06/20/2026
Helllo Smoked Love and All of Bastrop! It’s been a Mighty Long time since our last update so this will be a bit long but will catch you up to date! First I want to thank everyone who has reached out to me to check on me and Smoked Love in my absence from the public eye. As some of y’all may know I started Smoked Love as a Test Kitchen concept to see how the genreral Public enjoyed my food. The Responses kept coming back positive and decided to spend the next year or so building on that and figuring out how to open a business/food truck, and Smoked Love was born! The idea was simple, bring unique Smoked dishes to our community while giving back to our community. Food is love and why we named it Smoked Love. Smoke dishes for everyone from vegans, vegetarians, gluten-free, dairy free, seed oil free, and of course, meats on meats for the meatatarians. I never expected the community show up as big as they did and I am forever grateful for that. I worked with the Bastrop Police Department city of Bastrop, children’s advocacy center of Bastrop, lots of non profits, the local food pantry, other amazing chefs all over the city, Bastrop pride, Bastrop Juneteenth, and just about any other group of people looking to get fed. The growth was beyond my dreams, but also an extreme amount of work. I was pulling 18 to 20 hour days seven days a week for years and eventually it caught up with me. I battled through carpal tunnel and the sleepless nights caused from the pain. I woke up screaming from hamstrings and calves pulling in the middle of the night, extreme back pain from previous injuries flaring up so badly. Yet I still fought through all of this because at the end of the day it was still easier than being an alcoholic. For those that don’t know I am a recovered alcoholic, who has dealt with mental health issues, my entire adult life. After my final relapse around five years ago, I came out of the hospital knowing that was the last time I would ever touch a drink again. I went all in on Smoked Love and got to work on my sobriety and business. After four years of public and private chefing, I finally reached a point where the pain, exhaustion and mental anguish was starting to match that of my alcoholic days and I knew something had to change. I knew I needed to get a crew underneath me to help take Smoked Love to a storefront. I started working on building that team and found some fantastic people to help me make that happen along with investors to help fund it but by the time this all happened the price of my monthly cost had doubled and prices for supplies, food, rent, taxes, and everything just kept going up. It was time to take a hard look at the future of Smoked Love and myself as I wasn’t doing well physically nor the economy and prices of things continue to rise (don’t get me started on prime briskets). Having worked in the service industry for 20+ years I’ve seen exactly how all this can go and how quickly things can change. With repeat private clients, I decided to pull my food truck from the public (really kicked out by food court owners for not being open all the time) and focus on private events only last year as this allowed more free time with my family, myself and cut waste both on food and money sides of things. I had a private clients on monthly gigs and things were going great until one night I fainted from overworking and not taking care of myself. I hit my head on the bathtub on the way down woke up with a concussion and vomited. I felt like I was right back in the exhausted state and decided it was time for a break and Recovery. While I continue to Chef I’ve decided to sell Smoked Love or the trailer, both of the trailer pits and large catering pit, all catering equipment, and restaurant equipment. This decision has not come easy and wish I hadn’t destroyed my body in the first place when I was an alcoholic, but the past is the past and I am where I am today because of all of my trials and tribulations. I plan on hosting one last party to sell all of these items as a whole or individually if there isn’t any interest in buying the entire business. I want to thank each and every one of you who ate at Smoked Love, helped support my journey through sobriety and especially those who showed up every single week We were open for years! Y’all are some amazing people and we’ll never be forgotten. To my fellow food truck owners at the food court, I love y’all and miss y’all and know that you hold a special place in my heart but it’s hard to visit. Please go support your local businesses as more and more corporate crap shows up in our town before they’re all gone and all you’re left with is eating Cisco served in different ways. Be on the lookout for our post about when we have the sale as I plan on doing one last cookout for free for all of you! Thank you Bastrop for the experiences the friendships, the support, and most of all for the LOVE! I will continue to do some private gigs only and if interested please contact me at [email protected] for now. Thanks again y’all! 🖤
For the love of BBQ and our community
-Thomas
