RIP Grandpa. Today, My dear grandfather, one of my idols and inspirations passed away at 96.  He is joining the tens of millions of Bleacher Bums in the sky that never did get a chance to see that pennant.  I guess watching them blow 2 of their 3 three to the Pirates made him realize that this wasn’t going to be the year, either.  RIP Grandpa.  Find a TV with the Bulls on!

Here’s a story a wrote about Grandpa waiting for a Cubs Pennant in 2009.

I thought I knew the best Austin restaurants for handmade gourmet burgers, but today I learned a little secret. Your Mom’s Burger Bar blew me away! A friend told me about this tiny little shack at 1701 East Cesar Chavez, Suite B, so I decided to give it a try.

Finding it isn’t easy. In fact, there seems to be another business located at that address. But Your Mom’s is tucked in the back, just off of Cesar Chavez and Chalmers in East Austin (I guess that’s what they mean by “Suite B!”).

The burgers are massive, 1/2 lb. and hand formed. But the secret is… Your Mom’s “Stuffs” many of the ingredients inside the burger, so the flavors cook throughout and explode over your taste buds.

A look at Yelp tells me I’m not the first to find out about this place. They have over 170 reviews and are averaging well over 4 stars. They also were a part of 104.9 The Horn Radio’s Burger Bracket competition and faired pretty well. Put this on my favs list for one of Austin’s Best Burgers.

What’s your favorite Austin Burger?

Blackhawks Win!!! Hawks Win!!! I made this Chelsea Dagger MP3 ringtone for my phone and you can download if for free!

Forward this to all your Blackhawk friends! Celebrate Chicago’s Stanley Cup and annoy all those Flyer and Canuck fans!

Download audio file (BlackHawks_Goal_Horn.mp3)

Download Blackhawks Win Ringtone Here! (right click and save)

You know how I love to share my experiences at great Austin businesses.  Well I have to tell you about a new restaurant that I’m very excited about:  It’s called Newk’s Express Cafe and it’s located in the Arboretum Market shopping center on the NW corner of Jolleyville and Great Hills Trail.

You can read all about my experience on Yelp! But better yet, why don’t you join me tomorrow, June 5 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM for their Grand Opening.  Newk’s has agreed to let me offer you a special treat for coming! (Make sure you print this out and bring it with you).

See you there!

Steve

Tired of stale business practices.  Want to bring innovative, creativity and new ideas to your office, but don’t know how.  Join me today at 12:00 CST .  I’m excited to be the guest on the WCR Live (Women’s Council of Realtors) BlogTalkRadio program.  I’ll teach you some strategies to zap some innovation and creativity into your day!  Look forward to having you listen in.  Here’s the link to listen: http://tobtr.com/s/1050971

Update!

Wow!  What a show! We really dug deep into exploring how to bring innovation into the workplace.  There were so many great examples, that I ended up promising a free digital copy of my book Big Bad Home Sale to all of the listeners.

You can get your free copy of Big Bad Home Sale too, by listening to the the show archive at http://bit.ly/9aMKcP.

I am a champion of entrepreneur success, and I love to celebrate business owners who get it right. That’s why I use Foursquare so much and often write about my favorite restaurants on my blog.

Spicy Parrott, in Lakeway, TX is the type of place that I love to tell the world about.

You can read all about our outstanding dinner on Yelp! But here is where I share best of class practices that I experience from business owners that set them apart from the competition.

We found Spicy Parrott the way we find a lot of new places, using Restaurant.com. There is no way we would have known about it otherwise.  It’s not real close, and it’s hard to see from the road.

When we pulled up, we immediately knew we found a unique place with friendly service.  We were welcomed by the owner, Garrett, who was casually relaxing, enjoying a smoke on the Jimmy Buffett inspired Adirondack chairs in front of the restaurant.  You could tell from his demeanor that he was proud of his joint.  A slight smirk of confidence suggested he knew that we would find what we came for and make the journey worth while!

And we were not disappointed… The food was very good, by the service, attention and atmosphere made it taste even better. Our server, Sonya was excellent and made us feel that we were her only table.

But then Garrett came by to see us.   In fact, he paid a visit to every table.  He thanked us for coming, and took great interest in our experience.

As you know, I couldn’t let the opportunity slip by to ask him some quick questions about his business.

“Tell me about Restaurant.com,” I asked.  “Does it work for you?”

“It’s expensive… and worth it,” he replied.  “In fact, I’m thinking about improving my offer next month.”

Garrett knows that his place is not easy to find, physically or virtually.  He is tucked in the corner of strip center, not easily seen from the road, and off the beaten path for a lot of people.   His website needs a lot of work and is not SEO friendly at all.

