Bamabuzzard
is Blowin Smoke!
- Joined
- May 9, 2007
- Location
- Shreveport, LA
Exactly why I'm not in the business... Wife knows I have many years restaurant experience and am a pretty darned good BBQ cook (per her). She has said probably 1,000 times (no joke) "you should have a BBQ joint".
The margins are just too small. Here in GA they expect the sit-down experience. BBQ isn't "made to order", so keeping it fresh (to the standard that I'd require) is extremely difficult, and frankly, NOT INEXPENSIVE.
BBQ, when it's fresh and cooked well, is darned near magical to eat. However, it doesn't take long to lose that magic and become ho-hum. Even at ho-hum, it's still tough to make ends meet. Around here they must SELL SELL SELL the liquids to make a profit.
Franklin in Austin TX has it right. But, getting going he probably had a lot of sleepless nights and a tough time making the rent until he built the reputation that he so rightfully deserves. Yes, if you can get people to come in and order like this, you can turn out top-of-the-line Q.
I think the ideal situation (at least for me) is having a road side vending setup in a heavy populated location. Where you could setup at lunch and during the evenings (for people picking up a plate going home).
I know a guy that does tamales this way. He has a little setup that he can run by himself. It's not a sit down thing. He is on a main road that leads to a ton of housing communities. There's about 35,000 cars that pass him everyday going to and from work. He setup for lunch and in the evening. I don't know how he does for lunch but I can tell you in the evening when those 35,000 cars are coming home from work. He has a steady line everyday of the week. I doubt he's getting filthy rich but my guess is his profit margin is MUCH MUCH higher than most brick and mortar places, due to his low overhead.