The Rambling Gypsy

From Ice Buckets to Ownership: The Journey to The Top

• The Rambling Gypsy • Season 4 • Episode 1

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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.

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https://www.theramblinggypsypodcast.com/

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I put a blessing on it to real. This ain't metaphoric. We just put the I in iconic buzzin' like I'm electronic. Ah yeah, I put a blessing on it. See me drippin' in it 24-7 on it. I'm just bein' honest. Ah, holy water drippin', drippin' from my neck to my creps. I'm too steppin' on it like.

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Hey everybody, I'm Tiffany Foy. Welcome to the Rant League Gypsy Podcast, and we are cruisin' along with our pregame to our SPF 90 tour that we are doing in 2025. And so we this is our wondering series and we are launching that in Fredericksburg, texas, which is out in the whole country of Texas, about an hour outside of New Braunfels Square, where you guys know I'm from. This is Curtis Montalvo, and Curtis and I met in New Braunfels a long time ago when you very first started bar backing.

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Yes, so yeah. About 2007, my brother opened up a bar in New Braunfels called Billy's Eyes still there, owned by Bob Wilson, now one of our good friends Started barbacking for him. It actually opened the summer after I graduated high school. And then here we are, almost 20 years later.

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Yeah, and Curtis has. This is called the Top, you guys, and this is in Fredericksburg, texas, and so we're going to talk about how okay, so 2007,. You started barbacking, yes, and what were you thinking? I mean, that was just your side gig.

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Oh yeah, when was?

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Curtis going at that point.

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I was in college in San Antonio at St Mary's, so I had come to New Braunfels on the weekend and worked at the bar and I barbacked for six to eight months, something like that, and then started bartending and then just kind of went up from there. I ended up staying at Millie's for like eight years after I graduated, ended up moving to New Braunfels, loved the town. Yeah, my whole dream was I was going to coach baseball.

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I was going to become a graduated college.

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I was going to be a high school art teacher, which I did for a little bit. I was going to coach baseball and see if I could make that into a lifelong career.

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So was baseball your game when you were younger.

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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.

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My father-in-law is actually an XMLB player Shut up. Yeah, worlds collided, which is funny, and he made a nice career out of it. He did what.

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I wanted to do. He did it for 40 years. He could actually play baseball, though that's crazy A little bit different. So you have.

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Gage, my oldest. He played baseball from the age of five all the way up through, and they had their select ball for Little League. They were one game away from the Little League World Series. That was what he was going to do, and he started playing football in high school and got his first hit and then went to UTSA and played college football.

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That's awesome, not baseball.

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Yeah, his whole life he did two shits. I don't know if he knew what a football was. Yeah, he got into high school and felt what it was like to smack the shit out of somebody else, and so then, yeah, it's a feeling. I was the opposite.

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I played football in high school too and it I'm not my favorite yeah, no, he he's uh, yeah, he's got some issues with it.

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He likes to do that, but it's kind of crazy to me. He went off to play how things change. Yeah, yeah, life, uh, you know, life is crazy.

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You never know where you're gonna be at I never, thought a year from now or two years from now.

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Yeah, when I first met my wife, she was born and raised in New Braunfels and she always said she would never leave New Braunfels.

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Yep. I said that to her all the way to Wolverine Yep. And here we are in.

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Fredericksburg. We're not super far, but you know it is different. And, uh, you know New Braunfels has changed a lot in the last seven to 10 years Um. I love New Braunfunswick, but. I knew about five years ago.

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I knew that it probably wasn't where I wanted to be forever.

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I got lucky my brother opened the bar and I started working for him and through that place I got to meet all kinds of people musicians went on the road with different bands, statesboro Review we got to go for a couple weekends on the road Whiskey Buyers, william Cargrain really cool artists and stuff got to meet for a couple weekends on the road with Whiskey Buyers and William Clark Green and like really cool artists and stuff Got to meet a lot of cool people and then obviously other bartenders and then bar owners. And you know I worked at Lone Star with Richie and Fry Hyde, with the Reimers who now they have lost and found the Troft and Fry Hyde and you know just really good business people. So I learned a lot. You learn a lot of what to do. You also learn a lot of what not to do. You know it's a lot of what it's good that you aren't.

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Yeah, exactly, so yeah yeah, and here we are, we're. We're brand new, but we're really excited. We're, uh, we're a little bit off the beaten path in 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're right next to Fredericksburg. We're less than three miles from Main Street, so we're not far.

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But about 15 miles west 290, you get Harper and that's a little booming town. It's starting to grow a little bit. We're just surrounded by all these little, nice little hill country towns and we get a lot of locals, which is what we want.

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We want to be the local bar where you can hang out and chill, and comfortability and consistency are the two things that I try to tell everybody that we we provide. You know you can come in with your boys and watch the game and have some beers, or we make especially cocktails. You're drinking one of them right now martinis it, martinis. It's a cool date spot, yeah, and we're open every day, so, which is actually a rarity in Frenchburg.

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We're one of only three or four places that are that serve alcohol that are open every single day yeah, that's, that's rare.

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I mean, bronville's is even one of those. Like Friday night schools on Monday Yep. And it's been really kind of awkward because we've been running around kind of business meetings and whatnot. We were supposed to be in front of the day and then you know it's closing monday and I worn and raised and lived there my whole life. But how would we start closing on mondays?

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but hey, listen I that's awesome. Yeah, I mean in certain towns and certain businesses. I mean it just works that way. Okay, that's just how this town is. Mondays and tuesdays it's it's funny a lot of my friends that are in this industry, those are their days off. So, like here, every Monday and Tuesday we do local industry night. So it's 50% off everything From pretty much everybody. I don't really ask if you're in industry night Right.

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can I see your ID? Yeah, mondays and Tuesdays, and they're like where should we go eat?

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I'm like I don't know Because nothing's open yeah. Yeah, but listen, I'd love to get to a point where our business is doing so good that we can close for a couple days. That are slow, but I really do like to be open every day. I like to. I love when somebody comes up and they don't expect us to be able to go oh, we were just checking it out.

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I'm like well, I'm here, Come on in.

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Get a beer. I can drink what was your inspiration to start this.

