February 18, 2026 • 41 mins
In this episode of Barbecue Catering Smarts, Michael Attias sits down with Dan Bosworth, Owner & Pitmaster of Big Dan's BBQ in Catawissa, Pennsylvania.
Dan didn't grow up in restaurants—he came from manufacturing and supply chain management. That operational background became his unfair advantage. Instead of running barbecue on instinct alone, Dan built systems around food costing, production planning, staffing, and review management.
The result? Catering has grown into a major revenue engine for Big Dan's BBQ—approaching 40% of total sales—without sacrificing quality or burning out the team.
In this episode, Dan shares:
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Why simplicity is the secret to scaling barbecue
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How "executive sampling" converts corporate prospects into long-term catering clients
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The operational discipline that protected margins during rising food costs
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Why responding to every review strengthened customer loyalty
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How intentional systems reduce stress and make growth sustainable
If you want to grow catering without chaos, this episode is packed with practical strategies you can implement immediately.
Barbecue Catering Smarts is sponsored by CaterZen Catering Software.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:18):
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.
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Hello again, I'm Michael Letias, your host of Barbecue Catering Smarts and today's guestis Dan Bosworth, owner and pitmaster of Big Dan's Barbecue.
(00:46):
Dan turned a backyard passion into a beloved barbecue destination and he truly thrives onthe challenges of feeding large groups with consistency and care.
With a background in manufacturing, Jen brings a planning and logistics mindset to everycook, using operational discipline to help the business grow year after year without
losing the personal touch and quality that made it special in the first place.
(01:07):
A longtime member of the National Barbecue and Grilling Association, offers a groundedoperator's perspective on what it takes to deliver great barbecue at scale, especially
when catering is on the line and we're excited to have him on the show today.
Before we get started, let's take a minute to recognize our sponsor, CaterZen CateringSoftware.
They help barbecue restaurants turn their catering chaos into calm.
(01:28):
Discover why barbecue restaurants trust CaterZen to save them time and increase cateringsales.
Go to caterzen.com and sign up for a walkthrough of the software.
Now let's dive into this episode of Barbecue Catering Smarts.
Welcome, Dan.
How are you doing today?
Good, Michael.
How are you?
Thanks for having me here.
Great.
Thanks for being here.
I like to get everyone started off with an icebreaker question.
(01:50):
Give me a number between one and 300.
175.
175.
What's one thing you'd like to learn more about?
Hmm.
question.
(02:10):
As far as in the cooking world or just anything in general?
Oh, all right.
I think it would be great to learn more about how this AI thing works.
There's a lot of that stuff out there and it's infiltrating businesses everywhere and Ithink it's going to be the future and I want to learn a little bit more about how to make
(02:32):
it work, not just for the business, but personally as well.
as well.
It's absolutely crazy where AI has come and how I use AI.
um Like I don't even use Google anymore.
um I do all my stuff in uh chat GPT and.
(02:53):
you know, whether it's a health issue or something, our dog was having some stomach issuesand literally Chachibet was like a veterinarian told us exactly why the where the problem
came from, what we need to do, how to rectify it.
It's just, it's spot on.
Well, it's unbelievable.
(03:13):
I have heard a little bit about how it kind of takes your brain down a little bit, youdon't
have the creativity.
So it's kind of a two-edged sword.
You can do a lot of things with it, but if you're doing too much, then you're not buildingthat creativity on your own and working your brain out.
So I think it's a good tool to use, but I wouldn't rely on it too much.
(03:34):
much.
um I think the way I use it is uh a lot of it is how you design the prompts, like how youtalk to it.
Right.
And so for me, it takes a lot of brain power to set up the problem, right?
Like, you know, it's a very, I don't
just say give me a marketing plan for a barbecue restaurant.
(03:56):
would go into a lot of detail about as much facts as possible and so just by that verynature I feel like I'm not being dumbed down.
um
you I'm talking to it with a lot of forethought, not just Yeah, I think that's, thinkthat's important is using it like that.
Instead of just saying, create this for me is giving it those prompts and helping itrefine what you're looking for.
(04:21):
Yeah, we're looking at bringing AI more into the forefront towards the end of the year.
I think there's a lot of opportunities to make barbecue restaurants more effective.
And that could be something as simple as just analyzing your sales volume, looking at
trajectory of a customer.
(04:41):
Like traditionally, we've said, okay, if somebody hasn't ordered in 45 days, we need toreach out to them.
Well, one is, does everybody need to be called in 45 days?
If somebody books a big event with you once a year, they probably don't need to be calledevery 45 days.
If somebody orders from you weekly, they probably need to be called in 15 days.
(05:04):
And then looking at people's trajectory, are they ordering less?
Why are they ordering less?
Is it fewer people?
Are they cutting back on the budget so they're buying a less expensive package?
So getting some insights on trends and I think AI is good for that.
And I think it's also good.
uh We've got on the drawing board like an AI text message upsell tool.
(05:27):
So you confirm the orders the day before and anybody that doesn't have drinks or desserts,you suggest them.
