Open a BBQ restaurant, they said. It will be fun, they said

I've got stick burners and charcoal/wood smokers. I use different ones depending on the time I have to put into the cook.
My point is that he is already busy and trying to up his capacity. By adding a stick burner, all I can see that doing is adding more things for him to take care of.
 
119 pages, 1782 posts, and I've been captivated (and completely useless for the past day and a half):shocked:
We are planning a motorcycle ride into Canada next month. I hope to make it to the South Bend area early enough to get dinner at the Pig (and a T-shirt).
I've also been told I need to open a BBQ joint. This thread has given me much to consider. Your trials and tribulations getting the store open and your huge success in doing so is an inspiration. I have no words of advice. Your product is top notch and your devotion to the customer is beyond reproach. It's obvious your business model is working.
Thank you for sharing your path to success. See you in June.
 
As for the TV, I put together a slideshow with a group of my professional photos, put a caption and our logo on them so that people who may be waiting in line or for their food can see what else they might like. And it seems to be working because I've overheard some people watching it and talking about what they were going to order next time because it looked so good.

When not showing that I have an episode of BBQ pitmasters playing or if there is a local game of interest on.

It's been a crazy start to the week since we ran this new promotion with one of the local TV channels. It's like a groupon type offer, but they run it through their site and put together a commercial for it and everything. We had 200 tickets to sell and they sold out in less than 90 minutes. The guy who runs it said it was the fastest selling offer they've ever done. Because of that we've been flooded with new customers. Sold out by 7 last night and we've never done that on a wednesday before.

This warm weather is doing wonderful things for business.
 
Keep up the good work!

Glad to hear of your success, Brother!
 
marubozo said:
As for the TV, I put together a slideshow with a group of my professional photos, put a caption and our logo on them so that people who may be waiting in line or for their food can see what else they might like. And it seems to be working because I've overheard some people watching it and talking about what they were going to order next time because it looked so good.
Click to expand...

I knew that would be a winning idea. Quite frankly, I often find myself looking at your pictures for inspiration into what I'm going to cook next. I've loved everyone of your pics so far.
 
Not sure why everyone keeps giving him advice and a hard time about the TV.

He obviously knows a thing or two about his own business.
 
marubozo,

I'm just a lurker to get some quick info for the few times I smoke on my Brinkmann Electric.

I saw your thread while looking up something for a Mother's Day smoke. I ended up getting nothing done at work Thursday and forgot was I was looking up. I wished I lived closer, but I make a trip to Chicago (from Pittsburgh) every summer. I already told my wife that we are stopping at your place.

Congratulations on your perseverance and your success.
 
I knew mothers day was a big dining out day, but this is just ridiculous. We sold out by 12:30 today. It was farking crazy. We just polished off the last of the pulled pork and chicken, so I literally just have about half a pound of sausage and a couple of rib tips for the rest of the day.

10346005_602035973225165_3774888284928190212_n.jpg
 
Crazy, but that's a nice problem to have. It really seems as though your new SF smoker will be running full time to keep up with demand, and you'll be ordering another to handle the catering side of the bidness.
 
Man you have a great problem to have for a restaurant.

Keep on rocking it out, and paying attention to detail and quality and the Prized Pig will become an iconic restaurant in your area and quite possibly a BBQ Mecca that will be added to peoples destination restaurants.

P.S. That was definitely a smart thing doing the slide show of your food to help get people to decide on what they want before coming up to the window.
 
That is so cool to hear....just keep doing what you're doing....with the addition of the SF smoker that is....
 
I had no idea I was going to create such a monster. Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic, but I had absolutely no idea or even expectations things would go like this. I still come home at night in disbelief that this is all real.

It's just surreal to me that like yesterday there was a line out the door and people parking in the grass and on the street, probably 90% of were first-time diners. And then today, running out of mac and cheese at lunch and having about 10 people saying they would wait an hour until the next batch is done. Who does that? I sure wouldn't.

Anyway, I'm going to try to catch up on some sleep on these two days off, but just wanted to thank everyone here for all of your support and encouragement. You've provided a great place to get some reinforcement and a place for me to vent a bit, and that makes all the difference in the world.
 
Crakaveli said:
can you add on to the building? or add some outdoor seating?
Click to expand...

Picnic tables for outdoor seating is coming. One of my cooks builds picnic tables and is working on getting a few of those built. But seating is the least of my problems. It's smoker/holding space that's holding us back. The smoker is usually 99.9% utilized all day, and the CVAP is probably at about 110% capacity for holding.

So with the new smoker coming in July, and a deal I'm working on with another restaurant about renting a full-sized CVAP, that's when I'll finally be able to ramp up production. As for now, it's just filling the smoker every day and selling until it's gone.
 
Fantastic thread and fantastic story. Congratulations!

I hope this isn't an inappropriate question, I'm just curious, given how great things are going, are the new capital expenditures (new smoker, CVAC machine etc) being covered by the restaurants takings or are you having to dip into personal savings or take on debt in order to cover them?
Feel free to ignore this if you wish.

Congrats again!
 
Been watching this grow into a monster. Don't remember if you posted or not- what kind of poundage you cooking each day?
 
rufio said:
Fantastic thread and fantastic story. Congratulations!

I hope this isn't an inappropriate question, I'm just curious, given how great things are going, are the new capital expenditures (new smoker, CVAC machine etc) being covered by the restaurants takings or are you having to dip into personal savings or take on debt in order to cover them?
Feel free to ignore this if you wish.

Congrats again!
Click to expand...

I try to use cash whenever I can, so most of it has come out of the business. I did finance the original smoker though.

Lespauljeff said:
Been watching this grow into a monster. Don't remember if you posted or not- what kind of poundage you cooking each day?
Click to expand...

Somewhere around 400 pounds on most days.
 
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