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I mean, obviously you're quiet, but all the way you're here, you're at the top of the ladder we're at the top yeah.

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Finally made it.

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yeah, People always ask us about the names.

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I've been doing this for going on 19 years, so I have different names for all kind of different bars and logos and color schemes. And when we finally decided to do this, I sat down with my good buddy, cory Cory DeMint, who's one of the Saints. He did our logo and our merch and all that stuff and we went through a bunch of different designs and names and stuff and color schemes and I just love the top. It's super short, it's simple, it's easy to remember, it's nice and punny. Yeah yeah, I can make stupid jokes on Facebook about it yeah.

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People like it. Um, but honestly, my inspiration for this was just I mean, I wanted to do this for a long time, but eventually I finally met who is now my wife. And you know, when you meet the special someone, you go okay, this is what life's about. I need to, if this is what I love to do and this is what I want to keep doing, I can't march in forever, Right.

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You know what I mean.

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I want to. I want to start a family with my 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 own this place. We were talking about this earlier. I'm here all the time and that's just how it has to be right now.

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I don't know if that really ever goes away. Oh, it won't ever.

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And my wife knows how I am I'm a workaholic, more than a day and a half off and I'm like going nuts, I gotta go to work. But you know, I met her and I realized, you know, if I want to stay in this industry, I need to make the next step. We need to do this full-on. We need to, yes, we need to get the top. We need to open up our own place.

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We need to, you know level up essentially and, uh, you know, we have that conversation all the time.

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You know your goals never end. You know you reach one goal and then obviously you have another one and they just keep going. So you just got to keep leveling up, keep your foot on the pedal, um. So that's where we're at right now, and it's the early stages. But you know, we we bought four beautiful acres.

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That's why I want to keep everybody to understand that this is not just your little yeah little barn that's sitting on the edge of a piece of property. You have four acres out there. Yeah, beautiful acres too.

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It's all fenced in. We have a cattle yard, so we're one of those places. We want the kids to come back.

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Bring your kids there every day.

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when we're around, we have cornhole and all kinds of stuff for them to do.

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Bring your goats, bring your animals, bring your dogs, bring your goats, yes, yeah. Bring your llamas, yeah, not a whole lot of people bring their goats and llamas during the first, but it's fine.

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There's that one that's just gonna. She can attach and go, do you mind?

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Yeah, and we get messages.

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I get messages all the time like oh, can we bring our animals? I'm like I always tell people if you bring your dog, I have to, I have to meet them first.

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Yes, that's. It's a risk, though it's a risk, but I just meant I just, I just meant, I want to meet all the bugs like, bring me.

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Bring me all these animals.

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Yes, I loved the fence in the area. So when we came down um for the first time, you had the big crawfish oil here, yeah, yeah, and we showed up the first parking. Everything was great and, which is usually better chaos, because when you tell people to believe you, I know that every single weekend at the resort, you tell people to park and you got one that's going to park this way, one that's going to park this way, and everybody figured it out. It was awesome. We moved around the school. What was really impressive is going up and seeing all the kids outside. They were having a good time. The parents were chilling, which was kind of what inspired 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 bring their little Johnny Shed head.

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Yeah, we try to keep them outside but you know, like I said, it's all fenced in, everything is safe we have a good acre and a half that is completely fenced in, where, if you're on the patio or even inside and you can see up we have big windows behind the bar. You can see it like yeah, yeah, it's everything supervised.

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Yeah, first week one they had cornhole. They were playing.

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I mean throwing bags, yeah, and my my niece and nephew and all their friends come out here, they always seem to bring something else and yeah and they're like oh, we left our our gloves, and I'm like we, we can leave it here.

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We have a nice big chest for them. Yeah, that's awesome.

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Yeah, but again, that's what we wanted. 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 it as but yeah, we just wanted a place where people could come and enjoy themselves and, you know, be comfortable, local spot Right. And again we have four acres. We actually bought a little over four acres and technically this is about a 25-acre plot.

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Okay, so right behind us.

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we actually have some Airbnb rentals. They're super cute. Nice cabins they're nice and small. They're basically built for a couple, but they have nice porches, hot tubs on the porch and they are literally I could hit them with rocks, so they're in walk distance. You don't have far water, exactly.

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So, yeah.

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So our eventually long-term goal is to try to expand this property as much as we can. Eventually, you know, put a big stage, do some bigger shows on the weekends. I think we got our foot in the door in this area at the right time At the right time.

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Just let's say that growth is happening, so so one thing we love.

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You're going to blink and they're going to be right here, exactly.

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You know we're like 2.9 miles from Main Street, but you know in 10 years from now that 2.9 miles has got to be exactly so. One thing we do love about Fredericksburg is it is a small town still, and it really is. There's only about 18,000 people here if you partake. We really like that. They seem to be trying to avoid what is happening with these other towns. New Braunfels is a great example. Now New Braunfels has a 35 runner right through the middle of it. So you know you can't really do much about that, but the city of Fredericksburg is actually trying to prevent overgrowth too soon, which we like. So we feel like it is going to stay that small town for the foreseeable future.

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However, like you said, growth isn't everything. It's going to happen. We're on the west side of town. The east side of town is towards San Antonio and Austin, so we feel like when growth does happen, it'll probably go that way first, which we also like about this location. But you know, know there's been a couple places in town that I've tried to do the outdoor music venue and the bigger artists and stuff, and you know we're in the texas hill country, so I can name you hundreds of artists that are great and phenomenal and big names and they draw people. Uh, we're close enough to austin and san antonio where you think that you'd be able to draw those people. But to be honest with you, I'm not going to drive an hour 15 to Fredericksburg just to see Randy Rogers when I can see Randy Rogers in our backyard, lotus and New Braunfels, in San Antonio and Austin he's actually playing in Lukenbach. I don't work for Lukenbach, but go see Randy Rogers in.

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Lukenbach, but you know. So I just think this town is not quite ready yet. There's not enough sustainable people in town to where, if you don't draw anybody from out of town, you're still going to do good. But I think we're getting there. So I think we're just kind of slowly trying to do it the right way not expand too fast, take our time, but eventually we want the top to be one of the premier music venues in the state. We want to be up there with Luka Bach and Floors and Whitewater and Billy Bob's and places like that and again we have the area and we eventually will have more.

