- To start this.
I have two experts that I've brought with me.
- [Jon] Come on in.
There he is.
- Oh really?
- Yeah!
- Do you know who he is?
- Yeah!
- Well, if you know anything about barbecue in America,
you know who Kevin Bludso is.
So I'm talking about doing some world class barbecue
and Kevin has agreed to put his name on it.
(woman gasps)
- [Jon] So you can say you have Kevin Bludso barbecue here.
(family exclaims in awe)
- And people will come from miles for his barbecue.
I've seen it!
(electric guitar strums)
- Kevin's two restaurants, just won number one
and number two for the best barbecue
in all of Los Angeles.
He knows downtown LA Food.
Tonight for stress test, I'm putting you in the kitchen.
I want you to learn from him.
How we doing, chef?
- [Bludso] You know the fryer's cool,
but it just hasn't been cleaned out in a long, long time.
(boom sound effect)
- When last time you cleaned it?
- [Richard] We cleaned it, when was it?
Last week?
- [Female Worker] Like a, yeah last week.
- Cleaned the bottom of it, too?
- [Jon] Where's the spoon?
What's, see what we got Kev.
- You haven't cleaned the debris out.
- [Jon] Oh! That's the worst I've ever seen!
- [Bludso] That's bad.
- [Jon] Clean your freaking fryer!
Be responsible for Christ's sakes!
Kevin, don't teach them a freaking thing
until they do this.
Don't f*** lie to me again, Richard.
- [Richard] I'm not lying to you.
(Jon screaming profanity)
- [Jon] Is he a liar?
- [Bludso] He's a liar.
- You're a f*** liar.
- Alright.
- You are a failure man.
And I'm not sure I can fix you.
Either you're an idiot or you are a liar.
- No I'm not an idiot.
- That fryer probably ain't been cleaned
out since the early seventies.
So I'm gonna get Rich big a** in there
and get him on his knees and get that fryer
drained and cleaned out today
before we cook anything in that kitchen.
Gonna work up a sweat today.
That's all that debris in there.
Rich man, I don't think he's a kitchen guy.
I think he's been at the kitchen table
but he ain't been in the kitchen.
Gotta speed it up a little bit too, man, okay?
If she see you working a certain way
she gonna work a certain kind of way
- Jon knows things that, I don't know, like this,
you know it's, it's, it's common sense really.
(suspenseful music plays)
- So I'm gonna learn the business as best as I can
and, and, and, and, and run it correct.
What the f***?
Why is my oil dirty?
It's bull s*** you know?
- Got it cleaned up.
Okay. That's what I'm talking about right there.
Okay, let's get that oil in there, man.
Get to work.
Yeah, I heard the chicken wings is so dry
you had to eat 'em in the rain.
So, uh, we just gotta get in there.
Give him a little help.
We gonna do some fried chicken with a little
twist quick to put out in volume.
A bar food, but it's real good.
I seen the chicken that you had last night.
It was kind of horrible.
Yeah, but we finna' get down with you right now
on some real chicken wings.
We got some nice sized wings right here.
Now the chicken's been sitting overnight in buttermilk.
But the buttermilk is kind of like a,
a brine on it a little bit, okay?
Gonna seal the juices in there.
This chicken ain't dry now.
Only one can make it dry, is you.
- Yeah.
- [Bludso] You understand what I'm saying?
- [Richard] Yes.
- [Bludso] I'm not finna' show you a dry wing.
I'm finna' show you a nice juicy wing.
I like a little cayenne pepper in my fried chicken.
A little onion powder too, okay?
You gotta have a little tang to it, all right?
- [Richard] Okay.
- [Bludso] Get up in here and make it.
Get that stuff mixed in there.
The grease has to be at temperature, okay?
- The wings that we would make before
will always turn out dry.
These are really nice and juicy.
These are real wings.
Nice big size.
- Taste that, tell me what you think.
Gonna put some south in your mouth.
- [Bludso] Is that all right?
- Wow.
- [Bludso] Think you can mood those?
- All day.
- [Bludso] That's right, man.
- [Richard] The new food is amazing.
You know, my bars have always been pretty high.
In this company, they've been really low.
So it's time for me to raise up that bar and,
and, and prove to Jon that, that I can do it.
That I can make it happen.
