First Event... LMK your thoughts!

[q.pdx]

hey everyone, doing my first event next weekend (14th). Street fair with a parade mid-day. estimated attendance is 5,000 according to the folks putting it on.

I have a Lang 84" Deluxe Chargrill, so I've got a decent amount of space to cook on. Macro level, looking to cook 280 lbs (largest cook I'll have done by far).

Doing about 100 lbs of brisket, 100 lbs of pork, 80 lbs of ribs. Cole slaw, baked beans, and mac & cheese for sides.

Menu is very simple... 1lb of meat (you call it) + 2 sides for $18, or a boat tray of pork butt burnt ends for $5.

Meat cooked the night before, 4pm to 1am, then held in cambros until the event starts at 10am. Ribs will be put on upright rib racks to maximize space in the smoker.

Always open to suggestions, let me know!

 

[q.pdx]

forgot to mention, there are 7 other food vendors, but 3 of them are ice cream. so really it's only 4 other food vendors.

 

[poorolddan]

Let us know how this works out for you.

 

[viking72]

Health department happy with this?

Later,
Doug

 

[landarc]

Sounds like a solid plan. The Cambro hold is pretty long, although 100 pounds of hot meat should hold just fine.

Best of luck!

 

[JimmyDAL]

What are you using for a wash station? Serv-safe Certified? Generator? If this was already discussed, forgive me.

 

[q.pdx]

@viking72 yes, health dept was fine. i think they were more worried about the check that they had to cash than whether or not everything met standard.

@jimmyDAL I've build a foot pump hand wash station very similar to this: http://www.instructables.com/id/Field-Sink/ no generator, no propane, everyone has their food handler's certification. Forgot to mention, all sides will be prepared in a health department certified commercial kitchen the morning of the event.

@landarc yea, I did my first brisket cook on the Lang a few weeks ago and we had 5 briskets finish in 8 hours (expected them to go for at least 12) and so we threw them in the cambro. they came out perfectly. They went in at 5am and didn't get sliced til after 1pm, so they sat in there for about 8 hours. I'm actually trying to find a second one because I was so impressed with how well it did!

 

[TailGateJoecom]

hey everyone, doing my first event next weekend (14th). Street fair with a parade mid-day. estimated attendance is 5,000 according to the folks putting it on.

I have a Lang 84" Deluxe Chargrill, so I've got a decent amount of space to cook on. Macro level, looking to cook 280 lbs (largest cook I'll have done by far).

Doing about 100 lbs of brisket, 100 lbs of pork, 80 lbs of ribs. Cole slaw, baked beans, and mac & cheese for sides.

Menu is very simple... 1lb of meat (you call it) + 2 sides for $18, or a boat tray of pork butt burnt ends for $5.

Meat cooked the night before, 4pm to 1am, then held in cambros until the event starts at 10am. Ribs will be put on upright rib racks to maximize space in the smoker.

Always open to suggestions, let me know!

As far as your menu pricing, I'd probably cut it to 1/2 lb of meat and charge $10, you will get less people apprehensive to spend near 20 for a plate of food, and you will get less "sharers," so instead of a couple sharing one plate at $18, maybe they buy 2 plates for $20. Now, in that scenario you will be doubling on sides, but you can negate that a little by making the portions a touch smaller which should be ok since you are serving 2. Also, are you really changing the same price for pork/brisket/ribs, because food costs there are wildly different. Honestly, you need to calculate what each plate of food costs to produce, all the ingrediants on the plate. You then want to multiply that cost by at least 3x and up to 4x depending on the fees to vend. Once you get that number, if you feel there is room to charge more, than do so, but at least know that you are making the minimum amount you really need to.

The second thing you need to really figure out is how much food to make. You need to estimate the demand. The general rule of thumb is to devide expected attendance in half, then divide that number by the amount of food vendors. Now, in my limited experience, the organizers always throw out over inflated attendance numbers. There are 5 food and 3 ice cream in total. We can bring over 1 ice cream to that vendor number and use 6 to be safe, and we can use 4,000 as a safer number accounting for organizer overestimation. That gets you about 330 servings.

Now, your weights, are those pre cook? If so you need to halve those numbers for brisket and pork post cook weight, and shave off a little for the ribs weight loss as well.

Oh, one other thing, no sandwich? I think you need a sandwich version. A good trick to extending the yield of brisket is with sandwiches. When slicing for plates, a lot of people will be put off by the fattier slices, some you just can't put on a plate and sell. That left over is your profit. With a sandwich, you can use the fattier slices, top with some slaw and sauce, nobody knows and it will taste effing delicious because we all know that fatty point is the best part!

There is a science to this stuff, lol.

 

[q.pdx]

@TailGateJoeCom great points!!! I think you're right on dropping price to $15 for a plate. 2 meats/2 sides for $15 is very fair, especially knowing application fees and prices.

Too late to plan for sandwiches, but I was planning to do burnt ends out of many of the fatty parts of the point and ask 'lean/fatty' when slicing brisket. But I like the idea and will definitely include a sandwich option going forward!

Thank you for your feedback!

 

[MrDsmoker]

As far as your menu pricing, I'd probably cut it to 1/2 lb of meat and charge $10, you will get less people apprehensive to spend near 20 for a plate of food, and you will get less "sharers," so instead of a couple sharing one plate at $18, maybe they buy 2 plates for $20. Now, in that scenario you will be doubling on sides, but you can negate that a little by making the portions a touch smaller which should be ok since you are serving 2. Also, are you really changing the same price for pork/brisket/ribs, because food costs there are wildly different. Honestly, you need to calculate what each plate of food costs to produce, all the ingrediants on the plate. You then want to multiply that cost by at least 3x and up to 4x depending on the fees to vend. Once you get that number, if you feel there is room to charge more, than do so, but at least know that you are making the minimum amount you really need to.

