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Happy (belated) Thanksgiving – #S2Roashow BBQ Top 10

/in /by

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!

#S2Roadshow Recap – Week Eight

/in /by

Kansas City (MO) and Irvine (CA)

Monday was spent catching up in the office before heading off to Kansas City early Tuesday morning.

A day in Kansas City and three days in Orange County, California this week. Not bad!

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 full 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).

Kansas City, Missouri

The Roadshow officially started on early Tuesday morning with a five something AM flight to Kansas City. The primary purpose for making the trip back to Kansas City was an important meeting with Lockton, our awesome partner. We had four people visiting from our office; myself, John Harmon, Alex Titze, and Chris Dian. I took a earlier flight than the other guys, so my job was to get the car and come back to pick them up.

I was greeted in Kansas City by the happiest and most encouraging rental car bus driver you could imagine. Ross was great!

Got the car, grabbed a coffee (red eye) at Starbuck’s, then came back to the airport to pick up the guys. Love these guys!

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Lockton Meeting

The meeting with Lockton went great! We gave an introductory presentation to personnel in offices throughout the United States and discussed logistics about how we work together. Before heading back to the airport, we had to make a BBQ stop. This time we drove to Slaps BBQ (review below).

At the airport, we had great meeting with Chubb, a new potential partner. Chubb is reviewing the entire SecurityStudio platform, and seems most interested in using the S2Team/S2Me for their clients.

After this meeting, I was off to Irvine/Orange County, while the others headed back to Minneapolis.

Irvine, California

California is a beautiful place, that’s for sure! I had meetings with partners and potential partners while I was here, but things were low-key for the most part. Low-key is good when I have many days worth of email to catch-up on. The primary purpose for this visit was to preach at Webster University on Thursday evening.

My rental car was nicer than usual. Enterprise upgraded me (for no cost) to a Mercedes GL 320. If you know me, you know that I’m not a flashy guy who feels the need to drive a flashy car. At home, I drive a base model F250, so this is a change. A friend  told me that it looks like I’m driving a storm trooper helmet. Take a look at the picture below, yes?

John Harmon joined me on Thursday morning. We decided to check under the hood. Looks complicated.

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We had some extra time on Thursday afternoon, so we took in a few sights. Like I said earlier, California is a beautiful place!

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ISSA-OC

My talk is part of the “Cybersecurity Seminar Series”, a joint effort of ISSA of Orange County and Webster University. I wasn’t scheduled to be there until 6:00(ish) PM, so we made a stop at an In-N-Out Burger on the way. On all my travels, this was my first ever experience with an In-N-Out Burger. I can’t believe what I’d been missing!

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We arrived on time (yay us!) and were greeted by the event organizer, Dr. Brian Dozer. Brian is the Director at Webster University and the ISSA Program Director. Super cool and nice guy! The facility was great, the audience was great, and we met some great people here!

Here’s a copy of my slide deck. Use it (or not) in any manner you wish! I added a slide to the usual deck, a simple challenge for audience members to get a free copy of my book. The challenge is to solve a simple monoalphabetic substitution cipher of one of Robby Bragg’s poems. If you don’t know (or remember), Robby was a wonderful person who used to work at FRSecure before he tragically took his own life on May 17th, 2018. I keep Robby’s memory alive on the #S2Roadshow by highlighting the need to address mental health issues head-on. The slides with Robby’s tribute and the challenge are pictured below.

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After giving the talk, it was back to the hotel. More meetings on Friday, then back to Minneapolis Friday afternoon. Another great trip!

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.

Four BBQ reviews this week. One in Kansas City (Slaps BBQ) and three in California (Fire Breather BBQ, RIBBRO BBQ, and Bad to the Bone BBQ). Reviews below!

Slaps BBQ – https://slapsbbqkc.com/ – 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.

