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#S2Roadshow Recap – Week Nine

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This week on the SecurityStudio Roadshow, we made the trip down to Scottsdale, Arizona to visit the people attending the ISSA Phoenix Q4 2019 Chapter Meeting. Of course, we got our fill of good BBQ too!

SecurityStudio Roadshow Summary

If you’re new, or you’re confused about this #S2Roadshow thing, start here (maybe).

Previous Week’s Recaps:

The purpose of the SecurityStudio Roadshow (#S2Roadhow) is to meet people and make partners. We want to meet people, understand their businesses, and help them grow using simple, fundamental, and compliant solutions (S2Score, S2Org, S2Vendor, and S2Team/S2Me).

Our mission is to fix the broken information security industry. Success requires collaboration, partnership, and transparency.

BBQ Reviews

In the spirit of transparency, we have a secondary mission on the #S2Roadshow. We eat as much BBQ as we can. After stuffing ourselves, I summarize our BBQ reviews at the end of each recap article (see below).

Scottsdale, Arizona

We arrived in Phoenix/Scottsdale on Wednesday (12/4), the day before the ISSA chapter meeting. After getting our sweet rental, a 2019 Dodge Charger Hemi, we drove straight to our first BBQ joint, NakedQ BBQ in Scottsdale.

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When you’re from Minnesota, a December trip to Scottsdale doesn’t suck. The weather was great. After BBQ, we were off to the hotel for some meetings and to catch up with work.

 

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Next was a dinner meeting with a good friend and partner from the area, and afterwards day one was complete. Four or five great meetings, some good work completed, and two BBQ visits. Not bad.

Day two started with, you guessed it, more BBQ, before we headed off to the ISSA chapter meeting. Three BBQ visits in less than 24 hours. Think maybe we’re overdoing this? I think not!

ISSA Phoenix Q4 2019 Chapter Meeting

We’ve been to more than a couple ISSA chapter meetings, and this was one of the best! Lorna Kertész, the chapter President does a great job running things. She was running all over the place making sure things went off without a hitch. Huge shout out to Lorna!

Overall, this was a fantastic meeting! The venue was top notch, the speakers were great, and the happy hour was very well attended. On a scale of 1 – 10 for chapter meetings, this one was a 10!

When John and I arrived, it was cool to know that there were some people who were expecting me. A couple people came up to tell me that they’d read my book, and a few mentioned that they’d attended the FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program. Feels like we’re making a difference.

The first speaker of the day was Rachel Harpley from Recruit Bit Security. She gave a very good talk titled “Yule be Sorry without Security Researchers”. Rachel is cool. She’s got some great things to share and her perspectives about information security are spot on (in my opinion). If you haven’t met her, or attended one of her talks before, you should! It was fun to visit with her for after her talk.

The next speaker was Dr. Paulo Shakarian CEO and co-founder of CYR3CON. This dude is smart! He gave a legit talk titled “Artificial Intelligence Research for Forecasting Exploit Usage”. We caught up after his talk and scheduled a meeting (week after) to discuss how his research can make the SecurityStudio platform better. The prospects of tying legit AI into SecurityStudio’s S2Org technical vulnerability scoring are very exciting!

My talk followed the talks of these two esteemed speakers.

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I gave a similar talk that I’ve given across the country now. Want the deck? Four topics in the agenda, housekeeping, meat, the dream, and call to action. The talk was well received, and the interaction with the attendees was super! Gave away three books, and had some wonderful discussions with people afterwards.Like I said earlier, this meeting was a 10 on a scale of 1 – 10. The only thing that would have made it better is if the guy next to me wouldn’t have gotten up and left his laptop unlocked.

I talked to him about it afterwards. We’re cool.

BBQ Reviews

You know how we roll, right?! BBQ man! As much as we can get, and yes, we (well I am) are gaining a few pounds along the way.

Three BBQ reviews this week; all three in Scottsdale. We expected good BBQ in Kansas City, but Scottsdale, Arizona?! Believe it or not, Scottsdale has some awesome BBQ joints! Here’s our take on the three we visited.