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So we're just excited for our future.

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Yes, I am too, and I think you're doing it. The I was just about to say right before. You said time. I said too, and I think you're doing it. The I was just about to say right before you said time, I said timing is everything. It's so many different ways and I think you absolutely um, sometimes things just fall into place and most of the time they don't, but I think you're we're learning that.

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You know, we um, you know.

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I worked for a lot of really good bosses. I've worked for some not so good bosses.

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Um, you know, it's never ending. When I think about those days where I'm like, oh, that guy was in a shitty mood. Yeah, I'm like, oh, no wonder he was in a shitty mood. Yeah, because nothing works. Oh, you just come in here one day and all of a sudden, nothing's are. Everything works for two weeks and then you have a big event like you bring in 500 pounds of crawfish and the day before three things stop working. You're like, why is?

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this happening.

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Exactly. But you know it's, it's just part of the territory and you just got to take it day by day. And you know you were just talking about timing. I mean my wife's saying this all the time we we can try to take control of our lives as much as we can and try to have control of our timing. We really don't have any control or anything at the end of the day. So you know, you just got to go with the flow and keep a smile on your face and try to keep everybody happy and you know, stay open, which is that in itself is a full-time job, job um oh yeah, we uh have a deal that that's coming up where we are hosting a big corporate event five to 700 people, and it is now a lot more.

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They just came back to us and said would you guys mind coordinating planning? What do we call it? Whatever you call it, whatever that taking over the whole thing? And I said yeah. And that's well. That's kind of what I do every single weekend at the river, because I'm taking over the whole thing. I said, oh my gosh. Actually I just feel so much better because now I'm fully in charge.

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Yeah, you have full control.

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So if I get there, and, like you're saying, you show up that one day and everything just takes a shit. If I show up there where things are out of my control, I start to lose it. It is very hard to keep that smile on your face when you walk in and you've got that one asshole. That's like it's just, it's tough. Yeah, you can't.

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All you can control is what you can control. You can't control what people can't control most things but what you can't control you need to make sure that you're doing things the right way and doing the things, that if you showed up to a place, especially a place you've never been before yes, it's the little things I tell people all the time. I I'll come up here all day and get a bunch of stuff done and it's all stuff that no one else will notice, except for me, right.

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But it's stuff that is important. You know um it, it's exciting. It's one of those things like some days you wake up and you're like, and then some nights I wake up and I'm like let's go.

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Yeah, I'm fired up to get stuff going.

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But you know, we're at a point where you know me and my wife we have a couple investors. One of them is my family and then the other one is a local guy who's friends with my sister and brother-in-law, steven Knight and Justin Backus. They own Chicken Express. All the Chicken Express is all the Chicken Express is around here, here, kerrville, comfort Corpus. So we brought them in. They're great guys, great young guys with the same kind of vision we have, which is what we were looking for.

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And when I was in New Braunfels we had a couple opportunities to do something there, which COVID put the kibosh on one of those, which is fine, and then we had a couple more. But I just got to the court, right, I just felt like New Braunfels, I felt like I was trying to force it a little bit, right. So me and my I told my wife I was like let's go try to find some other property and literally this is the second place we looked at and it wasn't even. We didn't even specifically come find this place. We looked at one property in Blanco and my brother-in-law works at a winery here in town which actually they just moved to Johnson city Lostraw winery, one of the best wineries in town. Go check them out. Um, they actually just bought themselves out from under William Chris.

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William Chris is just phenomenal.

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Everyone knows him Um so.

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Lostraw is doing great.

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So we were in Blanco. Well, you know what? We're already almost to Fredericksburg. Let's go see Sean and get some wine. And so we went and saw him and we were only there for less than a glass of wine and a gentleman walked in and my brother-in-law said hey, go introduce yourself to that guy. He's got some property. It used to have a bar on it. It's closed. Now I think he's trying to sell it. That was Mr Painter. Met Mr Painter, exchanged information the very next week, came up, looked at the property, immediately fell in love with it and a year or so later, here we are. It's just funny how it happens, isn't that crazy? We tried for literally three and a half years to try to get something going in New Braunfels and a week and a half two weeks of looking elsewhere and we found it.

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I love that it's timing elsewhere and we found it. It's just it's time. I love when a plan comes together.

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Yeah, it's time I tell you what born and raised in broncos, I have spent a lot of time in gillespie county I showed animals my entire life, and so I was all over, all over texas and um, it is really cool to see you come from broncos, and when I saw that you posted that you're opening this up in Fredericksburg, I'm like, fucking Fredericksburg, that's big money town, and look at our little bars back. He's all grown up and I was like wow.

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I don't necessarily feel like we fit in here quite yet, but we're going to get there.

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I can't even afford a couple good bottles of wine in Fredericksburg. Curtis just popped him up a bar and got it. It's freaking epic it all.

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like I said, it's all timing, it's all about everything kind of came in perfect. And you know, mr Painter gave us a great deal on this place and he worked with us on certain things that we needed help on and it just all kind of fell into place. You know it's, and you know, nothing's perfect. You know we've had our stumbles, oh you're going to.

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Oh yeah, I've had this freaking resort for 10 years. Every time I turn around, yeah, 10 years.

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Yeah, and I bet when you first started that you were like oh, 10 years from now, we're going to be here. It's 10 years and you're going oh gosh, but again, it's never ending. It's what happens when you. That's the reason they're called your dreams, because you know, honestly, most of the time, if not all the time, they're pretty much unattainable for most people.

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You're always going to keep working and you're always going to keep striving for better and trying to get things the way you want Out. Here we're just trying to. You know, I just try to be like I have a big list and I try to get like one thing done a week.

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You know what I mean. Just try to knock one out.

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And, of course, there are weeks go by and I don't get nothing done, and some weeks I get three things done and it's just. It's just a constant. You just gotta keep moving forward, okay, oh yeah, exactly yeah, yeah, it's okay to not over set your goals too high, because then it makes you just it's devastating exactly your own personal feelings you have to have those more and more of yourself. So set reasonable goals. We are trying, we are trying.

