Hidden Gems: Meet Santos Aviles of Spirit of Texas BBQ

Today we’d like to introduce you to Santos Aviles.

Santos, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I thought I had retired at 45 but that got boring quickly!! I needed to get back in the game but this time not for money but for passion and liking. My wife said that I have always enjoyed grilling and smoking meats!! Within a couple of weeks of her comment, I was on a plane to Texas to train with some of the best pitmasters in Texas at Hurtado BBQ in Arlington (he made the Texas Monthly top 10 in his second year). I found a location quickly in San Bernardino, it was affordable and most importantly I could have the kind of smokers I needed to produce phenomenal central Texas-style barbeque that would compare to what is served in Texas. We were successful from day one! The demand has only increased. Our food and impeccable customer service has people returning for more. True that we are not in the best city in the Inland Empire but people will travel anywhere or good food. Our place is filled daily with so much good energy and I am more passionate now than when I first started. I keep on experimenting with recipes and just having a great time. We already have a second location in the works and we should open in downtown Riverside in a few months!! 🙂

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I decided to open mid-pandemic in June 2021!! The challenges were shortages of meats and ingredients and also finding staff, and staff!! The second challenge was educating people on what central Texas-style barbeque is all about. In California, people don’t really know what a smoke ring is for example and they freak out when they see pink around brisket, spare ribs, pulled pork, or chicken. I have to explain to them that the food is not raw or undercooked but that the smoke ring is something we pitmasters are proud of!! Selling meats by weight has also been a challenge and selling prime meats in a low-income neighborhood has been a challenge as well. Now all that is behind us and people have come to embrace and appreciate our efforts both in the quality of the food as well as consistency. The biggest challenge overall that you probably should not print is that a Latino/Hispanic was selling BBQ in an area with a sizeable percentage of black Americans! I got daily pushback, was cursed, and even threatened. That only motivated me even more!! All that stopped after about six months when people saw that our parking lot just kept on getting more busy and busy!! 🙂 🙂 Now some of our most loyal and frequent supporters are black Americans and I never lost faith that goodness and good food would eventually prevail!!

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Spirit of Texas BBQ?
I told my employees the day before we opened that we were not going to sell food or barbeque. I emphasized that we were going to sell a complete experience that included good food in a clean environment with impeccable customer service where everyone despite social and financial standing would feel welcomed and appreciated. We stand by that philosophy and live by it every day. I am super strict with quality and standards. I am my worst critic and if it doesn’t pass my test, my customers either get a huge discount or get free food and in some cases, I would rather throw it away. We don’t disrespect our customers with substandard ANYTHING!! It’s either good for me as a foodie or I don’t sell it!! Period, end of story and I don’t care. I didn’t come out of retirement to make money, I came out of retirement because there are WAY too many restaurants not caring about their customers, and in that sense, I wish to inspire restauranteurs that great customer service with decent food is not impossible to achieve.

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
People can just spread the word!! Let others know that we exist and send them to our restaurant! I am in the process of creating some classes where I would love to teach what I have learned in the last two years. Not cooking/grilling/smoking classes, that’s too easy. I would love to start teaching potential restaurant owners or those that already own restaurants how to save money in many areas and how to bring in more revenue.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.spiritoftexasbbq.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spiritoftexasbbq/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100068855636534
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/spirit-of-texas-bbq-san-bernardino-3