And listening to phone calls, know success leaves clues so who's really selling the mostwhy are they selling the most and um Is there something you can learn from how they sell
(05:52):
versus how someone else sells?
Yeah
Well, as you mentioned, I came from a manufacturing background.
And so this data analysis and crunching numbers and spreadsheets is very familiar.
And so that's my default is to go to those things.
So if I can figure out a way to use AI to help shortcut that whole process, then thatwould make me a little more effective and efficient.
(06:13):
efficient.
There's some of our clients that are taking caters in reports and they're putting them inAI to analyze things.
well.
So if you reach out to Jill, our COO, she can tell you.
prompts to use and what other people are doing.
So at least give you a good starting point.
(06:34):
So tell me, you guys started off in manufacturing.
What was, and sorry, I don't know if you hear a dog whining, but my fiance went to yogaand the dog has separation anxiety, I guess, if we're both not here.
Spoiled dog.
What type of manufacturing work did you get into and what's your background inmanufacturing?
(06:59):
Well, I went to school for production operations management and graduated and took a jobat a company in Philadelphia that remanufactured car parts.
So you would take your power steering pump back to Napa.
Yeah.
They've sent it back to us.
We strip it down and do all that.
So what specifically did you do?
What was your area of expertise?
(07:20):
So I ran the steering division.
when I was there.
so operations management, oversight, labor allocation, efficiency, costs, order fill, allthat stuff.
stuff.
So you come, I'm going to sort of surmise, you came to the barbecue world from a businessbackground as opposed to a culinary.
(07:41):
Yes.
So probably a lot of discipline, a lot of systems, a lot of spreadsheets, a lot of forms.
Yeah.
So how'd you get in the barbecue world?
Where did it all start?
Sure.
The company I worked for started looking at uh moving some products down to Mexico.
save labor.
We're a very labor intensive business.
(08:03):
And so from probably the late 2000s, they started that process.
And 2010, 2011, the plant that I was in started moving.
moving.
And so I got out of the manufacturing side, jumped over into the supply chain logistics.
(08:24):
side of the business, made a few trips down to Mexico to help get the thing set up.
Anyway, 2012, end of that, was like, you know what?
I think I'm ready to be done with this and move on to something else.
else.
I pursued some different options, none of those worked out.
And so in 2013, I reached out to a guy I knew who had a barbecue business.
(08:45):
And I said, Hey, I just want to get in the business.
I was a backyard guy.
I cooked for everybody.
We have stuff at our house all the time.
And so I reached out to him and said, I wanted to get in the business.
And he said, well, I'm selling my trailer.
He had this big mobile kitchen type trailer.
And so, uh,
I said, yeah, let's do it.
So I told my wife, said, let's buy this trailer.
(09:07):
I reached out to her parents who own a farm up in central Pennsylvania, which is where weare now.
And I said, hey, can we set this trailer up on your parking lot?
in the summer and just see how it goes.
So we did that.
It kind of grew.
We got into a big fair here locally and in the fall and we said, all right, I guess thisis what we're going to do.
So we enrolled our kids in school and moved up here.
(09:31):
It's about two and a half hours from where we were and just kind of started the business.
The interesting thing around here, the term barbecue has been applied to what most of theworld calls sloppy Joe.
Joe.
Yeah.
Because some people think barbecues, hamburgers, and hot dogs.
definitely have different.
(09:51):
Yeah, the term is very broad.
when I first...
married into the family, my mother-in-law said something about making barbecue and I waslike, this is great.
We're going to have brisket or ribs or whatever.
And she pulls out sloppy Joe.
And so that's where I learned this is what barbecue is.
So opening a barbecue business in this area, uh, we ever had some surprise customers that
(10:13):
that didn't expect pulled pork or brisket or ribs.
They were looking for sloppy Joe's.
so that was that we had to train our customers a little bit on what we were doing.
But that was 2013.
We grew the business in 14, 15, 16.
We continued to grow.
2018, we started realizing that we needed to expand a little bit and looked at someadditions, looked at additional property, whatever.
(10:42):
And in the place we are now, there was a, it was an old barn.
So you're, you're, you're, when did you transition off your in-laws property?
We actually bought that property.
Okay.
Yep.
Yeah.
So it was a farm, a farm market, uh, working orchards, apples, peaches, cherries,strawberries.
And so they retired in 2015.
(11:04):
My wife and I took over the farm.
And so now we operate the farm and the barbecue restaurant.
So you're not a glutton for punishment?
No, no, that's why we're seasonal.
We open middle of April and we close the end of December.
uh We just we need a few months break to plus there's not a lot going on around here.
(11:26):
We're pretty, really located.
And in the summertime, there's a big park summer and fall.
There's a big amusement park down the road that draws a lot of people.
So we get a lot of that.
tourism coming to the area, but.
January, February, March, things around here are pretty slow.
So we we take take a break, do projects that we need to do.
(11:49):
Travel a little bit and uh get back into it in the spring.
Nice.
