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THE BBQ BRETHREN FORUMS

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

marubozo said:
All I had to do was buy a set of tires for the car and I get a logo and phone number on the rear quarter panel for the rest of the season.
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Totally worth it! Now you have another picture for the wall. As well as an interesting conversation to have with people.

Too bad you are not closer. The guy I buy my alcohol and Nitro from is CHEAP on tires.
 
marubozo said:
All I had to do was buy a set of tires for the car and I get a logo and phone number on the rear quarter panel for the rest of the season.
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Because what you need is to sell out even quicker, right? Place looking like a ghost town lately?

:mrgreen:

That's actually really awesome. Maybe the Prized Pig car will win some podiums.
 
I know there are a few unanswered questions in here from some of you the past few days, and when I have time tomorrow I'll do my best to address them. Same with all the unanswered PMs.

But the last few days have been trying to say the least. First, the farking dishwashing machine. Had a problem with that crop up with that and after three days and $1,000 dollars, the ultimate fix was just some JB Weld. Don't get me started.

Then the new hire is ruffling many feathers. It's a nightmare. Every day, at least twice, I'm being pulled aside to hear about the BS he's doing. Which I don't personally see, so I'm not sure if the old staff is just ganging up in a plot to get rid of him since they have been comfortable for the past six months and feel threatened, etc. Again, it's just a constant headache.

And then to cap off the week today, holy crap, I about lost it. The cooks burned the cornbread first thing int he morning, so that meant we had to start the day without bread entirely. It wasn't ready until about 12:30, but we open at 10:30 so a lot of people had to go without. Not only that, but because the first batch was ruined, we were behind schedule big time and in the middle of lunch we ran out of cornbread again, which really irritated me.

Then, the farking potatoes for the potato salad were under done, which is my biggest pet peeve in this entire thing. HOW CAN YOU NOT COOK A POTATO LONG ENOUGH?!?! I've had to throw out 50+ pounds of prepped potatoes in a fit of rage because people can't grasp something so simple.

And then the worst of it all, I had to trash all of my brisket today. We had a big problem with my distributor this week where they kept sending 9 and up briskets instead of our 12 and ups I order. Not only was that bad enough, but in the 9 and up cases, a ton of briskets came in at 7-8 pounds. That is ridiculous and unacceptable.

Finally, they came through and brought a special delivery of 12 and up briskets, but that didn't help anything. Yes, they were bigger, but they were select, not choice. Didn't think it would be that big of a deal, but I came in this morning and cut into one for an order and it was beef jerky. Cut up by the point and it was still as dry and tough as brisket can be. So I pulled another and tried that. Same crap. Pulled another brisket, and same thing. Complete crap. I got so mad I threw an entire brisket across the kitchen and into the trash.

Long story short, the past few days sucked. So glad it's a day off tomorrow, but that will be short lived because we have soooooo many big orders this week and weekend for the holiday.
 
marubozo said:
Then, the farking potatoes for the potato salad were under done, which is my biggest pet peeve in this entire thing. HOW CAN YOU NOT COOK A POTATO LONG ENOUGH?!?! I've had to throw out 50+ pounds of prepped potatoes in a fit of rage because people can't grasp something so simple.
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[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYvRIv50DYM&list=PL-FMdthfYNpRncNbWPiEpwsruayflxvmL&index=8"]What did you what - YouTube[/ame]
 
Wow, I couldn't even imagine having to toss a single brisket, let alone a bunch of them. Would love to know what excuse your distributor will give you.

I picked up a choice 11lb brisket from Walmart on Saturday. Hard to imagine a distributor couldn't get you exactly what you ordered.
 
I don't know what is going on with the brisket because it has been a problem with three different packers. I've always used choice 12# and up from National Beef and never had a problem. The cases were always good and had 12+ pound briskets. Then all of a sudden a few weeks ago I noticed the sizes of the brisket were smaller. The cases still said they were 12 and ups, but when we started to weigh them most weren't even 10 pounds.

That's when I first called my food guy and told him of the problem, so he even brought his boss down because he couldn't believe it either. We even went out to the dumpster and pulled the stickers off the boxes so he could take them in and try to find out what was going on.