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We are goals are hefty though we are.

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I tell people all the time you know I have all these great examples of different things, but tell people all the time I love whitewater. Whitewater is one of my favorite places and that is that's my goal right now. Our goal is to get this property to be a whitewater someplace you want to go's going to have amazing music all the time. Great service, my friend, becky bright, uh, help does all the bars out there. She's phenomenal. Just consistency and just honestly 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.

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I'm 37 and I'm not what I know I know, I took it with that.

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They're like you're a baby, I know, but when I was 21 I knew everybody.

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I knew not maybe not, not, I don't even mean personally, but if you were up and coming artist or you were the big thing or you were kind of on the end of your career, kind of getting to that age where you're not playing as much, I knew everybody. And now I'm at that age where you're not playing as much, I knew everybody. And now I'm at that point where you know I'm we're not in the scene as much, yeah, and I get people sending me people all the time and I'm like how have I never heard this person?

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right, so good and and and it gives me, it makes me excited. I'm like I'm excited to not only have them come play at the place that I own yes, but also to also To watch the group. Exactly To give, to give those people.

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Yeah, the music, mama thing. Yeah, watch your babies grow up.

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Yes, to give those people the opportunity to become the Cody Canada's and the Ryan Rogers and those kinds of names out there.

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The people that we grew up with. You know I'm from. I'm from the Lotus.

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I grew up three minutes away from Flores, so every weekend that's what we did, and if we couldn't afford to go into Flores, we would sit outside yeah. Because the guy that owned the property 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 to go see full-cross. Canadian ragweed shows for $20. I was about to say yeah, I was just talking about.

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Pat Green sitting in Hastings. It was way back when I've never been up at 11. 11 o'clock before my life. Please be patient with me. I was like, oh my Lord, we were just with him at a deal that he did. It was just funny talking about old times.

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How spoiled we are.

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You look around in your bar and you look at your posters and the history that's in this building that you have. I've got some good ones. I've got some really good ones, my wife jokes.

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She says we need two more bars to hang on posters that I have.

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I have so many I have like 200 more in my storage.

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Yeah, most of these were. You need to start putting them on the ceiling.

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I know Well. See, I want to do that.

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In fact, when I started hanging them, 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 do it.

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Most of these I collected myself over the years. I was when I was younger, you know, going to a concert, getting that concert t-shirt or hat was always a cool thing. But I got at a certain point. I just started getting collecting posters. Yes, um, especially, not everyone had posters and they don't have a lot, right. Um, in fact, like our friend morgan avery, she is like poster queen, she's like the yeah, the best in the biz.

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Um, in fact, I was talking to somebody.

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I was like I need to contact contact Morgan about doing some posters for us, cause I want to start doing uh like a year, like yearly events here. And we've slowly started. So, like two Saturdays ago, when you were here, we did our official grade opening four months after we actually opened, which is awesome, hilarious. Um and it went great. We went through 400 pounds of crawfish in less than two and a half hours.

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That's Comal Crawfish in New.

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Braunfels. Well, comal County Crawfish is the restaurant in New Braunfels, the food truck is Comal Crawfish Company, which they do have links, but they technically are separate. That's my buddy Terrence Day. Terrence Day is the best.

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Terrence comes and cooks at the resort. Yes, he is the best. He is a hot boss and we love him to freaking pieces, so we actually have Terrence and his wife.

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They come out about twice a month just to have their normal food truck.

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Yes, and they always do great.

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We always do great. We are doing another crawfish Shameless plug. We're doing another crawfish boil. Easter weekend. Okay, three-day crawfish festival friday, saturday, sunday friday we're doing an easter egg hunt for the kids. Saturday we're doing uh, six hours of live music.

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Did you hear that? Yeah?

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and then sunday we're doing a peeling party, so whatever we have left over, on sunday and sunday we're doing a. Uh, we've been doing a song swap with a devin bays and gary b cox from little star souvenirs and they draw such a good crowd in there. They're just so fun.

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So you tell all the guys that you've got coming in. I created a page. It's a group, it's not a page, but it's called Starting Artists on a Page.

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Yes, I was already a member.

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Yeah, that was way back when. So you know, I'd always promo on the musicians and had a bunch of them on the show and Talking about where they started and letting them bring another history and yeah, and then watching them go to where they are now and we were. This one has an air. Yet when we were pondering on bringing back the the old River, I saw swamp song swap days and yes so we're gonna bring that back.

:

We're gonna do it at the resort. It would be epic to have a series out here, but we're going to bring that back. We're going to do it at the resort. It would be epic to have a series out here, but we're going to. That's why we pushed that a deal. We would absolutely love to do that.

:

I just saw you posted Manzi Lowry. The other day I went in there and selflessly plugged that he's going to be here, like I think three or four times the next few months.

:

He's phenomenal. Also love Manzi, because after he performed well, he played outside. It was actually kind of crappy weather when he was here, Played outside and then we moved him inside. I think it's so funny. This building shouldn't be, but it's got pretty good acoustics.

:

It has very good acoustics.

:

I don't know if he had one or too many drinks. Manzi said he wanted to record an album in here, so I'm like okay, let's do it. But what I also love about him is after his show he spent about 30 minutes to an hour walking the entire property picking up rocks.

:

Picking up fossils yeah, awesome. He does that at my ranch all the time yeah, phenomenal. He showed up there an hour earlier and he was like do you mind? I was like no, you have every rock out here.

:

He was asking me all histories of my trees, yeah, Look you, let me know and we'll jot it down. Yes, exactly, but to answer your question, we've had, you know, there's a lot of great local musicians in Fredericksburg and there's also a lot of great in the area. So I'm trying to do a combination of local and, you know, like I said earlier, I'm very lucky. I know a lot of great musicians. 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 night and it was phenomenal. He actually called dibs on it when he first heard that I was doing this.

:

He goes I want to play your opening night. I go, done, Done.

:

Not arguing. He's also going to be back here. I got him two or three times over the next three months.

:

I just posted. I don't know if you saw so we did one of his very first music videos in my living room, talking about acoustics.

