how did you guys decide to price your menu items? and other questions.

If you have a product that has as good as or hopefully better value than what your competitor(s) offer then dont leave any money on the table. After all, your costs may be less than their's, and thats not your fault. It also allows room to move if the economic times demand it.

By value I mean the quality & quantity of the product. (ie. the old 1/4# frozen patty from your vendor verses the fresh pressed 1/2# burger made with a local meat mkts beef.)

People are willing to pay for value.

You could advertise a grand opening special and run it for a week or 2 to attract initial business, but I would have menus printed up with what your normal prices will be. Just insert special price fliers in the menu.

here's how we did it.
got a lot of give away menus to see where the pricing was at.
after that what i did was this
1-kept a log of as purchased weights vs. cooked weights. i did this both for the fec and sm under a variety of different cooking times and temps and compared the shrinkage between the SM150 and FEC100. this took about 2 months but that was fine as we were awaiting final inspection so no time was really lost. turns out the SM150 gives a shrinkage factor for us of around 40-45% while the FEC100 gives 45-50% shrinkage.
ok once i knew my shrinkage i knew what my real per pound cost of product was. example at 50% shrinkage the meat cost is doubled so if brisket costs 1.88 per pound raw cooked out the cost is 3.76 per pound.
since i work part time in a bbq joint i know the standard lunch serving size is 4 ounces of meat so i used that as my portion size for pricing.
since we are mobile i had to figure the gas usage of my honda generators to complete a cooking cycle. usagewas 2.5 gallons per unit or 5 total gallons and this has hurt us due to the gas prices this year.
what all this works out to is
pork sandwich is 6.00
brisket is now 8.00
on the brisket we started out at 7.00 and since florida is not a beef state it took several months for it to take off. but from the start we had one little old lady that loved it. she brought a friend and then they brought a friend and last weekend we sold two 14 pound packers of brisket in 4 hours. this is a niche market for us as we can honestly tell people that there are no bbq places that sell brisket here,that in 2004 we were 2nd at the FBA State Championships and we price accordingly.
thing is this
price fair for you. like geiyserq said if your bbq is superior to anyone elses then dont be afraid to charge a good price.
if your costs go up like ours did then bite the bullet for a while and then go up if you have to. our customers were very understanding on this as they knew how hard the cost of gas hit them.
hope all this helps some
if i am limited to advising you of one thing then that one thing is this
keep records to know your raw vs cooked weights
jack

thanks for such awesome posts. i feel a bit greedy for asking all these questions since i have nothing to contribute. maybe in time i can be of some help to someone here.

bbqnj,
sure you are contributing and don't ever let anyone tell you you aren't.
these kinds of posts are how i decided on getting another SM150.
your posts always make me think and because of that you keep the fire going in my belly!!!!!! (and trust me smelling smoke 6 days a week can get old)
again thanks for your posts
you just don't know who you may be helping to put that one last piece of the puzzle together.
bye the way hope you and yours have a great thanksgiving
jack

bbqnj
Another thing that helps, when we add a new menu item, we try it as a special to see if the market for it is there. We put it at the top of the board, let it stay for 2-3 weeks, then take it off the menu and see if anyone requests it again.
Brisket on a biscuit was selling really well for us, slowed down, we took it off the menu, got more requests for it. We'll try it again.
Peggy

Aloha, 2 greyhounds. when you say brisket on a biscuit does that mean gravy too? if so what kind? Mahalo brah!

Big Kahuna,
Here's the "secret recipe".

Make a standard bechamel sauce
Add 2 T coarse ground black pepper
Add 1 T salt or tt
Add 1 lb chopped smoked beef brisket

Quantity should be 4 inch 1/2 hotel pan. Good luck with it, and good luck to you.

What does Mahalo brah mean?
Peggy