Jen: This is the PKF Texas Entrepreneur’s Playbook. I’m Jen Lemanski, this week’s guest host. And I’m here with Rassul Zarinfar, the founder and CEO of Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company. Welcome back to the Playbook, Rassul.

Rassul: Thank you so much for having me.

Jen: Now, I see you guys everywhere. So I know you guys are really proud of being local.

Rassul: Yes.

Jen: You’re in the community. Tell me about that.

Rassul: Yeah, well, I mean, we try to be everywhere. At the end of the day, we’re just so proud to be from Houston, and that’s why we named the brewery the way that we named it. Houston was founded on the banks of the Buffalo Bayou in 1836, and so we wanted to pay homage to the city, so we named ourselves Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company, and our only flagship is 1836.

You almost think of a brewery as a collection of people who like to drink together. And that’s how I think about it, and so when I go around town – I mean, beer is a product that – maybe you meet your next best friend over a beer, or maybe you go out on a first date with a girl who’s gonna become the future mother of your children or something like that, and you meet them over a beer as well. And beer can be a product that can do a lot of cool stuff in terms of art openings and supporting the community and fundraisers for friends and family who’ve had some troubles or whatever. So that’s what we try and do. We try and remind ourselves that it’s a very community-driven thing.

Jen: Now, can you actually host events at your brewery, or do you typically go to community events? How does that work?

Rassul: A little bit of both. I mean, we sponsor a lot of events, and we try and give back to the community that way. We do a lot of fundraisers for cancer research – for instance, partnering with Spec’s last year for that. And then we also have a lot of fundraisers at the brewery, and we also host just good old-fashioned parties at the brewery too.

Jen: Awesome, awesome.

Rassul: So a little bit of column A, B, and C.

Jen: Perfect. Well, thanks so much for being here. Appreciate it.

Rassul: Thank you so much for having me.

Jen: This has been another Thought Leader production brought to you by the PKF Texas Entrepreneur’s Playbook. Tune in next week for another chapter.