Reid Guess in Texas Monthly Magazine
Anyone lucky enough to taste Guess Family Barbeque in the past year knew the best secret in smoked meats wouldn’t last long. After pitmaster Reid Guess received a favorable review from Texas Monthly’s barbeque editor, Daniel Vaughn, this past May, his star took a turn upward. It reached a new benchmark with Reid’s designation as “Newcomer of the Year” for this November’s Texas Monthly BBQ Fest and, if past performance indicates future success, that star will keep on rising. Reid joined me on Downtown Depot in June to discuss his history working behind a smoker, plans for his big restaurant, and more; the transcript from his interview with Daniel Vaughn in this month’s Texas Monthly magazine is below.
“Texas Monthly: How’s the barbecue business in Waco?
Reid Guess: It’s been raining every day this week, so it’s nice and cool. I’ve been in the shop next to our barbecue trailer building a smoker. I do the rib shift at night, so I weld and cook ribs at the same time. It’s a garage with doors on only one side, so it’s been super hot in there until this week. I’m trying to finish it up.
TM: What are you planning to use that smoker for?
RG: I’m building this for a customer, which is something I’ve never done before. The project is funding three smokers for my next restaurant, which we’re really excited about.
TM: What’s the next restaurant?
RG: It’ll also be called Guess Family Barbecue. It’ll be in a 7,000-square-foot building at Sixth and Columbus, about three blocks down Sixth Street from where we are now. We’re gunning for an opening around the first of the year.
TM: What do we have to look forward to on the menu at the new restaurant?
RG: We’re definitely going to have the classic barbecue menu and the classic sides. We’re also going to offer steaks—we’re working with 44 Farms. We’re also going to have seafood like shrimp and grits. We’re trying to get stuff to Waco that hasn’t been here before.
TM: You worked at Lambert’s in Austin. It sounds like the menu is going to be set up similarly with classic barbecue along with a whole lot of grilled meats.
RG: Exactly. Our entire kitchen is wood fired. I don’t know if you know Grills by Demant, but they’re doing our whole range. If a sauté pan goes down, it’s going over fire, but we’re used to that. I still don’t have a commissary kitchen for the trailer, so everything we make is over fire. It’s serious cowboy cooking out here. I have grills and setups for everything we need to cook. We’re staying all-the-way true to wood-fired cooking.
TM: That’s got to make it harder to train newly hired cooks who might not be used to that.
RG: It is, because the skill level isn’t there, but the good part is that it’s something different. It adds a bit of interest and hopefully will draw people who are excited about cooking here. We’re building a kitchen for cooks, not just to serve the diners in the restaurant. I think in this town, the cooks are gonna need a little more. They’re gonna need another reason to be excited about their job. We want to cultivate something here and hopefully the wood-fired kitchen and that pretty smoke room is going to help us do that.
TM: Didn’t I just see that you announced a new trailer in the line up?
RG: Yes, we’re up to four now. The new one is full-sized with every cooking apparatus in it. We’re able to offer a bigger menu for fall festivals and stuff coming up.
TM: What’s going to happen to all those food trucks you’ve got once the restaurant opens?
RG: We’re going to have a big sale or something. We’ll keep the big one we just bought for catering, and may keep the original one for catering as well. As for Koko Ramen, we’ll finally have a proper commissary kitchen for it inside Guess Family Barbecue, so that will become a lot easier to operate.
TM: You’ll be coming to the barbecue festival this year in the midst of ongoing construction at the restaurant. That’ll be a challenge, but can you give us some hint at what you plan to serve at the festival?
RG: Cade [Mercer, the chef at Koko Ramen] and I have talked extensively about what we’re going to bring. I told him I want it to be special and something people will remember. We need to bring something that proves to everyone that we deserve to be there. We don’t know exactly what we’re going to do, but we’ve already started testing things. I went to Hot Luck this year, to the Saturday night Al Fuego event. That night really got something going for me. I loved how some of those cookers were specifically designed for the item that was being cooked. We’ve got a lot of ideas, but we know it’s coming. It’s about time to decide.
TM: You have cooked at the festival before, correct?
RG: I have. I went to two as a sous chef at Lambert’s, and I went to one with my name up there on the banner for Lambert’s.
TM: You’ve cooked at the festival at Lambert’s, but now you’re coming with our own business. What does it feel like to be recognized for your work this early on at Guess Family Barbecue?
RG: It feels incredible. It feels like we’re doing it right. We had a goal to get on [the Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ list], and hopefully we’re still on track for that. For any barbecue cook to be invited to that festival, it’s incredible, and I still can’t believe it. I’ve said it to my business partner and my wife—that November 4 date will be the pinnacle of my career so far.”