"Everybody Eats" New Jersey-Style BBQ

00:04
[Music]

00:21
[Applause]

00:24
until i hit the stage

00:30
what's up everybody mike cam here with

00:31
another episode of greetings from the

00:33
garden state podcast we're here at daddy

00:34
maddie's barbecue in madison new jersey

00:36
we got daddy maddie himself matt james

00:38
here with us matt welcome thank you

00:40
thank you for having me thank you for

00:41
having me this is my first ever outdoor

00:44
podcast so it's going to maybe present

00:46
some interesting challenges but who

00:48
could pass up this fence this fence is

00:49
phenomenal well the fence is great the

00:51
the outdoor concept is something that we

00:53
were always

00:54
meaning to do as part of the restaurant

00:57
right and uh one of the few benefits of

00:59
covid is that it kicked us outside and

01:01
accelerated our need to uh finish off

01:04
this space right which i think the space

01:05
is awesome and we're gonna get into the

01:07
type of stuff that you guys do back here

01:08
but i think it's so cool that you know

01:10
like that's the smoker right there yeah

01:12
right so you're cooking right there

01:14
people are eating out here and i think

01:15
it just kind of it works well absolutely

01:17
well we really have a lot of fun with it

01:19
and it allows us to be very interactive

01:21
with our clientele which uh during the

01:24
first six to eight months of covet it

01:25
was sort of the opposite right the

01:27
hospitality business turned into the

01:29
don't touch me don't talk to me yeah

01:31
leave it in my trunk business right i

01:32
would pull up over here and you would

01:34
just kind of throw it through my

01:35
passenger window i remember like that

01:37
happened probably like four or five

01:38
times yeah you know so i mean i am a

01:40
patron of daddy maddie's i'll just put

01:42
that out there full disclosure um and

01:43
it's phenomenal so let's talk about your

01:46
background sure perfect there's a leaf

01:48
blower going on now this could not have

01:51
been more perfectly time we take our

01:53
five-minute break let's take a

01:53
five-minute break

01:54
[Laughter]

02:02
[Music]

