"I want to blow their minds," is the crux of Joe Minoli's ethos when it comes to cooking authentic barbecue for diners and regulars of Flamin' Joe's BBQ. And this became - and this is in no way overstating it - an absolute obsession during lockdown for the dad-of-five from Blackwood.
From building a DIY smoker back in 2020 from an old filing cabinet at home to firing up weekly at his own, outdoor restaurant which opened in July 2021 to a queue of hundreds at their farmyard setting, Joe and his wife, Lauren have had a whirlwind couple of years... or should we say smoking years?
When you're told by someone that the best barbecue they've tasted is from a place found on what was once a cowshed-now-car-park at a farm in the valleys you sit up and pay attention. Visiting on a quiet July Thursday, the setting is about as authentic as you'll get short of a smoking pit buried underground. From the piles of wood for the smoker, to the rustic barns, animal paddock and fresh dairy milk shop, Flamin' Joe's position at Pencoed Fach Farm, just outside Blackwood, sets itself apart from the majority of other restaurants.
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With handmade wooden, covered booths, a room full of BBQs and smokers, plus recycled kit wherever they can, Joe's foray into barbecuing has been the making of him, according to Lauren, honing his ADHD traits into persevering to get the best techniques, seasonings and temperatures. He's stopped camping up at the restaurant to look after the meat and now has his smoking down to a fine art. You can order brisket from Carmarthenshire cattle or pulled pork, ribs or 'HillyBilly doughnuts, which are a serving of burger meat wrapped in cheese wrapped in bacon, smoked and then glazed.
They make their own sauces, bacon and the meat is smoked for hours on end to achieve the perfect, tender dinners, which customers from nearby and afar - Texas and Jersey diners - have given the BBQ-sauce slathered thumbs up to.
So how did this former tattoo studio owner and asset recovery manager end up cooking brisket and ribs for hours on end on a farm on the outskirts of Blackwood?
The 38-year-old explained: "I grew up in Blackwood and moved to Cardiff when I was 18, set up a couple of tattoo studios that came and went. And then I met Lauren nearly 12 years ago, and we moved back up here. She's from a legal background and then I sort of followed her lead, and went into enforcement and asset recovery and asset management and stuff.
"And then Covid happened which knocked it completely on its backside. I've always cooked, I grew up in an Italian household, my aunties and uncles had eateries, so I was familiar with that sort of thing and while we were in lockdown I was just bored so I decided to have a crack at this and it worked perfectly. I just had a knack for understanding the methodology and you know, the practice of taking a piece of meat seasoning correctly, and cooking it over fire indirectly, for multiple hours, boring hours," he laughed, not at all describing his successful accidental fall into BBQ conceitedly, just honestly, going onto explain later that his, and his kids' neurodiversity, make the business what it is.
The family feel of the restaurant is definitely elevated with the joy the kids feel from being there, and seven-year-old Lucio and five-year-old Elena helping out from wood sorting and chopping to becoming mini-butchery experts after helping their parents prep for barbecuing.
He talks a bit more about how his ADHD has both brought him to where his is now - his "hyper focus" as Lauren describes - from his determination to build a smoker from that '70s filing cabinet, to ordering three smokers in one week, adding that, when he was growing up the neurodiversity issues we nurture now, were just seen as "naughty", and mainstream schooling just did not work for him.
"It's a challenge [for me]," Joe said, admitting that, as a people person, he likes to take care of things and barbecuing gives him the discipline and focus he needed in his life. "And that's why I ordered three different grills because one cooked a different way. I thought 'Oh, what's the difference between them?' And you can't go anywhere and put your hands on one and learn because I've never done it before. So I went 'I'll buy them.' Put them on the credit card, got into an argument. But I built my first smoker out of an office filing cabinet. You know, the double doors, the steel cabinets. One of those big massive ones from the '70s. And then I made the firebox the bottom and I did loads of bits to it."
He continued: "People started trying it and liking it, so we decided to offer it out a bit, but because of lockdown, we couldn't take on a restaurant, because of restrictions it was too much of a risk. I wanted something remote, out of the way.... maybe try and get people to come and find me."
And they did, opening on July 4, 2021, they had a queue of 250 down the farmyard. "We were only expecting 50 or 60," Joe said. "We sold out and had a few angry people but we really didn't anticipate it being so busy. I'd been up for 28 hours too, at that point, I was delusional by the end and slept for two days."
Thankfully, the pair now have a system to care for their meat in readiness for opening hours and they prep barbecue for specific days, they still set alarms and come to check on the meat in the middle of the night, though and Lauren is honing her barbecuing skills too. She also makes the desserts at Flamin' Joes from her converted caravan which she hopes will eventually become a bakery truck.
Like many traditional barbecue joints in the US, Flamin' Joe's sits outside the town and that's just how Joe and Lauren like it. They were potentially going to be based in a venue in Ystrad Mynach but that fell through and this is exactly what they wanted. "The park there, [points to the car park] was the old cow shed and David (Davies, the farmer who owns Pencoed Fach Farm] was knocking it down, he's built a new cow shed as the dairy has kicked off. He's sending his milk to Blaenavon, so because it's Caerphilly [borough] milk it can be called real Caerphilly cheese."
It's a real little community up at the farm. As well as Joe and Lauren there's the dairy shop and florist, Buttercup, and before long the sunflower fields will be open for visitors and after that, the pumpkin patch. Community is very important to the couple and Lauren added why she thinks the restaurant has taken off.
"He's very much a people person, and he needs social interaction and, no disrespect, he likes to feel needed and he loves it if he can give something to someone else. It makes him feel good," she says of her husband. "And he likes being part of a community. He loves cooking for people."
The pair's plans next for Flamin' Joe's are to set up a barbecue school on site and Joe's going to start work on an Asado grill, a South American style of roasting large cuts of meat over an open fire. They are also part of a Community Interest Charity, the Campfire Society that runs alongside the business. They are also working with the National Botanical Garden of Wales in Carmarthenshire where they've got 30 acres of land where they're going to build a heritage orchard.
"We find it really hard with the kids," he explained, the couple have three other children - Tyler, 15, one-year-old Floria and three-year-old Giovanna, who is non-verbal. "I want to create an environment where our kids can thrive. Me and Lauren can thrive. And then we can invite people down, we want to do camping, invite families with other autistic children or neurodiverse children, or neurodiverse adults, because that's becoming more prevalent."
With so many future plans on the go and rave reviews from regulars, I ask Joe and Lauren why they think the business has been such a success. "Do you wanna know a secret?" Joe asked. "It's because she's here with me. If I was on my own, I'd be gone. She keeps me on task. I've 1000 ideas and she helps me navigate through the better ones. She'll say: 'that's a crap idea, maybe do this one.' Then I won't want to do that one because I want to do my idea!"
He's laughing, but goes on to say: "Lauren is the only woman in my life that will help me get the job done and that's why I love her so much. And that's why I want my kids to be involved as well, so they'll learn the value of hard work. If you want something that works and lasts you need to put everything into it. Because if you're half-arsed, it'll never survive."
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