- [Jon] How we doing?
- [Bludso] We're doing good man.
- [Jon] We good?
We open in 10 minutes okay?
- Okay.
- Let's do it.
- Abel.
- [Abel] Yeah?
- [Bludso] Reason why we got you in here man.
Cause you gonna be the one out there presenting the food.
We don't want no customers complaining
about nothing no more.
Jon wants to turn this place
into a known destination for great beer.
So today we gonna pair some great food with some great beer.
We ain't serving no raw burgers no more.
All right?
- All right.
- [Bludso] We doing a steak sandwich now.
- [Abel] Oh, okay.
- [Bludso] Easy man.
Quick. Takes about five minutes to cook.
Nice beer.
Good steak sandwich.
Don't get no better than that.
Abel, taste that steak for me man.
Tell me what you think about it.
- It's really good man.
Really good as f***.
(Bludso chuckles)
- [Abel] Going into this relaunch, I'm feeling pumped.
You know my family's good.
We're getting a new bar.
Our food is great, you know?
I'm just really excited to see how tomorrow goes.
- [Bludso] All right?
All right, then.
(intense music continues)
- [Jon] Kevin Bludso, in the world of barbecue,
there's no better.
- [Bludso] Heard You like to 'cue
and I like your attitude.
We gonna get in that kitchen and then get you ready man.
This is my baby right here.
- [John] All right.
John's barbecue, he didn't have bad barbecue.
We just had to tweak a few things.
I'm here to perfect it.
These hardworking people.
Youngstown, they deserve the best.
And that's what Rory Oak is gonna give him
from here on out.
Brisket, I just go in with some coarse back pepper
that gives me a map not to over season my brisket.
- [John] Right.
- [Bludso] So when I put kosher salt, you can see it.
- [John] Kay.
- [Bludso] Get this on the pit,
15 hours, chill out,
get a couple cocktails, go watch the cowboy game.
- [John] I like that.
(All men laughing)
- [Bludso] Didn't have brisket on the menu.
And you can make a thing with it.
We can use it for sliced brisket,
Sliced brisket sandwiches, burnt ends,
And we're using it in our baked beans.
So there's no ways, we're using the whole brisket
from the top to the bottom.
We're using it all.
- So I gotta tell you guys, this is not the greatest market.
We got a serious challenge here
to get people to come to this spot.
There's no liquor license.
Beer only.
Kev, there's no kitchen here.
- Is that right?
There's nothing, there's not a piece of stainless steel
in a whole d*** place.
- Oh wow.
- I ordered a smoker cuz I know you're coming.
- Okay, Okay.
- I need you to do some magic buddy.
- Oh no problem.
Call me Mr.Magic. I'm here for you.
This is what Jon got for you guys man,
from his friends at Cook Shack.
Got you a nice little smoker, man.
We would've put it inside, but that d*** kitchen's so small.
If you stick a key through the door
you stab everybody in there.
But it's not a oven for roasting no d*** TV dinners.
You guys gonna be pulling off works of art.
- Wow.
- I mean I can make a chicken taste like a ham.
(electric guitar riff)
- We gonna make you guys a quick sausage sandwich, okay?
What we got here y'all, we got all beef sausage.
We gonna load em up into your smoker.
- That's awesome.
- [Bludso] I'm gonna open this up, watch this smoke.
(workers chuckle and cough)
- [Bludso] Put it on there and that's it baby.
Go on about your business.
- This is huge for me man.
Seeing the smoker honestly almost brought me to tears man.
And then it did bring me tears
once he opened it with the smoke.
- I'm gonna show you how we gonna
plate these up tonight, okay?
- Okay.
- [Bludso] Those is one of your red hots, okay?
And some jalapenos right here.
Got a couple of on onions, hit it with a little sauce.
They can get it whatever they want, okay?
And that's it.
What that took every bit of five minutes?
Order up! Sausage is ready to go, nice and quick.
- Oh, it's really good.
- So tonight man, I'm gonna be back here with you.
- Okay.
- We gonna be getting these sausage out.
You still gotta kind of monitor it, this baby.
- Right.
- But this is like having two employees, okay?
- That's excellent.
- I want to see exactly how they do tonight.
Cause if you can't make a hot dog and get it out tonight
you d*** sure can't make no brisket or no chicken
or nothing like that and get that out.
