This week on the Titans of Food Service podcast, Nick Portillo speaks with Betsy McAtee, CEO of Dreamland Barbecue. Betsy shares the legendary history and cultural significance of barbecue in Alabama. The conversation highlights Dreamland's unique approach to barbecue, which includes cooking over an open pit and using a signature vinegar-based sauce, setting it apart from other regional styles. Betsy and Nick explore the deep connection between food and community, especially on game days when residents celebrate Alabama football with barbecue as a central element. 

TIMESTAMPS

(00:02)  Introduction to Titans of Food Service

(00:29) Highlighting Alabama's Food Scene

(00:46) Interview with Betsy McAtee

(01:08) The Legendary Story of Dreamland Barbecue

(04:49) Barbecue Culture in Alabama

(13:37) The Unique Flavors of Alabama Barbecue

(18:20) Betsy McAtee's Journey with Dreamland

(21:58) Future Plans for Dreamland Barbecue

RESOURCES

Portillo Sales

CONTACT 

Nick: nick.portillo@portillosales.com

There are a million ways to make money in the food service industry.

You just have to find one.

On the Titans of Foodservice podcast.

I interview real life movers and shakers in the food game who cut through all the noise to get to the top.

My name is Nick Portillo and welcome to the Titans of Food Service podcast.

Let's jump right into it.

Welcome back to season three of Titans of Food Service.

I'm your host, Nick Portillo and I'm continuing my across America in 50 weeks tour where I travel to every state and sit down with a titan of food service who's making an impact in their state.

And this week I'm going to be highlighting the great state of Alabama.

And to do so, I'm welcoming Betsy McAtee.

She's the CEO of Dreamland Barbecue.

So dreamland story, it's truly nothing short of legendary.

You're going to hear it in our conversation.

We're going to talk about everything Dreamland and barbecue in Alabama and what makes barbecue special in that, in that state and in that region.

Dreamland.

What started with burgers and postage stamps quickly became known for its iconic hickory fired ribs, white bread and signature vinegar based barbecue sauce.

Now, more than 60 years later, since first opening, Dreamland Barbecue has grown to 10 locations plus a booming e commerce business, while continuing to carry Big Daddy's legacy forward.

In today's episode, Betsy and I dive into the history of Dreamland Barbecue.

How they're maintaining their timeless techniques, the importance of barbecue in Alabama's culture.

And we're also going to explore the intersection of football and food in Alabama, where both they serve as pillars of their community.

So stay tuned for a rich discussion about tradition, about growth and the future of one of Alabama's most beloved barbecue institutions.

Now, when I'm doing these across America in 50 weeks tour where I'm giving a little background on the state as well.

So before I jump into the conversation with Bessie, I want to give a little background and we're going to talk a lot in the episode too, about Alabama, especially around barbecue, but want to give a little bit more background.

Alabama, it's known for its Southern cuisine, its food scene.

It has a wide variety of restaurants, from beloved barbecue joints such as Dreamland to fine dining establishments as well.

The state is famous for its smoked meats, its catfish, and of course, it's its love for college football.

Tailgates.

And, you know, I've been to some Southern tailgates before, but I know Alabama is known for featuring plates piled high with local favorites.

You know, you have your whole local community there, your family, your friends.

It's a really cool environment.

So without further ado, I want to go ahead and welcome Betsy to the show.

All right, Betsy, welcome to the Titans of Food Service podcast.

I appreciate you taking time to come on and visit with me.

Awesome.

Thank you, Nick, for having me.

This is such an honor.

Yeah, of course, of course.

So I have to start off with, you know, it was a big week of college football.

I don't know if you're a college football fan.

Oh, yeah.

But I know that the Georgia, Alabama game, Alabama, you know, was up by a lot at halftime.

And then Georgia, out of nowhere in the second half, made it a very.

I think they ended up taking the lead at one point.

Yes.

Alabama eventually won it in the end, which is just.

That was one of the best games that I've seen, definitely, this football season, but maybe in a while as well.

Yes, it was a.

It was a great game.

It's always a great atmosphere for us.

We are.

We are tied very heavily to sports and Alabama football in particular.

And just to see the excitement with people coming into the restaurant, they're.

Sometimes it's their first time in the restaurant, sometimes it's part of their game day experience.

But just seeing the excitement, and not only from Alabama fans, but Georgia fans, too, we saw that in our restaurants in the Atlanta area, where you've got Georgia and Alabama fans sitting across from each other, sometimes at a mixed table, as we say.

