I guess I wasn’t thinking about it as I was looking at my memories this morning. I know exactly when I launched my charcuterie “side job” I was there for god sake. I wasn’t focused on the date today. Most of the time I can’t tell you what the date is unless I’m scheduling something on my box order calendar. I saw an old post from four years ago in my Facebook memories, had a quick smile and then got a little emotional.

I don’t go into much detail of how I pulled this concept off of friend’s random IG story but that’s literally how I came up with the idea. It certainly wasn’t something I fabricated out of thin air. The emotions are hard to describe because during this time I was sitting in the bottom of a bottle of vodka.

At the very bottom.

I was sitting on my sofa on a Thursday night I can’t tell you why I remember the exact day of the week and not the calendar date maybe there was a TV show on that triggered that memory. Whatever was on the tube (guess that’s not accurate anymore) I wasn’t paying attention to it as per the norm I’m sure I had a rocks glass in my hand and my phone in the other. I was senselessly scrolling through some IG stories and stopped on one that caught my eye. A friend of mine who lived in Charlotte at the time posted a clear plastic box with some charcuterie displayed inside. I can still recall every item, shape, color and it’s place in this box because I studied it for about 15 minutes. Half drunk and thoroughly medicated, I stared at this box and its inventory.

At this time in my culinary career I had made a few last minute charcuterie boards for Southern for private parties and even had a meat and cheese board on the menu that I yanked off after two months of futility. It looked terrible and it shut the kitchen line down every time someone ordered one. It wasn’t in my wheel house and to be honest I hated the trend with a passion. I wasn’t very familiar with it and as I am with most things like that if it takes me out of my comfort zone it can go fuck itself and that’s what it did.

My departure from my old company was no secret. My dislike for how my hands were tied during Covid is also very obvious. We’ve talked this into the ground but haven’t really touched base on why this particular concept struck my fancy.

2020 I still wanted to own a restaurant/bar/dive. I had not reckoned with a few things in my life that were slowly killing my mental and physical health. I had my passion ripped away from me and it took a while to harness that energy into something a little more positive and a little less toxic.

I screenshot that IG story and in my head I said “let’s revisit it tomorrow and see what we think when we’re sober”

But

Before I left that chat I opened up my little Typorama app I used to create Hab and had some fun my vodka and photoshop. The name Chadcuterie was a no brainer. I had already branded “The Bearded Gang” months before because I saw my partnership nearing its expiration date so I combined that particular brand with the word charcuterie and in ten minutes we had Chadcuterie with the clipart beard and sunglasses. I photoshopped that on a board image I copied online and bam we had a new drunken concept.

Thanks Babe and Butcher in Charlotte for the solid inspiration. I wasn’t sold on it immediately mind you I still disliked charcuterie. Hell at this time I was pronouncing it “charcutree” and pile that on top of losing all of your self confidence the same calendar year it was daunting

I liked the idea of the concept but I didn’t think I had the passion to pull it off.

But

I kept it on my phone and stared at it every day while I was unemployed.

The next week I once again came across another friend’s IG story. She was in Oregon with her husband and had posted a story of a slice of Brie brûléed in a pizza box. It had a side of honey in plastic cup and a few slices of salami. The pic wasn’t that appealing but I liked the idea of taking something that can come across as high falootin and making it more approachable.

The name of the place was Cheese and Crack Snack Shop.

I give these two concepts the biggest shoutouts for my inspiration.

I started obsessively looking at charcuterie boards online. All the foldings, fruit origami and mise en place like I was studying for my final exam. I downloaded tiktok just to watch people make charcuterie boards. I went to World Market and bought two charcuterie boards to practice on. I had a good working relationship with Boars Head and reached out to them to order a small inventory of their charcuterie items. I couldn’t get a delivery to my house so I asked my old company to allow my orders to come into Habitap and I’d write them a check. They happily obliged.

Boars Head brought me what I ordered along with about $200 of free samples to check out. I would later use all of those samples in my boxes when I got slapped with a high volume day in the upcoming weeks. If I screwed the pooch on an order they would bring me what I needed to my old restaurant even if it was just one chub of salami. They still do it to this day. With a smile on their face. This is why I still sing the praises of Boars Head. While all my other purveyors turned their noses up at me when my purchasing dropped dramatically Boars Head has always been in my corner. And their product is amazing.

I’m loyal too a fault. That will never change.

I made my first solo charcuterie board for Friendsgiving at our house. It took me 3 hours to make a 16in round board. I thought it looked tight and made sure I placed that fucker right in the middle of our dining room table for all to eat and enjoy. That table would turn into a prep table the following week.

By this time I had shared my thoughts and ideas with Jess and as always she supported it. When I told her I wanted to launch this in a week she gave me a look that said “let’s take it slow” but she knows me and I don’t know how to do those things. She helped create my website and order guide that week and with a patient smile she got front row seats to my 1001 charcuterie ideas and thoughts.