It's nice to have a little bit of break.
I'm I'm sure you're fixing things around the farm and there's always things to be done.
But it's uh probably nice.
And do your kids work in the business with you?
They have my oldest is graduating college this year.
He's getting married in June and he's gonna be working in the finance world so my daughteris gonna be she's a sophomore in college right now and My youngest is 14 so he does work
(12:19):
in the business But the older two have worked for me while they were in high school andand here during college though Yeah
So what percentage of your business would you say is catering?
When I say catering, it could be anything from a full service event to
aluminum pans, people just want some food dropped off or picked up for backyard.
(12:40):
It's grown every year.
I think we were probably 40 % of the business this year was catering.
Wow.
been up a little bit every year.
So yeah, it's a big part of the business.
Where what's are there big employers in the area?
What's your niche?
You know, I've dealt with a lot of barbecue guys, you know, the guys in bigger cities,obviously, it's, it's blue ocean, right?
(13:03):
There's a million people you can knock on doors in a smaller community.
So what's what are your niches that you you focus on?
ah Anybody that wants barbecue around here?
It's a we have a lot of small
graduation parties, family reunions, things like that, that we do.
That's kind of the, every week we'll have a few of those just coming in.
(13:25):
Um, we do a fair amount of weddings in the area.
There's a lot of barn venues around here that the barbecue cuisine goes really well withthat format.
So we do cater a lot of weddings.
We don't personally,
no, we go to other places.
Is that so you can get more business funnel to you from those people and they don'tconsider you a competitor or I mean, is that by?
(13:50):
No, most of these are don't have their own in-house catering, their own in-house kitchens.
They're just a venue, just a building.
So people come in, rent the facility and then they'll recommend caterers to them.
And so we have good relationships with a lot of them.
And so they will recommend us and.
generally most people take it.
it.
Do you pay them a referral fee?
(14:12):
is it more?
Nope, just good relationships with them.
We've been working with them for a while.
And I think for them, most of these places are, you know, small businesses, they don'twant the headaches of having to deal with all of the food stuff.
So if they're happy to refer to somebody else, you know, and they'll have a list, they'llhave five or six people that they refer.
(14:34):
If you want barbecue, go with these guys.
If you want, you know, Italian, go with these people or whatever.
if anybody wants barbecue, generally they're referring them to us.
So there's other places around, but we get a lot of those referrals.
And then we also have quite a few, uh, big businesses around warehouses.
facilities, things like that.
(14:56):
And we've actually done...
quite a few multiple shift caterings where we'll do a larger group for lunch, medium sizedgroup for dinner, and then like a small drop-off group at like third shift midnight or
something like that.
So.
So yeah, we used to do a lot of that.
We would drive up to two hours for a big group.
(15:16):
Yeah, because it was worth it.
And you know, the same thing, you know, the graveyard shift, you'd have 20 people, and yousort of take it on the chin, but you pick up 1000 people, you're happy to not be
profitable.
at 3am.
Yeah, we've had a lot of companies that have reached out to us for that reason.
They say most people don't want to take care of our third shift people.
(15:37):
And we said, we'll do it.
And you like you said, it's you're losing a little bit on that.
A little bit of sleep, probably breaking even on everything else.
But you're making it on the lunch and dinner shift.
So yeah, you more than make up.
What's the biggest event you've ever done?
One time, like a one single shift, I think it's about five or six hundred, five fifty,something like that.
(15:59):
That was a group from a local hospital here, like an IT group that we did.
There's a local business that's closer to eight fifty, but that was split out overmultiple shifts in a couple of days.
So it wasn't near as much at one time.
time.
Yeah, that's I mean, that's pretty good size for coming from a small town.
(16:21):
Yeah.
Now, you proactively go after business, or do you just wait for the phone to ring?
Both.
Well, yeah, a lot of our stuff just comes from referrals.
People, had it at a wedding or a graduation party or at their business or something.
(16:42):
And so then they end up coming in, and we give them a catering menu.
the next event they have, uh they'll use us.
But over the past couple of years, we've done something we call it executive sampling.
So we'll go reach out to a local business and say, Hey.
hey, get 10 or 12 of your decision makers together.
We'll bring lunch for you guys on us.
(17:05):
And we'll leave them information about catering, what we can do.
And uh typically, that has yielded pretty good results, maybe not immediately.
but they'll come back in six months or nine months and go, hey, we are this big companywide thing.
Let's reach out to these guys because their stuff was really good.
good.
So, yeah.
So a lot of these bigger companies and I'm sure, you know, for manufacturing, we would doa lot of safety luncheons.
(17:31):
That was a big thing for us and picnics and holiday parties.
So there's, there's definitely a lot of opportunity out there.
Are you the, I guess, chief revenue officer, the guy that goes out there and the face inthe public?
Well, we had a catering manager up and he left taking up a different job at the end ofthis year.
But over the past few years, he was the one who was kind of out.
(17:52):
He had a sales background and so he was very comfortable with doing that.
so moving forward until we replace him, it'll be me out doing that stuff.
stuff.
Did you notice a big bump in sales bringing him on?
Well, he came on right as we opened the restaurant.
So we switched from that roadside trailer to a restaurant in 2021.
(18:14):
And so he came on right as that happened.
So there was a natural increase in sales just from being open more and being inside andnot being weather dependent.
But he also definitely did push our catering business quite a bit.
Do you all do a lot of drop off catering?
A lot?
Yeah.
Is that mostly a weekend thing?
(18:35):
A weekday thing?
uh
Probably split pretty evenly.
We have a lot of local businesses that maybe they're doing a safety luncheon for 20 or 30people that they don't want a departmental lunch, that they don't want to do a full
service catering.
So we'll just drop off food for them.
(18:55):
And then on weekends, you know, it might be a graduation party or a...
baby shower or something that will drop food off.
We have a lot of pickups too.
People just want to come by and pick up four or five trays of food and that works outgreat too.
too.
Yeah, absolutely.
So coming from manufacturing and getting in a whole other industry, so to speak.
(19:15):
What were like if you were going to advise anybody else?
Because I think everybody has a dream of opening a restaurant.
A lot of people want to open a barbecue restaurant.
You know, I've got a big green egg in the backyard and I'm really good and I feed myfriends and family.
But, you know, there's a difference between being a hobbyist and being a professional.
And it's, you it's a business, right?
(19:37):
What are two or three big takeaways if you were going to, you know, mentor, advisesomebody today to think about or
things that you get your butt handed to you on a platter.
And man, I wish somebody had taught me that.
I think for me, simplicity is a key.
(19:59):
I have a lot of people who were friends of mine, or people I know who go, I made theseribs at my house.
they were, mean, yours are good, but mine are better.
And I go, OK, cook 40 of them.
Well, I can't do that.
Okay.
uh Or I did this whole process to my pork butt.
I soaked it and I marinated it and I injected it and then I...
then I babied it through the whole process.
(20:22):
Do that with 50 or 60 pork butts.
can't do that.
So keeping it simple, you know, simple rubs, simple process.
It makes it scalable.
And it makes it consistent.
And it makes it to where I can hand over that to somebody in the kitchen and they canhandle that.
uh We make our own sauces in-house.
(20:43):
And so we've got it all scaled out to the recipes by the gram.
gram.
And I can give that.
And it's all based on a whole whatever jar of mayonnaise or mustard or a bag of ketchup.
And then it scales from there.
And so anybody can.
make barbecue sauce.
It's consistent and doesn't require, you know, some special touch from the master to makesure that it's, it's right.
(21:07):
Um, so I'm big on simplicity so I can scale it and keep it consistent.
And then also, um,
part of the reason we're seasonal is our location, but also we work a lot during theseason and
if I did it seven days a week, year round, I wouldn't want to do it anymore.
(21:32):
I'd get burned out.
So allowing yourself to have a little bit of a break, whether it's seasonal.
or whether it's, you know, during the week, not being open seven days, or whatever, giveyourself a little bit of time off.
And even the days that were closed, I'm here, you know, I'm doing orders, I'm receivingproduct, I'm prepping stuff, I'm doing bookkeeping, you know, whatever.
(21:55):
So
So it's having a little bit of that time to take a mental break in the business.
It's not always the physical hole, it's just the mental.
It's constantly thinking, oh, I've got...
six catering pickups on Saturday, and we've got a services on Saturday, and I have stuffon Friday, and trying to think through all that and planning it.
prepping today to cook it tomorrow and serving it the next day or whatever it's there's alot of mental gymnastics that happen.
(22:22):
So taking a mental break is also important for that as well.
a good point.
You know, you definitely have to make time to enjoy the journey as you're going.
Yeah.
Life's too short.
You know, you see too many people.
They say, when, I get to this age and I retire, we're going to start enjoying life.
And then they're dead today, two years later.
(22:42):
You know, take a little bit of time every week to
enjoy something, find something you enjoy because you get burnt out and you look back andit's like where'd the time go.
Yeah I want to dovetail on two things, go back to two things you said that the first thingis about, I was sort of chuckling when he said oh great can you make 50 ribs, can you do
(23:04):
50 butts.
The guy who started Quarkies was a mentor of mine and I had a Quarkies.
out of college for 14 years.
And he used to say, anybody can make good barbecue, but can you make good barbecue for 500people?
Exactly.
And that's a very good point.
(23:24):
The other thing you talk about systems, I'm sure that ties back into your manufacturingbackground is the way your brain thinks.
Have you ever read Michael Gerber, the E-Myth?
No.
write that down.
down.
I read it years and years and years ago and basically he says whether you want to be aMcDonald's and have 10,000 units or you just want um a hair salon with one unit, treat
(23:57):
your business like it's a franchise.
Systematize everything, have checklists and have it.
Almost idiot proof, right?
And so I remember
Back when I opened my restaurant, we didn't have this at our, you know, the franchiseorge.
I made checklists of this is opening checklists.
This is a closing checklist.