02:05
all right so after a brief uh leaf

02:08
blower intermission we're right back

02:10
here we haven't taken any breaks yet but

02:11
this was our first break um that's why

02:13
there's now a quesadilla next to the

02:15
next to us which i will eat in the ear

02:17
of all of our listeners obviously yes

02:19
because it's so good well and we also we

02:21
try to bribe anybody who comes here to

02:22
interview us so that we get you know the

02:23
good word in exactly of course yeah no i

02:25
totally understand that um so we're

02:27
going to talk about your background so

02:28
let's learn more about your background

02:30
have you always been a barbecue guy or

02:32
is this something that's relatively new

02:33
you know it's funny i've always been a

02:35
cook um

02:36
and not so much a chef but a cook and i

02:39
was always a cook because it was cheaper

02:41
to

02:42
cook for girls in college than to take

02:44
them on dates and so i that's i started

02:47
with that as sort of a working

02:49
thesis and then

02:51
as i've as i've gotten older i've loved

02:53
to you know host parties and you know

02:55
with my family and our backyard and and

02:57
so on and so forth and i don't know

02:58
maybe about 10 years ago i'm on a flight

03:01
and uh this guy's just ranting and

03:04
raving about the wonders of you know

03:06
smoking food and all this stuff and

03:08
growing up in colorado that wasn't a

03:10
super normal thing but we did a lot of

03:12
sort of hot barbecue outdoor charcoal

03:14
type of type of grilling and i enjoyed

03:16
it

03:17
so for about

03:18
three years i asked my wife on father's

03:20
day for a smoker and for three years i

03:22
got a tie

03:23
and on the fourth year

03:25
i went to uh i grabbed my family we went

03:28
to uh

03:30
hardware store and i bought a smoker and

03:32
i looked at them and i said thank you

03:33
that was a very nice father's day gift

03:36
what was the first i think that's that's

03:37
it right there the kettle one yeah okay

03:39
the r2d2 looking deal yeah right and uh

03:42
so i started cooking food for the

03:43
neighborhood and for friends and family

03:45
and

03:47
after a while somebody said you know you

03:48
might want to look at catering

03:51
and i thought that's a terrible idea but

03:53
you know it's on my bucket list so let's

03:55
give it a go so i started catering for

03:57
friends and family but i didn't want to

04:00
uh

04:01
i didn't want to on the one hand charge

04:03
too little so that i didn't know whether

04:05
the food was any good right and get into

04:07
a business and and have find out that

04:09
everybody was just placating right

04:11
it's cheap so we're gonna get it exactly

04:12
yeah um also i didn't want to charge i

04:15
felt badly about charging friends to be

04:18
basically my test subjects so the

04:22
the

04:23
calculus i sort of arrived at was i'll

04:25
charge a premium so that i know that

04:28
people are buying the food because they

04:29
like it yeah but i'll take anything

04:32
above the cost of the food and donate it

04:34
to the interfaith food pantry up in

04:36
morristown okay so

04:38
after the first year of doing that i

04:40
ended up donating like five thousand

04:42
dollars to the interfaith food pantry

04:44
which is

04:44
a testament to all of the people that

04:46
helped me you know get started yeah yeah

04:48
and uh

04:50
and that was and and it had that you

04:52
know sort of give back um element that i

04:54
wanted this business to always have

04:56
right and so we've done various things

04:58
with

04:59
the food pantry and with um other we

05:02
always sponsor a baseball team we

05:04
sponsor the mountain biking league we

05:06
just sponsored the um suicide prevention

05:09
walk um

05:10
as as

05:12
the ptos of all the schools know i'm you

05:15
know i'm a never say no kind of guy and

05:17
so yeah they you know we end up always

05:18
trying to help them with whatever we can

05:20
as well

05:21
um but while i was building this i was

05:24
still working at my day job which is in

05:26
finance okay and so this became my you

05:29
know for a good long while my 80 hour a

05:31
week side hustle yeah

05:33
yeah which is interesting it must be an

05:35
interesting dynamic because

05:36
you know finance you put that in your

05:38
head you're probably in a suit and tie

05:40
you know and yeah

05:41
yeah right and this you're dressed kind

05:42
of like we are jeans shorts t-shirts

05:44
whatever smelling like smoke because i

05:47
mean i i have my own smoker i have a

05:48
little uh

05:50
pit barrel yeah so i make you know ribs

05:52
and stuff like that in there and i

05:53
always smell and i love it girlfriend

05:55
hates it but that's just that's me

05:56
that's just me i love it yeah when i

05:58
first started in the house um

06:01
it would you know when you're using

06:02
these charcoal smokers yeah you know you

06:04
get to a point you're just like i'm too

06:05
tired to stay up all night and so i'd

06:07
you know take the take whatever i was

06:09
cooking bring it in put it in the oven

06:11
you know at 200 and my wife just used to

06:14
just be so aggrieved by that whole

06:16
process it's like i get up every morning

06:18
and it smells like meat come on what's

06:20
going on right um the other thing too

06:23
when you're you go down this path you

06:25
buy that first smoker did you just kind

06:27
of like go head first into learning a

06:30
lot yeah were there cookbooks where

06:32
they're no it was always just trial and

06:33
error

06:34
i mean there was you know there's some

06:36
youtubing there's some you know just

06:37
trying to learn um you know watching

06:40
aaron franklin videos or whatever how to

06:42
trim a brisket how to prep but

06:44
everything that we've that i've that

06:46
i've done

06:47
in barbecue is is completely a function

06:49
of trial and error yeah and so

06:51
um and anybody who's done barbecue

06:54
seriously knows that like brisket is

06:56
like the hardest thing to sort of master

06:58
still i've never cooked a good brisket

07:00
myself yeah and uh and you know and i

07:02
burned a lot of briskets and made a lot

07:04
of mistakes yeah um it's it's just part

07:07
of the process yeah i think that's part

07:09
of the reason you don't see a lot of

07:10
chain barbecue places is that it takes

07:13
just so much passion and so much

07:14
attention right and there's not really a

07:17
way to replicate that on mass and and

07:20
you know sort of take out the

07:21
possibility for error right and i feel

07:23
like the like you said i mean the the

07:24
chain barbecue type places are the ones

07:27
that you don't really want to eat at

07:28
anyway yeah you know so yeah yeah that's

07:30
why i like places like this because it's

07:31
like you know who's cooking it so yeah

07:33
you're right here yeah see you unless

07:35
you don't like it and then it's not me

07:36
right well that's what i was telling

07:38
alex your social media manager before in

07:40
full disclosure and we're gonna get real

07:42
here for a second when i first came here

07:44
i was not a fan yeah um then i think you

07:47
guys closed for a couple months i think

07:49
it was like maybe either right before

07:50
covet or durian yeah it was right before

07:53
yeah and um i remember this was the

07:56
first place that i went to for takeout

07:58
like during covid yeah and i just like i

08:00
said before you threw it through my

08:03
driver's my passenger side window i took

08:05
it home and i was just like blown away

08:07
i'm like this place is awesome now and

08:10
it was just like you know everything was

08:12
so good i got like the sampler because i

08:13
just wanted to try everything because

08:14
that's just me and i'm you know a heavy

08:16
set fellow um but uh but yeah so i mean

08:19
that's that just you know as a kudos to

08:21
you i mean i think that the quality of

08:22
the stuff i mean we're eating it right

08:24
here you could see it on the video right

08:25
there i mean it's off the charts i mean

08:27
i think it's so good i appreciate that

08:29
and and you know i mean in in all candor

08:32
uh we started this restaurant in 2018

08:35
sort of by accident yeah so we moved

08:37
into this site where we are right now

08:40
we thought that we were just going to be

08:41
catering and subletting a kitchen from

08:43
another restaurant yeah and the other

08:45
restaurant decided not to go forward and

08:47
by that time we were sort of as they say

08:48
half pregnant right so

08:51
