BBQ Joint Question

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ICDEDTURKES

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The BBQ restaurant talk on here has me curious.. The way I see it it would be dang near impossible to plan how much of what for the next day.. Do too much you run the risk of a huge wasted food and wasted money, do too little and your doors are closed at noon as you cannot make a customer sit there for 12 hours until his pulled pork is done.. Unless you are like Franklins whereas you are sure everything pulled off the pit is gonna sell and even after careful planning and forecasting there are just gonna be days with waste effecting your bottom line.

Up here in the land of no BBQ a new little trailer BBQ opened up with a cool log framed in picnic table area to eat. Ive tried to eat there a handful of evenings and every evening a little sign on the gate reads "OUT OF FOOD".. So I assume he is doing it right....

So what do the joints do on days they have a lot leftover?

Do some joints never run out and some sort of reserve that they reheat on busy days?

How is all this meat held when its pulled off the pit and could be a while till its sold?
 
Don't mean to hijack your thread but I'm from Houghton Lake Mi its kinda cool to see someone on here so close to home , what a small world.
 
Around here when they run uot of product they close for the day have a few hrs of down time and start on tomorrow. There is a difference between a Restaurant and a Joint, a Joint serves BBQ a restaurant serves BBQ as part of the menu. The Dawg don't do restaurants for "Q". If I was to get in the business I'd have a Joint and I would cook as much as I knew I could sell between 11 -1300 hrs in my area that would be 2 12 lb brisket, 10 lb of a sausage, and 6 racks of spare ribs, 5 lb of tater salad, 1 gal of pintos.

Left overs get used on the All you can stuff in your pie hole specials the next day
It is kept in warmer ovens until it is needed
 
Ponty56 said:
Don't mean to hijack your thread but I'm from Houghton Lake Mi its kinda cool to see someone on here so close to home , what a small world.
Click to expand...

That's cool, girlfriend works in Prudenville... You currently in HL or the town in your sig?
 
Like you pointed out, there are a lot of places that simply sell until they're out of food. It doesn't even have to be a place like Franklin's, but many of the really good BBQ places all over the country operate the same way. That's just the nature of BBQ since it isn't something that can just be cooked to order.

What good places do if there are leftovers is to find ways to re-purpose the meat. Obviously, you don't want to serve two day old brisket slices and try to pass it off as fresh to the customer, but you can take that meat and add it to beans, make chili, tacos, add some gravy and make an open faced sandwich, etc.

Still, you want to plan out quantities as close as possible to minimize waste and keep costs down, but a few extra briskets here and a few extra butts there can and will happen. But by being creative and putting the leftovers to use in other dishes or running a special the next day helps keep true waste down to a minimum.
 
you could always find someone to take the unused meats off your hands - maybe someone with a food van that visits office spaces, etc. Easily turn them into Stews or Chilli, etc. even sandwiches.
At worst you pass it on at 'cost' so your not losing money.
 
Many, many places I have been to open up at lunch time and operate until sold out then close. Some I have seen have lines that span over a block long, other move quickly so there is not an extremely long line.

Many of these sell by the pound as they do not have a lot of seating (some have no seating). This also helps to move the lines as they are not making sandwiches and or platters.
 
properly saved pulled pork and brisket can be re-heated, ribs are difficult to get that same day taste, however they can be done
 
And the good ones keep excellent records. Over time, someone who pays attention to the numbers can become pretty accurate in knowing their market.
 
While I don't have a "joint", I do sell in a farmer's market every week. Runs from 8:30AM-12:30PM during the summer. I only sell ribs and had the same thoughts you are having now. What I did was to cook samples and hand them out to everyone I knew..kinda getting the word out for not a lot of $. Did this for a few weeks before opening. If your cooking is good....the word spreads. Then all I did was start small and prayed people would buy. Well, it sold out the first time (not a huge amount....like 15 racks).

The next week I added a little more and had the same result. Slowly, I built from there. Sure, there is no guarantee of selling them but over time people started talking. My point is...start small. When you run out people feel like they missed the boat. You simply tell them then need to get there earlier since you can only make so much. Eventually....they show up earlier and earlier. I now have people that buy ribs at 8:30AM :mrgreen::mrgreen:
Feel free to PM me if you want more info....
 
daninnewjersey said:
While I don't have a "joint", I do sell in a farmer's market every week. Runs from 8:30AM-12:30PM during the summer. I only sell ribs and had the same thoughts you are having now. What I did was to cook samples and hand them out to everyone I knew..kinda getting the word out for not a lot of $. Did this for a few weeks before opening. If your cooking is good....the word spreads. Then all I did was start small and prayed people would buy. Well, it sold out the first time (not a huge amount....like 15 racks).

The next week I added a little more and had the same result. Slowly, I built from there. Sure, there is no guarantee of selling them but over time people started talking. My point is...start small. When you run out people feel like they missed the boat. You simply tell them then need to get there earlier since you can only make so much. Eventually....they show up earlier and earlier. I now have people that buy ribs at 8:30AM :mrgreen::mrgreen:
Feel free to PM me if you want more info....
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer but No No No, not thinking of going in business.. Just was curious as to how it all happens considering the amount of time it takes to BBQ with the thought of potential waste vs lost revenue..

Thanks everyone for enlightening me on this.
 
In the restaurant business there are small tricks to try to mitigate loss. One is to offer different dishes that use the same higher cost product. i.e. Brisket Slices and Brisket Sammich. Pulled Pork Sammich and a Grilled Cheese w/ pulled pork in it etc.

For pieces of meats that are left over, restaurants will try to repurpose them. Using leftover brisket in chili, leftover pulled pork in their baked beans, brunswick stew. Anything that can't be used can either be donated or thrown in the trash, but either way it is considered "waste".
 
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