SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES with Chef Brent Cormier - Episode 1

I’ve been posting about my smart friends on Facebook. There are many, and they have too many lessons to impart for me not to share a few.

Today we look towards my good friend, Brent Cormier.

Brent just got his final inspection completed on his new food truck and will soon be feeding hungry Austinites, and serving his masterful cuisine to the masses!

I met Brent some years ago. I was looking for some guitars to raffle off on the successful Kickstarter campaign for licensing rights for the award winning blues documentary, Sidemen -  Sidemen - Long Road To Glory, and providence placed me at Brent’s door. At the time, Mr. Cormier was a working partner with Custom Build Guitars out of Austin, Texas.

Brent most generously gave myself and Breck Philip a large pile of gorgeous guitars to use for our philanthropic uses, and these guitars have contributed not just to the Sidemen film, but also to such worthy causes as the Breast Cancer Research Stamp (Blues for the Stamp), Draw Bridges (an award winning Bay area arts charity for children), and Guitars4Vets. He’s that kind of guy, and we’ve been friends ever since. 

He also is also an amazingly soulful baritone, the man can sing, too!

Now, it’s CAJUN TO GEAUX!!!! 

Life By The Bite, LLC

Brent is now opening up a food truck in Austin, Texas (Life By The Bite, LLC) at an age that almost assures his success. That means his extensive food service history tells him exactly what works, what doesn’t, and what is winning in one of the largest food cultures in America.

This is one of the benefits of hanging out your own shingle in your 50s or even beyond. You can’t be bullshitted and you can’t bullshit yourself. You deserve to be your own boss, you’ve learned a lot of lessons, right?

When Brent decided to do this, he had the ingenious idea of documenting it on his Facebook page.

What entailed was a masterclass on starting your own business, and being your own boss.

From finding and buying his truck, finding a place for it to live(!), building it out, all the way to getting his city inspection, Brent broke it all down without maybe even trying.

The true genius of what Brent did was to literally create an accountability mechanism, and some near performance art as he kept himself and his project on track. It has been masterful in all ways, and it’s actually been my favorite documentary of the year.

Brent’s Facebook pages are public, so you might saunter over a have a peak, you , like me, might just learn something interesting or inspiring.

Big things are happening with American men who are making sure that they “Never let the third act be boring!”

I’m going to be featuring a few every week to keep with the idea that you can do great things with all your accumulated knowledge, experience, and wisdom! 

A partial glimpse of our truck menu:

Cormier's Starters

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

We are proud to serve a traditional, Abbeville-style Cajun gumbo from our kitchen. Prepared with a rich dark roux stock, Cajun trinity, and deep flavors of all natural chicken and our signature fresh pork and green onion sausage. Served piping hot with white rice and French bread. Gumbo is traditionally served with potato salad on the side. Add potato salad for $1.00

Shrimp, Oyster and Okra Gumbo

Sweet caramelized okra and a dark roux are combined with the essence of Cajun trinity, fresh shrimp and Gulf oysters to form a rich and delicious, full-bodied soup. Served piping hot with white rice and French bread. Gumbo is traditionally served with potato salad on the side. Add potato salad for $1.00

Shrimp Ozia 

Peel and eat, large Gulf shrimp steeped in a blend of butter, herbs and seafood stock. Served with sliced French bread for dipping up the delicious broth.

Boiled Crawfish (Market Price - When Available)

Fresh-caught wild and/or farm-raised whole crawfish boiled and steeped in traditional herbs and hot Cajun spices. Served with boiled potatoes, corn on the cob and dipping sauces. 

Cajun Nacho Chips $7.95

Our fresh-cut Russet chips topped with fried crawfish, herbs, cheese, etouffee sauce, and creamy Sriracha sauce. 

Authentic New Orleans-Style PoBoys

All PoBoys are proudly dressed on Leidenheimer’s Original French Bread with Blue Plate mayonnaise, shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes and dill pickles. PoBoys are served with crispy, fresh-fried potato chips. 

Gulf Shrimp (Fried or Bronzed)
Fried Gulf Oyster
All Natural Chicken (Fried or Bronzed)
Hot Roast Beef
Fresh Pork Sausage, Peppers and Onions
Italian Ham, Cheese & Olive (Cold or Pressed)
Fresh Farm-Raised Catfish (Fried or Bronzed) 

Abbeville Style (Top any PoBoy with Etouffee for an additional $1.00)

Dinner Baskets

All Dinner Baskets are served with your choice of 2 fresh-prepared side items, sliced French bread and condiments.

Farm Raised Catfish (Fried or Bronzed)
Chicken Fried Chicken (Bronzed on request) (Served with chef's pan gravy)
Gulf Shrimp (Fried or Bronzed)
Fried Gulf Oyster
Combo ½ & ½ Any 2 Baskets, Any Style 

Chef Cormier’s Favorites 

Crawfish and/or Shrimp Etouffee
Louisiana crawfish and sweet Gulf shrimp stewed in a traditional Cajun trinity and rich, roux-based sauce. Served with steamed white rice and your choice of 2 side dishes and French bread slices. 

Crawfish or Gulf Shrimp Pasta Alfredo
Fresh crawfish tails or Gulf shrimp lightly pan-seared and tossed in herbs and a lush heavy cream and fresh-grated Parmesan Reggiano sauce. Served with house salad and sliced French bread.

Catfish Ozia
Chef prepares a fresh filet of fish in a pan with our signature bronzing spices and tops it with a generous portion of shrimp and crawfish etouffee sauce and fresh herbs. Served with your choice of 2 fresh-prepared side items and sliced French bread. 

