From NC BBQ Champs to PNC Arena Redneck BBQ Lab’s Expansion

Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to another edition of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden. And today, we have Mercedes Harris with RBL Catering, which is part of RBL Ventures, which everybody around here would know as The Redneck BBQ Lab, which is one of the businesses underneath RBL Ventures. And so we’re going to talk to her a little bit about The Redneck BBQ Club restaurants, their expansion, the different types of catering that they now have a commissary kitchen behind the Lowe’s here at 4042, and they can feed up to 10,000 people at a time.

We’re going to talk a little bit about all things RBL and one of my favorite restaurants, Redneck BBQ Lab. But before we get to that, we’re going to ask you to like, follow, or subscribe to this podcast, wherever you’re seeing this podcast today. Whether it be on Apple, Spotify, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, so that you’ll be aware of future episodes of The Best of Johnston County podcast.[00:01:00]

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Welcome Mercedes.

RBL Catering: Thanks for having me.

Jonathan Breeden: All right. No problem. We were just talking off-air. I go to Redneck BBQ Lab so much and their food truck and stuff. I’ve seen you before. It’s the first time I’ve actually sat down and met you.

RBL Catering: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: But anyway, tell the people, what’s your name? Where are you from?

RBL Catering: Yeah. I’m Mercedes. I would say I’m from Raleigh. I was born in Pullman, Washington. So West Coast, but we moved here pretty quickly because my dad started coaching at NC State for the men’s basketball team. And he did that for 20-something years. So like pretty much grew up in Raleigh.

So yeah, that’s all. And I work for RBL. And I’m the CEO of their catering [00:02:00] company now.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, that’s cool. So, your father coached with Herb Sendak.

RBL Catering: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: And still works at the BBQ lab at North Hills, because I talk to him when I go in there. And he probably gets tired of me reliving stories of him and Herb Sendeck and games they won and games they lost.

I sat there with him one night for two hours. Me, Ken Medlin, who used to work at WRAL News, and Michael Eatman, an attorney in Nashville, sat there while they cleaned the whole place up and relived NC State Basketball stories, and he coached James Harden, and we talked about James Harden, and James Harden’s mom, all of that stuff. So once I figured out who he was, because the first two or three times I went in there was like, I know this man. I was trying to place it. And then, Ken Meadow’s like, I know who that is.

RBL Catering: I’m sure he loves it. He probably wishes you would do that every week for the glory days, of NC State Basketball. [00:03:00]

Jonathan Breeden: Oh my goodness. And your dad’s name is Larry Harris. He was something else. He coached basketball for a long time. Anyway, we may have to have Larry Harris come on this podcast, and we can relive its old NC State college basketball days when I was just at NC State and practicing law.

Oh my goodness, we lost the ACC championship game where I think that JJ Redick scored 20 points in the last 10 minutes. So anyway, but that’s fascinating.

RBL Catering: The Julius Hodge era changed everything.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, Julius Hodge. Oh man, that’s great. All right. Anyway, big NC State fan here. I’m always a fan of your dad’s and all the hard work he did there at State.

So anyway, that’s a small world. So I didn’t even know we were going to go there. But back to what we were talking about. I think, you went to UNC Charlotte.

RBL Catering: I did.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. And what kind of degree did you get there?

RBL Catering: I have a business management degree from the Belk School of College.

Jonathan Breeden: All right.

RBL Catering: School of Business.

Jonathan Breeden: And then, I think you went to work for Hilton.

RBL Catering: Yes. I went to the Hilton in Charlotte. And then I was like, Oh, I want to move back home. I ended up getting an offer from the [00:04:00] StateView, which is on NC State’s campus, their Centennial Campus. And that is a Marriott brand.

So I did that for a little bit. And then, if anyone knows anything about hotels, you just shuffle around when you’re in hotel management. So then, I moved to a DoubleTree property, which was back to Hilton. And then, I ended up here.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. I got you. You were Marriott and Hilton. Two of the premier brands in the world, actually.

RBL Catering: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: What did you learn about customer service and providing a consistent product, they’re working for those two brands.

RBL Catering: Yeah, I feel like, that’s where I learned everything about people and how to manage people, both customers.

