New to the business

Best of luck, there's a great group here in the Pro's forum, so don't hesitate to ask questions. Starting a business is challenging enough.

Smokin'

Smokemaster,
Did you bbq at home before you decided to do this? I would think bbq would go great in Chicago. Good food is good food. I guess marketing would be a big thing for you.
Best of luck.
We're just starting, too. In a much smaller way than you. I didn't want to go with a restaurant since location is a worry, so we're starting with a trailer, entering contests, hoping to build up catering events, then my dream is to open a takeout location.
Keep me posted on how things go.
Peggy
2 Greyhounds....SMOKIN!!!!

We have never bbq'd at home. That is one reason why we chose to go with a franchise. We don't want to reinvent the wheel. However I have been in the restaurant business before and I believe that the experience will be very helpful.

We are both retired and felt it would be a good experience to go back to work for a while. Our area may well be an underserved market for BBQ.

Your approach makes a lot of sense, particularly if you have never owned a restaurant before. Make your mistakes on a small scale before getting into a larger project. I am sure that there is good money to be made in catering as well as in working events.

Opening a takeout place would be a great next step. Personally I would stay away from delivery, except for very large orders. Also I would have a couple of tables even in a takeout place just to accomodate the folks who want a quick bite.

One of my core beliefs is that building too large a dining area is a bigger mistake that building it too small. Better to be small and full than big and half empty.

Best of luck to you, and thank you for your thoughts, they are appreciated.

Smokemaster,
If you are using sysco as your food supplier watch your invoices very carefully. In my past experience with them it was not unheard of for them to creep your invoice about 1/2% a month which added up to 6% annual.
I still think that one of the happiests days in my life was when the exec chef quit I was finally able to kick them off property and showed the new exec why. This by the way got me a raise and made me even happier. Oh for the good old days of being a sous chef.
jack

Thanks for the tip, Jack. My dad taught me that it is always a good idea to keep a close watch on all the suppliers.

We hope to accumulate equipmant over the next few months and find a good loacation. Our goal is to be open in the spring or early summer of 2005.

Our days of leisure are drawing to a close.

hey peggy, when you are ready, we are selling our place here in savannah. its a "take out" place. we want to move and really need to sell////
good luck, smoke master.

ok, gotta say this..... this feller goes in a bar with a three legged pig... bartender says "we dont serve pigs in here. man says "you dont understand, this pig is a hero, he saved my whole family from a fire, pulled us all out one at a time". bartender says "so whats the deal with the three legs? did he lose one in the fire?" man says." nahh, he is such a hero, you dont expect us to eat him all at once, do ya?"

Coffeebluff,
I needed that joke! I looked at your site, you have a very nice place. I hope you can sell it before we're ready for one. Where are you moving?
What are your busiest days? How does your Brunswick stew sell? What sides seem to sell the best for you? OK, that's enough questions from me.

And best of luck to Smokemaster! One day I hope to get to come to Chicago and eat at your restaurant!

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

thanks, glad you like it. we saw this place 2 yrs ago. it had been closed and was for sale( not the land). all the doors opened, and here we are.. a lot of hard work and persistance got us where we are today.
our brunswick stew sells like wild fire. even in the heat of the summer. (our nearest competitor doesnt even make stew in the summer)
we are moving to philly(she can take me out of the south, but she cant shut my mouth.haha)
we used to live in n.ft myers (hurricane alley). got out of there just in time, but a lot of my friends and family are still suffering. one, lost everything. man, if i had a portable trailer i would be there now cause thousands of people are still depending on hand-out meals. my mom lives on pine island, and has been cooking every day at the catholic church. they are housing hundreds of people who lost everything. even though my moms house was damaged, she opted not to hire for repairs until everyone else has been taken care of. what a lady!
i ask that we pray for them all, and help in anyway possible/////

Coffeebluff,

What part of her house was damaged? Other than prayer and helping out monetarily, I have no idea how to help. I saw a lady on the news who had evacuated, come home, and found her neighbors' bodies in her yard. I found that so terribly sad. Your mother is wonderful.

