T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — The Flying Elbow Owner/Operator Garrett Goodman, left, stands at the cash register with employee Angel Cuellar last month. The restaurant has experienced meteoric growth over the last year, especially after winning the 2022 Best Burger in Iowa contest.

A year ago, Garrett Goodman was running The Flying Elbow as a food truck and finalizing plans to open a brick and mortar restaurant — for the second time — at a new location in the heart of the 13th Street District.

“It was real hot in there. It was about 15 or 20 degrees hotter in the truck than it is on the outside,” he said.

Fast forward 12 months, and the Elbow’s popularity has exploded in ways Goodman couldn’t previously fathom, due in no small part to its selection and eventual victory in the Iowa’s Best Burger Contest for 2022. To call the experience a whirlwind might be the understatement of the century, but the mind behind the pro-wrestling themed establishment is still letting it all soak in and enjoying his status as a local celebrity.

T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — Longtime Flying Elbow employee Katrice Bailey prepares one of the restaurant’s now famous burgers with all of the important toppings and sauces.

A second chance

Like any other Marshalltonian, Goodman has endured a trying four years since the EF-3 tornado in July 2018, but even so, The Flying Elbow suffered particularly hard when the previous downtown location at the corner of Center and State streets was destroyed after just two months in business. As the Times-Republican reported then, Goodman, who grew up here and graduated from East Marshall High School in 2004, handed out hot dogs amidst the wreckage and refused to accept payment.

From there, he reverted back to the food truck business and was enjoying record success as renovation and construction continued on the current building, but COVID-19 raged on and placed the restaurant industry as a whole in peril through 2020 and 2021.

“I didn’t think we’d see a full shutdown (in 2021), and I think it would’ve been really hard for small businesses all around the state if that would’ve happened,” he said. “But you never know. A lot of times in this business, of all businesses, you kind of just have to guess and take your best bet, you know?”

The new and improved Flying Elbow opened last September with a menu full of gourmet hot dogs and an aesthetic pulled straight from the Attitude Era of the WWE, with classic matches playing on the televisions and insignia and posters strewn across the walls. Business started strong, the feedback was positive and word was spreading among the locals. Goodman, to his credit, was offering something completely unique to Marshalltown and one of a kind in a city with a strong variety of eateries for its size.

As the winter months set in and the initial buzz faded into the background, sales dropped off by about 50 percent. Always the forward thinker, Goodman began to brainstorm specials and ideas that could bring the business closer to the numbers he was hoping to hit on a weekly basis.

“I didn’t know anything about it. (Goodman) just kind of joked about it a couple of times, and then one day, he just came with the printed out menu of burgers,” Bailey said. “He said ‘We’re going to do this today, and we’re like ‘What?'”

He had previous experience making smash burgers from his tenure at Wayward Social with close friends Aaron and Michele Buzbee, so he decided to revamp the recipe at the Elbow with new toppings, a new bun and a new beef blend. It was only supposed to be a special, and it was only supposed to last a week.

“That last week of January, we did the same amount of sales as the rest of January,” he said.

The concept for the “Franchise Killer” menu of burgers was simple: take the basic idea behind the most popular offerings at major fast food chains like McDonald’s, Burger King, In-N-Out Burger, Hardees, and put The Flying Elbow spin on them. They caught on like wildfire, and the restaurant saw an almost immediate 50 percent spike in sales.

“The first day, we sold out, and it was instant. It never stopped. Our slower days now are beating what we used to applaud,” he said. “There’s an hour or two every now and then where we’re like ‘This is slow,’ but slow is still good… I think there’s a lot of people who are like ‘We’re going to wait until it slows down a little bit.’ It hasn’t happened.”

The question of whether or not the idea would take off was almost immediately put to rest, and to employees like Taylor Bear, the answer seemed inevitable.

“Honestly, everything he does is so delicious and so good, so how could it not?” she asked.

Beyond its one of a kind menu and nostalgic theme, the Elbow has also succeeded because of its employees, some of whom — like Katrice Bailey — followed Goodman from the truck to the restaurant back to the truck and ultimately to the current brick and mortar location. Bear connected with him at Wayward and decided she would go wherever he went.

