Big B

Brandon Hurtado's business

Hurtado BBQ — Texas BBQ and Tex-Mex barbecue business

Brandon's wife / co-founder

Hannah Hurtado

How Hurtado BBQ started

Pop-ups at breweries around Arlington, Denton, and Fort Worth, starting 2018

Food truck launched

2019

First brick-and-mortar opened

February 2020, inside a 120-year-old former railroad station in downtown Arlington, weeks before COVID

Brandon's restaurant experience before Hurtado BBQ

None — he'd never worked in a restaurant before owning one

Brandon's education

UTA (University of Texas at Arlington), 2011, Public Relations

Brandon's business before BBQ

His own digital marketing agency, ANKR Agency

What Brandon says kept the business alive through COVID

His marketing background, not his cooking — pivoted to pre-orders, delivery, curbside

Personal roots of the food

Grew up on refried beans and tortillas; his dad grilled in the backyard

Signature dishes

Brisket birria tacos, brisket tostadas, Mexican cornbread — a Tex-Mex/Texas BBQ fusion

Number of brick-and-mortar locations

5 — Arlington, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Argyle

Argyle location status

Now open on US-377 (mid-2026), later than the original March 2026 target

Stadium presence

2 stands at Globe Life Field, home of the Texas Rangers

Loma

Brandon's first full-service restaurant, Tex-Mex, inside Choctaw Stadium

Loma's location

1011 Nolan Ryan Expressway — former El Tiempo Cantina space

Loma's opening date

April 2, 2026, the day before the Rangers' home opener

Loma's specialty

Wagyu fajitas plus Tex-Mex staples (salsa, queso, house tortillas)

Rangers partnership

Official Barbecue of the Texas Rangers since 2023 (their first World Series championship season)

2024 award

MLB Diverse Business Partner of the Year

Cookbook

"Barbacoa: The Heart of Tex-Mex Barbecue," published 2025, sold signed on his own Whatnot

Taylor Sheridan connection

Only Texas BBQ restaurant using Sheridan's 6666 Ranch beef; catered his Bosque Ranch during filming of Landman

Celebrity sighting

Billy Bob Thornton photographed eating Hurtado BBQ at Sheridan's ranch

Brandon's Whatnot handle

@bbqdaddyb — "the first to sell and ship BBQ on Whatnot"

What he sells on Whatnot

Wagyu, whole smoked briskets, signed cookbooks

Nationwide shipping platform

GoldBelly (unconfirmed if Whatnot orders route through the same pipeline)

Brandon's real personal Instagram

@eljefehurtado

Hurtado BBQ's business Instagram

@hurtadobbq, 362K followers

What makes his Whatnot inventory different from most resellers

It's cooked fresh for that specific show, not warehouse stock — no "reorder next week"

Why overselling matters more for him than most prospects

Promising a customer food that physically can't be remade that night is a worse failure than an oversold trading card

Why net-margin tracking is a strong fit for him

High cost-per-item products (Wagyu, whole briskets) where true profit after fees genuinely matters

Worked margin example to use live

$250 Wagyu sale, $180 cost, 7.2% Premier Shop commission, 2.9%+$0.30 processing = $42.45 true profit

Demo call date

Wednesday, August 26, 2026, 2:00 PM, 15 minutes

Real call opener to use

Ask how Loma is settling in ~5 months after its April 2 opening — specific and current, not generic

Real discovery question to lead with

How does he currently know how much of tonight's batch is left during a live show?