William “Bill E.” Stitt: How Serenaded Bacon, Soulful Hospitality & Storytelling Built a National Food Brand

**Junaid Ahmed** (0:00)
Thank you for tuning in to Hacks and Hobbies with your host, Junaid. We're visited by our amazing guests coming from all walks of life. Want to learn their story, their struggles and their journey on how they got to where they are today. So stick around.
Ever hear of bacon so good, it's serenaded by musicians while it smokes? Yeah. Today's episode is that kind of story. Because the secret ingredient isn't just flavor, it's soul. And by the end of this episode, you'll learn how one man took a simple idea and turned it into a national food phenomenon. Today, we're diving into how to build a brand with personality, create experiences, and customers never forget. And why storytelling beats marketing every single time. Now William Bill E. Stitt is an nationally recognized food entrepreneur, restaurateur, and creator of Bill E.'s Small Batch Bacon, a brand that's been featured on Food Channel, shipped nationwide, and loved by chefs across America. He built his restaurant in Fairhope, Alabama, but what he really built was a movement around food, joy, and craft.
Bill-E, welcome to Hacks and Hobbies.

**William "Bill E." Stitt** (1:28)
I'm happy to be here. I got my hair cut for this. Let's make it awesome.

**Junaid Ahmed** (1:33)
Absolutely, Bill-E. Now, it's really awesome to have you. You've got a really powerful story. Take us back before the restaurant, before the brand. Who were you in the kitchen growing up?

**William "Bill E." Stitt** (1:46)
Wow. Who was I in the kitchen? I was the guy when somebody said, I'm thinking about doing something, when an owner or a manager said, I'm thinking about doing something or I want to test something or show me what's the best you can get out of this. I was the guy that was first in line to make that happen. Just go get them, high energy, wanted to learn every station, didn't just want to be salad boy forever.
I wanted to become a chef.

**Junaid Ahmed** (2:19)
Not only were you encouraging others to take their idea to reality, you're also supporting them in every single way that you can.
As far as being in the kitchen, you're like, hey, how can I master every single station, spending the time, spending the effort, spending the passion. Now, you've got decades of hospitality and experience from Ruby 2 to state leadership to running your own spot. When did you know bacon was the thing?

**William "Bill E." Stitt** (2:52)
Well, making bacon kind of came into my life as a teenager. And then every year a couple of times or more throughout my career, I would always make it for myself. And then I went to work for this great company called Ruby Tuesday, and right down the road from them was this guy named Benton that made this incredible bacon, and I loved it. And then I was on some quality teams, and we were always talking about just the different products that we have, and how do we source the best ingredients.
But when I opened my own place, I knew it was time for me to really fulfill my goal of getting my bacon, not just in my restaurant, but in other kitchens around the country.

**Junaid Ahmed** (3:39)
Wow, that's really inspiring because not only did you see that somebody else was providing with you the best, but they had kind of paved the way for what you could also go down and build your own identity and build your own idea. So talk to me, Billy, what was that moment, the idea shifted from bacon to Bill-E's bacon, a whole identity?

**William "Bill E." Stitt** (4:08)
Well, the Bill-E's came about as a freshman at Ole Miss in a speech class where the assignment was to create a brand.
My name is William Ernest Stitt. And my dad's name is John Williamson Stitt. And he went by Billy because his dad was also called John, but he went by B-I-L-L-Y.
So I came up with the idea of Bill-E's using my first and second initial. And my dad just thought it was genius. And did really well in that class. And I just started outlining all these products that I wanted to produce from Bill-E's bacon to Bill-E's bourbon to Bill-E's beer. Of course, I'm in college, I'm thinking about bourbon and beer a lot. Sure. And then, you know, Bill-E's Bloody Mary mix, just all these just really cool ideas. And I knew that I wanted to own my own restaurant one day, but I knew I wasn't ready to just go out and just do it. I needed to work for some great people. And I just absorb as much as possible, just be a sponge and take the hits along the way, where somebody says, hey, let me show you how to be better. Let me show you how to do this and to do that. So, but I would say from a timeline, 13 years ago, I stepped outside of the corporate world and opened my own restaurant with the intent of bacon being a huge part of it.