mchar69
Quintessential Chatty Farker
We're talking behind your back, Jeremy.
BTW, the pickles get better with age. 3-4 days.
BTW, the pickles get better with age. 3-4 days.
Open a BBQ restaurant, they said. It will be fun, they said
- Thread starter marubozo
- Start date
RevZiLLa
is One Chatty Farker
It is Jeremy's business and it is his life too. He will spend a LOT of time there and, if the TV makes life more fun, he deserves it.
marubozo
is one Smokin' Farker
Interesting to see how interested people are about a cheap refurbished TV.
That's the least of my problems. This week has included theft, missed brisket delivery, underage girls giving me their phone numbers, needing to call the police, towing cars, staff fights, etc.
And that's the tip of the iceberg. If I've learned anything through this it's that you need to have thick skin, take everything people say with a grain of salt, and don't be surprised by anything people are capable of.
In other news, a record Friday today. A local brewery has started a brisket food truck in town for a few hours on the weekend, but don't see that as a concern. And I'm in talks with a local hog farm about possibly sourcing all local pork.
Lots of good stuff happening.
That's the least of my problems. This week has included theft, missed brisket delivery, underage girls giving me their phone numbers, needing to call the police, towing cars, staff fights, etc.
And that's the tip of the iceberg. If I've learned anything through this it's that you need to have thick skin, take everything people say with a grain of salt, and don't be surprised by anything people are capable of.
In other news, a record Friday today. A local brewery has started a brisket food truck in town for a few hours on the weekend, but don't see that as a concern. And I'm in talks with a local hog farm about possibly sourcing all local pork.
Lots of good stuff happening.
Pyle's BBQ
Babbling Farker
Is someone from the brewery running it or did they bring in someone to run it for them?
Bring it on
ShadowDriver
somebody shut me the fark up.
Drunken Brisket
I love it, brother... that's like you starting up a mobile brewery to "compete..." You obviously have your stuff in one sock on the barbecue front.
No matter what the staff say, you are The Boss. Kick ass and provide pink slips as needed. If they can't be professional about their duties, they have no business near yours.
Thanks very much for sharing your journey with the rest of us! We're behind you (at LEAST in spirit!) all the way and want you to succeed.
Keep the updates comin'.... even if they only provide you a place to vent before diving back in!
Kind regards,
SD
I love it, brother... that's like you starting up a mobile brewery to "compete..." You obviously have your stuff in one sock on the barbecue front.
No matter what the staff say, you are The Boss. Kick ass and provide pink slips as needed. If they can't be professional about their duties, they have no business near yours.
Thanks very much for sharing your journey with the rest of us! We're behind you (at LEAST in spirit!) all the way and want you to succeed.
Keep the updates comin'.... even if they only provide you a place to vent before diving back in!
Kind regards,
SD
Crakaveli
Full Fledged Farker
what?
sliding_billy
somebody shut me the fark up.
Yeah, we need to hear this phone number story. If I get groupies out of it, I might have to open a restaurant. I'm sure my wife will be OK with it.
marubozo
is one Smokin' Farker
Oh, you'll get some groupies, that's for sure. A girl wearing a high school cheerleading jacket just walked up and gave me a piece of paper with her name and number on it. I mean WTF? And my staff has said there have been a few ladies in here asking them about my relationship status. There are some crazy people out there.
As for the brewery brisket truck, I'm not sure who they are having run it. They have a small restaurant at their place and have offered some smoked foods for some time now. I'll have to go check it out next week and see how it is.
As for the brewery brisket truck, I'm not sure who they are having run it. They have a small restaurant at their place and have offered some smoked foods for some time now. I'll have to go check it out next week and see how it is.
defence18
Knows what a fatty is.
He's also losing customers just by virtue of being a BBQ restaurant because there are people that just don't like Q. Some people are never gonna be happy, and are only content if they aren't happy. It's a fact of life. Anyone who has done one second of research on the Pig knows about the lines, the waits, and the risk of running out of food. Buyer beware.