Fire Breather BBQ – http://www.firebreatherbbq.com/ – Overall: 7

  • Atmosphere – 6, there wasn’t anything special about this place. It was located in a strip mall type setting and sort of felt like fast food.
  • Service – 7, average(ish). The staff was courteous and helpful, but nothing special.
  • Portion/Value – 8, definitely above average. Again, I got my fill and I didn’t have to mortgage my house for it.
  • Taste – 7, the brisket had a great fat cap on it, and it was an excellent cut of meat, but there was no smoke ring at all. It was hard to taste the smoke flavor in the other meat too (pulled pork).

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Overall, I could take it or leave it. I’d stop here again if I was driving by, but I wouldn’t go out of my way for this place.

RIBBRO BBQ – https://www.ribbrobbq.com/ – Overall: 7.25

  • Atmosphere – 8, This BBQ joint is also located in a strip mall setting, but they did a great job making it feel homey. Classic country music playing on the sound system seemed to round out a good atmosphere.
  • Service – 6, service was less than great. There were three people working here when we arrived and they were all busy trying to fill a catering order, which made the wait longer than it should have been. They were really nice people though!
  • Portion/Value – 7, the price was OK for what you get.
  • Taste – 8, the taste was definitely above average, but not great. The brisket was nice and moist. The ribs were good, but had some sort of weird spice in the dry rub. I couldn’t put a finger on what the spice was, and I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not.

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John was VERY hungry after he got off the plane from Minneapolis, so we got here right when they opened. The service (which was what scored the lowest) might have been better if we’d gotten there a little later in the day.

Bad to the Bone BBQ – https://www.badtothebone-bbq.com/ – Overall: 6.75

  • Atmosphere – 8, this place felt like a BBQ joint on the one hand and a little like a sports bar on the other. Overall, the atmosphere was very good.
  • Service – 7, nothing special about the service. You order at the counter, grab a number, then wait for someone to bring your food.
  • Portion/Value – 5, the worst part about this place was the price for what you get. Even by California standards, this was too costly.
  • Taste – 7, the taste was good, but they put sauce on my meat. I don’t like sauce on my meat unless I’m the one putting it on.

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I was expecting better, but maybe that’s what I get for having expectations. I probably wouldn’t visit this place again, primarily for the value/price factor.

BBQ Summary

Four new BBQ joints to add to our list. This was an OK BBQ week. The winner this week was Slaps BBQ (Kansas City). Pecan Lodge is still on top as the overall #S2Roadshow leader with a score of 9, and Bowlegged BBQ is still in the #2 spot. The current overall standings are listed below.

NOTE: I’ll organize this list with links to the reviews next week.

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

  • Pecan Lodge – 9
  • Bowlegged BBQ – 8.75
  • Divine Swine – 8.5
  • 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

No trip planned this week. We’re taking the week off for Thanksgiving. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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!

#S2Roadshow Recap – Week Seven

/in /by

Rochester (NY), Kansas City (MO), and Sacramento (CA)

A good week that started with serving a great FRSecure customer in Rochester before heading off to preach in Kansas City and Sacramento. This was the first week that we ran into a person (or group of people) who epitomized something that’s wrong with our industry. Read on.

SecurityStudio Roadshow Summary

If you’re new, or you’re confused about this #S2Roadshow thing, start here (maybe). It’s hard to believe that each week gets better, but it’s true, it does! Week #6 (this one) was the best yet.

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.

This is the first time we’ve done three cities in one week! It was tough, but very rewarding. The week started of in Rochester to work with a long-time FRSecure customer, then west to Kansas City (Greater Kansas City ISACA Chapter), then further west to Sacramento (Sacramento Valley ISSA Chapter).

Ryan Abraham from FRSecure joined me in Rochester. John Harmon was with me in Kansas City and Sacramento.

BBQ Reviews

In full 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).

Rochester, New York

Flew to Rochester on Sunday evening. The week started off with some customer project work. I don’t get to work on many customer projects anymore, and I miss it sometimes. This project is a big one, and it requires the development of a new methodology (or two). Sort of cool. Here’s what I can tell you…

  • There are numerous projects.
  • Two of the projects include SecurityStudio products; S2Org and S2Team.
  • We’re putting together a board presentation for S2Org and their S2Score.
  • The customer wants to take the S2Org, S2Score, S2Team, and one of the new methodologies we developed to their group of other like companies. This could become a really big deal!