So to get us through the next week they sent five cases of IBP 12# and up. And the same farking problem! Cases were labeled 12 and up, but some of the briskets were as small as 7 pounds.

The last set of brisket was from Nebraska Beef, and those were also a nightmare. How do three different meat packers screw up all at the same time?

I blame Arby's.
 
Just when you think you are ready to hit it out of the park for the holiday week, you know something had to come up. Keep your head above it all. Get some rest over the next couple of days because I believe you are going to need as much energy later this week as you can muster.
 
Dang! What a nightmare day. Praying for your business and the people involved. Running a business is rewarding and treacherous. So many think its easy shmeesy. Take note folks. You work hard and harder. Deal with this and that. Work seven twenty four whether your in the building or not because its all you think about. Take not brothers, take note and learn.
 
leanza said:
Deal with this and that. Work seven twenty four whether your in the building or not because its all you think about.
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That is the absolute truth, and it's something people don't often think about. Granted, I've been a business owner for the past 15 years or so and I've become accustomed to the 24/7 mindset, but it's nothing like the restaurant biz.

You think the 12-16 hour days are hard enough, it doesn't stop when you leave the building. When you aren't at work, your brain is always at work. So many things nagging at you constantly in the back of your mind whether you want to acknowledge them or not.

Today is my only day off in a typical week and guess how much "off" time I actually had? Probably about two hours. Sleeping in is no longer an option. Even with the kids off to daycare in the morning you'd think it would be a dream to sleep in with a quiet house all morning. Nope. Sleeping in isn't possible. Even on just two hours of sleep, your body is trained to wake up at the ass crack of dawn even though you have the ability to sleep for hours and hours. Fail.

Even on this so-called day off, you're running to the bank, there are shipments coming in, bills to be paid, calls to be returned, and last but not least, the hamster running the wheel in your head that is constantly reminding you about all of your employee issues to address, meetings you need to plan, menu changes that need to be made, ordering problems that need to be rectified, and so on.

And that is where part of the deception lies. From 11-2 and 5-8 at the restaurant you're firing on all cylinders and the adrenaline is pumping so hard it feels like the greatest thing in the world. And that lasts quite a while after closing each night. But then reality sets in before bed and all the business minutia brings you back down to earth and you can't shake it, so all you can do is look forward to the rush of the next day even though you've got all this other crap nagging you in the back of your mind.

It doesn't help being a control freak, but it's getting better over time.
 
marubozo said:
I don't know what is going on with the brisket because it has been a problem with three different packers. I've always used choice 12# and up from National Beef and never had a problem. The cases were always good and had 12+ pound briskets. Then all of a sudden a few weeks ago I noticed the sizes of the brisket were smaller. The cases still said they were 12 and ups, but when we started to weigh them most weren't even 10 pounds.

That's when I first called my food guy and told him of the problem, so he even brought his boss down because he couldn't believe it either. We even went out to the dumpster and pulled the stickers off the boxes so he could take them in and try to find out what was going on.

So to get us through the next week they sent five cases of IBP 12# and up. And the same farking problem! Cases were labeled 12 and up, but some of the briskets were as small as 7 pounds.

The last set of brisket was from Nebraska Beef, and those were also a nightmare. How do three different meat packers screw up all at the same time?

I blame Arby's.
Click to expand...


5 years of drought in plains cattle country has caused many cattlemen to reduce their herds because they had nothing to feed them. There has been more rain this year (although still many dry ponds and burnt up fields); so there is starting to be an increase in cattle supply because there is more to feed them. But they are being rushed to market, resulting in lower butcher weights, and smaller briskets.

The smaller supply is a major factor in the run up in beef prices too. But mark my words, when supply comes up and the live cattle price falls, the large packing houses will keep a chunk of the price increase as their increased profit margin.
 
Marubozo - I owned a couple pizza joints a few years back and I know your pain/drive. It is different than any other business I have been in or owned, it really consumes you and can drive you mad, the highs from the slam are awesome but I needed a way to bring it back down... My wife and I would take the kids out to a late dinner after our Friday night slams, it was our unwind time - talk about anything but pizza, granted my hamster was still running but at least I got a couple hour break to reset. Find an unwind time - remove yourself from the business for a bit a week with a good distraction, it does wonders!
 
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