A lot of people think it’s customer management, but a lot of it is like the behind-the-scenes management, as well. And getting a large group of people to be on the same page and work towards the same thing, and it’d be good. That in itself is a process. And then, add the fact that there’s also clients and customers in an outside world [00:05:00] that you also want to think everything is good, too.

Jonathan Breeden: I don’t know if it’s Marriott or Hilton. I listened to a podcast called Creating Disney Magic, with a guy named Lee Cockerell, who was the Executive Vice President of Walt Disney World Resorts. But he started his career in the hotel business. And he worked for the Marriott and he worked for Hilton. And he’s so old. He’s like in his 80s. He knew Conrad Hilton and JW Marriott. And I don’t remember which one, but he talks about, to be great, you have to be great at everything. And one of those two men taught him that. I don’t remember which one, but I think that’s a good point.

And I’m sure, you probably have taken that into your job of RBL. Everything matters.

RBL Catering: Customer service as a whole. I would say, everything matters. And I think, the one thing that people don’t realize, I tell our staff all the time, we have to be perfect. Even though being perfect is impossible, we have to be. Because even if you had a thousand orders today and you only messed up [00:06:00] one, that one order, like those people feel like, Oh, this brand is terrible. When it’s like, Oh no, we did 999 orders that were amazing. Like it was just this one thing, most people don’t see outside of what’s happening to them, and they don’t have to.

So it’s just like figuring out how to be perfect, knowing that might be impossible, but striving for it every day.

Jonathan Breeden: I look, I know the feeling here at my law office. We may get it right 199 times, but the one time that maybe we don’t get it exactly right, we get a one-star review.

And that just, I guess cuts at us.

RBL Catering: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: You know what I mean? But sometimes, they’re deserved, sometimes they’re not. But that’s how it is dealing with the public. And so, we try to get it right every time, just like y’all try to get it right every time.

Let’s talk about, so you did food and beverage in the hotel business. And so then you come on, when did you come on with RBL?

RBL Catering: Oh, I definitely should have looked this up so I say the right thing, but I’m pretty sure it was like the end of 2018, maybe the beginning of 2019. But yeah, [00:07:00] around there, I came on Todd Breed, found me on Indeed.

I know everyone’s like LinkedIn, but I’m like an Indeed to the ground girl. Every job, every hotel job I got, even serving job I got from Indeed. So he found me on there and asked me to come out and I came out and I interviewed at the Redneck BBQ Lab, which you know is attached to a gas station. And they were established, of course, but I didn’t know about it at all. I’d never heard of it. And I’m like in my hotel uniform, like heels, like a name tag, everything. So like walking in there, okay. And then I pulled up and I was like, Oh, this might not be. But it ended up being amazing. They told me about their vision and what they wanted and where they saw everything going.

And if you sit down with Todd Breeden, Jerry Stephenson, at any point, you don’t leave that meeting or that sitting without believing in absolutely everything that they said. And so that’s what happened to me. And I was like, I’m on board, like whatever we need to do.

Jonathan Breeden: I guess if you know the story, I don’t know the whole story. I know parts of the story. [00:08:00] They are world-champion BBQ cooks on the weekends in their backyards with regular jobs.

RBL Catering: Yeah. So Jerry was the cook. And then, they’re best friends from college. And so, they obviously like Todd has just always been at the business world. He’s had multiple different companies and just been into business ventures. And then Jerry was cooking. But of course, has worked a normal job. I know he’s built, he worked construction with his dad before, and it’s like built Smithfields and Golden Corrals and things like that. But always was into BBQ, always was into cooking.

And then, he was competing and started winning things. And people were like, Oh, you’re good at this. So then his best friend is like on the business side of things, and they just came together and we’re like, let’s see what can happen.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s crazy.

RBL Catering: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s really neat. Because Jerry had one, he’d been to Kansas City. All those trophies in the Redneck BBQ Lab at McGee’s Crossroads are legit. They’re not fake. He won all of them. And that’s not even all the ones he’s won. And the world [00:09:00] championships of BBQ are in Kansas City, in the middle of the racetrack now, the Kansas City Speedway.

RBL Catering: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: And I guess, there’s some stories about what goes on overnight when they’re cooking that BBQ at the Speedway. But he goes there and competes with guys from Texas and all over the place, and has had a tremendous amount of success.

RBL Catering: Yeah, I think, that the most impressive part is a lot of the awards he’s won, obviously the world championships. But a lot of them, even local ones, when he’ll go to apex, there’s a competition there and he’ll always compete just because of course, you want to compete locally, and it’s people from everywhere. It’s people from New York. It’s who just cooks BBQ. And I did not realize, how big of a deal this was, and how insane it is and competitive it is, and how good people are until I started going and working with him. And so now, it’s just that much more impressive to me. I’m like, Oh, you actually are like the best out of the best.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. I get it. And I grew up in Larimer, North Carolina, and I love BBQ. We had General [00:10:00] MacArthur’s. I think he did some of the competitions when he was younger. He’s much older now. And the best thing you can do, if you’ve never done this, is go to a competition. And then, they usually start it like 7 or 8 PM at night. And they cook till 8 or 9 or 10 AM in the morning. And then, they judge it. And then, they either sell the plates or give the plates away of all the BBQ that got cooked for a charity or whatever. Just go to one of those, and you will leave happy.

Any BBQ competition, anywhere. I don’t care what level it is. It is phenomenal. Try different types, different sauces, it is great. Normally, it’s a charity involved. But whatever it is, just go to the lunch after they finish the competition, and just “pig out” because it’s a lot of fun.

RBL Catering: We’ll get that, for sure.

Jonathan Breeden: So what was that vision they shared with you?

RBL Catering: I know that they pretty much were just like, here’s a 10-year plan. And I feel, all of that got sped up and it’s been done in about three, which is insane. But pretty much, they were just [00:11:00] want to expand. We see ourselves in Johnston County, and Johnston County is our home.

This is the people that we know, everything like that. But also, we think that other people would enjoy this food. And so figuring out how to not only just expand the brand with the BBQ Lab at North Hills, but also, how do we reach the most people that we possibly can and catering felt like the next step to that.

They were already doing catering and had a smaller catering operation, which was pretty much local and they would go and feed. And Jerry himself would have to go on a lot of the events when I started. And so he was like, how do we reach the most people possible and also have a staff and this be a whole thing? Conglomerate, if you will. And that’s when I was like, that would be insane and so fun.

Jonathan Breeden: I know. That’s great. I could be wrong, and I’m definitely not an expert on BBQ Lab. But I thought that one of the reasons he wanted to open a standalone restaurant was to help promote his catering business that he was already doing. Just be the front, [00:12:00] saying, if you like this restaurant, I’m doing this catering thing to help grow the catering business.

RBL Catering: Yes. See, that makes me feel like you’re an O.G. The O.G.s know that truly, I like to go back and forth about this. But truly, RBL started with catering. I will die on that hill.

Jonathan Breeden: They were catering before he had the restaurant.

RBL Catering: Yeah. And so, they were just going, and it was literally like him, and maybe a couple of his friends, and they would go and bring the BBQ. And then they were like, they were going to open McKee’s as a commissary kitchen, to just cater.

But then, once people found out McKee’s was there, people would come up and be like, we want to eat. So then he’s, okay, let me put it inside in here. Let me put a drive-thru in here. And so now, it’s like a fully functioning restaurant. And he was like, I just feel like there’s this potential in catering that I haven’t even unlocked or tapped. And that has led us to many places as I’m sure, as a hurricane.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. So do you know which year he went to, they did the franchise at North Hills, which is called The BBQ Lab. And it’s right next to the movie theater, and [00:13:00] the Chick-fil-A, and I’ve eaten there many times. Talk to your dad about Wolfpack basketball. It was after COVID.

RBL Catering: It’s been about a year and a half. We announced it before COVID, which was, I’m sure painful for a lot of people because we announced it before COVID. And then, obviously, COVID happened. And we were like, we’re not going to open during COVID.

That would probably be impossible. And then also, just trying to make sure that you keep all your staff and things like that. So we announced it before, and then we ended up opening after COVID. So it’s been open for about a year and a half. I think it’ll hit two years in October.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

RBL Catering: So that’d be nice.

Jonathan Breeden: All right, cool. So two years in October of 24. I remember one time it was done, but they couldn’t find employees. And they need to try to find employees. Cause there was when the restaurant business was really struggling to find people.

RBL Catering: We definitely had enough employees to open. It was more like, how do you open seven days a week, with also getting the limited amount of employees that you have? So we started out being closed on Monday and Tuesday. I don’t know if anyone remembers that. Hopefully not. Cause I know, it wasn’t a great time. But on Mondays and Tuesdays, we would close [00:14:00] because the staff that worked there would work from Wednesday to Sunday.

Jonathan Breeden: I got you. So when did your dad go to work there?

RBL Catering: Honestly, he’s pretty much there every day, which is nuts. I’m just like, go home, do something else. But he loves it.

Jonathan Breeden: Did you recruit him into working there?

RBL Catering: Yeah. My dad was like home and retired, and just golfing and chilling. We actually have a location at Dirtbag that’s just open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And I needed people to go out there and I needed a manager. We already had someone that was like a GM, but I was like, I need someone that’s basically like eyes and ears out there because Hope Mills is a bit of a trek.

And I was like, okay, Dad, would you just drive this van that has food in it and drive the food to them from the commissary? And then just tell me what’s going on? And so that is how him being involved in RBL, was born.

Jonathan Breeden: So y’all have a location in Fayetteville. I didn’t know that. Where’s that at?

RBL Catering: Yeah. So it’s at Dirtbag Ales, which is like this brewery. They [00:15:00] have a cocktail lounge. They have live music out there. It’s really cool. It’s a campus. And we have a trailer there, but it functions as like a full restaurant. They have a full menu. They have French fries at that one. And hush puppies, which Redneck does, I know. So they function Friday, Saturday, and Sunday out there.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. But now, the BBQ lab at North Hills is open seven days a week from 11 AM-9 PM, I think.

RBL Catering: Yeah, until they run out. So sometimes, it’s gonna be eight or late.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, get there early, right? Well, when you’re cooking stuff fresh, you can run out. And I learned that when I would start going to Texas, a few years ago. And people were like, you need to go to this restaurant. And if you don’t get there early at somebody’s place in Texas, they’re just out. And really, when they opened at McGee’s Crossroads, that was my first experience with going to a restaurant and it being out of the food I went to get. But that just tells you how fresh it is.

RBL Catering: Oh yeah. And that’s, I would say like one of the things that sets us apart, obviously, the sauce is amazing. That’s our bread and butter. But most restaurants just because of demand, it’s [00:16:00] expensive to cook things fresh because that means you have to have staff, constantly.

We’re cooking overnight. There’s staff that gets there at four and five in the morning and things like that. And it is expensive to do it that way. It is. Your overhead costs are much higher than if you’re freezing stuff and you can come in, reheat, and send. But we just think that it makes such a big difference in quality that it’s just something I’m sure as a competitor, he’s not willing to sacrifice at all.

Jonathan Breeden: So, is the food for all the restaurants cooked at the commissary behind the Lowe’s at 4042?

RBL Catering: No. So both restaurants have smokers and they can cook on-site. We just pretty much support it. So we’re basically why they can open, they’re not running out at five. We just support. So if it’s a Saturday, it’s going to be an insane day.

We can throw on meats for them or a lot of times it’s coleslaw, which is shocking. But a lot of times it’s coleslaw and collards that we’re supporting on. So yeah, we just make sure everyone’s good.

Jonathan Breeden: All right. So both restaurants, the one at McGee’s and the one at North Hills is open seven days a [00:17:00] week. And their menus are largely the same, but not exact.

RBL Catering: Yeah. There’s different perks to each. So Redneck has breakfast, which I know, I’ll see comments on. North Hills is like Instagram, bring breakfast here. But of course, you want to encourage people to try all the locations and you want to try different concepts at different places.

So, I always tell people, even if you’ve been to North Hills, go to Benson. Even if you’ve been to Benson, go to North Hills. It’s just so different. And then North Hills has a bar. And their bourbon list, if you’re a bourbon drinker, just go look at the things that they offer and you’d be like, Oh, this is interesting.

Jonathan Breeden: I guess one question I have for you is, why isn’t there more than one cash register? I know that’s a design, but is that part of the freshness of the meal? Because you get in the line, there’s only one point of sale. And you don’t have to wait for a table. You don’t have to wait in the line to order something.

RBL Catering: At Benson, there’s two. Because Benson is our busiest store.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Benson has two.

RBL Catering: Yeah. Even though it’s smaller, they have two registers there. And then, they have a register for a to-go window. So that’s nice. [00:18:00] But also, we harp on being personable with people and knowing people. And I think that comes from starting in Johnston County.

You’re like, okay, these are like our neighbors, these are our friends. That’s just the vibe in Johnston County. And so, you’re okay, I am bringing you up, but I want to know you. I want to talk to you. I want this to be like, oh, okay. I remember you, you remember me, type of thing.

And so I feel like when you get people to slow down just a little, not insane, not you’re waiting in line for two hours, but you just get people to slow down a little bit, it becomes more of a relationship, which makes it a bit more memorable.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. I enjoy going to both of them.

So, where did the idea of going to PNC Arena and having a concession stand there come from? They call you, you call them.

RBL Catering: That was Jerry’s plan and idea. He is a huge Hurricanes fan. Of course, I know his whole family likes support and everything like that. And then, was going to the games. And I would say, it was pretty much mutual interest. They need to reach out to you. Of course, you can’t just be like, hey, can I be [00:19:00] here?

I’m sure, you could, actually. Let me take that back. If you’re ambitious, go for it. But I’m pretty sure, it was like a, hey, are you interested in this? And then, he was just like, yeah, tell me what I need to do.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, that’s awesome.

I know the players are huge BBQ Lab fans. A lot of them live around North Hills. And I see on Facebook, there are Hurricanes players in there all the time.

RBL Catering: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: Your dad probably knows them all now. And I find it fascinating. Most Hurricanes players are not Americans. Most of them are from Europe.

RBL Catering: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: But they love North Carolina BBQ.

RBL Catering: I was going to say that if you want an American experience, you need to get BBQ.

Jonathan Breeden: And now, and I don’t know if you know this, you probably do because you’ve worked there sometimes at North Hills. The opposing teams will often stay in the Renaissance.

RBL Catering: Oh yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: And now, the opposing teams, cause they have players that play for the Hurricanes, and they know about the BBQ Lab and they have friends, the opposing teams are there. So if you’re an NHL hockey fan, and you want to see some players, go to the BBQ Lab at North Hills because [00:20:00] you will see a Hurricane. Sometimes, I saw Facebook pictures, not too long ago, the New York Rangers were there, eating several Rangers. I think Jacob Turbo was there. I was like, Man, that’s pretty cool.

RBL Catering: Oh yeah. When people are performing at PNC or like comedians, things like that, actors that are in town will see them, just cause North Hills is that area to stay in, to shop in, that type of thing. So, North Hills is fun.

Jonathan Breeden: They’ve done a tremendous thing. The Kane family, it’s unbelievable what they’ve done, their vision, the way they’ve executed it. I would put the North Hills complex with any complex like it in the United States.

And I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve been able to travel around the country, following the Wolf Pack. They have a similar thing in Phoenix, where they had the final four, where I went to see NC State, playing the final four this year, next to that arena out in Lindale. And I’ve been to other complexes, Columbus, Ohio has one, as well, similar to North Hills. And I think North Hills is the best. I guess I really do. It’s tremendous. [00:21:00] Everything they’ve done there, and it keeps growing.

RBL Catering: Yes, they are killing it. So when I heard that Copper District was coming and they’re doing the Waterfront District in Flowers, I was just super excited for Johnston County because I’m like, yeah, we should have things like this.

Jonathan Breeden: And the Copper District, when they do it is going to be built on Highway 42, near 70 bypass across from the hospital on 42. They’re going to change that road. It’s not going to be 70 bypasses anymore. It’s going to be I-42, which is why Highway 42 at 4042 is becoming Highway 36 in February of 2025.

