeah we do have a lot of financing to do

it's been a very interesting week already it has it has been an interesting week in the finance world so we'll try to bring you up to speed maybe pick Xavier's brain a very interesting week already. It has. It has been an interesting week in the finance world. So we'll try to bring you up to speed, maybe pick Xavier's brain a little bit. Just a little. Just a little. Just a little. See what's in there. Find out. So we're excited to jump into today's show.

And welcome this morning, Valli Mobley. She is the owner of The Yellow Mug. Valli, thanks so much for coming on this morning. Good morning. Yeah, absolutely. Good morning. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. It is a pleasure. So for those who haven't met you yet, maybe tell us a little bit about your stuff and how you decided to start the Yellow Mug. And why Yellow Mug?

Yeah, sure. That is always the question. Ugly mug. Why yellow? That's right. So my name is Valley Mobley. I've been living in Virginia since 2020. And so when I first moved up here, I started working in Crozet at a place called Greenhouse Coffee. Through that relationship with that owner, she kind of found out I was, you know, throwing around the idea of a coffee shop myself. And that seed was planted in me at like 17 years of age at a local coffee shop in the town I grew up. And during the pandemic, it was a really hard time for the owner of the greenhouse. And she was also into nursing. And just over that time, she just was feeling too overwhelmed with that job. And so she decided to shut down her place, and we had a conversation where she was like,

if you would like to take this on as whatever you want it to be, you're welcome to do that. And in that moment, I knew that this was my opportunity, and this was the time. And so that's how I ended up in Crozet specifically. I, why the yellow mug? So years ago when I moved away from home, my mother has this specific yellow mug

at the house I grew up in. And for some reason, I always drink out of that mug. Even when I go back. She always makes sure it's, like, clean or this particular hook. And so a yellow mug means home to me, and I want to give a piece of that to the people that come into my shop.

How often does that happen, though, right? It's true, because it's like you, there's always that one mug of coffee, right, that you use every day. And then it becomes that comfort of you take that mug. And even if you're not drinking coffee, whatever you drink out of the mug just makes you feel good. That's right. There's meaning behind it.

That's right. It's like it's your mug. And, right, there's, you know, people come. It's like, don't touch that mug. That's mine. That was mine. I remember my aunt's house. Well, first it was not my aunt's house well first it was not Nona's house she had those

the reindeer mugs one was Dash one was Dan and it didn't matter what time of year would I go there, go for the reindeer mud and just have it and I don't know why but I'm back visiting

this is my mud when I come here. That's awesome. You try to get that feeling for people who come in. And even people that come in my shop, you start to hear, this is my favorite mug. Because we have a plethora of yellow mugs of all kinds. And so you start to hear different customers be like, oh, I love when I get this mug. And so you try to replicate that for them.

Oh, that's awesome. That's great, yeah. That's fantastic. So what are some of the things people find there? Is it all different types of coffee, other things? Yeah, so we have a variety of coffee, and it comes from a small roaster, a friend of mine, actually. He roasts out of just a shed at his house,

and he sells online. It's called The Coffee Corner. I'm the only physical coffee shop that he sells to. He sells to one little trailer in North Carolina as well. He's got a great product.

His stuff is fair trade and it's really well resourced. You can find that there. And we also get pastries from Albemarle Baking Company. The people in Crozet really like them being brought a little closer to them. Yes. And lots of friendly faces and good conversation.

So that's what we're all about. It's just we want to bring a sense of just joy to people's day. You know what's nice about coffee shops? I mean, at least this is what I find. If you're meeting somebody, and whether it be a friend or clients or whatever it is, right, there's a sense, there's a more quiet, slightly quiet environment

where you're just sharing something very simple, right? Like a little piece of pastry, a coffee. Because sometimes, like, when you go to a dinner place, there's nothing wrong, but you go to dinner places, there's a lot going on, right? It's like, what do I get for dinner? What's going on? What do I drink? And so there's more going on.

But there, it's pretty much, it's simplistic. It's like, okay, what kind of coffee do I like? What do I want in my coffee? And a piece of pastry. And you sit back, relax, and you chat and you talk. And I think that's the homey thing, right? It's like you feel almost at home, only you're with a friend or with a client or whomever, right? And that's something that's really important to me as well,

is just that creating a space for people to come and slow down for a minute. We don't have a whole lot of those spaces anymore of just somewhere to sit and slow down for a minute. We don't have a whole lot of those spaces anymore of just somewhere to sit, slow down, have a good conversation, and hopefully have a better day after that than they were having when they came. True, true. It is so important because it's the world we live in

just kind of wants to rush you from one place to the next and drive-thrus and things like that. But a coffee shop is meant to be that you go in. because it's the world we live in just kind of wants to rush you from one place to the next and drive-thrus and things like that. But a coffee shop is meant to be that you go in. Sometimes, yeah, you've got no choice but to grab and go, but to come in and sit and relax and enjoy a face-to-face conversation with someone that maybe you haven't been able to hang out with in a while or someone that it's routine. It's like a way to keep in touch.

That's right. I mean, some places, yeah, without a doubt, it's like you just feel like you just go in and out, you know, because you just want a coffee. But there are other places where they just feel very inviting, right? So you know you're going there specifically not just to get a cup of coffee and go, but to get a cup of coffee and stay. And sometimes even if it's by yourself, you know, you just want to read

something quietly. It's like, you know, instead of sitting in your car, you just go there, have a cup of coffee, read what you need to read, a piece of research or something fun. You know, research is fun for me, but for some other people, it's like, what is he reading? So I think, you know, those are the kind of places that I think are wonderful, right, and great to have in every community. Yeah, I agree. Yes. So, Valerie, what's it been like being like an entrepreneur, like having your own business? Sure, sure. It's by far the hardest thing I've ever done. I can say that hands down. But I think that's one of the cool things about life is the harder you push yourself, the harder something is.

