We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Scott Moore a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Scott, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Talk to us about building your team? What was it like? What were some of the key challenges and what was your process like?

We opened the doors to the restaurant in 2015 with the owners, Michelle, Greg, and myself along with 2 employees which were friends of the family. Building a qualified staff has been our biggest challenge thus far and it remains so today although it is getting easier with the maturity & popularity of our business. We posted ads on job sites, put help wanted signs in the window, posted listings with the Texas Workforce Commission, posted on social media sites, and told anyone we could that we were hiring. Us three owners put in a lot of sweat equity in the beginning. On the job listing sites we get a lot of applications where it is apparent the applicant is simply trying to extend their unemployment benefits by showing they are applying for work. We’d get engineers & professionals apply for a line cook opening, so there was and still is a lot of sifting through applications. We interview applicants and try to asses their work ethic, availability, and overall fit with our team. I place a lot of emphasis on retaining the staff we do have with above market changes and enjoyable work environment. We encourage our staff to be great and go out of our way to acknowledge their hard work. A simple thank you goes a long way. Hiring the right staff requires patience and persistence. Our team is our greatest asset and we try to treat it as such.

Scott, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The path to becoming a restaurant owner was a unique one. I was in the rail industry for 25+ years with the last 8 being in business for myself. I took up making chocolate from the cocoa bean as a hobby. In 2010 I discovered American Craft chocolate and became obsessed with the bean to bar chocolate making process as a consumer and a hobbyist, My niche market in the rail industry was coming undone, so I was facing a decision with my career path. I could stay in rail working for another company, but once you’ve owner your own business for awhile you become almost unemployable. While the chocolate hobby had already turned into the brand we created Tejas Chocolate, there wasn’t enough income on its own to pay the bills. I was looking for ways to add to the revenue. Our Tomball market area had several barbecue joints but none that were doing “craft” barbecue like what was happening around the state. I took my own backyard barbecue skills and combined that with my wife’s gourmet shop experience, and my brother’s chef background to launch a barbecue restaurant to support our chocolate making business. We got so good at the barbecue that we made the Top 50 lists on Texas Monthly & Southern Living Magazine. Making these acclaimed lists was incredible honor to receive. Now we call ourselves Tejas Chocolate + Barbecue, and I like to tell people today that we sell barbecue to pay for our chocolate making habit.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I met Michelle Holland in Destin, FL in 2005. I was on a golf trip with friends, and she was on a girls trip with friends from Panama City, FL. I found Michelle on the floor in a bar, picked up and put her on a bar stool, asked her if she was okay, and if she needed a drink. Michells said “I’ll have a shot of tequila” and that was the moment I knew I had met my girl. Now Michelle will tell you that she “accidentally” fell off her bar stool when she saw me waking by. Don’t believe her, she embellishes the truth all the time. We connected on many things, but mostly our mutual love for all things food. Michelle came to work for my rail supply company, and then we cofounded Tejas Chocolate.

Have you ever had to pivot?

As I mentioned, I had to address a failing rail supply business by going to work for someone else again, or take a shot at this chocolate making/barbecue restaurant thing. In 2020 when Texas closed restaurants in an effort to stop the spread of Covid we had to immediately pivot from a mostly dine in restaurant experience to a 100% takeout business. The stress in doing so was almost overwhelming. It took a toll, but we kept punching. We got so good at the curbside takeout model that when the dining room opened back up we now had a second revenue stream for barbecue. Curbside takeout had opened us up to customers that had always wanted to try our barbecue, but didn’t want to deal with waiting in a long line. We literally created something out of a challenging time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tejaschocolate.com
• Instagram: @tejaschocolate
• Facebook: Tejas Chocolate & Barbecue
• Twitter: @tejaschocolate
• Yelp: Tejas Chocolate

Image Credits
The close up portrait was by Joe McGreggor on IG @ministersofsmoke The others were taken with my iPhone.