But, he made the wise choice to invest in an “Influencer” that could get the word out to a ton of traffic.   Instead of competing with thousands of restaurants on the web, he is prominently featured alongside a few dozen high quality establishments on one of the highest traffic sites for his target audience, Restaurant.com.

And then, most importantly,  Garrett backs it up by offering a creative menu, fun place and excellent service. The result: rave reviews on Yelp! and Urbanspoon (which feeds Google).

This is Guerilla Marketing at it’s finest! Great job to Garrett and the Spicy Parrott crew.

Now I have to check out their breakfast… I hear that’s what they’re known for!

Well, despite Michell Obama’s concern for fighting obesity, the President ate at Mrs. Wilkes yesterday while visiting Savannah, Ga.

I can’t blame the guy.  In fact this might be the first thing we agree on.  Mrs. Wilkes is something special, and should be visited by everybody at least once in their life.

The problem is, it is definitely not the place to go if you’re watching it.  Heck, I went there in 1993, and take a look at how I look now!

“I don’t want any lectures about my cholesterol,” said the President as he piled on the fried chicken, smoked meats, beans and ambrosia.   “Don’t tell Michelle!”

Don’t worry, Barack.  Your secret’s safe with me!

It was great to see Mrs. Wilkes in the news.  I used to live in Savannah, and it was the first place we ate at when we moved there.  In fact, I had thought it closed down when the original Mrs. Wilkes passed away.

Michelle, give the guy a break… you can’t expect him to go to Savannah and pass up a legendary eatery like Mrs. Wilkes.  The good news is he’ll soon have a health care program to sand blast his arteries!

See the Video at Bobalu's

Jeff from Bobalu’s leads the life I dream of!  He just spent the past couple of weeks selling cigars down at Daytona Bike Week.

Babes, Bikes and Bobalu’s! (Jeff’s site is going to be the highest traffic site of all my clients!)

Fortunately, Jeff is doing a great job using sales automation software to convert those wet t-shirt contest video leads into clients.

You have to check out the videos Jeff took down at Bike Week (WARNING: wait until the kids go to bed!).

Btw… while you’re there make sure to get on Jeff’s newsletter. You’re going to want to see the updates!

Sherri and I snuck out of town and had a romantic getaway at the Bernhardt Winery in Plantersville, TX.  We also made the trip into Old Town Spring, TX and listened to awesome music from Davin James and Richard Leigh at Puffabelly’s.  (See my Yelp Review!)

What a great night!

The Bernhardt Winery is one of the best kept secrets.  If you are anywhere near Austin, Houston, East Texas, etc. you need to check it out.  Jerri, Jerry, and Barre Bernhardt are very gracious hosts.  The place is beautiful! Beautiful rolling hills.  The Loft, the guest room where we stayed, is so comfortable, warm and cozy.  And the wine is absolutely delicious!

They also have fantastic events, great music and a lot of fun.  I put up a video of us feeling good, tasting wine, and a couple of pictures on my facebook page.  Make sure to check out Davin, Richard and Puffabelly’s too!

Thank you Jerri, Jerry, Barre, Davin, Richard, Shannon and Seth for a great evening!

Rudy's BBQ

Rudy’s Gets It! Great Food, Great Service and Social Media

Rudy’s Country Store and Texas Bar-B-Q is legendary in these parts. They do an unbelievable business. People line up out the door at all of their locations for breakfast, lunch and dinner. (Yes, breakfast… they have the my absolute favorite breakfast taco’s!, and they sell them by the bushel load!).

Why is it that other restaurants and businesses struggle so much, while every Rudy’s is busting at the seams?

I can only speak for myself, but what I’ll tell you is very simple:

Rudy’s Gets It!!!

The food is very good (but there are lot’s of excellent BBQ places here). But Rudy’s sets themselves apart with outstanding customer service. Those lines move quickly. There is a manager greeting people and making sure they are happy.

And now I’ve come to find that Rudy’s uses Social Media to take that customer experience to a new level.

A couple of days ago, I stopped into Rudy’s for a breakfast taco and to do some quick computer work. I checked in using Foursquare. Later, I had a pleasant Twitter direct message from Rudy’s thanking me for coming in.

I replied: “Are you a bot or a person?”

Quick Response: “No bots here… thank you for being a fan, couldn’t do it without y’all”

Wow! How cool is that?

So, I checked their @Rudysbbq twitter stream, and found dozens of such examples. I even found Rudy’s helping somebody figure out a recipe for hamburgers using their special Rudy’s Sauce!

The owners of the local Rudy’s are now applying their success formula to the new Mighty Fine Burger chain. They have boomed from 1 to 3 locations and are even busier than the Rudy’s stores.

My advice to business owners trying to get their arms around how to use Social Media to improve their business:

Watch Rudy’s. They Get It!