Last night was pretty fun, huh?
(everyone laughs)
- Little crazy, huh?
Now it's our time to shine.
- Okay, Awesome.
- Today I'm gonna be teaching 'em how to make a
signature chicken that's perfect for this bar.
I'm gonna teach 'em how to rub it down
put it in the fridge for the next day.
Easy going.
We finna make y'all a special rub, JD.
Little seasoning salt, quarter cup of granulated garlic,
quarter cup of smoked paprika,
little JD's revenge in there, little cayenne.
- Yeah man.
- [Bludso] Lil' cumin, little turmeric, smell that.
- Oh that smells good.
- [Bludso] That's barbecue chronic.
You roll this up and you smoke it.
(workers laugh)
- Y'all put some gloves on right quick
and we gonna rub some chicken down.
I like to rub a little mustard first
and then you coming with your rub,
you can rub it down, don't be scared of it.
Chicken legs remind me, this girl in new-
Oh nevermind, I'll tell you about that later.
Season it up.
Same on the other side.
That's it, ready for the smoker.
- [JD] Wow, look at that.
- Every day you gonna load this baby
all the way up, go about your business, JD.
- Ashley can handle that chicken cuz
it's on you tomorrow.
- Woo! Bludso's chicken!
- [Bludso] Order up.
As soon as they opened up that smoker door,
the chicken just started
going off the hook right then.
- [JD] Fresh smoked chicken everybody!
- [Waitress] Chicken? Two chickens?
- [Jon] Kev!
- [Bludso] She doing good.
Unlike stress test, Ashley's back here
and she's getting these orders out.
Ash you gotta move a little quicker.
The biggest night of the year
and you moving just nonshalant.
I gotta stay on her a little bit.
You know, you gotta move quick in this kitchen.
You know I'm a big dude,
but I know how to slide in the kitchen.
- [Narrator] For the kitchen,
Jon brings in legendary pitmaster, Kevin Bludso.
Kevin can turn any culinary cadet into a barbecue captain.
- [Jon] So Kev, we're in a heart of Texas, barbecue country.
That's why I wanted you here.
So this bar is called the Brick Tavern.
And it was bought eight years ago by Charlene.
There's Charlene having a drink at the bar.
- [Bludso] Okay.
- [Jon] To her own admission, she says she went
through a midlife crisis and went and bought a bar.
- Oh wow.
- [Jon] So she's in a real estate business.
Her real estate office is next door.
It actually has a door.
It connects to the bar, believe it or not.
- Have y'all done your shot yet?
You want one?
(group laughing)
- [Jon] And then Demo is your man in the kitchen up there.
- [Bludso] Okay.
- [Jon] I mean, it looks to me like he's
used a knife before a little bit right?
- [Bludso] Yeah. He got a little skills with the knife.
- [Jon] Look at those burger patties.
- [Bludso] Alaskan burgers.
- [Jon] Right? They're all white.
They're freezer burnt.
- Yeah, yeah.
- [Bludso] What is that?
- [Jon] Barbecue sauce?
- [Bludso] Chocolate sauce?
- [Jon] Steaks sauce? What the h*** is that?
- [Bludso] Look how hard them things turn over.
Bam! Look at that, you see that bounce?
(both laugh)
- It's still frozen inside.
- Lord have mercy.
- [Bludso] Look at that, oh man.
And it's dirty.
Look at the, look at the film on the fries.
- [Jon] This place is horrendous.
Something is wrong with these fries.
What are they doing to these that makes them look that way?
- [Bludso] I don't know.
- [Jon] Look at that.
What does that say?
- [Both Bludso and Jon] 10/8!
- [Bludso] Oh my god.
- That's five weeks ago.
- Yeah.
- [Jon] So what is that?
Is that protein?
- It looked like some kind of meat.
- That looks like meat to me.
What the hell is he doing with, look at that.
That's been in that cup for a month.
If that's meat, we can't let them eat that.
- [Bludso] No way man.
- Let's go in there together and stop this.
- [Jon] This is Kevin Bludso.
The greatest barbecue chef in America.
Kevin and I were watching this on camera.
I couldn't let you serve this to somebody.
- I didn't know.
- [Jon] You didn't know?!
How long have you owned this place?
