Open a BBQ restaurant, they said. It will be fun, they said
- Thread starter marubozo
- Start date
brimclau
Full Fledged Farker
Seriously happy for you and your continued success... even though it was a long, stressful road to get here. Been watch the thread for awhile and am excited to see you are in the black! Any restaurant business is tough, one that includes food that takes so much prep, passion, and time to prepare makes it all the more difficult.
Beef
Full Fledged Farker
On a recent roadtrip, I took a side trip to the Prized Pig in Niles Mi.
Wow was I impressed! Clean place, friendly staff, and the food was over the top good! I had the meat sampler and was able to take half of it home! It was well worth the additional hour drive that day!
As luck would have it, Jeremy was out back and I was able to briefly meet and praise the man.
Smoke on Brother.
Wow was I impressed! Clean place, friendly staff, and the food was over the top good! I had the meat sampler and was able to take half of it home! It was well worth the additional hour drive that day!
As luck would have it, Jeremy was out back and I was able to briefly meet and praise the man.
Smoke on Brother.
marubozo
is one Smokin' Farker
On a recent roadtrip, I took a side trip to the Prized Pig in Niles Mi.
Wow was I impressed! Clean place, friendly staff, and the food was over the top good! I had the meat sampler and was able to take half of it home! It was well worth the additional hour drive that day!
As luck would have it, Jeremy was out back and I was able to briefly meet and praise the man.
Smoke on Brother.
Thanks, and great to meet you, even if briefly. You caught me after one of my emergency supply runs. I hate those, but you gotta do what you gotta do to keep things running!
marubozo
is one Smokin' Farker
It's Memorial Day, one of the biggest BBQ days of the year, and here I am sitting at home with the last thing on my mind being BBQ. But a day off is a day off!
I know I regularly share the good, but it's only fair to also share the bad and the ugly. This week had a lot of both.
I wake up Friday morning to what sounds like SWAT trying to get into the house. I stumble to the door and find one of my managers and a cook freaking out a bit saying there's an emergency at the restaurant. Something about the smoker being down, no meat, etc. So I frantically get my **** together and rush up there.
Sure enough, the SP is down. The igniter or a relay or something went out sometime in the middle of the night. Smoker was cold, so it must have gone out early on. So first off, nearly 300 pounds of brisket and pork are a complete loss. Can't open for lunch for sure.
Get my repair guy over and he identifies the parts needed to fix it. Great! Oh, problem is they are in Ft. Wayne and due to the holiday weekend, earliest they could get delivered would be Tuesday unless I drive all the way there and pick them up myself. Dammit!
Usually we could salvage something out of this and fire up shirley, load it up with meat, and rock dinner service. But nope. Shirley was already fired up and 100% full of meat just to satisfy all of the catering orders on Saturday. Double dammit! That means the only option is to close the restaurant for an entire Friday, one of the busiest days of the week. Not to mention the hundreds and hundreds of dollars in wasted meat.
So I keep one guy behind to run Shirley for the day and I have to bust my hump and drive to Ft. Wayne and back to get the parts and then coordinate the repair that evening with the repair guy so we could have everything up and running in time to load that smoker up to get the meat going for what was needed in the house on Saturday. Nightmare.
Between the $700 in parts and repairs, hundreds lost in meat, $3k lost in sales, overtime to pay a cook to run the shirley pit until 3am, it's was like flushing $5,000 down the toilet. To make things worse, it was a payday, and all that loss is going to put payroll in jeopardy as checks try to start clearing tomorrow.
Oh, and more plumbing problems as the pump broke down for the soda/ice machine and flooded the kitchen. Not wanting to spend hundreds of dollars on a plumber, I got to play plumber and fix it all myself. With all of the aggravation, I probably didn't really save anything, but oh well.
Just a friendly reminder that even when things are going seemingly well, it can all go to hell in the blink of an eye. A blunt reminder of just how difficult and stressful this business can be.
I know I regularly share the good, but it's only fair to also share the bad and the ugly. This week had a lot of both.
I wake up Friday morning to what sounds like SWAT trying to get into the house. I stumble to the door and find one of my managers and a cook freaking out a bit saying there's an emergency at the restaurant. Something about the smoker being down, no meat, etc. So I frantically get my **** together and rush up there.
Sure enough, the SP is down. The igniter or a relay or something went out sometime in the middle of the night. Smoker was cold, so it must have gone out early on. So first off, nearly 300 pounds of brisket and pork are a complete loss. Can't open for lunch for sure.
Get my repair guy over and he identifies the parts needed to fix it. Great! Oh, problem is they are in Ft. Wayne and due to the holiday weekend, earliest they could get delivered would be Tuesday unless I drive all the way there and pick them up myself. Dammit!
Usually we could salvage something out of this and fire up shirley, load it up with meat, and rock dinner service. But nope. Shirley was already fired up and 100% full of meat just to satisfy all of the catering orders on Saturday. Double dammit! That means the only option is to close the restaurant for an entire Friday, one of the busiest days of the week. Not to mention the hundreds and hundreds of dollars in wasted meat.