There's often an equal level of return. It's equally as rewarding. And I know that's not necessarily why I went into it for the reward but it's what keeps you going because you know what you're providing is worthwhile it's it's something that's needed um and yeah at the end of the day when I think of the community that's being built the conversations that are being had the the conversations that are being had, the people that come in and just want human connection. It's the people every time at the end of the day that keep me going.

And honestly, I enjoy that. I really do. Yeah. And how true. I remember once when I was in New York, we had a person come in and kind of help you, right, try to figure out kind of what are your goals, what are your expectations, right? And, again, this was from a business perspective.

However, for some reason, this always stuck to my mind, right? So they mentioned you've got to create goals, right? But your goals also have to be such that they're somewhat achievable. You don't want to make a goal so easy that you succeed and it's like, oh, yeah, well, that was easy, right? You want to make it such that there's a challenge there. But don't make it so hard that you never get there and then you start being depressed and it's like I can never make it. But you have to make it challenging enough that when you get there, you feel good about yourself, right? And owning your own business is a little bit of that. In other words, you know, it's your business, as we talked a little before.

You have to deal with everything. If the internet goes down, if electricity for some reason goes down, or if the coffee machine breaks, it's on you, right? It's like you have to fix it. You can't just call the boss and say, hey, this is not working. on you, right? It's like you have to fix it. You can't just call the boss and say, hey, this is not working. So there's those challenges that come to own your own business. But on the other side, as you said, you know, all of a sudden you see your kind of little dream accomplishing what you want it to do, right? And I think that's the best part of owning your own business is that when you when you achieve that little goal you really feel good that's right yeah and I and I

learned so much and I feel like I have learned so much in the last two years and it makes me excited to see what I can learn from here going forward no it is I mean when you're when you're an entrepreneur right like I remember when when when we when we started our business you you know, you did decide to do the thing which your business is about. So it's like in your case, you know, oh, yeah, I get to make the coffee and enjoy that, watch the people and have them do their favorite mod. And I would say, no, yeah, I get to write the research and sell it and do this. And then you get into the business, right? Oh, man, there's all this other stuff that I have to do, which isn't the thing that my business actually does, but I actually have to do also. But the fun part is you kind of learn how to do that. Yes, that's right. And just, there's something about settling into,

settling into realizing, you know, work is no longer a nine to five. It's kind of a 24 to seven. And figuring out how to do that well, a good life work balance, is a big, big challenge for sure. Are you open every day? We're open six days a week, Monday through Saturday. Okay, so you're closed on what day? Sunday. Sunday, okay. No, I didn't hear the first part. I said I think I missed a word.

Okay, okay. Yeah, so that's good. So at least you do have one day off where you yourself can sit back and enjoy a cup of coffee. That's right. Yes. It is important because I think that one of the beauties of entrepreneurship is you have that additional flexibility. I mean, you decide how much. But the flip side is you do work more.

Yeah, you carry that burden, whether you're actually making the coffee or serving the people that day. It's, you know, what should I be doing to help my people be able to do that well? Exactly, exactly. Shout out to Vanessa Parkhill, tuning in this morning.

Thanks for watching the show love our fantastic repeat viewers where do you kind of see you mentioned learning to see where you can take the next where do you kind of see the yellow mud being or becoming sure like I don't know

do we want to talk wildest dreams go wherever you want exactly I would love to okay so in on the west coast there's like these little tiny pop-up coffee places everywhere i don't know if you've seen that or been able to experience it but i would love for the ellamug to have its its home base you base where it is, but also have these little pop-up venues so that it can be, I mean, maybe not necessarily a full-on other shop, but little pieces of it,

even if it's a little drive-thru here and there. So that's kind of the dream. But yeah, we'll see. We'll see how that goes. It's awesome to have that. I remember when we had Jeff from Octocebo Handtowel Workshop, and he was like,

you've got to think, we'd asked him what his advice was or something, and he was like, as the owner of the business, you've got to start thinking about where you want the business to grow, what you're doing to grow, and your mind starts to move out of the day-to-day into the explore phase.

And he says that's when like he knew he was like, I'm an entrepreneur. I'm starting to like no longer think about how my hand car wash operates day-to-day. And I'm starting to think like, what about this? And what if I do that? And what if there's another location here and you start to really explore that and you said that was a fantastic feeling yeah and it's exciting and just the the reach you can have once you start letting your mind go into that world it's like the sky's the limit let's go absolutely that's true that's fantastic well we will be wishing you the best on that. And we know we'll have you packed with that app one day. We'll be driving somewhere.

It's like, look at that, the yellow mug. There's a little blip of yellow over there. There's another yellow. Well, Valerie, this has been such a pleasure. If people want to learn more, where can they find you either, you know, both physically and anywhere else? Sure. So our physical location is in Crozet, just by the only little gas station that's in Crozet at the main intersection.

We're at a little, the house is green. It's just an old house. They can find us there, and you can also find us on Instagram and Facebook at Yellow Mug Coffee. Okay, perfect. Yellow Mug Coffee. Yellow Mug Coffee.

Yeah, the beautiful part about Crozet is if you're on the intersection, you can't miss anything. Go right there, there's a four-way stop. That's right. And everything's there. And everything's there. Don't blink, you'll miss it.

Well, thank you so much, Valerie, for coming on. Thank you. I appreciate your time. Good luck. Thank you. That was fantastic. You can't miss it at Crozet and then Yellow Mud. Yeah, the Yellow Mud. So be sure to check it out, especially. Thank you. That was fantastic. You can't miss it at Crozet and then Yellow Monk.

Yeah, Yellow Monk. So be sure to check it out, especially, I mean, if you're, I know we, you know, I know sometimes we have viewers at Crozet. I mean, if you're at Crozet and you're like, oh, man, where do I watch the rest of the show? Just take a little drive, get your coffee, and you can watch the rest of Today and Mañana. There you go. Yeah, try it quickly now. It's a fantastic place to do it. Yeah, you can do it. You can do it. You can make it. In Crozet, everything's five minutes away. There you go. It's a fantastic place to do it. Yeah, you can do it. You can do it. You can make it.