The second thing you need to really figure out is how much food to make. You need to estimate the demand. The general rule of thumb is to devide expected attendance in half, then divide that number by the amount of food vendors. Now, in my limited experience, the organizers always throw out over inflated attendance numbers. There are 5 food and 3 ice cream in total. We can bring over 1 ice cream to that vendor number and use 6 to be safe, and we can use 4,000 as a safer number accounting for organizer overestimation. That gets you about 330 servings.

Now, your weights, are those pre cook? If so you need to halve those numbers for brisket and pork post cook weight, and shave off a little for the ribs weight loss as well.

Oh, one other thing, no sandwich? I think you need a sandwich version. A good trick to extending the yield of brisket is with sandwiches. When slicing for plates, a lot of people will be put off by the fattier slices, some you just can't put on a plate and sell. That left over is your profit. With a sandwich, you can use the fattier slices, top with some slaw and sauce, nobody knows and it will taste effing delicious because we all know that fatty point is the best part!

There is a science to this stuff, lol.

I definitely don't want to takeover this thread but I do have a question on how to figure out food cost. I'm trying to prepare myself to one day do farmers markets and vending events and I will definitely need to know this information. When you say cost per plate what science/formula/rule of thumbs are you using? I get that you account for 40%-50% weight loss for the big meats. How to you account for the sides? Any feedback will be appreciated. And once again I'm not trying to hijack the thread just want to know some info as well.

 

[q.pdx]

@MrDsmoker Still trying to wrap my head around this as well, especially with things like ribs where I'm essentially selling by the unit, but paying by the pound. compound that with multiple meats, implicit costs like sauces, rubs, packaging, etc. Then you leverage products like pulled pork and if you put in the work to turn trimmings into sausage, then you're essentially just creating revenue out of thin air.

I think I just haven't sat down long enough to actually calculate the per-unit cost. Definitely something to look into though, and would love to get more experienced feedback.

 

[landarc]

Estimating costs is easy, take food cost and multiply by 3, that gets you a ballpark figure.

The real way is a lot of detail, want to make money, this is what you do.

1. Develop recipes for everything that you will sell, and use recipes that produce the amount of product you will use each day. To a large degree, the trick here is in estimating what you will sell each day, another issue is circular recipes, you need the sauce recipe to calculate the meat recipe, you need the meat recipe to calculate the beans recipe, which uses meat, and sauce etc...you can see where that is headed.

2. Using the recipes, develop the shopping list. Make sure the list in comprehensive, it isn't necessarily the list you will use for shopping, but, it is the list of every ingredient you will need for one day of vending. Be accurate, everything is based upon this list.

3. Establish where you will be shopping, for the most part, restaurant supply houses will offer more stable pricing, and better pricing for everything, than compared to retail outlets, who make their money on selling small amounts of product to people who are not price sensitive. Most experienced restaurant people know their costs. Even places like Cash & Carry (West coast) are better than most stores. Use the prices from your chosen supplier to develop your daily food costs and costs per item.

4. Using the shopping list costs, and recipes, determine what each item you cook costs in terms of ingredients. That is your base.

5. Now, using the recipes, try to estimate your time to cook, your costs to cook, including all items such as fuel for cooker, time for any rented equipment or kithen space etc...add this to the food costs to find out what it costs you to produce the item.

6. Add in overhead such as transportation, insurance and profit based upon the units you expect to sell. I you expect to sell 200 orders, then divide overhead by number of days selling and then divide by number of units per day to come to a cost.

7. Finally, backcheck, run your monthly numbers, to see if the math was right. Simpyl reverse the process to see how your estimates compared to what you sold, and made.

 

[MrDsmoker]

Estimating costs is easy, take food cost and multiply by 3, that gets you a ballpark figure.

The real way is a lot of detail, want to make money, this is what you do.

1. Develop recipes for everything that you will sell, and use recipes that produce the amount of product you will use each day. To a large degree, the trick here is in estimating what you will sell each day, another issue is circular recipes, you need the sauce recipe to calculate the meat recipe, you need the meat recipe to calculate the beans recipe, which uses meat, and sauce etc...you can see where that is headed.

2. Using the recipes, develop the shopping list. Make sure the list in comprehensive, it isn't necessarily the list you will use for shopping, but, it is the list of every ingredient you will need for one day of vending. Be accurate, everything is based upon this list.

3. Establish where you will be shopping, for the most part, restaurant supply houses will offer more stable pricing, and better pricing for everything, than compared to retail outlets, who make their money on selling small amounts of product to people who are not price sensitive. Most experienced restaurant people know their costs. Even places like Cash & Carry (West coast) are better than most stores. Use the prices from your chosen supplier to develop your daily food costs and costs per item.

4. Using the shopping list costs, and recipes, determine what each item you cook costs in terms of ingredients. That is your base.

5. Now, using the recipes, try to estimate your time to cook, your costs to cook, including all items such as fuel for cooker, time for any rented equipment or kithen space etc...add this to the food costs to find out what it costs you to produce the item.

6. Add in overhead such as transportation, insurance and profit based upon the units you expect to sell. I you expect to sell 200 orders, then divide overhead by number of days selling and then divide by number of units per day to come to a cost.

7. Finally, backcheck, run your monthly numbers, to see if the math was right. Simpyl reverse the process to see how your estimates compared to what you sold, and made.

That is very helpful! When the time comes for me to vend I I'll definitely sit down and cross every t and dot every i. Thanks again!