We have a system to keep up with food costing every day.
(24:19):
You know, we would take all our PLUs out of the register and I created a spreadsheet thatsays, okay, based on a slab of ribs, should have used a slab of rib, a regular order
dinner, a half a slab of rib, know, barbecue sandwich, you know, four ounces.
And I had it all figured out.
And then we would count all the commodities every day.
and say, okay, how did we do compared to perfection?
(24:41):
So all those things really, really make a difference.
ah
into the earlier discussion about AI is being able to use that to make those decisionsquicker is going to be huge.
Cause I had, tried last off season, I kind of built this whole spreadsheet with my recipesand, and food costs.
(25:02):
had it tied in, had bookups from, so I could just update this spreadsheet with my pricesand it would filter into the whole thing.
And, uh, I didn't use it that much during the season because it's cumbersome.
And I'm not a tech guy.
I'm not a
science guy.
So if I could find a way to make that simpler, then it's going to be a tool that I userather than something I spend a lot of time on and refer back to it a couple of times a
(25:30):
year.
year.
Yeah.
m Can you get your PLU count out of your point of sale system?
Yeah, we use square.
So I can export whatever we have.
we have.
So I would probably start with that.
And loaded in chat GPT and say, hey, you're one of the top, you need to tell it what itis.
(25:52):
So it's in that mindset.
So you're one of the top food costs.
specialist for restaurant barbecue restaurants and caters and I'm giving you a spreadsheetof all the items we sell Feel free to ask me any questions and I need you to help me
create a food costing program Based around this because I'm gonna upload my PL use dailyor weekly or you know I'd probably do a weekly we did a week.
(26:19):
We did a We did a daily To count the meats and then weekly we did a food costing buthowever you want to do it
and then have it work backwards.
Because you should be able to take all your PLUs and throw it in a, you know, dump it in aspreadsheet.
Sure.
And then it calculates it and then you update your prices, commodities weekly and thenwhatever monthly, you know, your groceries monthly.
(26:44):
And you're going to get pretty good, you know, hey, this is our theoretical food costversus actual.
Yeah.
that makes sense.
is important because you want to know if you're being stolen from, if there's waste.
so let's just take something super simple.
All you sell is slabs of ribs, right?
(27:06):
One skew.
You open up with 20 slabs of ribs, you cook 40, and the register says 30.
Well, you should have 30 in the cooler when you close the doors, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And if you don't, where did those ribs go?
If it's one or two off, you could say, well, we had a recook.
had somebody send them back.
(27:27):
They fell on the floor.
If it's over, same thing in manufacturing.
You have a certain amount of waste or imperfection that's acceptable.
Anything after that, you start, it starts raising flags, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, that's true.
We, when, uh,
(27:48):
in 2020 when 2021, I guess, when prices just started going crazy on food costs.
We had just moved from the trailer to the restaurant and we set our prices and I waspretty happy with that.
And then food costs continue to go up.
And I said, man, I really don't want to just increase my prices again.
(28:09):
So I really don't down on
our efficiency on everything in-house, making sure that we were as efficient and low wasteas possible.
And we got through that whole season without raising our prices.
Our ingredient costs were up, but our overall food costs, cost of goods was down.
(28:33):
down.
oh
we were just more efficient and more effective and tracking things better internally.
And so we did that for a couple of years.
And then finally, I was like, all right, we have to, we're about as efficient as we canget.
I'm going to have to bump some prices here and there.
But I, I personally did not want to just pass on that price increase to a customer when Iknew that I would stop being efficient in house.
(28:58):
didn't feel like that was.
That wasn't operating with integrity.
So I wanted to make sure I was doing things right in-house before I felt the comfortablepassion that price increase on.
on.
So what can you share two or three things you did to tighten things up and, you know,reduce waste?
Well, just portioning things out using a scale when we were in the trailer.
(29:21):
It was kind of almost like that barbecue fest.
state fair concept where you're just slapping the phone in butt and sending it out.
We didn't have scales.
didn't have that kind of stuff.
So, you know, weighing out all of our portions was huge.
And it took a little while for our staff to go, that's...
that's that's what a six ounce sandwich looks like.
(29:44):
Yeah.
You were making eight ounce sandwiches or some people were only making four ounces.
So which is.
from a culinary standpoint, that's one on one, you know, but from a business standpointand coming from, uh, this trailer into a restaurant, you know, we had to straighten those
things up.
I had mentioned about our, uh, recipes with all of the, the,
(30:08):
the weights, we make coleslaw, and it was cabbage, a couple big scoops of mayonnaise, someglugs of vinegar, yeah, mix it up.
And now it's however many grams of uh
grams of uh vinegar, whatever, that we make it in-house.
Actually, we make our an Alabama white sauce and we use that as the base for our coleslaw.
(30:31):
So it's streamlined even more.
So rather than
than being inconsistent, we said to bag a coleslaw and however many ounces of white sauce,coleslaw is done.
So anybody can make that.
So just systematizing those things in the kitchen and then also trying to come up withways to reuse the end of the day.
