How to Watch
The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys airs on Bravo on Mondays at 9/8c. Episodes available next day on Peacock.
Right in the middle of harvest season, Steven McBee Jr. was cooking up another plan to bring in enough money to cover his family farm’s debts: brisket.
The McBee farm’s financial troubles have been no secret on Season 2 of The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys. “You know more than anyone else the precarious situation we’re in with the businesses,” Steven confided in McBee Farm & Cattle Co.’s CFO Galyna Saltkovska on Season 2, Episode 6. “How it’s going to take our absolute best to try to make it out of the hole that we’re in.”
Steven decided to strike a deal with a well-known Kansas City, Missouri barbecue spot.
“Arthur Bryant’s is Kansas City’s best barbecue. This contract has been months in the making. A lot of work. A lot of stress,” he said, but then revealed there was a problem. “And we’re off to the worst possible start.”
Steven McBee Jr. reveals what went wrong with the company’s brisket deal
On a call with his brothers Cole McBee and Jesse McBee, Steven shared that he was off to visit the owner of Arthur Bryant’s.
“I thought they wanted [the briskets] trimmed, because they said they didn’t want to touch them with a knife, but we may have cut too much fat off of it,” Steven explained. “He later added, “This is a six-figure contract. I gotta fix it now.”
Steven stressed just how important this deal was to the future of the McBee Farm & Cattle Company.
“This is…what could be, and what was supposed to be, the biggest deal we’ve had thus far at the meat facility,” he confessed. “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to keep this deal together.”
Steven and Arthur Bryant’s came up with an agreement for “12-pound briskets,” and a delivery of “anywhere between 60 to 80 boxes a week.” But Andy, the owner of Arthur Bryant’s, revealed to Steven in the August 4 episode that the McBee briskets weren’t up to the restaurant’s size standards.
“It’s going to cut into our yield,” Andy told Steven. “Cut into all of it. I don’t need to explain how that’s not good for us.”
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Steven admitted that he’d made a critical mistake.
“I guess I didn’t realize how much fat is needed on the brisket when you’re cooking it for eight to 10 hours,” he confessed. “Otherwise, it dries out and turns into a chewy piece of leather, and not this juicy brisket that Arthur Bryant’s is known for.”
Steven also took responsibility with Andy: “This is on me, 100 percent, because I told my guys to trim the fat. And then they took that too literal.”
Steven explained to Jesse and Cole that the cattle company had “pre-trimmed too much.”
“We grew up in Kansas City, and barbecue’s like the number one thing there other than the [Kansas City] Chiefs,” Cole said in his confessional. “We’re eaters…we like our fat on our meat. That’s what gives it the flavor, man, c’mon.”
Steven McBee Jr. fears the brisket deal mishap will impact the McBee farm’s financial situation
Steven admitted that the ruined brisket was a bigger problem than anticipated, since the McBee Cattle Co. had already trimmed “six thousand pounds” of brisket. He confided in his mother, Kristi McBee, how difficult the situation was.
“Do you know how horrible that is? We’re just trying to get the meat company to make money. And we’re finally getting some traction. Now I screwed up this Arthur Bryant’s deal. Like we can’t afford to lose them,” he told his mother on the August 4 episode.
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“The problem is we have $80 million of debt between the car washes and all the farms,” said Steven, who had recently taken the reins of the family business when his father Steven Sr. stepped down. “And then dad is gone. And I’m here picking up all the pieces that he left behind.”
Kristi was a sympathetic ear for her oldest son as he worked through the brisket deal issues.
“It’s hard for me to watch him make mistakes. And it’s hard for me to watch him continue to be so hard on himself,” she said. “Steven’s carrying the weight of the world. He always has, it’s just that weight is getting heavier.”
The family business wasn’t the only problem in Steven Jr.’s life. His ex-girlfriend Calah Jackson shared more about the “final straw” that ended her relationship with Steven Jr.
