[Upbeat music]
[Pit Master Roy Perez] I've been here 32 years.
Way back before my time, this was where all the cattle trails were.
And they'd pass by here. And they'd stop here and then they have a - slaughter the cattle here.
History goes way back, as opposed to today. It's all - they make it seem like it's scientific. You know,
"You, oh, you got to cut it this way" or "you got to do this" or "you gotta..." When it's real simple. Just salt
and pepper, a little cayenne, put it in the pit, take it out. No wrapping. We don't we don't wrap anything.
And we know how many we need for the day. Just like I said, it's real simplicity.
We cook pork chops, pork ribs, beef ribs, pork belly, chicken, turkey. Most popular here is your sausage and your brisket.
On a Saturday, we cook around 100 briskets. So the way we cook here, it's... it's...it's a lot higher heat
than normal places. Everybody's low and slow. We cook a little bit hotter. They trim their
briskets, we don't. We trim on the block.
So when you have your briskets, we...we flip them, and we rotate them so that they all get cooked within that high heat.
And there's different levels inside the pit on... on where it's hotter on certain spots.
[Pit Master Roy Perez] When I first started, pork chops were our big thing.
More people started getting here and they're asking for more other things.
So we added pork ribs. And everybody kind of forgot about the pork chops because it's - our pork ribs are good. Beef ribs are good.
And now, like the pork chops, people that have never heard of it because all they hear is
pork ribs, pork ribs, pork ribs,
and they'll be looking at somebody else that's been coming here for 10, 15 years....
"What's that that he's eating?" And I said, "That's a pork chop." Woooooow.
When i first started 32 years ago, on a Saturday, we'd do about maybe 100 shoulder clods
as opposed - which is the lean shoulder - as opposed to maybe 20 briskets.
Then 10 to 15 years ago, it flip-flopped. Now, we put out about a hundred briskets as opposed to
maybe 20 clods. When i first put chicken here "I'm gonna burn it," or I'm gonna do that, but I said, "Roy.....
Just think of it as it's your brisket. It's .... it might be smaller, but use the same process you
know. You'll turn it when you're supposed to. Don't just let it sit there and let it burn."
So... But it's been fun to cook things that I didn't think I was ever gonna cook. And it's...it's like
I said, "Have you learned everything you can in the 32 years you've been here?" So, no, every day, it's a learning process.
There's no gauges - uh - thermometers. You really don't use them. It's
all feel. You know, there's a pen that we use. A meat pen. And when we put it inside the brisket,
we can tell if it's done, how much longer we're going to need. Even by look, you can tell. We also
slice, too. So, when you're slicing, you can tell how much - how done - a brisket is, if it needs more time. If it doesn't need more time
[Pit Master Roy Perez] Barbecue is big now. And, to me, it's something that I love. But I also....
The people that were here before me, they didn't have the luxury of cameras, uh...
facebook, the internet....I owe those people that were here before me that didn't have that privilege
that I'm having now. So....
I think it's a little bit different than other smaller restaurants. Like, we have to cook for a larger scale,
so we have to stay consistent with the larger scale of barbecue. You know, you're talking 100 briskets, 30 clods, 10 racks of pork chops, you know, and we got to stay
consistent every day with the amount of customers that we have, you know. So, in a food truck you're
limited to, you know, four briskets, but we have to do 100 briskets and stay consistent with flavor
and taste. And that's where Roy comes in, you know. Roy's a good guy, real humble, you know. He doesn't.....
You know, he's famous, but he acts like he's not. And he just he's a normal guy to himself, but he's ... he's up there.
You think of Kreuz Market, you think of Roy. His side burns.
[Pit Master Roy Perez] I want you to go home full and happy. And, you know, you sit down at the table and you start talking to the guy in front of you
and, "Oh, where are you from?" "Oh, what got you here?"
Because when you come here, you're in my backyard
[Upbeat country music]
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