That's nice!
Feel like it's just raining pastrami all over.
[Narrator] Burt Bakman has been running
Trudy's Underground Barbecue out of backyards
around Los Angeles since 2017.
The operation had to be run underground
due to various laws the city had put in place.
As demand grew, so did the business,
and Burt has finally opened a legit restaurant
so everyone can enjoy his barbecue.
INSIDER did a video on Burt and his secret barbecue
back in 2018, and now we're here to see
how he's doing in this new restaurant space.
We opened in the end of November 2018,
exactly two years after we thought
we were gonna open originally.
Opening was crazy.
It was exciting.
It was very emotional.
You know, I realized right before we opened
that the backyard days are over,
that it's now gonna be a different experience
for me and for everybody else who's coming,
and there's more pressure now
than ever to deliver good barbecue, right Mama?
People no longer have to worry
if they're at the right place or not.
Now we're on 3rd Street, bringing Texas barbecue to LA.
I definitely miss being in the backyard.
You know, it was a different kind of party.
My first day here, I thought I was pooped,
I was done on our first day, and then it hit me
that we have to actually do this again for the next day.
So where in the backyards
I would get a break of a week or so, here there's no breaks.
Also it's not just me. I have a whole crew over here
that I'm hoping will embrace this state of mind of barbecue
and will have the same vision that I have, that we have,
that will take us in the right direction.
This is Red.
Red is not only funny and super handsome,
he's also available.
Shut up you. Get outta here!
People have been by the backyard,
and people have been by here.
I think that the brisket is very, very similar,
and even some people said that it's actually,
they liked it even better here
than they did in the backyard.
The difference is that now our smokers
are very efficient and precise.
I wanna rub this all over myself.
It's amazing.
Mm.
I can't describe the flavor.
That's like the filet mignon of a rib.
Unbelievable.
Beautiful.
We came all the way from London for this,
and it's fantastic.
We do competition barbecue back in Australia,
and it's becoming bigger and bigger every year,
which is great.
We're out here on our honeymoon,
and we thought we'd do a Texas road trip,
but part of that, we got word from back home
to check out Slab, and we thought
we'd make sure we put it on our itinerary.
[Burt] You sit here at night cooking
and looking for certain sweat on the meat,
a certain color, certain glisten, a certain fat drop.
The barbecue will talk to you if you listen.
It's a state of mind.
Barbecue's a state of mind.
So I actually followed him on Instagram for about a year,
and then through Instagram I heard that
he was opening up this place, and I had to check it out.
[Producer] What do you guys think?
- Awesome. - Great.
- Really good. - Slabalicious.
[Burt] Again, barbecue is not a competition.
It is not a competition.
You only compete with yourself.
How's the coleslaw?
What's going on?
It's good.
It's good?
You should bring me a spoon to taste, no?
Thank you, Chef.
Not bad for an 8-year-old.
[Producer] How do you think your dad did?
This was what he made in the backyard, so.
[Producer] Make you happy?
It's the OG.
[Producer] Burt, the restaurant's full.
What do you think?
It's pretty amazing, no?
You know, you came to the backyard.
The backyard was busy.
Now we're at the restaurant on 3rd Street.
We're busy here.
We don't know what the future will bring.
Maybe we'll be busy in other states,
in other cities, in other countries.
But it's amazing, it's great.
This is exactly what barbecue is.
The sun's out, music's playing,
people are sitting, eating together.
There's a barbecue spirit right here.
Meet Burt Bakman.
He found success at the ripe old age of 193.