Chef Andy Husbands: FTOB Interview
BBQ as Mistress, Scaling Challenges, and the American Dream
The most recent episode of Frequently Thoughtful, Occasionally brilliant is out. We interview Chef Andy Husbands about the learnings from growing The Smoke Shop BBQ, his Boston-based restaurant with 4 locations, 1 opening imminently and 2 more behind that.
Obsessing over this quote (edited for clarity):
“…if we all take a step back and go, wow! Look where we're at and look where we were. The question is, where will we be in 10 years from now? Restaurant people are survivors. And the last thing I want to say about the restaurant industry, which is super neat, is we are still the American dream.
…I have seen this time and again; people do this. One of our new landlords, I asked him how he had this property and, he came from another country, he goes…He started working in a pizza shop and he worked a lot. He bought the pizza shop. He worked a lot. He bought the building. He worked a lot. He bought another building and then another building. He no longer works in that pizza shop. That is the American dream. All from hustlin’ pizza.
So I think this industry is great.”
Andy also touches on the potential impacts of Ballot Question 5 in Massachusetts which seeks to eliminate the tipped minimum wage. We recorded this prior to the November 5th election so if you’re listening after that, that’ll be decided.
But, if you’re listening before that and you want to understand why we, and 80%+ of all restaurant workers and operators, are opposed to the ballot question you can listen and read more:
