- There are some restaurants that are getting a boost
to stay open.
That's why we're launching a new segment
called Restaurant Resurgence.
♪ Restaurant Resurgence ♪
(audience applauds)
- Oh my god, I love you.
I look forward to these every time.
And we're starting with an amazing story
of industry people coming together
to save each other, take a look.
(somber music)
- My sisters started Lake Burrito 11 years ago.
It is a true family business.
The pandemic, of course, has been terrible.
Our family restaurant was in real trouble.
Had to let our team go,
which is the hardest thing we have ever done.
We were about to close our doors.
- I first learned of Lake Burrito's troubles
on social media.
Somebody had posted that they weren't doing well.
I didn't know who they were,
I didn't know the owners,
I didn't know the stuff,
but when I learned that they were struggling,
it broke my heart,
and it just didn't seem right to sit on the sidelines.
To be truthful,
they have no idea that I'm doing this
and I hope it's okay.
I decided I would take to social media
and record a quick video to say hey, why can't we help?
We're gonna donate 100% of our profits tomorrow
to Lake Burrito.
And if you can't make it here, go to where they are.
I had no idea what to expect.
- One of my sisters showed me the video,
and that's how we realized
that Steven was doing this amazing thing for us.
- When I got here, there was a line out the door.
And I heard the same thing happened to Lake Burrito.
- We had an amazing day, business was incredible.
We were able to bring our team back,
and ever since, Lake Burrito is alive again.
He just changed our lives.
(audience applauds)
- All right, y'all, please welcome,
from Sock's Love Barbecue, Steven Hartsock,
and from Lake Burrito, the Retana family,
Alicia, Mildred, and their brother, Paris, give it up.
(audience applauds)
I love your shirts.
Mucho good vibes, y'all.
I need one of those shirts.
- Mucho good vibes.
- That's an amazing shirt.
Okay, so Alicia, Mildred, and Paris,
tell us a little about your restaurant
and what was happening.
- We were where we wanted to be
after so much hard work,
we were planning on opening the second location,
and then COVID happened.
And it was terrible.
We had to shut our doors down for four weeks.
Like, one day is hard, imagine four weeks,
it was terrible.
But the most heartbreaking thing
that we had to do was laid off our team
of 12 people for all those four weeks.
That was heartbreaking.
- It was terrible.
Even after we reopened the doors,
we had no business happening whatsoever.
Our parents have always told us to be grateful
and positive with life,
but at that moment, we just couldn't,
it was super bleak for a second there
we thought we'd have to put all our families together
into one house,
'cause we weren't able to afford the rent.
It was tough, it was really hard.
- Yeah, unfortunately,
I think this is a lot of people's story right now.
Steven, this took a toll on your business as well, right?
But you caught a lucky break
at the start of the pandemic, right?
- Yeah, absolutely.
So most of our business at the time earlier this year
was catering, and almost overnight we lost all of it.
But simultaneously, we started getting good press.
There was actually a national article
that called us the best barbecue in Georgia.
So that gave us a lot of attention
at the right time.
And you know, it's tough, we're breaking even,
my staff's here, we're good,
but I could easily see myself in the same position as them.
- Yeah, and that's scary,
that's your life, that's your dream, that's your income.
So Mike, it's important to see yourself
in someone else's position, right,
don't you agree?
Don't you think that's kind of important?
- Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I worked in restaurants
for a large part of my adult life to make ends meet
and I really feel for these guys,
because in a moment's notice,
this could be taken away and no one say this coming.
I've actually used a lot of my platform
to help other restaurants that I've worked at.
Restaurants that I've been a patron of for years
to make sure they do to-go orders, delivery orders,
I actually have something that I'm doing with DoorDash,
trying to keep the restaurants open, you know?
- Yeah.
So Steven, did you tell anyone from Lake Burrito
what you were doing before you posted?
- No, I didn't.
I just kind of went on faith.
I actually had known about them
and been a customer for years,
and I figured time was of the essence,
so I had recorded videos in the past,
and I thought, why not go on
and just kind of record something real quick,
a call to action to the community,
sort of introduce my followers to them,
and say let's go support them.
- Wow, okay, so Alicia, Mildred, and Paris,
what was the response?
Alicia, you wanna go first?
- We came regular business,
we were as ready as we thought we were gonna be,
and suddenly, when I turned on the computer,
it's just crazy.
It was seriously insane.
I think I have never in my life
saw so many tickets coming at the same time.
Insane.
- Yeah, we looked out the door right at 11 o'clock
and there's a line of people.
Good things happened.
After that we were able to bring half of our staff back,
that was the most rewarding thing we had done
in those two or three months.
- Yeah, and this just tells you once again,
that yeah, mucho good vibes out there, all over the place.
Everyone is willing to be good to each other,
we just have to ask for help, accept the help,
and realize that there is good everywhere.
- Just waiting to happen.
Just waiting to happen out there.
- Yeah, and when you say mucho good vibes for everyone,
that's actually what's interesting,
is Steven you were trying to do something amazing
for someone else,
but then you ended up having a line out your door as well,
which does teach you that like,
having a servant's heart and thinking of others,
that kind of karma, that comes back to you.
The universe sees that, God sees that.
And what are you taking away from all of this?
- Yeah, so I've been in sort of the food industry
for about 10 years,
and I've had a catering and restaurant for about five,
and I've had to lean heavy on people.
It's tough.
We work 80 to 90 hours a week.
And you know, at the end of the day,
what I wanted to do was reach out to the community,
show some awareness, and then teach people
that listen, it's almost free, most of the time,
to help people.
- Yeah, I've never heard anyone say it like that.
Well, Paris, now you guys have teamed up, right?
- Yes, we're super pumped.
Finally we're gonna put amazing brisket from Steven
and some good burritos on our end,
and we're gonna roll an amazing brisket burrito.
- Oh my gosh, my mouth just watered.
Are you hungry, Mike?
- Always hungry.
- So you guys, y'all are gonna teach us
how to make it, right?
- That's right. - We're gonna show you
all our secrets.
- Okay, well, Mike is a vegetarian,
so I'll take on the brisket,
but he'll be doing the veggie version.
- Yeah, I'm gonna smell hers though.
- Yeah. (laughs)
What's first?
- What's first, so what we wanna do
is I've got a fully trimmed brisket here,
and I'm gonna season it with,
this is gonna blow your mind, just salt and pepper,
so get it on there really good.
I can't see what you're doing,
but I'm sure you're rocking it.
There you go.
Yeah, put it on there thick.
All right, so at the end
you gotta give it one good slap.
(Steven slapping)
- Yes, exactly.
Boom! (Kelly slapping)
Oh, I kind of shook a lot of it off, hold on.
Okay.
All right, what's next?
- What's next, so what you're gonna do
is just take this puppy and transfer it to the smoker,
and what's cool is it's gonna take
about 13 to 14 hours, and we'll do that right now.
- Okay, so that's in the smoker.
And by the magic of TV.
- Yeah, you just give it a snap,
and then 13 hours later,
you've got a To Kelly Clarkson Brisket.
- Yes. - Viola.
- Yeah, 'cause this looks good and it smells delish.
Okay, Paris, how do Mike and I get started on the burrito?
- So let's make this happen,
Mike, you're gonna get your fajita veggies,
they look awesome, by the way.
Kelly, let's take care of this beautiful brisket.
First thing's first, tortilla.
Once we have the tortilla,
we'll do white rice,
we're gonna put a little bit of pinto beans,
they go really well with the brisket.
Some beautiful Sock's Love brisket.
- [Kelly] I'm just using my hands 'cause I have gloves.
- [Steven] There you go.
- Queso, don't forget your queso,
we always use some melted queso on top.
- [Kelly] Oh my gosh, I'm so here for this.
Yes, you just keep pouring brother.
- [Paris] All right, it's awesome.
- [Kelly] How do we fold it?
How do we roll it?
- All right, so now it's time to roll that burrito.
I'm a little shy,
Alicia really loves to do some karaoke when she rolls.
It makes it easier.
But we're gonna hug, it's called a hug,
we're gonna wrap from one side to the right.
- One side, okay.
- Opposite side to the left.
And start rolling.
Give it a big hug.
- Oh, messing that up too.
I messed it up already.
- Oh, look, I didn't it.
- [Paris] All right, that looks almost there,
that looks like a quesadilla, but it looks awesome anyhow.
What matters is on the inside.
- [Mike] That looks like a quesadilla.
- [Paris] Don't you worry, guys.
- [Kelly] Oh my god, I can't wait to taste it.
Let's dig in.
- There is that beautifulness.
(audience applauds)
- Oh my god, it's so good.
This is awesome.
I kind of forgot I was on television,
I took a really big bite. (laughs)