BBQ Restaurant Owners

[a palombo]

How did you get your start?

Did you start with a catering company?

How hard was it to switch from your backyard smoker to one with enough capacity to supply a restaurant?

What is the biggest challenge in terms of the food? Getting quality meat? Keeping cost down? Planning how much to cook?

It has always been a dream of mine to have my own restaurant. Not seriously considering it yet but would love to hear someone's story.

 

[Joe Ray]

Not an owner but will tell the tale of my former favorite bbq place here in Vegas.

They used to have a nice heavy smoker working out in the parking lot with that unmistakable smell hitting you as you drove by. You would stop, get the grub, and praise the smoker gods cause it was that good.

Then they started getting popular and the smoker in the parking lot thing stopped. After even more time, I went in for a later night take out and while waiting for my food I heard that unmistakable sound of a radiation being used to heat my food. Then I heard that, "DING" and low and behold, here comes my take out order. SON OF A GUN, I could totally tell it came out of the microwave. They shortcutted me and I still went back, the quality never came back up but people still go there so maybe they don't care.

Just 2 cents worth of semi-worthless information for ya'.

 

[Gary Hodgin]

I've never considered it and don't know anyone real close that's ever gone into the business although I've know a few owners on a casual basis.

The guys I know are mostly from rural West TN so Atl is likely to be alot different. These guys started years ago as more or less roadside stands and developed into sit-down restaurants. This was 40-45 years ago. I guess today's equivalent would be a drive through takeout business.

If I were giving it a go and wanted to minimize my upfront commitment, I'd try the catering route. Try to do something with local civic groups, churches, and so forth. Then, expand from that if things go well.

You need to develop a business plan for anything you do and really access the competitive environment. I know that back in the late 60s and 70s Nashville didn't have much of anything in the way of bbq and now it has a couple of good ones and a most likely good one on the way.