Kicaster Country Store

All right, so you've probably driven by t I know I have, but did They also have a chef back there making some of the best food around. And did You don't have to wait 30 hours. We're going to go inside and see how they do it. Fast forward. Let's go. So we're here with Emily, one of the owners of the Kye Castor Country Store. So tell me about how t And I guess And just really felt And being a mom, I had always wished I could just run down the street and buy some tortillas or I don't have the sour cream. And it would be great if it was an actual little store. Not having So talk to me about when you decided to purchase t Have you had that as a background at all or were you just Yeah, we saw that t It is the entrance and exit to five neighborhoods. And knowing that on any given day, I could easily pass t Just taking the kids to school and back. That's four times. Anywhere else that's I could easily pass t So knowing that t So have you had t No, I have had no experience. Scott has worked in food all So he has a good background. Me, no, I had no idea were getting it to. But it's been fun, They come in every day really connecting with the community and catering to everybody's individual tastes. So we'll talk to Scott here in a little bit about the food because I know that's kind of When you see people that have come in from time to time and they talk about how they didn't know this place even existed, So we're a convenience store, but we call ourselves, We're We sell c We sell wine. We sell CBD products. We sell a lot of our honey. These bees live right here. These are your c So we have a lot of craft beers, a lot of craft beer selection, a lot of fine wines. Scott's very knowledgeable about wines. And then, And when can people find you here? We're open every day, Monday through Saturday, nine to nine. That's when the store is open. The grill has different hours. We're open daily for lunch from 11 to three. We're open for dinner only from 4. 30 to eight. So there is a break between lunch and dinner. We kind of reset the kitchen and everyt And what's one t We really work hard here to provide a experience for our guests. We put a lot, I say t When they come in here, we're But we're very passionate about what we do. I don't want to sound conceited, but when you taste the food and you come here, we want you to, every time you eat a jalapeno popper, for it to be the same burger. So there's consistency and there's also the quality. We really, really try to give our guests an experience, T It's a handcrafted burger and everyt I mean, we have the jalapeno popper, the bacon blue cheese burger, the buffalo ranch c And if you look at the menu, you'll see that jalapeno popper just has four ingredients in them. It's bacon, the pitle jalapenos, ranch cream cheese, bread and cheddar cheese. But that comes together and it's real, it's just It's amazing. The bacon blue is grilled onions, bacon and blue cheese on. And that's it. It's just a master at putting flavors together to create somet Alright, so we're here with Scott. So you are the co-owner, chef extraordinaire here at So tell me about your past. How did you kind of get into all t My past, I've always been in food since I was a little kid. I've always wanted to be in the food business, focused my education on the food business, both with a hotel restaurant management degree and then a culinary degree. Worked in every segment of the restaurant industry. Fine dining, casual dining, fast food, family dining, you name it. Spent a lot of time in grocery. So a lot of my experiences rolled up into the skill set that you need to operate a business Talk to me about the menu here. So that all came from you, the food part. We'll get to the beer and the wine here in a second, but the food part. So where did you come up with these ideas for all the different kind of unique burgers and even the tuna sandwich you have now? A lot of it, just interesting flavors that I happen to enjoy personally. So we have a jalapeno popper burger that's our n So the approach to that and the approach with a lot of the t So how do I take that flavor and make it in a burger? And not with just taking some jalapeno poppers and putting it on top of the burger. Breaking down the flavors and through a series of trying and failing, coming up with a perfect combination. So every burger that I design kind of goes through that process from an idea to a bunch of different times eating it for my lunch until I That's awesome. So the popper's a great example of that. Can I have your job? That's what you're going to do. I'll give you the hard part of I can keep the easy part. Yeah, okay. No, we'll talk about that. So everyt Well, there's a couple t Sure, but the bulk of it The burgers, handmade patties ground from local black Angus beef that we get two miles down the road. So it's extremely fresh. We control every bit of that supply chain. I pick the cows out. I drop them off to the processor, comes back in primal cuts and we utilize as much as we possibly can. And then from there we're grinding the beef, making the patties and we try to do that every other day. So it's extremely fresh. Unlike big commercial beef processors or the companies that S-Food have to use for huge vol And we're just awarded top five or top six burgers in the San Antonio area. Yeah, that's correct. Yeah, it's pretty sweet. Yeah, and then n French fries. So let's talk about that. What's the n Our n Well, with exception to the typical salted fry, that's always your n Just like our classic burger, lettuce, tomato, dill pickles, onions, that's always our n But when it comes to the cool and groovy stuff, the garlic parmesan fries are n And then probably a close second is going to be the poutine, w It's a French Canadian dish. That one wasn't much of a brainstorming t It's about a total animal utilization. So for that particular dish, we harvest all the bones from the animals we collect. We roast them until they're mahogany dark, and then we simmer them in water for about 13 hours to make a beef stock. We add fortified veggies, caramelized fortified veggies, a couple other ingredients, and simmer for another three hours. So each cow or bull that I buy yields me about 15 gallons of beef stock using all the bones. And then from that 15 gallons of beef stock, we reduce it by four fifths. So out of that comes about five gallons of beef glaze. That process extracts every single bit of gelatin from the animal. So it's a beef jello by the time it's a beef glaze. From there, we turn it into brown gravy and pour it over our hand cut fries along with w So poutine is a standard of identity. And we meet that standard of identity and it allows us to utilize our art as much of the material as we can. And on the poutine, that's not So you're here overnight watc That's correct. Yeah, about from the bone to the finished gravy. It's about a 36 hour process. The part that takes me the longest is staying the night and making the beef stock simmering for 13 hours. So of course, we're open for business quite a bit. So you have to do it on a night where we don't do dinner. And then it goes on the stove as soon as we shut down the kitchen for lunch. And it's rolling and comes off the next day right before they come into kitchen to set up for lunch. So that requires a lot of babysitting. When you walk in, you see all the craft beers that you have. And then you've got taps here. We've got great beers here. So where do you get the ideas for these and the wines also? But talk to me about your relations I'll start at the beginning. Most culinary training these days involves a lot of beer and a lot of wine training because as food is different in every region, every country, every nationality has their specialty dish. Same t Everybody has their beer that's from their region or their wine that's from their region. So it's been somet So a lot of our set is defined by what I t And for the craft beer selection, we make craft burgers. Everyt So the appropriate t We also have quite an educated palate out in t People t A lot of military folks who've traveled a lot. So I have a lot of good customers that we bounce ideas off and on each other to make sure that we come up with a good beer set that meets the customer's needs. So I can think of three gentlemen, particularly that we're constantly sharing back and forth on beer ideas when they find a good IPA that they I get a text with a picture of the bottle. And then we're the next t And then ultimately, if it'somet Yeah, because I mean, and you see the menus you guys have here, there's either a wine pairing or a good, Yeah, that's great. What's one t It's all about quality. There's a lot of different burger joints around there's a lot of places to get a beer. But I'm going to tell you that we're the A lot of San Antonio doesn't have the quality that we offer. So it's fresh. We know every ingredient. We don't use fillers. We use the real deal. So it's a very And the product shows you will taste the difference when you taste our burger. Yeah, you got to call Paul and people love it. Scott, appreciate your time. Of course. Thank you. Thank you. Man, Kai Casper Country Store. If you haven't been here, you're missing out. I'm already digging into t If you guys It really helps us out. And stay tuned. We got some really sick stuff coming your way.