A Film Teacher Bet His Pension on Barbecue. Now He's Opening in Lakewood

Big Brian's Meats, a SoCal Mex barbecue pop-up, aims to soft-open on South Street near Bellflower Boulevard by year's end.

Brian Rodriguez taught high school film for eight years, then quit in 2022 and turned his teaching pension into startup money for a barbecue business. Now that bet is getting a permanent home: Big Brian's Meats will open its first brick-and-mortar shop at 5574 South St. in Lakewood, near Bellflower Boulevard, What Now Los Angeles reported Monday.

Early 2027 is the target for the grand opening, Rodriguez told What Now, with a soft launch to come before New Year's. The roughly 800-square-foot space came from a chance meeting in August at a North Long Beach restaurant-supply store, where the woman who'd been running it said she wanted to retire and had been renting month to month since January. It's two minutes from his house, and he called the rent "ridiculously affordable."

The dish to know is the pastrami burrito. When Longbeachize profiled Rodriguez in 2024, it described pastrami brined for 12 days and rolled with arugula, garlic aioli and Monterey Jack. The burrito is a tribute to the Long Beach diners that put burgers, gyros and burritos on one menu, and the site called it a steady hit at his pop-ups. Rodriguez told Longbeachize he doesn't call his food Texas or Carolina barbecue, because it comes out of California. He calls the style "SoCal Mex."

The burrito has company. This year Big Brian's took Best Sausage at the Long Beach Barbecue Festival, plus Best Side Dish for its brisket chili, What Now reported. The company's own site lists among its notable customers the City of Lakewood, the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce and, somehow, Raising Cane's, a chicken chain that apparently needed a barbecue guy.

The crew is still mostly family. Rodriguez's mother, 74, handles the sides as his sous chef, and his wife, who's spent years teaching English, helps out along with their two kids. The business started with sales from home, moved to breweries and community events, and cooked out of a Cerritos shared kitchen, lugging the equipment in and out. Rodriguez plans to keep doing pop-ups after the shop opens, and he'd like a second location someday.

The pension still comes up. Rodriguez told What Now that everybody warned him it was risky, including a financial adviser who pushed back at first and then changed his mind: "Actually, it's a good risk because you're betting on yourself."

Source: whatnow.com, retrieved November 10, 2026. Other sources: longbeachize.com, bigbriansmeats.com.