Quahog Republic Erik Bevans-Naukabout w/Stephanie

hi hi live from knockabout with the Quahog Republic today I'm joined by Eric Bevins we had Tom on earlier until he broke my camera I'm gonna blame it on time so I was like a staff meeting how the hell are you my friend I'm great I'm great I'm psyched to be here at knock about no I didn't tell you this about knock about but it's in Mashpee for our listeners right yep I grew up working in this building when it was The Flume yes I fell in love with the restaurant business in the basement here it does sound rather creepy it was a bar in the basement thank you for the qualifying statements sometimes we need so yeah we're at a different angle our camera is just not cooperating with us we don't have our av guy because he's you know doing AV things Elsewhere for other people for way more money than I paid I'm like go go deal with it so here we are in our blame it on covet yeah or Cliff we like to blame things on people it's fine so I've got Eric here and uh Quahog Republic chowder is being served out back Ryan is fabulous Ryan's great Ryan's our salesman out in the field he's helped us grow from maybe 10 stores to just about 200 stores with our chowder bisque or what barbecue sauce mixers all that good stuff I was having this conversation with Tom before we so rudely got interrupted but we started off in mashni everyone got really excited when you mentioned bashney because it was just like such a jam um and I it was so awesome it was like the quirkiest coolest place to go and have a drink it was a little slice of Old Cape Cod it was the stories will be told in a book someday for everybody else I'm sure yeah right yeah are you sure you want those stories I think seven more years all right and then you'll be free and clear yeah definitely I'll be in next um but yeah that's where we started and then you started this do you do you visualize this thing though you and Tom like were like no this is gonna be a brand absolutely absolutely that's been the plan all along and um like most things they don't go exactly as you play it yeah yeah um and you roll with the punches and here we are today did you see yourself having this shouter Empire no problem answer that uh yes yes I did yeah right you know what I I did see it and I think that's like you know you're a business owner if you can see it you can make it happen yeah I have to really believe that you and if you believe it you see in your mind that sounds crazy but it's it's not it's absolutely true it's so true because you and I have talked at length about just the most random things of business well because you started before me so just just a few um and you really really have to compartmentalize and I know I have a lot of entrepreneurs here identity for all I know that we've got some baby entrepreneurs about to graduating for all right now and you see it in everyone's face you know the ones that are going to be able to withstand have the Tough Enough skin and to be okay with today being a bad day there's tomorrow you have to be able to fail and have a short memory on those sail forward and then forget yesterday yeah you know you really do you know but it's so true all the books I've ever I'm like I'm big into reading like entrepreneur books yeah but don't you find that they're all the same though I feel like I've read them all they are but some of them more than others that's true so you gotta gotta go through some of them some of you like oh this guy's just copying with this other guy can you just tell me the three things that make your plan different please do I have to read your 400 pages of BS I'm reading one now it was written back in like the 30s really yeah and it's exceptional and it's written by this guy and I'm like the worst I like remember in any author or even the title of the book while I'm reading it I'm like I'm reading this great book I can't even remember the name of the book but it's great I love it on paper way better I'll let you know I just recorded my first one of those yeah so if you're in uh the entrepreneurial Spirit out there and you got a book and maybe you're thinking how do I get that on tape let's talk so yeah brilliant but it's super fun it was a definitely a learning curve process and in making sure the edits were right and it was a labor of life so it was a self-help book it's not currently out yet all right so I will let you know you'll know about it sooner or rather than later but yeah I can't wait to listen that's one of those things where I've I've worked with audio forever I never thought oh I could do that yeah I should do that we have a lot of creative amazing people here on the cape let's do that oh my God right and we have a lot of friends in common that are authors oh yeah yeah so I'm I'm in talks this might be a new thing for me to do I can't wait to hear what but yeah seriously but that's what you're doing with the Quahog Republic and your products right we're we're constantly putting it out there we really kind of you know coveted change a lot of things for us spread us into different things with so many people and um it's been a lot of fun super challenging and um you know I'm excited for where we're at and where we're going to be the addition of the fourth restaurant this year yeah the Lee side uh down in Woods Hole you know about the old Lee side I do been there for probably 50 