How an FGCU class sparked a BBQ business breakthrough
- Rick Weber
- Alumni
- Contributors: James Greco, Photos
6 – minute read
How did a Florida guy become a highly acclaimed expert at the exquisite and demanding art of Texas barbecue?
Exhaustive research — including the most appealing kind: eating. Unbridled passion for cooking and making customers’ mouths salivate in anticipation of the first forkful. And a Florida Gulf Coast University professor who saw a prodigy and ultimately became his inspiring mentor.
It has all come together beautifully for Tyler Goguen. This year, USA TODAY Network Florida food writers named his food truck — Beau’s BBQ (named after his bluetick hound) — one of the five best in the state.
“I was really honored,” says Goguen, a 2021 FGCU graduate with a bachelor of science in entrepreneurship.
“We’ve grown steadily every year. We don’t go out to the public as often as we used to because there are only a couple of breweries that host food trucks now, compared with about six when I started. But our catering and event business has grown about four to five times since I started the business in college.
“We’re doing multiple caterings most weeks — sometimes four in one week. Last year, we also got into wedding catering, and we’re now on the preferred vendor lists at a couple of wedding venues. We’re growing as steadily as a one-man band can.”
Exploring the taste of Texas
Goguen’s first barbecue job was at Reuben’s Smokehouse, a once-acclaimed now-defunct Fort Myers restaurant that featured Southern cooking with a mix of Memphis and Kansas City barbecue styles. When he started catering on his own, he researched barbecue to figure out which style he found most appealing. Austin, Texas, barbecue pitmaster Aaron Franklin — of Frankin Barbecue fame — hosted an instructional series on YouTube that exploded into mainstream pop culture in 2015 when it was expanded into a national PBS broadcast series, “BBQ With Franklin.” And Goguen was hooked.
“I really liked how he presented the meat and how detailed — almost scientific — he was about every part of the process,” Goguen says. “I’m very detail-oriented with our barbecue, so that approach clicked with me. His show and videos, his MasterClass later on, and all the pitmasters and barbecue creators who came after him on YouTube, helped me develop the style of barbecue we do here in Florida.”
But the food truck might never have happened if he hadn’t changed his major from business management to entrepreneurship for the second semester of his sophomore year in spring 2019. In the Introduction to Entrepreneurship course, he had the serendipitous opportunity to study under the guidance of Paul Evans of the Daveler & Kauanui School of Entrepreneurship. The course’s final project called for students to create a business plan.
“I asked him, ‘In a perfect world, what would you want to do?’ ” Evans says. “He answered, ‘Barbecue.’ So I said, ‘Let’s cook barbecue.’”
Goguen started catering, but the learning curve was steep.
“He realized that he was losing money every time he sold a plate because he was giving too much food away,” Evans says. “I told him, above all else, that he needed to know his numbers and left him after class one day in one of the labs. I got to school the next day and he was there. I never saw him there so early and asked why he was in. He told me he never left. That night, he figured out his costs, margins, etc., and turned his hobby into a business. I knew this kid was ready to commit to this.”
Mastering the ‘Texas Trinity’
The learning never stops. Goguen regularly visits Texas to refine his cooking and expand his menu offerings beyond the “Texas Trinity” of brisket, ribs and sausage — the three staples of Texas barbecue and the foundation of the style.
“We try different barbecue spots, get inspiration and talk with pitmasters,” he says. “My favorite is InterStellar BBQ in Austin. I get a lot of inspiration from places like them and Leroy and Lewis Barbecue (in Austin), which is doing that newer, craft-style Texas barbecue.
“The Texas Trinity is set in stone, but outside of those standards, everything is fair game. That’s where you can get creative with things like lamb chops, pork belly, short ribs and other unexpected menu items.”
How authentic is Beau’s? One customer posted on his Facebook page, “Fantastic from start to finish! As a girl from Texas, I’m REAL picky when it comes to BBQ, let alone brisket. Tyler and his team knocked it out of the park. It was like having a taste of home!”
Exploring a permanent location
While Goguen’s menu, acclaim and customer base expand, so do his dreams. He’s planning a brick-and-mortar restaurant and exploring locations.
“He’s just a guy that’ll get it done,” Evans says, “and he’s shown it time and time again. He makes smart choices and has his priorities in a row. Because of the relationship we built as Beau’s was being developed, I became a sounding board for him. We still have those sessions to this day.
“But the credit goes to him, his wife Natalia for supporting him and his family for the support, resources and encouragement they gave him, and the values and work ethic they instilled in him. I’m here for added help whenever he needs it.”
To find out where Beau’s goes, follow beausbbqfl on Instagram.