I, for one, applaud Jeremy for responding to what appears to be continuous requests for a TV. I'm not in his shoes, so I can't say if I would have bought it or not, but the fact that he can turn to his customers and say, "You ask, you receive," is pretty impressive. Sure as hell beats telling a regular that he can't afford having people hang around all day. If I'm the reg, that sends me a clear cut message: I'm nothing but a dollar sign to this guy. And all the evidence I see on the thread and on his facebook page is that Jeremy prides himself on seeing his customers return, not squeezing every dime from them.
Got my fingers crossed that on May 4, I'll make my first stop to the Pig. Heading up to Kalamazoo for a family friend's First Communion. I'm hoping that time permits a detour on the way back. Pretty sure my wife is letting me stop so I'll shut up about having to go there.
Oh and +1 on the pics of your food on the TV.
OneHump
is one Smokin' Farker
Oh boy...
OneHump
is one Smokin' Farker
You all should report that one to Yelp, because people from CA aren't allowed to leave, so there is no way that guy could have been there. :mod:
peeps
somebody shut me the fark up.
I use Yelp when I travel quite a bit and I would hope people are not positively or negatively reviewing places they have never been to just because they read a story about the guy's trials and tribulations with no first hand experience of the establishment...
As such, I see nothing wrong with sliding_billly's post that would warrant this response of your's above.
People travel and reviewer's location should not be cause for speculation on the validity of the review. However, I hope you have been there per my comment above.
bander7003
Full Fledged Farker
Wow... that must be some brisket. I was already in awe of your cooking just by seeing pics but this takes it to a whole new level.:heh:
ITBFQ
is Blowin Smoke!
Is it Greenbush?
My wife and I will be in Union Pier at the end of June, and we are planning on making a side trip to The Prized Pig. Looking forward to it! Got t-shirts for customers to buy yet?
sliding_billy
somebody shut me the fark up.
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you weren't just asking folks who have been there to review the place when you posted this... Operative words "everyone here."
"I noticed that the restaurant only has 7 yelp reviews @ 4.5 stars. I would encourage everyone here to jump on Yelp and help a brother out. Here's the link: http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-prized-pig-niles"
marubozo
is one Smokin' Farker
Yep, greenbush with their brisket van. I love their beer, but have never tried any of their food yet. I may go check them out when they are back in town on Friday.
I did have a few people stop in this weekend who did get some brisket there and said it wasn't really good at all. I can't comment on that until I get a chance to try it.
Friday and Saturday were new records. We managed to keep serving until about 7pm, but both days there was pretty much a non-stop line from 5-7. It was pretty intense on the line during all of that.
And I'm finally feeling comfortable to delegate more to my employees. It's quite hard when you're a control freak, but on Thursday I didn't touch a single piece of meat or plate anything. I let them handle it all and just stood back doing some quality control. It felt great, so hopefully I can begin to step back a little so that I can spend more time actually running the business.
Also, I think going forward I'm going to have to look into creating a separate catering side of the business. Given we don't have the cooking and holding capacity to do larger gigs, I'm turning a ton of business away. I'd say pretty much every day somebody calls and wants catering for their graduation/wedding/business/golf outing/etc. Smaller ones I can squeeze in, like tomorrow, even though we're closed I'm throwing meat on tonight for the local Lowe's who wants to feed the store for their big meeting tomorrow.
But as it stands now, just doing all of the catering requests that come in could be a business on its own. But without another smoker and some staff dedicated to handling that side of things, my hands are pretty much tied and can't do anything for more than about 50 people unless it falls on a Monday or Tuesday.
All good problems to have no doubt, but just need to plan how to grow strategically so that the core business doesn't suffer.
Oh, and I had the best reaction to burnt ends I've ever seen on Saturday. This guy who comes in every Thursday for lunch popped in this weekend, when we have burnt ends, so I asked him if he wanted one. He had no idea what it was and was apprehensive about trying it. He put it in his mouth and he said, "Holy ****! WOW. Holy ****! Does the rest of the free world know about these things?" And then bought 5 orders to take home and give out. It was great.
