July 8, 2025 • 33 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I got an email from a listener last name Kuchera.
It was a Kuchera who helped us like you wouldn't believe.
And we built the RCC in a soft spot for
that family. And he says, are my sister and her
husband own a restaurant in Kerrville. It's called Grape Juice.
(00:24):
They've been fortunate to not only not have any flood
damage or loss, so they've been working around the clock,
feeding anybody who needs a meal, even delivering by helicopter
thanks to one of their customers. I love them both
so much, and this is very much who they are.
They help anybody in need as much as they can.
(00:47):
I said, send me hisnrmer. Derek Easton is his name.
Welcome to the program.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Derek. Hey, what's up man?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
How did you end up in Kerrville?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
How did I end up in Curville? Well, like, honestly,
I'm not in the brightest part of my life. I am.
I struggled with many issues for many years, so I
ended I ended up here, uh because I couldn't control
my consumption of controlled substances. So you just celebrated eight
years sober yesterday. You uh?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Are you on a Bluetooth or a speakerphone or something.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I am on just a phone. I can probably put
you on speaker No no, no, no, no no no.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
If you're on a phone and you're speaking right into
the microphone.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yes sir, Okay, all right, we're good. There we go.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
So, so you had a control substance problem a lot
of people do, and you decided that you needed to
get out of town and just clear your head and
and and get some fresh air.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yes, sir, Well, Curve it has a pretty strong recovery community.
There's a lot of good people helping a lot of
good people around here. And uh, and so it kind
of was like on my radar as I was struggling
in and out of like different institutions, and so then
that I kind of that's how I made my way
to Currville is through that. And then, funnily enough, it's
(02:10):
like I get to sober, I get out of treatment,
I go to sober living, I get uh, I get
hired as a busser at the very restaurant I own today.
I just kept working and falling upwards and and uh,
eventually it came, you know, my life changed. Uh, the
people around me change my prospective change. My connection to
something the greater than myself changed, and I kind of
(02:32):
just uh uh really really had a transformative experience. And
so you know, my life's been a blessing ever since
I did this, and and one of those things is
just keep doing the next right thing, and that's what
this really is.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Wow, that's an incredible story, Derek.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, it's uh, it's been a it's been a it's
been a roller coaster. But I will say, if it
if it wasn't from that, like that that initial uh,
that initial willingness and desperation in the first couple of
months I arrived in town to really like get it
together and and figure out how I could uh be
a productive member of society if you will, I'm like,
(03:14):
none of this would be possible. So I hold a
lot of credit to the people in the very beginning
of this story, you know, eight years ago that really
like helped me, uh get get sober and get connected
to not only something bigger than myself, but a community
and some principles to live by.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I have watched so many people in the throes of
addiction who and very few people make it out. And
when I see someone who does I recognize that journey,
in that difficulty, in that struggle, and it's an ongoing struggle.
It never goes away, and I just, yeah, it gives
(03:55):
me so much hope. It gives me such happiness to
see and what an inspiration. There's a reason God puts
you on our show today, and it's only partly because
you're feeding the people in Currville. Tell me about grape.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
So grape juice we are traditionally well. So in two
thousand and seven, Patrick and carry Wilt started this as
the original letter who started it as a wine shop.
He came from the wine distribution side of things, and
he saw a need in this area to kind of
provide the Hill country with like a quality wine experience.
But that wasn't too hoity toity. The wine world can
(04:30):
sometimes be pretty like nose in the air when it
comes to it. But wine is, you know, one of
the oldest beverages on earth and it's it's which is
interesting because I come from a recovery background. So they
started it in Ingram, actually they are in the border
(04:51):
of Ingram and Hunts So it was a wine shop
and then when they moved to downtown Kerrville, they started
serving food, and through that it's just kind of organically
involved into like a full service restaurant. I came on
board eight years ago as a busser. I was bussing,
(05:11):
washing dishes. Uh. Then I moved into serving, and then
I moved into back of house and pretty much every
function until I've got to general management right around right
around twenty twenty, right around twenty twenty twenty twenty one.
What we do is we serve Hill Country comfort food,
but with like a Hill Country twist. So we deal
with a lot of local, local ingredients. We have a distributor,
(05:36):
Chris Hughes at a broken Ara ranch that gives us
South Texas antelope or nail Guy, if you're familiar with it,
and we we do ground and nail Guy braised nail Guy.
But we put that We don't do it like on
like fancy fine dining. We do it on like strictly
like working class meals. You're familiar with, tacos, hamburgers, the
like of that. We also do quail and so that's
(05:59):
kind of like our modus, like food you're familiar with,
but with like a little bit of a twist. It's
actually really weird talking about Grape Juice. It feels like
it's been four weeks since I've got to speel my
business or my restaurant because of of how how quickly
we had to change on a dime, and we've essentially
become a canteen for all first responders and those affected
(06:20):
by the flood. But I'm happy to do it because
it's really what my passion is is food service and hospitality.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
What are you seeing in the people you're helping? What
from an out for outsiders, how would.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
You describe, Uh, Gratitude? Mainly gratitude. It's just like a
lot of gratitude. We've we've been flood, we've been we've
been overwhelmed with uh what I'm now calling positive noise,
which is you don't really hear about that too much. Today.
Our Facebook page, our Instagram, even our phones are just
just pouring in love and support from not only the
(06:55):
local community but the world at large. The people that
are coming in. You know, it's it's a lot of tears,
man like grateful tears, and it's sometimes surreal and sometimes
like you're you get so we're so focused on what
we're doing that we we sometimes we have to keep
(07:15):
telling ourselves to take like breaks and pause and like
really like understand what we're doing, because I'll be honest,
we didn't. We didn't set out to do that. Like
we didn't. I'm a restaurant owner, a small business owner
that isn't that loves his community and so it's going
to do whatever he wants he can for his community.
But I didn't. I didn't want to set out to
(07:37):
run a like distribution center for those need When we
initially started, the impression was that, like the call I got.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Hold on just a moment with Derecuse and they have
the a r antelope Nacho meet. That sound probably on
a pope was recorded. Derek Easton is our guest, referred
by a listener who is married to Derek Easton's bride.
