From Ice Buckets to Ownership: The Journey to The Top

A dream realized through perseverance and perfect timing—that's the story behind The Top, Fredericksburg's newest gem nestled on four beautiful acres just minutes from Main Street. Owner Curtis Montalbo shares his remarkable journey from bar backing at Billy's Ice in New Braunfels nearly 20 years ago to creating his own hill country haven.

What makes The Top special isn't just its stunning setting with oak trees and open spaces, but its genuine commitment to comfort and consistency. This isn't your typical tourist trap—it's a place where locals gather regularly and visitors feel instantly at home. The fully fenced cattle yard provides a safe space where children play cornhole while parents enjoy craft cocktails on the patio. Dogs are welcome, families are embraced, and the atmosphere strikes that perfect balance between lively and relaxing.

Curtis's creativity behind the bar shines through unique creations like the El Jefe (muddled jalapeños, pineapple juice, reposado tequila, and ginger beer) and his mysterious espresso margarita. Live music flows Thursday through Sunday, featuring talented artists like Austin Gillam, Manzy Lowry, and the JJ Garrett Band—many of whom Curtis built relationships with during his bartending days.

The Top represents something increasingly rare—a business born from passion rather than pure profit motive. As Curtis explains their measured approach to growth, you can feel his commitment to doing things the right way. He envisions The Top eventually becoming one of Texas' premier music venues while preserving the intimate, authentic experience that makes it special.

Whether you're a Fredericksburg local or planning your next hill country getaway, don't miss this hidden treasure where Texas hospitality meets craft cocktails and live music. Find us three miles west of Main Street on 290—we're open seven days a week, making us one of the few alcohol-serving establishments in town that never takes a day off!

The Rambling Gypsy podcast is a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of real Texans doing real sh*t. We're pulling back the curtains on our daily lives - and you're invited to laugh and learn along with us.

Links:
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https://www.theramblinggypsypodcast.com/

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I put a blessing on it to real .
This ain't metaphoric.
We just put the I in iconicbuzzin' like I'm electronic.
Ah yeah, I put a blessing on it.
See me drippin' in it 24-7 onit.
I'm just bein' honest.
Ah, holy water drippin',drippin' from my neck to my
creps.
I'm too steppin' on it like.
Hey everybody, I'm Tiffany Foy.
Welcome to the Rant LeagueGypsy Podcast, and we are
cruisin' along with our pregameto our SPF 90 tour that we are

(00:24):
doing in 2025.
And so we this is our wonderingseries and we are launching
that in Fredericksburg, texas,which is out in the whole
country of Texas, about an houroutside of New Braunfels Square,
where you guys know I'm from.
This is Curtis Montalvo, andCurtis and I met in New

(00:45):
Braunfels a long time ago whenyou very first started bar
backing.
Yes, so yeah.
About 2007, my brother openedup a bar in New Braunfels called
Billy's Eyes still there, ownedby Bob Wilson, now one of our
good friends Started barbackingfor him.

(01:05):
It actually opened the summerafter I graduated high school.
And then here we are, almost 20years later.
Yeah, and Curtis has.
This is called the Top, youguys, and this is in
Fredericksburg, texas, and sowe're going to talk about how
okay, so 2007,.
You started barbacking, yes,and what were you thinking?
I mean, that was just your sidegig.

(01:26):
Oh yeah, when was?
Curtis going at that point.
I was in college in San Antonioat St Mary's, so I had come to
New Braunfels on the weekend andworked at the bar and I
barbacked for six to eightmonths, something like that, and
then started bartending andthen just kind of went up from
there.
I ended up staying at Millie'sfor like eight years after I

(01:46):
graduated, ended up moving toNew Braunfels, loved the town.
Yeah, my whole dream was I wasgoing to coach baseball.
I was going to become agraduated college.
I was going to be a high schoolart teacher, which I did for a
little bit.
I was going to coach baseballand see if I could make that
into a lifelong career.
So was baseball your game whenyou were younger.

(02:07):
I mean, I loved baseball.
I was never very good at it,but I do love the game and it's
funny now that.
I'm an adult.
My father-in-law is actually anXMLB player Shut up.
Yeah, worlds collided, which isfunny, and he made a nice
career out of it.
He did what.
I wanted to do.
He did it for 40 years.
He could actually play baseball, though that's crazy A little

(02:29):
bit different.
So you have.
Gage, my oldest.
He played baseball from the ageof five all the way up through,
and they had their select ballfor Little League.
They were one game away fromthe Little League World Series.
That was what he was going todo, and he started playing
football in high school and gothis first hit and then went to

(02:50):
UTSA and played college football.
That's awesome, not baseball.
Yeah, his whole life he did twoshits.
I don't know if he knew what afootball was.
Yeah, he got into high schooland felt what it was like to
smack the shit out of somebodyelse, and so then, yeah, it's a

(03:10):
feeling.
I was the opposite.
I played football in high schooltoo and it I'm not my favorite
yeah, no, he he's uh, yeah, he'sgot some issues with it.
He likes to do that, but it'skind of crazy to me.
He went off to play how thingschange.
Yeah, yeah, life, uh, you know,life is crazy.
You never know where you'regonna be at I never, thought a
year from now or two years fromnow.
Yeah, when I first met my wife,she was born and raised in New
Braunfels and she always saidshe would never leave New
Braunfels.
Yep.
I said that to her all the wayto Wolverine Yep.

(03:31):
And here we are in.
Fredericksburg.
We're not super far, but youknow it is different.
And, uh, you know New Braunfelshas changed a lot in the last
seven to 10 years Um.
I love New Braunfunswick, but.
I knew about five years ago.
I knew that it probably wasn'twhere I wanted to be forever.
I got lucky my brother openedthe bar and I started working

(03:52):
for him and through that place Igot to meet all kinds of people
musicians went on the road withdifferent bands, statesboro
Review we got to go for a coupleweekends on the road Whiskey
Buyers, william Cargrain reallycool artists and stuff got to
meet for a couple weekends onthe road with Whiskey Buyers and
William Clark Green and likereally cool artists and stuff
Got to meet a lot of cool peopleand then obviously other
bartenders and then bar owners.
And you know I worked at LoneStar with Richie and Fry Hyde,

(04:15):
with the Reimers who now theyhave lost and found the Troft
and Fry Hyde and you know justreally good business people.
So I learned a lot.
You learn a lot of what to do.
You also learn a lot of whatnot to do.
You know it's a lot of whatit's good that you aren't.
Yeah, exactly, so yeah yeah, andhere we are, we're.
We're brand new, but we'rereally excited.
We're, uh, we're a little bitoff the beaten path in

(04:37):
Fredericksburg.
We're not right on main street,which is where all the tourists
like to go.
So we we do get a lot of locals, which is what we like A lot of
locals.
We're right in between, we'reright next to Fredericksburg.
We're less than three milesfrom Main Street, so we're not
far.
But about 15 miles west 290, youget Harper and that's a little
booming town.

(04:57):
It's starting to grow a littlebit.
We're just surrounded by allthese little, nice little hill
country towns and we get a lotof locals, which is what we want
.
We want to be the local barwhere you can hang out and chill
, and comfortability andconsistency are the two things
that I try to tell everybodythat we we provide.
You know you can come in withyour boys and watch the game and

(05:18):
have some beers, or we makeespecially cocktails.
You're drinking one of themright now martinis it, martinis.
It's a cool date spot, yeah,and we're open every day, so,
which is actually a rarity inFrenchburg.
We're one of only three or fourplaces that are that serve
alcohol that are open everysingle day yeah, that's, that's
rare.
I mean, bronville's is even oneof those.
Like Friday night schools onMonday Yep.