:

Yeah, Because I've got super tall 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. They had a five-piece that day. In the corner of my head it was just everywhere. We were standing on the kitchen counters, Scotty, which is Summer Shandy, you guys know that. I mean he had a camera shooting Things were flying and I was, and you know strawberry lemonade.

:

Oh yeah, it's the jam Blue, and I had a big old gallon of strawberry. It was a good. It was a really good time. I just reshared that video and I was like this and look at him now. This is way back when.

:

Oh yeah, he used to play him and Nick Worley used to play, like every other Tuesday at Billy's Rice Bartender.

:

maybe they were great Him yelling at people without the thing. Remember, be quiet. I'm singing.

:

Yeah, like Austin, we know.

:

We know, yeah, we hear you. Be nice to everyone.

:

They hear you in Petersburg and we're in Austin right now. Austin Gillum's phenomenal.

:

Austin Gillum's the guy that, if you want somebody to bring the house down just hire Austin Gillum, but At Timberwild, garrett and Bo out here a few times and we got them booked a couple more times. Damon Curtis, jj Garrett Band, a lot of new Broncos guys Guys that I know for a fact will put on a great show will show up. You know they're worth every penny that we pay these guys, and they deserve it too. Guys that are actually trying to do this full time.

:

So your live music days that you're doing out here are weekends, Saturdays and Sundays.

:

So we've actually January and February. We only did Fridays and Saturdays. It's the slower time and the weather. We are back to Thursday through Sunday. Nice yeah. So Thursdays a little bit earlier, we usually do 6 to 9, and then Fridays and Saturdays we'll do 7 to 10 or 8 to 11. I kind of let my artists, you know again, this is not New Braunfels, this is Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg is not a big late night town.

:

It's a late afternoon, early evening, town. That's when your crowds yeah, that's when your crowds are coming out.

:

But, New Braun, so your office isn't like town either, remember.

:

Well, I mean, it's not. It's not. The bars aren't open, but people still want to party. Oh, they do. Yeah, if you have music going until midnight, they'll show up for it. And then Sundays we do early afternoons. So there's a local place in town called Hondo's Great spot. They do live music noon to three.

:

They do and so that's where they get a big crowd. So we actually start at 4. So go to Hondo's, listen to them, have a margarita and then come and spend the rest of your day out here at the top and we always have really great guys. On Sunday we have our little patio, which is where we have everybody. Now we are in the middle of putting a stage right here outside the patio so I can do a little bit fuller bands.

:

We have power going on that stuff out there. We're just kind of again baby steps we're taking them.

:

Yeah, exactly yeah. Don't wake up and go shit, but yeah.

:

Thursday, friday, saturday, sunday, live music at night, late afternoon on Sundays, and then 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 menu for a second.

:

Yeah, full bar, full bar. And when I say I can make anything, I am not exactly. I'm going to tell you that Curtis can make anything.

:

Curtis has been making for all of us for a very long time.

:

You were one of the only ones that would ever remember my Texas two-step that I sold a million years ago, deep Eddie yeah, we used to sell the crap out of Deep Eddie.

:

It's grapefruit Deep Eddie, cranberry Deep Eddie and a splash of soda with a lime.

:

I labeled it the Texas two-step Crazy enough, and now they have so many flavors. The Texas Two-Step Delicious Crazy enough, and now they have so many flavors.

:

You can literally have.

:

Texas. Two-step could be anything you want. In fact, I actually my liquor rep two days ago. You can do a high step. You can do a squat, a bend and squat. I have a whole bend and squat thing Two days ago.

:

I'm a pineapple guy.

:

One of my my cocktail on the menu is called the El Jefe. It's muddled up fresh jalapenos, pineapple juice, reposado tequila and ginger beer. So basically a Mexican mule, no lime juice, add pineapple and then muddled jalapenos, and it is phenomenal. I'm a pineapple guy. I just recently found out that Deep Eddie put out a pineapple, so we don't have it yet, but next week we'll be having Deep Eddie pineapple, so we have a full bar. I can literally make anything. We have a. I keep fresh fruit on hand raspberries, blackberries, watermelon. We have a drink on our menu called Smoke on the Water, basically a mezcal smoky watermelon margarita that's super popular during the summertime.

:

Yeah, like I said earlier, you can come with your boys.

:

We do buckets of beers. We're only one of two places in town that do buckets of beers. Domestics imports we'll mix them up. One of our specialty buckets is Armadillos, which is a drink that I learned from one of my friends, kathy Legender, who I've known my entire life. She's now a super popular musician at Austin. She's phenomenal Armadillo can lime juiceco tahine cracker open.

:

Uh, can't beat it on a summer day 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 packages um get a lot of big crowds for the game, which is great. Come bring a date. Cocktails, martinis, I can literally make anything you can think of. One of the drinks on the menu that I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that does it around here is an espresso margarita.

:

I get a lot of questions. I get a lot of requests for espresso 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 is phenomenal If you actually go to our Instagram. Where did that info?

:

come from? Oh, you know, just being bored behind the bar One night.

:

I meant to grab a vodka and I came out with a tequila.

:

My wife makes fun of me. Tequila and jalapenos I can make 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, yeah, yeah, so any any kind of like classic cocktail that you've seen, I've, you know you, it's just fun to kind of mess around with them and see what you can do and see what, see what flavors mix well and see what works and what doesn't. And trust me, I've I've made something and I'm like this is going to be amazing and I'm like I 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 of call this the first year at the top yes, right, yes, so let's say we're in 2025 right now. Let's shoot the goal for in 2026, then that's a good that's a good minute. We are in march, so march of 2026 around spring break time yes we should have a top drink menu book oh yes, that is actually on my list of things to do 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 get here. They're beautiful.

:

These need to be the hidden. These need to be the espresso to keep margaritas. You're going to pull this out the vault? 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 the napkins and grab? No, that is a band. I nearly poked my finger.

:

That is a great, that is a great goal. Um, you know, speaking of goals, we have so many. Um, you know, when it comes to things, you have to. Not only do you have to do what you feel or what you think is going to be great for, for, the business and for your customers.

:

but you also have to make sure we we like to make sure we do everything correctly here when we have. When we set this place up, I was the one the health department wasn't hitting me, I was hitting them up. I was like I want to make sure I do everything right. I don't want to get this place open and get bumping and then you come in here one day and say, oh this is a little thing.

