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♪♪ ♪♪ >> We're in the kitchen with Chef Bryan from Mellie Bellies, and he's cooking up some good, old Southern barbecue.

Hope you're hungry.

♪♪ ♪♪ Chef Bryan, thanks for having us here in your kitchen on wheels.

Tell me.

What is your specialty?

What do you like to make?

>> Anything that's kind of smoked obviously is my specialty.

So, anywhere from, like, beef brisket to beef short ribs to some Southern classics like shrimp and grits.

>> Tell me about this name.

I know it has a special meaning for you.

>> Definitely.

It means something near and dear to my family's heart.

I named the business after my daughter Melanie, our daughter Melanie Brynn Sanders, who passed away in 2016.

It's just to me and my heart that kind of keeps me going every day.

For my mission to, like, give back and give love through food to people helps me kind of, you know, keep her on my mind every single day.

So, she's almost like my natural battery pack.

I tell everybody that, that when you think about giving up, or if I think about giving up, I always think about her.

Then, you know, somehow I just miraculously get this spurt of energy.

So, the business is named after our daughter Melanie.

Was a very tragic thing that happened.

I took the opportunity to kind of, you know, reset myself and my core values as what I wanted to be and what I wanted to do.

Took some time away from Pennsylvania and moved down South with my wife.

While I was down there, I got involved with some nice older chefs who kind of put me on game about smoking authentically.

And I knew for a fact that we didn't have that sort of thing back here in Harrisburg.

So, I took that time to, like, okay, took what I already knew and what I already grasped onto and brought that back home.

And here we have it, Mellie Bellies on wheels.

>> I love that.

You found your passion.

>> Yes.

>> That is awesome.

Well, Chef Bryan, what are we making today?

>> Oh, okay.

So, yeah, I know everybody has been dying to kind of see how I make my Mellie's Mac.

I used to do only, like, four cheeses.

Now I do a 6-cheese blend that's already in there.

Top obviously ones are the Gouda, smoked Gouda cheese, and sharp cheddar are my first two go-to cheeses that I incorporate into the sauce.

So, I use a cavatappi pasta now, which is the swirly one.

That type of pasta soaks up the cheese sauce, and it kind of like, when you bite into it, it stays there.

It's like everlasting.

So, that's the reason why I kind of transferred over to that and wanted to use that.

So, now with the mac packs, even if you have it to go, if you eat it like a couple hours later, you're eating it, the cheese sauce is still there.

It looks like it's not sometimes, but it's still there.

I promise you.

Once you get that sauce nice and bubbly, like, as so -- obviously I smoke all my briskets and beef short ribs right around 10 to 14 hours.

Beef brisket goes a little bit longer, to about 18.

Today we're going to use beef brisket as far as burnt ends go.

Once you get your sauce hot and while it's already bubbling like that, start working on your protein, which now in our case would be the beef brisket.

So, you want obviously dice it up.

I'm a guy who is all about presentation, so knife cuts have to be right, and as far as adding smoke, authentically smoked garlic nuggets in there, as well.

♪♪ But once we start caramelizing the brisket and the garlic in there...

I'm going to hit it with some house red wine.

While you're doing that, it's time to add your cooked pasta to your cheese sauce.

okay?

That cheese sauce will be nice and thick for you.

The last step to that or cheese ingredient I would add would be some cheese.

This is sharp cheddar.

It's going to give you more of a color and more of that zing when you bite into it that everybody always enjoys and looks for.

Then my house smoked, thick barbecue sauce.

This is gonna give you that nice kind of like sugary, if not savory, texture to it when you bite into it, almost like candy.

But, at the same time, it's dinner.

Obviously, I hit everything with my courtesy blends of seasoning, Southern soul seasonings.

And that would be good to go.

>> So, do you remember when you first discovered that you loved to cook?

>> I do, actually.

It goes all the way back into -- all my friends will say this, too.

Back in the days of high school, when I had everybody over to the house and my mom wasn't home, and it's in the summertime, and she would buy, like, a week's worth of groceries, and everything would be gone within three days because I had all my friends over, and I was cooking food and snacks while we were playing video games.

So, it had to have been around, like, 10 or 11 is when I kind of knew that, hey, this is exactly what I wanted to do.

>> That's awesome.

That's a good friend to have, right?

>> Yeah.

>> The one that makes you food.

>> They still talk about that till this day.

Take your fries into the box.

Put the mac right on top.

>> That's amazing.

>> Then we want to take those burnt ends, right on top of that, okay?

And what everybody always sees online with all my finished products is more of the smoked, thick barbecue sauce, your finishing sauce.

>> Why a food truck?

Why did you decide on a food truck?

>> It was always my goal or, like, dream to to experience that.

Obviously, even with COVID happening, dining was just fading away.