(08:13):
Derek owns and operates Grape Juice in Purrville, which fortunately
was not it. How did you manage to avoid the floods?
I mean, what's the location, and that's what I mean
by that.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
So we're at six two three Water Street off Sidney
Sydney Baker. We're like right on the corner of downtown. Right.
You've probably seen some images of Louise Hayes park where
your listeners might might have where the bridge is about
thirty feet from the water, so we're about thirty to
(08:47):
thirty five feet. I'm not these these these metrics might
be off, but we're pretty We sit pretty high above
where the standard river flows and it's actually pretty beautiful.
It's very scenic. And then we also sit on an incline.
And where where this is, how is the buildings over
nearly one hundred years old? Over one hundred years old.
(09:09):
In fact, it used to be a movie theater, then
a general store, and so we sit pretty high, I
think for the main reason of getting like skipments for
the general store on a loading dot, we were like
the concessions and the general So fortunately the building sits
on an incline and we're pretty high. We didn't even
even see a need to breed or to try this
in our back parking lot. We we got We got
(09:32):
got blessed with that for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
What does B A R stand for on your menu?
Speaker 2 (09:40):
It's it's so it stands for broken ra ranch. We
do it. That is what the distributor of the new Yeah,
that how do you keep how do you.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Make a B A broken arrow ranch? Antelope notcho meat
and it not be dry, because every time I've had
antelope it ends up being very dry.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Uh So so what nil guy is also referred to
as blue cow, So it's a lot it's like a
leaner beef, So we raise it. Raising really helps and
then uh like ground and cooked and braised in a
salsa verde is also like really uh really uh okay okay,
what keeps it from being dry.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
There's a place in Houston called Rainbow Lodge that's kind
of famous for their various uh game, and I love
to try different meats, but I find that many of
them are extraordinarily dry. So after you get over the
concept of how neat it is that you're eating, you
(10:44):
almost need like a chutney or a sauce or something
separate from it exactly, which is a bummer because I
like to eat meat dry to actually get the flavor
of a meat because so many things they do. Yeah,
I understand they drown the broken arrow ranch braised venison,
tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
So that is that is also going to be nil
nail guy, but it's raised in a Goga jaying sauce,
which is essentially a Korean barbecue sauce. So you got
U go Jane braised Venison, hoys Sin. It's kind of
like an Asian usion text Mex dish that kind of
like really and that's a dish. You can really taste
(11:25):
some of them, like the Wild Game. But again, what
our our, our main goal when creating menus and using
product like that is to do introduce people that would
otherwise not be very familiar with Wild Game, Like I
grew up eating it, so I'm pretty familiar. Did I
grow up to what you're saying? I grew up in
North Houston, so the Woodlands, Texas? Okay, it was born
(11:47):
and raised. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
When Jim got you on the line, I had forgotten
we were doing this this discussion and he goes, hey,
don't remember, don't forget. I got Derek Easton right now
the music could started. So I completely forgot that we
were having this conversation and he goes, no, he goes
he sounds kind of like a surfer stoner dude, and
you do.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get that a lot. Man. I
grew up skating, like primarily at skate parks. You know,
I'm thirty three, so kind of like that mid millennial. Uh,
so I had like a lot of my like lexicon
and like the semantics that was also influenced by like
you know, MTV, the media and the internet. You know,
(12:34):
so I kind of I understand most most of the
consumption of media was like revolving around like this skate scene. Yeah, no,
I could you've.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Got a little bit of a reference to Yeah, that's
my dog. Yeah, I'm sure it is.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Yeah, yeah, no, I know fast Times, the original highs.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Man, you're a little young for that. What was your drug.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Heroin? Mainly like the opiates was like the big thing.
Like that's kind of how you know, I was what
I am thirty three. So right around like the two
thousand and eight, our community really got got hit with
a whole bunch of things. If obviously you remember, and
(13:21):
like prescription started with prescription drugs just kind of like
wholesale everybody had them, if that big of a deal.
And then opiates are are abuse, I mean, but I
mean I can assist I probably. I'm I'm of the
belief that like like substance abuse is a symptom of
a larger issue in the community. I'm a part of
(13:42):
belief that's like a spiritual malady. And so that's kind
of like, I you know, if it wasn't gonna be heroin,
it was it could have been any in, any other vice,
but mainly opiates for a good like decade of my life,
starting at probably like fourteen fis wow, and then and
then graduating to intervenious drug use probably pretty pretty quick
(14:06):
shortly after that. I am lucky. I do feel blessed.
I did get sober in twenty seventeen, really before this
like this spentanyl crisis that we're in right now. So
like so I feel lucky for that. Heroin is a
dangerous drug by far, but like it's nothing compared to
(14:26):
what we're seeing now. And so and that's just by
the grace of God. I you know, I tell people
when I tell my story that, like, you know, if
it would have even been a couple months later, it
literally finnyl hit our area, right it was already kind
of seeping in, but twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, we really
saw it. And we saw a lot of community members
(14:49):
and friends I had grown up with, like the heroine
no longer with us because of that. So that was
mainly that, Yeah, that was the big but I wasn't
anything and everything type of dude. If it changed the
way I felt, I was gonna do it. But but
the grip of heroin was really, like really the main
thing that was destroying my life.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
How'd you get into food service?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Food service? Well, I mean it's kind of one and
the same. Man like when you when you spend your
early I didn't. I didn't really have direction as a
teenager or in the early twenties, and the food service
industry is always looking for people like that. I wouldn't
say in most contexts, it's like the greatest place to
(15:33):
be if you are like in early recovery. But in
Curveville it's a little bit different. A lot of a
lot of the places around here have a lot within
upper management and lower management and even on the floor
have people in recovery. So there's a little bit accountability,
but just a need to honestly pay. There's it's cash
(15:53):
a lot of the times, and you can get cast out.