(30:54):
uh I've been to a lot of restaurants, barbecue restaurants specifically where I kind ofgo, hey, this, this was reheated.
It's still good.
good.
And I can tell it was something that they reheated.
And so if I can, if I can tell
it's been reheated, I don't want to serve that to the customers.
(31:14):
So we try to streamline it.
And then if we know we're not going to use it, we'll pull it early and stick it in thefreezer.
or something like that.
Or if it's already been kind of chopped and ready for the table, we have a little bitleft, we start to accumulate that and we make chili or we'll make buffalo chicken dip with
our chicken or things like that.
(31:35):
We really don't throw away anything.
And uh it was part of the...
you're using leftover or food that didn't sell and you're cross utilizing it for otheritems.
So you've got the Buffalo chicken.
You've got the brisket chili, brisket chili.
What else are you, do you do quesadilla?
(31:56):
Do you things like quesadillas or a barbecue baked potatoes or not?
Not yet.
Um, we pretty much have, have
other thing that we'll do is we'll put stuff in the freezer in pints.
And then because we have a farm market downstairs, we will sell it frozen that way.
So people can come in if we're not here on a Monday, because we're closed or a Tuesday,we'll come in and go, where they want to barbecue?
(32:21):
Well, there's some pork, there's some brisket, there's mac and cheese, there's beans.
They can buy those things.
Absolutely.
awesome.
Do you do, have you done barbecue nachos?
Yeah, yeah, we do.
have those on our revenue all the time.
the time.
Yeah, make those at home.
Absolutely.
People love them.
People love them.
Yeah.
(32:41):
So let's transition to, you know, growing sales.
You talked about knocking on doors and, you know, doing these tastings for companies andyou talked about word of mouth and referrals, anything else that you've done, either to
get catering sales, or to get people
(33:03):
back you doing any type of regular marketing nothing specific we did renovate our websitelast year it's a good-looking website I went to it before thank you yeah it looks very
very we hired a company that does all that stuff and so they're managing it for us they'redoing all the SEO optimization
(33:29):
et cetera.
And I've noticed this year specifically, or this past year, that we had a lot more peoplecame in.
in.
We try to ask everybody, how did you find us?
know, mostly because we have a lot of people from out of town that are coming here forthat amusement park or for tourism in the area.
(33:50):
And so we always ask how'd you find us?
And
And 99 times out of 100, we were just looking for something to eat.
We Googled food near us, and you guys came right up.
And so we've got 700 and some odd reviews.
we've a 4.9 rating, which helps also.
So that pops up pretty highly.
(34:10):
I think that people underestimate that like when my fiance and I go out to eat and we'resomeplace we don't know, we're looking at that rating, right?
know, absolutely 800 people can't be wrong.
You know, you can't game for, you know, 800 4.9 star reviews.
Right.
Right.
You if you got 10 reviews, that's a whole different thing.
(34:32):
you know, when it has a lot of reviews, leave me review and it's but the longer it goes.
We were at a 4.8 for a long time.
And I told our staff I said if we can get I forget what it was 50 I did a littlespreadsheet.
Yeah, figured all out.
I said if we can get it was 50 or 60 or something more.
(34:52):
Five stars without a four or less.
that will bump our average to a 4.9.
It was like 4.85, whatever.
And so we did.
we were asking people, we put little table talkers out and, hey, if you liked us, leave usa five star.
If there was something wrong, come tell us, we'll fix it.
(35:14):
And so uh we got that.
We hit 4.9 and we've just been continuing to grow.
And also I...
I...
respond to every single one of them, even if it's just a thank you with their name, I wantto make sure that people see that not just the negatives.
Sometimes I look at reviews and then I see the people leaving these big negative reviewsand then the response.
(35:36):
So I respond to everybody and try to, if it's a legitimate thing that we did, we'll fixit.
A lot of times it's misunderstanding of something or whatever, but.
But that's awesome.
So what's next?
You know, as you look, you know,
Do you have a what's next?
you happy with what you've got and just want to keep it going?
(35:56):
ah We were not operating out of this trailer since 2013 and it has a Southern Pride SPX700, I think in it.
And then we'll be open the restaurant.
I bought a whole Hickory, E-L-E-D-X.
So I've got those two and they're in two different places.
(36:18):
One of them is kind of on a porch and so it's outside.
So there's some days when it's beautiful standing out there and there's some days whenit's cold and windy.
So we're looking to um get rid of the trailer and build kind of a smokehouse thing inhouse that we can um have it all under one roof and not to be connected to the kitchen so
(36:42):
that we don't have to uh take stuff outdoors and be working when it's raining or snowy orwhatever, which would be nice.
um I've been looking at.
a piece of equipment called the game changer.
And if you've heard of that before.
it sounds interesting.
It's a pellet smoker shaped like a
(37:05):
warming cabinet or a bakery, you can roll a bakery rack into it.
But so it works off of trays, but it's a, it's a dehydrator.
It's a pellet smoker.
It's a cooker.
