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

One word can sum up today. Unreal.

A line out the door at lunch. Did more sales at lunch today than the entire day yesterday. Then dinner was insane. Dining room was packed by 5, had a line of people out to the parking lot standing in below zero wind chills waiting to order.

Absolutely beyond my wildest dreams when I had envisioned this venture. Had to play damage control in the last hour when we still had a line of 20 people and we ran out of most things, which always sucks. There were a few pissed off people, but again, most are understanding and realize that running out means they are getting the best and it's worth getting there early.

I haven't had time to look at all the tickets yet today, but the register said we had over 260 orders today, which is unbelievable.

Now if only I could catch up on sleep.
 
Congrats!!!! And thanks for sharing this experience. There's nothing better than hearing someone is living the dream Smoke on!
 
marubozo said:
One word can sum up today. Unreal.

A line out the door at lunch. Did more sales at lunch today than the entire day yesterday. Then dinner was insane. Dining room was packed by 5, had a line of people out to the parking lot standing in below zero wind chills waiting to order.

Absolutely beyond my wildest dreams when I had envisioned this venture. Had to play damage control in the last hour when we still had a line of 20 people and we ran out of most things, which always sucks. There were a few pissed off people, but again, most are understanding and realize that running out means they are getting the best and it's worth getting there early.

I haven't had time to look at all the tickets yet today, but the register said we had over 260 orders today, which is unbelievable.

Now if only I could catch up on sleep.
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Sounds great!

I have been thinking about your issue with running out of food and how to handle it, because hopefully I will be opening up a place in the next year myself. I have seen at Franklin BBQ they estimate what they have left, and go out into the line counting off people and warning people in line after a certain point that they might not have enough. I figure it is better to give people a heads up as soon as possible rather than have them wait and get to the register to find out there is none left.

In line with that, I remember going to the Wendy's years ago as a little kid and when the line was really long, they would send an employee out into the line to take orders, writing them into a preprinted order form. Maybe when you get to a certain point of the day, you figure a count of servings of what is left, and have someone informally find out what people in line are ordering, this way you can give people a heads up what you run out of. Don't know the feasibility of that, just spitballing.
 
marubozo said:
Thanks, guys.

For you local folks, I'll be on WNDU 16's morning show tomorrow (Friday) during their foodie forum segment. It wasn't so much an interview like I thought it would be, but a camera crew came and filmed a bunch of the stuff at the place like platters of food, slicing brisket, pulling pork, etc. I guess they will use that as a backdrop while someone talks about the restaurant and what we do. Either way, free advertising, so I'll take it!

But as of today we've officially got two weeks under our belt. How the time flies. I've learned a lot, the staff has come together, mistakes are becoming almost non-existent, and the customer flow is still steady.

But there is one thing I'm struggling with, and I don't know if my standards are just too high, or if customer expectations are just lower than I thought. When I taste something and it isn't perfect, at least as far as I'm concerned, I don't sell it. Like today, pulled a fresh new brisket out of the holding cabinet and started slicing it for a customer and tasted a piece. Flat was too dry for my liking, so I told the guy I wasn't going to give it to him because I felt it wasn't good enough and subbed his brisket for some ribs and gave him a free dessert. But he insisted he still wanted a sample of the brisket just to get an idea of the flavor. After he tried it he said it wasn't too dry at all and he would have loved to buy a pound to go to take home.

So what the hell do you do? I know it's dry. I'm cooking many briskets a day and it isn't hard to see when one is overcooked a bit. I know it isn't good enough, but the customers like it. If they like it and are willing to pay, is it really that bad, or am I just being too critical and am I throwing money away by resorting to using the meat in chili, beans, etc?

The same thing happened earlier when two customers both wanted chicken. One as a half bird, the other pulled. I filled the order and after sending it tried some of the chicken I was pulling and it was dry (to me). We didn't have any chicken ready at the time to replace it, so I went out there and apologized for the dry chicken and gave them dessert and a few extras, and they both insisted that the chicken was amazing and giving them free stuff was totally unnecessary.

So I don't know. Maybe I'm just overly critical, which is leading to waste. But I just think about it if I sample something and it isn't one of the best things I've put into my mouth, then it isn't good enough to charge people money for. Then again, you look at all the crap people are paying for elsewhere and it's a reminder that this isn't a KCBS competition and it's just regular people looking for good barbecue.
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1) you probably are being over critical. It is obvious you are proud of your craft and only want to put your best out there for people to enjoy. I run my parties the same way.

2) while being so critical does cost you some amount of money and makes your work harder in maintaining the quality you demand, this goes hand in hand with why you are seeing the success you are.

I can't understand how someone owns a restaurant that sells bad food, I mean, as someone who knows what is good and what is bad, it just seems obvious. But I am realizing more and more that some owners don't care and some are genuinely clueless.

My tailgate parties are known for great food, plenty of it, and value. It is an almost impossible combination, but I didn't get into it by trying to make it a business. I always ran it as a hobby and labor of love. I follow a simple idea, cook what I would cook for my friends and family, and allow other people to join in the fun. There has definitely been times where a whole batch of burgers that went on the grill burned too quickly because one of my guys screwed up or just got overwhelmed. A batch on my grill can be 30+. In actuality, the burgers were probably edible enough and definitely still better than anything served in the stadium. I also spend a lot on these burgers, they are a custom Pat Lafrieda blend. People look at me like I am crazy when I toss a tray of 30 burgers from the grill straight into the garbage. But then they also realize that I care about what I am putting on the table and they appreciate it. I know if I ever saw one bad word written on the internet about eating a dry overcooked burger it would drive me crazy, so I am a bit fanatical. But is also part of the reason people keep joining us every game.

Sorry for the rambling, been a long day, lol.
 
