Barbecue-loving Houstonians saw a few familiar faces on the MondayJanuary 31 episode of The Bachelor. During their one-on-one date, leading man Clayton Echard and contestant Rachel Recchia encounter the owners of Blood Bros. BBQ having an outdoor picnic.
Somewhat strangely, the show doesn’t present Robin Wong, Terry Wong, and Quy Hoang as the three owners of one of Houston’s most acclaimed barbecue joints. In a bit of reality show trickery, the scene is presented as a chance encounter with a family having a barbecue.
“We don’t know this family, but we’re going to get to know them together,” Echard says during the episode. “This is something a little out of the norm to crash the party.”
Of course, Houstonians know the moment wasn’t just a happy accident. Blood Bros. has been featured in publications such as the New York Times and Bon Appétit and made Texas Monthly’s list of the state’s top 50 barbecue joints.
Robin Wong provided CultureMap with the inside scoop on how the Blood Bros. became involved with The Bachelor. Houston First Corporation, the public corporation behind Visit Houston, connected the restaurant with the show’s producers, who invited the restaurateurs and their families to the filming at The Historic Hill House and Farm in Willis, which is about an hour north of downtown.
He says they spent about four hours filming, which is edited down to just under four minutes of the two hour episode. The restaurant brought a full spread of barbecue including brisket, ribs, sausage, and sides.
Overall, he says the group enjoyed their interactions with Echard and Recchia. Marfay Magno, known as the First Lady of Blood Bros., gets some solid screen time quizzing Recchia about her plans to start a family, while Hoang gives Echard some grilling tips.
“He’s like a big goofball,” Wong says about Echard. “He’s a nice guy.”
“Rachel was really nice, too. We all kinda thought they’re going to hook up. They did seem to have some chemistry there,” he adds.
In true Blood Bros. fashion, he says they all did a couple of shots to loosen up. “[We told them] If you’re with us, you’ve got to do like we do and have a couple shots of Jameson,“ he says.
Even though the Blood Bros. aren’t identified professionally, Wong says he’s heard from lots of people who recognized him.
“When it aired, my phone went off like crazy. People I haven’t talked to in a long time,” he says. “It’s still going on today.”
While Wong says he’s disappointed that the show blurred out the Blood Bros. logo on his hat, he thinks something positive could come from the experience.
“We met some cool people and good things may come out of it,” he says. ‘That’s what we’re optimistic for.”