NakedQ BBQ – https://www.thenakedbbq.com/ – Overall: 8.25

  • Atmosphere – 7, the atmosphere for this place was OK. It was another one of those strip mall feeling sort of places.
  • Service – 9, Everyone was very pleasant and went out of their way to make sure you were satisfied. It’s great when people come out from behind the counter to see how you’re doing.
  • Portion/Value – 8, the price was better than I expected and the portions were generous.
  • Taste – 9, the food tasted great and you could tell it was made by people who know what they’re doing. The best brisket we’ve had in a while.

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This was really, really good BBQ. I had a 1/4 pound of brisket, jalapeno sausage, turkey, and pulled pork, and they were all great. It’s a tie between the brisket and sausage for my favorite.

The Thumb – https://www.thethumb.com/ – Overall: 8.5

  • Atmosphere – 10, the atmosphere for this place was one of the best yet. The restaurant is part of a gas station and a gift shop. Totally comfortable and cozy. My kind of BBQ joint to just chill and visit with friends.
  • Service – 10, Seriously, these people know how to serve and make you feel like you’re a king (or queen, as the case may be)! One of the few places where they offer you a sample before you order. Once we ordered, they brought the food out to us, grabbed an assortment of sauces, gave us some free goodies, and constantly made sure we were happy.
  • Portion/Value – 7, the portions were hefty, but the price reflected it. Better than average, I’d say.
  • Taste – Maybe my expectations were set too high after experiencing the super cool atmosphere and getting service reserved for royalty, but the food tasted OK. Not great, but good maybe.

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We met a good friend and business partner for dinner here. Overall, we had a great time and I’d visit this place again. Oh yeah, one more thing. This place was featured by Guy Fieri too. Some people think that’s pretty cool.

Little Miss BBQ – https://www.littlemissbbq.com/ – Overall: 8.75

  • Atmosphere – 9, this was a cool joint. It sort of felt like I was down south in the 70s. This is a order your food, grab your food, and sit sort of BBQ joint.
  • Service – 9, certainly above average. We arrived before the place was open and there was already a line around the corner. While we waited, a waitress walked the line offering samples of their home made sausage. While we ordered, the cook gave us a small cut sample of the pastrami brisket. After we ordered, we were assured that we had everything we needed to be happy.
  • Portion/Value – 8, very reasonable and worth every penny.
  • Taste – 9, We would have said “10”, but we use that number very sparingly. The brisket might have been the best we’ve had so far on the SecurityStudio Roadshow. It might be a toss-up between this place and Pecan Lodge (Dallas, TX in week #3). The taste of the meats here was incredible.

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This was the best BBQ we’ve had for a long time, if ever, on the SecurityStudio Roadshow. If you like BBQ and you are in the Scottsdale area, you have to visit this place. It’s amazing!

BBQ Summary

Three new BBQ joints to add to our list, and this makes 28 we’ve visit so far. This was a VERY good BBQ week for us, with all three BBQ joints easily making the top 10. The winner this week was Little Miss BBQ, but it was close. Pecan Lodge is still on top as the overall #S2Roadshow leader with a score of 9 (but we need to go back an validate this now), and Little Miss joins Bowlegged BBQ in the #2 spot. The current overall standings are listed below.

Overall Standings (at the end of #S2Roadshow Week Eight):

  • Pecan Lodge – 9
  • Little Miss BBQ – 8.75
  • Bowlegged BBQ – 8.75
  • The Thumb – 8.5
  • Divine Swine – 8.5
  • Naked Q BBQ – 8.25
  • Dinosaur BBQ – 8.25
  • Big Ed’s BBQ – 8.25
  • Mission BBQ – 8
  • Slaps BBQ – 8
  • Q39 BBQ – 7.75
  • Cousin’s BBQ – 7.75
  • Blackwood BBQ – 7.5
  • Broad Street BBQ – 7.5
  • Hard Eight – 7.25
  • Spring Creek Barbeque – 7.25
  • Redd’s BBQ – 7.25
  • RIBBRO BBQ – 7.25
  • Iron Horse – 7
  • Lucille’s Smokehouse BBQ – 7
  • Texas Bar-B-Q Joint – 7
  • Fire Breather BBQ – 7
  • Smoque – 6.75
  • Sweet Lucy’s Smokehouse – 6.75
  • Red Coal BBQ – 6.75
  • Bad to the Bone BBQ – 6.75
  • Unkl Moe’s – 6.5
  • Hambone’s Smokehouse – 6.25
  • Shakedown BBQ – N/A (wasn’t open when it was supposed to be, wasted trip)

Next Week’s #S2Roadshow

A couple of talks this week, one in St. Paul, MN and another visit to Dallas, TX. We’re visiting the Minnesota Government IT Symposium on Wednesday and we’re visiting the Dallas/Fort Worth ISC2 chapter on Friday. Looking forward to meeting a bunch of great people this week, and we’re looking forward to revisiting Pecan Lodge.