In Crozet, everything's five minutes away. That's true. So you have that underpass. There's the train. Well, there's the four-way intersection. Then there's the train underpass and the stoplight. And so the four-way intersection

has the gas station. Okay. Then the other little area, the Crozet Pizza is on. And the ballet place? And the ballet place, and Alvore Ballet. Then the other side is the train thing, and then the other side is the other side of the train tracks,

which goes in that direction. Okay, so where that gas station is, that's where... Over there, there's the little green building. Okay, okay. I've got to take a look at that green building. And then there's the yellow mug. I mean, the only time I pass when I'm going to your house, I'm just going...

So, yeah, you can slow down. I'm going to have to slow down. Well, I slowed down anyway. You can't go very fast. You've got to slow down. It's like a light that stops time. Yeah, you've got to embrace the slow down and find the green house,

and inside you'll find the yellow mug. There you go. So there you have it. There you have it. And so from one great guest to another two, we are excited to welcome to the show Nick Ross and Tammy Reitel, the owners of Pit and Pastry.

Nick, Tammy, thanks so much for coming on today. Good morning. Thanks so much. I know. Am I right understanding from Nick that you are brother-sister duo? Yes. Okay, so we got the team.

So Xavier's my dad, and Nick, who's been communicating with all the guests, is my brother. So we know a little bit about the family duo, so I was excited when I read them, like, yes, another family team making the dream. So maybe to start us off, tell us

a little bit about yourselves, and how you first maybe started becoming interested in baking and and barbecue how that kind of culinary journey began and then you can get into how you decided to team up for fit and pastry so I've been baking probably since I could you know open the oven myself so uh yeah cookies have always been like a big part of our family and I've enjoyed making them. And then I would say pre COVID, I really started doing a lot more baking for my friends and family. Um, so that's kind of where I went. Uh, for me, I started in 2010,

uh, out in Kentucky. My dad did a, uh, pork butt, or one day, and I ate it. It was good, but I was like, you know, it's kind of fun watching him try and stoke a fire and maintain the heat the whole time. I wonder if I can do that, so I picked up a Weber kettle grill one day and just started going off, and that's where I've been learning how to smoke and now I've got this huge cabinet smoker on a trailer out in Scottsville so wow yeah and then um right right as COVID was happening um Nick was out in Kentucky and I was here in Charlottesville and I think he he had just been kind of just got furloughed yeah and so we started texting each other like wouldn't it be kind of neat if we did something together and I think he had just been kind of got furloughed yeah and so we started texting each other like wouldn't be kind of neat if we did something together and

I think it kind of started as like a joke like that would be kind of cool and then just ideas kept coming to us so we started texting more and more and then we figured out how to get him a job here in Charlottesville and then from there we really just started collaborating and we got admitted into the CIC program here. Yes. And so that was really the thing that kick-started us. We got into that, found out we were on the same page on pretty much everything, and then really just went from there.

They really gave us the launch that we needed. What was that experience like? Were big fans of the program? Yeah, absolutely. In part because we already were, but then so many people that have come on the show have been through that program. What was it kind of like?

What did you learn from it or take from it? So when we first started, we were kind of, it felt like it wasn't for us. We were kind of struggling a little bit to, like, how does this pertain to what we're doing? The examples that we give. We're for, like, product sales. Yeah.

Like clothing and things like that. So it was tough to figure out how it fit with our food business idea. And then they set us up in groups. And the group advisor that we had was able to turn it around and be like well if this works for this you can do this and the way that she was able to explain it to it just kind of clicked and then we started really understanding the program um they helped us uh get a rough draft of a business plan um and that's kind of their goal is to help you get that rough draft of a business plan and then kind of help you look into different areas on

how to start growing your business which is yeah there's a really good program I recommend it really opens the doors to some other great products provided by the SBDC, the Small Business Development Center. Yep. And then through CIC themselves. Yeah, and not only that, they gave us a micro grant when we first started. And so that helped us buy the supplies that we needed initially. Yeah. And then we started at the farmer's market, and they started a program that helped pay the fees to get into the farmer's market.

So that really helped out in the beginning too. Absolutely, yeah, to kind of get yourselves out there. Exactly, yeah, get people to know you. Seeing you smell, or in this case maybe smelling some of that barbecue, and that's awesome. So what are some of the dishes you guys have? I mean, just from the Facebook page alone, there was a recent picture of some like some giant gorgeous looking brisket or something out there. So I'm guessing that might be

one of them. I've kind of figured out how to do a seven hour brisket. That one was a little challenge just because I had to pre-order a lot of my stuff ahead of time and then cook it the day of.

I get stuff from Sam's Club right now. We're looking for a local vendor for meat. Brisket, that's been my favorite challenge right now. I also do pulled pork, chicken. I make my own dry rub and sauces. I'm not really outsourcing a whole lot. I also do pulled pork, chicken. I make my own dry rub and sauces. Oh, man. So I'm not really outsourcing a whole lot. We have a lot of people ask about the pastry portion.

We've kind of backed away from that until we get our own kitchen. It's a little bit difficult to combine the two right now. But I think eventually when we do have our own kitchen, we'll start doing things like barbecue hand pies and things like that. Oh, I got you. Like the savory barbecue, like the combined pastry stuff. Yes. Are there some sweets and other things there, or is it mostly barbecue right now?

Right now, it's mostly barbecue. When we do special events, I do make cookies for different events, and those are pretty popular. But, yeah, right now at the market, we're just barbecue. Our last event we did was the Best of Seville. We portioned everything, about 250 people. There were supposed to be four different

food vendors. We sold out in 45 minutes. Wow. Holy cow. Were you cooking on premises there? Did you have to smoke? we sold out in 45 minutes. Wow. Holy cow. That's telling you something. Now, were you cooking on premises there? Did you have to smoke or come? I already smoked it ahead of time and then brought it in the hot box.

