Neil
Quintessential Chatty Farker
Time to start planning a Midwest Bash at the Prized Pig! :biggrin:
Open a BBQ restaurant, they said. It will be fun, they said
- Thread starter marubozo
- Start date
HankB
is Blowin Smoke!
Road trip!
I've submitted the Prized Pig to our BMW motorcycle club as a 'ride to eat' for the coming season. (We have gone as far as Ovid, MI for ice cream. Blue Moon is awesome!)
TSGlover
Knows what a fatty is.
Congratulations on finally getting the restaurant open!!!
HarleyDiva
Knows what a fatty is.
bigben800
Is lookin for wood to cook with.
Awesome!!
ak56
Knows what a fatty is.
Congratulations on finally opening, and transitioning to the next part of the journey - actually running the restaurant.
I've been following this thread with interest pretty much since I joined the forum, and have been amazed at your patience throughout, and also with your commitment to doing it right.
A friend here has been building a house, and I've noticed a lot of similarity between his stories of contractor and inspector problems and yours, but he finally completed the journey and has moved in, as you are now doing.
I don't normally get around your part of the country, but if I do, I will definitely stop in for some good barbecue.
Best of luck in the future.
I've been following this thread with interest pretty much since I joined the forum, and have been amazed at your patience throughout, and also with your commitment to doing it right.
A friend here has been building a house, and I've noticed a lot of similarity between his stories of contractor and inspector problems and yours, but he finally completed the journey and has moved in, as you are now doing.
I don't normally get around your part of the country, but if I do, I will definitely stop in for some good barbecue.
Best of luck in the future.
DriverWild
is one Smokin' Farker
I've been watching this thread for some time. I'm very proud of you and all the hard work you have put into starting your own business. You are living the American dream and some of us get to watch from the sidelines and live vicariously through you. I'm sure I speak for the rest of the brethren when I tell you we are really cheering for you and here to support you as much as we can, most of us remotely. Good luck to you and your team!!
ajmcedar
Full Fledged Farker
Congrats, hope to make it over there sometime soon. :thumb:
K-Barbecue
is one Smokin' Farker
Congratulations on the opening. You will soon forget all the past frustrations as your new business becomes a success. Live long and prosper. :wink:
Diesel Dave
Quintessential Chatty Farker
Bonewagon
Babbling Farker
Count me in! :thumb:
THoey1963
somebody shut me the fark up.
Looks like they were busy again today. From Facebook:
RevZiLLa
is One Chatty Farker
congrats!!!!!
youngstownmechanics
Found some matches.
i have been following since the begining congrads!
marubozo
is one Smokin' Farker
What a crazy day. I just got home and went in at 6 this morning. People aren't kidding when they talk about the long hours.
I'll save a detailed update for Monday, when I'm closed and have a chance to sit down and go back through all of the numbers.
But today was almost a great day. The good, we had even more customers and made even more money than yesterday. We also streamlined the service line so that orders got out much quicker and with less confusion. But the bad news was that we ran out of food early again. We even planned ahead and put on more meat, earlier, but we just got absolutely slammed. Today, everybody wanted a damn pulled pork sandwich. At one point we had a line out the door and a stack of 12 tickets waiting all wanting PP sandwiches. We ran out of buns first shortly after lunch. Ran and got some more, but then the pork ran out at around 5. I think we went through a dozen butts from 11-5.
Then the rib delivery fiasco. Our meat delivery was promised to be in at 11, which meant we were ready to stuff the smoker immediately with about 20 racks and tips for dinner. We even kept telling people all day that we'd have plenty of ribs and tips come dinner time.
Guess what happened when we opened the cases? They were frozen rock solid. We've never received our ribs frozen before, and all of the other meat on that truck wasn't frozen. I mean seriously? Like we needed this headache on top of everything else. So we hit the sinks and tried to get them thawed, but it wasn't going to happen in time. We ended up just getting a handful of racks thawed by 2:30, which meant we only had a few customers we could sell to by around 6.
Most people have been understanding about the running out of food early issue, but today we did have a few pissed off people. And when the tickets at dinner were piling up asking for ribs and we ran out before we could tell the cashiers, I had to spend a good deal of time apologizing subbing orders, and comping parts of meals.
Then it looked like we were $500 short when closing out the register. Wasted nearly an hour trying to find the discrepancy. I should have been trimming and prepping the meat scheduled to go on tonight, so that's why I didn't get to leave until 11. There's a lot more to it than just smoking good food and selling it to people, and I'm quickly learning that.
Had some quality control issues crop up later in the day so this weekend I need to focus more on running the smoker. I was feeling comfortable with the one guy I hired and he is pretty good, but when we get swamped, he gets frazzled and starts to slip.
All in all, things are still far exceeding my expectations. I can't wait until we get the kinks worked out, and even more excited about the coming warm weather.
I'll save a detailed update for Monday, when I'm closed and have a chance to sit down and go back through all of the numbers.
But today was almost a great day. The good, we had even more customers and made even more money than yesterday. We also streamlined the service line so that orders got out much quicker and with less confusion. But the bad news was that we ran out of food early again. We even planned ahead and put on more meat, earlier, but we just got absolutely slammed. Today, everybody wanted a damn pulled pork sandwich. At one point we had a line out the door and a stack of 12 tickets waiting all wanting PP sandwiches. We ran out of buns first shortly after lunch. Ran and got some more, but then the pork ran out at around 5. I think we went through a dozen butts from 11-5.
