First Bar-B-Q in Kyrg...Shenanigans...Forever!

daddywoofdawg · Posted: Feb 15 2011 Post subject:

Jallen:so the kgb is checking you out?LOL!selling out is a good thing.
Harry: if you go, get yourself a big brimmed pimp hat and you can run the "cover charge" for downstairs.LOL!
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JAllen · Posted: Feb 15 2011 Post subject:

edited duplicate
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JAllen · Posted: Feb 15 2011 Post subject:

daddywoofdawg, thanks for the comment. re kgb, we've know this guy a long time and have spent a lot of evenings with him over the past decade. I'm pretty sure he's one of them. He tries to act pretty simple, but even the smartest people have a hard time acting dumb all the time. Still, I could be wrong.

Last night was a blur and we barely broke even. We would have done ok if we'd had enough bbq, and not offered the 20% discount on everything. A lot of people came and left as tables were full and they didn't want to wait at the bar. Nobody sat at the bar all night. Aigul and Bahid and Almaz showed up with their own bottle of vermouth. I allowed it, but will have to do something about this in the future. Maybe a $10 decanting/serving fee.

I used to take bottles of malt that I knew wasn't available to places around here and before sitting down ask them to charge me whatever they thought was fair.

Key learnings from last night.

1. Very busy and barely broke even for the night. Maybe eliminate 20% happy hour discount on holidays.
2. For the VIPs we required a minimum purchase amount paid up front as a credit. Big room we charged 25US, the small rooms 12. We could have charged more. Maybe double.
3. Regarding personnel: We managed okay with four people covering kitchen, vips, 8 tables. If we can streamline some processes, we should be able to manage smoothly with 4.
4. 80% of customers last night I hadn't seen; spillovers from neighboring places also full. I severely underestimated the amount of business we could get on a holiday. Next holiday is 23Feb - Veterans day. Then we have March 8th - Women's day. That's a big one.
5. The fact that we barely broke even was a blow. We have to do THAT every night just to breakeven. This makes building a lunch business/catering/summer crucial and urgent.
6. Maybe we need to raise prices.
7. We had too many people nursing beers for too long. It would be nice to somehow sweep them over to the bar and free the table.
8. We have a nice bar; why don't people want to sit there?
9. I let the kitchen get away from me; Mrs. JAllen was serving 8 huge halves as a potato skins order. I couldn't eat that much.
10. I'm sure none of us once the whole evening looked in the restrooms.
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daddywoofdawg · Posted: Feb 15 2011 Post subject:

Rise your prices 25% then offer a 15% discount on orders over $25.00 US or whatever would work for you.Makes people order more so they can get over the hump and get the discount.
ask when you seating people if they will be eating if they say no set them at the bar.
If there single set them at the bar.
Charge a mixer fee or a BYOB fee.You don't go into a bar and bring your own drinks and drink for free!just like you won't go into a restaurant and put out your own dinner.
what are the local snacks in your area?piroges?find a simple cheap snack food to sell to people that are coming just to drink.
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JAllen · Posted: Feb 15 2011 Post subject:

daddywoofdawg thanks again!

what are the local snacks in your area?piroges?find a simple cheap snack food to sell to people that are coming just to drink.

Here, people order croutons, smoked cheese, beer nuts, smoked fish, and 'koort', a dried (or moist) ball of salty yougurt that someone rolled under their armpit. They start out moist, but as the year progresses, they get harder. More than two years old and they're like jawbreakers, so people suck 'em.

Rise your prices 25% then offer a 15% discount on orders over $25.00 US or whatever would work for you. - like that

Charge a mixer fee or a BYOB fee. - check
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JAllen · Posted: Feb 15 2011 Post subject:

Just did some spying on a restaurant nearby. "Barmalay." Copied their menu while drinking an undrinkable cup of coffee. This place, atmosphere-wise is bordering on being a dive.

Alcohol - 30-50% cheaper than our prices, except for wine, where we're even. The don't charge more for shots than full bottles. We markup 3x for shots, 2x for .5 liter bottles.

Salads/appetizers - 25-100% more expensive than ours

Meats - 20%-50% more expensive than ours.

They earn very little on alcohol and big on food. I need to think on this one a bit. Any ideas?

We're not trying to be an inexpensive place, but luxury is also not the idea. We want to target upscale, urban working types willing to pay a bit more to sit in a nice place and get good food (bbq). This is pretty much the profile of the customers we get so far.

Additionally, we want to target expats in the city and have a plan to do this starting next month. By that time, our kitchen should be more or less in order, bbq meats should be more consistent and pretty good.