:

That was me and my TABC with all of our things. Of course I knew them, but I still was like look.

:

Yeah, so we try to make sure that we do everything right, so are very meticulous and we do our homework and we're just making sure that we do things right. In fact, I love that you brought up our parking. That's our next big thing. I want to just clean that up a little bit, you know people come out here and they go oh man, this is great. What you should do is extend that 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 about this place.

:

Go to Lugenbach.

:

Do you?

:

see no. Exactly so when it comes to our goals literally, even if you just start a and we have to do this at a resort one because I have no parking you have plenty of parking. But literally, literally, we had to go in and I just took stripe and paint and just set them on a little goal If they come if you build it, they will come, they'll figure it out.

:

That's another thing about this place. Fredericksburg is one of those places you know we um.

:

There's always going to be one asshole that parks sideways or whatever.

:

Yeah, yeah, it's usually someone that I know it always is yeah, we have a big no-park because I'm right in front of the front door.

:

That's my truck out there right next to my truck.

:

Yeah, once a week a big truck or something will pull up and I'm like who is this? I'm like oh of course. I know place all the time pull straight through, right in front of the bar, and I'll radio to the kids.

:

They're like who is this? They're like well, they said they were coming down there to see you and they'll be sitting right here. Oh, that was you. Yeah, get your shit go move. Yeah, no, I don't like you that much.

:

You can't yeah, so you know, it's just. You know, when it comes to setting goals, we just try to make sure that we do everything correctly and, like I said, make sure you're doing it right. Take your time. Again, timing has been a big thing that we've talked about, but it is timing. You can say, hey, I want to get this done by a certain date and you might get it done by then and you might not, but you really only have so much control over it Exactly yeah.

:

Do it your way. I've had a million people come in and go, you know.

:

just like you said oh you should do this, you should do that, or you should do that.

:

I'm like see, that sounds like a good idea now that you said that, but also it's like, it's like people walk in and they look around.

:

They take one look around like oh, you should do this, I go. I understand, I thought that too. Yeah, but if you do that, then that that and that and you're, and you're like, oh, I didn't think it was going to go Would you like salt with your drink?

:

Yes, exactly so. Would you like to leave this open? Yeah, we're just going to wrap you up right now. Oh, no, no, no, we never wrap you up.

:

That's why my wife's not allowed to 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 get out of line sometimes.

:

Not sometimes.

:

Yeah, pretty much every day.

:

But you know you can't cut everybody off just because they don't like the way they taught you.

:

You can't kick them out all the time. You can't kick everybody out. You don't want to have any customers. So my wife's not one little attitude for my wife, one of these. And my wife's like, don't keep it, you're fine. You're fine, sit down. Please don't snap at me.

:

But here's a drink. Go sit outside, please don't do that. Just maybe something like that, maybe, yeah, you have to be this.

:

This job is very you have to barely be you really do I tell you when I was talking about yeah, it's um it at the river.

:

you know we're only open three months out of the year and every weekend, just when I think I've seen it all, the next weekend rolls around. I never saw that one coming and I really didn't think that you were going to be the one that was going to have to grab by the neck and throw out of here and the 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 you know that you do learn to change and and laugh it down, or I can turn somebody around like they were about to play pin the tail on the donkey they just thought they were about to run like the rage room of rage room and then 20 minutes later they're crying and calling me mama and I'm so. I didn't mean to hit that guy. Shit, I don't think about your choices. Let's go have a beer.

:

You need to freaking get your shit together. Yeah, no, but we I'll say one thing Exactly. I'll say one thing One thing I do miss about New Braunfels is a lot of people, a lot of different characters, and it can get a little, but also it's a lot of fun when you have a full bar and it's just like the perfect mix of people it can be. There's nothing better. Fredericksburg is a little more tame, I'll tell you that.

:

We honestly have had almost no issues here at all, which is great. In five months it's pretty much unheard of to run a bar and have absolutely no problems in that amount of time.

:

Okay, so you'll pull up here you have this beautiful atmosphere.

:

You've got oak trees, you've got deer, there's birds. You're out here in Texas Hill Crunch.

:

Yeah, it's God's cup.

:

And if you are going to come over here with your attitude you need to put it outside. On the other, side of that cattle guard, and then come back in here. Let's have a cocktail, relax, enjoy. Yes, god's country.

:

That's also one great thing about where we're at. It's so beautiful out here, yeah, and having all the locals here. Honestly, if anybody does start acting up, I honestly don't even need to do anything. It'll take care of itself. Which is also great Our locals that come in here all the time are phenomenal, and you know they like to have fun too Once in a blue moon. I'm like hey, I know I've done my bit.

:

Yeah, but it's.

:

This place has been great. The town of Fredericksburg is great. You know it's a tourist town. I hear things all the time. We get nothing but compliments about our service here and it's a testament to my employees and myself and my family and our investors and just the people that we draw. That's one of the compliments we get. The most is every time we go in there. Everyone's so nice and everyone's so friendly and there's a lot of places in town that they are tourist destinations, so locals don't go in there as much.

:

They're very busy, they're great places, but you know the service in some places can lack. In a tourist town In New Braunfels it's the same way you go in and you're late Because they think you're a tourist.

:

So they're not worried about second-time business, they're worried about you're in here now. You're probably never gonna come back in here and you're gonna go back to where you're from and whatever. But one thing I try to tell everybody is I don't care where you're from, I don't care if you're local, I don't care if you're not. I want you to have the best experience ever when you come into one of my establishments. And we've been able to do that. My staff has been great, and even me. I have what you like to call resting bitch face.

:

So sometimes I have to give a little extra. Yeah, I keep my sunglasses on. I'm really good about it. I take laps when I know Nick's really good about going. I think you need to go.

:

She'll send me on a scavenger hunt and I'm like I want to go right now, Go fight this thing that we don't even have. You Go find this thing that we don't even have.

:

You do want to go look for exactly what I told you to go look for. There's an arrowhead out there somewhere. You need to go find it. It's funny.

:

People that have known me for years know that when I have a real busy bar. I have my game face on.