You can get cashed out.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Waiting for just a minute, Derek Easton, the restaurant is
grape Juice in Kerrville.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
They're feeding the.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Folks there and why I got a message by email
about a fellow whose sister and her husband run a
restaurant in Kerrville which amazingly was not devastated by the storm,
(16:29):
called Grape Juice, and that they're feeding the people there
for free, and that that's kind of their ministry. I
thought that was cool. So we're talking to the owner,
Derek Easton, who I guess is the brother in law.
I wanted to ask you a question, Derek, about the
(16:54):
kra Coronian cheese. Okay, the Krackeroni and cheese.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, that's our version of macaroni and cheese. It's a
shell pasta, gouda bass. You got q tam pearl onions,
cherry tomatoes, and then we use that as a base
for a variety of dishes. The chupacabra would be like
pulled pork slaw, the aforementioned Kracrooni. We have a honey
Badger which is gonna be antelope chili Kraceroni fri toes,
(17:23):
kind of like chili magic frito pie. And then we
just recently dropped a menu item not too long ago
called the Phoenix, which is kind of a callback to
a pass menu item, which is a broken ail or
ranch quail slaw in our Craceroni. So it's it's a
macaroni and cheese. It's a version of macaroni and cheese.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
So Derek Displice has at least by the menu and
your vibe and when I get kind of heights near
West feel to it. You know, Curville, I've spent some
time in Cerville. Curville has much like Fredericksburg. A lot
of those some older folks about there for a long time.
(18:04):
They like their basic comfort food. And then you've got
a lot of newer folks, private equity and younger folks
maybe that living tangle wouldn't have a second home there.
How has this menu you've been received.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
So excellent? I mean, I think because it's organic and
because it's like give and take and we change it
every three to four months. It's just a spot where
people know they can come and get quality, locally sourced food.
They know that like that the menu is going to
(18:39):
get changed. They know they can come here three to
four times a week and have a different experience. And
then we've also were just trying to make like that
kind of style of food accessible to everybody because uh,
we we call it, we call it the phone warner.
And I always appreciate it's fine dining in flip fops.
I mean, my typical uniform is like vans shorts and
(19:03):
maybe like a punk rock T shirt and so, but
we're also on the on the other side, very knowledgeable
and passionate about what we're doing, and so we make
it approachable for somebody who may feel kind of intimidated
by going into other these some other fine dining establishments,
and so it's been received. Well, we're kind of a
cultural hub here in Kerrville. We were really community focused.
(19:26):
I think outside of the normal summer season, we are
like I would say seventy five eighty percent of our
customer base is regulars. We always like to welcome in
new and tourists and people that maybe are traveling from
Afar that's stumbled in. But our focus is really, like
has always been serving the community that we live in
(19:48):
because we're a part of that community.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
All right, let's let's break down the demographics of that.
I know it represents every every group, but let's take
your regulars a thousand people whatever you want to number
to be one hundred people. Unlet's round them down into percentages.
What percentage of those are retirees?
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I would say probably about twenty five to.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Thirty percent of those retirees. What percentage of those lived
there for a long period of time, and what percentage
of those just the retirees moved there in retirement.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
I think, like I would say it's probably about fifty fifty.
What we do end up having is a lot of
people that grew up here, went to high school here,
then went off to college, started their careers, and then
they retire back here. Yeah, if that makes sense. No,
it's like a lot of like, yeah, yeah, they come
(20:44):
back to home because it's just it's a beautiful place, man.
And that's really the true devastation of what just happened is, Like,
you know, I've been here ten years, but I'd say
the median age of my staff is around twenty three
twenty four. A lot of them are born and raised here,
and so it's just like I can't imagine. I was
(21:05):
telling them, like I was talking to them last night,
I still have childhood places that I went with my
family and they still exist, and it's just not that's
not a fact for a lot of these young people.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yeah, do you live in town or out in the
country or how far?
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Yes, sir, I live. I live maybe seven minutes from
the restaurant. I live pretty close. It's awesome. The commute
is awesome. Both me and my wife work in downtown.
She day to day runs a clothing boutique store called CJ. Copeland's.
(21:42):
And then I was managing this for a long time
and we in fact only I've been working here for
eight years, but we only purchased. We only purchased the
business in the beginning of April. Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yeah, when you said, well, let me ask this when
when you look around, I mean, I'm sure as you're
feeding these people, you're talking to these people, and there
are worries and concerns. Where do you see Curville a
year from now, five years from now? How does this
affect Curville?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
I think I think the concerns is just the uncertainty
in that fact and even the consideration of that fact.
We don't really you know, we've been so focused on
like the short term, and that's what a lot of
the efforts I've been focused on. So our recent mission
is to kind of create long term sustainability because it's
going to be years. I've been talking to people all
(22:36):
over the world that I've gone through stuff like this Ashville,
Arizona kind of getting other small business advice about like
like what happened in the beginning, and then what happened
months and years from then, and well a lot of
what I'm hearing, And this is one of the reasons
I'm talking to you and as many as people as
I can and getting enough eyes and ears on what's
(22:59):
happening now, because when the news cycle switches, something else
is going to happen. And I understand it. I get it.
I a little week ago, I was doing the same thing.
You know, I had to, and I'm ashamed of this
fact now that I've been through it, but I think
it's pretty standard and people feel didn't feel too guilty.
Like I remembered that there was floods on the East Coast.
(23:21):
I couldn't tell, you know, it's like as Carolina as
I think. Yeah, but now that I'm here in it,
you know what I mean, Like, I don't blame people,
but at the same time, like we need the help
now and we're going to continue to need the help.
So my focus is like getting as much help right
now and then we can delegate the rest over the
coming months.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
That is very well said Derek, because I've seen this
a number of times in different ways. I served in
public office, and I can tell you that people are
very interested in something for a moment, and the error
is in thinking that there is a long run projection.
If there's not, it has a very short shelf life,
and then they move on and you're completely forgotten. So
(24:02):
it is absolutely true. Well, I think what you're doing
is wonderful. I think you have a great story. It's
an inspiring story, both your background, how you ended up here,
your business, uh and and how you ended up with that.