Stay tuned for next week’s #S2Roadshow updates. You can follow us on Twitter (@evanfrancen, @HarmonJohn, @StudioSecurity, and the #S2Roadshow hashtag) and on LinkedIn.

See you next week! If you want to collaborate with us, get in touch!

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving – #S2Roashow BBQ Top 10

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Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!

We have many, many things to be thankful for this year! So far, the SecurityStudio Roadshow (#S2Roadshow) has been a great success. The thing we’re most thankful for are the super cool people we’ve met on the road. Cool people with incredible stories and valuable perspectives.

Another thing we’re thankful for is all the great BBQ we’ve eaten. Who doesn’t like BBQ? Well, I suppose the vegans aren’t too much into it. For all the non-vegans, here’s our top 10 BBQ joints that we’ve visited thus far.

We didn’t travel last week, so this is what you get.

Top 10 BBQ Joints

Through week #8 of the SecurityStudio Roadshow (#S2Roadshow)

A man’s got to eat, and this man’s got to eat BBQ! We eat a lot of BBQ. – Evan

#1 – Pecan Lodge – Dallas, Texas – Week #3

Overall Rating: 9

  • Atmosphere: 9
  • Service: 8
  • Portion/Value: 9
  • Taste: 10

We heard from multiple people that we had to go to Pecan Lodge located in Deep Elum, so we did. Are we ever glad we did! This was the best BBQ we’ve had yet on our three week-old #S2Roadshow, and I even made a friend.

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I had the sliced brisket, pulled pork, and sausage. John had sliced brisket, pulled pork, and ribs. You should have seen the look on John’s face when he tasted the brisket for the first time! The atmosphere was awesome, with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating. The service was great. I even got the cook to show me his smokers (see pic). The portions were very generous too, but it was the taste that was amazing! I’ve never had better brisket and I may have never had better pulled pork in my life. I’ve had BBQ at 100+  of the best places all over the country, and I’ve never had brisket with the perfect mix of smoke flavor, fat cap, and rub.

Pecan Lodge is an absolute must visit for any BBQ lover. It’s almost worth a special visit to Dallas just to go to this place. The best I’ve had in a very long time, if ever.

P.S. My new friend’s name is Winston, and he’s from Michigan. He and his son travel the country riding roller coasters and trying new BBQ. BTW, he agreed that Pecan Lodge was awesome.

#2 – Bowlegged BBQ – San Diego, California – Week #4

Overall: 8.75

  • Atmosphere: 9
  • Service: 9
  • Portion/Value: 9
  • Taste: 8

OK, this was some good BBQ! I feel bad for all the people who live here, but never experienced the joy. The place is family-owned and the atmosphere was perfect for a BBQ joint. A little cluttered, a little dirty, a little nostalgic, and a whole bunch of character. Ordered my meat from Jordan behind the counter, and I told him all I wanted was meat, no sides. Ordered rib tips, ribs, and brisket. The price? 20 bucks.

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10 minutes later, I get this Styrofoam container filled with deliciousness. Like really filled and like really delicious! As you can see in the picture, the meat is drowning in sauce, and that’s generally a big no-no for me. For some reason it worked. The sauce was some sort of rural Georgia-tasting stuff with a hint of cinnamon. Weird, but delicious! I texted John and told him it was like a love fest between my mouth, my brain, and my belly. Definitely recommended!

#3 – Divine Swine BBQ – Manheim, Pennsylvania – Week #1

Overall: 8.5

  • Atmosphere: 7
  • Service: 8
  • Portion/Value: 10
  • Taste: 9

After the Shakedown BBQ disappointment, we swung over to Manheim, where we found Divine Swine. This place takes the crown as the #S2Roadshow Week 1 BBQ Champ. The best tasting BBQ we had on the trip and huge portions. If you’re in the area, you have to visit this place!