Honestly, these are some of my favorite people in the security business! We got a ton of work done and collaborated on some very cool things.

Ryan Abraham has worked at FRSecure for a couple of years now, and this is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to work on anything together. It was awesome! Ryan’s an incredible asset to FRSecure, our customers, and this industry. Had a great time getting a bunch of work done and preaching the good (security) news.

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We nabbed some good BBQ at Dinosaur BBQ in Rochester (twice, review below).

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It snowed 8(ish) inches while we were in Rochester. First snow storm of the year for me.

Got back to the Twin Cities late on Tuesday night. On to Kansas City Wednesday.

Kansas City, Missouri

The purpose of the trip to Kansas City is to meet with the local ISACA chapter and spread some love. Met John Harmon at the airport and we were off to Kansas City. On the way, we decided that we both needed a new pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones. Impulse buy, but these things are awesome!

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John and I landed in Kansas City, grabbed our rental car, then got down to business. By business, I mean find BBQ. The rental car bus driver told us we had to try Q39, so that’s what we did (review below). After BBQ, I texted my Mexican son (long story that I’ll share in person if you find me), Officer Salinas of the Lenexa Police Department. We found him on patrol and hung out with him until he got a call he had to get to. I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of this guy! He’s amazing.

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Finished the day in Kansas City with some frozen yogurt (froyo) before checking in at the hotel and getting work done. You know, the real work.

Greater Kansas City ISACA Chapter

We met up with the great people who represent the Greater Kansas City ISACA Chapter on Thursday at the University of Kansas Edwards Campus. The venue was beautiful, and the people were even better. Preached the normal(ish) sermon about fixing our broken information security language problem, and encouraged everyone to get their free SecurityStudio account and complete their free  S2Org and S2Me assessments. Yes, they’re completely free!

My sermon has evolved a bit. The (newish) agenda goes from housekeeping (introduction) to the meat (our language, simplification, and fundamentals problem) to the dream (securing America) to the call to action (get our assessments, give us feedback by being part of our community, and preach). If you haven’t heard it yet, come get me. I’ll preach to you too!

I made some new friends including (but not limited to) J.J., Jennifer, Brian, Joan, and Beth. Seriously awesome people! They all stand out, and J.J. Widener is a champ. His support for what we’re doing is super helpful and appreciated! This guy gets it.

Here’s some pictures that John took at the event.

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After the ISACA talk, we headed out for more BBQ and the airport. Last stop before heading home this week was Sacramento. The weather there doesn’t suck.

Sacramento, California

This turned out to be a quick stop for us. We arrived at 1am (local time) Friday, got some rest at the hotel, gave our talk at the Sacramento Valley ISSA chapter meeting, and got back on a plane for a long flight back to the Twin Cities. No BBQ, which was sort of sad, but I don’t know what kind of BBQ they have in Sacramento anyway.

Sacramento Valley ISSA

This was a relatively small gathering, and one where we hit our first snag on the SecurityStudio Roadshow. Seven weeks in, and our first snag, not bad! Here’s the deal.

We make numerous points in our Roadshow presentation, and two key points are #1, we need to simplify information security for “normal” people and #2, we need to get much better on agreeing what the hell it is we do as a profession. We learned the first point based on what “normal” people have told us after asking ~1,000 of them in a survey and through experience. Yes, we asked people what they think instead of telling them what they think. Big difference!

We learned the second point through basic logic.

The snag came not because the points are invalid, but because we had someone in the audience who liked to think that he was the smartest person in the room.

On point #1. We asked almost 1,000 “normal” people (business people and people who don’t do information security for a living) what we (information security people) can do to make information security more useful, and what we can do to serve them better. Once we received their answers, we made a word map of the raw data (see pic below). The most common word in their answers was “simple”. We need to make information security more simple. This is a good thing because complexity is the enemy of information security (thank you Bruce Schneier).

On this point, most people in this audience agreed (based upon their head nodding and facial expressions); however, I could already sense trouble brewing from the person I alluded to above.

