 I'm cutting a mean lawn, man. My dad taught me well. Article comes out that next Thursday. Raining sideways. Lines to the cool way. Yeah, we're like, holy crap. They put the wrong rice cooker on the truck. Why, is it too small, or is it? It was empty. Everybody, welcome to the show as always. This is a show about screw ups, about failures, about missteps, about being human, because that's what we all are. We have great ideas. We have big dreams, and there are always going to be hard to make happen. There's going to be some hilarious things that happen along the way. So today, we are going to be talking to Matt Lewis. He has a food truck here in Seattle. It's called Where You At, Matt? Where You At, Matt? Where You At, Matt? And I'm really excited to learn about all the food that he makes. It's New Orleans food. I assume that's jambalaya. I assume that's other types of spicy things. I know nothing, and he's going to show me everything. Before we do that, we've got to get a drink, and we've got a special drink for Matt today. We're going to turn it over to our resident mixologist, the man that knows more about everything than I know, Mr. Jack Sanders. What are we drinking tonight? Thank you very much, Sean. Tonight I have all the King's men. So we're going to start with an ounce and a half of Maleti today. And then we're going to do equal parts of the cherry hearing and the Riga black bossam liqueur. Just want to add a little bit of a warm seasonal flavor to this darker liqueur. Half ounce of the cherry hearing and a half ounce of Riga. Quarter ounce of our green char truce, just to bring up a little bit of a herbaceous note on the back end of this cocktail. A little bit of the Yerga chef apricot liqueur, only a quarter ounce, and a quarter ounce of Maleti. Then we'll add some ice to our concoction and give it a little stir for a brief chill, only about 10 seconds. And then we'll strain it into each of these cups. And there we have it, all the King's men. Hey, everybody, welcome to the show. Today I've got, well, it's tonight, I've got Matt Lewis with us who has a food truck in Seattle called, where are you at, Matt? Which I've actually had food from, which is really makes me excited. Thanks for being on the show. Oh, thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm really excited to talk to you. Well, I'm excited to talk to you about that and the food and what got you there. But first off, can you just explain to everybody what it is? So, where are you at, Matt, exactly. Originally born and raised in New Orleans. Okay. So, in New Orleans, where you at is, hey, how you doing, right? Is it now, is it enunciated like that? Where is it? It's more like where you at. So, like there's like one of the little flyer papers down there that's actually where you at. And a lot of times it's spelled a couple different ways, but it's Y-A-T. Y-A-T. So, they'll actually call people from New Orleans, YETs. YETs? Yeah. Where you at? Where, man. Where you at? Where you at? Where you at? I'm like, okay, you know, it's a mobile location. We wanna bring some of the Southern hospitality to Seattle and it's like, you know what, we should just call it where you at. And so, it kinda stuck. I was like, oh, great. You know, so people caught on. But then, I didn't even put the mat at the end at the beginning. No! It was just where you at? So, people started saying, oh, where you at, Matt? And it was kind of the thing. So, whenever I show up to a party, oh, where you at, Matt? And I was like, oh, wow, okay, that was good. Right? I got my business relations renewal the next year from city of Seattle. And in the DBA column, it had where you at, Matt. I did not put it there. You didn't put it there. I didn't put it there. I'm like, whoa, how did this happen? Yeah. I was like, well, I guess that's the name. The Southern Spirits. The Southern Spirits. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. Where you at, Matt? Are you ready for a drink? Are you offering? Well, are you ready for a drink, Jack? I am. All right, all right. In honor of the Creole King himself, this is called All the King's Men. All the King's Men. We've got a tower. We've got Brulee, because it's, well, you know. We've got Brulee. We still can't look. And a tower. Don't look. I'm worried. I don't have any hair to burn, so go for it. If you've seen like the opening of Macbeth, that's what's happening behind us right now. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, my friends, we have my version of a green point. We'll just call it Jet City's Point, if you want to look at it like that. Feel free to break away the Brulee top. It's a beautiful thing. So, feel free to dig into it and enjoy some of it. Okay. Have fun. All right. Cheers. Awesome. Thank you, cheers. All right, you ready? Like, do I toast differently in New Orleans than normal? Oh, do we say cheers, or is there something else that you would say? And you're good. Let's just say toast often. I toast often. Yeah. Is this supposed to burn? I don't even know what came out. No. No. All right. Cheers, toast often. Are we sipping or? Are we sipping? Yeah, you're twice. You choose. I'm going to sip first. He's just going to say we drink with our face. That's all he tells me. Oh, that's nice. Very nice. No, it is. It's really good. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. That's really good. I'm liking that. Oh, blah, blah, blah. You're good. We're good? Yeah. That's good. That's good. That's really good. Here, I'm going to eat a piece of this. You're going for it, huh? Is that just brulee sugar, or is there something else? Brulee sugar. Okay. Okay, yeah, that's good. Where did you, like, have you always been entrepreneurial? Did you start that way growing up, or did you have like the real nine to five office space, like go out, break the fax machine job? Like, I'm glad to say I've never had that job. You've never had that job? Never had that job. Always been entrepreneurial as a young kid, probably when I was 10, 11, 12. Somewhere in there, I started cutting grass. Yeah. And it was mostly for my allowance. And after that, I was like, you know what? I can cut my neighbor's grass. And then I cut my neighbor's grass. So I had five yards, like at 11 years old, and I would cut grass, and I started out like 10 bucks a lawn. Was it like all nearby? Yeah, all within a block radius of my house. How did you sell that when you were 11? You just go knock on the door and say... I cut in a mean lawn, man. My dad taught me well. Like, it was, like, it was... They see it and they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. It's like, yeah. Yeah, this is the 11 year old. I take care, yeah. That's, what did that lead to? I could, honestly, I cut grass all the way through high school. And whatever, and moved from New Orleans to Birmingham, Alabama when I was in high school, and I picked up several yards right in the neighborhood then. So it was always a way to make quick money. A couple of summers, I painted houses, and then I had some of my buddies from school come and work for me. And at the time, I was like, that was great money. And so I think once you get that bug, it's hard to be in a situation where an office space. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So my girl will come home and it's like, I'm fascinated by the story she tells. It's like this distant land far, far away that I've never visited. And I'm just like, all right, tell me more. This is kind of funny, all right? I was like, so I went to college, got my undergrad degree from Xavier University. So I went back to New Orleans. And while I was there, I actually worked for my grandfather who was in, he had a, we call it construction, but most of the things he did in New Orleans because the whole city's built on a swamp is he leveled houses, moved houses, raised houses. Oh, wow. Like up off the ground because of the swamp. So, yeah, I mean, as a young kid, you watch this and it's like, wow, I didn't even realize you could do this. And some of the raises he did were like 15 feet up. What? Yeah, by the time I graduated college, I ran one of his crew of men for him. And so that was how I made money. And you learned a lot from him about how to manage people. And also that's amazing opportunity to learn that type of stuff. Fast forward a little bit closer to what you're doing now. Did you start other things besides where you at, Matt? Or is this, because how long ago? Almost 10 years now. 10 years ago. So we were one of the pioneers of the food truck industry in Seattle. Yeah. There's only five food trucks. Like there's only a few in Seattle at that time. At that time, yeah. Yeah. Like, how would you, how would you even know this is gonna become a thing or that people are actually gonna show up? Like you didn't have like the food truck mafia like coming into different locations. No, that came later. Yeah. 2009 is when I started putting things together. Yeah. And then we opened in 2010. Now when you, why not, why not just a regular restaurant like a brick and mortar? Like he goes someplace else. Yeah. Especially at that time. I don't know, there was something about it. And I think the biggest thing was I ran into the ladies that started Marination. Marination Mobile. Okay. And to this day, they hit it out of the park. Yeah. I saw what they were able to do. The budget was a lot easier to stomach. Yeah, yeah. You could, I could put a business plan together and with 10% of the funding for a restaurant, I could put a truck together. Yeah. You know, and they say, you know, restaurants fail because of location, location, location. Well, it's like, well, if you can move your location in a day, why not? Right. 