Yeah, because it takes too long. I mean, seven hours you can be sitting there. You'd be sitting during the night waiting for it. Setting up the previous morning. And so when you smoke something for seven hours, is there like a temperature that it has to be on that you have to follow? I mean, I know nothing about smoking, so I might be asking dumb questions. No, no, no, no.

Those are dumb questions for smoking. It's all, I do it all by look and feel. It's, I feel like meat can only take on so much smoke. So I'll put the, I'll throw everything in the smoker and start it all at the same time. I try to get the temperature up to about 225. Okay. And then I'll let it sit there, constantly putting more wood in every hour, 45 minutes to an hour, making sure my temp stays to about 225.

Okay. Meat can really only take on about four hours of smoke. Anything past that, I feel like it starts getting really charcoal or bitter. So usually about after four hours, that's when I go ahead and start wrapping everything. Because I only have about seven hours to be at the smoker, I use foil. That's what they call it, the Texas crutch. Texas crutch. And so I foil wrap everything.

That more puts it in its own little oven. And so it bakes and cooks down a little faster. It breaks the cartilage. I can't speak today. It breaks down some of the cartilage. Oh, okay, yeah, yeah. It makes it more stringy. Okay, so after four hours of smoking, you cover it up,

and so that heat that stays, obviously, also in the foil continues to cook the meat slowly. Right, and the meat's also releasing its own juices, so then it's kind of braising in its own juice. Yeah, yeah. I think that's what makes my barbecue a little different. Okay. I don't add – when I first started, I used to add beer, but then that cuts out a lot of people with half – they can't eat your food anymore due to like gluten allergy.

So I've cut out beer completely and I just let it sit in its own juice and it braises in its own juice. Oh, very nice. Very nice. So what's happened the last hours is it's no longer absorbing the smoke because it's kind of wrapped in its own... Right, now it's just a glorified oven. Oh, okay. I didn't know about that part.

I didn't know that you actually at some point have to kind of like... You can't just smoke it for the whole time. Now there's certain meats like brisket, you can leave it and let it go the whole time. You can do it with pork. I just, for me, I think after four hours, you're just not really adding anything.

Yeah, at that point. And do you cook multiple things at the same time? I mean, can you cook a brisket with pork? I mean, I assume chicken, no. I have a really big cabinet smoker uh i got custom made from uh sling and steel out of kentucky um so it's i have two different doors compartments and i have a hot box on the back so i'll put uh beef and pork on my left side of my smoker and then all my poultry will go on the right side so that if people have

alpha gal or any other food allergies they don't touch it's my way of trying to limit uh cross-contamination exactly and then uh anything else that i need to smoke like i do a smoked mac and cheese i put that i put that in the back above the fire box, in my hot box. So you cook the mac and cheese first and then put it in there? I mean, the pasta, do you cook the pasta first? It's a dump recipe. I just throw everything in a pan, throw it in the smoker. And the holding toots in the smoker. Oh, man, that's got to be good. Really? And the pasta's raw when you put it in there?

Yeah. And it just cooks? Wow, so you don't even need water. Or you put some water in there? It's a lot of milk and dairy. Okay. Oh, man. That's got to be good. A smoked mac and cheese. Is that a fan favorite? We usually sell out on that one.

What would you say it's been like for you guys? Because obviously, yeah, you got the part where you're out there, you're cooking, you're making the barbecues. What's it been like, kind of like we asked Valerie, to be entrepreneurs now? To be on that side of things? It's definitely

a lot. We both still have our day jobs. So it's trying to find the balance and make time to really prioritize our business is definitely a challenge. But I think we're doing pretty well where we've kind of, we would like to do more events. So hopefully as time progresses, we can kind of cut back on our day jobs a little bit and focus more on the business. But I would say for,

for me, that's the biggest challenge. Um, it's also kind of nice to, um, watch my brother really in his element. Like he he's at the market talking to people and making these dishes and seeing people enjoy them is honestly kind of fun for me. Yeah, that's the same. Just being able to watch people enjoy what I create is always what I enjoy about the culinary art. Yeah, with doing our day job still, and then, like, Tuesday is my day.

Like, I'm not doing anything. I'm staying home. I'm not going anywhere. But usually, even on my days off, it's a 24-hour job, so I'm always researching, always trying to figure out, oh, how do i get these

labels created so i can actually start selling my sauce or and that's that's a whole other process absolutely how many sauces do you make uh so right now i have five but we only sell three or we're not sell but we we only have three at the market. I do a Kansas City style barbecue sauce, which is like your generic tomato based sauce, molasses, brown sugar. Then I make a vinegar sauce, which is not traditional, because that is where I put beer in the vinegar sauce. I use Juicy Magic from Devil's Backbone. So it imparts some fruity flavors to the vinegar.

Yeah. And then I also make an Alabama white sauce. White sauce? It's a mayonnaise-based sauce. That one has taken me about three years to get balanced, like just properly, where I can just throw it together with my eyes closed. That's interesting. balanced, like just properly where I can just throw it together with my eyes closed. That's interesting.

You don't often find, at least in your base, when you go to a lot of barbecue restaurants, you don't often find the white sauce. Probably because it's hard to do. Probably, yeah. No, it's pretty easy. You're supposed to say it's very hard to do. Well, maybe it's easy to do, but it's hard to get it right. It would take him three years. Three years to say it's very hard. Well, maybe it's easy to do, but it's hard to get it right. It would take him three years. Three years to get it perfect.

Even if you could, in theory, make it with the trouble ingredients. I have a friend that I call him a connoisseur of barbecue. And his theory is that you know a great barbecue place, as opposed to anything else, if they have more than one type of sauce. He's like, you've got to have – if the guy knows how to make multiple sauces, he's like, that's when I really like this place. I'm like, all right, you do. I'm on the fence for good barbecue doesn't need sauce. Doesn't need sauce.