we tried for a while to just do events

08:53
and

08:54
um in catering but it's just so lumpy it

08:57
was hard to to maintain a staff right

08:59
and

09:00
so about may of 2018

09:04
um

09:05
as they say we accidentally opened i was

09:07
actually at a pig roast uh off-site

09:11
and my business partner at the time was

09:13
here and somebody came in the door and

09:15
you know we had it set up for an event

09:17
so there were tables and chairs and

09:18
everything and that person came in and

09:20
they said oh do you mind if we just eat

09:22
here and you know the answer when you're

09:24
a small business is always yes yeah

09:25
right yeah you'll figure it out so right

09:27
right so any anyway while i was away at

09:29
this pig roast um she ended up you know

09:32
basically selling all the food in the

09:33
house and the place was full all day

09:36
yeah and we had no capacity no

09:37
understanding how to run a restaurant at

09:39
that point

09:40
and i was so you know i remember pulling

09:42
up and uh she was standing on the back

09:44
porch here just exhausted

09:46
and i'm like what's up and she's like

09:48
yeah we accidentally opened

09:50
so

09:51
that was sort of how we started and when

09:53
we first started i was real concerned

09:55
about getting the food right

09:57
i mean always i'm concerned about that

09:58
but getting the food right get making

10:00
consistent making sure that the customer

10:02
experience was good so when we opened it

10:04
was sort of like shhh we're open yeah

10:06
yeah right you know you want to be

10:08
inundated with people and not be able to

10:09
handle it and social media is so

10:10
powerful these days you know you get a

10:13
few people that come in and and give you

10:15
bad reviews and and and at that time i

10:17
think since covet people are more

10:20
cognizant of the reviews they give and

10:22
less capricious about them yeah

10:25
um but certainly in 2018 2019 they were

10:28
not right and uh i you know i thought

10:31
let's let's just try to do our best yeah

10:33
and then we'll try to figure out the

10:35
money thing after that yeah um i've had

10:37
a lot of like professional restaurant

10:39
tourists go no that's backwards

10:41
yeah they're probably right but uh

10:43
the uh

10:45
you know and and so to get back to your

10:46
point about 2019

10:48
um

10:49
that business partner decided to go do

10:51
something else and i went through sort

10:53
of a series of management in 2019 trying

10:56
to figure things out and by the end of

10:58
2019 i was completely burned out yeah

11:01
and

11:02
um and i closed yep i just i remember

11:05
thanksgiving that year was so miserable

11:07
for me and i got up the next morning and

11:10
i'm like

11:11
this isn't why i'm in this

11:13
so if i don't want to do it yeah you

11:14
know i'm i'm grown up then don't do it

11:17
and so i did i closed in

11:20
right after thanksgiving in 2019

11:22
um and then another friend of mine

11:25
said that she would come on and and sort

11:27
of help me get things back off the you

11:29
know when you when you close that first

11:31
time was it with the intention that you

11:33
were going to be just like done

11:35
time to figure it out or was the

11:37
intention to try to like rework

11:38
everything everything was on the table

11:40
okay everything was on the table yeah

11:42
you know part of it was maybe i just

11:43
walk away you know cut my losses hey i

11:46
did it yeah um but i still didn't feel

11:48
like we'd gotten to a potential to a

11:50
point of potential where i felt like we

11:52
had

11:53
done our best right or where i had done

11:55
my best i always tend to put things in

11:56
the royal wii yeah um

11:58
and so

12:00
i

12:01
when we closed

12:02
i i just sort of allowed myself to just

12:06
you know to say all right do i just want

12:07
to go back to finance and just do that

12:09
yeah and you know to my kids were older

12:12
at that time my you know the nice thing

12:13
about

12:14
about um

12:16
about being in a small community and

12:18
being able to work remotely i wasn't

12:20
working in new york city anymore um was

12:22
that i got to be a dad i got to coach

12:24
baseball i got to be the head of the cub

12:25
scouts all those sorts of things

12:27
and my kids by that time were were sort

12:29
of out of that right and so i thought

12:32
you know i have the time to do this do i

12:34
think i can do it well and more

12:35
importantly do i think i can find the

12:36
right people to come and help me do it

12:38
yeah um

12:40
and luckily a person um i think luckily

12:42
we'll see

12:44
you know uh a person walked through the

12:45
door at that moment and she she agreed

12:47
to come on and help me now she is she

12:50
has since gone um with no acrimony she

12:53
decided to go be a mom and uh so that's

12:55
what she's doing we actually spoke

12:56
earlier today right so uh but uh in any

13:00
event it it really helped me get my head

13:02
back around what we needed to be doing

13:04
right and

13:05
ironically um

13:07
we were going to reopen the restaurant

13:09
in april of 2020 and then covet hit and

13:12
right kind of put the everything was in

13:14
the bash on that for a little bit and

13:16
everything was in the air yeah um and so

13:18
just so people that are listening that

13:19
may not be familiar with the menu what

13:21
are some things that you offer like what

13:23
are like your staples yeah so we do so

13:25
we started as a traditional barbecue

13:27
place but being from colorado that

13:28
tradition isn't you know say north

13:30
carolina or texas or whatever we sort of

13:33
call it vagabond style because i've sort

13:34
of banged around all over the world and

13:36
so it's got influences um that are

13:38
different all the recipes are are ours

13:41
um

13:42
they're everything here is homemade uh

13:44
so

13:45
you know we do all the barbecue staples

13:48
brisket pulled pork

13:49
baby back ribs

13:51
smoked turkey smoked sausage uh pulled

13:54
chicken

13:55
but then being from colorado and being

13:58
you know out here on the east coast

13:59
there's a dearth of really good you know

14:01
sort of mexican style food yeah and

14:04
i would always just cook it for my

14:05
family at home because we couldn't go

14:07
and get it anywhere right and so we also

14:09
introduced sort of a whole section of

14:10
the menu that's sort of mexican inspired

14:13
yeah yeah colorado style

14:14
mexican-inspired is what we call it

14:16
right so we do

14:17
but but it's still got that barbecue

14:19
theme so we do like brisket burritos

14:21
brisket chimichangas pulled pork tacos

14:23
on navajo fried bread okay um

14:26
chili riannos that are stuffed hatch

14:28
green chilies that we actually get sent

14:30
to us we get about 25 pounds a month

14:33
okay of hatch green chili sent to us

14:35
from new mexico every month awesome and

14:36
so we make the pork green chili with

14:38
that which is our stew and then our

14:41
and then our chili pianos as well

14:43
and we're probably looking to expand

14:45
that menu a little bit i don't want to

14:47
get too far all over the place yeah and

14:49
i like i like to cook a lot of things

14:51
and right when we cater i always tell

14:53
customers if i think i can cook it well

14:55
then i'll do it even if it's not on the

14:56
menu right um but for the restaurant i

14:59
think we've got to be have some

15:00
consistency so it's sort of

15:02
sort of it's a barbecue infused mexican

15:04
with sort of a colorado twist and um and

15:07
then more traditional barbecue albeit

15:10
my tradition daddy maddie style yeah

15:12
that's what it is daddy manny style

15:14
exactly that's awesome um all right

15:15
sweet so we're you know we've gone a

15:17
little bit longer than this first

15:18
segment than i thought we were gonna

15:19
which is fine um so we're gonna take a

15:21
quick break uh we're here at daddy

15:22
maddie's barbecue in madison new jersey

15:24
i'm mike hamm this is the greetings from

15:26
the garden state podcast we're here with

15:27
uh daddy maddie himself matt james uh

15:29
we'll be right back

15:33
it is time for today in new jersey

15:35
history on november 22nd 1950 stephen

15:38
van zandt was born in massachusetts and

15:40
from the age of seven was raised in

15:42
middletown new jersey he co-founded

15:44
south side johnny on the asbury jukes

15:46
prior to joining bruce springsteen and

15:47
the e street band plus who can forget

15:50
his solo career with little stephen and

15:51