My talk then goes on to tackle an issue that simplification requires a common agreement among security professionals. We will never effectively translate our language to “normal” people’s language until we agree on our language first. Logical, right? Let’s start with the most basic issue at hand, what is “information security”? We should all be able to agree on this fundamental definition. Things started to get sideways here.

Information Security is… (the question posed to the audience). Most audiences give some definitions, then I offer mine. Not that mine is the end all, be all.

I go on. Information Security is managing risk. On this point, I haven’t received disagreement from anyone before, but our guy starts starts chiming in. He doesn’t chime in from an angle of disagreement, but more to add his two cents.

Next. Information Security is NOT eliminating risk, despite what some people think. General agreement on this point too, but our guy still has to add his two cents.

Next. Information Security is NOT compliance, despite the fact that most information security dollars are spent from this motivator. Now our guy feels the need to completely sidetrack the conversation and before we know it, we’re deep in a rabbit hole.

It took almost full hour to get to what I was hoping would be our common definition of information security as “managing risk to unauthorized disclosure, alteration, and/or destruction of information using administrative, physical, and technical controls“. It’s not so much that our guy disagreed with the definition or (God-forbid) gave us an alternative definition as much as his deep desire to be the smartest guy in the room. I called him out for this during the presentation (whether I should have or not is debatable) and it got tense, but whatever. You call it like you see it.

Eventually, we got through the presentation. Due to the monopolization of time, we didn’t have any left for visiting afterwards. We had to run immediately after the talk to catch our flight back to the Twin Cities.

Here’s what I learned from this talk:

  • Everyone is entitled to their opinions.
  • There is a time and a place for opinions and wasting everyone’s time is not the place for your opinions.
  • I could have done a much better job of controlling the dialog during my talk.
  • As long as we’re all fighting to be the smartest guy in the room, we’ll never solve our industry’s problems.
  • Once you choose your hill to die on, you will probably die on that hill.

Made it back safe and sound in Minneapolis. Overall, it was an incredible week!

BBQ Reviews

Three BBQ reviews this week. Three is better than two, which is all we got in the previous few weeks. Our BBQ visits this week included Dinosaur BBQ in Rochester, Q39 in Overland Park, and Iron Horse BBQ in Platte City.

Dinosaur BBQ – https://www.dinosaurbarbque.com/rochester/ – 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!

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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!

Q39 – https://q39kc.com/ – 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!

Iron Horse BBQ – no website – Overall: 7.0

  • Atmosphere – 5, I’m not a big fan of the strip mall BBQ joint vibe, so this was a downer.
  • Service – 9, great service! These guys gave us some free burnt ends and came out from behind the counter to visit with us. Really cool people here!
  • Portion/Value – 8, very reasonably priced for large portions of food.
  • Taste – 6, the taste was too bland and overall disappointing.

We were in a bit of a rush after the ISACA talk, but we had to fit in one more BBQ visit before we left. It’s Kansas City for crying out loud!

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We’ll give these guys the benefit of the doubt. I think they recently moved into this new location, and I don’t think they’ve gotten completely settled yet. It’s worth trying again some time in the future, but it might be hard to get back here given all the awesome BBQ joints in Kansas City.

No promises.

BBQ Summary

Three new BBQ joints to add to our list. This was a good BBQ week. The winner this week was Dinosaur BBQ (Rochester). Pecan Lodge is still on top as the overall #S2Roadshow leader with a score of 9, and Bowlegged BBQ is still in the #2 spot. The current overall standings are listed below.

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

  • Pecan Lodge – 9
  • Bowlegged BBQ – 8.75
  • Divine Swine – 8.5
  • Dinosaur BBQ – 8.25
  • Big Ed’s BBQ – 8.25
  • Mission 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
  • Iron Horse – 7
  • Lucille’s Smokehouse BBQ – 7
  • Texas Bar-B-Q Joint – 7
  • Smoque – 6.75
  • Sweet Lucy’s Smokehouse – 6.75
  • Red Coal 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 less busy week, but still a great one planned. The Roadshow starts on Tuesday with another visit to Kansas City, then it’s on to Webster University in Irvine, California. We’re giving the standard sermon at a joint seminar between Webster University, ISSA, ISACA, and OWASP. Pretty pumped!