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Maybe we’re BBQ snobs, maybe not. One thing is certain, we enjoyed all of the BBQ we ate, and we’re pumped for next week’s adventures.

#4T – Dinosaur BBQ – Rochester, New York – Week #7

Overall: 8.25

  • Atmosphere – 8, it’s a cool place with a great vibe. The lighting is perfect for a BBQ joint, there’s a lot of wood, and the view of the river is super cool.
  • Service – 9, great service all-around. These people make you feel at home.
  • Portion/Value – 7, a little pricey for how much food you get, but what place isn’t?
  • Taste – 9, incredible, especially the ribs and wings.

In full transparency, I’ve eaten at Dinosaur BBQ in Rochester many times. It’s a great BBQ joint and I’ve enjoyed every visit I’ve made. This was Ryan Abraham’s first visit to Rochester, so we made sure to stop in. Actually, we ended up eating here twice during this trip. Poor us!

I’ve visited Rochester more than a dozen times and eaten BBQ at just about every place this city offers. Dinosaur is the best BBQ in Rochester. On this trip, I ate their ribs, brisket, wings, and pulled pork. The brisket and pulled pork were good, but the ribs and wings were friggin’ amazing! The ribs were arguably the best I’ve had on the SecurityStudio Roadshow so far. If you’re in Rochester, and you like BBQ (even if you don’t like BBQ), a visit to Dinosaur is a must!

#4T – Big Ed’s BBQ – Waukegan, Illinois – Week #3

Overall: 8.25

  • Atmosphere – 8
  • Service – 9
  • Portion/Value – 8
  • Taste – 9

We made the drive up to Waukegan to give Big Ed’s BBQ a try, and we’re definitely glad we did! This is a BBQ joint that is run by Ed (a few of his business partners) and his lovely family. You can read about the Big Ed story on their website. The atmosphere is great, with Ed’s son preparing the meat while Ed’s wife rings you up at the register. By the time we got there, they had already sold out of the brisket and burnt ends, so we settled for ribs and rib tips. We thought we were settling, but we were wrong! The ribs and tips were awesome!

The service was top notch, the portions were huge, and the meat was great! You have to visit this place. Highly recommended!

#6T – Mission BBQ – Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – Week #1

Overall: 8

  • Atmosphere – 7
  • Service – 10
  • Portion/Value – 7
  • Taste – 8

We ate at Mission BBQ in Harrisburg in the evening of the first day. I wasn’t that excited for it because I knew it was part of a chain, but it was the closest BBQ joint to where we were staying. The staff was AMAZING. I can’t remember ever getting better service that we did at this place.

The cashier asked us if this was our first time at Mission BBQ. We said it was, then she proceeded to tell us all about the menu and how they make their BBQ.

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Once our order was ready, the lady behind the counter asked us if it was our first time at Mission BBQ. We said it was, then she proceeded to tell us all about the sauces and how to help ourselves.

After we sat down to eat, another lady came by our table three or four times to make sure we had everything we needed. She cleared our table for us too (even though this was a self-service joint).

The service was exceptional, so I rate it a 10. The food was good too, the best being the jalapeno cheddar sausage.

#6T – Slaps BBQ – Kansas City, Missouri – Week #8

Overall: 8

  • Atmosphere – 8, this was a pretty cool place, located in an industrial part of town. The all brick building featured an indoor eating area, plus there were two more eating areas outside. The eating area on top of the building featured a great view of the Kansas City skyline.
  • Service – 9, I love when the BBQ is made to order right in front of you. They cut the meat and dish it out as you order it, right in front of you. The staff was very courteous and very helpful.
  • Portion/Value – 8, definitely above average. We got filled up at a very reasonable price.
  • Taste – 7, the brisket was good and the pulled pork was good. The best part was the jalapeno cheddar sausage. All the BBQ was good, but not amazing.

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We went to Slaps on a recommendation from a close friend. She’s a local and told us this was her favorite BBQ in all of Kansas City. It was good, but I’ve had better in this town.