You're you're dealing with addiction and you're giving back to
the community. It's a really cool story. It's a it's
(24:24):
a neat journey you're on and and I know you struggle,
and I know you're imperfect, but but I think it's
a really cool story. It's a very cool story. He
would be a good movie. Who would you want to
play you in the movie? I've seen a picture I'm
thinking about Sam bankman Fred or something like that, maybe
seth Rogen before he lost all that weight. Who would
(24:46):
you want to.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
I would say, Uh, yeah, I get that's what we'll do.
That's it.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
We'll cast separately. What's interesting about all of it is
that I have a fervent belief that we are going
to see an accelerated development of non urban areas. We're
(25:16):
already witnessing it. But it's one of those things that
the first stages move very slow, and those first stages
seed the next and then it's kind of like AI,
it just gets faster and faster exponentially so, and I
(25:37):
think that Kurville is I think we're going to see
what are we twenty twenty five by twenty and forty,
I think you would not believe how different some communities
are than they are today. And that would be that
(26:02):
would be Kerrville, Fredericksburg. It's already happening. I mean, if
you go outside of Austin and you take let's say
two to ninety over that Dripping Springs area all the
way over and then you go down to Blanco, if
you see what's happening in those areas with just the
(26:23):
residential component, well that's only going to continue because the
reason people are moving there is twofold. It's a push pull.
It is primarily a push out of the big city.
It is secondarily a pull to things that make you
(26:46):
fall in love the push out of the big city.
If you saw this woman, Sadie Perkins, this evil woman.
She had been a silvester turner, appointee to the Food
in Security Board, she worked for Freedman'stown Market, Farmer's Market.
And she's basically a black woman who walks around talking
(27:10):
about how much she hates white people. And her brand
of racism, which is which is a newer brand. This
is the younger black racist. Her brand of racism is
not to be a victim of Whitey. White He's evil.
Let's start there. Whitey is evil. We hate him. We
(27:31):
wish bad things upon him and his children. We wish
awful things upon him. We are He is not our countryman,
our brethren. We don't love him, none of it, none
of it. We are never comfortable in his presence, and
we wish, we wish for bad things to happen. We
would twerk in his face at his mother's funeral if
(27:52):
we could. Whatever we can do. There are ways we
know he doesn't like us and we don't like him.
But this younger brand of more educated, higher income brunch
on Sunday with the girlfriends, this is a new breed
(28:15):
of racism, a very angry breed of racism, very active
on social media, which is why people are being so
shocked that there is so much of this out there.
This is not the ghetto girl. This is a woman
who is an executive director of a nonprofit. Lot of that.
(28:38):
This is a woman who went to a good school,
probably on a scholarship, at a minimum on student loans,
but very likely on scholarships. She is from a family
where her father was successful himself in his own way.
Her mother may have worked also, and she has acquired
(29:03):
a sort of Black nationalism BLM adjacent as they say,
anger and an absolute hatred for white people in this country,
a resentment and a hatred that is absolutely seething. Well,
(29:25):
what has ended up happening is that a lot of
people want out of This is what our urban governments
have become. This is what the urban culture has become.
And at some point, the crime is the number one problem.
The number two is the schools. But people find private schools.
(29:47):
Why private school education in the Greater Houston area is
on the upswing and it's expensive. It's why you're seeing
so many new entrants to the market. The Catholic Church
being one of those, which makes all the sense in world.
You got a Catholic church that's being a structure and
a parking lot that's being used on Sunday, and you
(30:07):
got all these classrooms, but most religious institutions your Sunday
school classes, your marriage classes. Why wouldn't you hire a
teacher and invite your congregants and anyone else because they
end up joining the church then to go to school there.
You mark it up and keep the profits. It makes
(30:29):
all It's a business model. You've got the parking, you've
got the structure. So people now, I think the thing
that will accelerate this more than anything else is the
worsening divide between a percentage of blacks. There are a
lot of blacks that none of this. It's all crazy
that they can't understand why other black people are so angry.
(30:51):
They're just trying to live a normal life. But there
is no doubt you have this group of people and
they're very bitter and very angry and very aggressive. Couple
that with violent crime. Couple that with the handcuffing of
police after George Floyd, the defunding of police, the resources
(31:11):
being down, the district attorneys being owned by sorrows, the
court system being owned by sorrows. So people, a lot
of people, mostly white, not exclusively white, and Hispanic are
seeking to get out of the big city.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Now.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
For years, that meant going to the woodlands, that meant
going to sugar Land, that meant going to Katie. But
in time people started noticing that you weren't fully getting
away from the problem. You were still too close to
the problem. And you saw it in eruptions in the schools,
for instance, and you saw it in a skirmish here
(31:50):
and there, and so people kept moving. That's Republic Grand Ranch.
People wanted out of the city, but close enough that
they could come into work. But the great accelerator in
all of this is technology, and the stay at home
lockdown movement really changed everything for everybody. In fact, I
(32:14):
keep saying we're going to do a show on this
because I want to hear people's calls. Not right now,
but I know people. I know women who stayed home
and worked from home, and their babies who in the
past they would have put in a daycare, were with
a nanny there at their home because they make good money,
their husbands make good money, and lo and behold with
(32:34):
the baby screaming the other room. The maternal pull was
too much and they quit work. I know a lot
of people that went from full time to halftime. I
know a lot of people who made drastic changes during
that period of time. But with technology the way it
is now, so many people don't need to go into
an office, and still don't go into an office. That's
(32:56):
why companies had really had to crack down. Once you
told old people they could work from home, it made
it quite difficult to get many of them back. I
don't understand it because I'm not a work from home guy.
We went to the studio every single day. But Jim
worked from home, and a lot of people work from
home and absolutely love it. And once you realize you
(33:19):
can work from home and you're not in constant meetings
because meetings are stupid, then you start looking at well,
why wouldn't we get some acreage in Kerrville or outside
of Fredericksburg Crabapple or Goss or Lukenbuck or Stonewall or
Morris Ranch or Harper and those areas. As those rooftops come,
the retail's gonna come, and it will change it for
(33:40):
the worst, there's no doubt. But that's that's what's happening.