- [Charlene] Nine. Nine years or so.
- So we really, what you're saying to me is
Jon I've owned this place for nine years.
I didn't give a s*** enough to learn
and not get people sick.
In nine years!
Would you eat this?
- Wouldn't you love to see her eat it?
- Little bit.
- Yeah, let's do it.
Go ahead buddy.
Make this one for me.
I want you to eat it
- No. I'm not eating it.
- This is funny to you.
- No, it's not funny.
- I mean, it's horrible man.
I mean I, I just watch you.
I can see you move around in the kitchen.
I can tell you know a little bit about kitchen
but where's your pride, D?
You gonna serve people some old a** food like that?
You as a owner, you don't come in,
the first thing you check is check your dates or anything?
And then I seen you out there yelling at him.
Don't yell at him because you don't know what's going on.
You the owner, cuz I would be in here yelling at your a**.
You gave me that s*** served from a month ago.
What y'all think about this?
Wait a minute, why ya ain't saying nothing?
Oh my god!
These people are so lucky.
I mean, we're giving them one
of the best barbecue smoker trailers around.
The double barrel deluxe barbecue trailer from Lang.
I'm just gonna show you how we get down at Bludso's.
I just hit it with a little mustard.
The Bludso's rub.
That's ready to go on the smoker for 15 hour smoke bath.
I've been smoking brisket to break
in their pit for 15 hours.
And that's what we're gonna introduce tonight.
Things that can be done ahead of time
and you can get out quick.
Mac and cheese, some baked beans fresh today.
You understand what I mean?
- I understand.
- [Bludso] So, you know-
- I understand.
- [Bludso] Your customers are gonna just
go crazy about your food now, okay?
- [Demo] Oh, I'm giddy with excitement.
Really with looking at the new smoker out there.
I love barbecue and I'm a big fan of Kevin Bludso.
So it's honestly, it's mind blowing a little bit
because it's, it's something I've always wanted to learn
from the best but never had the chance to.
- [Bludso] Guarantee when you take that out
to your customers they gonna love that.
What's up? What's up?
- [Demo] How's it going?
- [Charlene] Hey.
- [Bludso] How you doing?
- Nice night last night.
- It was exciting
- [Bludso] For you.
You, I never even seen you back here the whole night.
Straight off the bat we know that
s*** they've been doing does not work.
- I'm gonna do the pulled pork.
- [Jon] Look at that.
What does that say?
- [Both Bludso and Jon] 10/8!
- [Bludso] Clearly no type of systems,
no type of nothing, everything was in the microwave.
Pull your phone out, put it on your stopwatch.
Gonna do your old way of a pulled pork sandwich.
You ready?
- Yep.
- Go.
I can't believe that Texans have been letting them
get away all this time with a pulled pork sandwich
that's done in a crock pot.
- 2 minute 40.
- [Bludso] We gonna give 'em some real
real barbecue that put 'em
into the fight in Texas barbecue ring.
- [Demo] That's it.
- 3 minutes, 12 seconds.
- [Bludso] Okay. Now your new pour pork sandwich.
Begin by toasting your brioche buns on the flat top.
Then add two slices of brisket or four ounces of pulled pork
on top and drizzle with barbecue sauce.
Add three ounces of cold slaw on top.
Close the lid.
This is your char bar sando.
Stop your clock.
- One minute six seconds.
- [Bludso] So now let's compare.
Which one would your customers want?
Okay, you guys wanna come try that?
- [Charlene] Yes.
- [Demo] Oh, Kevin's food was amazing.
Now I finally have something I
can be proud of and serve people.
No words gonna explain how much I love that.
(Bludso chuckles)
- [Demo] Yeah. Yeah.
- [Bludso] Okay y'all, we done prepped.
It's time for y'all to rep.
Yeah. Okay, so let's go do this.
- [Charlene] Thank you.
- These guys here, they didn't get through
it so good Kev.
- [Bludso] Yeah.
I've done a lot of 'em with you, but this is incredible.
And I, you know, I'd just lost my brother almost
two years ago and my brother was a vet
in the Navy and Marines.
- Wow.
- So I'm gonna take this one personal and do him proud
and bring some of the best barbecue
down to these people in the world.
- That's why I wanted to have you here buddy.
I'm glad you feel that way.
