New blog......

Thanks Mike Causey (Skyscraper Media) for the new look to the blog......now if I would/could just start posting a little more often.

3yr Anni!

Cant believe 3yrs ago today we opened the Joint! what a night.......me/bo yelling at each other, dad washing dishes, mom apologizing to customers for the wait, then for us running out of food, Bryan Chandler busting tablesl, Eric Lamb doing whatever he was doing......it was a forgettable day, but one that I never want to forget! As many of you know Bo is no longer with us on a day/day basis...........but we're still tight........we met tonight at City House to have a few beers and think about where we've been and where we are.......its been a heck of a ride, and Martin's has a long ride to go...(trust me) .........but that being said.........I could never have built Martins without my friends and family helping me, BUT i could never have built Martin's without that asshole redneck rastafari Bo Collier.............wouldnt have happened! what a great friend he is to me.........foxhole!!!

Ain't Stalled no more!

Had a window yesterday/today of no rain......so the boys were able to get out there today and pour. this is the hardest part, everything derives from this so its a big deal......steel here tomorrow, they start framing on Monday. This is great, we're moving forward. some pics to follow. ill have a biz blog in the next day or so......

still stalled

rain has passed, should have a slab poured by the end of the week. even still it will be another two weeks before the steel gets here. have a job site review meeting tomorrow at 12:00. been designing the smoke stack for the pit furnace. wed. night i drove to Murphysboro, IL to spend some time with mike mills and his genius daughter amy tunnicliffe. been trying to get up there since late last year but something has always come up.....ice storm, inland hurricane, all kinds of stuff. very quick trip (only 3hr drive though) went up wed. came back thursday. we just hung out and had dinner.......also it was nice to see tommy houston (checkered pig) as well.....great guy! very nice operation they have going up there......and what tremendous people they are! they were getting set up for their competition this weekend and with amy in town from boston i decided to run up there and see em'. my buddy kirk duggan went with me and we worked on my books (quickbooks) while we drove. kirk has been helping get caught up on my books, ive gotten behind on reconciling my transactions on a daily basis and now feel like im behind Mt. Everest. i would drive and kirk would ask me what each transaction was for and what account it needed to be placed under. just data entry but dadgum it was very helpful - really made a lot of progress.
last week ended up pretty well, especially as rainy as it was. as you've read on here in the past the month of September is an enigma. i have learned that its an enigma for everyone, not just martins bbq. very tough to predict/anticipate. but as its done the past 3yrs the last week of september starts to heat up again and october is or at least has been strong relative to the season. added to the front of the house over the past couple of weeks......very encouraged by them! the back of the house is still trucking....stronger - and leaner - than ever. still avg under 10min ticket times on our peak service (saturday night), under 4min on weekday lunch (unless you order a burger). putting that second line in back in july was the best decision ive made since opening up, its just been like night/day. now the line to place your order is still and/or can be still pretty long, but once your order is placed you ain't there long. the new joint wont have that worry of waiting long to order, its set up to get you in and get you out if you so please......really looking forward to that kitchen!

Stalled

So I went out the other day to check on the site, to see if the footers had been poured for the slab yet. wasnt anyone around except an old man in a huge wooden boat. I went over and introduced myself to him. He told me his name was Noah and that he'd keep an eye out for any contractors and let me know but that in the mean time he was very busy loading two of every beast on to his boat. Actually he did look pretty busy so I told him I'd see him around. He told me that it was supposed to keep raining for a while, but that he would keep me posted as to when it might dry up a little - then we could see some guys out working concrete. He said he would release a dove, and that when it came back with a masonry trowel we'd be pretty close to getting back to work. he told me to hang in there.