From Brick & Mortar to On the Go

Written by: Kari Snow

Paul Leal (lee-owl), Retired U.S. Army Veteran, started his journey as a barbeque expert in La Vernia, TX around January 2015. He opened what he likes to call a “glorified concession stand” in a popluar park that hosted plenty of events. Now, he runs a catering business out of his home with his wife, Lori Leal.

Leal decided he wanted to open a BBQ company when he retired since he spent most of his time cooking and had plenty of people encouraging him to start charging for it. He named it “Loyal Texan BBQ” with the intention to have a personal touch in his business without it being called “Paul Leal BBQ”. Translating from Spanish, Leal translates to “loyal” and being based in TX, it gave Leal the opportunity to call it its current name while still having that personal touch.

When Leal opened the brick and mortar in La Vernia, he had roughly six employees helping him out each day. His days would start early in the morning, around 5-6am and wouldn’t end until 1-2am on nights that concerts were held. After a year of running the brick and mortar, Leal and his wife decided to close that location down and switch to catering only. Leal believes that having started his business in a brick and mortar was the only reason he enjoys running the catering side of things now. He stated, “Were you able to learn and pull enough information from your experience to make yourself grow? That’s what I define success as”, in a recent interview. Leal saw the overhead costs drop significantly when he was able to plan for how much food and supplies he would need per catering event rather than guessing how much foot traffic he would experience in La Vernia and running the risk of purchasing too much product.

He is planning on finding an efficent way of preparing, packing and shipping his products. Most of his events are lunches, and his day of cooking starts around 7am and he’s on the road by 10am. He now services San Antonio and Ausin, TX, but has no limitations on how far he will travel to do a catering for a Veteran or Active Duty member. He partners with Reforged and provides meals for the students.