Steak Oris
Oris Cormier loved Hamburger Steaks. Our steak pays homage to his love for the dish. We start with 8 ounces of the very best local ground beef - Svente’s Grass Fed All Natural Beef - and bring the beef to a moist and flavorful medium-well temp on the griddle. Topped with sauteed Texas sweet onions and pan gravy, Steak Oris is served with your choice of 2 fresh-prepared side dishes and sliced French bread. 

Svente’s Old-Fashioned Texas Beef Burger

(Located locally in Elgin, Texas, Svente’s Ranch-Direct Beef is Texas’ oldest continuous working cattle ranch, specializing in grass-fed, all-natural premium beef. Voted BEST FOOD TRUCK HAMBURGER IN AUSTIN IN 2015, The Swenson family has generously offered Life By The Bite exclusive local use of their premium ground beef for our burgers. We are proud to offer this fine beef product to our clients.)

All burgers are served on a premium burger bun with lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, Blue Plate mayonnaise and ground mustard. All burgers come with fresh-cut and fried potato chips.

Hamburger
Cheeseburger 

Fresh-Prepared Organic Salads
Vegan & Vegetarian Specialties
Gluten-Free Bread & More
Fresh Fruit Crepe Desserts

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Well done, Chef Cormier!

As a sixty year old man who is in the process of starting a brand new business, it’s been inspirational, educational, and damned entertaining to watch, my friend!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, we are grateful!

That Time Glenn Hughes joined Black Sabbath

Tony Iommi and Glenn Hughes were collaborating on Iommi’s first solo record in the summer of 1985, but both Warner Brothers Records and Iommi’s manager Don Arden (yes, Sharon Osbourne’s dad, the original music management OG) insisted upon it being marketed as a Black Sabbath album and that they tour to support it.

This was the second time that Iommi had raided the Deep Purple gene pool, after of course, singer Ian Gillan’s joining the Sabs for 1983’s legendary half brilliant/half cock-up, Born Again. I believe this speaks to Iommi’s respect for another Django influenced shredder, Mr. Ritchie Blackmore. 

Blackmore is the only rockstar who ever asked that I be removed from his dressing room, but that’s another story for another day.

Neither Iommi nor Glenn wanted to follow this corporate and commercial path, yet the advance was seven figures, and once again, it had to be called Black Sabbath.

Glenn was in the throes of a catastrophic cocaine addiction, and was probably 40 pounds over weight. (note: Glenn’s condition today is a testament to what a person can do to turn their life around immeasurably)

As for the album, Seventh Star is a nearly unknown hard rock classic, just brilliant, but it had as much to do with Glenn’s work as Black Sabbath, and Glenn has never really been a metal guy. I think it confused their fanbase, and it may have all somehow worked out better if it had been marketed more organically, and with less marketing manipulation. This was never going to be a serviceable Black Sabbath, it’s really their own thing, which is incredibly unique, some material that largely got missed, but shouldn’t be missed.

"I was into the 'Tony Iommi Project', but I wasn't into joining up as Black Sabbath," Hughes told me, “The idea of being in Black Sabbath didn't appeal to me at all. Glenn Hughes singing in Black Sabbath is like James Brown with Metallica, it ain’t gonna work."

The tour? Glenn was not at his best and just before the tour began the band’s tour manager knocked Glenn out in a bar fight (wtf?), breaking the singer’s orbital bone, and subsequently after a handful of substandard shows Hughes was replaced by management.

This was all related to me by Glenn in our very first conversation back in 2010. That was a curious first interview. I was drunk as a lord, due to a scheduling mistake on my part, and Glenn was either unaware or being very kind about my obvious (to me at least) condition. Still, we had a fantastic chat, and Glenn kept insisting we knew one another. We didn’t, but this led to many subsequent talks, and Glenn was a huge factor in my getting sober, all by being kind and patiently showing me a better path.

My other personal connection to this moment in rock history is a bit more off the beaten path, but it relates what to me is a great rock memory

(never stay an outsider, get to know people!).

In the summer of 1985, I was working at the Guitar Center in Hollywood. I think at the time I was running the accessories counter, an initiation to management at GC.

I was selling this incredibly hirsute dude a fresh set of Rotosound bass strings. Every day for a week.

We were getting chummy, and finally I asked him what he was working on, as nobody buys a set of $25 (at the time) bass strings every day.

He introduced himself, saying, “I’m Dave Spitz, my friends call me “The Beast.”

I said, wait, aren’t you that guy in Anthrax’s brother (Dan Spitz)? 

He said yes. I knew him from White Lion, too (I read Kerrang from cover to cover like religion at the time).

Then he looked at me like he was the Maharishi slipping me the keys to the universe.

He said, “Man, Tony, you wouldn’t believe it if I told you.

I said, “Try me.”

He says, “I’m making a record with Tony Iommi, it’s his first solo album.”

Then he leans closer.

He said, “That ain’t the half of it, but you have to promise me you won’t talk about it, it’s hush-hush.

“Glenn Hughes is doing all the singing, and it sounds in-fucking-credible.”

It turns out he was right, it did sound in-fucking-credible, and as I sit here listening to it this morning, all I can think is, damn, record companies and cocaine sure queered a lot of great things in those halcyon times of hard rock glory.

Obviously, Glenn and Tony are back to being friends, and they’ve subsequently made a couple of excellent records together (and I really hope they may work together again in the future).

On the way out the door I’d like to tip my hat to Ripple Music head chef and bottle washer, Todd Severin. Ripple Music is to my ears the finest heavy music record label on the planet, right next to Nuclear Blast, yes aunt Grizelda, there are great record labels.

If you don’t know Ripple Music, it should be homebase for any Iommi fan, I kid you not. Check it out

https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/