(05:39):
And it's been really kind ofawkward because we've been
running around kind of businessmeetings and whatnot.
We were supposed to be in frontof the day and then you know
it's closing monday and I wornand raised and lived there my
whole life.
But how would we start closingon mondays?
but hey, listen I that's awesome.
Yeah, I mean in certain townsand certain businesses.
I mean it just works that way.
Okay, that's just how this townis.

(06:00):
Mondays and tuesdays it's it'sfunny a lot of my friends that
are in this industry, those aretheir days off.
So, like here, every Monday andTuesday we do local industry
night.
So it's 50% off everything Frompretty much everybody.
I don't really ask if you're inindustry night Right.
can I see your ID?
Yeah, mondays and Tuesdays, andthey're like where should we go
eat?

(06:26):
I'm like I don't know Becausenothing's open yeah.
Yeah, but listen, I'd love toget to a point where our
business is doing so good thatwe can close for a couple days.
That are slow, but I really dolike to be open every day.
I like to.
I love when somebody comes upand they don't expect us to be
able to go oh, we were justchecking it out.
I'm like well, I'm here, Come onin.

(06:46):
Get a beer.
I can drink what was yourinspiration to start this.
I mean, obviously you're quiet,but all the way you're here,
you're at the top of the ladderwe're at the top yeah.
Finally made it.
yeah, People always ask us aboutthe names.
I've been doing this for goingon 19 years, so I have different
names for all kind of differentbars and logos and color

(07:08):
schemes.
And when we finally decided todo this, I sat down with my good
buddy, cory Cory DeMint, who'sone of the Saints.
He did our logo and our merchand all that stuff and we went
through a bunch of differentdesigns and names and stuff and
color schemes and I just lovethe top.
It's super short, it's simple,it's easy to remember, it's nice
and punny.
Yeah yeah, I can make stupidjokes on Facebook about it yeah.

(07:30):
People like it.
Um, but honestly, myinspiration for this was just I
mean, I wanted to do this for along time, but eventually I
finally met who is now my wife.
And you know, when you meet thespecial someone, you go okay,
this is what life's about.
I need to, if this is what Ilove to do and this is what I

(07:53):
want to keep doing, I can'tmarch in forever, Right.
You know what I mean.
I want to.
I want to start a family withmy wife and eventually have kids
and things.
And bartending is a fun job,but it's draining and it's a lot
of nights and even now I ownthis place.
We were talking about thisearlier.
I'm here all the time andthat's just how it has to be
right now.
I don't know if that really evergoes away.

(08:13):
Oh, it won't ever.
And my wife knows how I am I'm aworkaholic, more than a day and
a half off and I'm like goingnuts, I gotta go to work.
But you know, I met her and Irealized, you know, if I want to
stay in this industry, I needto make the next step.
We need to do this full-on.
We need to, yes, we need to getthe top.

(08:34):
We need to open up our ownplace.
We need to, you know level upessentially and, uh, you know,
we have that conversation allthe time.
You know your goals never end.
You know you reach one goal andthen obviously you have another
one and they just keep going.
So you just got to keepleveling up, keep your foot on
the pedal, um.
So that's where we're at rightnow, and it's the early stages.
But you know, we we bought fourbeautiful acres.

(08:56):
That's why I want to keepeverybody to understand that
this is not just your littleyeah little barn that's sitting
on the edge of a piece ofproperty.
You have four acres out there.
Yeah, beautiful acres too.
It's all fenced in.
We have a cattle yard, so we'reone of those places.
We want the kids to come back.
Bring your kids there every day.
when we're around, we havecornhole and all kinds of stuff
for them to do.
Bring your goats, bring youranimals, bring your dogs, bring

(09:19):
your goats, yes, yeah.
Bring your llamas, yeah, not awhole lot of people bring their
goats and llamas during thefirst, but it's fine.
There's that one that's justgonna.
She can attach and go, do youmind?
Yeah, and we get messages.
I get messages all the time likeoh, can we bring our animals?
I'm like I always tell peopleif you bring your dog, I have to
, I have to meet them first.
Yes, that's.

(09:39):
It's a risk, though it's a risk, but I just meant I just, I
just meant, I want to meet allthe bugs like, bring me.
Bring me all these animals.
Yes, I loved the fence in thearea.
So when we came down um for thefirst time, you had the big
crawfish oil here, yeah, yeah,and we showed up the first
parking.
Everything was great and, whichis usually better chaos,

(10:00):
because when you tell people tobelieve you, I know that every
single weekend at the resort,you tell people to park and you
got one that's going to parkthis way, one that's going to
park this way, and everybodyfigured it out.
It was awesome.
We moved around the school.
What was really impressive isgoing up and seeing all the kids
outside.
They were having a good time.
The parents were chilling,which was kind of what inspired

(10:20):
me to meet with my pumpkin patch, because it wanted that place
where people could go sit down,have a cocktail, listen to some
live music and be able to bringtheir little Johnny Shed head.
Yeah, we try to keep themoutside but you know, like I
said, it's all fenced in,everything is safe we have a
good acre and a half that iscompletely fenced in, where, if

(10:41):
you're on the patio or eveninside and you can see up we
have big windows behind the bar.
You can see it like yeah, yeah,it's everything supervised.
Yeah, first week one they hadcornhole.
They were playing.
I mean throwing bags, yeah, andmy my niece and nephew and all
their friends come out here,they always seem to bring
something else and yeah andthey're like oh, we left our our

(11:01):
gloves, and I'm like we, we canleave it here.
We have a nice big chest forthem.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah, but again, that's what wewanted.
We wanted comfortability,consistency, you know like I
said bring your family out here,bring your animals, bring your
wife, bring your girlfriend,bring them home, don't bring
them.
At the same time, they use itas but yeah, we just wanted a

(11:22):
place where people could comeand enjoy themselves and, you
know, be comfortable, local spotRight.
And again we have four acres.
We actually bought a littleover four acres and technically
this is about a 25-acre plot.
Okay, so right behind us.
we actually have some Airbnbrentals.
They're super cute.

(11:43):
Nice cabins they're nice andsmall.
They're basically built for acouple, but they have nice
porches, hot tubs on the porchand they are literally I could
hit them with rocks, so they'rein walk distance.
You don't have far water,exactly.
So, yeah.
So our eventually long-term goalis to try to expand this
property as much as we can.
Eventually, you know, put a bigstage, do some bigger shows on

(12:06):
the weekends.
I think we got our foot in thedoor in this area at the right
time At the right time.
Just let's say that growth ishappening, so so one thing we
love.
You're going to blink andthey're going to be right here,
exactly.
You know we're like 2.9 milesfrom Main Street, but you know
in 10 years from now that 2.9miles has got to be exactly so.

(12:30):
One thing we do love aboutFredericksburg is it is a small
town still, and it really is.
There's only about 18,000people here if you partake.
We really like that.
They seem to be trying to avoidwhat is happening with these
other towns.
New Braunfels is a greatexample.

(12:50):
Now New Braunfels has a 35runner right through the middle
of it.
So you know you can't really domuch about that, but the city
of Fredericksburg is actuallytrying to prevent overgrowth too
soon, which we like.
So we feel like it is going tostay that small town for the
foreseeable future.
However, like you said, growthisn't everything.

