Travis Haney and Steven Eddy are driven to succeed with their new restaurant. If they keep up the quality, it seems they should prosper.

What makes Two Gringos BBQ — 409 7th St., in Hoquiam — special? Besides the smell of the smoked meat, which is enticing on its own, it’s their authenticity and their dedication to the craft.

“Everything we do, it’s all from scratch,” Haney said. “We do everything from the mac and cheese to the homemade birria empanadas to all of our brisket, nothing is bought pre-smoked, nothing is bought already cooked. Everything we do here, it’s all from us.”

Haney said opening a restaurant has been about seven or eight years in the making.

“It feels good to be here and it feels great to get everybody’s support,” Haney said. “It’s been really overwhelming and really awesome.”

Haney, who along with Eddy is a former butcher for Michael’s Meat Shack, gave a short, verbal tour of his favorite items on their extensive menu.

“The No. 1 thing so far has been the brisket mac burrito,” Haney said. “That is a large tortilla with cheese inside of it, chopped brisket, our homemade mac and cheese, homemade potato wedges, Pico de Gallo, barbecue sauce, it’s rolled up in a burrito, toasted and cut-in half. That was a last-minute menu idea, too, that I threw on like the day before we opened. That one by far has taken this place by storm.”

But, there’s more to Two Gringos than that.

“Between our brisket mac burrito, the pulled ribeye Philly (cheese steak), even the sides here, baked beans — the (Louise D’s) Charro beans — that’s a family recipe,” Haney said. “Smoked mac and cheese, grilled elote corn salad, those are some of our biggest hitters so far.”

Eddy detailed a few other items to fall for.

“I’m in love with the smoked birria empanadas,” Eddy said. “That’s a slow-smoked chuck roll, then with all the chiles and the consommé, it’s amazing. You won’t find them anywhere else. It’s usually birria tacos or birria quesadilla. For sides, I’d say the Charro beans, or even those buffalo chips. They’re amazing.”

In addition to a lengthy menu, the “butcher boys” also sell platters for parties. One of the platters is called the “El Chivo,” which consists of a half-rack of ribs, a half-pound of pulled pork, one smoked kielbasa ring, two eight-ounce sides, four cornbread and two drinks.

Haney said “pretty much everything in here is something that we created, it’s something that’s close to who we are as people.”

Doing what they love

“I always liked to cook,” Haney said. “I remember I first learned to make eggs in the microwave when I was like eight. When I was 15 I got a job at the bowling alley in Boise. I loved it. I loved the craziness of it, the organized chaos of the situation, how fast-paced it was, I just loved it. I got out of that and came into the butchering side of all that. But I always aimed to go right back into it. So on the side, for many years, I kept working on my craft as a cook or chef.”

Haney said their love of barbecue goes back decades.

As Eddy said, they were “grilling and chilling.”

“I’ve always been a big smoker, barbecuer guy. It’s one of my favorite things to do. There’s nothing better than, especially with my brisket, if you make that perfect brisket and you see someone eat it and you’re just (watching them savor it). That’s what you want. (You see them) fall in love with it … it’s a passion for sure. We put a lot of hours into our craft just to get where we are today. It’s been really awesome.”

How long is the cooking process?

“Brisket is a very long process, there’s a few different ways you can do it,” Eddy said. “You can do it low-and-slow, that way usually takes about 16 hours to smoke. I do mine at a little bit higher temperature. It takes about 10 hours, and then I do a resting phase in a warming drawer at 170 (degrees) for another 10 hours. It just helps lock in the juices and the tenderness. It is a process, like I said. And then the other things, they kind of vary in time.”

Eddy spoke about their homemade sauces, which includes their mop sauce.

“I use it for everything, honestly,” Eddy said. “I’ll put it on my ribs, brisket, when I’m eating it myself, or pork, it’s just really great stuff.”

Haney spoke about the house fry sauce, which is “good stuff too,” and then the house barbecue sauce. Eddy said Haney makes a “really great consomme” for the smoked birria empanadas.

“It’s amazing,” Eddy said. “I could drink it, just itself. It’s great.”

Support

Haney said “everybody” in Hoquiam has been “so supportive” of Two Gringos.

“We’ve had huge support from this town and everybody in it, they’ve been chomping at the bit to get in here every day,” Eddy said. “We were here painting and people were asking ‘are you open?’ And we’re like ‘Nope.’ They’re like ‘Hurry up, we’re hungry.’”

Eddy said the VFW in Hoquiam has been one of their “biggest supporters” and how they’re “awesome.”

Haney said Brittany and Anthony Case, from Brunch 101, have been really helpful.

“They have kind of helped mentor us in a lot of ways,” Haney said. “Being new to the area, it could be a competition, where maybe one business doesn’t like the other. But they’ve been here since day one helping us. … And giving us ideas and directions for how we should do things, (it’s helpful) since we haven’t run a restaurant before.”

Haney said Phil Booth, from Oak Burger in Oakville, has been really helpful as well and that he is a “good friend.”

The helpful advice they’ve received will spread.

“We can’t wait to pass it on to other new people, to take what we’ve learned and all of the advice, and pass it on to somebody else,” Haney said.

Outside opinion

Doug Cleverly and Mark Carriker, who had just eaten there Friday, spoke about how much they enjoyed their meals at Two Gringos.

“We had pulled pork sandwiches,” Cleverly said. “They had run out of about half their food, so it was a limited menu.”

Carriker said the food was “delish.”

“Everything was exceptionally good,” Carriker said.

Cleverly’s sales pitch is a simple one:

“It’s the best barbecue around Aberdeen and Hoquiam,” Cleverly said. “You have to go out of town to find anything as good.”

Carriker said “if you want barbecue, this definitely is the place to go.”

How is it like to work for them?

Lyle Witt, the additional gringo for the restaurant, works in back primarily as a dishwasher.

“It’s nice,” Witt said of working for Haney and Eddy. “It gives me good experience. They don’t overwork me either. I do everything they tell me to do.”

Witt, who’s 16, is “doing really well” according to Haney.

“This is his first job,” Haney said. “He’s cleaning up. He’s working the line and everything. We’re really happy to have him on.”

Going forward

The guys are just glad to make the restaurant a reality.

“Don’t be afraid to chase your dreams, because look we did it and we’re here,” Eddy said.

Two Gringos BBQ is open noon to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

Contact Reporter Matthew N. Wells at matthew.wells@thedailyworld.com.

Matthew N. Wells / The Daily World The interior at Two Gringos BBQ and Grill shows a bit of the personality for co-owners Travis Haney and Steven Eddy. They share a great respect for the “great late Anthony Bourdain,” the popular chef who wrote and starred in his own series. Eddy loves the quote on the photo of Bourdain: “Barbeque may not be the road to world peace, but it’s a start.”