years and then it had been a quick Soul Tavern yep and the owner of quicksole called us and she said listen I'm I'm done like are they still next door with the Taqueria I have a Taqueria okay okay and they have the Treetops uh Treetops in or yeah so they they still have exceptional offerings for their business down there but she was just like high-end in the Lee side spot just isn't doing it anymore it's time to kind of make the change and I think you guys do a good job Tom and I weren't looking to expand that part but it worked out great and it's been awesome yeah because I mean you've you've opened a couple of locations and then had to just realize the market and change things like covet definitely changed the trajectory and plans for you but I feel like it put you where you needed to be all along it just wasn't ready yet I think you're right right sometimes you need help help from the universe that's one of these books I'm reading talks about um the use of The Ether okay all right so don't get too deep but it's super deep but it's legit it's like you put it out there in that space that you really don't think about right and you keep perpetuating that vision and that thought in that space yeah and uh great things will come to you and uh I know that of you yeah I agree so you're here today we're at knockabout which is another fabulous building and we've come full circle from you growing up in the basement being assaulted we kept them in the basement they let him out when The Flume closed oh my God George finally was like go ahead you go laughs I literally the the story was I was a pimply short hudgy dishwasher and that's gonna take some crackers and cheese downstairs and I walked downstairs into this bar and it was a long narrow bar and used to be a spiral staircase right where was sitting yeah that went right downstairs the fire department shut it down shocker and all the wealthy people from New Seabury back in the day Mashpee didn't have any other like Mashpee Commons was like three stores oh wow so people would come all the way from New Seabury which you know it's not that far but far enough for them it's it's a trap exactly or be driven right um I went down in the basement and I was like this is what I like it was like something out of the 20s guys smoking cigars fistfuls of money you know the bartender was like a maestro she was like it wasn't that long ago anyone out there by the way it wasn't that long ago right it was a weird time in Mass Bay but that's where you got this vision that was well I don't know about that but uh seeing the smoking and the drinking more than anything else do you remember that wild west of a time oh yeah that's great I was even in the Lonely Hearts Club Band at the club there in Falmouth where was it afterwards was mcgann's Jesus and I thought I would come home every night after working in the bar stick it like cigarette smoke no that's where we met I love you yeah right oh God we really it's it's definitely a full circle moment here today so you hear what every Sunday let me hear every single Sunday we open it up to the community non-profits businesses baby businesses um School parties events real estate things whatever thing that is going on in our community so we have a community show on Sunday it's our Sunday brunch here at knock about Pete and Meg are fabulous and they're like whatever you're doing for the community we want to be involved so whether it was last weekend where we had a rock for hit party which I partook and rock for hit this weekend not a race for the week um none of that needed to be out in the public I actually was talking to Nicole Spencer about doing Tales from the van as a podcast and we can talk to us don't steal it yeah yeah said it it's it I will know I will come for you if you take my pride um but just the staff living intimately with people you may never have met for 36 hours and a very tight space yeah goes to talk about teamwork camaraderie and just general acceptance of a bad situation you only get a couple rashes that's it the foot stench the soldiers the complaining the flat tire somebody got buried I I left I left Ruck this year and it's not allowed but I I was I left because I had a couple of gigs because I had um a couple of my employees leave my employee and so as a business owner you have to make adjustments and sometimes you have to work where you need to be working yeah and so I left the van and in that time the other driver buried Us in mud and she Colleen bodily fabulous our team captain texted me and goes this is what happens when you leave other Ruck teams taking photos of my team trying to push it out of the mud they drove by pointing laughing and running past him but it was something where somebody else saw it somebody else saw a photo somebody showed up on the side of the road pulled them out and we were back to the race in no time so that's cool yeah you know it I wouldn't use the word fun per se but it was definitely there are no other people in the world that I could have my back than those people in that group and it's wonderful the amount of programs which you guys donate to rock for hit also which is Heroes in transition and uh if you don't know about this organization they do amazing things for our returning soldiers and anyone involved in the military from finding them friends to having therapy or working together as a couple