:

But that's when I'm actually having the most fun. I love it. I love when people come to the bar 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 a time and tossing out buckets of beer.

:

That's how that.

:

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're searching for. That is our speaking of goals. That's our ultimate goal. Our ultimate goal is when you come in here, I'd be like man. This place is pumping.

:

This place is fun. Everyone's having a good time. It was so awesome, yeah, and it was really good to walk in and see Bill and Kathy and our people from you know.

:

I was just about to bring that up.

:

Yeah, it was just so good to see Lance was here.

:

I was just about to bring that up.

:

The first weekend we were open.

:

That Thursday was slammed, friday was slammed. Saturday during the day was slammed. It slowed down a little bit at night. But that was also. Oktoberfest was going on here, which you know. Wurstfest is the obviously New Brunswick statement, it's the. If I'm getting this correctly, wurstfest is the second biggest German festival in the country. It is. Oktoberfest in Fredericksburg is the third largest Right, which is funny because the gap between two and three is pretty huge. But so we were competing with that the first weekend. But right when it slowed down I was like it's slowing down a little bit, no joke. 30 seconds later a party bus pulls up Janine and all my Oyster.

:

Mom, peeps and Lance and all them, yeah, a perfect timing One thing I love about this is we've been open five months.

:

Well so I knew someone was getting 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 little over five months and at least once every 10 days someone walks in the door and I'm like what is up.

:

That is so good. It's so good to see familiar faces.

:

It makes you feel good when people actually, you know, make 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 telling you once, about once every 10 days, somebody walks in. We were sitting here one day and I I went outside to do something. I had a full bar.

:

I went outside to like, grab something and there was a someone parked way in the back and I saw him come like that guy. That guy looks like my buddy bill long he's walking, walking like Bill Long and about five minutes later. Everybody loves Bill and about five minutes later, bill Long walks up.

:

I was like what are you doing here? 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 a drink, I was like, oh, it's about making people happy and just giving people a place to where they can relax and get away from all the bullshit.

:

Yeah.

:

You know yeah.

:

And just give them a place where they can relax.

:

I'm so happy for you. It literally is like and I'm a crier so it'll probably happen, don't cry. Don't cry, but I just kind of think that it's kind of ironic how, when we started recording in here today and we turned the sound down and you said, do you mind if I, if the ice machine gonna bother sound or whatever, and nixon, now it's fine I think irony at its finest when you started with five gallon buckets scooping ice, being a barback filling ice chest and now I'm sitting here and now I'm back to it.

:

It's exactly what I have, but you'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 your bucket. You realize how expensive an ice machine is.

:

And the parts when they take a shift.

:

Oh exactly, we have companies that do that.

:

Thank goodness.

:

It's one of those things. You know people. I have a good buddy, chris. He lives in Mexico now, worked his butt off his entire life. He was a firefighter, had side jobs his whole life, his goal. I met him 10 plus years ago and one of the first times I ever met him. He goes. Oh yeah, I'm going to. He goes, I'm going to retire and move down to Mexico and I'm like that's awesome.

:

That's awesome, but, like you know how many people told you that? Nope, Chris. About a year and a half, two years ago, Chris retired.

:

Since you moved down to Mexico. He lives in Mexico.

:

Haven't seen him in two plus years, but every once in a while we'll shoot each other texts and literally three or four days ago he shot me a text Just how's it going, how we doing, and you know you have those conversations he owns a little small business down there doing.

:

I think he's doing scuba diving and boat stuff.

:

You just talk about things. There are certain people that reach out to you that genuinely want to know how you're doing and then give you inspiration and have a great conversation and you have other people like oh, you own a bar, so you're rich now and I'm like I've never been.

:

You know what I mean. More broke in my life Never been more broke in my life.

:

Yeah, but that's just how it is. It's, you know this is, but that's how it has to be. This is my baby and we're new and everything all the effort and you know money to me is not even like who cares, it's all material I we had. I had this conversation literally two weeks ago with my father you know and and like a positive.

:

Yeah, my dad's great but it was a positive, like it just came naturally. A positive conversation. You know, you look around and you talk about what you got to do and what we got to do for this and get people, more, more people in here, and what are our goals and how do we reach them, and all this stuff and at the end of the day, it's this is what is the fun part actually finding a property what is the fun part?

:

actually finding a property, fixing it up, making it to what you want it, and yeah, we're there.

:

But you know, reaching a goal is great, but the journey to reaching your goal is what really 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 business with their dad. Like you know what I mean it's a rarity, you know? Know, it's a I mean. Yeah, I mean you can have a whole other podcast about that.

:

Yes.

:

Talking about tears?

:

Yeah, no, it's it's, it's the little things One, family businesses, and I've got several In a marriage, in a family. If you cannot figure out how to turn it off and how to shut it down, then it will absolutely never work. Oh yeah, it will never, ever work. It will drain you, it will bury you six foot under. You have got to figure out that you guys are in a relationship. Y'all love each other. Outside of that, my kids have their businesses, we have our businesses, and there's got to be an absolutely not. Yeah, outside of that, my kids have their businesses, we have our businesses.

:

There's got to be a absolutely not.

:

This is Sunday. We are going to have our dinner, whatever it is. We are not going to sit here at Thanksgiving and talk about how stupid you think that little Johnny was and how, whatever and done and done. I'm not doing that, I'm not doing that, you can't do it. It'll be true, exactly.

:

And that's with anything in life. You know, this is what I'm doing right now, but it's not. It doesn't define me as a person. It won't define me later in life, no matter how successful or unsuccessful it ends up being 10, 20 years from now.

:

At the end of the day, you know you, I do, and I have to one thing and take this for what it's worth. And I told everybody, and the kids that have worked with me and then gone on and grown their wings, and, and I've said friends that have come to stay at my place or gone to my liquor stores or bought stuff at my boutique and blah, blah, blah, whatever, from eight to five, if you're working for me or you're whatever, I don't have to like you and you don't have to like me.

:

Yeah.

:

Business is business and it's true. It is all about the rent Afterwards. We can have a week and I can say fuck you and you can say fuck me and blah, blah, blah. After that, I we're going to kiss your face, we're going to high-five, we're going to go have a cocktail, we're going to have a nice dinner, whatever it is. Yeah, but you cannot get your feelings hurt in the business world when it comes to family and friends. It is what it is.

