GoodBull BBQ was created by former Aggie Yell Leader Roy May, Class of 2015, in the image of the spirit of Aggieland and A&M’s core values.
GoodBull originally started as a catering business after May graduated, but by 2017 he had opened his permanent restaurant, located off George Bush Drive. May said the restaurant’s board of directors is all made up of Aggies, which helps create a mirror image of the university’s traditions and values.
One of the Aggie core values that GoodBull BBQ highlights the most is selfless service, May said. For every meal purchased, GoodBull BBQ, LLC. donates equivalent funds to the Brazos Valley Food Bank or Mission For Hope in Haiti, a Christian organization that focuses on missionary work, according to its website.
“The idea behind it was to do barbeque as a vessel for philanthropy in the sense that we’d be able to conduct business, but be able to give back,” May said. “I think if you were forced to do a real long research project and examine, maybe, a dozen communities, you’d find that in Aggieland there’s a lot more businesses giving back to the community. But that’s the spirit of Aggieland.”
Cassie Chilton, business manager of GoodBull BBQ, said she hopes to create memories through the interactions GoodBull has with the community both inside and outside of the restaurant.
“There’s a lot of people who need our help,” Chilton said. “We have a definite responsibility to people that are underprivileged, and we need to give back just as much as they give to our community.”
With a view opposite Kyle Field, it’s hard to miss the Aggie spirit that makes up GoodBull BBQ when you walk through its front doors. The main wall of the restaurant is decorated with Aggie traditions and values in chalk, including a drawing of E. King Gill and an Aggie Ring. May said he created the wall with the images of the traditions he holds dear to A&M.
“I tried to make this place as redass as I could,” May said. “We just created a friendly environment and a welcoming place. During football season on game days not just Aggies come and feel welcome, but anyone does.”
May, who served 12 years in the U.S. Army before coming to A&M as an undergraduate in 2010, said serving the community is both a privilege and a responsibility.
“All of us [at GoodBull] feel this way,” May said. “It’s an easy way to exist. What happens on campus bleeds over to the community, and in the community you just have so many Aggies here that develop that desire to give back and help.”
Annie Coleman, assistant maintenance supervisor of GoodBull BBQ, said she thinks it’s great working for a restaurant that gives back to the community at home and abroad.
“I wish every company would do something like this because there are a lot of starving people in the world,” Coleman said. “Community service is when everybody pulls together to help each other like a family. [GoodBull] is like that, a family pulling together and helping everyone with smiling faces.”
May said “good bull” itself is both an adjective and an adverb that sums up Aggie culture and the way you interact with your peers and community.
“The way you should act should always be in the vein of being good bull and being a good person giving back and helping those around you,” May said. “You might find a lot of wealth and happiness through the almighty dollar, or whatever you deem to be successful materialistic wise, but the reality is we all find ourselves a lot happier when we’re helping. When you’re part of something that’s bigger than yourself, it’s so fulfilling.”