the disciples of seoul his xm radio

15:54
station and his roles as silvio dante

15:55
and the sopranos and frank tagliano on

15:58
lillyhammer and that is today in new

16:00
jersey history

16:03
all right welcome back to the greetings

16:05
from the garden state podcast i'm mike

16:06
hamm we're here with daddy maddie matt

16:08
james here at daddy maddie's barbecue in

16:10
madison new jersey uh so we kind of got

16:12
a background on you we got a background

16:13
on the restaurant kind of how you got to

16:15
where you are today was sitting here

16:17
with me in your backyard of your

16:18
restaurant with this cool fence on this

16:20
red picnic table everything's so cool

16:22
i'm very excited to be here um if you

16:24
can't tell but

16:25
you do some things that go beyond just

16:28
cooking barbecue

16:29
so like every time i go on instagram

16:32
i see events or events coming up or

16:35
events that you know for whatever reason

16:37
i can't make it but i want to um but uh

16:40
which you know the barbecue competition

16:41
i will come next year and i will win it

16:43
i'm telling it you heard it here first

16:46
um but uh but yeah so my competition

16:48
team might think differently but that's

16:50
okay i don't care

16:51
i'm taking everybody down um but uh but

16:53
yeah so let's talk about some of those

16:54
events that you do um just to kind of

16:56
maybe connect more with the community or

16:58
kind of add some different uh stuff to

17:00
maybe just being like a traditional we

17:02
do barbecue and that's it sure sure so

17:04
when i started this because it was my

17:06
side hustle i wanted it to be mission

17:08
driven as much as it's um

17:10
as much as it's food driven yeah and

17:13
um so as i mentioned i think in in the

17:15
intro we've done stuff with the food

17:16
pantry and and various other

17:18
organizations around town to try to be

17:20
helpful

17:21
but the other thing we wanted to do is

17:22
try to make this a fun place to be

17:25
and so we thought there are good

17:27
opportunities to throw basically a party

17:30
but have them you know sort of be themed

17:32
parties so every year we do mardi gras

17:35
for instance

17:36
and i did a lot of work in

17:38
new orleans in my day job after

17:40
hurricane katrina

17:42
financing projects for rebuilding the

17:44
gulf coast and so

17:46
as as a person who had to spend a lot of

17:48
time in new orleans um i i love the food

17:52
and i love to i love to cook the food so

17:54
once a year we do a mardi gras you

17:56
mentioned the barbecue competition

17:58
um we've held uh four competitions total

18:02
since we opened and basically it's just

18:04
an open yeah um we just throw it out to

18:06
anybody who wants to come and cook with

18:08
us right and uh we get

18:10
community members to come and and be our

18:13
um you know be the judges for the

18:15
competition yeah um we give away little

18:17
prizes we provide you know some of the

18:19
food to the competitors so that they

18:20
don't have to incur the cost

18:22
um and then we just provide a forum for

18:24
everybody to just have fun yeah um we've

18:27
had every year we've done it we've had

18:29
competition like uh kcbs competition

18:32
style teams that have showed up yeah as

18:34
well as just backyard you know guys guys

18:37
who just want to throw down and have fun

18:38
and you know yeah drink some drink you

18:41
know drink some bourbon listen to some

18:42
music i would be in that in that camp

18:44
for sure yeah as as you know as i mean

18:46
that's where i started so yeah it's uh

18:49
the only thing between a professional

18:50
and a not professional is just time yeah

18:54
exactly if you got time to do it then do

18:55
it yeah um so was that something that i

18:58
know you said that that was the mindset

19:00
at the beginning but were you doing

19:01
those types of things when you first

19:02
opened or was it because you were trying

19:04
to manage the business so much that

19:05
maybe those kind of things kind of took

19:06
a back seat to making sure that the food

19:08
and the quality and the connection with

19:09
the customers was good we always tried

19:11
to throw special events um you know

19:14
we've we've done mardi gras i think

19:15
every year since we've opened we've done

19:17
um we do

19:19
probably a twice a year

19:22
blues and bourbon uh tasting event here

19:25
um as an example that's always gone over

19:28
really well i think we've sold out every

19:29
year um

19:31
we try to sort of keep things

19:32
interesting um and so

19:35
there's not

19:36
there's not a lot of variety in new

19:38
jersey when it comes to you know sort of

19:40
events and things and so we think that

19:42
that's something that's additive to our

19:43
business and it's a lot of fun yeah

19:45
candidly right especially like i feel

19:47
you know um

19:49
as we kind of pull through the last

19:51
couple years and now we're here and

19:53
you're doing stuff outside i mean

19:55
there's so many places that do outside

19:56
dining yeah but like how do you separate

19:58
yourself from everybody else that's

19:59
doing outside dining i mean every time i

20:00
turn on instagram there's an instagram

20:02
live from daddy matty's instagram

20:03
account with live music going on it

20:05
feels like every single day that i turn

20:06
it on there's somebody here playing

20:08
something yeah whether it's an open mic

20:10
night whether it's a band whether it's

20:11
whatever there's always something going

20:13
on here which i think is awesome music

20:15
has been a real theme um for for those

20:18
of us for those of my customers that

20:20
were here before we closed in 2019 we

20:22
had you know one of the walls in the

20:25
restaurant was just albums

20:27
um and you know we've we've been

20:30
musically focused since the beginning

20:32
also in 2019 we we did a

20:34
music fest um where we had we invited

20:36
local bands and i think we got 11 11

20:38
bands total to come play from like one

20:41
in the afternoon until 10 o'clock at

20:42
night yeah and uh it you know those are

20:46
the types of things that i find fun yeah

20:48
and uh and i always want people to think

20:51
when they come and sit down here that

20:52
they've basically come to my house yeah

20:55
and you know it's the same sort of vibe

20:57
that i want to be giving you're here

20:58
you're not at some

21:00
you know stuffy restaurant which i don't

21:01
think we could pull off anyway

21:03
but uh

21:04
but i don't think that this this checks

21:06
out yeah right

21:07
yeah

21:08
white tablecloths would look a little

21:09
out of place

21:10
but uh yeah but it's crystal stemware

21:13
yeah yeah exactly

21:14
but the uh you know the idea is is like

21:17
you know if you if you didn't

21:18
necessarily know me but you know you

21:20
came to a party at my house and you know

21:22
there's that sort of vibe and all the

21:24
staff that works here um

21:26
super friendly it's it's probably

21:28
a bigger condition to working here to be

21:32
super friendly than it is to have a ton

21:34
of experience right so

21:36
talk to me also about you know maybe in

21:38
doing these events and you being here

21:41
all the time because you're the one

21:42
that's running the smoker and doing all

21:43
that kind of stuff

21:44
how important it is

21:46
you know do you start developing

21:47
relationships with people that are

21:49
customers and that are coming in here

21:50
quite frequently so talk to me about the

21:52
importance of that and has that have you

21:54
noticed a change kind of over time like

21:56
the more you've been here the more

21:57
you've been doing different things has

21:58
that increased your visibility as the

22:01
business owner here i think so i mean

22:03
it's it's hard to understand you know

22:05
sort of word of mouth marketing um other

22:08
than to just you know it's almost by

22:10
definition hard to you know don't

22:12
question it and just go for it where

22:14
where we do find it though is is i

22:16
remember we run an open mic here

22:19
um and we have almost since the start

22:22
and during kobit we had to close it down

22:23
just wasn't safe couldn't do it and the

22:26
first night that we reopened the open

22:27
mic i think we had everybody show up

22:31
everybody that had played the open mic

22:33
for you know like the two years prior

22:36
and it was i remember coming and sitting

22:38
and i was listening to one of the

22:39
players play and they started singing

22:42
[Music]