I had to create a menu. I have no problem admitting that I didn’t know shit about charcuterie. I had salami and pepperoni in my terminology wheelhouse and about three cheeses one of them being American cheese. I literally googled charcuterie meats and matched them with Boar’s order guide. The rest I bought from my fav go to Restaurant Depot.

We bought a $300 slicer from Cabellas, vitamix and a printer. I bought some pizza boxes on Amazon. I spent an initial $300 on food inventory and added the free samples from Boars to get me going. Next up I bought a dorm fridge to keep my shit cold. I had an old prep table I took home with me from LTO and set up my “station”. Last but not least I ordered a rubber stamp with my likeness on it from Etsy and a $60 ink pad. I still have both of those at my deli. The stamp is broken in two pieces. The pad is beat to shit. These two items are very precious to me now.

I wrote a menu with 5 boxes on it

Happy Box

Ladies Night

Dude, Where’s my Box

Gangwer Grazer

And a fruit and cheese box.

I made exactly one of each and launched my charcuterie business.

I was in a hurry and I was broke.

I added delivery to get more availability for orders. I had originally 10 miles as my delivery radius. It dropped to 5 after the first day. I think we opened up box orders for December 6th and I made around 8 grazers. It took me 6 hours to make them and 4 of them were for delivery. All the way out to Greer. The first day was ugly. I did nothing for logistics other than order the inventory and hope for the best. The boards looked terrible. I was consistently behind on orders and I was stressing out my wife with my disorganization. Also when I first launched chadcuterie we were wrapping up the boxes in butcher paper and twine. So basically gift wrapping every order.

My first multiple order day were 6 happy boxes to be delivered to my old middle school. We had flubbed the order and I had to rush home last minute to make them. It wasn’t my best showing and they responded in kind. They were a little vicious about the box mix up and I had no choice but to refund their money. It was a little trigger moment for me and charcuterie came real close to closing down good that day. Two weeks after my launch. I take full blame for that moment but man im still a little bitter over how they responded.

I’d make boxes out of our house. I was making homemade flatbread crackers at the time. Our gas oven’s door was loose so we would push a chair under the handle to keep it closed to bake. Heavy inventory days I’d put all the perishables in my truck at night to stay cold. I didn’t have the money or room to buy another refrigerator. We’d hide the trash cans in the back yard when they were filled with empty clamshells of grapes and Costco boxes. My yard turned into mud from people pulling up to get boxes and having to turn around in the front of the house. Sometimes I’d have to direct traffic.

Christmas Eve was a big day. I don’t know how many we sold or what our sales were but it was little crazy. I had about 6 people helping us out. Some of us working in pajamas. We’d wrap up the boxes and had four quadrants of delivery areas that my friends helped deliver to. It was chaos but we held it together and it went as smooth as possible. The last stack of boxes my wife and I would split up and meet out for a stiff drink when we were done. On the crazier nights I’d have to come right back home and clean up. Imagine what your home kitchen might look like after slinging 40 charcuterie boxes. I’d take bags of trash to gas station dumpsters. I’d cross my fingers for a cold night so I wouldn’t have to throw my own personal groceries away to stuff work inventory in its place.

That month was one for the books. It was a tad rough. I had zero intention of doing charcuterie the following year. I still had restaurants on my mind.

I was a drunk then. I still had a ways to go to figure out my next million and a half steps.

I would later recieve an invitation to collaborate with my friends at Birds. It made my business much more accessible and gave me a legit kitchen to work out of. Even then it wasn’t meant to last I figured we’d play around with each other for a few months and every time I started thinking about another adventure I got a full week of orders in. And then more and more and next thing I knew people were asking me to do grazing tables and caterings. My brand grew as did my craft. I started getting regulars who reached out to me on a regular basis and well charcuterie was paying the bills and I wasn’t working 70 hours a week to make it.

I stayed at Birds until the end. Two years in that little kitchen they allowed me to do my own thing and I’ll always be grateful. It helped build my brand. The Meadery picked up right where they left off but by then I was getting worn down being in a mobile status. I had already made up my mind to become independent and the Meadery stayed extremely flexible with my needs. I’m very grateful for both of them. I wouldn’t have Graze without their support.

A lot has changed in these four years. The biggest being my lifestyle. We’ve talked about this before.

Jess has stood by the whole time, responding to emails, organizing my tendencies, social media, keeping me on a leash. When I say my business wouldn’t succeed without her it’s no exaggeration. I’ve wanted to quit a hundred times but she refuses. She’s just as much a part of this as I am.

Her face just won’t fit on the charcuterie stamp.

Extremely grateful for all we’ve had and accomplished. Not sure where we will be in the next four but man what a fucking ride so far .

Cheers