(13:11):
It's going to happen.
We're on the west side of town.
The east side of town istowards San Antonio and Austin,
so we feel like when growth doeshappen, it'll probably go that
way first, which we also likeabout this location.
But you know, know there's beena couple places in town that
I've tried to do the outdoormusic venue and the bigger
artists and stuff, and you knowwe're in the texas hill country,

(13:33):
so I can name you hundreds ofartists that are great and
phenomenal and big names andthey draw people.
Uh, we're close enough toaustin and san antonio where you
think that you'd be able todraw those people.
But to be honest with you, I'mnot going to drive an hour 15 to
Fredericksburg just to seeRandy Rogers when I can see
Randy Rogers in our backyard,lotus and New Braunfels, in San

(13:56):
Antonio and Austin he's actuallyplaying in Lukenbach.
I don't work for Lukenbach, butgo see Randy Rogers in.
Lukenbach, but you know.
So I just think this town isnot quite ready yet.
There's not enough sustainablepeople in town to where, if you
don't draw anybody from out oftown, you're still going to do
good.
But I think we're getting there.
So I think we're just kind ofslowly trying to do it the right

(14:19):
way not expand too fast, takeour time, but eventually we want
the top to be one of thepremier music venues in the
state.
We want to be up there withLuka Bach and Floors and
Whitewater and Billy Bob's andplaces like that and again we
have the area and we eventuallywill have more.
So we're just excited for ourfuture.

(14:40):
Yes, I am too, and I thinkyou're doing it.
The I was just about to sayright before.
You said time.
I said too, and I think you'redoing it.
The I was just about to sayright before you said time, I
said timing is everything.
It's so many different ways andI think you absolutely um,
sometimes things just fall intoplace and most of the time they
don't, but I think you're we'relearning that.

(15:02):
You know, we um, you know.
I worked for a lot of reallygood bosses.
I've worked for some not sogood bosses.
Um, you know, it's never ending.
When I think about those dayswhere I'm like, oh, that guy was
in a shitty mood.
Yeah, I'm like, oh, no wonderhe was in a shitty mood.
Yeah, because nothing works.
Oh, you just come in here oneday and all of a sudden,
nothing's are.
Everything works for two weeksand then you have a big event

(15:23):
like you bring in 500 pounds ofcrawfish and the day before
three things stop working.
You're like, why is?
this happening.
Exactly.
But you know it's, it's justpart of the territory and you
just got to take it day by day.
And you know you were justtalking about timing.
I mean my wife's saying thisall the time we we can try to
take control of our lives asmuch as we can and try to have
control of our timing.

(15:43):
We really don't have anycontrol or anything at the end
of the day.
So you know, you just got to gowith the flow and keep a smile
on your face and try to keepeverybody happy and you know,
stay open, which is that initself is a full-time job, job
um oh yeah, we uh have a dealthat that's coming up where we
are hosting a big corporateevent five to 700 people, and it

(16:09):
is now a lot more.
They just came back to us andsaid would you guys mind
coordinating planning?
What do we call it?
Whatever you call it, whateverthat taking over the whole thing
?
And I said yeah.
And that's well.
That's kind of what I do everysingle weekend at the river,
because I'm taking over thewhole thing.
I said, oh my gosh.
Actually I just feel so muchbetter because now I'm fully in

(16:30):
charge.
Yeah, you have full control.
So if I get there, and, likeyou're saying, you show up that
one day and everything justtakes a shit.
If I show up there where thingsare out of my control, I start
to lose it.
It is very hard to keep thatsmile on your face when you walk
in and you've got that oneasshole.
That's like it's just, it'stough.
Yeah, you can't.

(16:50):
All you can control is what youcan control.
You can't control what peoplecan't control most things but
what you can't control you needto make sure that you're doing
things the right way and doingthe things, that if you showed
up to a place, especially aplace you've never been before
yes, it's the little things Itell people all the time.
I I'll come up here all day andget a bunch of stuff done and

(17:10):
it's all stuff that no one elsewill notice, except for me,
right.
But it's stuff that is important.
You know um it, it's exciting.
It's one of those things likesome days you wake up and you're
like, and then some nights Iwake up and I'm like let's go.
Yeah, I'm fired up to get stuffgoing.
But you know, we're at a pointwhere you know me and my wife we
have a couple investors.
One of them is my family andthen the other one is a local

(17:33):
guy who's friends with my sisterand brother-in-law, steven
Knight and Justin Backus.
They own Chicken Express.
All the Chicken Express is allthe Chicken Express is around
here, here, kerrville, comfortCorpus.
So we brought them in.
They're great guys, great youngguys with the same kind of
vision we have, which is what wewere looking for.
And when I was in New Braunfelswe had a couple opportunities to

(17:55):
do something there, which COVIDput the kibosh on one of those,
which is fine, and then we hada couple more.
But I just got to the court,right, I just felt like New
Braunfels, I felt like I wastrying to force it a little bit,
right.
So me and my I told my wife Iwas like let's go try to find
some other property andliterally this is the second

(18:16):
place we looked at and it wasn'teven.
We didn't even specificallycome find this place.
We looked at one property inBlanco and my brother-in-law
works at a winery here in townwhich actually they just moved
to Johnson city Lostraw winery,one of the best wineries in town
.
Go check them out.
Um, they actually just boughtthemselves out from under
William Chris.
William Chris is just phenomenal.

(18:37):
Everyone knows him Um so.
Lostraw is doing great.
So we were in Blanco.
Well, you know what?
We're already almost toFredericksburg.
Let's go see Sean and get somewine.
And so we went and saw him andwe were only there for less than
a glass of wine and a gentlemanwalked in and my brother-in-law
said hey, go introduce yourselfto that guy.
He's got some property.
It used to have a bar on it.

(18:57):
It's closed.
Now I think he's trying to sellit.
That was Mr Painter.
Met Mr Painter, exchangedinformation the very next week,
came up, looked at the property,immediately fell in love with
it and a year or so later, herewe are.
It's just funny how it happens,isn't that crazy?
We tried for literally threeand a half years to try to get
something going in New Braunfelsand a week and a half two weeks

(19:19):
of looking elsewhere and wefound it.
I love that it's timingelsewhere and we found it.
It's just it's time.
I love when a plan comestogether.
Yeah, it's time I tell you whatborn and raised in broncos, I
have spent a lot of time ingillespie county I showed
animals my entire life, and so Iwas all over, all over texas
and um, it is really cool to seeyou come from broncos, and when

(19:41):
I saw that you posted thatyou're opening this up in
Fredericksburg, I'm like,fucking Fredericksburg, that's
big money town, and look at ourlittle bars back.
He's all grown up and I waslike wow.
I don't necessarily feel like wefit in here quite yet, but
we're going to get there.
I can't even afford a couplegood bottles of wine in

(20:03):
Fredericksburg.
Curtis just popped him up a barand got it.
It's freaking epic it all.
like I said, it's all timing,it's all about everything kind
of came in perfect.
And you know, mr Painter gaveus a great deal on this place
and he worked with us on certainthings that we needed help on
and it just all kind of fellinto place.
You know it's, and you know,nothing's perfect.
You know we've had our stumbles, oh you're going to.

(20:26):
Oh yeah, I've had this freakingresort for 10 years.
Every time I turn around, yeah,10 years.
Yeah, and I bet when you firststarted that you were like oh,
10 years from now, we're goingto be here.
It's 10 years and you're goingoh gosh, but again, it's never
ending.
It's what happens when you.
That's the reason they'recalled your dreams, because you
know, honestly, most of the time, if not all the time, they're

(20:48):
pretty much unattainable formost people.
You're always going to keepworking and you're always going
to keep striving for better andtrying to get things the way you
want Out.
Here we're just trying to.
You know, I just try to be likeI have a big list and I try to
get like one thing done a week.
You know what I mean.
Just try to knock one out.