That’s a different podcast. Go back. We talked about that with Butch Lauder. You want to go back to the first Butch Lauder podcast. You want to hear how that came to be. But yeah, I think it’s fascinating. And the Copper District is going to look a lot like North Hills. I think, when it’s done and it’s going to be right there in Clayton, right there on 42 near the hospital, it’s going to be really nice. And I don’t know a ton about the Waterfront District, other than I’ve heard the rumors of some really great restaurants, possibly being there at Flowers Plantation.

RBL Catering: Yeah. I haven’t [00:22:00] even heard that. So I feel excited. I’m just like, I heard that there was going to be shopping there, and that’s all you have to tell me. I’m there. No problem.

Jonathan Breeden: Do you send your staff to PNC Arena? Or is it volunteers from the community, running that booth?

RBL Catering: Yeah. So it’s our staff that is actually putting the food together and pushing it out the front. The people that are at the registers are PNC staff, which I believe, a lot of times are volunteers. If not all the time, I probably should have a better answer for that, but I believe so. But are the people in the back are us?

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. So, you know the quality. And then the food there, but they cook it in there, they bring it in from the commissary.

RBL Catering: Yeah, we cook, we prep a lot at the commissary, but they have a kitchen in the back there. So it’s easy to fry things that we need to fry, stuff like that.

Because as we talked about, we have that big tenderloin sandwich. And so, frying stuff, before you get to a place, it gets icky. So frying on site and making sure everybody’s stuff is hot is easier. They’ll cook a lot. Pretty much, I would say, 75% is done there.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, cool. It’s [00:23:00] good. I’ve eaten that tenderloin pork chop sandwich. It’s the biggest, it’s huge. It’s enough for two meals. It’s very good. I’ve enjoyed that there.

I got to commend the Hurricanes and Tom Dundon for what they’ve done to up the food experience there. They’ve got a Chick-fil-A now. They brought in the BBQ Lab. They’ve got a two roosters ice cream there now. They really have gone out of their way to go find the best of the community and bring it into that arena and make it where it’s a win for the fans, a win for the Hurricanes, and a win for the businesses that are there, as well.

RBL Catering: For sure. If you’re RBC era, which I think we are.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh yeah. I’ve been going since it first opened.

RBL Catering: Yeah. You’re like, okay, this is great.

Jonathan Breeden: Way different than it was, back when it was RBC and it first opened, with Archie Miller. Archie Miller, oh my goodness. That’s wild.

So let’s talk a little bit, you run the catering operation. The catering is not just BBQ. You cater about anything anybody wants. Talk a little bit about that and how people can get y’all involved if they want something [00:24:00] catered.

RBL Catering: Yeah. So on RBLCatering.com, we have the catering menu, which is BBQ. And then, there is a tab that’s like more than BBQ. And on that tab, it gives you menus that we can make if you want. And then we also take requests, like if we can do it, we’ll do it. But we’ll cook.

We have a taco menu. We have an Italian menu. We have a homestyle menu that has brisket pot pie, and just different things. I know our chicken and dumplings is really popular, with a lot of athletes that we serve. So we just have a bunch that I think people would be shocked to know that we did. We have a love always menu for weddings. And that’s our more upscale menu. You’ll find salmon on there. You’ll find ribeyes on there. We did a private tasting dinner, wasn’t a bright, semi-private tasting dinner on Valentine’s Day or around Valentine’s Day, where Jerry cooked menu items from that menu, and people were able to come and try it.

And so I think, even that group of people were like, we didn’t realize that you guys did this.

Jonathan Breeden: I didn’t realize you did it until I went to [00:25:00] your website, preparing for this podcast. I really thought it was just BBQ. But it sounds like y’all cook just about anything.

RBL Catering: Oh yeah. Everyone that’s in our kitchens, they’re all cooks that we’ve taught to make BBQs. So they can cook food. And then we were like, here’s how we make BBQ. So yeah, we can make pretty much it.

Jonathan Breeden: How many employees are in the catering side?

RBL Catering: Oh geez.

Jonathan Breeden: Do you even know? I know you’re in charge. You don’t have any employees working for you?

RBL Catering: I was like, that’s hard. I’m going to go with 30.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay, 30. I got you. And there’s the catering, there’s a commissary open seven days a week?

