The picture for todays post has nothing to do with the post. This guy was at the beerfest and had one of the most "proving" mullets I've seen in a while. I went up and told him how awsome his mullet was and if I could get a picture of me holding it up for the camera.....he obliged. I later regretted not remembering to tell him how much respect i had for him because he wore a "push-broom" mustache. I love people who just dont give a damn! Anyway, today was one of those days where you do an awful lot of running around and spend a lot of time on the phone, then look back on the day and there is not much to show for it. Tomorrow the landlord and I should sign the final lease. We have been operating for the month of July on a 30 day lease with an option for me to bail if need be with the security deposit to be paid back in full. I requested several things for him get done during that time and inserted that 30 day agreement to make sure he got those things done, and he has. I would have felt better about signing it today being the last day of July but the guys a pretty good guy and I'm not too worried about it. Finalized the signage at roughly $1700.00 bucks. That gets a 5* by 7* sign on the road and a 4* by 7* over the front of the building. Filled out a variance request to the ciy to extend the existing shed over the area the cooker will be in to the property line.......after doing so they informed me that the request would not be heard until the 2nd week in September! Thats almost 2 weeks after I plan to open and I wont even have permission to do the construction work on that side until then, let alone having it completed. It will be Oct. 1 before that is done, assuming they grant me permission. I'll figure something else out in the mean time........Ellis Bryan if you are reading this start saving me some leftover materials for me to build about a 20' long privacy fence to have during the time being. Ellis (Bryan Custom Built Fences) builds without question the finest custom fencing in Middle Tennessee......seriously! Tomorrow I'll be getting the business license at the courthouse and buying a Winston C-VAP cook & hold oven. This is what we'll use to hold the shoulders & brisket in after they have finished cooking on the cooker. We will bring in 2-3 shoulders at a time to have on hand during the rush. The rest will stay on the cooker until we need them. As we need them we'll just go out to the cooker, bring them in and put them in the cook & hold. Another way to do this if you ever need to at home is to just use a beer cooler. Just take your meat off, wrap it in a towel and place it in the cooler. It will keep for a few hours. There is a bunch of other crap that ill tell you about tomorrow. Please keep my wife and unborn baby in your prayers to the Lord above......very exciting but very stressful times right now. Thanks again to all who read and post messages, it really helps..............I'll post tomorrow with and update Lord willing.
Music City Brewers Festival was a blast......made some great contacts, one of which is scheduled to be an off-site mini "grand opening" at a local brewery, maybe two local breweries. Weather was great, beer was great, crowd was great......very good day. Attached this pic with some cigar girls with go-go boots. Ball, Duggan, Jeff, Kieth & Myself with the girls. How bout' jeff hugging two hunnies. Gotta give the guy credit.........could'nt decide how to "sweeten his tea" so he went after both the white and the brown sugar to suit his taste.......God bless him! This week will be a busy week....should be signing the final lease tomorrow and starting on the demo and construction work. Should have an official open date at the end of this week.
Well here it is..........after much toil, Katie "All-Star" Walker out of Louisville, KY got this design finished for me. She was SO patient with me through this process!!! I am very thankful and blessed to have had her as my graphic artist.....she really is an awsome talent! I am very, very happy with the design, its very exciting! this particular color scheme is what will be on the sign on the road and over the door. I really like the mustard-yellow background but really chose this color combo because of the visibility from the road. It should bring attention to itself. There will be other color combo's for the t-shirts, caps etc.. Will start work this week inside the joint. I will mainly be doing some demo work in there on a partition wall and some other minor stuff. If I can get all that done in time for the contractor to get in there and do what he's going to do that will be great! I am hoping the guy can make time for me week after next. Will be picking the cooker up on the 11th so ive got to get the exterior done by then at least! Had a great time today at the beer festival......ill post about that with a pic later on. I've been fretting about this design for a month so please feel free to post your opinions about the logo, especially the good ones!
Have a lot to add, specifically the logo i have decided on in which I am very excited about! However, its not going to be until this afternoon that i add that because I'm headed down to the brew festival with some of the guys. Bryan, Michael, Jeff and some others are headed down there this afternoon. I know, I know......."but Pat, thought thats what you were doing last saturday". I thought it was too until we got to Bosco's and found out we were wrong on the date! No worries though, we all drank several beers at Bosco's and Tracy Jarrell once again had just a tad too much to drink........-SHOCKER!!! I'll post back this afternoon with the logo design, news from the bank and schedule of construction.
This will be a short post because i am still trying to mentally digest what my lovely wife slammed my brain with last night............she is pregnant. We just had a little boy (named Wyatt) 8 1/2 months ago! We werent plannng on another little one (lord willing) until 2008. I am excited......but the financial pressure and stress that just got added to an already pressure filled pot is dang near overflowing! This bbq joint HAS GOT TO make $$$....one way or the other. I may have to start selling small batch corn liquor on the side to get us over the top. In all honesty, we'll be alright. There are two types of men in the world, Alpha males and Beta males.......and I am a proud Alpha! When the pressure is on you either step up to the plate or you sit in the dugout and adjust your panties! not only will i step to the plate, i'm even going to point to the centerfield fence before the pitch!
What is this Blog???
You ever been sitting around cooking for your family and friends and been told the following: "Hoss, this is the best I've ever had in my dadgum life.....you have got to open up a place of your own". The thought crosses your mind to do just that, but for whatever reason you dont. Well I'm "that" guy that actually went through with it and did it. I had absolutely ZERO restaurant experience! I decided to start this blog about my own experience hoping that it may be of some use and help to others who might be interested in opening their own place.
I learned this craft almost 20 years ago cooking whole hogs on brick & cinder block pits at a couple of little BBQ Joints in Henderson, TN. I learned from old, lifelong career Pit-Masters, working with them as an apprentice during school off and on for four years. Over the course of that time I learned the old, time-honored craft of REAL pit barbecue. At Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint I am trying as hard as I can everyday to bring that time-honored authenticity to my customers.
As you read you'll see I've made some stupid decisions, and I've made some good decisions. If you are thinking of opening a restaurant, especially a BBQ Joint, read this blog! Maybe some of this info can be of use to you. At the very least you will be entertained because I pull no punches.
Now listen, this is my blog to not only help with information but my blog to freely rant about my day to day experiences. There is no real "bad language" on this blog but there might be some things said that are very "tongue in cheek". If you are easily offended and/or cant see the satire in my posts then please just leave the blog. It will save both of us the annoyance of each other. For those of you who do like satire and are looking for good information about this experience, then by all means enjoy!