“He’s just a genuinely good person. He cares about everybody,” Bailey said. “You work places sometimes, and your boss cares about you. But Garrett truly cares about everybody that works here. He’d bend over backwards for any of us, and we would for him too. And we have… He’d do absolutely anything, and that’s why he’s such a great person to work for. You don’t find people like that much anymore.”

T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — Flying Elbow employee Timothy Brewer takes a piping hot burger off of the grill to send it down the line during a recent lunch shift.

All the way to the top

About two months after shaking up the menu, Goodman got word that the Elbow had already been nominated as one of the top 10 vote getters in the Iowa Beef Council’s annual Best Burger contest. Anyone familiar with Goodman, The Flying Elbow or Marshalltown in general is probably aware of what happened next.

Business shot through the roof, and it launched into the stratosphere when the Elbow was officially crowned the best of the best in a state that’s notoriously proud of its meat. When the winners of the New York and Iowa contests square off in an online competition — surprise, surprise, the Elbow won again — Goodman saw another massive surge in foot traffic.

As Bailey and Bear recall, their boss remained stoic and “chill” after receiving the news, even as they were beside themselves with glee.

“It was just crazy from then on. We found out we won, and we’re super proud and super excited,” Bear said. “And we’re grateful for the traffic and the abundance that brings not only us but Marshalltown.”

Even now, Goodman and his staff are rarely anything less than swamped. During an average week, they’re preparing almost 750 pounds of beef, or well over 2,000 patties.

Goodman, who’s also an active musician in his free time, hasn’t shied away from the spotlight, and his face, his voice and his words have appeared in media outlets across the state.

“I love that stuff, and I’ve always liked talking with people about what I’ve got going on and trying to put as many eyes as possible on what we’re doing and what other people in Marshalltown are doing,” he said. “It’s really cool. I run into a lot of people (with) just the kindest words and just so excited for what we’re doing and just proud of us, which is awesome. Then I run into people who ‘Woo!’ at me and do wrestling stuff — ‘What’s up Brother’ — and I love it all, man. I’m super happy. I’m honored, but it’s definitely not something I let go to my head. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve still got a lot of work to do, and there’s still a lot of things I want to do.”

What’s next?

While other business owners might rest on their laurels or take a moment to reflect on all of their successes, Goodman has his sights set on even bigger goals yet — an outdoor deck equipped for live music that would essentially double the Elbow’s seating capacity, unveiling a limited cocktail menu and an entirely different project, the redevelopment of the Standard Oil building at 502 S. First St. into an entertainment and event venue, which has been in the works for several years, just to name a few.

“I’ve kind of got my next couple years figured out already, and that’s fine. I’m at a spot where this is what I’ve been working for the last five or six years,” he said. “It’s one of those things where it’s like ‘I had a dream. I had a vision.’ It doesn’t always work out that that works, and it is. And I’m super, super happy about it.”

Other than a brief stint in Florida with his mother and stepfather as a teenager, Goodman has called Iowa — and more specifically, Marshalltown — home his entire life, and he can’t imagine being anywhere else. In discussing all of the work that went into making the Elbow what it is today, he was quick to shout out local contractors like Kadner Construction, B&G HVAC, Bjelland Plumbing, Collins Electric and Isaiah Villareal along with John Hermanson, who owns the building and worked with him to realize his dream for the Elbow.

After graduating from high school, Goodman made a “conscious decision” to see what he could do in his hometown, first working in the IT department at Emerson before eventually branching out into the wide world of food. One of his first jobs was at the now-defunct Webster’s Den steakhouse in Laurel, and Goodman could never stay out of the kitchen for long from that point forward.

“I have a love for the restaurant business. It’s just the camaraderie and being able to put out good food, and you make people happy,” he said. “That’s what I’ve always enjoyed.”

After accepting a voluntary severance package from Emerson in 2016, Goodman chased his dream and threw his heart and soul into The Flying Elbow. The bumps he’s faced along the road to where he is today — including the tornado, a year at Wayward, the derecho and the pandemic — may have been enough to put a lesser chef out of business, but he’s never been one to get too discouraged.

“If you had asked me last year, I don’t know what I would’ve said, but it’s insane how far this has come and how quick,” he said. “I’m playing the hot hand, though.”