And just to be able to experience the game day experience within a Dreamland barbecue makes it so much fun.

Is there a dreamland barbecue there in Tuscaloosa?

There's actually two.

There's one in Tuscaloosa.

The original is in Tuscaloosa.

And then there's one across the river from downtown in an area called Northport.

And both of those restaurants see a tremendous surge in business on game day.

And then we do a lot of tailgate caterings, and we do caterings there near the stadium where people tailgate called the quad.

Oh, have you ever had Coach saban there or Ms.

Terry come into one of your.

Into one of those locations?

Well, they've never come into the restaurant that.

That we know of, unless they were disguised.

But we have done catering events at their home and at their office.

And word on the street is they like our.

They like our food.

I Love it.

I love it.

I, I've never been to an Alabama game.

I've been to Ole Miss.

I've been to three Ole Miss games.

I went three years in a row, and then last year, some of my buddies from school and I went to Baton Rouge for an LSU game.

So I've gotten experience, a little bit of some SEC football, you know, being born and raised here in Orange, Southern California.

Orange.

I grew up a Trojans fan, usc.

But the experience.

I love the Trojans.

You know, they've had some, some great years and a lot of bad over the last decade, but the atmosphere and the experience in the south is.

It's really hard to compete with that.

You know, being at the Grove in Oxford, Mississippi, or there in Baton Rouge, I'm sure Tuscaloosa or even Georgia and all the schools, they just, it's just over the top and it's.

I remember, like, when I just describe at least the Ole Miss experience, it's like it's a political event.

There's people that have like, pins for their local politicians that they want you to, you know, think about and vote for.

You've got your sororities and fraternities, they have all their pins and their gear.

You have your parents, your grandparents are there.

Like, it's just a whole, it's like unbelievable.

It's so cool.

It's almost like a cradle to grave experience, as I like to say, because you've got everything from babies to grandma's, everything in between at the tailgating.

You've got, you've got pets, you've got chandeliers, you've got the spread of every imaginable food and drink.

And it is.

And it's a, it's when I, when we call it a game day experience, it is an experience.

It, it's not a.

I'm going to go for an hour or two.

I mean, it is a whole day.

And there's people that start 8 o'clock in the morning and go all the way to kick off that night.

But it is a lot of fun.

And to me, what makes it so fun is even if you're, if you're a visiting team and you come to the University of Alabama for a game, you're welcomed.

You know, we welcome everybody at tailgates and, you know, we just want you to have fun when you're there.

Now, we want to beat your team always, of course, but we want you to have fun when you're there.

And we want you to experience Southern food and culture, too.

That's Right.

And you went to University of Alabama.

I did.

I did, I did.

My wife, she watched this show.

I think it was on Netflix, around, like, the Sorority Recruitment.

Oh, yes.

I'm not sure what the name of the show was.

I mean, I think it's more of a documentary and, like, how much that goes into it.

And like I said, being to ole Ms.

And LSU, like, I could definitely attest to.

At least from, like, a peripheral view, obviously, I was only there for a weekend each time, but of how serious and how big, you know, the Greek life is on campus.

I.

I was a Greek.

I was a fight elt at a small private school here in Orange county.

And, you know, much different experience seeing, like, the fight elves that were at Ole Miss, you know, they had this huge house, and it was.

They had been.

I think they'd been a chapter for, like, I don't know, a hundred years or something like that.

And.

And just a.

Just a cool experience.

But that's one thing I do know.

My wife watched that.

That documentary of the sorority life and how much goes into it to be a member there.

Yes.

And that was actually my sorority that was in that documentary.

Yeah.

So it was really, like, whoa.

It's.

It was not like that when I was there.

It's.

It's way bigger and.

And bolder now.

But it was.

It was good experience.

Experience.

I came from a small town, so it was a great way to meet people.

And because, you know, I had.

I, like I said, grew up in a small town and had never experienced anything like that.

So to be able to go in and have a hundred people that were my sisters, so to speak, it was a.

It was a great, great experience.

But I'm still very good friends with a lot of those girls today.

There's probably about 20 that I'm super close with, and three of my best friends I was in sorority with at the University of Alabama.

That's one.

You know, one thing about Greek life, you know, from my experience, I played baseball at my college, and I was also in Greek life.

And, yeah, some my closest friends, you know, guys who were in my wedding, came from that.

My time there in the fraternity, you know, it's kind of a unique experience where you're going through something and you're experiencing something alongside other people simultaneously.

And so, like, as you.

