Is there a easier way without giving up quality?

I apologize in advance if this is a long read.

Id like to get some advice/opinions on how we have been doing our business and see if there are easier options or if Im just being a cry baby and need to suck it up.

Preface: We have a small food trailer we sell from and a 250 gallon RF offset stick burner on a separate trailer for our cooker. We only cook Prime Grade Creekstone beef brisket and the best fresh pork products we can source. This is not cheap.
We have only been serving on Saturday and Sunday. Open at 11am till sold out. We both have full time jobs during the week.

We started serving food to the public last August. We were an instant hit in the town we live in. The first day we opened we sold every bit of food we had in less than 2hrs. This consisted of brisket, pulled pork, ribs, sausage, homemade beans, and homemade slaw. People raved about our food on social media. The next weekend the line was 12-15 deep before we ever opened the window to sell. Food was gone again in a couple of hours.

Ok so here is where Id like some advice. Our goal was to serve the best Barbecue in our area. Period. We wanted to serve "Franklin" quality brisket and we do. We wanted every product that we sold to be the very best...not just "good". We achieved this. But......producing this kind of food is killing me. Depending on the shift Im working, I will prep meat on Thursday night or mid day Friday. Meat goes on the cooker by 4-5PM Friday evening. The first load is all brisket and pork butts. We cook at 275-300. I start pulling butts and brisket anywhere from 1-3 AM Saturday morn. As soon as they are off the cooker is loaded up with ribs. They come off around 6-7:30 AM Saturday morn. All the meat is kept in a Alto Sham hot hold oven in the food trailer. At 8-9Am we start hooking up the trailer and getting ready to leave to go set up to sell. We open at 11 and sell till its gone. Then haul ass back home to prep meat and load the cooker back up again and start all over for Sunday.

We cook on a stick burner. I made the choice to buy this cooker because I felt to produce the quality of food that we wanted, this was the only way to do it. NONE of the big Texas places (the popular ones) use gas or electric. Most of them also use offset stick burners. I don't mean to offend anyone, but I just don't believe that you can produce the type of food that we do on an electric or gas "set it and forget it" cooker. Yes, you can make good food no doubt, but not the type of Q that people are standing in line for hours for at Franklins, La Barbecue, Muellers, etc..... There is a reason these guys don't use "easy" cookers.

So, Im getting up early Friday morn.....I get ZERO sleep from Friday morn till I go to bed Sunday night. The cooker needs wood every 30-40 min. Yes I may doze off for a few in between logs, but I keep an alarm set on my phone. Im going 3 days with zero sleep. I can make it thru Saturday just fine, however Saturday night and sunday is rough.

So tell me, what am I doing wrong here? Is everyone that sells barbecue running on no sleep 24/7? Do I have to sacrifice food quality for sleep by moving to a modern style cooker which will make us no different than any other run of the mill BBQ joint? We are a small operation and with the cost of the higher quality meat we are buying, profit margins are not great. I have a passion for this and its what drives me to keep going. I sure as hell cant afford to hire any help and I would have a hard time trusting any aspect of the prep/cooking process to anyone else.

I visited with a guy yesterday that has owned a very large catering business for over 20yrs. His bright idea solution was to precook and freeze all my meat then just reheat it for service. I politely told him he was insane. Nobody wants to eat reheated brisket, much less pay $18/lb for it. His response was "hell they will never know". This attitude is the difference in just wanting to dump a plate of "ok food" in front of a customer, versus having a passion for what you are doing and wanting to give the customer the very best barbecue they have ever ate in their life.

Guys give me some advice here please.

I appreciate all the quick replies. Thank you.

Changing the times that we are open is a good idea. Ive thought about this some and may seriously consider it. I think it would help.

Im very much against using charcoal and charcoal cookers. Our wood fire only food is unique in our area and part of what sets us apart from all the others. I have a new friend that currently owns a vacant building that was previously a barbecue joint. It has a large Southern Pride rotisserie smoker in it. Ive never used one of these, but he told me I was welcome to use it anytime if it would help me out. I would like to give it a test run and see what kind of food it can produce.

The briskets get wrapped in butcher paper and the butts in foil, but as for moving them to another oven, that would take a huge oven or multiple oven for the amount of meat we are cooking. I don't have access to anything like that and buying it is out of the question. Not to mention Im just not crazy about the idea. I guess Im too hung up on the concept of "authentic barbecue" and that isn't cooked in an oven.

Landarc is right......The big texas guys have "overnight" guys to help tend the fires and pull meat. This is where we are lacking.

HBMTN said:

In order to sleep you will need a great partner to do things while you sleep If you read Franklins book he lays out his timeline of how they operate. He goes in to work at like 2am and work until 1-2pm another crew starts in the morning while someone else does the evening to 2am shift.

On a side note, I'd be curious to know what you pay out in that region for CreekStone Farms Prime Briskets. I was quoted $9.49lb last week for whole packers by US Foods for them. No way would we be able to serve that on the east coast. The cooked per lb price my cost would be pushing $20-$21lb

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We go thru a distributor (if that matters). We buy the Creekstone Prime 14-16 pound packers for $3.75-$4.80 a pound. Ive seen it vary in this price range over the months based on the beef prices. We sell our cooked brisket for $17/LB and they line up for it once they get a taste of it. We've have people come up to the window and want whole brisktets.

yakdung said:

"NONE of the big Texas places (the popular ones) use gas or electric." Are you so certain? If you do a little poking around on the net, you will find that some of the well known places use "auto pits" to handle overflow. I'm quite certain in a blind taste test, the general public would be hard pressed to determine the difference. I believe and this only my opinion, I think folks are seeking just really good food. Good luck.

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I guess I can not say for an Absolute. However, Ive "poked" around in the cook areas of the places Ive mentioned above and they don't cook in auto pits unless they have them well hidden. Now, Im sure LOTS of places do this. I was only speaking about the places ive been to to do research.

And yes, I read Franklin's book the day it was released. Very good read and is exactly what we modeled our little operation after.....minus the thousands of customers and night help!!:razz:

Thank you for that video.

yakdung said:

If you didn't catch it, Jim uses green mesquite.

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Yes actually I did notice that. Lots of the "old timers" told me that green mesquite was the one wood that would ruin a cooker. They said youll never get that smell out of it. I don't cook with mesquite, so I wouldn't know.