Newbie

Hello Chef Tom, how is your new ventures going? and how detail of consulting do you do? I and my wife started a a BBQ& grill about 9 months ago with very little experience in this area but with a lot of research we have been doing very well (we are still working full time + 4 days aweek at BBQ joint) but putting in a lot of money back into, lot of cartering,and partys,we seat about 115 inside and we put a small outdoor dinning area thats seats 20, beer and wine also. well good luck.

Cook,
The new ventures are going well. I stay pretty busy. The consulting company is called "Strictly Chefs" we are working on several projects working on matching established chefs that would like to open their own restaurant with investors that want to be a partner in the venture but can't cook. Our goal is to eventually become a management company and be able to send our team in to get a place started and operating well with all the information and training for the staff, menu development, vendor relations, financing, benefits, insurance, etc. (My partner is a fifth generation chef that has owned and operated 10 restaurants of his own and is now teaching and mentoring. This is something that he has wanted to do for the past 15 years and now has the time and has hand-picked a team to cover many of the different expertises needed to get all the pieces put together.)

Hello Chef Tom,
I'm also here in PHX and have been doing catering for a few years since moving here. Sounds like you have a great thing going with the consulting aspect.
I'm looking into opening a bbq restaurant in the phx area and your service sounds like something I may be interested in.
I'd like to learn more about it, and btw, what type of smokwer do you use a CS, FE or other? Just checking I'd like to find out some info on ease of use for an fe2000 or cs 350\360.
Thanx
:cool AZPitmaster

Currently I am using a small home smoker from another company but am working on picking up a CS.

Bubba,
drop me an e-mail and we'll get together and talk about Strictly Chefs. cheftomwalker@gmail.com

Chef Tom,
Does your consulting co have a website?

Not Yet, We will in the future but right now we didn't see a great need for it as our target market is fairly limited.

Thanx for the reply Chef Tom!!!