RBL Catering: Yeah, we’re there every day. Unless we just, for some reason, obviously, we have a couple of months that are just slow for food service and events in general. And so on those months will be like, okay, we’re probably not gonna open on Monday. We’re not gonna open on Wednesday. But anytime, we have an event, we are there.

Jonathan Breeden: And roughly, how many events are y’all doing now?

RBL Catering: Oh gosh, I think I turned in to our accountant, I want to say, just catering. I can’t remember if this doesn’t include food trucks. This doesn’t include Dirtbag or PNC, but just catering.

I think I turned in [00:26:00] 1,500-something events last year.

Jonathan Breeden: Jeez, that is a lot of events. That’s four or five a day. Oh my goodness.

RBL Catering: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Now, is there a minimum? Is it 10-10,000? I know it’s 10,000.

RBL Catering: We have a 25-person minimum. And then, we’ll go to however many you have. And then we also have pickups, which is nice, where people will come to the comm and they’ll just pick it up, even though they have a larger group.

And then we have drop-offs where we’ll just deliver. Or you can choose a full-service catering. Pickups, drop-offs, full service, are all included. We did about 1,500.

Jonathan Breeden: Man, that’s a lot. With 30 people. That’s some hardworking people.

RBL Catering: There’s some gangsters over there.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s some hardworking people.

RBL Catering: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: And then of course, everybody knows the food trucks, but there’s a taco truck.

RBL Catering: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: I like the BBQ truck, but I’ve eaten at the taco truck too. That’s true. The nachos, they are very good. They need to get those into the stores.

RBL Catering: Yeah, I know. Honestly, North Hills will run specials, and I know they had a nacho special, at one point. So watch out for that.

Jonathan Breeden: And so the food trucks, you can call and ask for the food truck to come to your neighborhood or come to your [00:27:00] event, right?

RBL Catering: Yeah, so we’ll do, there’s minimums if you have a public truck, which a public truck to us means that you’re having the people that come to the truck, pay for the truck. But if you do a private truck, you can book it with us and curate your menu, what you want to serve people, control the price, and then we’ll send you an invoice for that. And then people just pay, and then we go, and we serve, and it’s done. I think private trucks are smoother because you don’t have to guess.

Jonathan Breeden: You don’t have to guess at how much food you didn’t eat, right? That’s true. Good point. The truck has come to my neighborhood, which I’m very happy about. And I’ve seen it at tons of other events and school events and stuff like that.

I know, y’all are big supporters of the community, as well. And is there two of them?

RBL Catering: Yeah. So we have three trucks in total. BBQ trucks and taco trucks are the only food that’s served off of there. But we have three trucks.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, cool. That’s awesome.

I guess the last question we’ll ask you, we’ve talked about coming out hungry. And now I’m hungry because we’re talking about BBQ.

RBL Catering: You’re serving food right now.

Jonathan Breeden: I know. Anyways, the last question I ask everybody is, do you live in Johnston County? What do you love most about Johnston County?[00:28:00]

RBL Catering: I know this isn’t going to sound not true, but genuinely, the food. I have little spots that I just have to have each week. Anthony’s and Clayton, they have a penne alla pasta. And I’m pretty sure, they probably see my name on DoorDash at least once a week, easily. I want someone to reach out to them and ask if they know that, but they have to, I’m obsessed.

And then, there’s just different little spots that just have things that are like next level. I just think people out here can cook.

Jonathan Breeden: It’s awesome. The food really is great. And the BBQ scene out here is great. In Johnston County, you have White Swan. You have Stephenson’s also, but he’s Crossroads. You have a brand new BBQ Lab.

There’s just tons and tons of great BBQ in the area. And as you can tell, I’ve eaten my share of it. And I definitely love BBQ.

We’d like to thank Mercedes for coming on and talking to us today about all things right there at BBQ Lab and RBL Catering.

Like I said earlier if you would not mind [00:29:00] leaving us a five-star review, wherever you’re seeing it and liking and subscribing to this podcast so that you’ll be aware of future episodes of The Best Johnston County podcast. We would be very appreciative.

Until next time. I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden.