More Snapshots......

1st pic of Big Apple BBQ Block Party

More pics/commentary to come.......the event surpassed even my best expectations, it was great! This is Friday night around 8:30, 24th & Madison Ave.

Interview with Pat on WNYC

Pat and Kenny Callaghan were guests on the Leonard Laporte show. Here is the interview.

Video of the new Rig

Hello everyone, Mike here, I will be helping Pat update the blog here. First update, here is a video of the new Whole Hog Rig to add to the pics in the last post. The rig is currently on it's way today to the Big Apple to do some serious Whole Hog cooking. The trip so far has been an adventure, with traffic and hailstorms but all is going well.

New Catering Trailer

Leaving for NYC in 8 hours at 4:00am with Robbie Lunday. Here we go........2009 Big Apple Block Party.

Trailer

Getting the trailer going for the hog-pit. Paint came in today, 1300 degree flat black. we'll put 3 coats on it. I now have a slight delta (change) in my plans..........thinking of going fwd with the 32ft gooseneck i was originally thinking about and just getting the whole dad-gum thing done now. Ill post tomorrow with the update.

New website is/should be up......its a great step....we'll make changes (deltas) as we go be Mike Causey is great! I'm about to touch base with my old friend Katie Walker, been missing her a lot.......she & John had a baby and I've been trying to leave her alone, but I saw on Facebook the other day that she was sharpening her pencils...........sounds like Katie "All-Star" Walker is coming out of hibernation

FINALLY.......

New website with new blog is here........launching it officially on Monday. Lots to catch you up on:

1) possible new building
2) invitation as one of the Pit-Masters to the infamous "Big Apple BBQ Block Party" in June
3) yet another timely, unplanned child on the way - my lovely wife being irresponsible once again with the birth control pills. september 7th due date. oh yeah and its a boy.......may God help us!
4) new whole hog trailer being built - its a monster!!!
5) update on business - the Martin's BBQ "pirate ship" is actually getting serious!?!?!
6) update on a new douche bag vendor
7) update on a new sloth/moron customer - this one is a good story! some folks are just unreal!
8) i am now going to be updating via "twitter" (short 2-3 sentence updates)......this will enable me to actually update my damn blog.......look, the big ass paragraphs were just getting too tough for me to do on a regular basis - i have severe adult ADD - what do you expect? what a terrible excuse.

Some recent articles about the Joint...

Southern Living - Tales from the Road





100 Southern Foods - Garden and Gun

Smokehouse

A look at the smokehouse

O.K. so here is the deal......

New website & blog and blog design is on the way. Hang in there with me! A lot to tell you about I just wanted to wait until the new blog rolls out to do it. It will be better than ever. A lot more pictures, video, audio.........and if you have A.D.D. as bad as "they" say I do then you'll appreciate that! The blog will be rejuvenated with fresh and more complex business posts. It will also incorporate more cooking as well -again, just to keep content fresh. Soon my good man, soon.

Post

I'm in Correctionville Iowa........Pheasant hunting. As you may summize this post has not a dad-gum thing to do with BBQ, opening a restaurant, grilling, cooking, lude language, nudity, bootlegging or.........................uh...............grits. This is really just a post telling you that I have a lot to post about, but ain't gonna do it till first of the week sometime when I get time. Really I'm happy as a damn tornado in a trailer park to be doing this, because I'm a huge quail hunter.....but as any Southerner knows quail hunting ain't what it was 15 years ago, let alone in the 80's and before! We're hunting WILD Pheasant here........not some pen-raised birds let loose an hour before we put our boots on. We may not see any birds, and if we do they may take off way before we come on em'............30mph winds, scattered snow ain't helping us.......but surely that ain't why we're here is it? All I know is I'm not thinking about running a restaurant.

Whole Hog BBQ in Chester County, TN

So I rode down to the symposium with my buddy Carey Bringle, who is an amputee. How did he lose his leg? Depending on which night you ask Carey, you'll get one of the following answers:

1) He got his leg cut off with a pocket knife in a bar fight at Joe's Village Inn

2) He was swimming his daily laps in the Mississippi river when a wandering Bull Shark from the Gulf bit his leg off. Carey killed the shark with his bare hands and wrestled his leg out of its stomach, but the the doctors at Baptist Hospital in Memphis were not savvy enough to re-attach his femur bone.

3) One of the Ford brothers shot him in his thigh when Carey was running for Shelby County Commissioner.

Why mention that Carey is an amputee? Because riding with someone who's got one of those big-ass blue handicap signs hanging from their rear view mirror is like manna from heaven! I've never been able to just pull up and park right in front of the front door. It literally took me a couple days to get accustomed to it. It was awesome! Anytime I'm going anywhere and his ass is going, you better bank on it he's driving!

On the way though I wanted to take him through Henderson to eat at 1-2 whole hog BBQ joints. The two places I used to cook at, and learned the art, have since closed. One was Thomas & Webb. I credit Mr. Harold Thomas for really teaching me what I know today. He closed down and a place called "Bill's BBQ" is in its place. They cook with an electric cooker, which Im not going to get started on right here but will say two things; that ain't real BBQ and a man deserves a good ole' country ass-whooping for calling it bbq if its cooked on one of those electric cookers. Makes me sick. At any rate, we only had time for one, so I took him to Siler's Ol' Time BBQ. The pic is of Chris Siler, who is a great guy, and the damn near one pound pork sandwich I had. See that light colored chunk hanging out right there, thats the middlin' meat.......folks thats as good as it gets!

More SFA Pics........

my buddy Tyler Brown, executive chef at Capitol Grill at the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville.

















That is Sean Brock (chef at McCready's in Charleston) in that lizard mask. All I was doing was having a nice relaxed conversation over a beer at the after party and Sean walked up next to me and growled.......I almost wet myself.


Me and legendary NASCAR driver/owner and Corn Likker' Legend Junior Johnson.

Southern Foodways Symposium

Went to the SFA's annual symposium in Oxford (Ole Miss) a week or so ago. This is the first symposium I attended. I have intended to go for 4 years now and always bump into some reason for having to miss it. I really regret not going earlier, what a fantastic event! This years event was as its title reads, the "Liquid South". Everything from southern spring water to buttermilk to moonshine. The speakers were absolutely hilarious yet informative. I still remember my summers staying with my grandparents, specifically my dads parents, in Corinth. We would come in at lunch and Ma-Ma would have this big lunch made for us and my grandfather would fill up a big glass of cold buttermilk and dip his cornbread in it. He'd get me to try it every time just so he could laugh at how much I disliked it. I just had a large glass of whole buttermilk and cornbread yesterday for my lunch.........funny how things take a turn on a man in life.
One of the speakers was a White House correspondent covering Jimmy Carters campaign when he was running for President. The story of Jimmy was good, but the real story was his brother Billy. All of the networks had their guys down there, a lot of which are now seasoned veterans of major networks. Every afternoon at 4:00 the correspondents would meet at Billy's gas station and drink beer. Then they, along with Billy and friends would go across the road to play a game of softball. Jimmy never missed a game when he was in town. If any of you know anything about Billy Carter then you know what an amazing character he was. He could absolutely care less as to what folks thought of him......that was really the real beauty of him. One afternoon Billy missed the softball game, but showed up at the station with everyone after for a beer or two. Billy and his wife had a son born that morning. Ed Bradly was one of the correspondents there and asked Billy about the birth. It was a live interview on national T.V......this is a true story. It went something like this:

Ed Bradly: Billy, congratulations on the birth of your son you must be excited.......

Billy Carter: Well yeah Ed, hell I appreciate it, we are proud of him.....hes a big strappin' boy!

Ed Bradly: That's great Billy, what did he weigh?

Billy Carter: Ohh Ed he tipped the scales at seven pounds and eight ounces...........................6.5lbs of which ain't nuthin' but dick & balls!



That was on live television for ABC's nightly news. When that guy told that story I about puked on the old Lady's neck in front of me I was laughing so hard.

ROUX!!!

Its that time of year again, for us at least, for Etouffee'......we cant keep it in! I took it off the menu to take pressure off of us producing it and we still cant keep it in stock. As with our "Q" we make it from scratch and take the hardest most authentic way possible. That basically means we dont cheat on our roux....because of that it takes a long time (1-2 days) to produce a small amount of it, maybe a couple of gallons. Its gone in 1 day! At any rate.....making roux has become for me a small vacation on Saturday nights. No inventory, invoices, writing checks, hearing complaints, bitching employees, emails.....NOTHING! Its just me, a six-pack of beer, my cast iron skillet and my thin whisk (dont start in on me with the wooden spoon.....i like the thin whisk better). Nothing to think about but stirring that dang roux........total peace!

Update

Last week ended up well. We are very steady in light of current economic conditions. Our sales have yet to dip other than the first week or two of school starting back, but that was expected. Our seasonal dip should start here in the next 4-6 weeks as we head in to the holidays, and that too is to be expected. We have two different demographics at Martin's; The hourly wage, blue-collar guy who works construction and the young semi-wealthy to very wealthy professional and his family. The first one has already felt his economic shock, back in mid to late summer. World markets doing the cannonball off the high-dive mean very, very little to him. I mean seriously, think about it......where is his investment portfolio right now? He felt his shock with the price surge in fuel, groceries, cigarettes etc., he's already digested that and moved on. Yeah maybe he pulled the old lunch pale out and is packing his lunch a day or two a week now, but he ain't doing it everyday! The second one, their wealth is such that we are still very, very affordable because of our price point. There are 4 price point categories in restaurants.....from most expensive to the least: fine dining, full service dining, quick-casual, fast food. The second guy and his family have cut back their visits to places that are in the fine dining and full service dining price points, but not the other two. Quick casual concepts (Martin's) and fast food concepts will fair much better in the next 18 or so months, if not longer.

The Nashville Scene had their annual "Best Of" awards last week......as you guessed it Whitt's won again. This is where I take my hat off as owner of Martin's Bar-B-Que and Im just typing here as a fan of BBQ, a fan of good food. This is like Fazoli's winning best Italian, its that ridiculous. It shows the level of ignorance, not stupidity but ignorance - there is a HUGE difference, in the local market in regards to BBQ. People who are not "foodies" sit down to vote for that one article every year and just start writing stuff in. They write in what they know and/or are familiar with whether its good or not. There is a Whitt's on every other corner in Nashville and lets give them credit, they have brand recognition.....thats the only reason they win this event every year. I dont give a shit whether you like BBQ or not, thats not the point I'm making.......the point I'm making is to appreciate good food and the people who are out there trying to put it out every day....the fact is that 90% of the time food from non-chain establishments always tastes better because the owners really care about what your eating and the quality of it. Their heart is in it. If you are not from Nashville reading this I may sound like a sore loser....Im not. Jim Ridley (Scene writer) named Dee's Q his pick and it is MOST deserved! Jim also was kind enough to write a few very nice things about Martin's that I appreciated very much! I'm just pointing out that we as a market have a ways to go in regards to appreciation of really dang good food....and for that reason we'll probably see Whitt's win for years to come..........but the real food freaks, they know whats good and where to go.....Hog Heaven, Dee's, Jim-n-Nick's (they fall into the 10% that are large and care about what you are eating), Jack's on Trinity and hopefully Martin's. Want to see this trend change? Then its our job as food lovers as we sip a beer at Bosco's in Hillsboro Village or play golf with some guys you dont know to talk about, inform and educate these ignorant bastards as to what good food is........tell them why pasta from Savarinos is better than store bought, tell them the diffence in truly great food and average food, or in this case BBQ. Do your good deed and educate the masses and lift our society! Life is just too dad-gum short to eat average food......it really is!

Post

Yeah I know I re-committed to my vows but alas I have fallen short, sounds like marriage huh? I actually have "blogged" a few times on Microsoft Word, saving the file to copy/paste it when I finished.....I just never finished. For those of you that dont know me personally, the term A.D.D. is an understatement when it comes to me. At any rate here's a quick update of the past month, in rapid-fire succession:

New menu went over well. Had to raise some of my prices a little, specifically beef/turkey products, but really the only change out of pocket to the customer is drinks are now a la carte. I thought and/or was afraid of negative feedback but really only had about 4-5 comments and those were respectful. Didnt have any assholes bitching about how expensive our food is.

Business continues to be strong. Last year September was our 2nd worst month in terms of gross sales. Think about it, a lot of changes happen around labor day for folks. Kids go back to school etc.. This September has been our highest grossing month of the year and we were up about 150% - 200% in gross sales compared to last September. Why is that? Well several things, two of which I think stand out. Last September we had only been open 11mths so time alone has increased our brand to the customer. I also would like to think we are staying consistent with our food which is creating revolving sales through loyal customers.

We officially had our 2 year birthday this past Thursday. I cant believe its been two years already. What I really cant believe is the stupid business decisions I made in the first 6 months and how under capitalized I was starting out..........its really a blessing from God that I'm still in business because of that! I get a bunch of emails from people wanting to do this very same thing in their town. Ill say it here like I say in my responses. 2 great pieces of wisdom I can give you after this 2 year rollercoaster ride: 1) get SUFFICIENT restaurant management experience before you do something like this -and- 2) however much you think you need to start up with, add 50%. Dont worry about whether your product, whether its BBQ or Pizza, is the best around and a lot better than any restaurant around. If you dont heed those two little tidbits of advice I just gave you then you are doomed. You will fail. "Oh Pat, you've survived two years and started with no experience and very little money"......I'm telling you its an anomaly! -But Im happy it is and look forward to many years to come in this business.

Really starting to build the catering business. Hired a girl to do sales for me that I'm really excited about. Lori Lockmiller is on board and we're just waiting for her cards. We've had some turnover at the joint thats caused some growing pains....good ones though. We've also had to hire a couple of extra folks. We now staff around 10 full time and part time.....a long way from when it was Bo on the line and me in the front.

The new menu added Baby-backs, cracklins, tamales, slugburgers. All are selling well except slugburgers, but we knew that going in. Slugburgers are homage to back home...Corinth, MS. They actually will start selling though once folks from Mississippi who live in Nashville find out we have them.

Updated my quickbooks and I'm now doing the books....this is a separate blog unto its own. This alone has been one of the most time consuming things/changes I've made in the past couple of months. Ill blog on this later.

Yeah so I gotta hit it.......Lord willing it should be a good day in sales. Weather is sunny & 65 degrees. Hopefully we'll knock it out today. Look, Im really trying to get back on this blog on a regular basis. Its hard though, working about 65+ hours a week.....then whats left I'm trying like hell to spend valuable time with my wife and two kids. The pics are random.....a couple of Porterhouses I grilled a few Sunday nights ago. What a 2.5" thick steak scares you? Not if you know what your doing! Alpha males dont screw with the 1" rib-eye from Kroger......find your inner "cave-man", you'll be happy you did.

Dilworths Hot Tamales, Corinth Mississippi.

Hoping to post an update in the morning. In the mean time I thought I'd post some pics from one of my favorite dives. This is Dilworths Hot Tamales in our hometown of Corinth, MS. When I was in high school w'ed each buy 2 dozen and eat every damn one of em! Look at the price list!!!
Tamales are BIG in Mississippi.....really BIG! They are a little different than Mexican Tamales, but not much. If you want to learn more check out:
http://www.tamaletrail.com/

Renewing my vows.....

God bless Jerry Reed, God bless Billy Carter.


Alright........put me back on your RSS feed, I'm renewing my "vows" to the blog. Its been an incredibly busy summer. Big things are on the horizon for Martin's Bar-B-Que that Ill get into in a few weeks when some of the dust settles.......but the point is I am going to start blogging on a regular basis again, a couple times a week at least. I didnt realize how well read the blog was until this summer, only blogging once every 3 weeks or so, getting emails from folks who are getting irritated at the lack of fresh content. I am going to give you a summary of whats been going on since my last post, not a lot of detail to it. Before I do that though I gotta tell you that my grandfather passed on to the good Lord this past Saturday morning. I wont take you through a bunch of stuff but we were close and he was a fine Christian man. His influence on me and my career as a restaurantuer was beyond what he knew. You see, my first entry and/or interest to cooking was watching my Dad grill. It was a process, it was methodical. Dad was almost annoyed at those who "grilled" on gas grills. The mention of lighter fluid was dang near sinful. At my household it is the same way. If I ever see my boy, Wyatt, with a can of lighter fluid......other than using it to light a fire to keep hypothermia setting in.....I will tear his ass up! We never had a drop of lighter fluid on our property. We always used a chimney starter with raw charcoal. I think the hook was set not by the taste of the steak, but by the process of getting there. There was a right way to do things and a wrong way and he was very serious about us grilling the right way. Well, my Daddy learned all that when he started dating Mom, from his future father in-law. Dad played basketball at Mississippi State and would come home on the weekends and Pa-King would grill. Dad grilled growing up with his Dad, but the "show".....the magnitude of the procedure......the "we're one of the few that adhere to doing it right"......the PRIDE, came from Pa-King. I dont know where or how Pa-King became that methodical about things, but I'm glad he did. I've had two loves in my life in regards to career, growing up in and working in the securites industry trading and selling bonds, and this restaurant. The first one I still miss greatly, and as I continue to pay down debt for this Joint will start trading some again from my own account. The second though I can trace where I am to Kit V. King teaching my ol' Man, who taught me, who took it even further.





We rolled out the new menu and new pricing. We've only had one comment on the price increase. The new menu items are Mississippi Hot Tamales, Baby-Backs, Slug Burgers, Brunswick Stew and Elgin Hot Guts (Texas style BBQ sausage). The sausage is not ready yet because of the producer dragging their feet, probably a couple of weeks away. The tamales have sold out, we're trying to make more today. The slugs have sold well and the Baby's are flying out. I'll be interested to see what my extended sales turn out to be.





Yesterday I wrecked the F-350 flatbed and the catering trailer. Some dick-head slammed on the brakes in front of me and gave me 3 options: hit him in the rear end and send his stupid ass through the windshield, keep sliding left and hit an on-coming car, or jerk the wheel right into a 6' deep ditch. I hit the ditch, tore out the whole dad-gum front end of my truck. Once I figured out I was alright, I jumped out to check the trailer.......it was fine. Then I got pissed and said some un-christian things about the bastard who caused the whole thing. I guess I'm gonna have to buy a used/new truck, which I dont want to have to do. I'll shop around over the next month or two and find a deal.





The website is coming in the next 3 months or so. It will be very interactive and sleek. A lot of audio/video content, retail store, this blog, etc..





In the process of having a 32-36' mobile kitchen built. I plan on putting the pit I have on the catering trailer on the back of the new mobile kitchen, and putting two custom whole hog pits on the catering trailer (one on each end).





So thats about it, Ill blog again in the next day or two. I also plan on using the audio blog quite a bit so keep an eye out for that.

Brew Masters Dinner

Update

Had to put a picture of my kids on this post. We went to Bobbie's Dairy Dip after Church for ice cream. It was a mess. Things still trucking along, biz is still great and with all due respect to my good buddy Carey Bringle - I've been busier than a one legged man in an ass kickin' contest. So heres the update:

MENU CHANGE
I've tried - for way too long - to hold my pricing, but its going to change. The only relief I can find today is a sepository laced with some of that menthol cooling gel. My wholesale pork prices have almost doubled since April! -kinda felt a "tinge" down there didnt ya? There ain't no getting around it and its something I hate to have to do, but its got to be done. So, we'll be charging a little more on some menu items just to make up the difference and we'll be introducing a few things too. We're bringing on baby back ribs in addition to our spares, Mississippi hot tamales, slug-burgers, pulled chicken sandwiches, brunswick stew, stewed cabbage, mac & cheese. Then we're bringing on a daily specials list that will have anything ranging from Mutton to shrimp po-boys. I'm also going to improve on some of the things that I have never been completely happy with but had to settle for. If you've been reading this thing since the beginning then you know that when I first opened up it was just Me & Bo. When there are just two of you, or three/four for that matter you are very limited on what you can prep & cook to keep up with demand. Baked beans is a good example. We needed baked beans that we prep up in a flash and have cooked in 45 minutes. We didnt have time to dice and sautee onions or green peppers, so they have not been where I want them to be but with the staffing we have now they are about to be. Actually not really going to change much of anything - the only things that I'm going to work on is Baked Beans, Green Beans - but we'll be able to keep up with other items we only have every so often, such as Etouffee' on a daily basis. The funny thing is we'll still have folks who for some reason must think we're just dying for their opinion. Its usually some tubby-fat-ass who thinks she's got the best recipe on the planet for this or that. What said tubby-fat-ass does not take time to consider is that recipes have nothing to do with it. Do you, tubby-fat-ass, really think that we're sitting back there in the kitchen making a 4 ingredient baked bean thinking its the best stuff on the planet? This is some of the pain you'll have to deal with opening your own place - people who cant fathom the difference between cooking for 4-8 in their home kitchen and cooking for 300 - DAILY - in a commercial kitchen. When its just you and one or two other people then recipes ain't got shit to do with it, getting it out as fast as you can with what you have does. Scan down this blog to about the first couple of months we were open and read about the crock-pot lady. I guess she's draining her back fat for lamp oil because I havent read about her crock-pot bbq joint opening up yet......but I digress. Sometime around middle of August we're going to start opening on Sundays. Not sure about the whole day yet but at least 10:00-2:00. The deck has been a huge payoff. I'm not seeing any increased business from it yet but it has greatly reduced waiting times for customers! I think its probably going to take a few months for word of mouth to circulate around that its open, at that point we might start seeing more business from it. Brew festival is coming up in two weeks. We had a pretty strong day there in sales last year so that should be fun. Sales are still very strong - up about 35% or more since this time last year. Im now realizing just how underfunded I was opening this place up. The good side to that is Im paying for a lot of stuff with cash as I go, not going further into debt. The bad side to that is any additional funds to pay down extra debt or go on vacation or whatever ain't there. When does it stop? How the heck do I know? We were recently named a top 5 BBQ Joint by Nashville Lifestyles Magazine. Thats a pretty dad-gum big honor to me. To even be in that conversation is flattering.

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080630/NL04/306300010/1395

Yep....still crazy

Before I get started do me a favor, go to the tennessean.com and give us a vote for best BBQ in the "Toast of Music City" poll. The link is:

http://data.tennessean.com/v2/bin/toast/category.php?cat=108

Still crazy.....in a good way. The past 3 weeks have been our highest grossing weeks ever. We just opened the deck up a week ago tomorrow night, was hard to gauge it on Saturday because of rain etc......but by the looks of Friday night, its going to help with seating and help as an attractant. We're up around 50% in sales since this time last year, but still have not been paying much debt down over the past couple of months because the business we are doing is demanding more things/equipment to keep up. I'm paying cash for all those things as we go. Decor for deck, tables/chairs, additional fryer, new prep tables, cold well..........I could go on but wont. I'm hoping to be at the end of the tunnel on that stuff here in the next few weeks. I bought a 1985 GMC S-15 pickup truck saturday for $1000.00 cash. I have no "image" problem, dont need a status symbol truck/car.........no what i need is 30+ miles to a gallon! My chevy Z-71 is getting a whopping 9-10 miles per gallon - it was time for a change. So ol' Z-71 is going to be parked unless needed. This little truck is a 4 cylinder, two seater with tires about the size of a go-cart. If I ever get hit in this thing its over! I'd have a better chance of living if I were on a Harley............BUT I wont be spending $200.00 a week on gas anymore! See just from my House to the Joint is 25 miles one way, not to mention the running around I do during the day. This is what you call a good business decision. My buddies might laugh but I'll......you know the rest! Here are some recent articles/press:

http://www.gourmet.com/travel/2008/05/hoecakes

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080622/COUNTY090101/806220356

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080605/FEATURES01/806050320

Update

Its been a long 4 weeks! Since Memphis in May, I've been running wide open. Things are going well, really well! Because of my schedule though its been really tough for me to take the time to keep this blog updated. I'm starting to get some borderline hate mail coming in on me for not posting in a while, so I figured I would try to bring everyone up to speed. First lets start with Memphis in May. Needless to say we had a great time. This year was just as much fun as last year and maybe better, with the exception of the fact that our team co-captain Dave Johnson had to leave early to be with his momma who was very ill. The food was unreal, thanks to Jason Mcconnell from Red Pony (smoked duck tamales!!!), Lobels (best dadgum meat on the planet), & Wood smoked provisions (best smoked fish on the planet). We placed 62nd.....horrid. That being said there was a very large rift inside Memphis in May this year. The folks who ran the actual competition had a falling out with the rest of the organization and left to start Memphis Barbecue Network. Memphis in May is month long event and the BBQ competition is just one week of the 4 week event. There is an awful lot of rumbling and discontent with how this years judging went. A lot of food sat in its boxes for over an hour before they were judged. The main newspaper for Memphis, the Commercial Appeal, has had 3 editorials since then bitching about the new organizing committee. No doubt they were in way over their heads, but you move on and Lord willing show back up next year ready to roll. We had to bring my rig down this year because fire marshall Carey Bringle burned the teams pit down and almost burned down all of Tyne blvd. in Nashville. The pit did well for its first cook, and we got really good scores from the judges. One we know was a perfect 10, another we think was a perfect 10 due to the comments (perfect, this is the best I've ever had, dont ever change a thing with this meat) and the other we dont know. The guy had a great poker face. His poker face made Chris Moneymaker's face look like Ed McMahon reacting to a Johnny Carson joke. At any rate, as usual we ate better and ate better than anyone down there. Next year.
I went home to get back to the Joint for a week and prepare for the 1st annual Franklin Food & Spirits Festival. This was a great event put on by the Southern Foodways Alliance, Jim-N-Nick's BBQ and the Franklin Heritage Foundation. I will tell you now that this event will become one of the largest and most well respected food festivals in our Country. The vision for this is massive, aggressive and extremely well funded. I'm excited to be a part of it. Friday night was a private event at Carnton Plantation in Franklin. The patrons paid $150.00 per head. They had me cook a whole hog in the tradition of West Tennessee (large hogs around 185# at a very low temp with nothing but wood coals, pulled) and they had legendary pit-master Ed Mitchell come in and do one in the tradition of Eastern North Carolina (smaller hogs, hotter temp, briquette charcoal, chopped with sauce). Then they had several well respected chefs from the South come in and cook. Jason McConnell, Sean Brock, John Fleer, Drew Robinson, Tandy Wilson, Martha Stamps. The event was unreal, we had a great time! I forgot to mention that Carey and Dave Story came out and sat up with me till 3 am the night before, which was much appreciated! Bo and Dave grabbed the morning shift so I could get some sleep. The next day was the festival in the square in Franklin. I had my rig serving our Redneck Taco's (pulled pork on a hoe-cake with slaw & sauce). Ed Mitchell cooked hogs, Chris Lilly from Big Bob Gibson cooked their famous chickens dipped in white sauce, Tony Stone from KCBS cooked brisket, Puckett's cooked ribs and Jim-N-Nicks cooked Brisket Quesidillas. There were documentary films shown by SFA, speakers such as John T. Edge and Jim Myers, Bourbon & Beer tastings and a whole lot more. Looking forward to next year!
Had a deck built, which will be finished by this Saturday. Ill post pics of it when its finished, they are painting it today. Ill be "redneckin" it up with decor on Friday. We have run out of space, I need more seating. This, Lord willing, will help a lot! Our business is up about 30% from this time last year, but Saturday nights are starting to slow a bit because we've developed the reputation that you wont find a seat after 6:30. I'm probably losing over $1000.00 in sales per week during that hour and a half. That has always been my peak time of the week! I hope this will capture it back!
During our time at Carnton, Ed Mitchell invited me to help him cook his hogs at the Big Apple Block Party. In a little over six years this event has become the largest BBQ related event in the world. It is not a competition. Much like Franklin it is a celebration. They invite the best of the best, or the most famous (thanks to folks like Food Network) - however you choose to look at it. I had already been planning on going to take Martha to the city and hang out with some guys at the event, so it was an easy decision for me. On thursday before I left the guy building the deck showed up. I flew in Friday afternoon , dropped Martha off at our hotel (the Jolly Madison) and went straight down to Madison Park (26th & Madison) to get the hogs on with Ed.
After we got the hogs on Martha & I met Nick, Drew & John Hare and their wives for dinner at Mario Batali's famous "Otto". It was some of the best Italian food I've had and the atmosphere was unreal. The next night Martha & met up with my old Merrill Lynch buddy Rob Jaffee. He and I, along with Dave Phillip, Brooks "Booger" Stevens and Chad Streiter terrorized the Chicago Board of Trade for a while back in the 90's. Man.....it was great to see Rob! Later Martha & I met again with Nick/Drew/John and John T. Edge at 11 Madison. This is one of legendary restaurateur Danny Meyer's places. The food, the experience.....I cant describe it to you on this blog. WOW! After dinner we all met John Currance from City Grocery at a bar. Great night. During Saturday & Sunday we cooked 24 hogs and served I dont know how many people. Ed, Aubrey, Reggie, Ryan, Craig....we worked our tails off! But it was fun! There were several hundred thousand people for the two day event. It was great! Sunday night I met up with Stevie at the Black Bear, a little dive bar a few blocks away. We met up with Kenny Callahan (Blue Smoke NYC), Chris Lilly & his brother and Michael Rodriguez (Salt Lick/Texas) for a late night. Yet another great time. Stevie G is hard on a man! This event was great, Ed was just awesome, as were the rest of the boys. Reggie (chef at Ed's place, pictured here with me) was one of the nicest guys I've ever met! Great guy! So this has been a long post, but I wanted to catch you up. Ill update this weekend with the deck.

Priorities

The trailer may only be half finished (albeit functional), but never mistake that my priorities are not in order. This afternoon I tatooed the pit with this. Rest in peace Waylon Jennings, rest in peace.

Trailer. Memphis in May.

Well the catering trailer I've been building is starting to take shape. The pics you see here have it about 50% from the finished product. Still have a little more welding to do for the sides, need to put the fridge in place, need to paint it (what you see here is just primer). Have it ready to cook though, and thank the good Lord. Last week Carey (Peg Leg Porker) burned down the teams pit and about 8 more houses on Tyne Blvd. Just kidding, but the teams cooker is done, R.I.P.! So now our only option is to use this one. Trying to get the competition switch put on it so the automatic fan will blow the coals to give a longer burn time. Leave for Memphis on Saturday for Memphis in May. Ill be doing a bunch of audio blogs from down there, you may not want to hit the play button on those if you are sitting in your office.

There is no title

Well its almost been a month, again, since my last post. Without taking you through the line of been working a lot and all that, well I've been working a lot. Things are really going well. Business is still up considerably from this time last year. The economy is really starting to take a toll though. Two weeks ago my pork prices jumped almost $.30 in one week. Usually there is a $.2-$.3 variance from week to week. I had my rep try to find out what was going on in the market for such a huge jump but really got the insight from some research from some friends of my Dads at a well known commodities firm in Memphis. Russia, China, & Japan are buying up pork left & right........mostly due to the fact that our currency is so cheap relative to the rest of the World. They can buy it much cheaper here. Prices jumped to levels we saw last July 4th, which is always the peak season for proteins such as pork & beef. Soaring grain prices are forcing packers to slaughter at a much higher rate, especially in regards to beef. The good side to this though is that the higher rate of slaughter might force the prices of beef to go down some due to putting so much supply on the market, but then again they could just keep prices where they are because of the summer season. Who knows......all I know is that I'm bracing for another 15-20% jump in pork prices in the next month or two. I am trying to get my new menu done to get my prices up in line with my costs. As I've said before I hope it doesnt piss my customers off but I have no choice, my food costs are really starting to get away from my model. Another line guy is leaving at the end of next week so thats something else I've got to handle, and Emily is leaving at the end of the month to stay at home with her sick grandmother. She may come in and work in a pinch if we need her, and she may come back after that sad time for her comes around. I'm trying to alleviate pressure on my seating on Friday & Saturday nights, figuring on maybe some outdoor temporary seating. We've now developed the reputation of being "too packed" on weekend nights, especially Saturdays. Most of our weekend customers come from Nashville/Brentwood, I'd say 80%. Where as 7:00 used to be our peak time it now hits a 15-20 minute lull before one last push going into the close. With only 48 seats, I've got to figure out some temporary seating. Katie "All-Star" Walker has my new T-shirt designs finished. Robby Lunday from the Peg Leg team is going to print those for me. I'm also going to get more of my original shirts ordered from Nick Mathews. So if you want to buy a shirt, shoot me an email at:

patrick@martinsbbqjoint.com

Buy one........hell I've got kids to feed!

New Whole Hog Pit

Here are some shots of the pit. I've had two seasoning fires in it so far. I've got two more to go. Today I plan on wiping the inside real good with pig grease and then lighting another fire in it to "bake" that grease in the block. Lord willing tomorrow after church I'll light the fourth and final seasoning fire in it. Terry Harmon should have my grate made this week and Tom & Kenny are finishing my Hog box in the next few weeks. The pictures are of the pit before the first seasoning fire and a couple during the first one.

Yes......it has been a while.

I've been too busy to blog. This is the longest I've gone since starting this blog without a post. We brought the Aloha P.O.S. system in and things are going really well with it. The first week or so was a disaster but once we got used to it everything was o.k.......things at the Joint have been really hectic and that is the main reason I have not had any time for things such as the blog. Raul (Chocho), the main guy on the line in the kitchen left this week to go back home. We brought in a couple of new guys, one works lunch and the other works dinner. They have a lot of kitchen experience but like anything else its taking them a while to get used to our little nuances of doing things. Sergio is still there but heck he's still green since he's only been working in a kitchen now for about 6 weeks. So I've been pulling lunch and dinner at the Joint to make up for the slowdown. Sundays have been just for my family, but when you count my Mondays (thte other day we are closed) I've been clocking in about 70+ hours a week now for about 3 weeks to a month. Add that in with the fact that business is up over 50% from this time last year.....days and weeks are starting to run together.
Starting here in a few weeks we're about to start offering whole hog on Friday nights. I've had a pit built (finally!!) and now I'm just waiting on the grate and the holding box. We'll start off by just doing it every couple of weeks or so to see how it goes. I'll post pics later of the pit.

Times they are a changin'

Well this week we brought in the Aloha P.O.S. (Point of Sale) system to the joint. I purchased it through a re-seller called the Bodnar Group. My buddy Dave Story, who runs the kitchen at the Jim-n-Nick's Smyrna location put me in touch with his Dad, who runs the re-seller. I've known for some time now that this was inevitable. When you run a restaurant by yourself and/or with limited help, you would be wise to invest in one of these systems. I have asked Dave to guest blog to further explain things, but in short it enables you to manage every little thing, from labor to food costs to about 100 other things that I wont list here. I am really excited about it, I'm excited about what its going to do to help me manage everything. It should really make a difference for me of about a 15% savings on my controllables (labor & food).
That being said we are all still learning the system and it is slowing us all down considerably. Last night felt like the first week we were open. We pissed a few folks off last night because our wait times were considerably higher than usual. Thankfully most of them were regulars and understood. I spent a good bit of time explaining our situation and giving away some free food, but its all good though......its to be expected.....and in the next week or so we'll have it down and it wont be a problem, but my oh my is it causing a headache right now. Today was a lot better than yesterday.....huge improvement on everyones part. I dont think it will take more than a week for us to get it down. That being said we may have to go back to the old cash register for this Saturday if we cant keep up. I'll post Daves blog here in the next day or so, its part one of a couple to come.
Oh yeah........2 guys on my kitchen crew is leaving in a week and a half, so I've got that fire to put out. That could be a pretty big fire to put out if I dont find some good guys real soon. We'll see what happens........the good Lord will take care of us.

The week/Atlantic Sun Tourn.

The week has gone really well. Last year March was our second highest month in terms of gross sales. Last week was very, very strong and this week has started no different, mimicking last years sales and some. That being said I think Ma' Nature is about to slow our sales down. Today though we have snow moving in. Now if you are reading this and you dont live in Dixie.......the mere mention of the word snow is cause for panic. Even if its just a dusting folks stock up like they will be put out for days. And this snow forecast will be even worse, because its not gonna be a dusting.......they are predicting 2-6 inches. We have not had that kind of accumulation in several years. All we ever get around here really is usually a dusting that with the help of some rain will turn to "black ice" on the roads. So I'm bracing for a real slowdown!
Last night we catered the VIP room for the Atlantic Sun Mens/Womens Basketball Tournament. Dave Story helped out......he was a big help! My Lipscomb Bison's fell to East Tennessee State though. They need some help inside! I'll be looking to do an audio blog sometime in the next day or two.

More Whole Hog.

Some other pics I have from B.E. Scott's in Lexington. The Pit-Master is Ricky Parkers (the owner) son Zach. I have a few more coming from about 17-18 years ago at Thomas & Webb Bar-B-Que in Henderson (where I learned to cook). Hopefully I can get them loaded up. I have more of L & L Bar-B-Que (now Ole' Time BBQ) which is another place I hung around quite a bit back when I was at FHU. When I get my hands on those Ill try to get them on disc and loaded into my Mac for the blog.

Hickey.

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Newspaper article in "Brentwood Life"

Here is the link to the article in Brentwood Life

http://www.c-dh.net/articles/2008/02/29/affiliate/brentwoodlife/business/01bbq.txt

Martin's Bar-B-Que and the Tennessee Department of Tourism

The week has been really strong! Yesterday we had an article on us in Brentwood Life (which I'll post a link to in the next post) which really helped yesterdays sales, particularly last night. But Tuesday and Wednesday were strong and I cant figure out why. Rain, snow, mud.......misery. Usually on days like that its slow, not this week. Dont know what the good Lord has in store for us today/tonight in regards to sales, but so far we've had a week comparable to late April/May. Could not come at a better time considering the bludgeoning I'm taking in regards to city/state/federal taxes. Yesterday Matt Burton came by to show me his new "attitude adjuster".......a 1974 Ford Ranchero with 351 V-8 in it. It is a very "proving" vehicle. We got our veal knuckles in on Tuesday and roasted them yesterday afternoon. I plan on making a stock with them today to be the base of the sauces I plan to make with some of the wines from Arrington Vineyards (Kix Brooks' winery). I neglected to mention here on the blog that the Tennessee Department of Tourism has elected to add Martin's Bar-B-Que & Arrington Vineyards to the their list of destination locations, much like they market a place like Loveless Cafe. The director of the Williamson County board of Tourism would like for the two of us to have a celebratory party for the occasion. I went over to Arrington Vineyards and Chris gave me a few bottles to play with. When I get this stock made I'll reduce the reds and see what I can make of it. Hopefully we'll be able to put a party together for the occasion!

Biz Blog #2-A; "Recession proof" foods

This article says it all.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23415510/

Country Hams

This morning my father-in-law (Buzzy Neil) and I hung our country hams in our smokehouse here at the house. Thought I might include some pics right quick. These ain't the best pics and Lord willing I'll have some better ones later on. These hams will be ready to eat next christmas. We're cold smoking them right now for a month. They've been curing for the past month in the smokehouse.

Biz Blog #2: Food Costs

As I keep blogging about the business side to this thing, one constant you will notice is having to be disciplined about your % costs.  There is a window for everything and you have to stay within that window or you are about to screw up.  Food and Labor are your two biggest costs.  those two should make up around 55-60% of your costs.  Assuming you are planning on opening up a BBQ joint, one that is quick-casual like we are set up, you are looking for food costs to be around 23%-28%.  Full service dining is always going to be higher, so if you are going to have servers and such you will probably add a basis point or two to that, but not always.  Full service in general is higher because generally speaking the product is higher in quality.  For example, I've got a buddy that is executive chef at one of the big steak houses here in town.  Their percentage is around 39%.  High right?  It is, but dadgum they are clearing over $20.00 on average per steak, not counting the sides on the plate.  The higher the average ticket generally the higher the food cost.  As I sit here right now I cant tell you exactly what my food cost is.  I could take a pretty good stab at it, but what I do know is its high!  Now in two weeks I'll be able to tell you within the hour what % cost I am running for that particular day........all thanks to technology.  That is why I just dropped a whole bunch of money on a Point of Sale system.  I opened up operating with a cash register which gives you no real way to manage things.  That was a mistake, a big mistake.  Dave Story is going to guest blog about this in a few days so I wont go into it much more here.  The point is you have to manage that percentage really well.  Theft, waste, inventory mis-management, not paying attention to portion control (which is what I think my largest problem is) are all things that will "F" it all up.  By the way, your food cost does not include your paper goods such as napkins etc..  Thats another blog for another time.  We've done really well here at this location, but I would hate to see how much more money I'd have in my pocket if I had managed my food costs back then like I am starting to do now.  Dont make the same mistake I did.

Tonight I went down to see my buddies at Eastland Cafe to shoot the bull and grab a couple of their UNREAL pizzas to take home to the family. Hal Holden-Bache and Nathan Wells run the kitchen over there for Chef/Restauranteur Willy Thomas. While I was there I was back in the kitchen shooting the bull with Nathan and Hal and thought we might do a small audio blog. So here it is.

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Tornado Victims

Catered an event at Stogie's in Cool Springs last night for the victims of last weeks deadly Tornadoes. They raised a fair amount of change last night for the victims........it was a great thing.




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Changes

For the past month or two I've been trying to get a handle on my two biggest costs; Labor & Food. Not knowing or thinking that I would need anything different, I started my restaurant with just a simple cash register. You have no real way of managing your food costs. I am going to blog about this later, but if you ever do something like this, spend the money on a good Point of Sale system. I just pulled the trigger on an Aloha P.O.S. system. It will be a few weeks before we are using it because of programming in the menu, pricing, portions etc.. But I am hoping to save myself some real money over time by using this. Again, this will be in another blog in the next few days/weeks.
I have also trimmed my labor back. Gonzalo is now gone. Bo and I are going to rotate in and out on the line with Chocho. I hired a new guy yesterday named Alfredo who is going to work part time 35 hours a week. He is going to work 4:30 to close and all day Saturdays. Chocho is leaving on May 1st. When he leaves I will hire another guy to work the same hours as Alfredo to close nights. That should save me $600.00 a week in labor. I'll post on the benefits of a POS system in the next few days. I might even have a guest blogger on the subject, if I can talk him into it.

The week

By now you might have listened to the new audio blog in the previous post. It was just a trial run and has no content, just wanted to see what it was like. Its a cool new feature that Mike Causey has turned me on to. I will only audio blog only a couple of times a week for general content. The business blogs concerning my experiences opening a BBQ restaurant will still be in type form. I'm looking forward to the audio blog, it enables me to blog on the fly. In the next few weeks we're going start adding some video content as well.
This past week ended up being a really good week. Again, sales are all over the place and have no rhyme or reason to them. Wednesday night was a very, very slow day. I started to anticipate us having a really bad week. Thursday picked up, Friday was o.k., and then Saturday hit. Saturday, thanks to a couple of small catering orders that added about $500.00 to the day, we set a new record day in sales. To set both gross sales records in the month of February, which is the absolute slowest month in the restaurant industry, is a very encouraging sign for the year to come. I am going to revisit extending the porch on the front of the Joint to make it a deck for this spring. I'll submit an application for that this week with the city. The picture is of singer/songwriter Kaci Allen. She played a few weeks ago.

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Biz Blog#1-A: Inflationary Pricing

My last post was about location and what you need to make per square foot (as a general rule of thumb) to succeed. Towards the end I discussed my own place and how I need to capture more money per order this calender year to sustain and hopefully increase my 2007 price per square foot level. To increase it I plan on going after off-premise sales pretty hard, which should add about 30% give or take. But to just sustain it I will have to increase some menu pricing to reflect my suppliers price increases on to the consumer. I have added an article below that came out a month or so ago in the New York Times discussing the surge in prices, which is affecting all of us as consumers and business owners. Its affecting you at the pump, the restaurant, etc. Some things you notice immediately such as rising fuel prices. Some are more subtle, such as a restaurant like mine raising some of the menu prices. Some restaurants wont raise their prices right away, especially those that lie in the "Full service" category. They will make other little subtle changes. Remember that free bread they used to bring to the table, notice you have to ask for it now? Wheat is up 270%+ this year....a year ago bread was so cheap they could afford to give you some for free, now its relatively expensive.....why give you free bread if they dont have to? Remember all that butter that used to lay next to the salt & pepper shakers? Where is that now? Milk has also seen a HUGE % increase and is expected to rise another 40% in the coming months, milk based products are included in that figure. Why would they leave a pile of cube butters on the table for you dump 4 of them on your baked potato to stuff your head-hole with? How about creamer for your coffee? Why would they leave creamer on the table for you now.........so you can dump 5 of them in your venti coffee? Not to mention the parents of that little bastard kid at the table next to you whose opening the creamers up and drinking them straight, or that good ol' sweet "christian" grandma who never leaves the restaurant without stuffing her purse full of your complimentary creamers. Thieving wench.
Why this is happening is another blog that I dont have time to explain, but a lot of it is due to the high demand for ethanol. You'll notice these things now and if you are going to open a place up you cant just sit idle and pay attention to whats going on in the world markets. They affect you directly, and if you are not paying attention they will sting your ass. If you dont your sales per square foot will start dropping, and the next thing you know you'll be in trouble. Read the Wall Street Journal and/or Business Day in the New York Times. Every weekend pick up a copy of Barron's and read it. Keep up with whats going on......you'll be glad you did........trust me.

Check this article out........

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/business/worldbusiness/15commodities.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=commodities%27+relentless+surge&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Biz Blog #1: Your Location

Dude I'm not really concerned about your location. The old marketing adage "location, location, location" is true dont get me wrong, but I think its like everything else......its all relative. Assuming we are talking about somewhere within a reasonable distance of the masses, whether that be a city of 1,000,000+ or a town of 10,000. To me it all depends on what you are serving, what genre of food your place is. I think that most restaurant genres fall directly under that old marketing rule, but I believe that a few do not. I also would like to mention that those "few" are indicative of the area of the country you are in. Here in the South If there are two types of food that people will drive way out of their way for its BBQ and Cajun food. I have a conservative estimate that (marketing info) 35% of my customers drive from Nashville to eat at my place. Thats a 1 hour round trip in the car for BBQ. That is very flattering to me but it goes to show that in this day and time, with all the choices consumers have, they want value and quality in the money they spend. In other areas of the country it may be a great Pizza place, a burger joint, whatever. If your food is extremely good, they will find you. There might be some that disagree with me on this, and I may be wrong......but I doubt it. If you are reading this thinking about opening up a BBQ joint, and you live in say Hartford, CT then your location MUST be very important, has to be! But if you are in say, Columbus, MS it is not. In Columbus, MS you can afford to lie on the outskirts of town or even farther than that and be successful.......if your BBQ is really and truly great! This is not to say that there are not some exceptions to the rule. As we all know nothing is a guarantee, there are a few places that had good food but for whatever reason just did not make it. Maybe the service was bad, Parking sucked........there are all kinds of reasons but thats for another post on down the road. Right now I'm talking in very general terms. When shopping for a location you do have to weigh them against each other. In Macroeconomics one of the first terms a student will learn is "Opportunity Cost". What does it cost me to choose to do business at location A instead of Location B? Considering all the demographic figures, traffic counts, sales tax returns from other restaurants in the area you are considering and all that other crap.....if location A should yield $17,000.00 a week in gross sales and location B should yield $10,000.00 per week, then your opportunity cost is $7,000.00 per week. In other words its costing you a potential $7,000.00 a week to choose B over A. That doesnt mean option B is not a better choice though.......lease rates, certain clientel, all weigh in on it.
Try if you can to NOT open a BBQ joint in a strip mall. You limit yourself so much in terms of creating an atmosphere. If you must then at least get one of the "book-end" locations so you have options for a patio or deck. If you can find a stand alone building you are far better off!!! If you are buying the location then your annual sales to start-up costs should be 1 to 1. If you are leasing then it should be 1.5 to 1. To help you decided on the space you should consider this rule of thumb for profitability (limited service restaurants......full service would obviously be higher I would think, but my place is a limited service so that is all I can comment on):

1) $200.00 or less you are losing money like an open siv
2) $200.00 to $300.00 and you are breaking even
3) $300 to $400 means you are making a moderate profit
4) $400.00+ means you are flat out skinnin' it back!

Last year my place did $380.00 per square foot. We have a lot of room to grow. We do very, very little catering/off premise sales, which should add 30-40% to that square footage number. Also, my menu prices are very low compared to my competition. Add to that what has happened over the past year with commodity prices and I have lost potential income. I have not reflected those price increases on my menu yet and it is really hurting me. I plan to change that in the next few weeks. Commodities have really hurt some restaurants. Especially anything made with milk (cheese, slaw mix, potato salad, etc.), certain vegtables like potatos, or beef product (brisket). I will never structure my menu prices to be on the higher side of the scale, because I want to provide my customers a premium product at a real value to them, especially the folks of Nolensville! But to be profitable you have to reflect inflationary price increases on to your consumer. So to keep up with my square foot average last year I will have to do that. To grow it past he $400.00 per square foot mark we'll have to grow our catering.

Still shots

A few months back Channel 4 did a little spot on us for their newscast. A few weeks ago I received some still shots from that telecast.

Sales.....

February is notoriously the weakest month in the restaurant business. I dont care what category your food is under, February sucks! I say that to say that last week ended up being really strong and consistent. All winter has been a lot better than I expected. This week however, is looking rough. Snow hit yesterday morning and we all know what that means as southerners. Business was as slow as its been in well over a year yesterday. Its sunny and 54 today (supposed to be) so I'm looking for and/or hoping for a bounce. We'll see what happens. I'm supposed to be headed to Austin this coming Wednesday for the NBBQA convention but now have to figure out how to squeeze in Louisville also. Dont know how yet I'm going to do that but we'll see.

Action Shots.......

A few action shots of the kitchen on a Saturday night. Bo at the register. Our most requested/sought after side item: the hand-cut fries. Ernesto bringing in more potatos to be cut for fries.

Memphis in May meeting

Well its that time of year again. Yesterday we had the first meeting of 2008 for this years Memphis in May. It was a great time and dang good to see some of the guys on the team. As you know I'm not really into the competition thing..........nothing at all wrong with it I just dont really have the time to do it. But this is a lot of good clean fun, and I'm really looking forward to it. I brought some "prospects" to the meeting that I'm hoping will join. Lamb, Michael, Nathan Wells (sous chef from Eastland Cafe), Jason McConnel (chef/owner Red Pony & Sol in Franklin) and Dave Story (Jim-n-Nick's).............Yazoo is coming on board to sponsor and supply beer. We eat better than any team down there and this year should be no different.

The Business of it all........

All right.......I get emails all the time from folks all over the lower 48......literally. I'm talking about in areas of the country that you (a southerner) wouldnt dream of caring about BBQ. They (emails) have progressively gotten more and more frequent. I really like answering them and being of any help when I can. Its people in the same shoes I was a couple of years ago just looking for simple answers.
When I first started this blog almost two years ago I didnt know a dadgum thing about running and/or managing a restaurant. I mean nothing. I invited my buddies to come along for the ride to either watch it succeed or watch me financially set my life back to the stone age. I had no idea that anyone other than friends would care to read about what was going on. That being said I quickly discovered another reason that pushed me to keep it going. When I started it I really could not find any information "out there" as to how to do it. Oh there are a butt-load of "how to start your own restaurant" books out there, but most of them are useless. I wanted to talk to somebody who did it. I wanted to find out what worked and what didnt. I had so many questions that I could not get or find answers to. It was tough knowing where to go and/or who to talk to. So I figured I would document my own experiences to maybe help somebody else out someday looking to do the same thing.....whether I made it or not, and I can tell you that I am far from being out of the woods!
So one thing I am going to start doing is mixing in some posts about what I've learned about the actual business side of things....numbers, percentages, etc.. Using this info can save someone a lot of wasted money and misery. I only plan to discuss what I have experienced. For example, I dont sell liquor.......the "devils nectar" as we call it in the Church of Christ......so I cant really blog about that. Beer on the other hand........we sell over 20 different kinds so I have insight as to what mark-up works for me, what sells, etc.. In case that last statement sounds like an oxymoron to you let me just say that yes it is and at the same time no it isn't.....but thats for another blog somewhere else. My goal is for the info on this blog to be useful and helpful to someone. Does that sound "cheesy" to you? Well if it does go crank your car, wrap your lips around the tail pipe and breath in for a while........let me know how that works out for you.

Wings.

Some of our smoked wings.

Sick.

Well today is the first day of work I've missed since being open due to illness. I really cant even muster the strenght to type this post...........I'm so weak right now that I could'nt pull a greased string out of a sick cats ass. I dont know what I've got. The last time I missed work because I was sick was about 10 years ago working for Dain Rauscher in Memphis when I was selling bonds. I got home yesterday afternoon and "it" hit like me a like a truck. About 9:00 the throwing up started and didnt end till early this morning. Been in bed all day. Hope to get back to it tomorrow Lord willing.

Random post.

This is about hour #16-18 or so in the process of cooking a Hog. The fat starts to liquidate and pool up in the rib cavity, in effect poaching the ribs and loin.......which is some of the most decadent meat you have ever put in your mouth! For a 185-200lb Hog cooking at 185*, you've still got another 6 or so hours, give or take a little. Once it goes to drippin' through the skin on to the coals back by the spine, you know your getting pretty close to being done. You can start shutting your chimney down cause you wont need many more coals.

Record Day

Its amazing what a little sunshine and 60 degree weather will do for you. Yesterday we had the best one day of gross sales ever......in February! It was steady all day and then we got slapped last night. It really helped our week because Tuesday & Wednesday were a little slow. I included a picture of my little girl Daisy smiling about the news. In the following weeks I am going to start blogging a lot on the business side of the restaurant business. Rules of thumb, calculations, and all kinds of wonderful stuff I've learned the hard way over the past year and a half. Hopefully, if you are thinking of doing something asinine......like opening up your own bbq joint or restaurant......this info will save you some time and money!

Marketing......what works and doesnt work (for me at least).

Well after playing the role of the "new restauranteur"........a.k.a. "ignorant sucker" for the past year and a half, I think I've found some marketing that actually works. When you open up every Tom, Dick & Hare comes by selling you on every marketing/advertising scheme known to mankind. You've got a certain amount set aside in your budget for it, and most of them make it tough for you to make a decision. The truth is most of it, in theory, sounds like a home-run. Now I'm not going to set here and speak as if I am now the authority on what works and what doesnt.............but I will tell you what worked for me, which was not much. I've done coupons on the back of Kroger receipts, Newspaper advertising, Sudden Values, coupon magazines.............all of which have been about as worthless as tits on a boar hog. BUT.........my radio campaign on 104.5 the zone (local sports/Titans radio show) added to the bottom line......and I just did a direct mail campaign for several local zip codes that looks to be working very well. We are consistently getting probably on average of 10+ per day coming in the Joint and I would say that 75% of them are new customers. I am going to start an email list here in the next month or so.....which is what Sudden Values is/was but I dont think they really ever sent anything out. I am pretty happy with the direct mail campaign.....we'll see how it goes over the next few weeks before I'm completely sold.

Free Sauce & T-shirts

Hey if you have a minute go check out www.homeofbbq.com.........you could win some free sauce, a free shirt or maybe both!

Coke sucks (part two)

So Pepsi came this past Tuesday, hooked up the machine and all the syrup and we were in business by lunch. Meanwhile I still have not heard from Coke as to when they are going to schedule the pick-up of their equipment. Well a couple of days pass by and I finally get a call from the balding, hitler-mustache, mullet wearing sales consultant who for the past 18 months has done such a wonderful job of covering us. He says he can only pick it up on Monday, as in Today, at 8:30 - 9:00 in the morning. As you might know this is the day we are closed......funny how that all works out huh? So I say fine, see you Monday morning. Now....I live about 25 minutes from the joint.....thats 50 minutes round trip.......ah heck lets call it an hour. I leave this morning a little before 8:00 to get there. THE - BASTARDS - DID - NOT - SHOW - UP!!!!! Ticked off is not the word! I know some Coke guys read this blog, and I know they share my disdain for "bald with a mullet". I wouldnt be surprised if they switched some things around to screw his day up or what. I dont know what my retaliation will be, but I will keep you posted. I can tell you this..........they cant get their machine without me...........and it may be a few weeks before Captain Mullet Man gets it back. Stay Tuned.

The week

Tuesday and Wednesday started off really slow. I was like, "oh here it is.......its finally shown its ugly head........the doldruns!". But then we had a strong day Thursday, real strong day Friday and a really strong Saturday. Those three days made up for the first two and some, we finished above our "winter time" average. This week nothing looks to change weather wise; two days of rain, partly sunny all week. Those good ol' muddy Tennessee winters. I am building an excel spreadsheet with all of last years daily sales and the weather for each day we were open. I am going to lay those two out in a graph on top of each other to see the correlation. Ill post it here when i finish it, it should be interesting. Martha took a picture of my boy Wyatt sitting in my truck. He wanted to put Daddy's sun glasses on and drive.

MEAT

Shot of some meat on the pit.

Sales off a little this week.

Sales are off to a slow start this week. Rain+snow+mud=contractors not working. Supposed to get sunny & in the mid 50's in the next few days, which means first of next week. Looks like this week could be off by about $1,500.00 or so. We'll see.........

Coke sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Coke & Pepsi. There is no in between. Its like Chevy & Ford, Tennessee & Alabama, Celtics & Lakers..........there is no in between.......its one or the other. I grew up a Coke man.....we didnt drink Pepsi products in our house growin' up. So I'm sad to say that I'm no longer with Coke. I'm also glad to say Coke (Corporate) SUCKS ASS! You wanna' talk about being treated like shit? This really hurts me......I'm not kidding.....but I had to do it. I was the biggest Coke fan anti-Pepsi person you ever met. It hurts me now to even think of not serving Coke, but I've had enough! Coke has a true monopoly in the soft drink market. They have so much of the market that they truly dont give a rats ass whether or not you want to do business with them or not, let alone being happy. Those bastards have been prison raping me to the tune of $80.00 per 5 gallon box of syrup ($290.00 per week average) for over a year. To top it off the C-suckers charge me an additional $13.00 per delivery for surcharges and delivery fees. Pepsi offered me $50.00 per box and no fees. Even with those numbers it still took me a night to think about it! Thats a savings of around $6,000.00 per year.
Oh and I dont have the room here to discuss my wonderful sales rep, Terry.....who is NOT on commision I might add. If Terry were on commision, his balding, mullet wearing, Hitler-esque mustache ass would look like a combo crack/meth addict because he'd be starving and homeless! He is THE most worthless "salesmen" on the face of this planet! There are COKE people who read this, maybe even Terry himself. Terry, we here at Martin's Bar-B-Que hope you are reading this. Please follow our directions closely:

1) Print this diatribe
2) Crumple it in your hands
3) Go take a dump
4) Wipe your ass with said crumpled diatribe as hard as you can, several times over.
5) Smear Turpentine on your butt-lips

Now........its said.........I'm not angry anymore and looking forward to my new relationship with Pepsi-Cola.

New Bookkeeper, Menu Design

Monday Martha & I met with a bookkeeper. Folks I should have done this a long time ago! Its really tough for me to describe it because I could type here forever. I have a finance background, so I think I was a little bull-headed on letting someone else do what I felt I could. You finally get to a point and realize that you can't wear every hat............you have to wear a lot of em', but a few you let somebody else put on. We got all of our payroll squared away, set everyone up on direct deposit, set up our quarterly payroll taxes to monthly so it wont strap our cash flow 4 times a year.........I really could go on and on but I wont. If you ever do something like this, get a bookkeeper right out of the gates. Trust me.
I have been doing a lot of research on "menu engineering". In layman's terms it basically uses item placement, shapes and colors to tell your subconscious to buy what I want you to buy (usually those with lower food cost or those with a very high dollar return). When you have an itemized price list like we have set up now, the customer focuses on the price first, the menu item and/or what they want second. Next time you are at one of the major casual chains, Applebees, Chili's, etc....take a minute and just look at their menu. You have to almost look for the price, and most of the time its listed without a dollar sign right after the item description. Katie is re-designing the menu and I am adjusting my food costs. We should have a new menu in the next few weeks. Its not really about charging more, its about steering your mind towards certain things. Now their are some items that I am going to raise the prices on because commodity prices have soared (if you are not "in the business", read yesterdays article in the New York Times business section....very good!). Peace out.

Arlie Bragg

I remember like it was yesterday. A rainy day in June 2006. I had just verbally agreed to rent the space in Nolensville from Vern. I was in the process of finding a pit. Knowing that I could not build a brick pit to cook hogs on (because of codes), I was trying to find a pit that replicated that of the brick pits I knew and know so well. I called what seemded like everyone in the country, one of which was Ole Hickory Pits. Next thing I know I'm "up on top" of Mt. Juliet in the driveway of Arlie Bragg; Competition Cook, Organizer, Caterer. Arlie sold me on the pits and the rest is history. He and I were talking the other day and I had realized that I had never given ol' Arlie his rightful "props" here on the blog.......so here it is. Arlie is a great guy, friend, and a helluva cook.......if you ever need a pit, call Arlie or look up his website @http://www.arlieque.com

Update

Yesterday fell right in line with every other Tuesday for since October. I guess we've finally hit our stride. Our daily sales through the week are becoming very predictable. Hopefully in the next few weeks I can start concentrating on catering for the spring. Relatively speaking, in relation to other bbq restaurants, we did not do much catering in 2007 because I didnt want to lose focus of the Joint. I wanted all I could get but was careful to go get what I asked for because we could have overextended ourselves and hurt our reputation by not being able to adequately service the demand. This year we are better suited and more comfortable from an operations standpoint to take that on. In the next few weeks I'll outline a sales plan here on the blog.

Sales still strong

The past two weeks we've only been open 6 days combined because of the holidays. Those 6 days have been very strong. It has really been a very pleasant surprise! Because of the 4 days we've been closed we've probably lost about $5,000.00 in sales (opportunity costs), but then again my operating expenses were almost nil. I hope the past few weeks are a sign of whats to come; that the "slow" months of Jan. & Feb. wont be as slow as I was/am anticipating.
2008 is really looking exciting.........I've got some big plans in the works, a lot of irons in the fire. Some of it I'll get into over the next few weeks and some of it I wont/cant until they come into fruition. Its hard to believe that mid June will be the two year mark of when I leased the location from Vern and started this Train on the tracks.

Nathan Wells......STUD.

So tonight I was able to get away from the Joint, which is rare.....especially for a weekend night. Bo held down the fort and Martha and I went for our Christmas date night. We went to Eastland Cafe in East Nashville. My buddy Nathan Wells is the Sous Chef there. I gave him a call this afternoon to let him know we were going to try to make it out. He told me we would not be ordering off the menu, that he would cook for us. Was it good? Let me put it to you this way......in classic redneck terminology. You ever picked a grey tick off your dogs ass? You know, those big disgusting bastards about the size of a grape whose bodies are literally 40 times larger than their head? Like the one here in the picture. Well, put my face on that body.......and thats what I fell like right now. I have sinned...........committed gluttony! The food I ate tonight was nothing short of phenomenal! Absolutely stunning! I highly suggest you get over there!
We had a really strong day yesterday. Today at lunch was pretty slow because of the rain. I thought Noah might stop in for lunch when the dadgum boat went by but he didnt. I was feeling pretty depressed about what today might end up looking like.........and then tonight came along. Emily called with the sales and we posted July/August type numbers (peak season). When I got that call I ordered a second bottle of wine.

Back at it......

Cant believe I'm saying this but I cant wait to get to work this morning to do some inventory! We've been closed since Saturday night for Christmas. Its been real nice but dadgum I'm itching to get to work. We had a great week last week. Saturday night was an absolute morgue. I dont think 20 people came in. Of course we were expecting that because of everyone traveling for Christmas. Even still we did over 250 orders at lunch, so that carried us. We ended up having a very, very good week. I went back on the blog and read posts from last year around this time......pretty dang funny. The good Lord really blessed us this year!!! We've seen a lot of growth. I remember last year, 45-50 orders at lunch was a good lunch. Well a year later if we dont do 100+ orders something is wrong. Its hard to believe that its been a year but it has. 2008 should be real interesting. I've got some things in the pipeline I'm planning on and I'm interested to see what happens. In the mean time......I've got to get in to do some inventory.

Peg Leg Meeting; Sol

This week has been very, very strong! Numbers, like the last two weeks are in line with our October/November sales. The slow down I expected has not really hit like I thought it would, which is a great thing. Because of when X-mas & new years fall (on a Tuesday) we'll only have 6 days of operation over the next two weeks. We'll be open Thursday-Saturday next week and new years week. After that I see us being fairly slow for the two weeks following that for folks to get back in to their routine. Last night I met up with some of my fellow Peg Leggers. Carey got a few of us together to talk about a few things. It was good to see those guys. I wasnt able to stay long because I had to get back out to Franklin to eat at Chef Jason McConnells new place, Sol. I cant encourage you enough to get your ass out there to eat......it was amazing! I cant think of one thing we had that was not incredible.....it really was awesome! Im about to head into the Joint, get things squared away and then I'm gonna head down to Bucksnort with my buddy Tracey "Mini-Don" Jarrell to shoot some quail. The picture is a shot of our Brisket Tacos.

Top of the chimney where we burn wood down to coals for the pit.

Ribs

A shot of our ribs..........

The week

This week finished really strong.......as in normal pre-holiday time numbers. We had a big day overall yesterday and that is with us having the slowest Saturday night I think we've ever had! Snow was mentioned in the forecast for last night.......if you mention that word in Tennessee you'd better get to the store and get your milk cause its gonna be gone by the afternoon. People around here act like the ice age is coming back through. I thought we'd see a little bit of a slowdown (over and above the normal holiday time slowdown) because of an article that was in the papers this week. This past Wednesday the Brentwood Journal did an article that didnt paint the town of Nolensville in a very good light. We were quoted in there a few times, it was basically what I have stated here.........business being affected by weather, peoples schedules, etc.. The article was basically saying that anyone who lives in Nolensville eats outside of Nolensville. Of course if that were totally true I'd be out of business right now. Needless to say, judging from customer comments, there were a lot of local residents come in and a few city officials who were VERY unhappy with it. We are to a point now that it wont really affect us. We have an established brand so to speak........our name and reputation for good BBQ has gotten around and it reaches outside the Nolensville city limits. Now if this article had come out a year ago, when we had been open for only 6-7 weeks, I'd be a little worried. I dont know the writer but he was just doing his job. The fact is Nolensville is a few years away from having enough dining options to keep folks in town all week. We are on the front end of the growth curve. But the writer could have made the point he made and still followed it up by listing the positives that residents have as of right now. Rio Verde serves very, very good Mexican food. Two Way next door has awesome breakfast and lunch. Martin's BBQ was listed as one of the favorite 13 restaurants (of any genre, not just bbq) in the entire metro-Nashville area by the Tennessean. There could have been a few positives listed is all I'm saying. When you invest time and emotions in to an area you want to concentrate on the positives. Its like family, yeah my uncle might have some short comings, but you dont like hearing it from someone else.

Update

Well Saturday night ended up being a lot better than I anticipated. We're still going in to the slowest time but it was a pleasant night. I'm 35 years old and I am eating Pepcid Complete like a 5th grader eating a box of grape/strawberry nerds. Every other freakin' day I've got heartburn. There could be an oil spot in your garage from your car.......dont go to Home Depot to and waste money to buy Muratic Acid. You can get it up for free by just giving me a call. I'll come over and spit on it, wait 15 minutes for it to bubble and just wipe it away. I guess its just the price you pay for eating your own product too much............2-3 Pabst Blue Ribbons on top of it dont help the matter either.

Here come the doldrums

Well its that time of year again. It happened last year and I've been wondering when it would hit this year. I think its hit. Biz always slides off this time of year (not including off premise catering for year end parties, etc..). Yesterday was the slowest friday since, well, last year about this time. It slides off for several reasons......depending on who you ask. Holidays, dark earlier, rain, mud, cold.....whatever. I think its a combination of them all, especially in a town like Nolensville. We need to survive the next 2-4 months. Oh we'll have a spike here and there, and after the holidays when folks have digested all the money they've spent on christmas presents they will get back in a routine and be back out. Its not like the world stops until spring but you see where I'm going. Its a cash flow issue.........as it always seems to be. I'm about to head out to the Joint

Update

Ladies and Gentlemen.........................Miss Reagan Boone!

Update.

Biz still going really well. We're really, really doing well during the lunch hours and weekends. Weeknights still a little slower. I'm contemplating several different options to combat that.......closing early during the weeknights until spring, kids eat free nights, rib night, frequent customer cards.....and/or a combination of it all. I feel today will be a little slower than we've seen in a while. There are a few xmas parades going on and the conference football championships are this afternoon and tonight, which means everyone will be at home or at a sports bar watching. I've added a pic of some coals........to a BBQ guy looking at those is like ol' man limpness taking Viagra.

Cooking Whole Hog.

Well it had been almost two years since I had cooked a hog and the rust showed! That is the longest by far and away I've gone without cooking at least one since I started this craft in 1990. Last year my time was consumed with opening the Joint that we did not have a BBQ back home in Mississippi and this spring and fall were the same. At any rate I freed up some time to go down with Dave Story to cook one. It felt really, really good to get back around the pit all night.....much like some wack-job artist I needed to get back to the basics of it all, and in the world of BBQ there is nothing more basic than this. It was pretty cold that night (low 30's) with a really good wind all day & all night. That has a huge effect on cooking because it becomes a fight to keep your coals/pit temp consistent. When you cook a hog you cook in the 185* - 200* range because you dont want your middlin' & loin to over cook waiting on your hams & shoulders. My pit is built really, really well. Cinder block filled with mason sand and brick lining the outside of the block. We never could get the dadgum temp consistently below 200 all night. Oh I guess we could have if we sat there for 3-4 hours removing coals here and adding them back there....but we were doing this for fun so we didnt fret over it too much. I'd say we cooked at about 225* on average for 27 hours and sure enough it was a little overcooked! I was pissed for about 2 minutes till I asked myself, "self - what did you expect....you let it roll all night @225* thinking it would back off but it didnt....so its your own dumb-ass fault". It still tasted really good but it wasnt perfect. I'll probably start cooking one every 3-4 months now just to stay on my toes.

Its coming.....

Well.......when Strieter was in town we went out to take a pic of the trailer and I left my digital camera on the back end of the trailer. About 6 inches of rain later my digital is, needless to say, dead. So I've been slow on updating the blog with no pics. At any rate.....got the pics off the camera, some more from family and a few more from Dave Story. I'll be updating a few times over the next few days on the Hog we did in Mississippi and other things going on. Some really good pics to come! This post I posted a pic of me and my boy, Wyatt on Cape Cod a few weeks ago just so I could put one up.

busy

been busier than a one legged man in an ass kickin' contest........I've got some new posts to come, specifically on cooking the hog in Mississippi, but I'm crazy with Thanksgiving Turkeys & Prime Ribs. We're getting the the busted oak barrels from Arrington Vineyards to smoke our Prime Ribs with. The barrels held the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. I wish I could put a scratch and sniff here for you to smell them......I cant wait to smell them in smoke form from the Pit. Anyway....got to get out of here to put everything on. Folks are picking their meat up after 3:00 (we close at 3:00 today). I've posted a pic of our "Redneck Taco".

Tennessee Crossroads Television Show tomorrow night

Tomorrow night the show "Tennessee Crossroads" will be airing a show they filmed on us. It starts at 7:00pm. I'll be missing the show because I'll be heading to Mississippi to cook this Hog on Friday with Dave Story, but hopefully I'll catch it on the re-run on Sunday night. If you can remember try to catch the show tomorrow night.

Pig Roast

Going to God's country this weekend, Mississippi, to cook a Hog on our old pit with my buddy Dave Story. Dave has been put in charge of planning a pretty large festival of BBQ & Bourbon and I may play a role in cooking a Hog for that event as part of a class on how it is done. More on that to follow in a few months. Dave has quickly become a pretty good friend of mine and I'm really looking forward to doing this with him because he has a real, big time passion for old school BBQ...... I mean the process, the history of it, everything. He's never cooked one before so we're going home to do it. Dave works for Jim -N- Nick's BBQ and he might have a buddy or two come down that work at the Memphis location and possibly some guys from another organization to sit up with us all night. Folks from the community are coming by Saturday at lunch to eat and take meat home. I'll have pics. I included a few pics of our pit that I already have on file.

Chaddy boy

This past weekend my old buddy Chad Strieter came in town to hang out........we had a blast. We worked together at Merrill Lynch in Chicago at the Chicago Board of Trade, back in the 90's. Chad is still there. We went to the Joint on Saturday night and finished the night up at the house with our wives, some wine and a fire. Sunday we saw the Titans screw up a potential win to the Jags. Had dinner here that night......filets with more wine. Had a great time!

Rafters on & primed

Rafters are on. We primed them yesterday and today. Lord willing we should have the roof on by Tuesday. That will at least get us up and rolling. Dresch and I will do the custom work (hinge platform on back and off of firebox, limited 4ft siding, etc..) over the holidays. Things look a little "junkie" out around the old barn huh? We'll clean it up when we're all done. Biz was really good yesterday and the week has been very good, and we closed Wed. at 5:00 for Halloween. Looking forward to today.

Trailer update

I havent posted a blog with pics for a while because my camera has been on the outs.......but I got it all taken care of and here are some pics of the the catering trailer. This trailer used to be a bob-cat trailer with wood decking. As you can see we've replaced the decking with expanded iron (to reduce weight), mounted the new cooker and Dresch has put up the uprights/corners. Yesterday Dresch got the joists put on. Today after the rush I'll prime all the new iron to prevent rust. Lord willing Tuesday Greg Locke will be putting on the roof (red tin). We'll have a ways to go because there are several more custom things Dresch and I plan on doing to it, but it is now officially in operation

Skin Cancer

Had a wad of scar tissue on my right shoulder that never would go away.......been on there for like 3 or so years. I thought it was scar tissue from some hard work (building a retainer wall and hauling the cross ties on my shoulder........not tryin' to sound like an Alpha male but I'm just sayin'). It just never would go away so I finally went to the Doc at Belle Meade Dermatology. They shaved a dadgum sample off my shoulder with a razor blade that looked like Johnny Paycheck had just got through snorting a line of coke with (may the good Lord rest his soul). At any rate it was "hot"......or malignant. They scheduled me in to take the rest of it out.......5.75" by 2.5" by 1.25" deep!!! I was like doc......should I bring the ice cream scoop from home or will you take care of that? I mean it was a freakin' hunk. Anyway it put me out of work for the day and that is not rest............but I gave in. Back to it tomorrow and looking forward to it. I'll have a bum shoulder for 3 weeks but I'll manage. Besides......Wiley "Bo" Collier is at the helm.....can you say "atten-hut"?

Rectum-fied!

Certain battle has been diverted......Apology and financial aid given for the fence gate debacle from the culprit.......everything has been rectum....ah, rectified. There will be no henge's stuffed up any ones butt by the folks at Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint.......but we still have an issue with them dropping product, i.e. meat that needs constant refrigeration in the the middle of lunch while we are at our busiest so there could be additional "colorful" stories to follow. We'll wait and see..........off to work.

Last week

Last week ended up being a really good week. The week before was slow and I think that can be attributed to the fall break. This week I see being a little slower because of all the rain we are finally getting. Its getting tiring being at the mercy of school and weather. That is the price I'm paying for being in Nolensville. Lord willing when the opportunity arises for a second location it will be somewhere close to and/or more convenient to the metro Nashville area. Dresch got the uprights on the trailer this past week, its starting to really look good. Still got a ways to go but you can really see it coming together. I found my camera over the weekend so I'll get some pics of it posted in the next day or so. The IWC rep keeps showing up for deliveries in the middle of lunch rush which makes it impossible to check in inventory. Needless to say there have been some screw ups! Last Friday night we go out to put meat on and there was no brisket. Had to drive to Murfreesboro to pick some up from Jim-n-Nick's. Thanks Z for the meat and thanks Dave getting me hooked up with Z to get out of the jam. Then the IWC rep broke the gate to the fence yesterday and promptly left without letting us know anything. I mean the whole damn gate was laying on the ground off the henge's......I guess he thought to himself:
"Oh shit, I ripped the gate off the fence......ah no worries, they got a rush going on, by the time they find out they'll never know it was me"

Like Bo & I were going to come out and say:

"Gee Bo.....the gate......it musta just fell down"

I love my customers but Friday (we get deliveries on Tuesday & Friday) when I see that dadgum IWC truck pull in I dont care if its high noon and there are 400 people in line, I'm gonna walk out there and he can either pay me for the new henge's or there could be a fight. I've saved the old henge's in case he starts hemmin' & hawin' - I'll jam those damn things up his fat ass. I'm getting mad typing about it right now....I've got to quit.

Decisions.

This week has been really pretty good so far. Over the past few days I've had a couple of folks tell me that last week was fall break for all of the schools, so that is why last week was a little slow. That has prompted me to start thinking about having winter hours and summer hours. Since Labor day our daily traffic has gone from about 50/50 (give or take a little) for lunch dinner to lunch really picking up but dinner really slowing down. I'd say dinner is only about 20% of our total sales right now and 90% of that 20% is before 6:30. Weekends have not been affected, we're killin' it on weekends just like we have been since about April. I just think that where we are folks schedules are highly affected by the schedule of their kids. The week after Labor day it was like someone flipped a switch. Its the demographic we operate around. This would not be an issue if we were in Nashville or even Franklin because of the population......the school year does not affect 75% of the population like it does in Nolensville. We are time clock punching every ticket right now and over the next couple of weeks I'll input that into an excel spreadsheet and let the data make the decision for me, but if i were to guess I'd bet we start closing at 6:30 during the week nights until say March/April and then go back to our current hours until next October. The weekends will stay the same. We're also looking at opening on Mondays for lunch since our lunch business is so strong.......we'll see what happens.

1 year.

