cooking my first fair

It would depend on a number of things. Do you know any traffic history of the event (how many people)? How many vendors? Any direct competition vendors? What will your total costs be (operating, consumables, cost of goods sold, labor, etc)?

I ran a quick calculation for a basic vending stand at 10 hrs/day (using some averaged costs based on similar gigs we have done in the past to net out $700 profit for the day) and I came up with a required gross sales of ~$2K/Day. If your average dollar per sale is $8 then you would need to average ~25 sales per hour to meet your desired goal. Of course this is just an educated guess since there are many unknown variables in this proposal. But it might give you some idea.

To give you something to compare to we do a one day festival event every year that pulls in about 3,000 people for the day (10am to 4 pm). There are multiple food vendors and usually 2-3 other BBQ vendors. Approximately 80% (240 plates) of our sales occur from 11 am to 1 pm. We sell a total of ~300 plates for the day @ an avg of $7/plate for a gross of ~$2,100. We are able to keep our costs low so we usually net about $1,500 for the day.

2guystryin said:

Thanks for the info. im thinkimg of starting with 10 butts. the last two events we sold 40 lbs cooked in 2.5 hours. i may need to up my price. ill have to see what the other vendors are selling for. Im thinking 5 for a sammie. 7 pp nachos 5 for 3 legs.

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That would probably be a good number to start off with and to test the waters. Since you have a multi-day event you can always bump up the production each day to find that sweet spot in sales.

The 10 butts (assuming avg 8.5 lbs each) should yield ~ 47 lbs cooked (we have a 45% loss on butts) which would yield ~125 sammies (6 oz serving). Depending on your competition and the price of your butts you might want to bump the sammie price a bit ($6 will yield an extra $125 gross) if you think you can get it. The price on the pp nachos and legs sound reasonable (again depending on your costs).

Are you cooking at the event or bringing the food in and reheating? If reheating be very sure of proper reheat and hold temps in case the HD is attending the fair also. :becky:

At the event I spoke of we offer a PP or PBrisket sammie (with handful of chips) for $5 ea, 4 oz sides for $1 ea and beverage for $1 ea (soda or water). Most people buy at least one side (sometimes none, sometimes two) and a beverage hence the avg of $7 per sale. However, with the increase in pork and brisket costs lately we will probably bump our pork sammie up to $6 and the brisket sammie up to $7.

We really enjoy the one "big" event that we do each year. We get to meet so many great people. I think a fair would be fun to try sometime. It would sure be interesting to hear updates on your quantities and sales along the way. Above all else......HAVE FUN!!!!

You need to make sure you know all the charges the fair will be hitting you for before you commit and decide on prices. At our state fair there is a daily charge as well as 25% of sales charge and they come by and get your register tapes to make sure they are getting enough. That is why fair prices for food are so high.

2guystryin said:

270 total. not bad

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Nice!! Did you run out??

Pig Candy?

tacos too... you already have the pork, slap it on a tortilla with some diced onion and cilantro... maybe $5 - $6 for two tacos?

People love anything in a taco

I always thought these would do well - carne asada and bacon wrapped peppercinis; only take 5 min on a hot grill, so cook to order and save the rest for the next day. Maybe $5-$6 for 4 of them?

Smoked Butt chili verde

Stuff the pepperoncini with the pork "chopped" mixed with cream cheese (mix a little rub in with the mixture to jack the flavor up), then bacon wrap them. Great contrast of flavors. I would sub Jalapeños if you had access to them.

a lot of labor

How did things turn out for you guys?

Pulled pork tacos all day. 2.50. w/ coleslaw on the tacos. I cant keep up.]\

Husky Hog BBQ

2guystryin said:

Had 2 rain days. and had a icecream unit blocking me,so no one saw us until they already ate. lost money. it sucked. but we met some cool people. Good advertisement too. have 5 weddings and cooking for the national guards family days.

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Sorry to hear the sales weren't good but the advertising aspect is a very valid point. We did a small event three years ago not expecting to make money. We just barely broke even. But we did secure 14 catering events from it.

Meeting cool people is one of the best parts of Q'n. We order business cards online and distribute these out to everyone that will take one. You will be surprised how many calls you will get.

If you decide to try this fair again next year you may want to talk to the organizers ahead of time to see if they can give you a better spot. And talk to the Big Guy about the weather :lol:.