22:43
take me home by john denver

22:45
and i'm sitting sort of towards the

22:47
front near the stage and all of a sudden

22:49
i hear the entire crowd singing like the

22:52
whole restaurant singing and

22:54
i thought that's that's that's fun

22:56
that's yeah that's definitely you know

22:59
resonates yeah for sure yeah and it

23:01
wasn't just a bunch of drunks you know

23:02
like you know

23:04
you know saying in new york new york as

23:05
they're getting ushered out the back

23:07
door of the bar you know so it was it

23:09
was pretty cool it was pretty cool no

23:11
it's very cool um so you know what are

23:13
some other ways maybe like that you

23:14
think the business itself kind of may be

23:17
looking forward are there way are there

23:19
things you know aside from maybe you

23:21
know tweaking menu type stuff are there

23:23
things that you're trying to do maybe

23:24
accomplish um to kind of keep the

23:26
business evolving and moving forward in

23:28
the right direction yeah that's that's

23:30
it's always the challenge um one of the

23:32
things that we're that we're taking on

23:33
in the next and we hope to have fully

23:35
launched in the next month is a is a

23:37
program called air bbq which is our mail

23:39
order barbecue business okay um and

23:42
we're hoping to have that up and running

23:43
and available so that people can so that

23:46
so that we can increase our footprint

23:47
from

23:48
just the five or ten towns that are you

23:50
know near enough to want to come here

23:52
right to the restaurant to

23:54
basically a national footprint where if

23:56
you wanted to send barbecue to your

23:58
cousin you know for his birthday or

24:00
something yeah you know we have it

24:01
nicely packaged vacuum sealed ready to

24:03
go

24:04
and try to try to develop that business

24:06
as well yep um

24:08
we we have thought about expansion

24:11
um

24:12
the challenge with expansion i mean now

24:14
the challenge with expansion is people

24:16
it's really hard to find good people

24:18
yeah um i'm pretty sure every single you

24:20
know

24:21
every single business that we've talked

24:22
to so far on this show i think i've said

24:24
this is gonna be episode nine you know

24:26
has has had this a similar problem you

24:28
know because it's obviously something

24:30
that's a glaring issue with a lot of

24:32
stuff that we're talking about

24:33
particularly in the service industry

24:34
like you're in i think and i think that

24:36
that's a residual from how poorly the

24:38
service industry was was treated prior

24:42
to covid

24:43
um

24:44
you know i mean if you're being paid

24:45
starvation wage yeah

24:47
when the covet comes and

24:49
you know and then you go back to

24:50
thinking about what do you want to be

24:51
when you grow up right like starvation

24:53
wage is probably not top of the list

24:56
and so that's one of the things that

24:57
we've tried to do is to is to try to pay

25:00
people fairly try to recognize them when

25:02
we can um

25:04
but you know and it's the restaurant

25:05
business too and owners um like me will

25:08
also say it's a tight business in terms

25:10
of margins and yeah and so that's one of

25:12
one of the reasons that we've tried to

25:14
innovate around um around different

25:17
things having these events

25:19
um

25:20
you know we have a big catering business

25:21
as well

25:22
and

25:23
you know i mean that business ran to

25:25
zero during covet because you know i

25:27
mean there's the only thing you couldn't

25:28
do during covet is have a party yeah

25:30
right right so

25:32
um

25:33
you know we've that's been recovering uh

25:35
which has been good for us um and i

25:37
think for the community as well

25:39
but uh you know that's a business that

25:41
will continue to evolve yeah um

25:44
and it's you know it's it's it's

25:45
interesting i

25:47
i don't know i i play around with the

25:48
idea of opening another restaurant um

25:51
but funnily enough i think that i'm not

25:54
sure that i would open another barbecue

25:55
restaurant okay i think it would be hard

25:57
to replicate this this feel yeah i think

25:59
it's hard to replicate the

26:01
i i you know i'll call it passion but

26:03
that's just for lack of a better word

26:05
yeah um for cooking the you know this

26:07
type of food right you know you can't

26:09
just invite somebody in and just be like

26:11
dude yes cook this cook this for 15

26:13
hours sometimes yeah well i remember my

26:16
i had a manager a couple years ago who

26:18
was convinced that you know this is easy

26:20
how hard can it be all you do is put on

26:21
the smoker and walk away and come back

26:24
and uh

26:25
so i was away

26:27
i i don't know if i had the day off or

26:28
if i was at an event or whatever and uh

26:31
she she went to go cook

26:33
you know and at that time we were using

26:35
all these r2d2 we had five of those

26:37
lined up out here yeah and so she loaded

26:39
him up with ribs 18 racks of ribs on

26:41
those things

26:42
and uh she incinerated all 18 racks nice

26:45
and it was you know yeah and then she's

26:48
like i'm not cooking i'm not i'm not

26:49
going to do this anymore yeah but yeah a

26:52
funny example i mean and that's the

26:53
thing is you gotta you gotta take all

26:55
this stuff with you know in stride it's

26:56
just

26:58
it's just funny you know just right you

27:00
know have fun with it if you're not

27:01
having fun with it then why are you

27:02
doing it exactly all right awesome all

27:04
right so i think that was a perfect way

27:05
to kind of segue into our next segment

27:06
so we're going to take our second break

27:08
our last break of this episode uh this

27:10
is the greetings from the garden state

27:11
podcast i'm mike ham we're here at daddy

27:13
maddie's barbecue with matt james here

27:15
in madison new jersey uh stay with us

27:17
we'll be right back

27:22
it is time for your new jersey fun fact

27:24
of the day did you know that new jersey

27:26
is home to more diners than any other

27:28
state in the country

27:29
and that is your new jersey fun fact of

27:32
the day

27:37
all right what's up everybody we're back

27:39
here uh the greetings from the garden

27:40
state podcast we're here at daddy

27:42
maddie's barbecue in madison new jersey

27:43
i'm mike hamm he's matt james we're here

27:45
we've been talking about the background

27:47
of daddy maddie's we've been talking

27:48
about how you guys got here uh we just

27:50