Well yesterday officially marked our 1 year anniversary. That opening day/night seemed like yesterday. I remember Bo and I sitting at Cracker Barrell for breakfast opening morning wondering how many folks would show up.......20, 50.........we had no idea. Needless to say it was nothing short of bedlam! As much as we prepared we were totally unprepared for what was to come. A line to the door, 45 minute waits for food, people getting really pissed off, I didnt even have time to go out and apologize because of how backed up we were. I remember how whipped I felt when the night was over. I remember how scared I was that all those customers would never come back and give us a second chance, that they would tell all of their buddies not to eat at Martin's BBQ, that we had our head up our butt. You dont know what to do but just show up the next day and get back after it........I'm glad we did. For those of you that have kept up with the blog you know what a year its been. We're far from being "out of the woods", but being open one year puts you past certain statistics so there is a moral victory felt. That being said, we got a long way to go..........a really long way to go!

This week apparently has sucked.

Apparently sales this week has sucked. Bo just filled me on the sales and we are about $1000.00 shy of where we were last week. When folks are going to get out of their post Labor Day funk is boyond me. I know little Johnny is back in school.....but does your whole dang mid-week life quit? I mean, I got two infants and we still get out at least one night a week.

Im back

Last week my parents swung into town to stay with us for a night on their way up to New England. After we got the kids down Dad looks over at me and offers up plane tix if we (Me, Martha & the kids) would come up and meet them in Cape Cod. Now normally that would be a slam dunk but its tough for me to be away from my Joint......I am an admitted and I might say proud control freak. When I'm away from the Joint I dont ever really relax because my mind is on the Joint......so its tough to get me to go anywhere when I've got the opportunity. Im guessing my Ol' Man knew that because the next thing out of his mouth was: "Oh, we'll pick up the hotel tab too"..........making it stupid for us not to go......now there is no out! After we went back and forth about me us picking up our own tab and all that shit, I gave in. For those of you who dont know me personally you should know that I have two beautiful kids. One 23 months old and the other 7 months. Yeah so its not just the Joint that keeps me from going anywhere. Now you might be asking why on earth we have two kids so close together and my answer is that if you'd read the dang blog you would have your answer.....but for those of you that dont, do you think we really planned it that way? No......we have two beautiful unplanned children that have, I must say, been real blessings. Anyway the trip was great, but it was stressful. Im glad to be back home......about to head out to the Joint, and I'm looking forward to blogging again! It felt good to say the word "shit" up top and not have to worry about an editor!

Nashville Scene

This week the Nashville Scene published its annual "best of" awards. I was surprised and honored that we were picked by the editors as "Best new Barbecue". The scene carries a lot of weight around town, so its a big deal that we were chosen. I was surprised because being out in Nolensville you dont anticipate even being considered for things like this. Jim Ridley wrote the piece and he had some very, very kind things to say! I'm just glad he like the food well enough to consider us. The readers choice (where folks write in votes) picked Whitt's...........again............I think I'll just leave that one alone. At any rate, at least Jack's & Jim-n-Nick's (both very good Q) made the readers choice cut. Thank you Scene, its a big honor to us!

www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Special_Issues/Best_of_Nashville/2007/10/04/Best_of_Nashville_Food_Drink/index.shtml

Update

A lot to add, but I've had what seems like very little time to post. I WILL BE POSTING again in the next several days. The "blog" is about to get good again! I'll be posting every week a few times a week and will take the blog back to what it was when it first started....which means very little will be edited and/or held back. I started the blog for a couple of reasons; 1) I wanted a place to "vent" and keep buddies up to pace with the progress of the BBQ Joint and 2) I also wanted to give information about the process of starting something like this from scratch and take the reader through the trials because there is very little out on the web, that is REAL information, for someone wanting to start a restaurant......I'm not just talking about numbers for a business plan but day to day experiences. So I'm taking this thing back to what it was so to speak. Oh my wife will do some editing in regards to cussing and the occasional mortar shell of insults I might pull the trigger on for those special people who piss us all off on a day to day basis......which I do need. For the most part though the blog is going back to what it was, informative and pure Pat Martin entertainment.

Here.

Been a little while I know..........this is the longest I've gone without posting since the birth of this blog over a year ago. Biz was great the last week of August leading up to Labor Day. From what I hear most places see a real slide in business during the summer months because of vacations, little league, etc.. We had a really good summer, we saw a couple of weeks here and there (July 4 week being one) that were down but overall we bucked the trend. However last week (week following Labor Day) was the worst week we've had in several months, maybe the worst we've had since January. Anytime you follow a holiday like that where people sit at home and stuff themselves you'll see that happen. Lord willing we'll see this week really pick up.
Right after my last post Martha and I went to Chicago for a couple of days just to get away. Had a blast! I lived up there for a couple of stints during college and worked at the Chicago Board of Trade. I got to catch up with one of my old buddies Chad Strieter. We went out with our wives, caught a Cubs game against the Brewers, went to dinner......great time. I'm hoping to hook back up with those boys over the next few months. Strieter, Jaffe, Brooks & Dave.......warm memories of us drinking too much at bars, peeing over cars and crashing corporate parties. Love those boys.......I'm looking for Jaffe & Strieter to get down here for a Titans game this November.
This week I've been working on the catering trailer. We've been welding, priming, etc.. I'll post again in the next day or so with an update on it.

Temporary Website

Yeah...........if there is one thing I have and am still kicking myself for is not uploading some sort of web presence during the past year. Its one of those things I knew I needed to get done but just never got around to having someone do it. The site that is up now is just temporary, I am having a permanent one designed right now to be ready in the next month or so. Katie "All-Star" Walker is doing all the graphic design/art and my good buddy Mike Causey is building it for me. They are both awesome at what they do and I'm thankful for the work and job they are doing for me. The spot on 104.5 started this morning, it sounded good. Some minor changes need to be made but overall is went well. Here is the site:

http://www.martinsbbqjoint.com

update

Week has been really good and really steady! We ain't missed a beat since Marteen left. I hired another guy (Gonzalo). He's about 45, legal, and has about 20 years restaurant experience. We'll see how he hangs in there. I'm letting Bo have the day off today, so I'll be on the line tonight.........I've missed that hell and chaos.......I'm looking forward to it! Had to truck down to Chattanooga yesterday to see my bookkeeper and do my payroll quarterly taxes. My "Freudian" buddy Jim Owens wife Jennifer does them for me. Things are looking good, the business is making money and all that........but we've got to cut some costs, specifically Cost of Goods Sold. We're spending at least 10% too much here. I'm tracking all individual sales of each menu item and putting the info in to a spreadsheet. Have about 3 or so weeks worth right now, another couple of weeks or so and I'll look at that info and put it to use, such as updating the menu. Plan on nixing some a couple of things that we ain't selling much of. I'll still keep them around but only on the "specials" menu. Probably gonna raise some prices too, such as brisket to reflect rising market prices. Beef prices have really risen a lot in the past 6 months and because of certain market conditions (commodity prices, supply/demand, drought) I think they will continue to rise, at the very least hang where they are now. Plus most places around here are getting $4.50 or more for a regular sandwich and we're still asking $3.50, so we're just bringing it to where to local market is anyway. The Titans looked good last night..........is that the same Chris Brown that used to play for us?????? I mean, he doesnt even look like the same player! He's playing like a quicker Eddie George. Thank the good Lord above that Football is here! In the next few weeks or so I need to get on a Trout stream somewhere. Hell, its almost time to get those guns out of the closet and get to cleanin' them up! This is the best time of year.

2nd Pit has been ordered....sponsoring Titans 104.5 show.

Well Tuesday I pulled the trigger on another Pit. I ordered the same Pit I have now at the Joint, which is an Ole Hickory. There are weeks/days when we have been beyond capacity and it has been a real stress figuring out how to get everything cooked we need to get cooked. In regards to the restaurant we are fine. There have been a few weeks where I'm sitting there on Thursday night a little worried how I'm going to get everything cooked for the next couple of days, but generally cooking for just the Joint has not been a problem. The problem arises when the catering orders start to come in. We have done absolutely zero marketing on catering (we've really done zero marketing all together). So just the little bit we've got coming in has pushed our capacity beyond the limit. I went ahead and ordered the pit now because starting next week we will be the official sponsor of the 104.5 Titans Insider Kevin Mawae show (he's the starting center for the Titans for those of you reading this that are out of town) on Monday mornings during drive time from 7:10 - 8:00. The lead in will be something along the lines of:
"The Kevin Mawae Show sponsored by Martin's Bar-B-Que"
This is This is a great spot for us on the #1 rated radio show in the city during a prime time.......I mean every 9 to 5er in the city is on the road at that time heading in to work, and its on Mondays the day after each game. So I'm really looking for a real pick-up in catering & tailgating packages.....We'll see. More borrowed money means more stress. I had to take out an additional $15,000 loan (over 24 months) for the thing and I'm hoping that will cover it, but then again that might not cover everything I'm looking to get done. It might/could total about $20,000 when its all said and done, depending on other things I'd like to do to it. Anything over and above the loan amount I'll just pay for out of pocket. I'll be setting it up like a competition pit and/or catering trailer. Much like the Peg Leg Team Pit, I'm going to mount this thing on my old bob-cat trailer (which is almost brand new), a 20ft. trailer with a 3 well sink, prep table and double fridge. There will be a roof on it. Im hoping I can pay Dresch to do the work for me, we're supposed to meet up today. I'm hoping to have this thing built and finished in the next 3-4 weeks. I'm not all that excited about taking out the additional money to get it. I've been pretty proud at paying off what I have in this short of time. I have plenty of room in my current line of credit, but i did not want to put 15 grand back on top of what I've already paid off. Also, I am keeping the two lines of business separate so I can track each one separately. I may not be all that happy about borrowing additional money, but I'm happy about putting this thing to work for me, we just have to really step up the catering to get this big whore paid for. I'm also hoping and looking forward to this helping the team (Peg Leg Porkers) out at future bbq competitions, once we really start to get involved in those things.

Turbulence.

Well last week was a long week. Wednesday my uncle Olen died. He and I were very close so that was tough. We buried him on Saturday morning. Then about 7:45 Saturday night while taking my grandparents home I was wondering how everything was going at the Joint - not 2 minutes later Bo calls to tell me that he and Marteen got into it and Marteen quit, right in the middle of dinner rush. Let me tell you right here right now that is NOT what I wanted to hear. If for any reason just because of the wrench it throws into the wheel. I wont go into the whole problem but for right now it may be for the best. He is a great guy and has become and will remain a great friend, but I think he was getting burned out. He was starting to slip, starting to miss things. That ain't Marteen. He was clocking about 60 hours a week, which is what he wanted but I'm guessing that had something to do with it. 60 hours a week in a little kitchen will take a toll on you. So, now I'm looking at two other Mexican guys to take his place. The upside is they are both legal. The downside is they both have jobs and I dont know if I can get them or not. We're going to be o.k., I mean there was a time not too long ago that it was just Bo and I slinging it out. I've got some good part time help that can fill in and between Me, Bo, Chocho & Emily we'll be fine Lord willing. I imagine that sometime in the future Marteen and I will work together again, I hope like hell that happens. We'll stay buddies and we'll stay in touch and I'll help him anyway I can (This week we are supposed to meet with this accountant to pay his income taxes from 2006, and I plan on still helping him with that). I think that for right now though this is good for both sides. We'll see what happens.

The Powers that be

You know, I'm not one to ever get "star struck" by being around celebrities. I've never understood peoples fascination with it. I mean who cares? That autograph you are getting, what are you really going to do with it? I mean, sorry if this is crude but, they wipe their butt just like you and I do. Thats one reason I have not gotten celebrities to autograph pictures to go on the wall inside the joint, because its tough for me to throw my pride to the side and "lower" myself to get their John Hancock.................-although I will admit right here right now that I will probably start to do so because for some reason it is good marketing, and if I can make a buck off their signature then yeah. All that being said I still and will never be awed by someone else's celebrity status, but the other night we were asked to cater a small party and it was pretty cool to meet some of these men. The big difference here was that I was honored, not awed by them. On Tuesday night we catered the Nashville Amateur Chefs Club, which is really just a social club for a bunch of CEO's & politicians. Specifically in attendance were all three living ex-Governors of our state, Winfield Dunn, Ned McWherter and Don Sundquist along with other CEO's, Judges, etc.. This organization has been around since 1946 and their are only 30 members. They asked me to come in to cater the meal and give a speech (yes you read that right) on the history and science of Barbecue. It was in a very small room with three tables set up for dining. We served Brisket, 1/4 chickens, pulled pork along with cornbread, baked beans and slaw. Mom baked 3 coconut cakes and 4 pecan pies. Everything went very, very well. They were all very happy and we got a ton of compliments. They all took my cards and menus and I'm hoping that in the future we'll see some additional catering come from it. They were all as nice as they could be. I've got to get to the joint but later on I'll try to post the speech if I can figure out how to do it.

Last Week

Last week went very well........we only had one small catering job and still did pretty well for the week. We've got some catering jobs coming up, so that should help with the bottom line. Thats all I have to say about things right now. I am at my desk, with a second glass of wine, listening to Jimmy Buffet's "A Pirate Looks At 40". I am going to enjoy the song and then go to bed.

Citysearch.com awards

We were recently voted second in the category of "best family friendly dining" in Nashville by online voters at citysearch.com.........Pie in the Sky came in first, we came in second and Jim-N-Nicks BBQ came in 3rd. Famous Daves came in 10th. If you read this and voted, well thanks very much! I wasnt even aware that we were in a category to be voted on so this is great news! Other towns have more specific categories such as best BBQ. I guess Nashville ain't big time enough yet so we only get the broad categories.............why can't the ville' ever get any national respect?!

So you want to open a restaurant...........

.............then make sure you get somebody to work for you that knows how to run a kitchen - that is assuming of course that you, like me, had never even been in one......I just give thanks to God above that he granted me the intelligence to know that cooking the product is not enough, you've got to have someone to logistically map out the lunch/dinner rush. Today is the one year anniversary of our hiring of Wiley "Bo" Collier. I (admittedly) had no real idea what I was doing when I decided to open this place up. All I knew was that A: I didnt have much money, B: I knew I my BBQ was good and that I could cook a little, and that C: I was starting a new career as a restaurant owner, of which statistics tell you that you are an absolute dumb-ass for choosing that field of entrepreneurship (89% of all new restaurants go under in 6 months). The thing that is so funny is that the night I hired Bo I was in a bar (the old Radio Cafe) in east Nashville on a friday night at like, 9:30 at night. Being in that place at that time is about as common as me being in Key West in a loin cloth, pump heels with Elvis glasses dancing to Elton John. To make it even more unreal is that 2 of the guys with me (Ball & Lamb) were there also. I mean, if any of you even know us slightly then you know what I'm talking about. Now I'm not by any means taking a shot at east Nashville, I love it! The point I'm making now is that being in a bar at 9:30 at night is rare for me. I'm at a stage in life where I really like a couch, T.V. and a remote control - thats a great feeling. It was just so freakin' random for us to be there! At any rate, the only reason we were there was to support Ward Boone. I had promised him I'd come hear him out. -Hell......I'm not going to go through the whole story again, if you want to read it then just scroll down this blog to 08/09/06 and read it there, but it is really incredible that the first guy I thought about hiring ended up being one of the most reliable, lovable, foxhole bastards I've ever met in my life. Bo was there in the first few months when we'd get there at 8:00 in the morning and leave at 1:30-2:00 at night. For the first 2 months it was just he and I. I could write all night long about stories from the first couple-3 months of the start of this joint. He was there last August when I was building the place out. He was the one that helped me screw, glue, saw, hang, measure, screw-up, nail, paint.........whatever it was he was there long before we opened the doors. When I wanted 76 things on the menu, it was Bo that reeled me in. When I went to pick up "Mrs. Hattie" (the pit) it was Bo who drove with me to get her. We've cussed each other in the rush, only to laugh over a beer at the end of the night. It was Bo that I almost shot outside my house with a .45 ruger one night (loaded, cocked). If I had farted that gun would have gone off. I've got a lot of buddies but there are only a few that I can really say these types of things about. I mean, this is a "Bryan Chandler" type of effort I'm talking about here.........thats saying a lot! The good Lord has really blessed us, there is so much to come and we're by no means out of the woods yet.......but Bo's commitment and work ethic has been like manna from heaven..........and how ever high this BBQ joint/pirate ship takes me in the definition of success, so shall I drag his "dread-neck" ass right up there with me. Thanks Bo-cephus.