We get a bunch of people asking for kabobs, the standard meat dish here. They leave if we don't have it. I'm thinking about taking bbq chunks and skewering 'em and calling it a kabob. The other idea is just to do kabobs, but then we'll sell little bbq.
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BBQMAN · Posted: Feb 15 2011 Post subject:

daddywoofdawg · Posted: Feb 16 2011 Post subject:

Keep the booze prices where they are DO NOT lower those prices or you will have just drinkers and you already have people in drinking so don't fix what isn't broken.
Can you build a grill in you kitchen?something simple(cinder block and grate)fire with wood or charcoal,and do kabobs also.(It's what Americans call BBQ anyhow(yes I know it's not real BBQ).
bump up your food prices a touch on the big sellers and I would go with the idea I talked about before on pricing.
You have access to a french bread type of bread?slice down the middle,the length about 4",slice thin some lamb, or that tough beef after it's been smoked for hrs,heat on a flat top put a slice of cheese on it to melt and have a cheese steak sandwich.
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pitmaster t · Posted: Feb 16 2011 Post subject:

JAllen, "You Da Man"! I thought it was tough around here. Man was I wrong. I'd have to go with the kabobs and here's why. When we began opening at lunch the first thing we heard was "you need to sell burgers so the everyday crowd could have something different". We did. What we noticed was after a few months we were hardly selling any. The more people came in, the more they tried the BBQ side of the menu (brisket, turkey, sausage, wings and so on). That's how it worked here, but there, man I have no idea.

You truly have my respect. Bringing "new" things to an "old" world has got to be tough.
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JAllen · Posted: Feb 16 2011 Post subject:

pitmaster t thank you very much for your nice comment. I also think we have to offer standard kabobs. I was talking to Mrs. JAllen yesterday, saying, "Maybe we should just cut the bbq into cubes and stick 'em on a spit, grill for a minute and say we got kabobs.

Daddywoofdawg, on the sliced meat, you must be channelling Mrs. JAllen. I couple days ago I had Sasha condition the ex-President's slicer. We had some lamb in the refer so I had him practice on that, telling him we would be doing lunch sandwiches soon. He didn't injur himself, put it in a bag and it went home with us. Next day at home, Mrs. JAllen pulled it out, heated it with some au jus. She told me last night it was great. She wants to offer a pile of it with some buns.

We got a couple people in for lunch eating bbq chicken nuggets. I had to pull Sasha off the ladder. He was repairing the ventilation again.
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JAllen · Posted: Feb 16 2011 Post subject:

JAllen · Posted: Feb 16 2011 Post subject:

Sasha just made some good bbq nuggets, served with Alabama white sauce and now he's back up on the ladder fixing the fan. I'm not shaking him down about the smoking today. We don't let him in the hall or behind the bar until after 11, when we turn the lights down low.

Four minutes later and the nuggets are gone. Our first lunch food order!
u
11am rubbed a lamb leg, hucked it in the pit at 275. 4:00 Pulled it at 170. Bone still in after telling Sasha to debone. Well, wrapped in cello & towels. Put on the pit to keep warm. Perfect. Smoke & spices. I'm not sure why, but Perfect. Tastes like bbq and melting in my mouth. I just sent Ilia across the street to the bazaar for another full hind.

Anyone know about lamb meat selection? kcmike?

I just checked the log. The lamb was cooking 250-260.
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JAllen · Posted: Feb 16 2011 Post subject:

kcmike · Posted: Feb 17 2011 Post subject:

JAllen · Posted: Feb 17 2011 Post subject:

Best Wednesday so far.

From 5:00 until 10pm, 75% full. Nobody at the bar, so at some point I'm thinking we'll make happy hour at the bar only. We sold by far the most bbq of any day so far. Only lamb and chicken. We sold them all night. Half were repeat customers and I'm thinking maybe we have something here.

The group of vodka drinking ladies were in and they ordered everything on the menu. I think there was a 12-inch pile of slaw. And they did another liter and a half of vodka and walked out fresh as a newborn.

People like the food and I'm feeling more confident we can turn out reasonable quality consistently. Thanks to everyone who has commented here. You've helped in many ways.

Back to the lamb issue: The lamb we took to 170, not a drop of pink inside, but since it still had the soft texture of rare, Sasha and Ilia were saying it was raw. I was upset as it was quality, so I gave out about 10 samples. The locals said it should be cooked more. I didn't want to put the hacked hind back in the smoker, so when someone ordered it, I took them a sample explaining that it was fully cooked. Nobody declined, nobody left meat on the plate.

It's really a great feeling bringing bbq here and having it accepted by paying customers who return; well, accepted by everyone except Sasha and Ilia.

Tomorrow, I'm buying brisket.

March-April madness: There was a guy from the govt. security service in having a beer. Didn't get his name, but he knew mine. Mrs. JAllen showed him the vip as he wants to have a party "before he leaves." He advised not making any big investments, as he's planning to bug out before the coming Spring re volt. If that happens, it will be the third in six years.