kind of gotten through some different

27:51
events that you guys do hold here

27:53
whether it's live music there's a bee

27:55
flying around us but you know we're pros

27:57
so we're gonna just we're gonna we're

27:58
gonna power through unless it stings me

28:00
and i'm gonna cry um but uh this is our

28:03
first ever this is our first ever

28:04
outdoor episode so you got i mean we had

28:06
a leaf blower at the beginning we gotta

28:07
be here as we're trying to get here to

28:09
the home stretch um and finish this

28:11
thing up um so one of the things that we

28:13
always like to do on this show is

28:15
because this is a you know the greetings

28:16
from the garden state so it's a new

28:17
jersey focused podcast so one of the

28:20
things that we always like to do is talk

28:22
about the you know businesses and the

28:23
people that we have on how they're

28:25
connecting with the community that

28:27
they're in so we're here in madison new

28:29
jersey and we've already kind of touched

28:30
on a couple um of those things that you

28:32
guys do here um but i'd love to know

28:34
like a little bit more about the

28:35
different types of um you know uh

28:38
you know i mean you mentioned the little

28:39
leg team and the mountain biking team

28:40
yeah um so you want to talk about that

28:42
real quick and then we'll kind of get

28:42
into some more of the the deeper stuff

28:44
that you guys do here yeah yeah i mean

28:46
you know we

28:47
so

28:48
just just as a you know sort of

28:50
helicopter up for a moment so my wife

28:52
and i are from colorado and whenever we

28:53
go back to colorado everybody says and

28:55
even everybody out here says aren't you

28:57
guys backwards aren't you supposed to go

28:59
from new jersey to colorado

29:01
isn't it you know isn't that isn't that

29:02
a natural progression yeah and you know

29:05
having grown up there my wife and i

29:08
we both say no um now we we spend an

29:10
ample amount of time back in colorado

29:12
seeing family and friends and it's

29:13
really nice and and all that but

29:16
the community that we've been able to

29:17
develop here in new jersey is a

29:18
different

29:19
was is different um a lot of people i

29:22
don't think in the in the country really

29:23
understand new jersey and not just

29:25
because you know the taylor ham pork

29:26
roll thing but

29:28
but also just that new jersey is

29:30
actually like a billion little towns

29:33
and so you know little you know we we

29:35
call this town mayberry for lack of a

29:37
better way to you know characterize it

29:39
yeah

29:40
and we've raised our kids here and it's

29:41
got just a different feel than than

29:44
where she and i grew up in in denver

29:46
which is actually a big city relative to

29:48
what we have yeah so when we started

29:50
this business one of the things that i

29:52
wanted to really make central to the dna

29:55
of it is this sort of giving back to the

29:57
community culture

29:58
um and that ranges from you know little

30:01
things like you mentioned like you know

30:03
sponsoring a little league team or

30:05
you know we sponsored the the the local

30:07
mountain biking team and i told them

30:10
because of the placement of where my um

30:13
uh where my logo is that they need to

30:16
win because the logo is on the butt of

30:18
the

30:20
on the butt of the

30:21
uh uniform and it says daddy maddie's

30:23
smoking butts

30:24
and uh

30:26
you know and i'm like nobody's i'm not

30:27
i'm not gonna get any you know value out

30:29
of this if you guys are you know coming

30:30
in last you gotta be winning yeah you

30:32
gotta lead the pack everybody's gotta be

30:33
looking 100

30:35
um but beyond that you know

30:37
i think i mentioned you know we've done

30:38
a lot of work with the food pantry um

30:40
and

30:41
constantly trying to support their

30:42
efforts and the the importance of what

30:44
they do in the community just can't be

30:46
overstated yeah um

30:48
and that's morris county interfaith food

30:50
pantry

30:51
but beyond that we've also um you know

30:54
during during the pandemic there's a

30:56
local group that i'm sure a lot of the

30:58
listeners have heard of or participated

30:59
in called flag which is a frontline

31:01
appreciation group and they reached out

31:03
to us real early on when the pandemic

31:05
started

31:06
um to have us you know provide meals to

31:09
health workers uh specifically at

31:10
morristown hospital

31:12
and over the course of

31:14
the pandemic you know the really deep

31:16
dark portion of the pandemic we ended up

31:19
running over a thousand meals up to the

31:21
folks at morris county or morris county

31:23
hospital

31:24
or morristown hospital sorry and you

31:27
know from the first days that we were

31:29
there where it just felt like things

31:30
were out of control yeah uh until

31:34
you know one of the last deliveries

31:35
which was we we delivered uh 80 meals

31:37
for thanksgiving uh you know year ago

31:40
thanksgiving right um

31:43
i just you know my admiration

31:44
appreciation for the people that were in

31:46
the soup there um you know just can't be

31:49
overstated yeah and you know we were so

31:51
happy to be able to participate in and

31:53
and and help those folks out while they

31:55
were helping us out yeah 100 and i think

31:57
that's that's so cool and you know what

31:59
i also noticed um early in our in uh the

32:02
first segment when we were talking about

32:03
when you were kind of using your friends

32:05
as your test subjects and charging and

32:07
doing different things like that i mean

32:09
the interfaith food pantry was like

32:11
immediate like that was like one of the

32:12
first things that you were doing

32:14
donating back to that so has that been

32:16
something that's been important to you

32:18
even before you started daddy maddie's

32:19
or is that something that like as you

32:21
got into this community you were like

32:22
this is my way of giving back to people

32:25
i think that

32:26
i think charity and the notion

32:29
of charity has always been important to

32:30
me and to my family um and i mean by

32:34
that i mean like my father my mother my

32:36
you know my my immediate family here um

32:39
we really

32:40
i think believe in the notion of

32:43
of trying to help

32:45
local

32:46
local groups do the work that you know

32:49
that either government isn't doing or

32:50
people aren't doing or you know

32:52
somebody's having a hard time they're

32:53