Looking forward to another great week!

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!

#S2Roadshow Recap – Week Six

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Fargo, ND and Rochester, NY

If you’re new, or you’re confused about this #S2Roadshow thing, start here (maybe). It’s hard to believe that each week gets better, but it’s true, it does! Week #6 (this one) was the best yet.

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.

John and I spent half the week together and the other half in separate towns.

BBQ Reviews

In full 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).

Fargo, North Dakota

If you’ve never been to Fargo in November, you’ve got to give it a try sometime. You can visit Bonanzaville USA, the Fargo Air Museum, or you could come to do what we did, attend Network Center’s nVision conference. We left on Tuesday for the 3-1/2 hour drive to Fargo, and got there just in time for the vendor social hour.

Network Center is a great company, and we’re big fans. It helps that they’re a trusted SecurityStudio partner.

On my trip up north, I was joined by three of my favorite SecurityStudio people; John Harmon, Justin Kallberg, and Steve Krause (all pictured below).

nVision 2019

We’ve been at the nVision conference for years now, and this one was the best yet. There were 500+ people packed into the Fargo Holiday Inn Conference Center, all there to learn and network together. Of course, there were plenty of vendor booths there (including ours – below) too.

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There were so many incredible people at this event, and it was great catching up with people I hadn’t seen in a while. After spending a few hours hanging out with cool people, I gave my talk on the main stage at 1:00. I changed my talk at the last minute (as per usual) and decided to give the “How do we secure America” sermon that I developed the week prior.

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The place was packed and the audience was amazing! We hung out at our booth afterwards and gave out a whole box of UNSECURITY books for free. I met countless awesome people, including Zoe Bundy (pictured below with her brother Grover), Frank LaLonde (from Nativity Church of Fargo – also pictured below), John Nagel (Cybernet Security), and Larry Schwab (Discovery Benefits CISO).

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One person who stands out from the rest is Zoe. She’s incredible, and she’s the founder of Brainy Ladies. Brainy Ladies is a cool organization with an awesome purpose; “We help young girls find their inner genius by helping them remain interested in STEM.” I met Zoe for the first time at last year’s nVision conference, and it was wonderful to see her again. Read her story here, and tell me you’re not impressed! I’ll get her on the UNSECURITY Podcast one of these days, hopefully soon.

nVision was a great conference. Sadly, we didn’t have time to grab any BBQ in Fargo. Curious, is there any good BBQ in Fargo? The platter of bacon laid out at the nVision lunch buffet will have to do.

Rochester, New York

Made it back to the Twin Cities early enough to grab five hours of sleep before catching my 5:15am flight to Rochester. I have an affinity for Rochester because one of my favorite customers (@FRsecure) is Excellus BlueCross BlueShield. Funny thing is (sort of), I’ll be back in Rochester to do some work for Excellus the following week.

The purpose for this particular visit was to attend and present at the Rochester ISSA chapter meeting being held on Thursday night.

Two trips to Rochester in five days. Weird.

First thing after landing in Rochester was to find BBQ. Took out my phone, opened my Apple Map and typed “BBQ”. The closest BBQ joint that looked legit was Unkl Moe’s BBQ & Catering at 493 West Ave (review below). That’ll do.

After BBQ, it was time for an early check-in at the hotel and a short nap.

Rochester ISSA

The Rochester ISSA meeting started at 6:00pm, and I was almost late. I started doing some work in the hotel and got a little caught up in it. The meeting was held at the offices of Nixon Peabody, a nice law firm located at 1300 Clinton Square. Guess what they had catered in? BBQ! Before the meeting started, we enjoyed some Dinosaur BBQ (one of my favorites in Rochester) while we got to know each other.

The meeting was great! Attendance was good, participation was awesome, and they let me preach for a full hour and a half. I preached about mental health, getting our industry’s security #*(! together, and civic duties for security people. Great talk and discussion!

Gave away a few books, and headed back to the hotel at 10:00pm. Ray Feldman left me a nice shoutout before I got back.

