T-Rav’s burgers an Oakland favorite

The menu at T-Rav’s BBQ Lab is a small paper stuck between two fence poles. There are three… The menu at T-Rav’s BBQ Lab is a small paper stuck between two fence poles. There are three dishes to choose from: hamburger, hot dog and pulled pork.

“It don’t get no betta,” reads the menu.

Situated behind the fence is a large grill lined with sizzling hamburger patties and columns of charred hot dogs. The grill used to sit on a patch of healthy, green grass, but after a year and a half of business, cigarette butts and twist ties from hamburger and hot dog buns have replaced the native green.

This is the scene outside the Sphinx Café and Hookah Bar every Thursday through Saturday night. Behind the grill stand Travis Huntley and Zach Glave, smoking cigarettes while they flip burgers for the customers. Beside them is a one liter tip jar, about half full with $1 bills.

“Hamburgers and hot dogs! Hamburgers and hot dogs and pulled pork here!” Huntley shouted one Saturday last month.

The customers know Travis Huntley as T-Rav, although Glave calls him Travis. T-Rav is only 23, but Glave said that he walks like he has that “old man swag.”

T-Rav transports all of the food to location after he prepares it at his house, only a few blocks away. Glave and T-Rav start each night at 10 p.m. and work until 3:30 a.m. — or until the line dies.

“I’ve never missed a weekend,” T-Rav said. “I’ve built up popularity here. Missing a day is not an option. The people expect me to be here.”

An unlikely businessman

Glave, who is also 23, started working behind the grill after T-Rav mentioned that he needed some help. Business was starting to pick up after word spread that there was “some guy serving hamburgers on a street corner that are really good.”

Glave said he didn’t have anything else to do, so he figured that he could lend a hand.

“The best thing about working for T-Rav is getting to eat T-Rav’s for free,” Glave said, chomping into a cheeseburger that oozes barbeque sauce out of the sides.

T-Rav and Glave have an odd but symbiotic professional relationship that allows the barbeque business to flourish. T-Rav has always been entrepreneurial. During his two years at Clarion University, he first wanted to major in business. He dropped out because he felt like his money wasn’t being put in the right place when it came to his plans for the future, which he still wasn’t sure of at the time.

He spent a short amount of time with a conservation organization, but as his term of service expired he realized that he didn’t have any plans for how to pay his bills.

Everything seemed to fall right into place. T-Rav used his last paycheck to buy an old grill from his friend Ramy Andrawes, who owns the Sphinx Hookah Bar. Andrawes also let him sell his barbeque on his street corner centered in the heart of Oakland.

“I bet while at college you never thought you’d be out on the street corner selling hamburgers, did you?” a customer asked T-Rav, who just smiled humbly.

He says he knows that not everyone is graced with the luxury of acquiring a top-notch job at an early age, so he has to take opportunities as they present themselves. Expanding became an option once T-Rav noticed his growing popularity.

“My ultimate goal is to open a bigger place, but in order to get there, I basically have to work my ass off here,” he said.

Andrawes plans to open up another Sphinx Café and Hookah Bar in the spring in the South Side, a potential opportunity for T-Rav expansion. The idea would be that Glave would most likely man the grill in the South Side while T-Rav would stay in Oakland, the pair said.

T-Rav considers one of his biggest achievements the plaque he received from The Pitt News, which he displays on the piece of pipe near the brick wall behind the grill.

The paper awarded him the Editors’ Pick for Best Sandwich this year. The winner students picked was Primanti Bros. Restaurant, and T-Rav felt that if he was running against such a popular restaurant, then he must be liked.

“I don’t want to leave the first group I served burgers to,” he said.

No buns, no problem

One night, the line for hamburgers, hot dogs and pulled pork never slowed down. From midnight until 3:30 a.m., there were at least 20 people in line for food. It was freezing by this point, and the wait was about 15 to 20 minutes. But no one seemed to care.

“My brother!” T-Rav shouted. He always greets his customers before they order.

“How are you this fine evening?” T-Rav asked.

“Can I just get a hamburger?” a guy asked.

T-Rav paused.

“And I asked how you are doing?” T-Rav repeated.

“Oh, I’m doing great,” he responded, taken aback.

At around 3:05 a.m., the line was still 20 people deep, but T-Rav ran out of hamburger buns. Looking anxious and flustered at first about how to solve the problem, he asked his customers if they were fine with hot dog buns for hamburger buns.

“Hell yeah, I just want my T-Rav’s!” a guy shouted from the line.

The people in line weren’t loud and bouncing around. They stare blankly ahead, exhausted from the night out.

T-Rav, on the other hand, even after 3 a.m. and having worked on his feet for more than five hours, was still making conversation with his customers. He still cooked his burgers with the same care, and he still swayed around to the Bob Marley beats in the background.