(21:08):
And, of course, there are weeksgo by and I don't get nothing
done, and some weeks I get threethings done and it's just.
It's just a constant.
You just gotta keep movingforward, okay, oh yeah, exactly
yeah, yeah, it's okay to notover set your goals too high,
because then it makes you justit's devastating exactly your
own personal feelings you haveto have those more and more of
yourself.
So set reasonable goals.
We are trying, we are trying.

(21:28):
We are goals are hefty though weare.
I tell people all the time youknow I have all these great
examples of different things,but tell people all the time I
love whitewater.
Whitewater is one of myfavorite places and that is
that's my goal right now.
Our goal is to get thisproperty to be a whitewater
someplace you want to go's goingto have amazing music all the
time.
Great service, my friend, beckybright, uh, help does all the

(21:50):
bars out there.
She's phenomenal.
Just consistency and justhonestly for lack of a better
word greatness like we.
We really want to achieve that.
Uh, like I said earlier,there's so many great artists
around here and listen.
I'm 37 and I'm not what I know Iknow, I took it with that.
They're like you're a baby, Iknow, but when I was 21 I knew

(22:12):
everybody.
I knew not maybe not, not, Idon't even mean personally, but
if you were up and coming artistor you were the big thing or
you were kind of on the end ofyour career, kind of getting to
that age where you're notplaying as much, I knew
everybody.
And now I'm at that age whereyou're not playing as much, I
knew everybody.
And now I'm at that point whereyou know I'm we're not in the
scene as much, yeah, and I getpeople sending me people all the

(22:33):
time and I'm like how have Inever heard this person?
right, so good and and and itgives me, it makes me excited.
I'm like I'm excited to notonly have them come play at the
place that I own yes, but alsoto also To watch the group.
Exactly To give, to give thosepeople.
Yeah, the music, mama thing.
Yeah, watch your babies grow up.
Yes, to give those people theopportunity to become the Cody

(22:56):
Canada's and the Ryan Rogers andthose kinds of names out there.
The people that we grew up with.
You know I'm from.
I'm from the Lotus.
I grew up three minutes awayfrom Flores, so every weekend
that's what we did, and if wecouldn't afford to go into
Flores, we would sit outsideyeah.
Because the guy that owned theproperty behind was one of our
friend's dads, you know, right,and I say afford.
It's so funny, like back then.
It's crazy to think we used togo see full-cross.

(23:19):
Canadian ragweed shows for $20.
I was about to say yeah, I wasjust talking about.
Pat Green sitting in Hastings.
It was way back when I've neverbeen up at 11.
11 o'clock before my life.
Please be patient with me.
I was like, oh my Lord, we werejust with him at a deal that he
did.
It was just funny talking aboutold times.

(23:43):
How spoiled we are.
You look around in your bar andyou look at your posters and the
history that's in this buildingthat you have.
I've got some good ones.
I've got some really good ones,my wife jokes.
She says we need two more barsto hang on posters that I have.
I have so many I have like 200more in my storage.

(24:03):
Yeah, most of these were.
You need to start putting themon the ceiling.
I know Well.
See, I want to do that.
In fact, when I started hangingthem, I had an idea of what I
wanted to do, and then you know,you just start doing it and
you're like I'm supposed to doit.
Most of these I collected myselfover the years.
I was when I was younger, youknow, going to a concert,

(24:32):
getting that concert t-shirt orhat was always a cool thing.
But I got at a certain point.
I just started gettingcollecting posters.
Yes, um, especially, noteveryone had posters and they
don't have a lot, right.
Um, in fact, like our friendmorgan avery, she is like poster
queen, she's like the yeah, thebest in the biz.
Um, in fact, I was talking tosomebody.
I was like I need to contactcontact Morgan about doing some
posters for us, cause I want tostart doing uh like a year, like
yearly events here.
And we've slowly started.

(24:52):
So, like two Saturdays ago,when you were here, we did our
official grade opening fourmonths after we actually opened,
which is awesome, hilarious.
Um and it went great.
We went through 400 pounds ofcrawfish in less than two and a
half hours.
That's Comal Crawfish in New.
Braunfels.
Well, comal County Crawfish isthe restaurant in New Braunfels,

(25:12):
the food truck is ComalCrawfish Company, which they do
have links, but they technicallyare separate.
That's my buddy Terrence Day.
Terrence Day is the best.
Terrence comes and cooks at theresort.
Yes, he is the best.
He is a hot boss and we lovehim to freaking pieces, so we
actually have Terrence and hiswife.
They come out about twice amonth just to have their normal

(25:34):
food truck.
Yes, and they always do great.
We always do great.
We are doing another crawfishShameless plug.
We're doing another crawfishboil.
Easter weekend.
Okay, three-day crawfishfestival friday, saturday,
sunday friday we're doing aneaster egg hunt for the kids.
Saturday we're doing uh, sixhours of live music.
Did you hear that?
Yeah?

(25:54):
and then sunday we're doing apeeling party, so whatever we
have left over, on sunday andsunday we're doing a.
Uh, we've been doing a songswap with a devin bays and gary
b cox from little star souvenirsand they draw such a good crowd
in there.
They're just so fun.
So you tell all the guys thatyou've got coming in.
I created a page.
It's a group, it's not a page,but it's called Starting Artists

(26:14):
on a Page.
Yes, I was already a member.
Yeah, that was way back when.
So you know, I'd always promoon the musicians and had a bunch
of them on the show and Talkingabout where they started and
letting them bring anotherhistory and yeah, and then
watching them go to where theyare now and we were.
This one has an air.
Yet when we were pondering onbringing back the the old River,

(26:38):
I saw swamp song swap days andyes so we're gonna bring that
back.
We're gonna do it at the resort.
It would be epic to have aseries out here, but we're going
to bring that back.
We're going to do it at theresort.
It would be epic to have aseries out here, but we're going
to.
That's why we pushed that adeal.
We would absolutely love to dothat.
I just saw you posted ManziLowry.
The other day I went in thereand selflessly plugged that he's
going to be here, like I thinkthree or four times the next few

(26:58):
months.
He's phenomenal.
Also love Manzi, because afterhe performed well, he played
outside.
It was actually kind of crappyweather when he was here, Played
outside and then we moved himinside.
I think it's so funny.
This building shouldn't be, butit's got pretty good acoustics.
It has very good acoustics.
I don't know if he had one ortoo many drinks.
Manzi said he wanted to recordan album in here, so I'm like

(27:19):
okay, let's do it.
But what I also love about himis after his show he spent about
30 minutes to an hour walkingthe entire property picking up
rocks.
Picking up fossils yeah, awesome.
He does that at my ranch allthe time yeah, phenomenal.
He showed up there an hourearlier and he was like do you
mind?
I was like no, you have everyrock out here.
He was asking me all historiesof my trees, yeah, Look you, let

(27:42):
me know and we'll jot it down.
Yes, exactly, but to answeryour question, we've had, you
know, there's a lot of greatlocal musicians in
Fredericksburg and there's alsoa lot of great in the area.
So I'm trying to do acombination of local and, you
know, like I said earlier, I'mvery lucky.
I know a lot of great musicians.

(28:02):
Our opening night was Thursday,October 3rd, which just so
happened to be my birthday.
We didn't plan that.
We wanted to open up in July,but you know how things go, oh
yeah.
Austin Gillum played that nightand it was phenomenal.
He actually called dibs on itwhen he first heard that I was
doing this.
He goes I want to play youropening night.
I go, done, Done.
Not arguing.
He's also going to be back here.