Will you be opening a place in Philadelphia?

I've messed around with my granddaddy's stew recipe. Jack asked me to stop messing with it, so either I have it about right or he's tired of it. I hope to use it quite a bit. I'm glad to hear it sells good for you. Now, do you think people in Philly are ready for Brunswick Stew?

Keep me posted on how you are doing. And let me know if your mother knows a way I can help out there. We were so lucky here.

Peggy

during the first year, i got excited everytime i ran out of stew(my mom's recepie). i thought it was just wonderful that people ordered it so much.
now, it seems more like a chore, it takes so much time to make. i have made a few subtle changes over time. thats the best part of mom and pop. you can experiment. my advice is to keep it as simple as possible, so that 2 yrs later, it doesnt seem like its all you do. brunswick stew is the highest food cost item on my 'sides' selections. the lowest cost item is fried okra. also one of the best sellers. the absolute best seller is our home-made steak fries. this was kind of an ingenous creation. how to offer baked potatoes without waste? steak fries....... yep, 2 day taters sliced and fried. now i cook tons of taters( in the smoker with seasoning, of course) just to keep up with the fries demand.
as for the stew in philly,,, we have tested that market a little.... we took some up there on vacation and got great reviews. we may open bbq up there, or whatever comes our way.
todays thought.... "no matter how good something taste, there will always be plenty of people who think its terrible.... no matter how bad something taste, there will always be plenty of people who think its the greatest thing on earth.
this thought will help you through the rough times.

as for florida... thanks for the prayers. my mom's gonna be just fine. her damaged was mostly water related. the siding blew off 2 sides of her house and water came in threw the attic. some of the inside ceiling will be replaced as well as the siding. across the canal in front of her, all three houses lost their roofs. 2 houses down from her were severely damaged.
people still need help.. food, clothing, and the basic necessities. thousands are homeless. thats the part that is hard to imagine. its gonna be a lot of work to help restore their lives.
enough for now......

Thanks for responding, coffeebluff.
I love making the stew, but it does take a lot of time, like you say. You sure can't rush it. Maybe we like it best because it comes from someone we love. Those potatoes sound really good. I was thinking of smoking sweet potatoes. We won't have a fryer in our trailer. I don't think of Brunswick stew as a side. It seems like more of a main dish. It does seem pretty expensive on the breakdown. I've been using leftover smoked meat to make it. It uses a lot of meat, but the other stuff in it isn't very expensive. I'm thinking to use it as a special to start with.

I feel pretty petty complaining about the delays of our trailer when compared to what all those people are still going through.

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

i can understand your desire to get your trailer asap. i was anxious about opening our place 2 yrs ago. no one understood why i chose to open the day after thanksgiving. have a clue??
ok, i will tell you.........
because there were a lot of methods to be worked out. you cant just open and say "here we are" you have to have operational plans. you have to organize, and test the waters. pretend you have customers, and imagine all the possibilities. practise all the movements. especially for little 2 person ops, you have to know who is doing what, and where and how it all will come together. and be prepared for the customer that will always try to stump you. "how much is this? how much is that? can i trade this for that and divide it into 4 plates and get tweenty refills for my eighteen youngens and yatta yatta......."
oh, and dont forget about the money exchange. ther are so many predators that will try to get one over on mom and pop. always, always take the money when they order, and leave the bill they hand you in plain sight yet out of their reach until they have counted their change and stuck it in their pockets. once it reaches their pocket you are no longer liable for any "short change claims". we have a system where if one of us prepares the plate, the other will check it before it gets bagged. this will cut mistakes down to almost nothing.
ok, enough for now, i gotta go open up....

oh yea,l think sweet taters are a great idea. i have thought about doing them, but just aint got the energy right now. as for stew, i have read many bbq sites and the big boys that go around the country grading various bbq joints always frown upon stew being higher cost than the sides. well, they just want to eat cheap, i think. stew is definitely a high cost item, so i think an upcharge is warranted. i dont upcharge, but i should.

