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

ButtBurner said:

did you pick up that smoker yet?

I know its just been sitting there under Paul's carport.

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I'm sending one of my guys down to get it on Monday.

GrillsGoneWild said:

I heard sleep is overrated for a restaurant owner. That's what has stopped me. I like my sleep.

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It's quite depressing to see, but I have been using one of those activity trackers on my wrist for the past month or so, and my average nightly sleep is only about 4.5 hours. On the bright side, I found I'm walking over 6 miles every day just being at the restaurant. Of course my knees and back sure can feel it.

Bbq Bubba said:

Ouch! That will kill most raunts. Have you done a complete cost analysis on your menu yet? Its worth the time as your bleeding money in food.

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We did a full cost breakdown about 3 months in and back then our food cost was somewhere around 27-35% for most items. But as others have pointed out, costs have gone up across the board in the past six months and without a price increase on the menu to adjust for that, it's brought the cost percentage up with it.

For example, I know just on brisket alone that's up at least 30% just since I opened. Pork is probably another 20-25%. But the menu has remained the same.

The other issue that's been affecting food cost is our portion control. I was watching my guys on the meat station a few weeks ago and started weighing out their portions. Almost every plate was getting 2oz or so more than they should have. Great for the customer, bad for the bottom line. Because 2 oz extra per 250 servings a day, for five days a week, that's over 150 pounds a week in meat going out the door that isn't paid for.

So, now everything is getting weighed before serving and I switched to slightly smaller cups for sides to keep things much tighter, which is already helping a lot.

Anyways, this is going to be our biggest weekend by far. We've already got 100 racks of ribs sold for today and tomorrow and another 100+ pounds of other meat spoken for. That alone will make our typical weekend, so anybody that comes through the door is just going to be gravy the next two days.

I love football season!

Just got word that the Shirley has been acquired and is en route to the restaurant. Tomorrow is going to be like Christmas morning.

This thing isn't a smoker. It's a work of art!



I've seen a lot of pits, but this one is in a league of its own. The attention to detail that went into this build is amazing. Glad we finally managed to get it up here. It's out back seasoning now and hopefully we can put some meat on it this weekend. Can't thank Paul and Tyler enough.

Oh, and funny story, on the way back somewhere at a gas station in Kentucky, somebody offered close to $9k cash on the spot to buy it. :shocked: That's tempting!

dadsr4 said:

That is a work of art. I'd have a hard time concentrating on work.

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Hah. Not going to lie, at one point the entire staff was outside playing with it and the poor cashier we left inside came running out back like OMG, I've got five brisket sandwiches, somebody help!

Oops.

Burnt at Both Endz said:

I'm guessing this means that you are now short cooler/storage space for meat? Any plans for that? By the way, NICE pit!

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Well, we haven't ordered any extra meat yet so it isn't a problem, but if we get to where we're using it every weekend and need a few hundred extra pounds each week, it could get interesting.

But right now I'm talking with a local hog farm about switching to them for pork shoulders and they would be happy to deliver on other days from when our main order comes in. So with that I could stagger the deliveries to maximize our fridge space.

usecd said:

Can you put a whole hog on that thing?

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Absolutely. Possibly two. That was the whole reason I opted for the single door design so that whole hogs would be a piece of cake.

But the first meat is on the new pit this afternoon and I'm anxious to try it out. Doing some rib tips, chicken, and turkey.