10 years ago, like as much as we're all glued to our phones now. Yeah. 10 years ago, social media was in its infancy. Yeah, yeah. Right? Like nobody was, you know, even nobody was on Facebook every day. Oh no, we were texting. Instagram wasn't a thing yet. Yeah, yeah. That came on fire, you know, many years after that. Yeah. So getting the word out was hard. Yeah. So if you were in a new truck, like there wasn't a lot. Like we had, you know, a little bit of buzz, but that was, it was a little bit. Yeah. Finally, someone from the stranger contacted us and he said, hey, we want to do a piece on you guys. But I was like, okay, they're doing a piece. Let's just see how this works, right? Yeah. We'll give it a little bit more time. So at the, I think that it was the chow, chowhound section in the stranger. Okay. It comes out on Wednesdays. So they, we interviewed the next week, it was coming out Thursday, raining sideways cats and dogs. Now, granted, we'd only done like a max of like 30, 40 people in a lunch. So 11 or two at this location. That's it. Yeah. Article comes out that next Thursday, raining sideways, lines to the corner. No way. Yeah. We're like, holy crap. Just from the rider. Like we weren't even prepared for it. Cause I was like, yeah, just prep, you know, half of what you normally think you would. So it was great. You know, it was just like, holy. What, what, what do you do if you're in that situation and you didn't prep for it? Well, get set up, like, Seattle loves to wait in line. This sounds like, honestly, it sounds so smooth sailing. Cause you've got an amazing team and all the people put together. But, but honestly, you got to tell me there's gotta be a moment. Like, oh, I want to know like, oh, moments of the things that are going. So those kinds of moments come when, okay, I'm working the truck, go to a wedding. And weddings, you know, it's not like, so a lunch, you can get around. It's like, well, you have a certain amount of items. People expect certain things to run out. You're just like, hey, we're out of this. We're out of this. Well, when you go to a wedding and somebody orders, hey, I want red beans and rice, jambalaya, gumbo, this po boy and beignets. Yeah. Well, by the way, I would never think, I mean, I'm sure it's delicious, but I would never think like, I want New Orleans food in my wedding, but that's amazing. That's why you don't do our PR. Well, cause everything. We show up to the wedding, right? Open the rice cooker. Cause man, I told you we have red beans and rice, jambalaya, gumbo, all have rice. Yeah. They put the wrong rice cooker on the truck. Oh no. So the one that was actually- Was it too small or is it? It was empty. That's even different. It's empty. We have no dry rice on the truck to even cook. Oh wow. I'm like, holy f***. Yeah. Keto jambalaya. You can't mess up somebody's wedding like this, right? Like I'm like, so I'm like, holy f***. And like, we're like an hour from the kitchen. We can't go back, get rice, cook rice, you know? Like we're in the middle of nowhere. So I'm like, what are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? So, look down like, they gotta have Chinese food here, right? So. I'm in the middle of nowhere. There's gotta have Chinese food somewhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we start going through restaurants. It's like, hey, do you guys have rice? And we're like, will you guys deliver? We'll give you guys 20 bucks for delivery. I know, and we'll tip your guy really well. Do they deliver like the dry rice or do they deliver cooked rice? No, no, no, cooked rice. Cooked rice. So that put us ahead. Cooked rice had to deliver to the back of the truck at the wedding. And I was like, yeah, my guys are hungry, you know? Chinese food, family meal. To the rescue. Family meal, I know. Oh my God. I think the biggest one that not from like, it's your wedding, I don't have any food situation, but from a, it's a huge day. If we don't make this money, we're all screwed kind of situation. Like payroll's coming. It was, we had one of the big, what they called at the time, mobile food rodeos, right? Where they have multiple trucks in one location using on a Saturday or Sunday and everybody can come and experience this. So of course on Tuesday, our truck breaks down. And that's the problem with having a mobile kitchen, a mobile business. It's like, it's not just a matter of staffing. It's not just a matter of keeping your equipment maintained and now you're maintaining your vehicle too. Like how do you find out? Somebody just give you a call and say like, boss, the truck's not working? No, no, I was on the truck when it broke down. We had an issue with the differential and we limped home, right? Like the gears and all of that. So which turned into like the gearbox that affected the steering. So I was like, we got everything, brought it to McKinney. It's like, hey, I have to have this truck back Friday night, right? All the parts on these big trucks. We have a freight liner. They rarely have them in stock anywhere near Seattle. It's always like, you gotta go to Tennessee. So it's like, yes, I will overnight it. That's 250 bucks. Okay, just put it on the bill, we'll do it. So they overnight the parts, we call on Thursday. Yeah, I got all the parts and we're putting it on. Something took a little bit longer. They had to change the gearbox, got it all worked. And the guys at the shop actually stayed late Friday to make sure we had it. So I go Friday, we had to load in Friday night for this event. And like literally the amount of revenue regenerate Monday through Friday, we