farmcntry

Congrats and good luck. I live in the BBQ capitol of the world.
Lexington, High Point, etc is right down the road. These people live for BBQ. You need your pork BBQ, beef BBQ, and BBQ chicken quarters on the menu. Add some frys and dessert. Mainly peach cobbler and banana pudding down south.
Now, get a house band on the weekends and add beer.

Here is the kicker in a main BBQ place down here. The "HOT" competition. They have hot, hotter, damn hot, blister, and legal hot sauces. One Saturday a month they serve wings and whoever can eat the most/hottest wings wins a free meal (BTW, their legal hot, you have to sign an affidavit to eat it.)

rbduck

I bartended for 18 years so I`ll look at it from that end. Do you want a beer and wine bar, a full cocktail bar, with or without a dance floor, a shooter bar, standup, singles, live or taped music? The list goes on. I would imagine this all depends on the laws in your state/province as to which would be allowed. Is there anything else like your bar near by, you don`t want too much competition.
What is the "fad" these days in your area, country, rock, dance, retro for eg? In my area, country was very strong for about 10 years, now it is getting back to classic rock or dance. There is always new bars popping up in my city but they never last very long, some last less than a year, some lasting two or three years. We have one bar that is the exception and it has been around for almost 20 years and still going strong.
You have to look at the long term here and see if there is a future for a restaurant in your area. Remember also, you will not see any profit for at least five years nor will you be able to pay yourself much of a salary. Are you starting from a new building or redecorating an older one? I may live in a different country but I am pretty sure the same "gameplan" applies here.

I wish you all the best in your endevours and I hope I was of some help to you. I have won all sorts of awards for my bartending and was quite well known in my time, so it can be a hoot if everything has fallen into place.
Please remember these three key words too......LOCATION, LOCATION, and LOCATION!

Good luck,

Ron

Charlie P

Good luck with your restaurant. I hope you beat the odds and are succesful.

Michael J. Weigel

Thanks for all the advice!!!


Ya.,,,, I kow what I am in for (been working in the restaurant business off and on for years) and can't wait to actually get started!!!!!!!!

I TRULY LOVE to COOK!!! It is the only thing that I have ever enjoyed (as far as work goes)!

Keep the posts coming!!!!! (I think that I am going to actually pull off the bottemless mug of beer thing for those that give advice.......of course that will change if there is a huge number of posts....)

beej99

Michael,

I have two BBQ joints that I love to patronize.
one is a hole in the wall bar that has the best ribs on earth. they fall off the bone and have a wonderful sauce. those are my two ingredients for good ribs.

then second is the wildhorse saloon in Nashville. It is more famous for having CMT line dancing at it, , but has teh best pulled pork sandwich I've ever had.

a couple of things that I have read that I really think would appeal to more people is having a variety of sauces. I like the sweet BBQ. Others like the vinegar based. if you have those options, you would appeal to a larger audience. You can also cater to families by offering BBQ by the pound. Offer a whole smoked chicken. things like that. If I'm ever out that way, I will definetly stop by to try it out!!!

