BBQ Restaurants

[YetiDave]

Has anyone been to one and not thought 'I could do this better?' I've not tried a vast amount of them, but the food in them seems utterly average compared to stuff that's come out of my own smoker

[keith157]

There have been a couple of posts, one of the best ones being from John at BBQ Shack in Brighton about the pitfalls and problems running a restaurant. It takes a lot of bottle to set one up and let's face it its not an a-la-carte menu so things have to be taken into consideration regarding menu and suchlike.

But yes, I have produced better and certainly eaten far far better courtesy of the teams on this forum, than I've had at restaurants.

[From The Sauce]

The style of cooking is compltetly different from cooking at home to cooking en masse. Compromises have to be made when cooking to serve over a period oftime (how long the food holds, how certain ingredients react when held for a period of time) Also storage and re-heat methods. Cooking at home for up to 30 is easily catered for with a couple of pork shoulders a few racks of ribs and a bunch of chicken thighs, to serve a menu over a sustained period of time to an unknown quantity of covers is a totally different proposition, especially compared to competition BBQ when the competitors have one bite to load the flavor.

[Swindon_Ed]

The style of cooking is compltetly different from cooking at home to cooking en masse. Compromises have to be made when cooking to serve over a period oftime (how long the food holds, how certain ingredients react when held for a period of time) Also storage and re-heat methods. Cooking at home for up to 30 is easily catered for with a couple of pork shoulders a few racks of ribs and a bunch of chicken thighs, to serve a menu over a sustained period of time to an unknown quantity of covers is a totally different proposition, especially compared to competition BBQ when the competitors have one bite to load the flavor.

I partly agree with this but also disagree with some of your comments here Neil, cooking for the masses is very different to cooking in the back garden, but there are ways to minimise any degradation of an end product.

One thing i really disagree with you on is about compromising. Personally i would not feel comfortable compromising on anything, hence i use the same meat suppliers for comp's as i do for catering.The food i put out when catering, i would be happy to serve in a contest and think it would do ok.

If you're having to compromise you either don't have to right equipment for the job, or you don't have the right processes!

[Mj2k]

Really valuable insight, thanks Ed.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[From The Sauce]

Hi Ed,
Thanks for the reply. I may have been mis-understood - I didnt mention a compormise on ingredients, my point is more that cooking at home for 30 people for a specific time is vastly different to catering for 1000 over a range of 10 hours and therefore the methods of storing/ re-heating/ serving food is a different process.
Delivery and preparation has to be different purely down the volumes and speed it needs to be served. The same can be said for restaurant food - as demand varies day to day.

[stretchie_]

I've only been to one, GrillStock in St Nicks market.. And I definitely thought that.

I was SOOOO excited to go there and try it, especially the sliced brisket, as I have done brisket but it's rolled so we chop the hell out of it and sprinkle it on top of burgers or pulled pork butties or melt cheese on top of it in a bun and it's amazing. I tried the sliced brisket there and no word of a lie I could not bite through it. I had to saw at it with my teeth and only actually had one bite in the end and threw it away.

The pulled pork was nice but I was hoping for amazing blow my socks off stuff not "alright stuff"

Don't get me wrong, I still think these guys are great and are paving the way to bring this to the masses and I could not do it on a big scale like they are doing it and it MUST be a completely different cooking for an undisclosed number of people all day every day than just doing it at home for a load of mates where you can just overcook and freeze the rest without worrying about overheads.

Also had many comments from friends that have tried St Nicks market and their mobile trailer at GrillStock and they all said the same, they preferred mine (how much of this is honest and how much is friends being polite I have no idea)

I have not tried the Clifton one but I live 35 miles away so it might be some time before I get to try it but try it I will, I don't like to condemn a place on just one try.

[stretchie_]

As it happens I had to go to Bristol last night so I went to Grillstock on the Triangle
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Awesome, a completely different experience. We went for the big plate (between us) that has a bit of each meat, chips, slaw and beans and we got some chilli too.

The ball'n'chain was well impressed with the beans, she said tastes just like what she'd had in Texas. I prefer my ribs juicier (just personal preference) but they were nice and they had two different BBQ sauce's, I think both vinegar based one hot one not and the brisket was FANTASTIC.

Deffo recommend a visit.

[Backyardsmoker]

There must be a way of having a constant flow of food ready to a decent standard in a restaurant. The Americans can do it so im sure we can.

I see on programmes like man v food, diners drive ins and dives that they have massive smokers all with huge rqcks on filled with meat that rotate inside the smoking chamber. So Im guessing different racks are started at different times. So staggering means there should be a constant supply.

I think it boils down to money and knowledge. And ive got to say that people who go to these restaurants who probably have never smoked food in the garden before wouldn't know what was good and what was crap. And maybe the owners know this and take advantage of the fact?

Ben

[keith157]

Think of the market they have in the US, how many people at this present time would think of going to a BBQ place for dinner here in the Uk, other than forum members & their friends? It was decades before Chinese & Indian restaurants really took off with the majority of the populace.

The demand isn't here YET, plus if you watch MvF & DDD carefully most of the places have signs saying "When it's gone it's gone" in other words first come first served and you can bet your pension that they film at peak hours, even so I've seen plenty of episodes when the staff have crossed out entrees when they have run out.

It's a brave entrepeneur who will stake his or the bank's money on anything as chancy as an eatery let alone on a basically on a niche market. I'd love a good quality BBQ joint of any description in Herts. but as far as I know we don't have one.