Follow up on the New Joint

[Blue Line Barbecue]

Well we have had HD, city code enforcement, fire dept, heat and air, plumbers
at the new location checking on repairs needed. Now is the time for budget.
I am sure there is a lot of experience in here on starting a restaurant. So I am
open to all suggestions and help. I have looked at equipment and have a list of
items needed to do this. We will be serving ribs, pulled pork, brisket (chopped and sliced), ¼ chicken, hot links, pork loin sandwiches, chicken wings, hot dogs and grilled cheese for the kids, fries, corn, baked beans, cole slaw, okra, potato salad, might look at atb’s and a smoked chicken salad. Does this sound like a lot for a 50-seat place? We are thinking we will need one for the grill and for the fryer, one to cut and one to plate. Of course the wife will be at the front taking orders and helping out in the back. I will come in at 300pm and finish out the day for the cook and do all the prep for the next day. We really want this to work and do not see why it won’t so all help is welcome.
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What got me started was a
Members Mark LPG
Vertical Smoker.

[Charlie Q2]

Hi,
How are you going to cook the wings? We tried fried but when it got busy they tied up the fryer and backed up orders wanting other fried sides. I know some folks out there are smoking them. Works good for catering but not so fast to reheat or guess how many you might need for raunt. One of the biggest factors in any business is controling waste/costs. We have zero waste! My other concern is the pork loin sandwich or dinner? What do you do with it if it doesn't sell? Start with menu stock you can change often until you get the menu worked out, it could take a several months to figure what will work for you. Maybe run some specials with things like that. One popular one for us is slow roasted pulled maple ham sandwich with side of southern mustard sauce.
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30 years of restaurants, banquets and catering, including 2 schools and over a dozen restaurants including 3 of my own
The never ending quest to make it so much better than yours, Qfanatic.com
never boiled and never dry BBQ

[jboehm]

Are you going to do call in orders? You need two full time in the kitchen and one swing to answer the phone and setup.

[Pit Boss]

One way to do wings that will help with the time factor is to smoke them, cool and refrigerate, and then fry to order. You need to smoke the wings until done. Once smoked, cool them on a rack and refrigerate. Then all you have to do is flash fry them for a couple of minutes per order. They'll easily heat through in that time and crisp up the outside.

If you're frying wings and the wing orders are taking up all your fryer space, then I would think you need an additional fryer. I'd not take an item off the menu because the volume of that item was too great...unless of course I was not making money with that item.
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Somewhere in Kenya...a village is missing their idiot.

[Blue Line Barbecue]

We will do call in orders, and we were planning to have two in the kitchen filling orders, one cutting and preping.

[Blue Line Barbecue]

Thanks for the info on the wings that is a good idea. A friend on mind in Kansas who has a place smokes then freezes the wings.Seems to be working for him.

[Blue Line Barbecue]

The way we do the loin, we take a pork loin cut it in 3/4 of inch,pound it out,bread then and freeze them. Pull from the freezer drop them in fryer at 350 for 5 to 6 minutes and serve on the largest bun you can find. This makes a big meal. So there is no waste. Try it, it is a great sandwich.