Because you just want to taste the meat. Yeah. And then the sauce will overpower the meat. I'm kind of a dry person myself. They always make fun of me. I enjoy the flavor of the meat. When a brisket is perfect and moist and fatty, I want to taste that fat.

I don't need anything else. I literally want to taste the fat. I don't need anything else. I literally want to taste the fat. It's the best part for me. So we're on the same page there. But that is fantastic. I have a question for Tammy. So you're the baker, but at this point there's not much baking going on yet. So do you help?

Yes. I'm just trying to see here. I mean, this is the brother's sister. This is the brother's sister. Wait a minute. Lighten it around. So, yeah, we, you know, as an entrepreneur, you always got to wear multiple hats.

So I always laugh that I'm the admin and Nick is the talent. And so I do a lot of the paperwork, and I do, you know, when we're at the market, I do the kind of the paperwork, and I do, you know, when we're at the market, I do kind of the front interfacing part. I take all the orders and hand all the orders out. We also have our mom works with us. She helps us with our accounting, and then my 16-year-old son helps in the serving part. So it really is a family business. And then someday when you're baking, then Nick is going to

do the admin a little bit. He's got a share. He'll take on a bigger share. We'll put my son more to work in the kitchen. It's awesome family business. Especially when you get along, you're on the same page. It's an awesome thing.

We've got audience member Kevin Hedin says, if Nigel has spent three years to perfect a sauce he's exactly where I want to get barbecue from. And he wants to know if you have any tips for cooking brisket. Apparently he's tried it like two dozen times and has not quite gotten it right yet.

He's done the wrap cooler. Is it the hardest to smoke or has he just lost? Brisket's a challenging meat. So the process I've figured out for me, again, I'll throw it on the rack after I rub it with whatever spices. I'll cook it for four hours and then I'll wrap it for the last three. Sometimes I'll add like beef stock and let it braise in the beef stock as well.

But brisket's one of those, it's low and slow. It does its own thing. Once it hits a certain point, it's called the stall, and it's going to stay at that temperature, but you're just going to keep pushing at it, and eventually it'll break and keep continuing up to, like, 206, I think, is what you want it to to keep pushing at it and eventually it'll break and keep continuing up to like 206 i think is what you want it to finish at got it so okay so that's the trick so don't give up if it stalls essentially right if it's stall and you got to just keep going yeah because at

some point it it starts heating up more yeah okay uh well now at the same time, it must be hard, though. It must be a little hard because, I mean, I've got a Weber, right? I'm a Weber. It's a charcoal Weber. It's about 20 years old, so there's a lot of, you know, heat that escapes from different places. So it's not as when it was new where you could really control the heat, right? But it's very hard for me to get that heat at like 200 or like you say 225. There's just no way I'm going to be able to do that

unless I stay there like the whole time. It's like, who would throw another piece? You do have to kind of watch it the whole time. He must have a... I'm sure his thing is bigger and more professional, so it probably holds that heat a little more constant. Is that right?

Or are you checking every five minutes? It does hold the heat pretty well. When I'm at the smoker, really the most time I'm just hanging out in the truck. Okay. And I'll throw wood in about every hour, 45 minutes to an hour. And the wood I use right now is white oak. Because it takes a lot longer for white oak to burn. It's a harder wood.

Yeah, it's a harder wood, so it maintains more even burning throughout the whole process. It doesn't flare up. No. Yeah. That's probably my problem. That might be your problem. I've got to get some white oak. Get some white oak, yeah.

Kevin Higgins is funny. I'm just going to buy brisket from Nittles. That just sounded like my being on a commercial airline than being asked to land the plane. I've always gotten brisket at the fries market. So yeah, you're safe with Nick. It's really the same way to Nick. The same way to go. The same way to go and do that. So this has been a lot of fun.

I know you two probably talked for hours on barbecue. Yeah, no, I mean, I barbecue and sometimes it comes out okay, sometimes not okay, but I just, first of all, I love being outdoors. So the idea of, like, my wife says, you want a barbecue?

Yeah, no problem, because I'm outside, right? So whether it's meat or chicken or sausage or whatever, the only time it's a challenge is like sometimes we have company. And, you know, then there's sausage, hamburgers, meat, you know, chicken, and it's all like, this is going too fast, that's going too slow, and I'm going crazy. And it's like, oh, going too fast that's going too slow and i'm going crazy and it's like oh man that was burnt who cares it's still all good if it's barbecue that's why someone enjoys it barbecue exactly that's what i always say exactly it's always delicious

it's one of the best things out there and then it sounds like you guys are one of the best things out there so where can people i mean i guess one of the best things out there. So where can people, I mean, I guess physically, is it still going to be the Seafield Farmer's Market? Yep. So we're in the Seafield Farmer's Market every Saturday morning from 9 to 1. This is the market on Water Street. Okay. I was going to ask, is that your market?

Okay. But we're also going to be at the Tree Elimination this year on the downtown mall. Oh, okay. What day is it? It's the first Friday in December, I think. Let's see. We can get that date for everyone. Yeah, I should have the date.

And then as far as online following you guys, seeing what you're up to, where should people go for that? So we're on Instagram and Facebook at Pit and Pastry. Okay, Facebook and Instagram, Pit and Pastry. Grand Illumination, uh Friday December 6th so man that's yeah I mean it's only like three weeks three weeks away so it's crazy Friday December 6th you're gonna be out there you're gonna be cold you're gonna want some barbecue that's right you should go find that pastry but until I bet you some I bet you one of the sauces

is hot is that true is one of the sauces? I don't really have a spicy sauce. Oh, you've got to work on that so that on December 6th, if you're cold, you get the little spicy sauce. Just kidding. Just kidding. Yeah, remember, if that makes you sweat, you're going to get cold faster. All right. All right. No spicy sauce then.