:

Yep.

:

You have to understand.

:

Curtis is running a business here.

:

Yeah.

:

This is. I'm not going to walk in and go. Guys, I've known you for.

:

Yeah, hey, oh do I get to discount?

:

Yeah, no, in fact, you might tell anybody and everybody that goes into mine and says I know Tiffany, and they try to zoom through and I go. Those kids are raving at me. They now know they're even raving at me.

:

I said well then, charge them double, Yep.

:

I don't really. It's $25 to get in or whatever it is Now for you today it's a nice Ben Franklin. You're welcome. She'll meet you down at the bar People say that all the time. If you really want to support your friend, if you're my friend, or if you're my cousin, or if you're my auntie grandma's nephew, if you really want to support your friend's family, the bank does not give a shit.

:

Support them. I'm not going to give you that now. I say that I've definitely been.

:

I say the same shit.

:

Yeah, exactly, in fact, give them all love.

:

Yeah, one night we went to, so the other night there's a preschool here in Fredericksburg. It's called Bethany Bethany Preschool Great school. My niece went there, my nephew goes there, All of their friends' kids go there. It's a great school. They do one big fundraiser every year and it was actually Thursday night and they have all these local vendors do all the stuff and they have a welcome cocktail. So we actually got to do that this year I saw that.

:

That was cool and it was so great. So much fun. 200-something people, great crowd. Everyone was super nice. Everyone gave us lots of compliments. 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 out to Bethany's preschool for starting this with an opening cocktail.

:

Yeah oh yeah, If you've watched any of my shows.

:

I've said it.

:

This is a preschool benefit To your teachers. Here's alcohol.

:

That's how you get people to raise their paddles when they're actually so long.

:

I don't know who's running that school.

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Oh yeah, no, they're doing it anyway and you're going to the president, and it really was a fantastic event and there was a reason why I started talking to us but thank you so much no-transcript. You know, just helping people out and not charging people. Um, you know, helping each other out. I think that's where we're going with. Um, yeah, if you're a friend in our family and they own a business, go support them.

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Go spend your money, go buy your shirt.

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But there have been nights when we go try to say hi to people at other establishments that we know that have supported us and next thing you know, we leave and I go. I wore a hat in there, my wife goes yeah, you gave it to some guy. Some guy said oh, the top and we're sitting.

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I go here. Here's a hat. I have to buy another hat for myself, um but yeah, I do that constantly.

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But, um, you know this, this is just such a great place, Uh, the Texas Hill country, you can't beat it. I really appreciate it. And we've gotten like I I've. Honestly, it's it. It is overwhelming. Sometimes, you know, I go through days or weeks where no one texts me or anything, which is fine, I'm busy, yeah but, then there's days where, like, my phone just blows up and I'm like who's texting me?

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and it's just nothing but like hey, I saw you do this, you're kicking ass like great job, like you look like you're doing great, blah, blah. Or or hey, we ran into someone that we had never met and they mentioned just randomly mentioned this bar in fredericksburg and it's yours and it's just, it's just crazy. So this the love and support we've got from our friends and family is just fantastic telling you it's what keeps you doing what you do. It's what keeps you doing what I do every time I turn around.

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I'm thinking I cannot handle another weekend at the Spermer or Spermer. If I'm not there by Thursday at noon, 99% of our clientele literally have turned into family to me. They will start blowing up my phone, going where are you? We?

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came to see you. At the end of the day they do. A lot of people come here to listen to live music and have a good cocktail. But they're here to see you and support you. It's a great feeling, Honestly. It's a feeling that will never get old. I will never get sick.

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I agree 100%. I always tell people, you know Irritated as I can be pulling in that driveway and then I step out my foot and they're like what I'm like oh, I love you guys. Y'all make it worth it.

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I always tell people people ask me what's your and her wife's goal? Oh, our goal was to get a little piece of property and have a bunch of animals and raise our kids.

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And then or what's your goal?

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with the bar, and the bar is to expand and put a big stage and get big names out of here, but my long, long-term goal is to we have a. So my dad's my dad has several grandchildren. His grandpa name is Grumpy. That is his, which is hilarious. When I was a kid, if I called him Grumpy I would have gotten smacked.

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But his grandkids call him Grumpy that's his grandpa name. My grandfather was the grouchiest God love you the grouchiest human in the world, and you know what his name was Happy.

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Yeah, that's fantastic. So my dad ran a deep sea headquarters in Port Aransas for years and when he retired from there his retirement gift was this really big, nice rocking chair and on the back it said Grumpy. So Christmas time we did Grumpy Cowboy Santa pictures for the kids.

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So he brought his rocking chair out here.

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He dressed up as Cowboy. Santa took pictures with the kids. It was great. Well, his rocking chair is still here and I always get people.

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I feel like I need to leave something here when we leave today, because everybody else is leaving something. Please do, yeah, just leave something. Well, we're going to leave some fertilizer for you. We'll take them. Someone left that wine. There's a wine rack over there that wasn't here two days ago. Someone just walked in with their rack in there.

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Hey, that means they like us, we're moving in. But the rocking chair grumpy's out there. I always tell at the end of the day, my long, long-term goal is to be an old man and drink a beer in that grumpy rocking chair and have people ask me stories and me just make up bullshit, because I think that's what old people do.

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Yes, they do.

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Yeah, they talk shit, yeah, non-stop yeah.

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I'll be like, yeah, willie Nelson came in here, right.

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Back in 2025. That sounds, yeah, that sounds good Just makes stuff up.

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That's my laundry rules. There you go.

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That rocking chair drinks a beer makes it looks good. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, yeah, that's the thing. Hey, this was fun. It was so much great time the top fredericksburg texas yes, right outside we're about three miles out down main street.

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Yes, 290 west towards harper. Um, we're on, just, you know the drone you know the maps maps, google maps, apple maps uh yelp facebook instagram, all the stuff.

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Uh, yeah, come find us.

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Yes, maps Maps, google Maps, apple Maps, facebook Instagram all the stuff.

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Yeah, come find us.