(28:22):
I got him two or three timesover the next three months.
I just posted.
I don't know if you saw so wedid one of his very first music
videos in my living room,talking about acoustics.
Yeah, Because I've got supertall ceilings in my house and
it's not like it's a big house,it just goes straight up.
And yeah, we shot him and John.

(28:44):
They had a five-piece that day.
In the corner of my head it wasjust everywhere.
We were standing on the kitchencounters, Scotty, which is
Summer Shandy, you guys knowthat.
I mean he had a camera shootingThings were flying and I was,
and you know strawberry lemonade.
Oh yeah, it's the jam Blue, andI had a big old gallon of
strawberry.
It was a good.

(29:09):
It was a really good time.
I just reshared that video andI was like this and look at him
now.
This is way back when.
Oh yeah, he used to play him andNick Worley used to play, like
every other Tuesday at Billy'sRice Bartender.
maybe they were great Himyelling at people without the
thing.
Remember, be quiet.
I'm singing.
Yeah, like Austin, we know.
We know, yeah, we hear you.

(29:30):
Be nice to everyone.
They hear you in Petersburg andwe're in Austin right now.
Austin Gillum's phenomenal.
Austin Gillum's the guy that, ifyou want somebody to bring the
house down just hire AustinGillum, but At Timberwild,
garrett and Bo out here a fewtimes and we got them booked a
couple more times.
Damon Curtis, jj Garrett Band,a lot of new Broncos guys Guys

(29:51):
that I know for a fact will puton a great show will show up.
You know they're worth everypenny that we pay these guys,
and they deserve it too.
Guys that are actually tryingto do this full time.
So your live music days thatyou're doing out here are
weekends, Saturdays and Sundays.
So we've actually January andFebruary.
We only did Fridays andSaturdays.

(30:12):
It's the slower time and theweather.
We are back to Thursday throughSunday.
Nice yeah.
So Thursdays a little bitearlier, we usually do 6 to 9,
and then Fridays and Saturdayswe'll do 7 to 10 or 8 to 11.
I kind of let my artists, youknow again, this is not New
Braunfels, this isFredericksburg.
Fredericksburg is not a biglate night town.

(30:35):
It's a late afternoon, earlyevening, town.
That's when your crowds yeah,that's when your crowds are
coming out.
But, New Braun, so your officeisn't like town either, remember
.
Well, I mean, it's not.
It's not.
The bars aren't open, butpeople still want to party.
Oh, they do.
Yeah, if you have music goinguntil midnight, they'll show up
for it.
And then Sundays we do earlyafternoons.
So there's a local place intown called Hondo's Great spot.

(30:57):
They do live music noon tothree.
They do and so that's where theyget a big crowd.
So we actually start at 4.
So go to Hondo's, listen tothem, have a margarita and then
come and spend the rest of yourday out here at the top and we
always have really great guys.
On Sunday we have our littlepatio, which is where we have

(31:19):
everybody.
Now we are in the middle ofputting a stage right here
outside the patio so I can do alittle bit fuller bands.
We have power going on thatstuff out there.
We're just kind of again babysteps we're taking them.
Yeah, exactly yeah.
Don't wake up and go shit, butyeah.
Thursday, friday, saturday,sunday, live music at night,

(31:40):
late afternoon on Sundays, andthen Monday, tuesday, wednesday,
we are open Full bars.
Sometimes we have a food truck,sometimes we don't.
I try to post as much as I can.
You can call us.
Let's talk about your bar menufor a second.
Yeah, full bar, full bar.
And when I say I can makeanything, I am not exactly.
I'm going to tell you thatCurtis can make anything.

(32:00):
Curtis has been making for allof us for a very long time.
You were one of the only onesthat would ever remember my
Texas two-step that I sold amillion years ago, deep Eddie
yeah, we used to sell the crapout of Deep Eddie.
It's grapefruit Deep Eddie,cranberry Deep Eddie and a

(32:21):
splash of soda with a lime.
I labeled it the Texas two-stepCrazy enough, and now they have
so many flavors.
The Texas Two-Step DeliciousCrazy enough, and now they have
so many flavors.
You can literally have.
Texas.
Two-step could be anything youwant.
In fact, I actually my liquorrep two days ago.
You can do a high step.
You can do a squat, a bend andsquat.
I have a whole bend and squatthing Two days ago.
I'm a pineapple guy.
One of my my cocktail on themenu is called the El Jefe.

(32:43):
It's muddled up fresh jalapenos, pineapple juice, reposado
tequila and ginger beer.
So basically a Mexican mule, nolime juice, add pineapple and
then muddled jalapenos, and itis phenomenal.
I'm a pineapple guy.
I just recently found out thatDeep Eddie put out a pineapple,
so we don't have it yet, butnext week we'll be having Deep
Eddie pineapple, so we have afull bar.

(33:05):
I can literally make anything.
We have a.
I keep fresh fruit on handraspberries, blackberries,
watermelon.
We have a drink on our menucalled Smoke on the Water,
basically a mezcal smokywatermelon margarita that's
super popular during thesummertime.
Yeah, like I said earlier, youcan come with your boys.
We do buckets of beers.
We're only one of two places intown that do buckets of beers.

(33:26):
Domestics imports we'll mixthem up.
One of our specialty buckets isArmadillos, which is a drink
that I learned from one of myfriends, kathy Legender, who
I've known my entire life.
She's now a super popularmusician at Austin.
She's phenomenal Armadillo canlime juiceco tahine cracker open

(33:51):
.
Uh, can't beat it on a summerday you go see that, yeah, so
you get all that we do.
Buckets of those armadillos, um,uh, come out with your boys,
watch, watch the sports.
We have seven tvs five inside,two outside.
We have all the sports packagesum get a lot of big crowds for
the game, which is great.
Come bring a date.
Cocktails, martinis, I canliterally make anything you can

(34:11):
think of.
One of the drinks on the menuthat I'm pretty sure I'm the
only one that does it aroundhere is an espresso margarita.
I get a lot of questions.
I get a lot of requests forespresso martinis and stuff like
that.
We do an espresso margarita.
I won't tell you what's in it.
It's a secret, but it isphenomenal If you actually go to
our Instagram.
Where did that info?
come from?
Oh, you know, just being boredbehind the bar One night.

(34:35):
I meant to grab a vodka and Icame out with a tequila.
My wife makes fun of me.
Tequila and jalapenos I canmake anything with those.
Those are my two favorite things.
So, um, I'm always trying to.
I have tequila and jalapenos,yeah, cooking machine and oh,

(34:55):
yeah, yeah, so any any kind oflike classic cocktail that
you've seen, I've, you know you,it's just fun to kind of mess
around with them and see whatyou can do and see what, see
what flavors mix well and seewhat works and what doesn't.
And trust me, I've I've madesomething and I'm like this is
going to be amazing and I'm likeI do never tell anybody so I
have a challenge for you.
Yes, I have a challenge for you.
This is year, so we'll kind ofcall this the first year at the

(35:17):
top yes, right, yes, so let'ssay we're in 2025 right now.
Let's shoot the goal for in2026, then that's a good that's
a good minute.
We are in march, so march of2026 around spring break time
yes we should have a top drinkmenu book oh yes, that is

(35:42):
actually on my list of things todo in In fact, we have 10
Curtis's top.
Yes, now, that's a great idea,so we actually have our legit
menus on the way.
I cannot wait for them to gethere.
They're beautiful.
These need to be the hidden.
These need to be the espressoto keep margaritas.
You're going to pull this outthe vault?