beej

Chef John

Best of luck to you Mike, as a certified Chef I can"t say much more than what anyone in the previous post haven't already mentioned, I had a place in North Alabama for a few years and had to sell it as I was in the middle of a divorce and could never have worked it with my wife as she was hard enough to get along with at home so I sold it and split the money with her, I moved to East Texas and opened a place there and 4 months into the biz some idiot ran a red light and broadsided my girlfriends Jeep and I got hurt bad and had to close my place as I didn't know anyone well enough to trust them to run things the way I intended things to be run, so I'm back to square one again. I am getting better and will soon be able to work again (I hope), anyways I want to make something perfectly clear, location can play a big part in your endeavor but don't bank on that alone, I have been to places that were located in the sticks 10 - 15 miles away from civilization and jst the food and word of mouth were enough to bring folks running back for more, the thing is you have to be original and not copycat others, I know it's a tough business to get into but folks are more apt to seek out the original places if they have been there before and will pass on the copycat diner in a heart beat unless you are the only place around for miles, I say this because I have seen it, I have created 15 Dry Rubs 6 Marinades and 9 different types of sauce and I sell them to sports bars and such and always get raves, their's nothing like having a signiture sauce that noone else has or can duplicate, everything I make I make alone with no prying eyes allowed not even my girlfriend knows what I put in my sauces, rubs and marinades thats how a secret stays a secret. bar-b-q is bar-b-q but if you haven't got your own special sauce or something noone else has you may as well stop before you get started. Dont get me wrong I admire tenasity and spunk but if you are serving Chili's Babyback Ribs I'm going to Chilis for the real thing, The Carolina's are well known for their Pulled pork as well as Texas is known for its bar-b-qed Brisket and Kansas for its style of Ribs I have eaten and can duplicat all of them but wouldn't serve them in my Restaurant for anything in the world even though I have had people request them I still stuck to my guns and made my own nitch and the people loved it. I make Carolina B-B-Q every Sunday cause I love it, pulled pork is a winner with me but when I opened my place in Texas I created my own version of B-B-Q brisket and a sauce to go with it, as well as pulled pork I make my own rubs and then I create a signiture sauce from the drippings, although I record everything I put in the sauces and file them away somewhere safe, when I make pulled pork the sauce is a daily creation and I only replicate it when it is requested by a customer (ie. regulars) that like things the same everytime they eat it. Like my Hotwing Sauce is not even close to the original Sauce made by the Anchor Bar and Grill in Buffalo N.Y where I have eaten many times it is just a blend of (Durkees) now known as Frank's Hotsauce and Butter thats it nothing special about it in my opinion, my Hotwing Sauce consists of about 20 ingredients and is much more flavorful as well and I make it in mild, medium and what I call Hell-Fire and the last is gaurenteed to water your eyes and send you serchin for a cool creek to splash on your bottom the next day, LOL pardon the pun. what everyone has said about your wait staff is true as is everything else that has been mentioned but if your food ain't good and/or original you are dead in the water as sure as the rain falls. Again I wish you the best of luck and hope you do well.

Sswpriz

Michael, There is a place in Madison, Wisconsin that I went to many years ago for my nieces wedding dinner rehearsal that had outdoor dining under a tent on picnic tables and such for parties, very casual and interesting. The thing that struck me about this place was of course the sauce on the ribs....it was the best sauce that I have ever tasted and when we inquired one of the waitresses what was in it, she said Pepsi !!!!! and they let it sit for a day before they use it. Dang, that stuff was good. I always tell my wife the next time we are in town we are going back there !!!
Good Luck on your endeavor !!!

Chef John

PLEASE! don't think for a minute that the pepsi had anything to do with the flavor of that sauce my friends, as Coke, Pepsi and Dr Pepper have all been used in cooking for many years now, the flavor in all these colas all but disapears when they are heated to the boiling point and all you have left is sugar and Phosphoric Acid which is the reason for using them it is just a cheaper way of sweetening the sauce and the acid helps to tenderize when you mop it on the meat while it cooks. Dr Pepper does leave a slight hint of flavor in what you mix it in though but all these products are just a liquid or water base to start with and it would take gallons of this stuff reduced to a syrup by cooking it to allow the water to evaporate and naturally thicken and sweeten from the corn syrup and other sugars already present in the cola and the caramel color is just that a coloring agent and nothing more. so believe them if you want But I believe you were hog tied by the waitress and spanked, not that that aint a good thing, I love being hog tied and spanked by waitresses LOL. J/K

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Michael J. Weigel

Ok.

I have cooked up a batch of 'Memphis Style' sauce but I am confused about something....the recipe says to 'serve it warm'.....

So, I am wondering if in Memphis it is preferred that the sauce is served on the side rather than as a basting sauce during the last 5 or 10 minutes of BBQing? Anyone Know?