Cater, Concession, or Restaurant?

mark
i changed careers at age 40 when peggy could no longer live in atlanta. this was 1990 and i had been transfered from jacksonville her hometown to atlanta and she had our daughter who at that time was 90 days old. our agreement was if at anytime she wanted to move back home we would. after placing kathryn in a private school and peggy getting a concealed weapons permit in the span of only 8 years she said enough was enough!!!! to be honest i was glad she did as she was running through about 200 rounds of 9mm ammo a week and peggy is such a peaceful person it was hard to watch. since i ran an engineering department for the southeast region of a fortune 500 hollow metal company i knew i would have to change careers when we moved home. so after much research i went to the southeast institute of culinary arts and graduated from there at age 40. from there i went to being sous chef at barnett banks executive dining room which was really la la land!!!! truffles, fois gras brought over by corporate jet, black sticky rice, handpicked saffron all the goodies!!!! but i found i liked large quantities better so went to work at a convention center where i really hit my stride. just loved cooking prepping and plate up for 200-1500 and to this day the most fun that i ever had was doing a carving station for 1000 people. went thru 4 razor sharp carving knives that night and just loved it. from there i made what was to turn out to be my only 2 mistakes made in this career. i took a job as executive chef for a now defunct resturant in vilano beach. it became defunct because the owner who was financed by mommy either drank or snortted the profits up his nose. his wife was a cia grad who was about the most worthless cook i have ever seen and i am being nice on that. 4 years ago i was approached about teaching culinary arts at a boys prison. loved that job but every year i was laid off due to funding cuts. every year they would find funding but after 4 years of this proved to be my second mistake (and they wonder why there is a teacher shortage). took a job cooking for the prison but since it was run on a for profit format you can just imagine what fun that was. and after being forced to cook scrambled eggs for 225 servings in two 12" pans and still hitting meal time enough was enough. we went to nbbqa in atlanta bought an sm150 and fec100 and a trailer from trailer tech which is due this 31st after many delays.
we are going after competitions where you can vend and catering since that is how at age 40 i worked my way though culinary school. long term (3 year) goal is to buy a closed store about the size of a 7/11 and convert it to both a comissary kitchen and take out only place.
by the way i was just fortunate enough to land a job at a small bbq place (3 stores) which had no problem scheduling me around competitions or catering work so peggy and i feel very fortunate.
we went the comp/catering route as we could pay for everything up front and not carry any debt and as you know debt can kill your business.
sorry i kind of rambled but i just got home from my new job and i am still kinda ampped especially since the pitboss says "hey kid you got potential"
jack
2 Greyhounds....SMOKIN!!!!
ps please keep your fingers crossed that our rig is delievered on sept 1 or 2 since it and my smokers will be much safer here then in south florida with a hurricane coming

opps i was 42. told ya i was still ampped lol
jack
guess i should proof read these posts

My background is in restaurant, specifically the small sandwich shop my father started and I ran when I was much younger.

After pursuing other careers and retiring nine years ago, we are ready to start a new venture. So next year, hopefully in the spring, we will open a BBQ joint out here in the far SW suburbs of Chicago.

I believe that the trailer/event route is a great idea for a lot of folks, particularly those in the warmer climes where they can operate year round and also for those who want to get their feet wet without risking the farm.

For us, a small joint with around 1,800 to 2,000 square feet and about 40 or 50 seats would be just fine. Now if we can just find a suitable site and get the equipment and buildout done without causing too much harm to the budget, everything will work out just fine.

We started a direct market pork business in 1999, the year after I lost my butt in the Great Pork Depression of 1998. Started at the Mankato Farmers Market.

Had some experience grilling while on the Minnesota Pork Producer board.

A neighbor asked if we would like to cater his daughters wedding that fall [isn't that the way it always goes?].

I upped my smoker from a Brinkmann to an old Kingfisher.

Started getting business via word of mouth. Took out a small Yellow Page ad.

Wore out Kingfisher, got sick of tending a fire all night. May 12, 2004, ordered the FE2000 and catering trailer I stumbled across at www.fasteddysbbq.com. Took delivery June 14.

Our niche to catering is that we use the meat we raise on our own farm. The breed of hogs, chickens, and turkeys we raise are bred for "table-traits," as opposed to the popular "production-traits" found in your grocery and box stores. None of it is pumped. It has it's own natural flavor and juicyness which I control through genitics, diet, and enviroment.

Our son 20 year old son Paul loves to cook, so I thought this would be a good way to get him started. He is going to college in Duluth for sales and marketing.

We do catering, mostly. Some vending.

We bottle our own sauce in the kitchen of tiny Pemberton [population 228] school,which we rent for $10/hour. We play volleyball in their gym between batches.

Our web is www.prairiepridefarm.com

That's my story, Roger

man, this is fun. its great to read all the stories.
i got my first job at a dairy bar when i was thirteen. we made cones, shakes, burgers, dogs, and all sorts of stuff. i loved it, and when the owners sold out i got a job in a seafood restaurant. then, at the age of 15 a fried chicken house and long john silvers. after a time in the navy, i pursued other careers like electronic repair and telephone installation. but the grease was in my blood, so i went back to long johns as a manager. soon after i bought my first restaurant, a pizza shop. it was great for years, then the big 'd'. starting over, i managed at dennys, perkins, and steak n shake. loved the work, but corporate aint my thing. just never was good at being a politician. so at age 40, i found this little place here in savannah, and here we are.

hey roger, i would like to know more about your sauce bottleing process. we have been contemplating for a long time but havent found it to be profitable. is it worth the time and effort to bottle sauce and do you have a sorce for labels and bottles that you will share?

I thought that you had to have USDA stuff to bottle your own sauce (inspected plant, approved procedures, etc.). We looked at bottling our own salad dressings through a manufacturer and found that it wasn't cost effective until you bottled a huge number of bottles (I think 5000).

I looked at Roger's website and was just wondering how your meat prices out compared to the other suppliers?
Mark

I just realized I started the post but never told my story. I grew up in Oklahoma not far from where Cookshack is. Went to college in Springfield, Mo and ended up in KC, Mo. after graduation. My then girlfriend and now wife told me she was going to leave me if I didn't get a job. So under duress I got a job at an independent restaurant that had just opened up on the old square in Liberty, Mo (right outside of KC). I loved it. We serve an upscale country style menu (Fried Chicken, Country Fried Steak, Hamsteak, as well as Steak, Pastas etc.) After working my way through busser, cashier, cook, manager, general manager for 11 years I had the opportunity to buy the place. And three years later here we are. I love the restaurant business but it is a hard way to make a living and getting harder. Catering is wonderful too but unless you have regular gigs it can be kind of spotty.
Mark

"The grease was in my blood...." I like it! That's me too.

My first job (other than a paper route) was as a dishwasher in a French restaurant. The usual story, I suppose: wash dishes, learn to use a knife by cutting vegetables; became full-time prep cook; and then, I could claim some experience so what kind of jobs did I ever have? Worked in a hotel, a local pizza joint, regular Italian place, and a local chain bar & grill operation (think Applebees but better food) where I rose to kitchen manager. Did the same thing for another bar-and-grill in California; became a regular manager for them.


When the chain went under, due I believe to either gambling or serious drug habit on the part of the owner, I worked in construction and made pretty good money. We then moved back to the Northwest, where I am now.

Somewhere in the middle of all this I became aware of Barbecue and spent 10 years or so figuring out how to do that.

I was working in the receiving dep't of a research lab, and one of the truck drivers also worked at a little brewery here. I went over to have a fresh Ale, there's a guy set up and cooking in there. We get friendly, and eventually he asks if I'd like to cook on a Friday when He's out of town. Sure. Then he leaves town for good, and I inherit the Fridays-and-some-Saturdays deal at the brewery: I own a flat-top griddle / charbroiler combo, a small offset and some smallwares; the owner charges me nothing to set up and sell, and I can do whatever I want...and keep the money. Goes along pretty good like this; start doing some catering jobs and vending at events (and picked up a few ribbons at BBQ comps, ahem).

Ordered a fully equipped trailer this summer and I expect to do events and catering as before (but be a bit busier). I'm trying to grow slowly but the idea is to have my own small place in a couple more years, and have that be my full-time job.

I love to cook and entertain folks. Part of what I like about the brewery gig is dealing with people, feeding them, interacting with them. My policy is to use the very best ingredients I can get. I won't compromise quality.

OK, I'll stop now.

BOTTLING SAUCE; Sorry I didn't get back sooner, I was up showing pigs all week at the Minnesota State Fair.

The MN Dept of Ag approved our bottling process at the old school.

We bought 2- 5 gallon Groen steam jacketed kettles at a restraunt auction this summer.

MN Dept of Ag say I can start bottling in our catering trailer if our well water passes inspection.

Labels- I spent a winter getting them lined up. Someone referred me to a company that was slow. They really bogged us down. Our butcher refered us to another; much faster turn-around. Dept of Ag regs labels, too.

Son Paul went to Thomson Berry in Duluth [he goes to college up there] to check on blackberries and maybe a few 8 0z glass bottles. Someone here on the forum said they had better luck selling 8 oz than 16 [Thank you!]. He said Thomsons were going bankrupt. He bought all of their 8 and 16 oz bottles. [I better get the forks on the Bobcat, because the truck comes today].

Cost Effectiveness- How can you compete with Sweet Baby Rays at Menards for $1.38 for 24 oz and a dollar rebate to boot? I tried a bottle, it's still overpriced.

Hope this helps, Roger

I grew up on bbq but never knew how to do any of it. The only restaurants I worked in were a Baskin and Robbins ice cream where I was a scooper person at age 15 and my own place which was our home. I became a radiologic tech in 1976 with a lot of Jack's help (I still find electricity hard to understand), went on to mammography. In the meantime, Jack changed careers from construction to culinary school. He did some type of grilling or smoking all our married life. I cooked on the hibachi a few times.

I saw a show on TV about a BBQ competition. I told Jack we could do that. So now we are buying smokers, trailers, insurance, opening bank accounts, writing letters to the state, etc. really involved in all this.

What we want to do is compete, win, establish a clientele for catering, open a takeout. I still love mammography as a career, but I love this also. I would love to have folks come to me 20 years later and say they just wanted some of our BBQ. I think that would be a great reward.

I probably won't ever be as good as Jack is(I just learned the pork pulling, but I was good at it). I hope to promote our business and be good at setting up events.

Peggy
2 Greyhounds....SMOKIN!!!!