(36:04):
Yeah, no, I got.
Hey, I have trust me.
I have a book of them.
We can do this right now.
Obviously, Um do not get thenapkins and grab?
No, that is a band.
I nearly poked my finger.
That is a great, that is a greatgoal.
Um, you know, speaking of goals, we have so many.

(36:25):
Um, you know, when it comes tothings, you have to.
Not only do you have to do whatyou feel or what you think is
going to be great for, for, thebusiness and for your customers.
but you also have to make surewe we like to make sure we do
everything correctly here whenwe have.
When we set this place up, Iwas the one the health
department wasn't hitting me, Iwas hitting them up.
I was like I want to make sureI do everything right.
I don't want to get this placeopen and get bumping and then

(36:45):
you come in here one day and say, oh this is a little thing.
That was me and my TABC with allof our things.
Of course I knew them, but Istill was like look.
Yeah, so we try to make surethat we do everything right, so
are very meticulous and we doour homework and we're just
making sure that we do thingsright.
In fact, I love that youbrought up our parking.

(37:08):
That's our next big thing.
I want to just clean that up alittle bit, you know people come
out here and they go oh man,this is great.
What you should do is extendthat and put a big concrete slab
.
I don't want to put concrete.
I don't want to cut down trees.
I don't want to put concrete.
We're in the hill country.
That's part of the appeal aboutthis place.
Go to Lugenbach.
Do you?
see no.
Exactly so when it comes to ourgoals literally, even if you

(37:34):
just start a and we have to dothis at a resort one because I
have no parking you have plentyof parking.
But literally, literally, wehad to go in and I just took
stripe and paint and just setthem on a little goal If they
come if you build it, they willcome, they'll figure it out.

(37:55):
That's another thing about thisplace.
Fredericksburg is one of thoseplaces you know we um.
There's always going to be oneasshole that parks sideways or
whatever.
Yeah, yeah, it's usually someonethat I know it always is yeah,
we have a big no-park becauseI'm right in front of the front
door.
That's my truck out there rightnext to my truck.
Yeah, once a week a big truck orsomething will pull up and I'm
like who is this?
I'm like oh of course.

(38:16):
I know place all the time pullstraight through, right in front
of the bar, and I'll radio tothe kids.
They're like who is this?
They're like well, they saidthey were coming down there to
see you and they'll be sittingright here.
Oh, that was you.
Yeah, get your shit go move.
Yeah, no, I don't like you thatmuch.
You can't yeah, so you know,it's just.
You know, when it comes tosetting goals, we just try to
make sure that we do everythingcorrectly and, like I said, make

(38:40):
sure you're doing it right.
Take your time.
Again, timing has been a bigthing that we've talked about,
but it is timing.
You can say, hey, I want to getthis done by a certain date and
you might get it done by thenand you might not, but you
really only have so much controlover it Exactly yeah.
Do it your way.
I've had a million people comein and go, you know.

(39:04):
just like you said oh you shoulddo this, you should do that, or
you should do that.
I'm like see, that sounds like agood idea now that you said
that, but also it's like, it'slike people walk in and they
look around.
They take one look around likeoh, you should do this, I go.
I understand, I thought thattoo.
Yeah, but if you do that, thenthat that and that and you're,
and you're like, oh, I didn'tthink it was going to go Would
you like salt with your drink?
Yes, exactly so.

(39:24):
Would you like to leave thisopen?
Yeah, we're just going to wrapyou up right now.
Oh, no, no, no, we never wrapyou up.
That's why my wife's not allowedto go to my bar.
My wife is a school teacher.
So when the kids get out of line, that's it Working in this
industry, you know people getout of line sometimes.

(39:46):
Not sometimes.
Yeah, pretty much every day.
But you know you can't cuteverybody off just because they
don't like the way they taughtyou.
You can't kick them out all thetime.
You can't kick everybody out.
You don't want to have anycustomers.
So my wife's not one littleattitude for my wife, one of
these.
And my wife's like, don't keepit, you're fine.
You're fine, sit down.
Please don't snap at me.

(40:06):
But here's a drink.
Go sit outside, please don't dothat.
Just maybe something like that,maybe, yeah, you have to be
this.
This job is very you have tobarely be you really do I tell
you when I was talking aboutyeah, it's um it at the river.
you know we're only open threemonths out of the year and every
weekend, just when I think I'veseen it all, the next weekend

(40:27):
rolls around.
I never saw that one coming andI really didn't think that you
were going to be the one thatwas going to have to grab by the
neck and throw out of here andthe kids will turn me off on the
radios.
I was like, oh, I can.
Oh yes, I can say that.
I'll tell you this, though youknow that you do learn to change
and and laugh it down, or I canturn somebody around like they

(40:51):
were about to play pin the tailon the donkey they just thought
they were about to run like therage room of rage room and then
20 minutes later they're cryingand calling me mama and I'm so.
I didn't mean to hit that guy.
Shit, I don't think about yourchoices.
Let's go have a beer.
You need to freaking get yourshit together.
Yeah, no, but we I'll say onething Exactly.

(41:15):
I'll say one thing One thing Ido miss about New Braunfels is a
lot of people, a lot ofdifferent characters, and it can
get a little, but also it's alot of fun when you have a full
bar and it's just like theperfect mix of people it can be.
There's nothing better.
Fredericksburg is a little moretame, I'll tell you that.

(41:40):
We honestly have had almost noissues here at all, which is
great.
In five months it's pretty muchunheard of to run a bar and
have absolutely no problems inthat amount of time.
Okay, so you'll pull up here youhave this beautiful atmosphere.
You've got oak trees, you've gotdeer, there's birds.
You're out here in Texas HillCrunch.
Yeah, it's God's cup.
And if you are going to comeover here with your attitude you

(42:01):
need to put it outside.
On the other, side of thatcattle guard, and then come back
in here.
Let's have a cocktail, relax,enjoy.
Yes, god's country.
That's also one great thingabout where we're at.
It's so beautiful out here,yeah, and having all the locals
here.
Honestly, if anybody does startacting up, I honestly don't
even need to do anything.
It'll take care of itself.
Which is also great Our localsthat come in here all the time

(42:25):
are phenomenal, and you knowthey like to have fun too Once
in a blue moon.
I'm like hey, I know I've donemy bit.
Yeah, but it's.
This place has been great.
The town of Fredericksburg isgreat.
You know it's a tourist town.
I hear things all the time.
We get nothing but complimentsabout our service here and it's

(42:46):
a testament to my employees andmyself and my family and our
investors and just the peoplethat we draw.
That's one of the complimentswe get.
The most is every time we go inthere.
Everyone's so nice andeveryone's so friendly and
there's a lot of places in townthat they are tourist
destinations, so locals don't goin there as much.
They're very busy, they're greatplaces, but you know the

(43:08):
service in some places can lack.
In a tourist town In NewBraunfels it's the same way you
go in and you're late Becausethey think you're a tourist.
So they're not worried aboutsecond-time business, they're
worried about you're in here now.
You're probably never gonnacome back in here and you're
gonna go back to where you'refrom and whatever.
But one thing I try to telleverybody is I don't care where

(43:29):
you're from, I don't care ifyou're local, I don't care if
you're not.
I want you to have the bestexperience ever when you come
into one of my establishments.
And we've been able to do that.
My staff has been great, andeven me.
I have what you like to callresting bitch face.
So sometimes I have to give alittle extra.
Yeah, I keep my sunglasses on.