Its late coming, but here is the Brewmasters Dinner

Sorry this is so late coming but here is the update on the brew masters dinner last Friday night. They've been having this thing at other places around town and usually only get a small meal and a choice of two beers. Can you imagine that? The brew masters dinner and you are only allowed to try two different beers? So Linus Hall, owner & brew master of Yazoo Brewery here in Nashville decided that it sucked and this year he would have it at his brewery in the courtyard area. His brewery is located in the old industrial building that manufactured Nashville only car, the Marathon Automobile Co.. Its a really cool building with tons of character. We went down on Thursday night and built a brick pit. I had a 3' by 4' steel griddle made for events like this. We cooked brisket tacos and the BBQ shrimp burritos. We had a blast and I think everyone there had a good time. Lord willing I look forward to doing it again next year!

News Channel 4 spot.....

News Channel 4's Terry Bulger came out yesterday to do a spot on us for this mornings newscast. It was on this morning and it was pretty cool. We got quite a crush for lunch today because of it so I am very thankful for that! I am going to attempt to link it here but you know I've screwed that up in the past, so in case I screw it up again go to their website and check out the video section. Here it is:

http://www.wsmv.com/video/13797135/index.html

It was a really nice piece and Terry is a really cool guy, I'm hoping he'll come back in to share an Old Style beer with me.

Brewfest.

Yeah I'm kinda going about this the back way but Bo has not sent me the pics of the Brew masters dinner yet so I am going to wait for that post until he gets them to me. The brew fest was a heck of a day. Stressful does not even describe the preparation that morning for it.........but it was a great day! We all had a blast and made some great money. We were set up next to our great buddies from Bosco's (thanks Candace). We served close to 800 people for the day. It was an awesome site to see a line 15 deep for close to 6 hours. We served pork sandwiches and wings. We had the Peg Leg pit rolling with the pork and 3 fryers rolling for the wings. There is a lot of thanks for me to pass around. First the Carey, Dave and the rest of my fellow Peg Leg teammates for letting me commandeer the pit for use. Second, Terry and Dresch came and helped out and were a "gi-motherscratchin'-gantic" help! -Talk about foxhole........I cant say enough about these two boys! Third Bo, Ball, and Victor................they were like machines! I mean, this was a very cool event that we have all gone to for the past 6 years because we all like and appreciate quality handcrafted beer..............but to work it and make some good cash doing it was a really good time. We were all worn slap out but we got it done and Lord willing next year we are doing it again we'll have a lot better handle on what to expect! We had a really good time. Since this is backwards make sure you read the brew masters dinner post that I will be loading up as soon as Bo gets me the pics...........it was a gong show! The pics are of Kizer (G.M. for Bosco's), Fred (Brew master for Bosco's, and some derelict from the event with a funny boob shirt. The other two are pics of the trailer and of our booth.

Busy weekend coming

Things are about to get busy. Tonight we've got the brew masters dinner we are catering. Last night we went to Yazoo Brewery where it is going to be held and built a brick fire pit. We're going to have brisket tacos, grilled avocado gazpacho, and BBQ shrimp burritos. It should be a good night and we should have a few pics to post. I've got to load the trailer in this morning at 10:00. We've got all of our wings cooked (a little over 2,000). We're cooking enough pork for 750. So basically we're cooking for about 1,100 because there will be about 350 orders of wings prepped. Lord willing we'll sell out of everything, if we don't it'll be a loss and I'll at least have a write off. The event draws 5,000+ and is already sold out this year. There will be 6-7 other food vendors there also selling food. I'm figured if we cook enough for at least 20% of the total crowd we'd be doing alright. The choices range from hot dogs to pizza to burgers, etc.. There is one group there that I cant figure out what is going through their mind.........they are planning on serving chili. Yes you read that right, chili. Now the weather folks are calling for tomorrow to be the hottest day yet this year............98* with a heat index over 100*. I don't give a dadgum if an Angel came down from "Glory up on High" and spit in it, you couldn't pay me to walk around a park with no shade sweating in 100* plus heat eating a bowl of chili..........that's just me though......maybe you would, but I'd look at you like you were on crack if you did. Got to get to work.........post at you later.

Consomme'......

First off let me say that this is a huge post because of all of the pictures I am including. Most of you can quit reading right now unless you have a profound interest in classic cooking. The purpose of this post really is for "Qui Gon" John McNeil who is a tremendous teacher. John is thoroughly trained in all manner of classical french cooking (the basis for cooking as we know it today), has spent years in the kitchen (some of the best) and I am trying to suck as much knowledge from his brain-pan as I possibly can! My "homework" this past week was to make a classic consomme' with some veal demi glace that John made. John roasted about 50lbs of veal knuckles that I had bought. He then made a classic veal demi with that which is about a day long process. I am very thankful for his help with that. So after Martha and I got home Sunday from dinner I launched in to this little project and I think it turned out rather well. Here is a step by step pictorial I took of the process. Starting with the mirepoix (chopped celery, carrots, onion). Then about 3lbs of lean ground chuck was added to it with herbs, mushrooms in a food processor. You see a picture of that nasty looking stuff in the tupperware. Then it was added (very cold) with the veal demi (or stock) and simmered for close to 2 hours. Further down in the pics you can see the "raft" form and then it opening up for the simmer. Then it was strained with an old T-shirt of mine (had to put a redneck spin on it somewhere) and the finished product is what I am holding up to the light. It is golden, has clarity and is packed with flavor!

Update

Last week was a really good week. Business was consistently good everyday. Saturday night we had a real good crowd to hear Ward, Nick and another guy around town the has several hits/cuts named Rick Elias. The picture is of Bo, M.B. Burton and Bryan as we were hanging around on the side by the pit while the music was playing inside. This week is going to be very stressful. Besides just the day to day business we've got the Music City Brewers Festival in Nashville this weekend. The event drew 6,000 last year and is getting bigger and bigger every year. We are one of a handful of vendors down there serving. We're going to prep for 1,500. We're serving "Q" sandwiches and smoked wings. I've borrowed the Peg Leg trailer (thanks guys, it is a massive help!!!!) and have Terry & Dresch (peg leg boys) coming down to help out. We're going to be set up right next to our buddies from Bosco's so we wont have to go far to grab a beer. On top of that we are doing the Brew masters dinner at Yazoo the night before on Friday. We're doing brisket tacos and something else, probably shrimp or something. The other picture is a test run of an item I thought about serving for this but have decided not to because of spacing. I sauteed some chopped country ham, corn & onions. On the other eye I sauteed some shrimp in a little mango bbq sauce I made up. On the other eye we cooked some rice. We filled a pita with the rice and then the other stuff. It was really good and something I'll probably make around here with some buddies or at another function that has better spacing......but not for this one. The shrimp for some reason look really bland in this pic but were really good and darker than this. So I'm still at the drawing board on the second item but think I'm close to deciding on it.

I need a dadgum vacation!

Good gracious do I need a small vacation. There are ways to de-stress. Natural and un-natural. Legal and illegal. I am needing some mother freakin' relief from this stress. Federal taxes, state taxes, parking issues, little billy vomiting in front of the coke machine, bills, screaming kids, derelict drivers who shouldn't have a f*@+ing drivers license, men pissing on the toilet seat, building codes, my cholesterol --------I'm telling you I could go on for a while and get really colorful about it too! Dont get me wrong, things are going really well right now. God has really, really blessed me with a wonderful wife, with two great & healthy kids and the opportunity to live my dream by owning a bbq joint. And I dont want to sound like some pantie waist bitching about lifes little problems, but a couple-3 days would at a minimum recharge my batteries. You know I'll drink a couple of beers every now and again - used to drink a lot more than that a few years ago. Well if I dont get out of here for a few days I'm liable to head back into some beer swillin'. Never got into "likker" (dont like the taste) and never got into dope (pathetic excuse for dealing with stress), so for right now Budweiser is my vacation until I can take a vacation. So instead of getting a sun-tan today I'll have to settle for getting "Beechwood aged" tonight. If you are concerned about this becoming a problem you can contribute to my vacation fund by sending a check to the joint.

No rest for the weary

Last Tuesday was very, very busy with July 4th catering/to go orders. We did a tremendous amount of to go business and then went to a party the night of the 3rd. Russ Hickey & Holly Moles had a gathering that Martha & I went to and it was a pretty good time......real casual, very nice. I thought I was going to have a really relaxing day on Independence day. We were "closed" on the 4th.......or so I thought. Showed up to meet some folks about 11:00 to get about 6 more orders out and didnt leave until 5:30 because people just kept coming in. Wanted to have a day to take it easy and spend with my kids but that didnt happen. Then we had a catering job that night in Inglewood for a party. By the time I was done setting up for that I knew it would'nt be long before I had to get out of there, I was worn out. The rest of the week went better than expected. We were not expecting it to be very busy on Thursday and Friday because who wants to eat BBQ the two days following the 4th but it was actually pretty good. Saturday we had Nathan Montgomerys wedding in Lewisburg. I burned the hell out of my fingers and was down for the count. Eddie Montgomery (Nathans daddy) went in the house to fish out some pain pills or something and came back with some yellow things that he couldnt remember what they were for, he just remembers that "they make you feel better". He said to take 3-4 of them and I did. I dont know if I've ever felt burn pain this bad and frankly I could have cared less what they were if I had of known. At any rate, to say that those dadgum things knocked my tail for a loop is an understatement. My memory is a tad foggy about that night, I'm just glad Bryan was there with me. Martha came and got me from the restaurant and I felt "slow" all day yesterday. My fingers did quit burning but not for a couple of hours after I took those things, but I can say that before the pain wore off I was one of the happier burn victims you've ever seen, I can flat out tell you that.

The week

This past week we've seen a real bump in business because of Jim's (the Tennessean) article. We've seen a lot of people drive out from Nashville (15 minutes) but its amazing to me how many people who live within 2 miles of the joint are still just coming in for the 1st time to try us out. At any rate, I'm just glad they are coming in........whether its now or back in October. I really am thankful for Jims article and thoughts about our food.........it really is a big honor coming from him.
Meat prices have shot up because of the 4th. I am paying about $.25 more per pound than I was last week for everything. My food reps say it will stay that way for the next 2-3 weeks before it starts to correct itself. Kaci Allen played this past Saturday night and she was awesome! She played two sets of her own songs and got a great response. Ward will be back this Saturday night with his guys. Dan, Jill & Joe have'nt been out in a couple of months, I guess they have moved on. Neither Bo or Ward have any idea why they quit coming out. Maybe we'll get em' back out sometime. Willie called from Alaska but didnt get his call. I'll call him today. Looking forward to him getting back with that banjo.
This past Saturday night we were at "Taste of Music City" on the bridge over the river next to the Titans stadium. Bo worked that with Martha, John, Mandy, Victor and "Lamber". They said we got a lot of compliments on our food and Bo said yesterday that he's talked to several people that came out to the joint because they tasted our food there. Lord willing we'll be invited back to next years event. Have a ton of small catering to do between now and the 4th. After that we'll start preparing for the Music City Brewers Festival at the downtown Hilton. They are expecting 6,000 people and the only food vendors there are us and Mafiozo's Pizza, so we should be able to really move some food. Got to get out of here and get to the joint......later.

Tennessean list us as one of the favorite 13 places to eat around Nashville!!!

Todays issue of the Tennessean lists Jim Meyers favorite 13 places to eat around Nashville and we were on that list! This is a huge honor and compliment and I am very thankful that we were listed a part of that list. We do try hard every day to serve the best & freshest dadgum food we can and I am very glad that Jim likes it so well! Thank you Jim very much!!! Below is the link to the article. Make sure you play the audio slideshow to hear his comments.

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070622/ENTERTAINMENT0201/706220367

Tennessean Spotlight "Chef du Jour"

Today we were VERY, VERY fortunate to be spotlighted in the Tennessean on the front page of the "Living" section. Every Wedensday they have a little thing called "Chef du Jour" and this Wedensday we were it. Its a great piece and is really funny and well written, if you know a little bit about my Church of Christ background (which I am still a very proud member that still likes his beer). Jim Meyers (the food critic from the Tennessean) wrote the article. As just some ol' boy trying to cook a little bbq its a REALLY big honor to be listed there considering the local chefs that have been there before me. I am very thankful.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070620/FEATURES0202/706200397/1078/FEATURES02

Guest blogger Carey "Peg Leg Porker" Bringle: Aspen Food & Wine Festival

My good buddy Carey Bringle (Peg Leg Porker) was asked by the Lobel boys to cook & attend the prestigious "Aspen Food & Wine" festival. This week I asked Carey to guest blog about the experience. By the way......look at the dadgum fat marble in those 3" thick (yes you read that right!) Wagyu dry aged New York strips. Also Carey is pictured with food/wine celebrity Andrea Immer.


Hey Folks, It's Carey Bringle, The Peg Leg Porker......I am honored that Pat asked me to guest Blog today about my experience at the Food & Wine Magazine, Classic at Aspen. Let me start off by explaining the reason that I was there. Three or four years ago, Evan Lobel asked me if I could smoke some Waygu Brisket for the Classic at Aspen food Show and ship it out there for them to serve at the Grand Tastings. I did this cook as a personal favor but let me tell you, it was nerve racking. Evan wanted them to be just right. He would be serving them next to his father and their reputation was on the line. It was the first time that they had done this show and it was very high profile. I cooked about 36 Brisket that year and from Evan's account, they were a real crowd pleaser. He called me from the booth and said "Carey, your a F$%^*&* hero, we have a line around the booth and this stuff is the hit of the show." I was glad to hear it because for the previous week, Evan had called me several times to remind me how important this was. I think I lost 10lbs. that week worrying about how they turned out and waiting for his call to let me know. The next year, I cooked again and they asked me if I would like to come out to the show as their guest for the work I had done. I cooked the brisket but I turned them down on the trip because frankly, I had been traveling a lot, just finished Memphis in May and was plain worn out. Last year they didn't do the show and one of their key competitors, Allen Brothers, started displaying there. That did not set well with Evan. They made an executive decision that this year, they would be back and show the world why they are the Best Damn Steaks and Mail Order Gourmet Food Company in America. I had regretted not going the year I had been invited so this year, we made a deal that a ticket to the show and a plane ride would be my payment for Smoking the Brisket. The amount.........650 Lbs. of Waygu. That is a lot of Brisket........My father lives in Carbondale and is very ill. He has been suffering from Multiple Meyeloma for over 10 years. This would also be a great chance to spend some more time with he and Susan and see him for Father's Day. I started cooking Brisket on the Vertical Smoker at 5:30 AM on Friday, June 8th. That night, Dave Johnson and Pat came over to help and have a few. Dave was cooking on the horizontal for a catering Gig and Pat was just coming to help and lend moral support. We had a great time shooting the shit and throwing back a few. I cooked almost non stop until Sunday morning. 50 Brisket in total. I was worn out. Pat and Dave can both tell you, cooking a ton of meat can wear you out but when you see people enjoying it and hear their comments, it is a great feeling. I arrived in CO on Thursday. My sister was with me and we spent some time with Dad and Susan that night. Friday, I got up, we had some breakfast at the Village Smithy in Carbondale and I headed to Aspen (about 25 miles away). I got there about 1:00 and they had just finished the first Grand Tasting. Evan and David said that it was a huge hit. There was not another tasting until 4:30 so I went to a Mixology Seminar given by Tony Abou-Ganim. He has a show on Fine Living teaching the art of cocktail making. Let me say that any seminar where they hand you a drink on your way in and then make you drinks all the way through is my kind of class. I went to the Grand Tasting at 4:30 and it was great. The Lobel's were serving Braised Short ribs at that tasting. They seemed to be a pretty big hit but I really wanted to see the Brisket being served. We hung around after the tasting and went to dinner at an Italian restaurant in town. We would start again in the morning. The Aspen Times had come by that afternoon and spoken with Evan. We were all anxious to see what they would write. On Saturday morning, I woke up and drove to Aspen first thing. The Grand tasting started at 11:30 and I wanted to see how the brisket would be received. David came in to the tent holding the Aspen Times......Jackpot.......Evan was featured on the front page with a headline of "Lobel's, Butchering the Competition" .....In your face Allen Brothers.....It talked about the brisket and needless to say, at the Grand tasting, the table was mobbed. The log jam in front of our table wasn't helped by the fact that Mario Batali was signing Crocs at the table across from us. Between the two booths, you couldn't make it through that part of the tent. I'll have to say that it was pretty exciting seeing all those people go crazy over the food that I cooked. That afternoon, I met Mario Batali, Jacques Pepin, Andrea Immer and Bradford Thompson. Wow, what a treat. The last thing that I did that afternoon was meet Evan, David and Jamie (owner of Smoke Restaurant in El Jebel, the caterer that Lobel's hired to help them in Aspen) at Jamie's house to see them cooking the Waygu strip steaks that they would serve that afternoon at the 3:45 Grand Tasting. What a sight to see, 147 Lbs. of Waygu strips at a retail value of $150 a piece....beautiful.....I told them that I was going to have dinner with my family and probably wouldn't be back on Sunday. Evan told me top pick out the best steak and take it for me and my Dad to share for Fathers day. We cooked it that night and it was great....I spent Sunday with Dad and Susan. We enjoyed the day and the incredible view that their new house has of Mt. Sopris. I was leaving Monday morning and it was going to be hard to say goodbye. The weekend was great. I am thankful to have been able to participate in such a celebrated event, enjoyed spending time with my good friends Evan and David and even more thankful to have been able to spend a little more time with my Dad. This is a Fathers day weekend that I know I will never forget..... Lobel's: Butchering the competition...............Brisket a hit in Grand Tasting tent http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070616/NEWS/106160061&SearchID=73284675093471