About 10pm, a guy shows up and sits at the bar and orders coffee. Turns out, he's the owner of "Barmalay" the place I sp ied on, and copied their menu. He showed up when we were almost full, and probably wasn't happy, thinking we're taking some of his business. He had a look at our menu. He said his name was Askar, and he was wounded in last years cou p. The new govt. gave financial compensation to the heroes, and I think he used that money to open the place. He was polite and we talked about neighborhood safety, and meat prices at the bazaar across the street. He said he gets bone out beef for $3.20/lb. That's our bone in price, so I think we have some room to negotiate.
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JAllen · Posted: Feb 17 2011 Post subject:

smoked two, lean 1kg hunks of round at 230. Took them to 145. Tough.

heading for the slicer. Doing some garlic & onion mashed potatoes today from yesterday's potato skins. Maybe that'll cheer me up.

Mrs. JAllen, Ilia, and Sasha are all sick with the flu. Sasha went to the hospital, where I'm sure they will 1. stick an IV in his arm, 2. tell him he has some serious illness and prescribe a bunch of needless medicine. and 3. give him a shot of something.

This is standard procedure.

Man, don't want to get sick around here. Good thing BBQ is healthy.
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BBQMAN · Posted: Feb 17 2011 Post subject:

ChuckieD · BBQ Super Pro Joined: 07 Oct 2009 Posts: 1129

JAllen said,

JAllen · Posted: Feb 18 2011 Post subject:

Bit of a challenging day today. Sasha was sick, so it was just me and Ilia until about five when Mrs. JAllen shows up. Nobody in the place all day, except Katya and her friend, a couple nice girls who work at the radio station and dress nice. They're drinking coffee at 76 cents. About this time out comes the round at about 150. It's feeling mighty tough, so I tell Ilia to wrap it an fridge it and we'll slice it. We got ten chick portions, ten lamb portions (also sliced) and now about ten beef portions on their way to the slicer and I'm feeling bummed 'cause nobody is coming in; especially after yesterday, when I thought we were making headway with 11 tables.

The nice girls leave.

Then walks in Max...

Max is in a lot, drinking vodka with his friends Azamat, Aigul (whom I've written about) Bahid (ditto) and Almaz the security guy. Max looks like an asian Harvey Keitel and is always drinking and complaining, but he gave us our first tip, which we stuck on the pole behind the bar. Max was proud of this for awhile...You see he comes in almost broke and on a previous visit he couldn't pay his bill. No biggie; we stuck the bill on the pole for the next time he came in. He also asked me to borrow money once, which I declined. It was Aigul who brought in the bottle of Martini on Valentines Day, and we allowed it, but agreed that we would charge a fee for this or not allow it.

Well, Max comes in tonight with a couple of new friends. The place is empty as a pocket with nothin' to lose, and Max has a bag of food, and a bottle and they sit down. They ask if they can eat their food and drink their bottle, "but they will order something." First Mrs. JAllen said they couldn't eat their "brought-in-take-out." And she said we would charge them for drinking their bottle of cheap vodka.

Max was not happy, and he and the lady said "What's the problem, there's nobody here anyway." That hurt.

Then Max comes over to the bar and starts gettin' up in my grill. He's pissed and drunk and not being very nice. (Now, I'm thinking it's a good thing the place is empty) At that point, before things got out of hand, I had to urgently check the smoker, which only was smoking a hunk of baloney that I threw on for kicks.

After all this, looking at a small hunk of smoked baloney in a large cooker doesn't exactly build one's ego.

After I checked the baloney, I came back into the hall to see the three of them leaving, and Mrs. JAllen's eyes wider than usual.

"That lady said we should be careful that we don't get a bomb thrown in here."

A Bomb? WTF?

It didn't get better after that.

Sasha shows up back from the hostpital. Surprisingly no IV, no shot, no crazy medication. But he's wearing a facemask! (I swear, you can't make this stuff up) He scoots behind the bar and he's talking with us looking like Trapper John. (Again, I'm thinking it's not so bad the place is empty.) I ask him what was the diagnosis. Bird Flu? Swine Flu? He couldn't even tell me what was wrong with him and he was looking in fine health. I had to ask him to remove the mask twice before he took it off.

It gets worse. 1045, and we're packing to leave Sasha alone. Normally, he locks any customers in, face controls anyone who shows up at the gate, and lets people leave when they finish. I run through protocol, telling him don't take chances, only let in people we know and if you have the slightest bad feeling, call me and I'm here in ten minutes.

I'm walking out the front and three drunk, belligerent locals are tumbling along the fence outside, heading for our door. I'm at the front door with my keys and now they're on the other side of the "unlocked" door. They start yelling for me to "unlock the door" 'cause they see the keys in my hand not knowing that I'm trying to "lock" it.

We had just replaced the locks on seven doors. All the keys look Exactly the same on my keyring and I can't find the right key.
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BBQMAN · Posted: Feb 18 2011 Post subject:

Looks like you may need to hire some "security" after all. Shocked

My hats off to you brother, that just sounds like a horrible situation.................................
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