I don't want to sweat. There are peppers in my smoked mac and cheese. That will heat you up a little bit. There you go. Okay. Maybe we can break out the spicy Coca-Cola sauce again. Maybe. Stay tuned.

Stay tuned. This has been awesome. So awesome to have you guys on. Love what you're doing. Absolutely. Be sure to check them out every Saturday at the Shawartsville Farmers Market. The City Market. The Water Street Market. And then look for them at the Grand Illumination

on December 6th. Absolutely. So good to have you guys on. Thank you so much. I am really hungry. I warned you. Yeah, I know. That was probably going to happen. I'm feeling it myself. Where's that brush getting at? Well, to be honest with you, that's what

started describing the smoked mac and cheese. Yeah. Oh, no, really? Yeah, you mac and cheese. Yeah. Oh, no, really? Yeah, you have mac and cheese or match made in heaven. I know. Tell me about it. Tell me about it. But so thanks, Kevin Higgins,

for the awesome comments and questions. Thank you, Udromana de Drossin-Angeli Washington. She's the mom of Claudia Cruz, Dulce de Leche. Oh, the Dulce de Leche. So we always love, muchisimas gracias,

Udromana, for watching. Nothing like that. You have some barbecue, and then you have some Dulce de leche. Oh, the dulce de leche. So we always love, muchisimas gracias. Nothing like that. You have some barbecue, and then you have some dulce de leche. How can you go wrong? How can you go wrong? Actually, you know the problem with us, Alex, though? It's like, if it's food, we seem to like it, right? Is there anything wrong with that? There's not much we don't like when it comes to food, right?

Exactly. But we're in the right place for it. There's so much we don't like when it comes to food. Exactly. But we're in the right place for it. There's so many great food entrepreneurs in Charlottesville and just learning new ways and helping, you know, creating great businesses with the help of like CIC and SBDC. So be sure to check them out too. I mean, literally we were in New York and for some reason we got to talk a little bit about Charlottesville.

And I said, you know, it's amazing because obviously New York has a zillion restaurants, right? But I said, it's just amazing that Charlottesville, being small compared to New York, obviously, right? It has so many different type of restaurants, you know, and different type of foods that you really, you know, it's not like,, I've got to go to New York to get this or that. You really don't have to anymore because it's just a lot here. And good, it's good. Exactly. High quality and really so much variety. So we're lucky.

We're very fortunate, yeah. So there's no shortage of places to check out. That's why we have this, that's why the show's been running for. That's why everybody loves Seville. Yeah, for... That's why everybody loves Seville. Yeah, exactly. If somebody makes fun of me, I think it should be Seville. Oh, Seville, okay.

You know why you say Seville? Because deep in your mind, Seville is the city in Spain. So your mind wants to say Sevilla. And when you say Seville, that's what it is. It's subliminal. That's not a bad place.

No, it's a beautiful place. Also, it's also a beautiful place. And of course, one of the beautiful things of having you on is after a long break a little bit, we get to do some finance topics. That's right. You and I haven't had an opportunity. You and I haven't done one. I've done a couple with Mike. You've probably done one with Michael. I've done a couple with Mike. You probably know him.

I did a little bit with Mike last week. And now we've got some finance topics. It's definitely been crazy. We have a lot of people asking what's going on, what's the bottom line. Everybody's just calling and finding out what our thoughts are, what's going on. I always find it amazing. It pretty much happens almost every presidential election, right? So you get the, you know, whether it's a – if it's – typically it's when the change happens, really, more than if it's the same, you know, administration.

There's not that, you know, change in the marketplace because the expectation is that nothing much is going to be different, right? You know, whether, you, whether good or bad. But what always intrigues me is that all of a sudden, boom, there's an election, this particular administration wins one side or the other, and the market moves in one way or another. And I'm saying to myself, that person in administration hasn't begun to do anything yet, right? And we, they haven't. And we don't know if it's going to work, what the impact is going to be.

And you see that, right? I mean, think about, just kind of compare a little bit, and only so we don't have to go way, way back. But, you know, the four years where Trump was in office, the four year during, you know, Biden was in office, right? There was one year during, you know, Biden was in office, right? There was one year when, you know, Trump was in office that the Fed began to raise rates, right? 2018. Yeah.

And the market went down. Then there was that one year where obviously we had the inflation and the Fed raised rates and the markets went down. So there's nothing to predict what can happen over the next four years that, like, yeah, everything looks like this is what should happen. But there's always that monkey wrench that gets in, you know, in there somewhere that changes things. Right. However, you know, you sit back, you say, okay, what, you know, what is it that Trump says that if he does, will impact the markets?

What do we expect if he succeeds in doing the things he said he's going to do? Exactly. And for me, there are basically – and I know a lot of people have focused a lot on the tariffs. Well, he's going to raise tariffs, and therefore we're going to obviously be paying more for imported goods, right? Well, I'm not 100 percent certain of that, right? In other words, if you say this is what we plan to do right then the other countries may may turn around say okay wait a minute we really don't want you that's right we don't want you to raise tariffs on us what is it that we can do in order to make you know a fair

exchange so that we keep our prices and we buy something from you that you have right but a lot of people i think don't realize is that other countries do have, like, the United States has generally been known as a very free trade, no tariffs kind of country, although not in every industry. There are pocket industries like sugar and stuff where we absolutely have quotas and things like that.

But other countries do put tariffs on it. Europe puts a whole bunch of tariffs and quotas on American goods. So it may be that the exchange that happens is not that a tariff shows up on European goods, but rather the Europeans say, okay, well, in exchange for you not putting a tariff on this, I will remove my tariff on that, which you were sending our way. So there are things that can happen using that as a leverage tool that don't actually involve implementing the tariff itself. Absolutely, absolutely.