It's kind of everything in one.
And so I was talking to the guy who was their corporate chef.
telling me about the different things, he'd make jerky and he makes smoked cheeses and hemakes all kinds of things like that.
(37:26):
And so he smokes his herbs, dehydrates his parsley and cilantro for make him he doeseverything in house.
so I, but I don't know if I want to get to that level.
But since we're attached to this farm market down here, we've got people coming inshopping for grocery things and whatever.
So if we can do our own smoked cheeses.
(37:47):
cheeses, jerky, things like that, that we can offer for sale, both here in the restaurantand then also down there in the market on days that we're closed, that would be another
way to expand the brand a little bit.
Have you ever done smoked vinegar or smoked salt?
Smoked salt, not smoked vinegar.
Yeah, there's a uh chef in Nashville, he's got a farm to table restaurant in Hill.
(38:10):
He smokes a lot of stuff in his restaurant.
It's not a barbecue restaurant, but he likes using a smoker.
He's done smoked vinegar.
So a lot of cool things that you can probably make out of that.
This guy was telling me he makes smoked soy sauce.
Oh, yeah.
Talk about umami.
He makes smoked butter, cold smoked butter.
(38:32):
don't know if you've, if you've ever smoked butter.
I've done it in my smoker here, and essentially melts the butter, it gets all the solidsout, and it turns into a smoked, it's really more like ghee, it's clarified butter.
Great for cooking, not so much for eating.
You don't want to spread it on a bread, it doesn't have that same kind of butteryrichness.
But if you cold smoke,
(38:54):
butter, it's like cold smoke and cheese.
You keep that same richness and creaminess, but you get some smoke flavor into it as well.
So, yeah, lot of cool things to learn.
Well,
ah Any any final thoughts you want to give the listeners tips?
uh advice before we close out be kind to your customers For me, tell our I tell our staffwhen people come to either a catering event or to the restaurant they're they're choosing
(39:26):
barbecue because It's either a celebration or it's just a little more relaxed kind offamily get-together uh
Our restaurant is not a place where people go out of necessity, like, I'm out, gotta grabsomething hungry.
Let me go grab a slab of ribs.
You know, they're not doing that.
They're doing it because it's an event.
It's an occasion.
And so I want our staff to treat our customers the same way.
(39:48):
You know, just like they're coming to your house, they're coming for an event.
It's the same thing here.
uh So that's kind of the atmosphere and the ambiance that we try to create, you know.
know.
smile and talk to our customers.
We thank them for coming.
We ask them where they're from.
And it makes a difference.
I think that's part of that 4.9.
If you read through those people like, their staff is so friendly, that's by design.
(40:12):
You know, we hire friendly people and we treat people with kindness and respect.
And I think it helps people keep coming back.
So in addition to having good.
having good.
Sorry, what was that last part?
in addition to having good food.
Yeah, that's the foundation, but...
But yeah, I think I think today's day and age you get so much mediocre service that if youget great service, you definitely makes an impact.
(40:39):
You want to go back?
Well, Dan, I appreciate your time today.
And yeah, thanks for having all this.
Great.
Awesome.
And I'm going to take us out.
All right.
Thanks, Michael.
Have a great day.
You've been listening to Barbecue Catering Smarts, where we bring you the best ideas,stories, and strategies from across the barbecue catering industry.
(41:03):
We hope today's episode sparked new insights to help you refine your systems, elevate yourcustomer experience, and grow your catering profits.
For more episodes and insights, be sure to subscribe, share, and join us next time.
.
.
.
Hello again, I'm Michael Letias, your host of Barbecue Catering Smarts and today's guestis Dan Bosworth, owner and pitmaster of Big Dan's Barbecue.
(00:46):
Dan turned a backyard passion into a beloved barbecue destination and he truly thrives onthe challenges of feeding large groups with consistency and care.
With a background in manufacturing, Jen brings a planning and logistics mindset to everycook, using operational discipline to help the business grow year after year without
losing the personal touch and quality that made it special in the first place.
(01:07):
A longtime member of the National Barbecue and Grilling Association, offers a groundedoperator's perspective on what it takes to deliver great barbecue at scale, especially
when catering is on the line and we're excited to have him on the show today.
Before we get started, let's take a minute to recognize our sponsor, CaterZen CateringSoftware.
They help barbecue restaurants turn their catering chaos into calm.
(01:28):
Discover why barbecue restaurants trust CaterZen to save them time and increase cateringsales.
Go to caterzen.com and sign up for a walkthrough of the software.
Now let's dive into this episode of Barbecue Catering Smarts.
Welcome, Dan.
How are you doing today?
Good, Michael.
How are you?
Thanks for having me here.
Great.
Thanks for being here.
I like to get everyone started off with an icebreaker question.
(01:50):
Give me a number between one and 300.
175.
175.
What's one thing you'd like to learn more about?
Hmm.
question.
(02:10):
As far as in the cooking world or just anything in general?
Oh, all right.
I think it would be great to learn more about how this AI thing works.