#8T – Q39 BBQ – Kansas City, Missouri – Week #7

Overall: 7.75

  • Atmosphere – 7, this is a little too upscale feeling for me. A very nice restaurant, but not down-homey enough for my taste.
  • Service – 8, great service. I was in the middle of a conference call at the beginning, so I might have missed something here. Guess, I’ll have to visit again!
  • Portion/Value – 7, a little spendy.
  • Taste – 9, super! The burnt ends and brisket were the bomb!

This was the first stop for me and John after landing in Kansas City. We received a tip to visit this place from our rental car terminal bus driver, and obviously this guy knew what he was talking about! Kansas City is known for their BBQ and we had dozens of places to choose from, but we made a good call here.

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This was a great welcome to Kansas City and we highly recommend visiting Q39!

#8T – Cousin’s BBQ – Dallas, Texas – Week #5

Overall: 7.75

  • Atmosphere – 8
  • Service – 8
  • Portion/Value – 7
  • Taste – 8

I arrived at the DFW airport for the trip home and realized that I’d only done one BBQ joint so far on this trip! I sort of panicked a bit before finding this little gem in the DFW airport. Thank God! A man can’t take a trip with only one portion of BBQ.

My expectations for this place were low to begin with. After all, what kind of BBQ can you expect to get in an airport? Needless to say, I was very pleasantly surprised! I ordered pulled pork and brisket, with broccoli salad and cole slaw on the side. The meat was surprisingly moist a very flavorful. The smoke ring was good too. In a pinch, this place will definitely do!

#10T – Blackwood BBQ – Chicago, Illinois – Week #3

Overall: 7.75

  • Atmosphere – 7
  • Service – 7
  • Portion/Value – 8
  • Taste – 8

There are five locations for Blackwood BBQ, and we visited the Schaumburg location for lunch. John and I both ordered combos. He got sliced brisket, pulled pork, and burnt ends. I got sliced brisket, burnt ends and ribs. It was a really nice BBQ joint with a rustic, busy, but open atmosphere. The BBQ is self-service, meaning you order at the counter and grab your food when it’s ready. The portions were generous and the taste was pretty darn good. I’d say overall, it was definitely above average is all aspects.

If you’re in the Chicago area, it’s definitely worth the trip.

#10T – Broad Street BBQ – Kingsport, Tennessee – Week #4

Overall: 7.75

  • Atmosphere – 7
  • Service – 9
  • Portion/Value – 8
  • Taste – 6

John’s words, “BBQ Review: Broad Street BBQ, Kingsport, TN. Brisket was decent, the rest was just ok. Will do in a pinch, but probably one and done on this one. Super nice people though!”

That’s what he said.

Rounding out the rest…

Here are the rest of the BBQ joints that we visited along with their overall scores.

  • Hard Eight – 7.25
  • Spring Creek Barbeque – 7.25
  • Redd’s BBQ – 7.25
  • RIBBRO BBQ – 7.25
  • Iron Horse – 7
  • Lucille’s Smokehouse BBQ – 7
  • Texas Bar-B-Q Joint – 7
  • Fire Breather BBQ – 7
  • Smoque – 6.75
  • Sweet Lucy’s Smokehouse – 6.75
  • Red Coal BBQ – 6.75
  • Bad to the Bone BBQ – 6.75
  • Unkl Moe’s – 6.5
  • Hambone’s Smokehouse – 6.25
  • Shakedown BBQ – N/A (wasn’t open when it was supposed to be, wasted trip)

SecurityStudio Roadshow Summary

If you’re new, or you’re confused about this #S2Roadshow thing, start here (maybe).

Previous Week’s Recaps:

The purpose of the SecurityStudio Roadshow (#S2Roadhow) is to meet people and make partners. We want to meet people, understand their businesses, and help them grow using simple, fundamental, and compliant solutions (S2Score, S2Org, S2Vendor, and S2Team/S2Me).

Our mission is to fix the broken information security industry. Success requires collaboration, partnership, and transparency.

Next Week’s #S2Roadshow

John Harmon and I are off to Scottsdale, Arizona for a great Phoenix ISSA event this week. The weather doesn’t suck in the Phoenix in December!

If you’ve got any BBQ tips for the Phoenix area, let us know.

Stay tuned for next week’s #S2Roadshow updates. You can follow us on Twitter (@evanfrancen, @HarmonJohn, @StudioSecurity, and the #S2Roadshow hashtag) and on LinkedIn.

See you next week!