having a hard time yeah um you know one

32:56
of the things that really was formative

32:58
in in terms of

33:00
my thinking about that particular

33:02
concept in the context of new jersey

33:04
when my third son was born

33:06
about three months into it he developed

33:08
a case of rsv which is a pretty serious

33:11
respiratory virus

33:13
and was hospitalized yeah and my wife uh

33:17
spent two weeks in the hospital with him

33:19
simultaneously my older two sons

33:23
got pneumonia

33:24
and so we i mean we were just in it

33:26
right and

33:28
i had been working in new york city

33:29
which which is to say i knew nothing of

33:31
the community at that point because you

33:33
know my touch points in the community

33:34
were really you know every now and then

33:36
a little league game that i could attend

33:38
um

33:39
and uh

33:41
and all of a sudden mules just started

33:42
showing up on our doorstep

33:44
and one of the moms from the elementary

33:46
school got wind of the fact that you

33:48
know we were going through a bit of a

33:50
tough time right and i don't think i

33:52
cooked a meal for about a week and a

33:54
half yeah

33:55
um and it it so touched me the just the

33:59
notion of that level of community yeah

34:01
that

34:02
i thought that's something that i want

34:03
to make part and parcel to anything that

34:05
i create you know from henceforth right

34:08
um and so yeah it's it is it is

34:11
important but it is part of really the

34:13
dna of this of this particular entity

34:15
yeah and

34:17
um and so we've tried to live that out

34:19
as much as we can you know there's

34:20
sometimes it's tough yeah i remember

34:22
right yeah yeah but i mean we recently

34:25
sponsored

34:26
amongst others um

34:28
the suicide prevention walk i wanted to

34:30
get that checked out definitely yeah and

34:32
uh the gentleman who

34:34
um who came to us for that was a retired

34:36
policeman

34:37
and you know you and i were just talking

34:39
right you know i don't thankfully uh

34:42
have a lot of experience with having

34:44
gone through you know or having to deal

34:46
with suicide yeah but this gentleman was

34:48
explaining to me

34:49
just the number of people in his

34:51
immediate family who had committed

34:53
suicide who were former policemen um and

34:56
first responders and

34:58
and i just thought you know this is

34:59
something that's not being talked enough

35:01
about and the least we can do is to try

35:04
to contribute to the conversation right

35:07
right yeah and at 100 and i think that

35:09
that is a fantastic um

35:12
you know thing because i think that

35:13
especially now you know i mean as you're

35:16
it must be an interesting you know

35:17
dynamic too because you're trying to run

35:19
a business you're trying to stay afloat

35:20
and you also want to give back to the

35:21
community so it's like that's that

35:23
almost like that give and take type of

35:25
thing absolutely but i feel like this is

35:26
just one of those instances where and

35:28
you know you can correct me if i'm wrong

35:30
but i've always been a firm believer

35:31
that the more good that you try to put

35:33
out into the world the more good

35:35
eventually comes back to you and not

35:37
that you're doing it for that particular

35:38
reason but you just start to surround

35:40
yourself with people that you vibe with

35:42
i think that's i think that's a very

35:43
very good way to think about it it's

35:45
very very much along the lines that i do

35:47
as well right uh i forget the the

35:49
author's name i think it was

35:52
it was a guy who wrote rich dad poor dad

35:54
uh robert kiyosaki yeah and so in that

35:57
book he actually says you know

35:59
when you when you run out of ideas give

36:02
yeah

36:02
and you know irrespective of of what and

36:06
why and whatever um

36:08
and i and i find myself in that same

36:10
position i i'm a believer and and i

36:12
probably get it all wrong for people who

36:14
actually know about this stuff but you

36:16
know of what i'll loosely call karma

36:18
which is like you said what you put out

36:20
you'll get back in some form or fashion

36:22
right and to me it's never been that

36:23
important that there be a one-to-one

36:25
relationship between giving and

36:27
receiving yeah

36:28
it's if if i give something out in the

36:30
community that helps somebody and then

36:31
they're able to then go on to become the

36:34
person that they can be yeah

36:36
that doesn't need to come back somehow

36:37
to me that's right the giving is is the

36:40
part that is already coming back exactly

36:43
right so that's and that's you know when

36:46
when we were approached in the in the in

36:48
the height of covid um by the calvary

36:51
baptist church in morristown to help

36:53
participate in their lunches program it

36:55
was a free lunch program yep and we

36:57
ended up donating about a thousand

36:59
lunches over the course of the program

37:01
just to folks who needed lunch yeah

37:04
right and you know and and the answer to

37:07
why is because we should right exactly

37:10
and you know and i think that's that's

37:12
tremendous and that's what i think i i

37:14
the more that i've kind of seen you know

37:16
like i said stuff on instagram eating

37:19
here more and like the more that i've

37:20
it's been you know visualized to me the

37:23
more i've realized like that this

37:24
particular business and not that you

37:26
know it's the only one and there are

37:27
plenty that do this um but that just it

37:29
just goes beyond just like hey come eat

37:32
my food because i'm trying to make money

37:33
and you know feed my own family but

37:35
you're trying to do way more than that

37:37
and i would think that that maybe

37:39
maybe might lend itself to you know just

37:42
having more success because people feel

37:43
good about supporting businesses like

37:46
yourself that are supporting other

37:47
people that may be disadvantaged or

37:50
whatever you know whatever you're trying

37:52
to help out a lot of what i did in my

37:53
day job was around

37:56
so i was in finance and my specialty was

37:59
in affordable housing community

38:00
development and renewable energy project

38:02
finance

38:03
and

38:04
a lot of that's really like big high you

38:06
know high level high thin you know

38:08
higher level thinking

38:10
help whole you know swallows of the

38:13
country type of thinking and right with

38:15
this business what i what i thought was

38:17