So those are things that we just don't know what the impact is going to be, right? In other words, are tariffs really going to be an inflationary scenario for the next year or two? We don't really, really know, right? The market initially said, you know, you can tell by what happened the first few days, it's like, oops, you know, we're going to see inflation. Because the long-term bond market, you know, rates went up, and that's usually an indication that you're going to see inflation. And the equity market took off, right? Because obviously that, in essence, what sectors, what areas of the market may do better? And if truly the feeling that there's going to be a reduction in regulations, right,

then I think what's going to benefit more than anything else is small companies, right? Because small companies are the ones that are challenged the most when you have regulations. So difficult for them to get into that space. It becomes very expensive. And so the smaller company is the one that just is constantly struggling. And I think over the last, just look at it really, over the last like eight years, you know, large caps done well during some time period. Growth has done very well over the last couple of years.

Marginal cap growth. Yeah. And then small caps, you know, they've been struggling, right? Now, over the last two months company because we need to have one. Or conversely, it could just be the certainty that there will be no new ones. Exactly. Okay. Would a new administration be able to immediately erase any regulations that exist at this point? Who knows, right? Exactly. You could pretty much – no, at least that can go up for four years. It might go down. It might go down, exactly, yeah.

In other words, if you're a small-cap corporation sitting there, right, a small-cap company, you're looking forward. Okay, I know for certain that the corporate tax rate will not go up for four years. Okay, I can do X for four years. I know it won't go up. I know for certain, right, that the unrealized capital gains will not be taxed right right so you know for certain that won't happen exactly right so there are certain things that once the election is over locked into place right because you know for certain that that a certain realm of possibilities which would be there for one candidate not there for the other

right and now you introduce maybe the uncertainty is the things which Trump has said he will do which we don't know if he will actually do. Exactly. But you can certainly rule out things which you know for certain will not happen. Yeah, you can rule out things that, let's say, the other party wanted to do.

So you can say, well, in this case, yeah, I mean, I guess the other party had said we want to raise rates on corporations to 28%. Well, that's not going to happen because – Who knows, but now it won't happen. Yeah, exactly. But now we know that won't happen because that's not the plan here, right? So you're right.

So there's the sense that these items, small cap companies are going to do well. And also you're going to see a lot more mergers and acquisitions. Right. Because that's when that's when it really begins to feel where it's like, you know, that company has everything I want, everything I need. I need to buy that company or I need to merge with that company. So I think we're going to see more of that. And if you see that, obviously, that triggers, right, a nice bull market for small caps. So I think small caps are an area where, you know, they might do well. And who knows?

I mean, I'm not saying they will. I'm just saying that from my perspective, that's an area of the market that I think can do well under this particular administration, right? So that's one area. You know, convertible bonds, right? Convertible bonds, when you think about it, that's another area where, you know, when rates are much more... So for those who aren't familiar with that, explain what is a convertible bond. So a convertible bond, basically, so what happens is a lot of companies sometimes just

need to borrow in the marketplace. So there's really three ways to borrow, right? Issuing stock, right? So you issue stock, and therefore people buy the stock and you get money, right? Two is the bond market. That means that you borrow money, right? So you go out there and you issue a bond that you pay whatever, 5%, 6%, 7%, depending who you are, for X number of years. So, again, you're getting money on that, and you have to pay that particular income interest rate.

And a convertible bond is a little bit of both. So you issue a bond at a much lower rate with the option that sometime in the future, right, you may be able to convert that particular piece of paper into stock. So there's a trigger. So let's say that you buy it and the stock of this company is trading at $10, right? The trigger may be $20. So in other words, once it gets to $20, you can convert your particular bond into equity, right? And so that allows you to get a much greater upside. So these particular convertible bonds also do very well in a situation where most of them are small companies. So if small companies do well and that market goes up, then the convertible bond market will do very well. So there's two areas that I think are worthwhile looking into and seeing whether, you know, there's opportunities in the marketplace.

So, again, it's a lot of changes. But, you know, you sit back and say, you know, this is not going to happen overnight. And the market has reacted very positively over the last few days. And that's typically what happens. But sometimes you have to take a step back and say yeah i'm ready to make some changes in my portfolio structure but you have to take make sure that what is it that do i want to accomplish and two you know we always talk about this you know every client has his kind of risk reward just because you think small caps and convertibles are the

place to be it may not fit a particular strategy. It's like, well, that doesn't fit this particular client. So you have to step back and say, how do I, you know, what are the ways that we can adjust this particular client base to take advantage of things that we think may happen without adding a lot of risk, right? So it's a, you know, it's a strategy that you can begin to employ, but you have to make sure that it's being done in the right way. And it's not something where I would say, yeah, sell all the S&P 500, buy all the Russell 2000, good to go. No, that's just ludicrous, right? It's just from looking at what we see, I think interest rates are going to stay a little higher in here for a while, right? And I think, again, in the stock market, I think there may be an opportunity here for small caps.

And the other area, which I know we talk a lot about, you know, international stock markets, as much as sometimes one likes a lower dollar so that we can import cheaper, I don't think that's going to happen. And so I still am in the camp that I'd rather be investing in the U.S. In the U.S. than overseas. Than in the international markets where you're talking about Europe, Japan, et cetera.

Emerging markets, again, that's a whole different story. But I'm still in the camp that it's not an area in the market that I think is going to benefit me over the next two years at least. Kevin Hiddens asks, do you see any changes as far as a lot of remote government employees, if indeed the Department of Government Efficiency kind of gets off the ground and starts eliminating some positions here and there? I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, certainly, I mean, I think we've already seen a little bit of that, but without any doubt.

And, you know, it's a two-edged sword. The answer is yes. I mean, that should happen. But at the same time, you have to make sure that those particular employees are truly, truly doing their job. Somebody has to keep an eye on them, right? Because, you know, we've seen that, you know, you see that a little bit in Wall Street where it's like there's been a lot of wall street firms like now

you got to come back to work because you know the production is not what it should be right so again the answer is yes it's a great way to to basically reduce cost but you also make sure that they're doing the job yeah well i guess yeah some of the remote ones if they if there actually was not efficiency there, those positions may disappear. Yeah, exactly. And it's always the two-way street, right? Because obviously you've got a very large,

government spending obviously is a very large percent of the economy right now, of GDP, right? So the question always is there to have you cross that tipping point where you get what's known as the crowding out effect. In other words, is government spending so large now that it is in fact crowding out other forms of investment? In other words, capital is not flowing the way it should be flowing. That's right.