(43:50):
I'm really good about it.
I take laps when I know Nick'sreally good about going.
I think you need to go.
She'll send me on a scavengerhunt and I'm like I want to go
right now, Go fight this thingthat we don't even have.
You Go find this thing that wedon't even have.
You do want to go look forexactly what I told you to go
look for.
There's an arrowhead out theresomewhere.
You need to go find it.
It's funny.
People that have known me foryears know that when I have a

(44:10):
real busy bar.
I have my game face on.
But that's when I'm actuallyhaving the most fun.
I love it.
I love when people come to thebar and they go, hey you're
hustling, I'm like, yes, I am,let's go.
What do you need?
Let's go.
I love popping eight beers at atime and tossing out buckets of
beer.
That's how that.

(44:30):
Saturday was.
We sold so much beer.
It was so good, it was great.
The energy was palpable that day.
It was great, that's what we'researching for.
That is our speaking of goals.
That's our ultimate goal.
Our ultimate goal is when youcome in here, I'd be like man.
This place is pumping.
This place is fun.
Everyone's having a good time.

(44:50):
It was so awesome, yeah, and itwas really good to walk in and
see Bill and Kathy and ourpeople from you know.
I was just about to bring thatup.
Yeah, it was just so good to seeLance was here.
I was just about to bring thatup.
The first weekend we were open.

(45:12):
That Thursday was slammed,friday was slammed.
Saturday during the day wasslammed.
It slowed down a little bit atnight.
But that was also.
Oktoberfest was going on here,which you know.
Wurstfest is the obviously NewBrunswick statement, it's the.
If I'm getting this correctly,wurstfest is the second biggest
German festival in the country.
It is.
Oktoberfest in Fredericksburgis the third largest Right,

(45:35):
which is funny because the gapbetween two and three is pretty
huge.
But so we were competing withthat the first weekend.
But right when it slowed down Iwas like it's slowing down a
little bit, no joke.
30 seconds later a party buspulls up Janine and all my
Oyster.
Mom, peeps and Lance and allthem, yeah, a perfect timing One

(45:56):
thing I love about this iswe've been open five months.
Well so I knew someone wasgetting a bus, but I didn't know
who was going to be on that bus.
You know, one of those things.
That's so cute.
But yeah.
So we've been open for a littleover five months and at least
once every 10 days someone walksin the door and I'm like what
is up.
That is so good.
It's so good to see familiarfaces.
It makes you feel good whenpeople actually, you know, make

(46:20):
the effort because people say,hey, we'll come see you, we'll
come see him.
You never see him.
But you know when I'm tellingyou once, about once every 10
days, somebody walks in.
We were sitting here one dayand I I went outside to do
something.
I had a full bar.
I went outside to like, grabsomething and there was a
someone parked way in the backand I saw him come like that guy
.
That guy looks like my buddybill long he's walking, walking

(46:40):
like Bill Long and about fiveminutes later.
Everybody loves Bill and aboutfive minutes later, bill Long
walks up.
I was like what are you doinghere?
And it was like a weekday.
I was like what are you?
He's like took a drive.
I saw his post.
Took a drive.
He was so happy.
Took a drive and came to get adrink, I was like, oh, it's
about making people happy andjust giving people a place to

(47:02):
where they can relax and getaway from all the bullshit.
Yeah.
You know yeah.
And just give them a place wherethey can relax.
I'm so happy for you.
It literally is like and I'm acrier so it'll probably happen,
don't cry.
Don't cry, but I just kind ofthink that it's kind of ironic

(47:24):
how, when we started recordingin here today and we turned the
sound down and you said, do youmind if I, if the ice machine
gonna bother sound or whatever,and nixon, now it's fine I think
irony at its finest when youstarted with five gallon buckets
scooping ice, being a barbackfilling ice chest and now I'm

(47:52):
sitting here and now I'm back toit.
It's exactly what I have, butyou're at the top, we are in the
top.
Curtis owns the top.
Yeah, you may still be scooping, oh yeah, but I'm still doing
the same.
It's your ice machine, it's yourbucket.
You realize how expensive anice machine is.
And the parts when they take ashift.
Oh exactly, we have companiesthat do that.

(48:16):
Thank goodness.
It's one of those things.
You know people.
I have a good buddy, chris.
He lives in Mexico now, workedhis butt off his entire life.
He was a firefighter, had sidejobs his whole life, his goal.
I met him 10 plus years ago andone of the first times I ever
met him.
He goes.
Oh yeah, I'm going to.
He goes, I'm going to retireand move down to Mexico and I'm
like that's awesome.

(48:37):
That's awesome, but, like youknow how many people told you
that?
Nope, Chris.
About a year and a half, twoyears ago, Chris retired.
Since you moved down to Mexico.
He lives in Mexico.
Haven't seen him in two plusyears, but every once in a while
we'll shoot each other textsand literally three or four days
ago he shot me a text Justhow's it going, how we doing,

(49:05):
and you know you have thoseconversations he owns a little
small business down there doing.
I think he's doing scuba divingand boat stuff.
You just talk about things.
There are certain people thatreach out to you that genuinely
want to know how you're doingand then give you inspiration
and have a great conversationand you have other people like
oh, you own a bar, so you'rerich now and I'm like I've never
been.
You know what I mean.
More broke in my life Neverbeen more broke in my life.
Yeah, but that's just how it is.
It's, you know this is, butthat's how it has to be.

(49:26):
This is my baby and we're newand everything all the effort
and you know money to me is noteven like who cares, it's all
material I we had.
I had this conversationliterally two weeks ago with my
father you know and and like apositive.
Yeah, my dad's great but it wasa positive, like it just came
naturally.
A positive conversation.
You know, you look around andyou talk about what you got to

(49:49):
do and what we got to do forthis and get people, more, more
people in here, and what are ourgoals and how do we reach them,
and all this stuff and at theend of the day, it's this is
what is the fun part actuallyfinding a property what is the
fun part?
actually finding a property,fixing it up, making it to what
you want it, and yeah, we'rethere.
But you know, reaching a goal isgreat, but the journey to

(50:10):
reaching your goal is whatreally where it what it's, what
it's all about, you know, yeah,and I mean how many people get
to say that they own a businesswith their dad.
Like you know what I mean it'sa rarity, you know?
Know, it's a I mean.
Yeah, I mean you can have awhole other podcast about that.
Yes.
Talking about tears?
Yeah, no, it's it's, it's thelittle things One, family

(50:31):
businesses, and I've got severalIn a marriage, in a family.
If you cannot figure out how toturn it off and how to shut it
down, then it will absolutelynever work.
Oh yeah, it will never, everwork.
It will drain you, it will buryyou six foot under.

(50:54):
You have got to figure out thatyou guys are in a relationship.
Y'all love each other.
Outside of that, my kids havetheir businesses, we have our
businesses, and there's got tobe an absolutely not.
Yeah, outside of that, my kidshave their businesses, we have
our businesses.
There's got to be a absolutelynot.
This is Sunday.
We are going to have our dinner, whatever it is.
We are not going to sit here atThanksgiving and talk about how
stupid you think that littleJohnny was and how, whatever and

(51:16):
done and done.
I'm not doing that, I'm notdoing that, you can't do it.
It'll be true, exactly.
And that's with anything in life.
You know, this is what I'mdoing right now, but it's not.
It doesn't define me as aperson.
It won't define me later inlife, no matter how successful
or unsuccessful it ends up being10, 20 years from now.

