Today we’d like to introduce you to Robin Wong.
Robin, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Opened and ran Glittter Karaoke in Alief/Chinatown in 2000-2005. DJ/Bartender/Lightman/Club Promotions 2005-2010. Opened Glitter Karaoke in Midtown 2010-Present. Started Blood Bros. BBQ in 2014. Ran pop-ups and festivals until 2018. Opened Brick and Mortar in December 2018.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The struggle is in finding success. You can work and make money to make ends meet, but the struggle is to be able to make ends meet and live comfortably stress-free. As long as you are willing to work and surround yourself with people that are willing to teach you and support you, you should be able to eventually find success. It’s still a work in progress.
Blood Bros. BBQ – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I own Glitter Karaoke along with my brother, Terry. We like to think of it like a neighborhood bar that runs karaoke nightly. Over the last seven years or so we’ve hosted local chef pop-ups. They started as monthly and are now almost weekly. We’ve been proud to help promote many of the young, up and coming chefs in Houston, and have watched line cooks now running their own restaurants. We like to think of ourself as an industry bar and try to make sure everyone feels like family when they stop by.
In 2018, we opened Blood Bros. BBQ in Bellaire with longtime friend, Quy Hoang. We had been cooking barbecue at pop-ups and festivals since 2014 and finally decided it was time to open a restaurant. We specialize in Texas barbecue with a focus on showcasing the diversity of Houston. We love to integrate flavors that we’ve grown up eating into the meats and sides. We’re most known for our Asian influences, but we’ve also done Mediterranean and Mexican. It’s been great to receive so much praise and media attention for something that we are so passionate about. Houston has an extraordinary culinary scene and we’re lucky to be able to draw so much inspiration from all the amazing chefs around town.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Our proudest moment would have to be the feature story in The Smithsonian Magazine. What an honor.
Contact Info:
- Address: 5425 Bellaire Blvd
Bellaire, TX 77401 - Website: www.bloodbrosbbq.com
- Phone: 713-664-7776
- Email: robin@bloodbrosbbq.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloodbrosbbq
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bloodbrosbbq
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/bloodbrosbbq
Image Credit:
Will Blunt, Ben Sassani
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