Then the rib delivery fiasco. Our meat delivery was promised to be in at 11, which meant we were ready to stuff the smoker immediately with about 20 racks and tips for dinner. We even kept telling people all day that we'd have plenty of ribs and tips come dinner time.
Guess what happened when we opened the cases? They were frozen rock solid. We've never received our ribs frozen before, and all of the other meat on that truck wasn't frozen. I mean seriously? Like we needed this headache on top of everything else. So we hit the sinks and tried to get them thawed, but it wasn't going to happen in time. We ended up just getting a handful of racks thawed by 2:30, which meant we only had a few customers we could sell to by around 6.
Most people have been understanding about the running out of food early issue, but today we did have a few pissed off people. And when the tickets at dinner were piling up asking for ribs and we ran out before we could tell the cashiers, I had to spend a good deal of time apologizing subbing orders, and comping parts of meals.
Then it looked like we were $500 short when closing out the register. Wasted nearly an hour trying to find the discrepancy. I should have been trimming and prepping the meat scheduled to go on tonight, so that's why I didn't get to leave until 11. There's a lot more to it than just smoking good food and selling it to people, and I'm quickly learning that.
Had some quality control issues crop up later in the day so this weekend I need to focus more on running the smoker. I was feeling comfortable with the one guy I hired and he is pretty good, but when we get swamped, he gets frazzled and starts to slip.
All in all, things are still far exceeding my expectations. I can't wait until we get the kinks worked out, and even more excited about the coming warm weather.
okiej
is Blowin Smoke!
If whomever didn't get the BBQ of choice or had to wait to long or whatever could only read this thread/story!... Your doing fine. Hang in there. Opening a new business is hard and unpredictable as you have certainly noticed. You have customers.... congrats! And I hear the food is great!!
aawa
Babbling Farker
The joys of growing pains in the restaurant business. The good news is after months of hard work you are actually open for business. The whole new restaurant lets try it out phase will make you feel a lot of your growing pains but you have a good head on your shoulders and know what you need to focus on. Keep working on your processes and you will find the happy medium soon of a well oiled bbq machine.
Congrats on getting the hard part of opening up the restaurant done. Now time to kick some butt running a great restaurant!
Congrats on getting the hard part of opening up the restaurant done. Now time to kick some butt running a great restaurant!
ShizuokaMark
Knows what a fatty is.
I'd like to preface my comments by saying that I have enjoyed following your progress and wish you nothing but success. I've learned quite a few things from your journey. I'm also aware that hindsight is always 20/20.
However, at the risk of being flamed...errr smoked (be gentle, I too am about to embark on a similar journey!), there are a couple things that just don't equate with me that perhaps you can clear up.
Regarding your latest fiasco involving frozen ribs, I'm curious why you attempted to quickly defrost the ones you got (I think most chefs would agree that's a bad idea) and not send someone to the market to pick up some fresh ones? I did a quick search and found 2 or 3 meat shops within 10 miles of your place. It seems to me that you might have been able to send someone immediately while at the same time calling ahead to make sure they were waiting on you and had them back, seasoned and on the smoker in under and hour. Was this not possible? Obviously you know local availability better than I.
The other comment I'd like to make is for anyone starting a new business, and I think this applies to most types but especially the food industry. While you may have a target deadline to open set and have vendors lined up to meet those goals, you should NEVER inform the public of that day and time until everything is completely finished. Again, I understand it's easy to see that now, but that's pretty basic stuff for a new business.
It doesn't matter if it was all their fault, ultimately you're the captain of your ship and it's your livelihood on the line.
Having said all that, your charismatic personality and commitment to excellence are surely not lost on your patrons (it helps you're the only game in town, too!) and I've no doubt you will recover from all this and 20 years from now you'll look back on these days with far more fondness than if it had all gone smoothly.
Again, best of luck to you!
OK. Commence flaming! LOL
However, at the risk of being flamed...errr smoked (be gentle, I too am about to embark on a similar journey!), there are a couple things that just don't equate with me that perhaps you can clear up.
Regarding your latest fiasco involving frozen ribs, I'm curious why you attempted to quickly defrost the ones you got (I think most chefs would agree that's a bad idea) and not send someone to the market to pick up some fresh ones? I did a quick search and found 2 or 3 meat shops within 10 miles of your place. It seems to me that you might have been able to send someone immediately while at the same time calling ahead to make sure they were waiting on you and had them back, seasoned and on the smoker in under and hour. Was this not possible? Obviously you know local availability better than I.
The other comment I'd like to make is for anyone starting a new business, and I think this applies to most types but especially the food industry. While you may have a target deadline to open set and have vendors lined up to meet those goals, you should NEVER inform the public of that day and time until everything is completely finished. Again, I understand it's easy to see that now, but that's pretty basic stuff for a new business.
It doesn't matter if it was all their fault, ultimately you're the captain of your ship and it's your livelihood on the line.
Having said all that, your charismatic personality and commitment to excellence are surely not lost on your patrons (it helps you're the only game in town, too!) and I've no doubt you will recover from all this and 20 years from now you'll look back on these days with far more fondness than if it had all gone smoothly.
Again, best of luck to you!
OK. Commence flaming! LOL