Every year that you get older, you look back and those memory, like, you have memories.

Like, I have memories of riding my bike as a kid or playing basketball, you know, shooting hoops outside.

But, like, when you have when you can share those memories with others, like, it just carries it on forever, where you can think back and say, hey, remember that one time you did this?

Or remember we went to the football game or whatever may have happened?

Um, you know, it's just cool to have that.

To build that camaraderie with.

With people who went through similar experiences.

Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

And the fact that, you know, we had a pretty cool experience with football and going to football games, basketball games.

So a lot of.

A lot of.

A lot of fun times.

It was good.

A good period of my life.

Totally.

So dreamland.

It's.

It started in Tuscaloosa or where was the first location?

So it's the one we call the original.

And it was opened by a man who's also in our logo.

His name was John Big Daddy Bishop, and he was a larger guy.

And he started as a neighborhood cafe near his home.

And he had hamburgers, hot dogs, postage stamps, candy ribs.

And what he saw was that he would sell out of ribs, but he would have all these other hamburgers and hot dogs left over.

So in the true entrepreneurial spirit, he said, I'm just going to be ribs.

So he was.

He opened this neighborhood cafe called Dreamland Barbecue near his home.

And he was a brick mason by trade, so he built a wonderful brick pit to be able to cook these ribs.

And that was the product that just stuck.

And Dreamland became known for.

And for years and years and years, that's all that was on the menu were ribs.

You could get a rib sandwich, a half slab or a slab.

It came with white bread, Sunbeam white bread.

And he had canned drinks, bags of chips, and canned beer, and that was it.

Wow.

My understanding, too, of barbecue is it's.

It can be very regional.

For example, like here in California, especially like in the Central coast, you know, a lot of tri tip is being eaten where.

I don't know if tritips really eaten other parts of the country.

I think they may be too dry or something like that.

You know what is.

When you think of, like, Alabama or barbecue, like what.

What is it that makes it so special?

So Alabama barbecue is very diverse.

Okay.

Northern Alabama, you've got what they call Alabama white sauce, and it is primarily served with chicken or pork.

And what's in the white sauce?

And it's going to sound gross, but it's actually very good.

It's mayonnaise, it's vinegar, it's black pepper.

It can Be a little bit of horseradish in there and other spices.

But the main ingredients are vinegar and mayonnaise.

And it's something about that smokiness, but that's a real big product.

Especially in north Alabama.

They call it Alabama white.

Everybody calls it Alabama white sauce.

I've never heard of that before.

Yeah.

So then in other parts of Alabama, you've got more of a sweet sauce.

Not Kansas City sweet.

Nothing against Kansas City, but that is very, very sweet.

But what we have more in Alabama is a combination of the sweet and a little bit of the tomato base.

Now, at Dreamland, our sauce is vinegar based.

Also has the tomato base, but we have a little bit of back heat.

We're not sweet at all.

So our sauce is very, very different than what you see a lot of the barbecue sauces in Alabama.

Now, we do have our version of a white sauce called twang, but it's not what we sell.

A lot of our primary sauce is just our signature barbecue sauce.

It's making me hungry.

I've never heard of the white sauce before.

I definitely want to try your twang next time.

I.

Every year, my friends and I, you know, we're always.

We've done ole Ms.

And LSU.

Like, we're always thinking, like, what's the next SEC school?

You know, I think Alabama's definitely got to be on the list there at some point, and I'd love to come by and try.

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

The other thing about Alabama that's very unique is we are primarily pork.

You know, whereas Texas, you've got the beef.

We're primarily pork in this market.

We've got some places that you can get a brisket, but we're primarily pork and chicken.

And what makes us unique at Dreamland is we still cook everything over an open pit.

We don't have smokers.

We.

Everything that you.

That we serve in that restaurant comes off of a pit with.

And we use either hickory or white oak wood.

So it's all wood fired pit cooking.

And how many locations do you have?

There's 10 total.

Of the 10, are you doing the cooking there on site or you have like a central commissary?

How does that work?

Every location cooks their own food, their own products.

They all have a pit.

We do have a USDA manufacturing facility in Birmingham, and we cook product there, and that product is vacuum sealed and shipped out on dry ice all over the country.

And it's part of our E.

Commerce.

Oh, okay.

I've seen that.

I've seen that across other barbecue brands.

Yeah.

They'll cook it within their own pits of like a commissary or some sort of manufacturing facility.

And then freeze it.

Yeah.

Put it in the.

