Now let's head to East Durham to meet another young maker.

Mike De Los Santos fell in love with barbecue from a young age and went on to create barbecue sauces and rubs that won many awards.

Now he's opened a bricks and mortar restaurant called Mike D's and it's gotten rave reviews.

Let's learn his inspiring story.

[torch hissing] [fire crackling] - Yeah, all the smells of all the food on the burners, you can smell it all.

You can smell pork and vinegar and I was like, that smell, that's the smell.

Whatever that is, I gotta find that.

[reflective piano music] Life had all kind of turns like I didn't, I left the food space, went and started a career.

I was working in the nonprofit world.

And then using barbecue on the weekend as like a way to de-stress.

Started sort of experimenting with like my own sauces and rubs because I wanted to find like the right sort of flavor mixture that I was looking for.

But I still kept telling myself like, I'm not a business person, so like this is not a thing.

Life had another sort of twist.

Wife and I, we had a son, his name was Aaron.

He lived exactly six months.

[melancholic music] Aaron was born with a heart condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

So in simple terms, that just means that the left side of his heart never developed.

And so he basically had half of a functioning heart.

I was holding him as he like, he took his last breath, his heartbeat for the last time.

And just like sort of reflecting over those six months was just kind of seeing this kid who like couldn't speak for himself.

All he could do was try to live.

And like seeing that, I just had to honor it in some way, right?

And that's where Mike D's BBQ came about because I was like, I gotta chase my dreams.

Coming from like a social justice advocacy family, to be like sleeping with the fist up.

Like...

The business is really about trying to leave a legacy for my family and also honoring Aaron's memory.

And so that's the thing like, you know, business is hard.

There's a lot of like really tough moments.

And the thing that really gets me through those really tough moments is reflecting on Aaron and you know, trying to keep fighting like he fought.

[door thuds] We have a really, really, really great space that we're in.

And so I'm glad that all the other things fell apart and this, it made an opportunity for us to be where we are right now.

It allowed us to stay in East Durham.

East Durham is just this great community.

I tell people, you gotta come to East Durham.

'cause East Durham has a vibe.

And people come, whether they're going to get food, or getting a cup of coffee, right?

There's just this vibe in East Durham that people like to spend time and talk to each other, get to know each other.

The community supports each other.

And so we happen to be in this building that used to be Garland Woodwork, like we were able to rework this space, this building that was abandoned, falling apart.

and we were able to turn that into this beautiful space that we have now.

[light soulful jazz music] So you have myself, Mike D's BBQ, there's a courtyard right next to us.

There's the Congress Social Bar, and then right next to them is Proximity Brewing, which is the first Black owned brewery in Durham.

We have the space and we're, as businesses trying to build community, right?

So you can take your food, sit in Congress, you can take your food and sit in Proximity.

People can eat barbecue, get cocktails and get great beer all at the same time.

Our sauces and rubs kind of are a reflection of me.

I wanted to find a way to mix African American and Hispanic culture together.

My dad is from the Dominican Republic.

My mom was from, you know, Clarksville, Tennessee in tobacco fields, and so I wanted to kind of bring that together.

And outside of that, like it's really just like my method of smoking.

My rub combined with that wood flavor and like even down to the timing, right?

Like I cook my ribs a little faster than other people cook their ribs, right?

So all that is just sort of like my stamp on it.

Ribs are probably one of our more popular items.

On the meat side we have ribs, we have pulled pork, we have brisket, we do smoked turkey, we do leg quarters and we do smoked chicken salad.

None of our sides have meat in them.

- The sides we sell here, smoked corn which is my personal favorite.

We sell smoked beans, we sell mac and cheese, coleslaw and potato salad.

I couldn't have asked for a better job.

He really makes the work environment a safe place to be yourself.

- Barbecue means community.

Like for me, living here in the south, go to some of the deepest south parts where you think there's gonna be a lot of racism, be a lot of issues.

But you walk into a barbecue joint, everybody's talking about the barbecue.

Everybody's engaging in conversation.

And I like to tell people that like, we probably could get world peace if we just have more barbecues because there's something about wood, fire, meat together, the smell, the crackling of the wood, like all that, that makes people just be humans together.

- Mike D's BBQ Smokehouse is at 455 South Driver Street in Durham and it's open Wednesday through Sunday.

For more information, give Mike a call at 866 960-8652 or go online to mikedsbbq.com.