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BBQ Entrepreneur

FM Former Member
Hi all
I will need some help from time to time I have been lurking around this site for about 3 year's you guys are the best! Let me give you guys some background on myself. I've been cooking barbecue in my backyard for about 10 years like anyone that has been cooking for friends and family think that they can open and run a barbecue joint. Well I was laid off about a month ago and I'm not looking to work for any one again! I was looking through the classified and saw a barbecue restaurant that was available. So I go down to take a look and believe it or not a small barbecue take out joint with an old-time smoker it's more like a grill and 3 counter top fryer's all under a ventilating hood. All the landlord wants is the first months and a half rent without thinking I signed the lease. Yes my lawyer put in some basic things to protect me until I get open. So with an old business plan that I have (I am now updating) and lots of will and desire I am now a BBQ Entrepreneur. My first question is if anyone know's if I can use the Smokehood Series 100 and not put smoker (SM150) under the ventilating hood just pipe over the smoke I am in New Jersey.
You guys are my on the go mentor's thanks in advance.
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FM Former Member
Benjetin,

Monday morning, call John Shiflet at 1-800-423-0698, he's our sales manager and will be able to help you with this. As far as I know, you can do what you are asking as long as the pipe is at least 4" in diameter and is positioned at least 2" above the smoker's vent hole. But call John! He deals with this every day.

You will also get excellent information from other forum members! This is a great crew and I know they will be a big help to you with your new venture. Very best wishes from Cookshack for much success. You know you can count on us! Smiler
FM Former Member
welcome to our world, benjetin. i only see one photo, but it sure looks great! my wheels are spinning for ya. kinda brings back alot of memories of our start up days.
these folks here are mostly responsible for my success, as i didnt know squat about bbq before studying here. now, we get beat up regularly by hungry mobs....heehee
we will all pitch in and give you a few cents...just ask.
FM Former Member
hi benjetin and welcome.
on my newest sm150 i have the hood system that you are talking about. due to space limitations we had to mount this in a very enclosed space. the hood is ul listed and we used flex pipe to vent from the blower outlet. setup works great. fire marshall here considers them as ovens so in our locale a fire suppressor is not required in the hood. one thing that i have done is to mount a spit can for the 2 plastic hoses to vent to. this just makes clean up easier since those pipes just catch condensation after the smoke passes thru the filter. another thing that i have done is to polish the finish on that hood to a mirror finish. only took a couple of days using progressively finer sandpaper and then simichrome metal polish. makes cleaning that hood a snap. the filter it's self is so small that sending it thru a dishwasher twice is all you need to do at the end of everyday.
good luck on your new venture. we are pulling for you
FM Former Member
great pics! looks like its full of potential. do you know what happened before? why it closed, and how long ago. what is the location like, and the status of the equipment. is there a walk in fridge and freezer? great potential, just check it all out throughly, so you know what you are going to face...
FM Former Member
Best of luck to you! Now get back to work!!! heh heh...

I say go beyond what you need for fire suppression. Go and get one of the K-type hoods, and make the fire Marshall happy; it will give you peace of mind too. Especially if you are running fryers.

I have a 6-foot hood in my trailer with a K-type, and it wasn't all that expensive.
FM Former Member
No way you guys are right on point! Most of the day I had hood companies in to take a look around and let me know what it would take to come up the code. Looks like I have a wet system installed. And the system needs to hydro tested I also called the fire marshal and she was well aware of this place she said I should have no problem as long as I take care of the fire suppression system and make sure that everything is clean, updated and the hydro test is done. The Fire marshal was also well aware of the Cookshacks hood and said she has seen a set up like the one I was talking about on the other side of town in a cafeteria and said that will work for her. Tomorrow I have pressure washers coming in to give the prices on cleaning up the ductwork.

as far as the history the store it was open for 20 years. The original owner of the store had it for 15 years before he moved back down south and his brother took over for 5 years . He also moved down south the landlord lease the space to a friend he was just not successful he had a job and tried to run the place part-time that was about a year ago.
what is a K-ype?
FM Former Member
sounds like you are going good and the news on your hood is great.
if i remember right a k type is a dry powder system that covers a,b and c fires. going on memerory it is like the "ansul" system that throw a dry fine powder. (jump all over this one kinsman if i have any of it wrong) works great but kills solid state electrics but who cares as a wet system will do the same. biggest advice i can give (and this is after a chicken fire in my fec) is this. if you are going high temp and cooking a fatty thing like chicken put the chicken on a grid inside a hotel pan to prevent fires. the other thing is be really anal retentive on cleaning your hood filters. the more people laugh at you for doing it the better off you are since when the one big fire hits you have it put out and go right back to work in 4 hours rather than watching the grease on your filters burn and then sucked into a roof fire.
stay away from halon systems. these will kill a fire and do no damage to solid state electrics but you had better be able to hold your breath while you get out.
don't know if i helped or not. just glad to hear that you are on your way
jack
FM Former Member
Loved the pictures. Looks like a good thing came along for you at just the right time. How many square feet is your restaurant? And what name will you be using? Best of luck to you. If you satisfied friends and family for all those years, you are on the right track I think.
Peggy
FM Former Member
The documentation from CS on installation without putting it under a hood is very basic. Make sure it passes muster with your planning department. The supplied installation documentation was not good enough for our local planning department who insisted it go under a hood.

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