or you think of any aspect of your life that you have been put in this organization will find a way to make your life a little bit better yeah well especially in relocation Services where you know you don't know that you're going to be living in Mashpee now and this is your community hi it's us it's not a bad one to Landing it's really not I love the cape my dad was a veteran he was a veteran of Vietnam and then he was he was active full full-time military after that for many many years and we settled here in Mashpee this year and he suffered tremendously from post-traumatic stresses yeah this summer we're doing a um an event with um sufficient for a mission awesome in regards to there's over 22 veterans that commit suicide every day yep and um it's in honor of that and it's a fundraising event for that they'll be on my show this week early June fishing foreign he'll tell you all about it but if if more people can get involved in some things like that locally man what what a great uh positive thing you can do for a really challenging uh but that's it and you answer that call when people say I have this thing and you know we have so many non-profits here on the cape and it does tend to get overwhelming but if you have something that affected you which you know you really understood that mission and you're there yeah I'm just like the fisherman's Alliance you guys do a lot of non-profit work with them all of our stuff that we do that we sell for our retail whether it's our Bloody Mary a margarita the commercial Fisherman's Alliance it's based out of Chatham but they represent basically fishermen from all over New England and they're really the a um so really the simplest way I think I can describe it is they're almost like a political action committee like they literally go and Lobby and say hey this is what the real fishermen need they right X Y and Z and this is why and during covet they were a huge help to them yeah because the regulations didn't allowed fishermen to sell directly there were so many like obstacles you had to go through and we're getting better product now as a result of that so thank you because I can pick up my scallop set up your location or on the side of the road on a van because they're allowed to do that now they really do you care for our Fishers yeah I'm down absolutely so you're you're part of the threat of this community as well it's not just that you're in 200 retail stores amazing Isn't that cool and you just opened up another location amazing your food is good oh food's not bad drinks are great no it's all good yeah good listen our our slogan for the company is to live give and relax yeah you know live your life to the fullest give back to your community and try to relax I mean I know how easy she's so relaxed and we got a big thing coming on this summer though um the it I think it's the third week of August the Jimmy fund goes on usually like a Monday or Tuesday around then and company-wide we're doing a thing where um we're big supporters of the Jimmy fund yep and for every chowder we sell every disc we sell every Mai Tai Bloody Mary or Margarita we're donating a dollar one week leading up to the Telethon amazing and then the day of the event will have additional things going on that day and at the end of the day we're gonna call in and just say hey from the quahoga Republic we're donating apps to the Jimmy fund and super excited about it all four of our restaurants whether it's New Bedford whether it's onset or both the places in Falmouth they're all going to be participating so I look forward to it to being a huge success maybe we should have you there on the day of the television I think that's a really good idea I know some hosts I might know how to do some of them yeah yeah totally I could handle some of these Duty duties for sure now we are here at knock about until what time is Chowder being served until you've got a little time all did okay so swing on by knock about grab yourself some chowder try their Quahog Margarita Seltzer it's so good it really is good right I feel bad like this is the first time I've tried it it's Pete and his crew here have developed this it's good our sour mix they made the Seltzer out of it and he's like I'm telling you it's delicious it is and it's just been so busy so I got here and I tried what I'm like oh but thank goodness it's so delicious like a drink I know well yeah I'm making up for my non-participation in Cinco and now I'm having a hero so there's plenty of time for margaritas and seltzer so try a Quahog Republic if you see the sign anywhere that you're shopping you know it you know it's going to be good and you've got my ties coming I heard I heard a rumor is in the uh in the queue and uh that one's exciting because that's like one of our best selling drinks oh yeah they're diesel they're deep they're good yep so whether it's Bloody Mary's margaritas and coming soon My Thai make sure you live give relax with the gohog Republic yeah come support cheers Mr Eric cheers time for another for me yeah right we're gonna go get stocked up swing on by knock about every single Sunday fun day I just saw Nicole Spencer roll in the door so we're going to talk to her about Ruck for hit coming up in just a little bit you never know who's gonna pop up here at knock about so where do you knock about you should be in Mashpee we'll talk to you soon thank you