So obviously one way you – I think you have to be reasonable. You don't – part of making that government spending disappear is there will be some government workers who no longer have positions right you do it's not granted let's say there is waste there is fraud there is things you could blow hanging fruit well it's got to be I mean we know there is so much we don't but how much yeah right at some point you probably have to go beyond the low hanging fruit and and you will start you know removing positions, particularly if they're considered to be inefficient or they're just not contributing. So the question is, okay, you now have certain people that maybe are laid off.

Do they find jobs elsewhere? Now you've got less spending. Do you now see the capital begin to flow in a more appropriate way? And you would hope so. You would hope so. Let's be honest. I mean, the concept of looking at our government, right, and seeing what the inefficiencies are and beginning to reduce those particular departments and people,

that's going to be a big challenge because that creates unemployment, right? So there's got to be an economy on the other side that is beginning to grow really well so that those folks can then find jobs. Because if you're in a situation where the economy is slow and you're letting jobs go, you've got a big problem. So, again, these are things that it sounds great. Let's reduce government. Let's get rid of these people that aren't doing anything. Because, I mean, let's face it.

I mean, your taxes are paying for what? However, you can't guarantee that they will be implemented. Exactly, exactly. So you can't just go and – You can't guarantee that it's going to be simple. It's like they're going to lose their jobs or there's going to be another job on the other side that they can make. You know, it doesn't always work. I always say we don't live in an all-else equal world, right?

Whenever you run these simulations, you can't just immediately then don't implement your ideas in the stock market because we don't live in a world where if you change all these levers, nothing else changes. Exactly. Yeah, if it was a world where you could just turn the spigot and government spending goes down and nothing else changes, now there's a bunch of

capital that can go elsewhere. That's right. But the economy doesn't work that way. You don't just turn off the spigot and it's, oh, wow, nothing else changed because it's never worked that way. Exactly. And it works that way. I mean, listen, it's like when we run financial plans, right? I mean, there are in these financial plans sometimes around a thousand scenarios, right?

And you realize, and I always tell people, it's like, the one thing I can guarantee you is like none of those none none of those will happen exactly way right the whole point is just to figure out yeah you got a thousand plants and and so somewhere in the middle is probably where you're going to land most likely scenario right um but because you don't know I mean you you know and and and it's the same thing in one's life it's like this is what I plan to do for the next 10 years, and all of a sudden three years from now something happens. It's like, oops, I got to change.

I need a new boiler. The roof just leaked. I didn't expect to have a new roof three years from now, but 10 years from now. So anything can happen, right? So, again, this change is going to happen as to whether the transition and all that change is going to go smooth the way one would hope one I doubt it very much but you still have to

take it's time so I mean that's what makes our job fun because just when we think we've got it right it's like oops that didn't work out. That didn't work out the way we thought,

so let's go ahead and readjust. Exactly. We say it all the time. The number one thing is watch the risk level of the client, watch the risk level of the portfolio, because the predictions, we can't control the direction, only in some ways you can control the magnitude. Yeah. We can't control the direction. Only in some ways you can control the magnitude. Exactly.

So, but there you go. There's our finance topic. Yeah, yeah, there you are. Always enjoyable. No, I think it's important to kind of, you know, calm people down and be like, oh, yeah, you can't take the markets movement in five days and extrapolate. Yeah, because you know what? For the next four years. And it's, you know,'s it's and we talk about market

psychology all the time and it's behavior of people and there are you know there are folks that are just deathly afraid it's like yeah come on we've gotten calls like should we go all in cash and it's like no don't go all in cash and same thing happened but you know the other way it's like you know you sit back you have to tell people the most important thing i would say is really monetary policy not not fiscal policy. And what the Fed is doing, and you and I talk about this all the time, what the Fed is doing is what we focus more on than on the other side because that's much more important. That's money, the money flow, the cost of money is truly very, very important. And that's where we focus on more.

And the rest, it's important. It looks like the more boring part, but that's where the action happens. Yeah, exactly. Well, it's been a good show. It has, yeah. Really enjoyed it. Had some great guests. Be sure to check out the Yellow Mug in Crozet,

as well as Pit and Pastry at the Shortsville City Market. Yeah, exactly. And next week, got some great guests lined up as well. Christine Day from Miss Day Delights Home Baking is going to come on, as well as Chelsea Miller from Naturally You, a self-care company. So we've got some more entrepreneurs

tuning in next week. That's beautiful. All these entrepreneurs love it. I'm looking forward to it. Same here. In fact, I think actually next next week it might be you and Michael. It won't be me. It won't be you.

I'll miss everyone, but I'll be waving. Michael and I are ready. So there you go. There you go. So, of course, always a great show. Always great being here with you on the I Love Seville Network set. Always appreciate Judah behind the camera really making us all look good, especially Xavier and I.

Wait, wait, wait. He has his work cut out for him there. Where did that come from? You can say yourself, but I mean Xavier. I'm not just me under the bus. Look at how well-dressed I got today. We both were not well-dressed.

That's true. But of course, love being here on the I Love Seville Network set. Thanks to Emergent Financial Services for presenting. Thank you, Charlottesville Opera, Mattia Sione Realty, Trident Series Insurance, Forward Atalante, our great partners. Thank you, all our fantastic viewers. Thanks for your questions, comments, likes, shares.

We appreciate all of it. Try to stay warm. You know, you might need one or two cafe tonleges to do it, but we're with you in that. We will look forward to seeing you next week but until that time as we like to close it out hasta mañana Thank you.