Emily is on board & Alligator Po-Boys!

About a month ago Emily Arnold came on board and I have neglected to mention that here. Shes awesome! She worked up at "Rapid Pak" in Arrington for what seems like forever. She's really enabled me to get out and get some things done like closing some catering jobs. Last week was great. We had really good cash flow and it seems like the "summer slow down" is starting to wear off just a little. It will be slower than usual until September but I think that initial burst of summer everyone gets around May 1st is wearing thin. The grill out on the deck, steeplechase, rodeo, soccer tourn.,...........done that. People are looking to go out (to eat) more. We brought in some Alligator this past weekend and it has been selling like hot cakes. We fried it on a stick to serve as an app. this past Saturday and sold out of them. I made up a quick peach-apricot bbq sauce to dip it in. It was really good. Yesterday Bo served Blackened Alligator Po-Boys with a roasted red pepper aoli. He had 8 and sold them all by 12:45. Could have sold another 8 so today we'll run it again with 15 prepped to sell.

Just pics

Last night we were taking off the "dinner" shoulders and briskets and I though I'd take a shot of those to post. Click the pics for a close up view.

Steaks!

Camera has been down (out of batteries) for a week or two so I havent been able to load up any pics. We went to John & Mandys house a week or two ago to grill steaks from the Wagyu tenderloins we got from the Lobel boys (http://www.lobels.com) at Memphis in May. Steaks turned out great. Got a little ticked off at myself because I was running my head-hole and let the steaks get up towards medium, but they were still unreal which is a real indication of the quality of meat. Next time I cook steaks of that quality I wont talk to anyone to lose track of time. The pic above is John and Bryan. Wow, look what Bryan learned at Freed-Hardeman. You should click on the picture of the steaks to get a close up view!

Back in the swing of things

The past couple of weeks have been realy hectic. I've got a parking issue with the empty lot next to me. Maybe something can be worked out maybe not. If not Vern (landlord) said he'll make room in the back for me. Been working the catering pretty hard and that is what is causing things to be so hectic........-seems like you are always on the road, on the phone, on the way to buy something else. Bo and I have been getting a little frustrated with fact that there hasnt been any jerks or morons that have come in lately. Usually we're good for at least one every two weeks but its been well over a month. Dont get me wrong, there is nothing worse than some idiot who wants something for nothing while complaining/whining but people have been so nice and happy its kinda gotten a little boring around there. I wonder what happened to the crock-pot lady?

Congats MacDaddy.

Terry turned in wings........on his first ever entry at MIM..........placed 7th. 7TH!!!! Unreal! Congrats MacDaddy.

Kangaroo

On Sunday night after we loaded in our tent on the river at Memphis in May we were sitting at the Fox & Hound having dinner. Carey tells me if I care to to do the "exotic" category for MIM. Alligator, Caribou, Ostrich............that's all yesterdays news. Had to get something different and do something different. Somehow I found Kangaroo & Yak meat. I decided against the Yak meat. It shipped in on Wed. to Mom & Dads house there in Memphis. I decided to do a beef wellington version of Kangaroo.......Kangaroo Wellingtons. I called my buddy John McNeil to get his two cents. John was able to let me have some veal demi that he had made up. I wanted a wine sauce using a Shiraz/Syrah. He gave me instructions on a sauce using that demi as a base. It turned out unreal. Then he gave me his thoughts on the patte' filler. I found some wild mushrooms and made my patte' with shallots, herbs, butter, balsamic, lemon juice and I threw in just a few raisins with it..........beat those up in a food processor and WOW was that good! So John McCall & I spend most of the morning prepping this out to bring down to the tent to construct and cook it there. Turn in time is 2:30. We get there about 12:45.......walk in the tent and there is nowhere to cook this because everything is in use. Leave it to some ol' boys from Corinth, MS to come through for you. Tom Underwood from "Pigs-R-Us" came down to the tent to see if we had any celery. I asked Tom if he had some cook space......he said "hell yeah we'll fire one up for you". We fired up a small cooker he had on his trailer. While we were waiting for the coals to get the temp up to 425* to bake this thing in me, John & Robbie started constructing this Kangaroo Wellington. We put it in @2:05 which is almost not enough time to get the pastry around the meat baked so I added some more coals, opened the vents up a little and got that cooker to 450*. Now that's a little too hot but I had no choice cause I was runnin' out of time. As you can see the wellington to the left had already started to burn some. We got it out at 2:28. Robbie boxed it with some lettuce and all 3 of us started sprinting for the turn in tent. The way we were dressed we looked like the guys from that early 80's movie "Chariots of Fire" running to the tent. We made by about 15 seconds. We came in 22nd out of 70 odd teams. I was a little pissed at myself because I let us run out of time to do the presentation right. I am sure that the creativity and the taste was there to place top 3. Maybe I'm wrong but I felt really, really good about this. I think we got docked points for presentation and also I think that the pastry might have gotten soggy on top due to condensation in the Styrofoam box waiting its turn for the judges to taste it. Also @2:28 with 2 minutes to go and I cut it open the flakes from the pastry went all over the lettuce bed......looking like Harry Carey leaned down and shook some dandruff off over it. So I've learned a little lesson on turn in time and to make sure you give yourself enough of it! Thanks to John McNiel for the guidance and creative help and thanks to John McCall and Robbie Lundy for all the help that day......really appreciate it!

Random shots & ruminations

Thursday night was a big party...........There was an ice luge that Rip conducted which was very cool. Athens distributing donated Jim Beam Black, Voxx Vodka, etc. for Rip to pour down peoples head-holes on that ice luge. Friday afternoon we had a Bourbon tasting which was very cool & informative. Friday night the Lobel boys (Evan, Marc & company) grilled MASSIVE steaks. I'm talking about 3" thick prime strips & fillets that were dry aged 6 weeks. Lobels is one of the sponsors and without question the most prestegious butcher in the country, maybe the world. Check them out @www.lobels.com........ also, Mitch Gallant from WoodSmoke Provisions
is widely considered as having the best cold smoked fish in the country. Mitch fed us salmon, trout, oysters, crawfish.....it was unreal! The pics show you some of the times on friday night.

Progress baby......progress!

Man......I'm sitting here thinking as to "where do I start"? First off without sounding like a beta-male pantie waist I really met some great new friends during this last week. The entire team .....and listen, I mean entire (well except one guy with an Ole Miss hat on.......nothing to do with my family going to Mississippi State either....serious!) team was great. Dave, John, Terry, Robbie, Rip, Dresh, B. Ham, Evan, Dudley, Applegate, Mitch, Jessie, Mark, Frank.......I could go on for a while. Great human beings.......really great! Of course I am assuming you know that Carey and I were already friends and that my opinion of him is very high..... what a great guy he is! Carey/Dave directed the team to 17th in shoulder. Out of 75-odd teams.....coming from like 50th 4 years ago.....thats great! What you need to know is that competition "Q" is A LOT different from backyard or restaurant "Q". I dont have time nor do I feel like explaining right now the why/how..........but it is two different worlds. They really did a great job! I have so many blogs to catch up on so I'm going to leave it at this because I want to match the blogs with the pics.................but I have to say that I really didnt expect to really enjoy myself this time around because my last go around sucked ass. Nothing against John Willingham........because that was an "old" team, etc. but these boys were great. Everyone did their share......especially Terry, Dresh, Carey, John & Dave.....they worked their ass off. Great guys.........really great guys! The picture above is Carey spewing some of his legendary bullshit. Being my 1st year on the team I was pretty quiet on my bullshit ability. Those of you that know me well know that I was blessed with an incredible ability to add on 15-20% of fabrication to any story.........which we all know is the art of a true really good story teller. Carey is in my league and the picture above is Carey spewing pure fabrication from the P.A.. It was artistic! As you know I could not blog 3-4 times a day down there like I wanted to because of the lack of wi-fi...........so what I'm going to do is re-blog with all my pics over the next few days to catch you back up. I'm looking forward to getting back to the Joint tomorrow (Lord Willing). Again........in a non rectal pluggin kind of way..........I've really missed my guys.........Bo, Marteen, Raul (and now Emily)............looking forward to getting back to the pit and the kitchen!

Tennessean Article

Well we were blessed again with another article in the paper. The article ran on Monday when I was in Memphis. Here is the link:

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/COUNTY090101/705140323/1356/COUNTY09

if you have trouble with the link its because I am a computer dumb-ass and cant do something as simple as linking an article. If you have this problem then just google "martins bbq+peg leg" and it should bring it up.

Update

We're right across from the press trailers and they have all the wi-fi blocked with secure connections......so im not going to be able to update as much as i had planned. Came home last night to get some things done today and to check in on the joint. I've got to submit my plans about building the deck off the front of the Joint to the city. I've also got to give drawings to the welder I've got to build a trailer. I am in charge of cooking the "exotic" category. I have shipped in some Kangaroo and Yak meat. I've got a few ideas for each one but have not come to a conclusion as to what I'll cook. The pictures are of the view on the river and of the 5 of us that went down on sunday. Carey and Dave are sitting down. They formed the team 4 years ago after spending a decade on "Hog Wild". John, Terry and myself are behind them. I've got to pick up John McCall tonight in Henderson and then head back to the river. Everything really picks up tomorrow.

Memphis in May

Well.......we're here at Memphis in May for the world BBQ championship. I'm with Carey Bringle on the Peg Leg Porkers. I am hoping to blog quite a bit this week.....in diary mode. There may be a couple of posts per day with pictures (if I can figure out how to load them on this computer). Yesterday Me, Carey, Dave, Terry & John all met about 5:00 to set up our tent and space. Got Careys cooker loaded in. I havent cooked here since 1998 when I was with John Willingham. I swore then I would'nt do this again......for several reasons. MIM has an almost "Mardis Gras" type feel to it. 95% of the people that make up all the teams are here to party and get wasted. Now I said most people, NOT all! When I was on Johns team there were a lot of guys on the team that just did not want to work. You look around and there is 20-30 men standing around and only 4-5 doing any work. After about 3-4 days of that you can get pissed off real fast! That year I stayed up with the hog all night.....so I got no sleep....which is fine because I expected that. I also expected to be able to get a few hours that saturday morning, but that didnt happen. After a breakfast at the "Green Beetle" off Beale St. I saw that John and the 2-3 other guys needed all the hands they could get because the other 25 were just going to drink, so I stayed to work. No sleep, 98* degrees, 95% humidity, 25 lazy fat ticks sitting around doing nothing but farting and drinking screwdrivers & beer........then to make it worse we got docked sanitary points from the judges because John didnt have his gloves on when serving. We came in 4th!!! Boy I was pissed, then to make it worse a couple of judges came by to tell us we would have won whole hog had we not lost those points. Then I was really pissed! All that combined and I said no more! At the end of the afternoon my buddy Bryan Chandler was helping John clean up......he wasnt even a team member! It was pathetic! John is a pretty good guy and I hope to see him this week but the rest of the team that year as a whole was lazy and it got really frustrating. Careys team is not like that. He has guys who want to work! You either pay to be a working member or you pay a higher fee to be on the team but not work, a social member. Careys team is sponsored by Lobels, Jack Daniels Black Label and a few others. I'm really looking forward to this and hope we win! Unlike the Kansas City BBQ Society, which is the other sanctioning body for bbq competitions MIM can be a little political........I'll get into that later this week. Stay posted......this will be fun!

Biz is better.......go support Mothership BBQ.

Quick post here, more to come later today/tomorrow. Mothership BBQ is hitting a few bumps in the road here and I'm calling on any & everyone to go out and support Jim Reams and his place. Any place that is owned & operated by the owner we need to support. You can go to his blog (http://mothershipbbq.blogspot.com) and read up on whats going on with him, he's been pretty matter of fact as to what he needs. You may not have $50,000.00 to buy in to him but you can buy lunch there. Every little bit helps. Last week was even slower than the previous week. Slowest week of sales since January. My food reps kept telling me not to worry about it because everybody was slow because of "spring fever". Well that was easier said than done when you've seen the past 3 weeks do a swan dive off the Natchez Trace bridge. They were right, or so it seems. This week has been back on the track we were before this little 3 week bump. We've done really well this week so far. Lord willing today and tomorrow will be big, if so we'll be back around that $8200-$8500 range for the week. Unsolicited catering requests have really picked up. My plan is to really start beating the streets here in a couple of weeks for small -large catering jobs. If we can add another $2000.00 a week in catering it will really bring some comfort to things. The issue now is spending more money on catering equipment. I'm looking in to a competition style bbq trailer larger events. That will cost some pretty serious $$. We'll see, I need to get to work. I'll be blogging again later on, we've got a new person on board. The picture is just a random shot of my grandfather, Pa-King, with his two brothers on each side of him sitting in front of our pit in Mississippi. Not a dadgum thing to do with this post, I just felt like adding a picture today.

Bo's off to Texas playing 3 shows......

.......and is guest blogging while he's down there. Lord willing he'll be back for the start of next week. Here is his latest blog he sent to me tonight:

we ate at this gourmet Mexican place and to say the least it was
phenomenal. margaritas were the best ive had and ive had a few! smoked a
padron 1964 anniversary series to top off the spicy steak dish that i
was served. went to see the band "speedtrucker" play - all the guys were
realy nice and the music was really good too! then it was off to the
candleroom for a night cap. not much today just a bunch of sitting
around and waiting/watching tv trying to recoup from last night. ill
write more later. hope all is well at the joint. later