I got an email from a listener last name Kuchera.
It was a Kuchera who helped us like you wouldn't believe.
And we built the RCC in a soft spot for
that family. And he says, are my sister and her
husband own a restaurant in Kerrville. It's called Grape Juice.
(00:24):
They've been fortunate to not only not have any flood
damage or loss, so they've been working around the clock,
feeding anybody who needs a meal, even delivering by helicopter
thanks to one of their customers. I love them both
so much, and this is very much who they are.
They help anybody in need as much as they can.
(00:47):
I said, send me hisnrmer. Derek Easton is his name.
Welcome to the program.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Derek. Hey, what's up man?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
How did you end up in Kerrville?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
How did I end up in Curville? Well, like, honestly,
I'm not in the brightest part of my life. I am.
I struggled with many issues for many years, so I
ended I ended up here, uh because I couldn't control
my consumption of controlled substances. So you just celebrated eight
years sober yesterday. You uh?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Are you on a Bluetooth or a speakerphone or something.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I am on just a phone. I can probably put
you on speaker No no, no, no, no no no.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
If you're on a phone and you're speaking right into
the microphone.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yes sir, Okay, all right, we're good. There we go.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
So, so you had a control substance problem a lot
of people do, and you decided that you needed to
get out of town and just clear your head and
and and get some fresh air.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yes, sir, Well, Curve it has a pretty strong recovery community.
There's a lot of good people helping a lot of
good people around here. And uh, and so it kind
of was like on my radar as I was struggling
in and out of like different institutions, and so then
that I kind of that's how I made my way
to Currville is through that. And then, funnily enough, it's
(02:10):
like I get to sober, I get out of treatment,
I go to sober living, I get uh, I get
hired as a busser at the very restaurant I own today.
I just kept working and falling upwards and and uh,
eventually it came, you know, my life changed. Uh, the
people around me change my prospective change. My connection to
something the greater than myself changed, and I kind of
(02:32):
just uh uh really really had a transformative experience. And
so you know, my life's been a blessing ever since
I did this, and and one of those things is
just keep doing the next right thing, and that's what
this really is.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Wow, that's an incredible story, Derek.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, it's uh, it's been a it's been a it's
been a roller coaster. But I will say, if it
if it wasn't from that, like that that initial uh,
that initial willingness and desperation in the first couple of
months I arrived in town to really like get it
together and and figure out how I could uh be
a productive member of society if you will, I'm like,
(03:14):
none of this would be possible. So I hold a
lot of credit to the people in the very beginning
of this story, you know, eight years ago that really
like helped me, uh get get sober and get connected
to not only something bigger than myself, but a community
and some principles to live by.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I have watched so many people in the throes of
addiction who and very few people make it out. And
when I see someone who does I recognize that journey,
in that difficulty, in that struggle, and it's an ongoing struggle.
It never goes away, and I just, yeah, it gives
(03:55):
me so much hope. It gives me such happiness to
see and what an inspiration. There's a reason God puts
you on our show today, and it's only partly because
you're feeding the people in Currville. Tell me about grape.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
So grape juice we are traditionally well. So in two
thousand and seven, Patrick and carry Wilt started this as
the original letter who started it as a wine shop.
He came from the wine distribution side of things, and
he saw a need in this area to kind of
provide the Hill country with like a quality wine experience.
But that wasn't too hoity toity. The wine world can
(04:30):
sometimes be pretty like nose in the air when it
comes to it. But wine is, you know, one of
the oldest beverages on earth and it's it's which is
interesting because I come from a recovery background. So they
started it in Ingram, actually they are in the border
(04:51):
of Ingram and Hunts So it was a wine shop
and then when they moved to downtown Kerrville, they started
serving food, and through that it's just kind of organically
involved into like a full service restaurant. I came on
board eight years ago as a busser. I was bussing,
(05:11):
washing dishes. Uh. Then I moved into serving, and then
I moved into back of house and pretty much every
function until I've got to general management right around right
around twenty twenty, right around twenty twenty twenty twenty one.
What we do is we serve Hill Country comfort food,
but with like a Hill Country twist. So we deal
with a lot of local, local ingredients. We have a distributor,
(05:36):
Chris Hughes at a broken Ara ranch that gives us
South Texas antelope or nail Guy, if you're familiar with it,
and we we do ground and nail Guy braised nail Guy.
But we put that We don't do it like on
like fancy fine dining. We do it on like strictly
like working class meals. You're familiar with, tacos, hamburgers, the
like of that. We also do quail and so that's
(05:59):
kind of like our modus, like food you're familiar with,
but with like a little bit of a twist. It's
actually really weird talking about Grape Juice. It feels like
it's been four weeks since I've got to speel my
business or my restaurant because of of how how quickly
we had to change on a dime, and we've essentially
become a canteen for all first responders and those affected
(06:20):
by the flood. But I'm happy to do it because
it's really what my passion is is food service and hospitality.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
What are you seeing in the people you're helping? What
from an out for outsiders, how would.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
You describe, Uh, Gratitude? Mainly gratitude. It's just like a
lot of gratitude. We've we've been flood, we've been we've
been overwhelmed with uh what I'm now calling positive noise,
which is you don't really hear about that too much. Today.
Our Facebook page, our Instagram, even our phones are just
just pouring in love and support from not only the
(06:55):
local community but the world at large. The people that
are coming in. You know, it's it's a lot of tears,
man like grateful tears, and it's sometimes surreal and sometimes
like you're you get so we're so focused on what
we're doing that we we sometimes we have to keep
(07:15):
telling ourselves to take like breaks and pause and like
really like understand what we're doing, because I'll be honest,
we didn't. We didn't set out to do that. Like
we didn't. I'm a restaurant owner, a small business owner
that isn't that loves his community and so it's going
to do whatever he wants he can for his community.
But I didn't. I didn't want to set out to
(07:37):
run a like distribution center for those need When we
initially started, the impression was that, like the call I got.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Hold on just a moment with Derecuse and they have
the a r antelope Nacho meet. That sound probably on
a pope was recorded. Derek Easton is our guest, referred
by a listener who is married to Derek Easton's bride.