So, it was a no-brainer to keep 100% mobile.

>> What's the journey been like to get here?

When you look around and see your truck here, what...?

>> It's definitely been some hard work.

If anybody has told you that it's not hard work, then, you know, somebody's telling a fib somewhere.

But the hardest days sometimes is something that I kind of live.

I can feel in my bones.

That's what I was meant to do, you know, to go through that.

But once you come on out to the other side and you get commended and people are giving you high reviews on the things that you love to do, that's something that I, you know, look forward to.

And that kind of gives me the reminder of why I do it, obviously, besides, you know, my daughter Melanie.

Just making people happy through the food that I produce is something that, you know, I look forward to.

>> Well, I think this looks delicious.

We should probably get to eating it.

What do you think?

>> Definitely.

Definitely.

>> This is delicious.

>> Thank you.

>> So good.

Thank you for sharing this with us today.

It's just amazing.

I've loved all the stories you've shared with us, and it's been a great time.

>> From what everybody always tells me and, I mean, obviously how much effort I put into all the food, they always say when you bite into it, you can feel the love that you put or incorporated into making whatever you're making.

>> Definitely.

>> I don't ever want to get rid of that.

That's why I always have to be, like, hands on, on everything.

So, I want to make sure everything is consistent, and I want to make sure that everybody has that bite of love every single time.

>> Well, Chef Bryan, we have loved our time in the kitchen with you.

>> Thank you.

>> Cheers.

>> Cheers.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> We're behind the bar with Jen from Bar 1888 inside Southern Market, and she's making their signature cocktail.

Hope you're thirsty.

♪♪ Hi, Jen.

How are you?

>> I'm doing well.

How are you?

>> Nice to see you.

>> Nice to see you.

♪♪ >> Alright, so, Jen, what are we going to be preparing today?

>> Today we're going to be preparing one of our house-signature cocktails, the Pardon My French.

I think it really showcases what we do here and our style, which is a lot of reimagining of old classic cocktails.

>> Nice.

I love it.

Alright.

Well, let's get started.

>> Cool.

Alright, so we're going to start off.

We like to batch a lot of ingredients here just to sort of ease the preparation of the things.

There's a lot that goes into these on the back end.

And I'm going to start with a little citrus, which really helps round out this drink, brightens it up, and then what is prepared in this bottle?

We are making a persimmon liqueur in-house, so you get a lot of those lovely fruit notes.

>> Nice.

>> And then a blend of herbal liqueurs that we're using and some Armagnac, which is cognac made in the Armagnac region, single distillation, really smooth, rich.

This cocktail is beautiful.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> Like a pro -- I love it.

[ Both laugh ] When you first started, did you have a couple mishaps when you tried to do that?

>> I think maybe throughout my career, once or twice I've thrown a shaker.

Proud to say nobody's been hurt.

I haven't made too much of a mess, but it happens.

>> So, when did you first discover that you liked mixing?

>> I have been bartending at this point for quite some time, thirteen years, actually.

And I started out in what we like to call the "spill 'em and thrill 'em" kind of bars.

Over the years, I think just my fascination with everything that goes on behind the scenes led me to a lot of self-study, and it's brought me to this point in my career.

>> So, yeah, it really is an art, would you say?

>> Yeah.

>> Creating.

>> Yeah.

>> Alright, it looks lovely.

I'm going to go ahead and try it and see what I think.

It's delicious.

It's very tasty.

So, Jen, what do you want to do from from this point on?

Do you picture yourself, you know, creating these beautiful drinks?

>> I see this as something that I will continue to do probably for the rest of my life, whether that be professionally or at home.

It's something that will always remain with me.

>> Absolutely.

And what do you love so much about it?

>> I think the story is in the history behind everything that goes into a bottle, just capturing like the terroir of the land and gathering these herbs and these fruits and these things that go into then a distillation process.

And it all has this unique imprint, this unique taste.

It's really fun.

And through that, there's so many things that can be created for us to enjoy.

>> Absolutely.

A bar is really a place that brings people together, would you say?

>> For sure.

>> Yeah.

>> The best place that brings people together.

>> I love that.

Well, we've loved our time behind the bar with you today.

Thank you so much for having us.

>> Yeah, it was lovely to host you all.

>> Alright, I'm going to have another sip of this drink.

It's beautiful.

I love that little rose petal.

Cheers!

♪♪ ♪♪ >> For more from Mosaic, please like and subscribe to the channel or check out another video.

To help support this project, please visit WITF.org/mosaic.

Get out of your Internet rut with Mosaic, a new YouTube channel from WITF, a break from the usual mind-numbing nonsense.

You'll find amazing music, beautiful art, and a variety of inspirational creators -- calm in a crazy world.

If you're subscribed to WITF, you'll want to be subscribed to Mosaic.