instead of trying to change the world

38:21
why don't we just try to contribute to

38:23
our community yeah just this community

38:25
right and if we can make this community

38:26
just a little bit better then maybe this

38:28
community can contribute to the next

38:29
community and maybe it has a little bit

38:32
more of a knock-on effect right um and

38:35
so that's that that was part of the

38:37
thinking is to you know sort of take

38:39
this high-level stuff that i've been

38:41
doing for the last 25 years and really

38:43
try to

38:44
uh knock it down to something that was

38:46
more practical on a on a community to

38:48
community level right can't change

38:50
the world like you know i mean there are

38:52
people that are like jose andres and the

38:54
world central kitchen is just the

38:56
greatest thing in the world yeah

38:58
but i'm not there yet and so what what i

39:02
can do is i can try to contribute a

39:04
couple meals to you know

39:06
people who need it or you know try to

39:08
support local organizations that are in

39:10
turn supporting you know whatever

39:12
they're doing right exactly

39:14
yeah no phenomenal um so i think also

39:18
you know um as we kind of progress

39:20
through here the one thing that i

39:21
thought maybe the last question that i

39:23
have is does the everybody eats catch

39:25
for it like you know slogan is that that

39:28
that ties into like what you're talking

39:30
about absolutely yeah absolutely yeah

39:32
it's a friend of mine actually was the

39:34
one who came up with it the the i i was

39:36
gonna do so when i first started when i

39:38
was before i had even identified the

39:40
food pantry as being one of the

39:43
benefactors i wanted to do a give one

39:45
get one program so

39:48
um let's say you came to me when i was

39:50
right starting and wanted to order

39:52
dinner for your family right i'd say

39:53
okay great i'm going to charge more but

39:56
with that more i'm going to then make a

39:57
dinner for somebody else who's in need

39:59
yeah i thought it was going to be this

40:00
very you know one-to-one kind of

40:02
relationship sure and over the course of

40:04
doing the research for that and

40:05
ultimately why i ended up with the

40:07
morris county food pantry is the

40:08
benefact uh beneficiary

40:10
is that there's no way to do that within

40:12
the current health laws and health codes

40:14
and all this stuff um you know you can't

40:16
go to a hospital and say who you know

40:18
who's hurting you can't go to a church

40:20
and say who's hurting i mean they can't

40:21
tell you and they shouldn't right but so

40:23
there's no way for me to be able to say

40:25
okay well i'm going to show up and be

40:27
this benevolent person who's going to

40:28
leave this meal on your doorstep because

40:30
you know

40:32
and so what where we is so that you know

40:34
we went from the give one get one to

40:36
okay well now we need to sort of be

40:38
thinking more along the community-based

40:40
lines yeah a good friend of mine rich

40:42
kim said everybody eats man yeah

40:45
right so awesome yeah well it's just

40:48
great that and the community it ties

40:50
right back into the community your

40:51
friend the whole thing everybody eats

40:53
love it phenomenal this episode has been

40:56
off the charts so before we let you go

40:59
back to you know

41:01
cooking and doing all the stuff that you

41:02
have to do running your business

41:04
let's hit the people if they want to

41:05
know more learn more so what's the

41:07
website what's the instagram handle

41:09
let's hit them with that yeah yeah so

41:10
it's uh

41:11
instagram is dad

41:13
i guess at daddy maddie's and it's

41:14
m-a-t-t-y a lot of people think it's dd

41:16
because we're in madison but it's

41:18
everywhere i've lived for as long as

41:20
i've lived which is you know

41:22
as of today 50 years right um happy

41:24
birthday by the way thank you 29 yeah 29

41:27
again 21st anniversary my 29th

41:30
so uh

41:31
um i've always i've always become maddie

41:33
in in any context whether it's grad

41:35
school whether it's living overseas

41:36
whether it's whatever i just i've always

41:38
been maddie so it's daddy maddie's

41:41
bbq.com or at daddy maddie's bbq we're

41:44
located in madison new jersey at 6 elmer

41:47
street which is

41:49
one block

41:50
long

41:51
oh because in madison they like to

41:53
change the names of the streets right

41:54
every year there's a lot of names to use

41:56
they probably yeah

41:58
so

41:59
so

42:00
um but we're just behind main street uh

42:03
just off the main drag and we've got a

42:05
nice big backyard yeah and uh stuff

42:07
going on all the time like we talked

42:08
about yeah um also if

42:11
uh the online ordering like you guys

42:13
have the online ordering system too and

42:14
everything like that yeah so you can

42:16
online order through our website um if

42:18
you're looking for catering we've got

42:19
our catering manager who's here during

42:21
the days we're open right now

42:24
and i expect for the foreseeable future

42:25
during the week for dinner

42:27
and carryout and during the weekends for

42:30
lunch and dinner and carry out awesome

42:31
and i can attest because i just crushed

42:33
this whole uh pulled pork quesadilla

42:35
during this episode so it's the first

42:37
time i've actually eaten during an

42:38
episode but hey everybody eats right

42:40
yeah right yeah just not just you know

42:41
everybody you know that comes here but

42:42
the host too so um but yeah so this has

42:45
been phenomenal i'll make sure that i

42:46
put those links and the address in the

42:48
show notes for everybody listening uh

42:50
matt thank you so much for doing this

42:51
with us today it was great coming here i

42:53
was like so excited when you know we

42:55
started getting these conversations

42:56
rolling and then you know i mean how

42:58
could you beat this

42:59
perfect day for it too perfect day we

43:01
had a little bit of a you know hiccup at

43:02
the beginning with the leaf blower and

43:03
towards the end i was a little bit

43:04
worried about that bee but you know we

43:07
made it through you know we prospered

43:09
you know we persevered we persevered yep

43:11
um so phenomenal awesome so uh

43:14
i almost said daddy maddie uh matt thank

43:16
you again for doing this and everybody

43:18
else thank you for listening and we will

43:20
catch you next time

43:23
[Music]

43:30
[Applause]

43:36
[Music]

43:56
you