So I keep one guy behind to run Shirley for the day and I have to bust my hump and drive to Ft. Wayne and back to get the parts and then coordinate the repair that evening with the repair guy so we could have everything up and running in time to load that smoker up to get the meat going for what was needed in the house on Saturday. Nightmare.
Between the $700 in parts and repairs, hundreds lost in meat, $3k lost in sales, overtime to pay a cook to run the shirley pit until 3am, it's was like flushing $5,000 down the toilet. To make things worse, it was a payday, and all that loss is going to put payroll in jeopardy as checks try to start clearing tomorrow.
Oh, and more plumbing problems as the pump broke down for the soda/ice machine and flooded the kitchen. Not wanting to spend hundreds of dollars on a plumber, I got to play plumber and fix it all myself. With all of the aggravation, I probably didn't really save anything, but oh well.
Just a friendly reminder that even when things are going seemingly well, it can all go to hell in the blink of an eye. A blunt reminder of just how difficult and stressful this business can be.
richierich
Well-known member
dang dude, sorry to hear that. all part of the learning process I suppose... I hope you bought extra parts! 
marubozo
is one Smokin' Farker
dang dude, sorry to hear that. all part of the learning process I suppose... I hope you bought extra parts!
I did. I bought replacements for nearly anything that could break on the SP. that way downtime could be just minutes or hours, not a whole day.
GrillsGoneWild
is one Smokin' Farker
Some days you are the windshield and some days you are the bug. It seems you have more windshield days than bugs so at least you have that going for you.
Neurosistx
MemberGot rid of the matchlight.
I stumbled across this site, and specifically this post, as my first last week.
However, I've read the entire thing from start to finish, and find it fascinating.
Thank you for sharing all of this, it is truly an eye opener for anyone looking to start a business, and a stark reminder of the amazing dedication that has to be the foundation of a business to keep it going.
This is a great thread for anyone thinking of getting started, and I appreciate the level of details you have shared, it tends to make information more valuable than "examples" you see in a lot of these type of post.
If I ever venture that far north I'll be sure to stop in and check it out.
Keep up the great work.
However, I've read the entire thing from start to finish, and find it fascinating.
Thank you for sharing all of this, it is truly an eye opener for anyone looking to start a business, and a stark reminder of the amazing dedication that has to be the foundation of a business to keep it going.
This is a great thread for anyone thinking of getting started, and I appreciate the level of details you have shared, it tends to make information more valuable than "examples" you see in a lot of these type of post.
If I ever venture that far north I'll be sure to stop in and check it out.
Keep up the great work.
Mikeinctown
Full Fledged Farker
Haven't logeed in here in about 9 months but do see the PP updates via FaceBook all the time. Still trying to plan a day trip from Cleveland to get some good BBQ. Want to try some burnt ends if at all possible. Wondering if I shouldn't take a half day vacation at work and do an afternoon run. Probably wouldn't want to come back after a 4 hour ride though.
Anyway, I honestly can't believe something like this hadn't already been set up. At work we have temperature alarms that will go off if a given room goes either above or below a set temperature. That's been in place for more than a dozen years now. The HVAC system we have can be set up to email problems or can be accessed via an app if the newtwork securities will allow. Would be very hard to believe that something like this wouldn't be available for a smoker which runs between 200-300 degrees.
Looking forward to many more updates.
CakeM1x
is Blowin Smoke!
Heatermeter I built for @$150 will do that.
Bperkins01
Full Fledged Farker
I remember Marubozo mentioning something like this before..
The smoker runs unattended all night - so unless the thermometer is set up to somehow call him/alarm him... an alarm screaming in the restaurant at 2am is not much use.
That said - I'm sure someone makes something. I have a Wifi thermostat on the house and it will signal me with issues..
The smoker runs unattended all night - so unless the thermometer is set up to somehow call him/alarm him... an alarm screaming in the restaurant at 2am is not much use.
That said - I'm sure someone makes something. I have a Wifi thermostat on the house and it will signal me with issues..
insaneh
Full Fledged Farker
Exactly what I'm talking about.
Brew-Bq
Full Fledged Farker
There are options out there to monitor remotely and send warning texts, emails alarms. For what you lost on that one mishap it would pay for itself. Check out this link. Its for brewerys but the same concept. http://www.craftbrewcontrol.com/gta/
Beast Drinker
Full Fledged Farker
When I worked in an Indie Garage between when I worked at the Dealer and when I joined the Navy, My boss told me: " If you own your own business you can work half days, you just pick which 12 hours they are". As the years have worn on.... A little over 14 of them I kinda think he might have been understating it a little.
insaneh
Full Fledged Farker
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Control-Products-FreezeAlarm-Temperature-HS-700/dp/B002MUAIP8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1432992122&sr=8-1&keywords=temperature+alarm"]Control Products FreezeAlarm Homesitter Temperature, Water, Power Alarm HS-700 with voice message to up to 3 phone numbers / No monitoring fees - Freeze Alarm - Amazon.com@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41nR5Vdb2CL.@@AMEPARAM@@41nR5Vdb2CL[/ame]