In some sort of seal, some sort of vacuum pack seal, and then send it out.

You know, whether it's in traditional distribution or whatever that may be, I guess in your case, E Commerce as well, it goes.

It goes direct to consumer.

When you look at, like, your day to day, you know, leading the company, what is.

What does that look like for you?

That is an interesting question, Nick, because there's.

I had this conversation with somebody on Sunday at a fundraiser.

I'm like, you know, there's some days I don't do anything that has to do with making, moving, or selling barbecue.

And then there's other days I am straight in the middle of it.

Right.

But my, my, my.

Every day, what I focus on is making sure that we are serving not only the guests, the product that they come to recognize as a dreamland product, but that we're taking care of our internal guests, which are our employees.

Yeah, I'm sure.

Which is a.

Which is a very big undertaking.

How did you even.

How did you even find dreamland?

Like, how did you even get into this business?

So, a little bit by accident.

My father was a dentist by trade, and he was actually good friends with Mr.

Bishop.

And for years he would go down and have conversations with Mr.

Bishop.

And one day he said to Mr.

Bishop, wouldn't you like for people to be able to eat your ribs after you're gone one day?

And he said, I never really thought about it.

And so from there, they struck up a conversation.

And by this point, Mr.

Bishop was getting older in age, he was having some health issues.

So my dad and his daughter Jeanette became very good friends.

And next thing you know, my dad is opening a Dreamland barbecue restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama.

You know, and here you've got somebody that was a dentist, knew nothing about the restaurant industry, nothing about the restaurant business, but he had a passion for a high quality product and taking care of the guest.

And it just.

It clicked.

It just clicked.

And then I joined the company about 20, 20 plus years ago.

My background was Frito Lay.

I worked for Frito Lay and I did all the fun, sexy stuff like deliver potato chips on a Frito Lay truck all over north central Florida.

And I had the opportunity to be transferred to Birmingham with Frito Lay and had a great career there, but just saw a need where I could come help my dad and help him grow the brand.

And we did just that.

He retired many years ago and he passed away probably about eight or nine years ago.

So he didn't see all of our locations that we have today.

But he's looking down on us every day.

He's keeping us in check.

I love that.

So when your dad gets involved in the business with Mr.

Bishop, there was one location essentially there, the original.

Right.

In Tuscaloosa.

The original in Tuscaloosa.

And then your dad, who's a dentist by trade, just has this great idea, hey, I'm going to start my own dreamland location.

And so he expands from there.

Did he.

In his time working in the business, did he open up additional locations?

I know you mentioned you have 10 now.

When did those additional eight come along?

John was John Haddocks experience in the restaurant business.

He had come up from Pensacola and they opened.

We opened three.

And then when I came on the, we opened the rest of them.

I love that.

I love that.

Yeah.

So you're not just Alabama, though.

You mentioned you're in Georgia as well.

What other states do you cover?

Right now I'm just Alabama and we have two in metro Atlanta, one in Roswell and then one in Duluth, which are suburbs of metro Atlanta.

Atlanta.

Do you have plans to expand, you know, whether it's within Alabama or within Georgia or even to other states?

Absolutely.

There's some markets within Alabama that we would love to be in.

I think the one thing that we've all learned over the past few years is, you know, just how critical supply chain is your labor force and.

But we do have plans to grow and to open additional units and then we've also grown our E Commerce platform where not only are we shipping out all over the country, we distribute our barbecue sauce in grocery stores throughout Alabama and some local retailers.

And then we are in concessions in a couple of stadiums.

In fact, we're in Bryant Denny Stadium with our barbecue products.

All right.

Some challenges, especially around supply chain.

You know, trying to get products and source even the even things you wouldn't even think of like maybe like a.

Maybe your vacuum pack.

Right.

Your seals or your linings within boxes.

Like it's just everything was short paper plates.

It's just so many things that you take for granted because you just wouldn't expect it.

Hey, I can't get paper plates.

That's Crazy to me.

Well, we couldn't.

We were running all over town getting paper plates.

That's right.

And I remember someone said something about, did y'all change your plates?

I'm like, honey, we are just happy to have plates.

With COVID which has come and brought a new, you know, a new business landscape.

You know, you mentioned E commerce.

Is your E commerce side of your business.

Does it rival what you're doing with your brick and mortar locations?

No, it doesn't.

It is a great segment for our business.

Now, during COVID it was booming because we had a lot of people, you know, shipping product all over.

And I would.

I helped answer the phones back then because, you know, there were, you know, we were doing whatever we had to do to survive.