Hi. I am plannning to open a very small takeout restaurant, so I was wondering if you know where can I find a used smoker in Florida.

Thanks

try e-bay they have everything.
jack

Thank you prisonchef.

Since my restaurant will be very small. What do you think about using a non commercial Cookshack instead of a commercial one.

And wich one do you recomend for starting.

Thanks

Hi,Mauricio,

You might want to check with your health department; most of them require NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) approval on kitchen equipment. Our commercial smokers are all NSF approved, but our residential-use smokers are not. We will happily sell you whatever you want, just don't want to sell you one that you can't use!

Donna

mauricio,
are you in florida? if you are i hope that you are not treading water little hurricane humor here dont take it the wrong way please. if you are located in florida make your life ez and get the nsf approved cookshack and i dont care if it is a smart model or a fast eddy. health inspectors here can get pretty tough and my advice is make your life ez. we got both an sm150 and fec100 (well we paid for them lets hope the manufaturer in sunrise hasnt been blown away lol) either model will serve you fine for a small operation and to be honest if you are not going to compete i think two sm150's would make one heck of a setup
hope this helps
jack
one other thing to save you time if you need the name and number of the state people just respond and i will let peggy fill you in on that to save you some time with what we have learned but i sure would think along nsf lines. shows the inspectors you will go the extra mile and they, if you can believe it, do try to work with you if you show them that

heck mauricio,
i forgot to answer your which would i recommend question.
for that answer i can just say if i could have only one smoker and had to decide between an sm150 or fec100 as much as it kills me (and thank god i didnt have to make this decision) i think with it just being peggy and me i would have to go with the sm150 since she feels very comfortable with that model and boy it does turn out some fine que!!!! the nice thing is by having both i can use the fec for comp and when we cater i can use the sm150 or if it is a big event use both or use just the fec for cooking and the sm for holding see why i am glad i got the luxury of having both lol
jack
ps just so you know before we went to the nbbqa convention in atlanta i had my heart set on either a backwoods or southern pride unit. i bought cookshack because they struck me as being very honest people and guess what?? THEY ARE!!!

Hey, thank you for your help.

I dont live in Florida. I live in Costa Rica, but it is easier for me to import from Florida to my country.

Here in Costa Rica, the inspection is not tough at all, so no one in the Health Department will mattter wich one I use.

Also, we only have two important rib restaurants. One is JR Ribs, wich I have tasted and their ribs are always prepared days before and have very dry meat. The other restaurant is Tony Romas, that is very expensive comparing it to gourmet restaurants we have.

Since one of the most important difference between a comercial and a non coercial is the ... Approv., I will have to consider as a very good option the non commercial. What do you think?

SMOKEMASTER ,
GOOD LUCK AND GODS SPEED !! " IF YOU COOK GOOD Q ,THEY WILL COME "
HEAVY G

coffeebluff,
Thanks for all the advice and help.
Guess what just arrived today? The trailer!
I can start lining up contests now, although I'm sure Jack wants to practice with his smokers. Heck, I can't wait to try out the SM150!
It seems strange, we've been waiting so long. Now it's here and we have a hurricane (number 3) lining up and threatening us again! I'm sick of waiting!
A big winner here for a side seems to be limas and rice.

Peggy

mauricio,
why dont you send donna or john shifflet at cookshack an email? you will find them most responsive. heck john and the cookshack crew spent at least 4 hours with peggy and me at the national bbq association convention and were very understanding to us and gave us great advice. they never high pressured us and they were only to happy to answer all our questions.
also since our trailer was delayed they worked with us on the starting date for our warranty and i dont think many people will do that.
so my advice is get with your health inspector there and then email john or donna.
i hope this helps you and remember i dont work for cookshack but i will attest to their honesty and to the fine product their units turn out and they ship on time complete!!!!!
jack 2 greyhounds....smokin!!!!