(08:13):
Derek owns and operates Grape Juice in Purrville, which fortunately
was not it. How did you manage to avoid the floods?
I mean, what's the location, and that's what I mean
by that.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
So we're at six two three Water Street off Sidney
Sydney Baker. We're like right on the corner of downtown. Right.
You've probably seen some images of Louise Hayes park where
your listeners might might have where the bridge is about
thirty feet from the water, so we're about thirty to
(08:47):
thirty five feet. I'm not these these these metrics might
be off, but we're pretty We sit pretty high above
where the standard river flows and it's actually pretty beautiful.
It's very scenic. And then we also sit on an incline.
And where where this is, how is the buildings over
nearly one hundred years old? Over one hundred years old.
(09:09):
In fact, it used to be a movie theater, then
a general store, and so we sit pretty high, I
think for the main reason of getting like skipments for
the general store on a loading dot, we were like
the concessions and the general So fortunately the building sits
on an incline and we're pretty high. We didn't even
even see a need to breed or to try this
in our back parking lot. We we got We got
(09:32):
got blessed with that for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
What does B A R stand for on your menu?
Speaker 2 (09:40):
It's it's so it stands for broken ra ranch. We
do it. That is what the distributor of the new Yeah,
that how do you keep how do you.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Make a B A broken arrow ranch? Antelope notcho meat
and it not be dry, because every time I've had
antelope it ends up being very dry.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Uh So so what nil guy is also referred to
as blue cow, So it's a lot it's like a
leaner beef, So we raise it. Raising really helps and
then uh like ground and cooked and braised in a
salsa verde is also like really uh really uh okay okay,
what keeps it from being dry.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
There's a place in Houston called Rainbow Lodge that's kind
of famous for their various uh game, and I love
to try different meats, but I find that many of
them are extraordinarily dry. So after you get over the
concept of how neat it is that you're eating, you
(10:44):
almost need like a chutney or a sauce or something
separate from it exactly, which is a bummer because I
like to eat meat dry to actually get the flavor
of a meat because so many things they do. Yeah,
I understand they drown the broken arrow ranch braised venison,
tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
So that is that is also going to be nil
nail guy, but it's raised in a Goga jaying sauce,
which is essentially a Korean barbecue sauce. So you got
U go Jane braised Venison, hoys Sin. It's kind of
like an Asian usion text Mex dish that kind of
like really and that's a dish. You can really taste
(11:25):
some of them, like the Wild Game. But again, what
our our, our main goal when creating menus and using
product like that is to do introduce people that would
otherwise not be very familiar with Wild Game, Like I
grew up eating it, so I'm pretty familiar. Did I
grow up to what you're saying? I grew up in
North Houston, so the Woodlands, Texas? Okay, it was born
(11:47):
and raised. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
When Jim got you on the line, I had forgotten
we were doing this this discussion and he goes, hey,
don't remember, don't forget. I got Derek Easton right now
the music could started. So I completely forgot that we
were having this conversation and he goes, no, he goes
he sounds kind of like a surfer stoner dude, and
you do.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get that a lot. Man. I
grew up skating, like primarily at skate parks. You know,
I'm thirty three, so kind of like that mid millennial. Uh,
so I had like a lot of my like lexicon
and like the semantics that was also influenced by like
you know, MTV, the media and the internet. You know,
(12:34):
so I kind of I understand most most of the
consumption of media was like revolving around like this skate scene. Yeah, no,
I could you've.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Got a little bit of a reference to Yeah, that's
my dog. Yeah, I'm sure it is.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Yeah, yeah, no, I know fast Times, the original highs.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Man, you're a little young for that. What was your drug.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Heroin? Mainly like the opiates was like the big thing.
Like that's kind of how you know, I was what
I am thirty three. So right around like the two
thousand and eight, our community really got got hit with
a whole bunch of things. If obviously you remember, and
(13:21):
like prescription started with prescription drugs just kind of like
wholesale everybody had them, if that big of a deal.
And then opiates are are abuse, I mean, but I
mean I can assist I probably. I'm I'm of the
belief that like like substance abuse is a symptom of
a larger issue in the community. I'm a part of
(13:42):
belief that's like a spiritual malady. And so that's kind
of like, I you know, if it wasn't gonna be heroin,
it was it could have been any in, any other vice,
but mainly opiates for a good like decade of my life,
starting at probably like fourteen fis wow, and then and
then graduating to intervenious drug use probably pretty pretty quick
(14:06):
shortly after that. I am lucky. I do feel blessed.
I did get sober in twenty seventeen, really before this
like this spentanyl crisis that we're in right now. So
like so I feel lucky for that. Heroin is a
dangerous drug by far, but like it's nothing compared to
(14:26):
what we're seeing now. And so and that's just by
the grace of God. I you know, I tell people
when I tell my story that, like, you know, if
it would have even been a couple months later, it
literally finnyl hit our area, right it was already kind
of seeping in, but twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, we really
saw it. And we saw a lot of community members
(14:49):
and friends I had grown up with, like the heroine
no longer with us because of that. So that was
mainly that, Yeah, that was the big but I wasn't
anything and everything type of dude. If it changed the
way I felt, I was gonna do it. But but
the grip of heroin was really, like really the main
thing that was destroying my life.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
How'd you get into food service?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Food service? Well, I mean it's kind of one and
the same. Man like when you when you spend your
early I didn't. I didn't really have direction as a
teenager or in the early twenties, and the food service
industry is always looking for people like that. I wouldn't
say in most contexts, it's like the greatest place to
(15:33):
be if you are like in early recovery. But in
Curveville it's a little bit different. A lot of a
lot of the places around here have a lot within
upper management and lower management and even on the floor
have people in recovery. So there's a little bit accountability,
but just a need to honestly pay. There's it's cash
(15:53):
a lot of the times, and you can get cast out.
