Two London Builders Quit Trades for Black Cactus Barbecue

By Grace Kim

Two construction workers spent years selling barbecue on weekends before a London brewery deal finally let them quit their day jobs. That's the whole arc of Black Cactus Barbecue, run by Matt Kears and Josh Alcock — and for a long stretch, it wasn't even profitable.

Before Black Cactus, Kears worked in construction and rail while building a coffee business with friends. The barbecue idea started with a single bite. After tasting a brisket roll at Meatopia, he saw a gap near home.

"There's nothing around here for that," he says.

How did a coffee stand become a barbecue business?

Kears began smoking meat alongside the coffee. Four weeks after moving into a new coffee location in Shoreditch, London, COVID hit.

"I literally had come back and just started smoking meat, vacuum packing it, and selling it on a WhatsApp group to my mates," Kears says.

The customers came from his rugby group. So did his business partner.

Alcock, an electrician working in the Netherlands, was posting photos of his cooking on Instagram. Friends teased him for sharing pictures of his dinner. Kears asked a different question: did he want to help build a barbecue business?

When the two finally cooked together, Alcock realized he enjoyed it far more than his trade.

"After that I was hooked," he says.

What did it take to go full-time?

The pair developed the business through markets and food festivals, using Kears' parents' bungalow as their prep kitchen. They worked their trades during the week and sold food on weekends. The schedule left little time for friends or partners — and the business still wasn't making money.

So they contacted London breweries about a permanent spot. When one accepted, they quit their jobs.

"It was like, 'Oh, shit. We're in it now,'" Alcock says.

Neither partner had a professional culinary background. They had to run their first professional kitchen themselves.

Why break the rules of barbecue?

Texas influences the cooking at Black Cactus. The flavors come from much farther afield.

"It's Texas-influenced," Alcock says. "And it's world flavors."

Their early concept — takeaway barbecue rolls — gave each meat its own identity, with flavors drawn from a different culture. That approach comes with a responsibility to understand the cuisines they borrow from. When developing a Caribbean brisket, Alcock wanted the flavors as authentic as possible.

"You got to give it its respect and search its history and do it properly," he says.

Kears believes lacking a culinary background gave them room to experiment without feeling bound by rules about which flavors belong together.

"If you've got an idea, if it works, it works. If it don't, it don't," Kears says.

Not every customer embraces that freedom. Alcock says they still receive reviews criticizing their sides for being nontraditional. Even their Saturday Texas barbecue tray — beans, mac and cheese, slaw — carries their own interpretations.

The seasonal menu pushes further. One version reimagined a British Sunday roast as a barbecue tray, with tri-tip, maple garlic turkey, roast potatoes and smoked gravy. Another combined French-inspired tri-tip, Portuguese piri piri turkey and Polish kielbasa.

What does the menu do for the business?

The set trays do quiet sales work. Alcock says brisket has become a buzzword in the United Kingdom — some guests use the name even when they're eating another cut.

"We've had people come to the pass and tell us our brisket's amazing," Alcock says. "And I'm like, 'Oh, they just had tri-tip.'"

By serving set trays, Black Cactus introduces customers to other meats, house-made sausage and sides.

The brisket brings customers in. The rest of the tray shows them why Black Cactus is worth coming back for.

For two founders who started with vacuum packs on a WhatsApp group, that repeat tray is the business model.