BBQ Restaurants

[Saucy Pig]

The food I've served at events is pretty much exactly the same as the food I've served to friends at home. Is it competition standard? probably not, but then I have no idea if my food ever was as I've never competed.
The biggest event we've done was catering for 600 and it was certainly a test of our cooking methods and also the marriage as we both have full time jobs as well that tend to get in the way (the marriage survived intact btw )
The dream is to be doing this as my full time job within a few years but for now this kind of level is where I'm happy to be, even so the amount of paperwork and the hoops the local authorities make you jump through are almost enough to break your spirit sometimes. As previously stated every penny taken has gone back into the business and also a bit more on top.
Hats off to anyone who can run a bbq business and make a go of it while turning out decent food.

[keith157]

[Tiny]

Oooh! herts versus beds, its like the bloods and the crips, the sharks and the jets.........theres gonna be a rumble in surburbia!

Bacl on topic.
The restaurant game isn't really about quality, not in the purest sense, I like a burger, the ones I make myself with my local butchers steak mince are fantastic, a real quality product.

McDonalds blasts out faintly grey beef related hosings by the millions and are extremely profitable.

I guess the choice you face when it comes to BBQ food is do you want profit or Quality? Coast to coast will microwave you a bag of pulled pork for a tenner and are doing rather nicely thank you, we ametuers tend our cookers for hours and with fuel and meat costs could not hope to make a decent return on our labour.

I guess the middle ground is you can find a compromise where you are proud to serve the food and you can make enough dough to keep the wolves from the door.

have a week off in August and have already decreed that one of the days must be an visit to the bbq shack nr Brighton as this seems to be one of very few that are doing it "right" and more power to those who are prepared to try.

Cheers
Tiny

[slatts]

Yep I'd get my passport out for Beds aswell

At the moment I'm on a no carbs diet as in no bread potatoes or chips crisps etc so no BBQ apart from ribs, cant have pulled pork rolls so i'm holding off for couple of weeks until i'm down to my fighting weight

I'll run some up to you one day when I get some left over or before everybody gets here, I think my food is open for big improvements but only other BBQ'ers can tell me more. I'd love to cook for people and I even found a commercial smoker for a restaurant but that's for my lottery win dreams, back to tiling a conservatory tomorrow and sweating out more liquid than I can put in me hoping my lottery ticket comes in tomorrow night

A mate of mine put a photo on facebook of the pulled pork from Coast to Coast, looked like cat food

[keith157]

Yep it does, avoid Chiquito as well, I foolishly spent the extra £3 for a pulled pork burger to get a dessertspoonful of "pulled \pork" on top of their burger

You can use a good slaw with your PP slatts, you don't have to have bread.....have it with a salad. I wish I knew what my fighting weight was, I know I could do with losing the same as a couple of WSMs full of meat

[YetiDave]

Speaking of pulled pork.. Anyone else annoyed by these joints advertising the stuff as '18 hour smoked'? There's no WAY it's seen that much smoke

[keith157]

Speaking of pulled pork.. Anyone else annoyed by these joints advertising the stuff as '18 hour smoked'? There's no WAY it's seen that much smoke

Maybe the chemical smoke they use takes 18 hours to give an effect? We used to leave our bacon in for a couple of days and that stuff ate through Marigolds with ease

[keith157]

Speaking of pulled pork.. Anyone else annoyed by these joints advertising the stuff as '18 hour smoked'? There's no WAY it's seen that much smoke

Maybe the chemical smoke they use takes 18 hours to give an effect? We used to leave our bacon in for a couple of days and that stuff ate through Marigolds with ease

[YetiDave]

A couple of DAYS? I gave a slab 24 hours of cold smoke once and that was far too much

[keith157]

The difference between REAL smoking and chemicals, it was diluted a fair bit but I've hated cheap smopked bacon & ham simce then. We don't have it often but when we do we get the best we can afford.