You can get cashed out.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Waiting for just a minute, Derek Easton, the restaurant is
grape Juice in Kerrville.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
They're feeding the.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Folks there and why I got a message by email
about a fellow whose sister and her husband run a
restaurant in Kerrville which amazingly was not devastated by the storm,
(16:29):
called Grape Juice, and that they're feeding the people there
for free, and that that's kind of their ministry. I
thought that was cool. So we're talking to the owner,
Derek Easton, who I guess is the brother in law.
I wanted to ask you a question, Derek, about the
(16:54):
kra Coronian cheese. Okay, the Krackeroni and cheese.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, that's our version of macaroni and cheese. It's a
shell pasta, gouda bass. You got q tam pearl onions,
cherry tomatoes, and then we use that as a base
for a variety of dishes. The chupacabra would be like
pulled pork slaw, the aforementioned Kracrooni. We have a honey
Badger which is gonna be antelope chili Kraceroni fri toes,
(17:23):
kind of like chili magic frito pie. And then we
just recently dropped a menu item not too long ago
called the Phoenix, which is kind of a callback to
a pass menu item, which is a broken ail or
ranch quail slaw in our Craceroni. So it's it's a
macaroni and cheese. It's a version of macaroni and cheese.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
So Derek Displice has at least by the menu and
your vibe and when I get kind of heights near
West feel to it. You know, Curville, I've spent some
time in Cerville. Curville has much like Fredericksburg. A lot
of those some older folks about there for a long time.
(18:04):
They like their basic comfort food. And then you've got
a lot of newer folks, private equity and younger folks
maybe that living tangle wouldn't have a second home there.
How has this menu you've been received.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
So excellent? I mean, I think because it's organic and
because it's like give and take and we change it
every three to four months. It's just a spot where
people know they can come and get quality, locally sourced food.
They know that like that the menu is going to
(18:39):
get changed. They know they can come here three to
four times a week and have a different experience. And
then we've also were just trying to make like that
kind of style of food accessible to everybody because uh,
we we call it, we call it the phone warner.
And I always appreciate it's fine dining in flip fops.
I mean, my typical uniform is like vans shorts and
(19:03):
maybe like a punk rock T shirt and so, but
we're also on the on the other side, very knowledgeable
and passionate about what we're doing, and so we make
it approachable for somebody who may feel kind of intimidated
by going into other these some other fine dining establishments,
and so it's been received. Well, we're kind of a
cultural hub here in Kerrville. We were really community focused.
(19:26):
I think outside of the normal summer season, we are
like I would say seventy five eighty percent of our
customer base is regulars. We always like to welcome in
new and tourists and people that maybe are traveling from
Afar that's stumbled in. But our focus is really, like
has always been serving the community that we live in
(19:48):
because we're a part of that community.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
All right, let's let's break down the demographics of that.
I know it represents every every group, but let's take
your regulars a thousand people whatever you want to number
to be one hundred people. Unlet's round them down into percentages.
What percentage of those are retirees?
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I would say probably about twenty five to.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Thirty percent of those retirees. What percentage of those lived
there for a long period of time, and what percentage
of those just the retirees moved there in retirement.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
I think, like I would say it's probably about fifty fifty.
What we do end up having is a lot of
people that grew up here, went to high school here,
then went off to college, started their careers, and then
they retire back here. Yeah, if that makes sense. No,
it's like a lot of like, yeah, yeah, they come
(20:44):
back to home because it's just it's a beautiful place, man.
And that's really the true devastation of what just happened is, Like,
you know, I've been here ten years, but I'd say
the median age of my staff is around twenty three
twenty four. A lot of them are born and raised here,
and so it's just like I can't imagine. I was
(21:05):
telling them, like I was talking to them last night,
I still have childhood places that I went with my
family and they still exist, and it's just not that's
not a fact for a lot of these young people.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yeah, do you live in town or out in the
country or how far?
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Yes, sir, I live. I live maybe seven minutes from
the restaurant. I live pretty close. It's awesome. The commute
is awesome. Both me and my wife work in downtown.
She day to day runs a clothing boutique store called CJ. Copeland's.
(21:42):
And then I was managing this for a long time
and we in fact only I've been working here for
eight years, but we only purchased. We only purchased the
business in the beginning of April. Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yeah, when you said, well, let me ask this when
when you look around, I mean, I'm sure as you're
feeding these people, you're talking to these people, and there
are worries and concerns. Where do you see Curville a
year from now, five years from now? How does this
affect Curville?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
I think I think the concerns is just the uncertainty
in that fact and even the consideration of that fact.
We don't really you know, we've been so focused on
like the short term, and that's what a lot of
the efforts I've been focused on. So our recent mission
is to kind of create long term sustainability because it's
going to be years. I've been talking to people all
(22:36):
over the world that I've gone through stuff like this Ashville,
Arizona kind of getting other small business advice about like
like what happened in the beginning, and then what happened
months and years from then, and well a lot of
what I'm hearing, And this is one of the reasons
I'm talking to you and as many as people as
I can and getting enough eyes and ears on what's
(22:59):
happening now, because when the news cycle switches, something else
is going to happen. And I understand it. I get it.
I a little week ago, I was doing the same thing.
You know, I had to, and I'm ashamed of this
fact now that I've been through it, but I think
it's pretty standard and people feel didn't feel too guilty.
Like I remembered that there was floods on the East Coast.
(23:21):
I couldn't tell, you know, it's like as Carolina as
I think. Yeah, but now that I'm here in it,
you know what I mean, Like, I don't blame people,
but at the same time, like we need the help
now and we're going to continue to need the help.
So my focus is like getting as much help right
now and then we can delegate the rest over the
coming months.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
That is very well said Derek, because I've seen this
a number of times in different ways. I served in
public office, and I can tell you that people are
very interested in something for a moment, and the error
is in thinking that there is a long run projection.
If there's not, it has a very short shelf life,
and then they move on and you're completely forgotten. So
(24:02):
it is absolutely true. Well, I think what you're doing
is wonderful. I think you have a great story. It's
an inspiring story, both your background, how you ended up here,
your business, uh and and how you ended up with that.