Most of the day Friday was spent at Starbucks catching up on email and other things that I’d neglected over the week. Tried another BBQ joint before heading to the airport, Texas Bar-B-Q Joint in Spencerport (review below).

Overall, this was another great week. Met a ton of new and wonderful people!

BBQ Reviews

Only two BBQ reviews again. We still need to step up our game.

Unkl Moe’s BBQ & Catering – no website – Overall: 6.5

Hard to believe that I didn’t nab any BBQ this week until Thursday after getting off the plane in Rochester. It is what it is. I chose Unkl Moe’s because it was the closest BBQ joint to the Rochester airport and it got fairly good reviews.

I walked in the front door and the smokey smell hit me nicely. The inside of this place reminded me of a small town southern diner with most of the seats occupied by regulars. My hopes were high. I bellied up to the counter, grabbed a menu, and ordered the BBQ ribs and pulled pork platter (choosing french fries and cabbage as my sides).

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Sadly, I was a little disappointed by the place, except for the conversations I had with the regulars. One conversation in particular was great! While eating, I struck up a conversation with a retired OTR trucker named Howard and we talked about all sorts of things; politics, his hometown in Georgia, etc.

The food definitely wasn’t the best thing about this place. The pulled pork had a nice texture, but the flavor was missing. The ribs were OK, but they were smothered in sauce. I’d go back to this place for the conversation, but not the food.

Texas Bar-B-Q Joint (Spencerport) – https://www.bbqrochester.com/spencerport – Overall: 7.00

I didn’t realize that this was a small chain of BBQ joints until I sat down to write this. This was my first trip to Spencerport and I was excited to try this place. The reviews were good and I felt like I could almost taste the pictures online.

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Walked in and ordered my food at the bar (sliced brisket, pulled pork, and sausage with macaroni and cheese and steamed vegetables for sides). The guy taking my order was helpful, and I took my seat at one of the open booths in the corner. This joint looked very promising and the it smelled amazing. It was lunch time and there were maybe eight people in the place.

It didn’t take long before I realized how cold it was. They must have had the thermostat set at 60! Whatever, I blew it off. I came here for some meat.

The cook called my name, and I jumped to grab my tray. I was excited and hungry. Turned out, I was also a little disappointed. Everything was OK, but nothing was exceptional. The portions were good. The pulled pork was a little watery. The brisket was OK, but it was cut too thick and it wasn’t smokey enough. The best part of the meal was sadly the macaroni and cheese.

Remember how I said the place was cold? A cold BBQ joint makes things suck more. This is because the meat on your plate starts cooling off too quickly and by the time you’re getting towards the end, the meat is cold, dry, and chewy.

The BBQ wasn’t bad. Just not sure I’ll be back. Maybe in the summer.

BBQ Summary

Again, two new BBQ joints to add to our list. This was a disappointing BBQ week. The winner was Texas Bar-B-Q Joint (Spencerport, NY). Pecan Lodge easily retains it’s top place as overall #S2Roadshow leader with a score of 9, and Bowlegged BBQ is still in the #2 spot. The current overall standings are listed below.

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

  • Pecan Lodge – 9
  • Bowlegged BBQ – 8.75
  • Divine Swine – 8.5
  • Big Ed’s BBQ – 8.25
  • Mission BBQ – 8
  • 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
  • Lucille’s Smokehouse BBQ – 7
  • Texas Bar-B-Q Joint – 7
  • Smoque – 6.75
  • Sweet Lucy’s Smokehouse – 6.75
  • Red Coal 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

This is a crazy week. I’ll be back in Rochester, NY on Monday and Tuesday, flying back to Kansas City, MO on Wednesday, then out to Sacramento, CA. John joins me in Kansas City and Sacramento.

I’m pumped about Kansas City BBQ, but I’m there to talk with members of Greater Kansas City ISACA Chapter . This will be a good meeting for sure. Some of the members have been hyping it up online.

On Friday, I’m speaking at the Sacramento Valley ISSA meeting. I’m excited to meet a bunch of cool people, but I’m also excited about the weather!

Looking forward to another great week!

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!