would make it one day at this event. So it's big. Yeah, it's huge. And so the shop's super happy that they got everything. I was like, sweet, great. And so they back it out and it's all sounds good, looks good. And the guy just has this look on his face. I was like, something's not right. And I had one of my guys with me and he gets out and he's like, it's the wrong part. It's like, what do you mean? He's like, well, when I turn left, the truck goes right. No, what? Cause they had to change the gear. What? So they ordered the wrong part. And it's Friday at 6 p.m. I'm like, oh, we're not gonna make this, right? And I'm like, there's no way. Like we had prepped for it. Like we're just all those stuff's waiting at the commissary for this. And I'm like, are you kidding me? And I'm like, let me see. Like I'm gonna change, you know, physics. No, I have the touch, right? Right, right, right, right, right. And I'm like, holy, this is right. And I don't, nobody's ever, I can say, I don't know if you've ever driven a car like this, but I know you've never driven. So I'm not getting even to say it. No, it's like driving in reverse, but driving forward. Like that's- Yeah, it's even worse. It's the weirdest sensation ever. And it's like, I'm a good driver. And I feel like I can handle things like that. But I'm like, all you need to do is have somebody coming at you and like your reaction is to swerve out of the way. But you actually like go right into it, right? And it's like, oh my God. So there's no way you can miss this. So what I did is I called the tow truck company that towed us there. And I was like, hey, I need a package deal. How much would it cost you to come get my truck, tow it to the event, and then come back at 3 a.m. when we're done, and tow it back to get fixed. And the guy thought it was such a funny thing. He's like, yeah, he gave me the best deal ever. I was like, it cost me like 300 bucks to do your round trip. And I called the producers of the show. I'm like, hey, we're gonna make it there, but we're on the back of a tow truck right now. We need some extra room. Yeah, that's amazing. I called them and I was like, yeah, that's our one thing. I was like, yeah, you never say die, right? You make it to the event. You've got this huge, I mean it has to be huge. 25 feet, dumps you off at the event. What would have happened if you wouldn't made the event? I know you said the amount of money that you make Monday through Friday to go to something like this, but how does that affect your business? How much would you lose in this particular situation? A ton. I mean, I know we just talked about being, it's a lifestyle business. You could continue to do it forever. It is, but what I really love is cooking directly for people, the interaction, right? It's, as I've always said, as a young cook to this day, it's being like an artist and being able to sell your work every night and watch people enjoy it, and that's huge for me. And one of the things I really love and what I've been doing a lot is wine dinners. And we have a little cabin over on Vashon Island, not far from Seattle, right? And it's like, it's my little happy place. And we've set up our property to do events, but on top of that, out there, one of my passion projects that's quickly turning into more of a business after we get all of our certification done and licensing is growing oysters out there. Growing oysters out there? Yeah. One thing that I'm jealous of, because I think most, and you mentioned this, I think most artists, so when you think about artists, you got visual artists, you got performance artists, you got poets, literature, things like that, they don't get the opportunity to do what you do with food with 30 people in a night. It's not gonna be the same type of like community or interaction or kind of that feeling of just being human that comes with that. That's really admirable, that's really exciting. It's an amazing experience and it's what keeps cooks in the kitchen. It's a thankless job most of the time. Whenever I feel like I'm getting off or too stressed out, it's like, I remind myself of that. And usually, if I'm able to do a dinner party with friends and not even make money, but just cook for people and have them enjoy that, it brings your grounded right back again. Yeah, so yeah. Well, I love it, I love what you're doing. We're gonna keep drinking. Let's do it. But I think we'll wrap on that because I think it's beautiful what you're making. Thanks so much for being on the show. And thanks for having me. Yeah, this has been a pleasure. Okay, we toast often. Cheers often. Cheers often. Toast often. Toast often. Toast, no. Prost. That's right. Prost. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Everybody, thanks for watching the show. And if you like what you see or you're interested in learning about how, you know, other people mess up like you, then subscribe. And ring the bell. And if you ring the bell, then you're gonna find out when we're gonna do this again. And if you have a screw up, a flub up, whatever, then go to fups.com. Hope to see you on the show.