You're you're dealing with addiction and you're giving back to
the community. It's a really cool story. It's a it's
(24:24):
a neat journey you're on and and I know you struggle,
and I know you're imperfect, but but I think it's
a really cool story. It's a very cool story. He
would be a good movie. Who would you want to
play you in the movie? I've seen a picture I'm
thinking about Sam bankman Fred or something like that, maybe
seth Rogen before he lost all that weight. Who would
(24:46):
you want to.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
I would say, Uh, yeah, I get that's what we'll do.
That's it.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
We'll cast separately. What's interesting about all of it is
that I have a fervent belief that we are going
to see an accelerated development of non urban areas. We're
(25:16):
already witnessing it. But it's one of those things that
the first stages move very slow, and those first stages
seed the next and then it's kind of like AI,
it just gets faster and faster exponentially so, and I
(25:37):
think that Kurville is I think we're going to see
what are we twenty twenty five by twenty and forty,
I think you would not believe how different some communities
are than they are today. And that would be that
(26:02):
would be Kerrville, Fredericksburg. It's already happening. I mean, if
you go outside of Austin and you take let's say
two to ninety over that Dripping Springs area all the
way over and then you go down to Blanco, if
you see what's happening in those areas with just the
(26:23):
residential component, well that's only going to continue because the
reason people are moving there is twofold. It's a push pull.
It is primarily a push out of the big city.
It is secondarily a pull to things that make you
(26:46):
fall in love the push out of the big city.
If you saw this woman, Sadie Perkins, this evil woman.
She had been a silvester turner, appointee to the Food
in Security Board, she worked for Freedman'stown Market, Farmer's Market.
And she's basically a black woman who walks around talking
(27:10):
about how much she hates white people. And her brand
of racism, which is which is a newer brand. This
is the younger black racist. Her brand of racism is
not to be a victim of Whitey. White He's evil.
Let's start there. Whitey is evil. We hate him. We
(27:31):
wish bad things upon him and his children. We wish
awful things upon him. We are He is not our countryman,
our brethren. We don't love him, none of it, none
of it. We are never comfortable in his presence, and
we wish, we wish for bad things to happen. We
would twerk in his face at his mother's funeral if
(27:52):
we could. Whatever we can do. There are ways we
know he doesn't like us and we don't like him.
But this younger brand of more educated, higher income brunch
on Sunday with the girlfriends, this is a new breed
(28:15):
of racism, a very angry breed of racism, very active
on social media, which is why people are being so
shocked that there is so much of this out there.
This is not the ghetto girl. This is a woman
who is an executive director of a nonprofit. Lot of that.
(28:38):
This is a woman who went to a good school,
probably on a scholarship, at a minimum on student loans,
but very likely on scholarships. She is from a family
where her father was successful himself in his own way.
Her mother may have worked also, and she has acquired
(29:03):
a sort of Black nationalism BLM adjacent as they say,
anger and an absolute hatred for white people in this country,
a resentment and a hatred that is absolutely seething. Well,
(29:25):
what has ended up happening is that a lot of
people want out of This is what our urban governments
have become. This is what the urban culture has become.
And at some point, the crime is the number one problem.
The number two is the schools. But people find private schools.
(29:47):
Why private school education in the Greater Houston area is
on the upswing and it's expensive. It's why you're seeing
so many new entrants to the market. The Catholic Church
being one of those, which makes all the sense in world.
You got a Catholic church that's being a structure and
a parking lot that's being used on Sunday, and you
(30:07):
got all these classrooms, but most religious institutions your Sunday
school classes, your marriage classes. Why wouldn't you hire a
teacher and invite your congregants and anyone else because they
end up joining the church then to go to school there.
You mark it up and keep the profits. It makes
(30:29):
all It's a business model. You've got the parking, you've
got the structure. So people now, I think the thing
that will accelerate this more than anything else is the
worsening divide between a percentage of blacks. There are a
lot of blacks that none of this. It's all crazy
that they can't understand why other black people are so angry.
(30:51):
They're just trying to live a normal life. But there
is no doubt you have this group of people and
they're very bitter and very angry and very aggressive. Couple
that with violent crime. Couple that with the handcuffing of
police after George Floyd, the defunding of police, the resources
(31:11):
being down, the district attorneys being owned by sorrows, the
court system being owned by sorrows. So people, a lot
of people, mostly white, not exclusively white, and Hispanic are
seeking to get out of the big city.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Now.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
For years, that meant going to the woodlands, that meant
going to sugar Land, that meant going to Katie. But
in time people started noticing that you weren't fully getting
away from the problem. You were still too close to
the problem. And you saw it in eruptions in the schools,
for instance, and you saw it in a skirmish here
(31:50):
and there, and so people kept moving. That's Republic Grand Ranch.
People wanted out of the city, but close enough that
they could come into work. But the great accelerator in
all of this is technology, and the stay at home
lockdown movement really changed everything for everybody. In fact, I
(32:14):
keep saying we're going to do a show on this
because I want to hear people's calls. Not right now,
but I know people. I know women who stayed home
and worked from home, and their babies who in the
past they would have put in a daycare, were with
a nanny there at their home because they make good money,
their husbands make good money, and lo and behold with
(32:34):
the baby screaming the other room. The maternal pull was
too much and they quit work. I know a lot
of people that went from full time to halftime. I
know a lot of people who made drastic changes during
that period of time. But with technology the way it
is now, so many people don't need to go into
an office, and still don't go into an office. That's
(32:56):
why companies had really had to crack down. Once you
told old people they could work from home, it made
it quite difficult to get many of them back. I
don't understand it because I'm not a work from home guy.
We went to the studio every single day. But Jim
worked from home, and a lot of people work from
home and absolutely love it. And once you realize you
(33:19):
can work from home and you're not in constant meetings
because meetings are stupid, then you start looking at well,
why wouldn't we get some acreage in Kerrville or outside
of Fredericksburg Crabapple or Goss or Lukenbuck or Stonewall or
Morris Ranch or Harper and those areas. As those rooftops come,
the retail's gonna come, and it will change it for
(33:40):
the worst, there's no doubt. But that's that's what's happening.
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