(51:42):
At the end of the day, you knowyou, I do, and I have to one
thing and take this for whatit's worth.
And I told everybody, and thekids that have worked with me
and then gone on and grown theirwings, and, and I've said
friends that have come to stayat my place or gone to my liquor
stores or bought stuff at myboutique and blah, blah, blah,
whatever, from eight to five, ifyou're working for me or you're
whatever, I don't have to likeyou and you don't have to like

(52:05):
me.
Yeah.
Business is business and it'strue.
It is all about the rentAfterwards.
We can have a week and I cansay fuck you and you can say
fuck me and blah, blah, blah.
After that, I we're going tokiss your face, we're going to
high-five, we're going to gohave a cocktail, we're going to
have a nice dinner, whatever itis.
Yeah, but you cannot get yourfeelings hurt in the business
world when it comes to familyand friends.

(52:26):
It is what it is.
Yep.
You have to understand.
Curtis is running a businesshere.
Yeah.
This is.
I'm not going to walk in and go.
Guys, I've known you for.
Yeah, hey, oh do I get todiscount?
Yeah, no, in fact, you mighttell anybody and everybody that

(52:46):
goes into mine and says I knowTiffany, and they try to zoom
through and I go.
Those kids are raving at me.
They now know they're evenraving at me.
I said well then, charge themdouble, Yep.
I don't really.
It's $25 to get in or whateverit is Now for you today it's a
nice Ben Franklin.
You're welcome.
She'll meet you down at the barPeople say that all the time.
If you really want to supportyour friend, if you're my friend

(53:10):
, or if you're my cousin, or ifyou're my auntie grandma's
nephew, if you really want tosupport your friend's family,
the bank does not give a shit.
Support them.
I'm not going to give you thatnow.
I say that I've definitely been.
I say the same shit.
Yeah, exactly, in fact, givethem all love.
Yeah, one night we went to, sothe other night there's a

(53:32):
preschool here in Fredericksburg.
It's called Bethany BethanyPreschool Great school.
My niece went there, my nephewgoes there, All of their
friends' kids go there.
It's a great school.
They do one big fundraiserevery year and it was actually
Thursday night and they have allthese local vendors do all the
stuff and they have a welcomecocktail.
So we actually got to do thatthis year I saw that.

(53:53):
That was cool and it was sogreat.
So much fun.
200-something people, greatcrowd.
Everyone was super nice.
Everyone gave us lots ofcompliments.
Whatever, there was a reason.
I knew this was going to happen.
I do this all the time.
I just want to give a shout outto Bethany's preschool for
starting this with an openingcocktail.
Yeah oh yeah, If you've watchedany of my shows.

(54:16):
I've said it.
This is a preschool benefit Toyour teachers.
Here's alcohol.
That's how you get people toraise their paddles when they're
actually so long.
I don't know who's running thatschool.
Oh yeah, no, they're doing itanyway and you're going to the
president, and it really was afantastic event and there was a
reason why I started talking tous but thank you so much

(55:04):
no-transcript.
You know, just helping peopleout and not charging people.
Um, you know, helping eachother out.
I think that's where we'regoing with.
Um, yeah, if you're a friend inour family and they own a
business, go support them.
Go spend your money, go buy yourshirt.

(55:26):
But there have been nights whenwe go try to say hi to people at
other establishments that weknow that have supported us and
next thing you know, we leaveand I go.
I wore a hat in there, my wifegoes yeah, you gave it to some
guy.
Some guy said oh, the top andwe're sitting.
I go here.
Here's a hat.
I have to buy another hat formyself, um but yeah, I do that

(55:52):
constantly.
But, um, you know this, this isjust such a great place, Uh, the
Texas Hill country, you can'tbeat it.
I really appreciate it.
And we've gotten like I I've.
Honestly, it's it.
It is overwhelming.
Sometimes, you know, I gothrough days or weeks where no
one texts me or anything, whichis fine, I'm busy, yeah but,
then there's days where, like,my phone just blows up and I'm

(56:14):
like who's texting me?
and it's just nothing but likehey, I saw you do this, you're
kicking ass like great job, likeyou look like you're doing
great, blah, blah.
Or or hey, we ran into someonethat we had never met and they
mentioned just randomlymentioned this bar in
fredericksburg and it's yoursand it's just, it's just crazy.
So this the love and supportwe've got from our friends and
family is just fantastic tellingyou it's what keeps you doing

(56:36):
what you do.
It's what keeps you doing whatI do every time I turn around.
I'm thinking I cannot handleanother weekend at the Spermer
or Spermer.
If I'm not there by Thursday atnoon, 99% of our clientele
literally have turned intofamily to me.
They will start blowing up myphone, going where are you?
We?
came to see you.
At the end of the day they do.

(56:57):
A lot of people come here tolisten to live music and have a
good cocktail.
But they're here to see you andsupport you.
It's a great feeling, Honestly.
It's a feeling that will neverget old.
I will never get sick.
I agree 100%.
I always tell people, you knowIrritated as I can be pulling in
that driveway and then I stepout my foot and they're like

(57:18):
what I'm like oh, I love youguys.
Y'all make it worth it.
I always tell people people askme what's your and her wife's
goal?
Oh, our goal was to get alittle piece of property and
have a bunch of animals andraise our kids.
And then or what's your goal?
with the bar, and the bar is toexpand and put a big stage and
get big names out of here, butmy long, long-term goal is to we

(57:48):
have a.
So my dad's my dad has severalgrandchildren.
His grandpa name is Grumpy.
That is his, which is hilarious.
When I was a kid, if I calledhim Grumpy I would have gotten
smacked.
But his grandkids call himGrumpy that's his grandpa name.
My grandfather was thegrouchiest God love you the
grouchiest human in the world,and you know what his name was
Happy.
Yeah, that's fantastic.
So my dad ran a deep seaheadquarters in Port Aransas for

(58:08):
years and when he retired fromthere his retirement gift was
this really big, nice rockingchair and on the back it said
Grumpy.
So Christmas time we did GrumpyCowboy Santa pictures for the
kids.
So he brought his rocking chairout here.
He dressed up as Cowboy.
Santa took pictures with thekids.
It was great.
Well, his rocking chair isstill here and I always get

(58:31):
people.
I feel like I need to leavesomething here when we leave
today, because everybody else isleaving something.
Please do, yeah, just leavesomething.
Well, we're going to leave somefertilizer for you.
We'll take them.
Someone left that wine.
There's a wine rack over therethat wasn't here two days ago.
Someone just walked in withtheir rack in there.
Hey, that means they like us,we're moving in.
But the rocking chair grumpy'sout there.
I always tell at the end of theday, my long, long-term goal is

(58:54):
to be an old man and drink abeer in that grumpy rocking
chair and have people ask mestories and me just make up
bullshit, because I think that'swhat old people do.
Yes, they do.
Yeah, they talk shit, yeah,non-stop yeah.
I'll be like, yeah, willieNelson came in here, right.
Back in 2025.
That sounds, yeah, that soundsgood Just makes stuff up.

(59:15):
That's my laundry rules.
There you go.
That rocking chair drinks a beermakes it looks good.
Yeah, that's cool.
Yeah, yeah, that's the thing.
Hey, this was fun.
It was so much great time thetop fredericksburg texas yes,
right outside we're about threemiles out down main street.
Yes, 290 west towards harper.
Um, we're on, just, you knowthe drone you know the maps maps

(59:38):
, google maps, apple maps uhyelp facebook instagram, all the
stuff.
Uh, yeah, come find us.
Yes, maps Maps, google Maps,apple Maps, facebook Instagram
all the stuff.
Yeah, come find us.