We recently connected with Yvette Helberg and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Yvette thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” 1 Peter 4:10

When my husband, Phillip, and I were working on getting our business up and running, we looked back on what got us to this point. Looking back, this originated during my husband was in recovery from addiction. During this time, he sought his higher power, which he eventually came to know as Jesus Christ. Upon traveling to Israel together in 2016, we were both baptized in the Jordan River, a sort of born again experience. From this time, we both found a new sense of purpose but did not know what that meant or what direction it would take us. What started as a decade-long passion for cooking on his own turned into cooking cuts of beef and pork for our neighbors. Eventually in 2018, we moved to Central Texas with the hopes of opening up a restaurant.
We both love showing hospitality – Phillip being from the South where hospitality is second nature, and myself coming from a Filipino-American home, in which the Filipino culture’s foundation is showing hospitality to others.
We wanted to use our gifts to serve people and tell a story. We dreamed of opening our own place to do just that. I knew I wanted a Bible verse to be our mission statement, but had not come across the right one. One Saturday, I came across this verse, 1 Peter 4:10. It felt right. We slept on the verse and woke up the next morning to go to church, to then having our pastor speak on that passage. It was God telling us what we felt the night before. God gifted us with this ability to cook and serve food, so we wanted to use that as our platform to connect with others and share about the love of God and how he changed our life then and continues to to this day.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Yvette Helberg. I am originally from Central California but now reside in the greater Waco, Texas area. My husband Phillip and I own Helberg Barbecue, which we started in 2018 as a food truck. I got into this industry because of my husband and his love for cooking. I graduated in 2015 from Biola University with a Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations. I ended up in the food/hospitality industry and wouldn’t change it. At our restaurant, we specialize in Central Texas Style Barbecue, with some fun twists we will sometimes incorporate. We are slowly starting to introduce my Filipino background through our food to our community, which has been so fun to share. Our meats consist of Beef Brisket, Pork Spare Ribs, Pesto-Stuffed Turkey Breast, Smoked then Flash-Fried Half Chicken, Pork Steak, and a couple different types of House made Sausages. The location of our business is situated between a few smaller towns that don’t have a lot of variety of food, so we are able to help fill a need in that area. What we believe sets us a part is our attention to quality of our food, but also how we engage and try our best to be a part of our communities around us. We know how big of a role they play in our success, so we try and to our part to give back as often as we can. We are a husband and wife owned business and remain very open about our faith in Jesus Christ and struggles as a business to offer transparency with our community.
We opened our food truck in April of 2018 and opened our brick and mortar in May of 2019. We have been recognized by Texas Monthly as a Top 50 BBQ Joint in the state of Texas during their 2021 list. That is one of the biggest honors to receive in Texas BBQ. We are a small road-side barbecue joint in the middle of Central Texas making a way among some names we’ve looked up to for years and continue to look up to.
In November of 2023, we suffered a devastating fire and have been trying to rebuild back since then. We currently, as of February 2024, are operating as a drive thru/curbside establishment until we are able to build a new restaurant. It has been a wild few months, but we believe we will come back stronger than ever. Both our barbecue community in Texas and local communities are unlike anything else.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Our restaurant had a devastating fire in November of 2023. We are still building back as we speak. We are operating as a drive thru and curbside restaurant until we can build a new place. This experience has taught us a lot about our faith, our strength, our community, and other important things like insurance and taking care of our employees. This story is continuing to unfold, so I would love to update this as we look ahead and keep moving forward!

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Traction by Gino Wickman How to be a Great Boss by Gino Wickman
5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
Endurance by Alfred Lansing
Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

Contact Info:

• Website: www.helbergbarbecue.com
• Instagram: @helbergbarbecue
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/helbergranch
• Other: www.helbergbbqwholesale.com