And I would answer the phone and, you know, somebody be telling me their life story about how they're sending this food to, you know, their daughter or son in New York City.

And I was.

I was just so touched by all that.

But their E commerce is growing, but it has not.

It doesn't rival the rest, the restaurant sales yet.

Yeah, for sure.

When you look into the future for yourself and for dreamland, what is, like, something that you hope to achieve that you haven't yet achieved?

Oh, boy, that's a good one.

I think we want more people to experience what we consider to be true barbecue.

I think sometimes I think there's less and less people that do it the way we do it now, which is cooking over an open pit.

It's way more expensive.

It's way harder.

You've got to have almost technicians, if you would.

That.

That are.

We call them pit masters.

Yeah, because they, you know, every.

Every fire is different.

Every slab is a different size to, you know, there's little nuances, but we want to expose as many people as we can to.

To what real barbecue is, because I think a lot of times it's gotten a little too commoditized, and what people really think is barbecue is really not.

Yeah.

You know, I can speak to California.

We have, you know, in the barbecue category, I think the word I would use is maybe a little lacking.

There are some good barbecue options out here, but it's not as like, part of, you know, the food culture as much.

We have some chains out here.

I don't know if you're familiar with, like, dickies.

I think they're out of Texas, maybe is here they do a nice job.

And there's some other, like, local, like, mom and pop shops that do, you know, do barbecue.

But, like, over an open pit or have like an actual pit master, like, you just don't really see that that much.

And the locations that do come to mind that have that, they are popular out here.

Like, when you really take it to the.

To the, you know, top level, to the top degree, customers love that and appreciate it.

And they come back.

Oh, absolutely.

Because, you know, you want to see your food being cooked.

You know, you want to experience that.

You want to.

I mean, we.

Our pitmasters are like local celebrities.

In our restaurants, when people want to have their picture made, they want to talk to them because, you know, we all want to know what the secrets are.

Right?

Everybody's got their own little secret.

That's right.

And just being able to capture that and replicate that and let people know that that's real deal, you know, it didn't come out of a box or a bottle or a can.

It.

It's being cooked right there in front of you.

And I think that's very, very important.

All right, Betsy, I got one final question for you.

What's your thoughts on Coach DeBoer?

So how do you follow the greatest.

Right.

How do you follow, as they call him, the goat?

Coach Saban?

I think he's done.

I think Coach DeBoer's done a very good job of respecting what was there before and continuing on, but using his own methods and experiences and ways because, you know, he was successful at Washington and he was successful at the other.

At the other schools where he was.

So I think that he realized that, you know what?

I can't.

I can't.

I'm not going to be the cookie cutter.

I've got to do it my way.

But I think you always have to respect what happened before you.

And he was on game day with Coach Saban.

And there's a.

There's a mutual admiration that I picked up during that.

That broadcast.

And I think that.

I think.

I think the win over Georgia last weekend was huge.

To kind of let him, as they say, have his signature win, because that's like, okay, that.

That was his win.

That was his win.

And I really like him.

I think he's a great guy.

I've met him.

Very personable and just kind of brings a different change.

But also he's.

He's very passionate about what he does.

And.

And you've got to be.

To be successful.

That's right.

He seems to have a calm.

Yeah.

Personable, you know, easy tempered.

And then you see him in the game over the weekend.

It was like within a minute before halftime.

And He's.

He's like red in the face, and he's yelling.

He's freaking out over play that the.

That the refs missed, which he should have been.

They should have been able to kick a field goal.

I mean, if you look at the end of the game, that one play, that could have been the difference in the game.

You know, thankfully, they came out in the end still winning, but, I mean, at the end, it got very close, and that one field goal could have been the difference.

It could have been the difference.

You're.

You're absolutely right.

Every play counts, you know, just like every yard counts.

That's right.

Just like in our business, every guest counts.

You know, it.

It all matters, and it all.

It adds up to be big things.

That's right.

Well, Bessie, thank you so much for.

For taking time to do this, and perfect timing, too, coming off the.

Coming off the game, and.

And I'm glad to see that Alabama get.

Get a win.

That was really fun to watch, and I.

I genuinely want to.

You know, after our conversation, I want to come out and go to Dreamland and try it out and, you know, and tried the whole Alabama Tuscaloosa experience.

I think it's definitely a bucket list that we should all try at least once.

Absolutely.

We would love to have you, and we'll give you that good old Southern hospitality.

That sounds good to me.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Thank you.