You probably already know this, but at Franklin's BBQ somebody goes down the line outside and asks what they are intending to order. As its added up and they can see they've reached the end of the days inventory, they will tell the people in line after that point that there probably won't be any left. This all happens before the doors open, mind you. But that way people don't stand in line for 3 hours only to go home empty handed (and mad).

I realize you're already short-staffed and don't have an extra person to do this, but it's an idea to file away if you continue to be busy like this for the long haul.
 
I'm no expert but in my opinion selling out daily creates demand. If your selling enough to to make a profit who cares. If people stop coming due to lack of food, then it will balance out until your not running out. Word of mouth would get around and you would run out again. Increased capacity has its limits in quality, which would cost business. As long as your food is good and you are passionate, you will never keep up with demand.

If I make it to the west side I would be honored to hold the "sold out" sign.
 
Fleetz said:
My guess is your standards are too high ...

If you have a KBSC judge sitting down to dinner sure I would not suggest serving up what your standards say is not the highest. Given that from these judges represent .0001 percent of the population the remaining 99.999 percent will be delighted.
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How do you know a KBSC judge or other discerning guest is sitting down? (Shouldn't that be KCBS?) Are they like marathon runners? (*)

If you are not discarding excessive quantities of food, then IMO your standards are not too high. As volume goes up, it will become more and more difficult to approach ultimate quality with every piece of meat but you should strive for that nevertheless. Particularly if the substandard meat can be repurposed for something like chili, then I think you are good to go. Your high standards will make the difference in how your restaurant is viewed - e.g. just another place to get good 'Q or a place worth driving half way across the state that consistently produces the highest quality product. Take your choice.



(*) Q: How do you know someone runs marathons?
A: Don't worry, they'll tell you! :rofl:
(And yes, SWMBO and I run marathons. :wink: )
 
HankB said:
If you are not discarding excessive quantities of food, then IMO your standards are not too high. As volume goes up, it will become more and more difficult to approach ultimate quality with every piece of meat but you should strive for that nevertheless. Particularly if the substandard meat can be repurposed for something like chili, then I think you are good to go. Your high standards will make the difference in how your restaurant is viewed - e.g. just another place to get good 'Q or a place worth driving half way across the state that consistently produces the highest quality product. Take your choice.
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Exactly. The problem with the vast majority of restaurants in this country is that their standards are not high enough. I've never been to a restaurant, barbecue or otherwise, that I thought had too high standards.
 
I'll be honest, this unexpected success is stressing me out. All of my planning, all of my projections, I was looking at about 80 orders, tops, on a typical Saturday. Every day it seems like we're setting a new record. Today was no exception. Busiest day yet, had to close at about 3:45 so we could regroup and open for dinner at 5. Even then, still sold out by about 6:15. Lines out the door again, and the smoker was maxed out capacity wise all day.

Obviously, I can't complain about how well things are going, but I was planning for and expecting the worst. After all, I know the horror stories surrounding restaurants, and figured we'd ease into it and have to go balls out just to get people in the door and drum up business. Instead, I've been thrown into the fire.

I'm just still trying to come to terms with what has happened the past two weeks. I can't wait for a few days off and interviewing more help next week. Never imagined we'd potentially need a 10 person staff and be serving 300+ people in a 38 seat restaurant in the middle of BFE Michigan.
 
I'm stoked for you. I've been sort of silently watching but it's about dang time after what you went through.
 
Just got done breezing through this topic......


That's awesome! Looks like all your planning and hard work is paying off. Love the way you won't compromise with quality... Attitude like that and you will always have people inline to buy your food!
 
I've followed this thread from the beginning reading your struggles and triumphs it's no question to me why you're succeeding! Congrats and keep up the good work, it's been eye opening and exciting to follow you in this journey!
 
Comments like these make it all worth it.

came in tonight for my first time and was in that line. Well worth the wait!! I tried a few of your dishes. Your ribs were the best spare ribs I've ever had. The chili was awesome! The pulled pork was not disappointing. Now, the brisket......I'm glad I got a pound cause I could not stop eating it. By far the best ever! Fantastic!!! You will be seeing a lot of me. 2lbs of brisket next time, haha.
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Never have I had brisket that didn't need sauce, until yesterday. After savoring BBQ across the US, I am so Thankul y'all are in our 'neck of the woods'. My spoiled Texas palette thanks you!!! The restaurant was spotless, our food was out fast. I couldn't find something to complain about if I tried. We were lucky enough to sneak in before the food ran out. It has been worth the wait. We can't wait to see what's to come!
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Time for two days off. Well, one day, and then going in for the delivery on Tuesday. Hired a new short-term part-time evening dishwasher and he started today. That helped a lot. Got two interviews with cooks on Tuesday, which if even one of them works out would help tremendously.

It's been the craziest two weeks of my life. In a good way.

And my staff said some of the greatest things today. When we were all sitting down doing a recap of the week, my head cook said that this is the only job she's had in 20+ years that she's actually enjoyed. And then the others started to chime in and said they love coming into work and would rather be at work that sitting at home, etc. That means a lot and I must be doing something right. I just explained to them that I just want to treat them like I'd want to be treated. It is the golden rule after all.
 
Man, just one Yelp rating. Sort of funny, you being called the Prized Pig and getting a rep for brisket
 
landarc said:
Man, just one Yelp rating. Sort of funny, you being called the Prized Pig and getting a rep for brisket
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Yeah, kind of surprised about the yelp situation, but I haven't pushed for it yet. I wanted to make sure things were going smoothly before I started to encourage people to do a review.

And yes, it is a bit ironic that it's a pig themed place is becoming most known for brisket. Maybe I should have left it "The Udder Place" and kept the cow decor...
 
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