Meet the Man Who Supplies Wood to Your Favorite Texas Barbecue Joints

“I used to be embarrassed to say I sold firewood,” Javier Sanchez said. He and his father, Joel, own and operate Chief Firewood, in Smithville, an hour southeast of Austin, and supply wood to restaurants and barbecue joints as far away as Houston and Dallas. Sanchez grew up in the business his father founded in 1990, but he saw it as a last resort when he went searching for a career of his own.He was constructing metal buildings with his cousin when a chance conversation with a friend changed his mind. The friend asked why Sanchez was wasting his time working for someone else when he could be preparing to take over an established family business. “Those words hit me like a ton of bricks,”…

The post Meet the Man Who Supplies Wood to Your Favorite Texas Barbecue Joints appeared first on Texas Monthly.