So take a look at this place.
So there is Marty.
- Hey Marty!
- [Bludso] Okay.
- He's the commanding officer.
- [Bludso] Okay.
- [Jon] And his wife Sue has been keyed behind the bar.
Then there's Tish, the kitchen manager
- [Bludso] Already one of my pet peeves.
She didn't cook that to a tee all the way through.
That drives me crazy.
It's rubbery-
- [Jon] Yep, doesn't have the right consistency.
- [Bludso] Yeah.
- [Jon] That meat looks pretty dry, doesn't it?
- [Bludso] We are in the desert.
(Jon laughs)
- [Bludso] Add some taco to my lettuce.
- [Jon] You know, they're not thinking of the ratios.
- [Bludso] Nah.
- [Jon] On that and a great taco
is all about the ratios of lettuce, tomato,
to cheese, to meat.
You don't get that ratio right,
no matter how good the individual ingredients are-
- [Bludso] You going bite through that
cold lettuce you can barely taste that meat.
- [Jon] Yep.
- [Customer] Thank you very much.
- [Waitress] You're welcome darling.
Did you guys order dinner?
- I think I'm scared, but-
- [Jon] All right.
So Kev, here's what I think we should do.
We know we want to do barbecue.
Obviously it's working for them.
We gotta teach 'em how to do
Bludso barbecue and do right.
- [Bludso] We do.
- [Jon] If we give 'em good food, that's hip.
- [Bludso] Yeah.
- [Jon] Right. We can make it youthful.
We can give him a decent cocktail program.
But we gotta make this place look decent, Kev.
- [Bludso] Yeah. Yeah.
- [Jon] So can you get protein, spices,
everything you need here by tomorrow?
- You ain't say nothing but a word Jonny
to be here baby. I'm ready to go.
- [Jon] Excellent.
To start this, I have two experts that I brought with me.
Come on in.
There he is.
- Oh really?
- [Jon] Do you know who he is?
- Yeah!
- Well if you know anything about barbecue in America
you know who Kevin Bludso is.
So I'm talking about doing some world class barbecue
and Kevin has agreed to put his name on it.
So you can say you have Kevin Bludso barbecue here.
(family excitedly talking)
- People will come from miles for his barbecue.
I've seen it!
- Let me just say thank you for your service
and I am so honored to be here.
- [Bludso] What's up y'all?
- How we doing?
- How you doing? You good?
- Oh yeah, we're good.
- [Bludso] I know you see this
beautiful gift that Bar Rescue and Lang
sent you guys, anybody that knows barbecue
knows how Lane gets down.
They make some of the best smokers around.
So we are setting these people up.
Bludso's brisket is a staple.
You guys are gonna have access to my brisket rub.
That's, I'm gonna be sendin' in.
In fact, I'm gonna set you guys up for six months, on me.
- [Worker] Nice.
- [Bludso] Cause I like y'all so much, all right?
- That's awesome.
- [Bludso] I like to get the sides and everything too.
We're about to put these on for about
a 15 hour smoke bath, fat side up.
- [Worker] Okay.
- [Bludso] You know you want that fat
to render down in that meat.
So we got your briskets going.
That's only the first step.
- Right?
- [Bludso] Got a few more tricks of the trade.
I'm gonna show you guys.
We gonna get in this kitchen.
So y'all gonna be ready to go baby.
- All righty. Thank you.
- Awesome!
- [Bludso] The good thing about barbecue is
that you can do ahead of time.
This brisket was done on your smoker last night.
I broke your d*** smoker in for you.
And see this, it's still gonna be juicy.
Yeah, cuts like butter.
- Just glistens.
- [Bludso] Little Mac on there.
Get some fries on there.
Warm sauce, I can't stand no cold a** sauce on my barbecue.
That's your signature.
Low and slow like post 54.
- [Worker] Yep.
- [Bludso] Y'all ready to dig in that?
- [Workers] Oh yeah.
- That flavor isn't that good.
- That is the best brisket I've ever had.
- [Bludso] And it was done right here.
- I think this is done to put us on the map
for about a a thousand miles around.
That food was totally awesome.
It looked like a piece of art.
I have never had such good brisket in my entire life.
I can't believe it, it was cooked here.
(electric guitar riff)
- Hi, this is John Taffer.
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