There's a lot of that stuff out there and it's infiltrating businesses everywhere and Ithink it's going to be the future and I want to learn a little bit more about how to make
(02:32):
it work, not just for the business, but personally as well.
as well.
It's absolutely crazy where AI has come and how I use AI.
um Like I don't even use Google anymore.
um I do all my stuff in uh chat GPT and.
(02:53):
you know, whether it's a health issue or something, our dog was having some stomach issuesand literally Chachibet was like a veterinarian told us exactly why the where the problem
came from, what we need to do, how to rectify it.
It's just, it's spot on.
Well, it's unbelievable.
(03:13):
I have heard a little bit about how it kind of takes your brain down a little bit, youdon't
have the creativity.
So it's kind of a two-edged sword.
You can do a lot of things with it, but if you're doing too much, then you're not buildingthat creativity on your own and working your brain out.
So I think it's a good tool to use, but I wouldn't rely on it too much.
(03:34):
much.
um I think the way I use it is uh a lot of it is how you design the prompts, like how youtalk to it.
Right.
And so for me, it takes a lot of brain power to set up the problem, right?
Like, you know, it's a very, I don't
just say give me a marketing plan for a barbecue restaurant.
(03:56):
would go into a lot of detail about as much facts as possible and so just by that verynature I feel like I'm not being dumbed down.
um
you I'm talking to it with a lot of forethought, not just Yeah, I think that's, thinkthat's important is using it like that.
Instead of just saying, create this for me is giving it those prompts and helping itrefine what you're looking for.
(04:21):
Yeah, we're looking at bringing AI more into the forefront towards the end of the year.
I think there's a lot of opportunities to make barbecue restaurants more effective.
And that could be something as simple as just analyzing your sales volume, looking at
trajectory of a customer.
(04:41):
Like traditionally, we've said, okay, if somebody hasn't ordered in 45 days, we need toreach out to them.
Well, one is, does everybody need to be called in 45 days?
If somebody books a big event with you once a year, they probably don't need to be calledevery 45 days.
If somebody orders from you weekly, they probably need to be called in 15 days.
(05:04):
And then looking at people's trajectory, are they ordering less?
Why are they ordering less?
Is it fewer people?
Are they cutting back on the budget so they're buying a less expensive package?
So getting some insights on trends and I think AI is good for that.
And I think it's also good.
uh We've got on the drawing board like an AI text message upsell tool.
(05:27):
So you confirm the orders the day before and anybody that doesn't have drinks or desserts,you suggest them.
And listening to phone calls, know success leaves clues so who's really selling the mostwhy are they selling the most and um Is there something you can learn from how they sell
(05:52):
versus how someone else sells?
Yeah
Well, as you mentioned, I came from a manufacturing background.
And so this data analysis and crunching numbers and spreadsheets is very familiar.
And so that's my default is to go to those things.
So if I can figure out a way to use AI to help shortcut that whole process, then thatwould make me a little more effective and efficient.
(06:13):
efficient.
There's some of our clients that are taking caters in reports and they're putting them inAI to analyze things.
well.
So if you reach out to Jill, our COO, she can tell you.
prompts to use and what other people are doing.
So at least give you a good starting point.
(06:34):
So tell me, you guys started off in manufacturing.
What was, and sorry, I don't know if you hear a dog whining, but my fiance went to yogaand the dog has separation anxiety, I guess, if we're both not here.
Spoiled dog.
What type of manufacturing work did you get into and what's your background inmanufacturing?
(06:59):
Well, I went to school for production operations management and graduated and took a jobat a company in Philadelphia that remanufactured car parts.
So you would take your power steering pump back to Napa.
Yeah.
They've sent it back to us.
We strip it down and do all that.
So what specifically did you do?
What was your area of expertise?
(07:20):
So I ran the steering division.
when I was there.
so operations management, oversight, labor allocation, efficiency, costs, order fill, allthat stuff.
stuff.
So you come, I'm going to sort of surmise, you came to the barbecue world from a businessbackground as opposed to a culinary.
(07:41):
Yes.
So probably a lot of discipline, a lot of systems, a lot of spreadsheets, a lot of forms.
Yeah.
So how'd you get in the barbecue world?
Where did it all start?
Sure.
The company I worked for started looking at uh moving some products down to Mexico.
save labor.
We're a very labor intensive business.
(08:03):
And so from probably the late 2000s, they started that process.
And 2010, 2011, the plant that I was in started moving.
moving.
And so I got out of the manufacturing side, jumped over into the supply chain logistics.
(08:24):
side of the business, made a few trips down to Mexico to help get the thing set up.
Anyway, 2012, end of that, was like, you know what?
I think I'm ready to be done with this and move on to something else.
else.
I pursued some different options, none of those worked out.
And so in 2013, I reached out to a guy I knew who had a barbecue business.
(08:45):
And I said, Hey, I just want to get in the business.
I was a backyard guy.
I cooked for everybody.
We have stuff at our house all the time.
And so I reached out to him and said, I wanted to get in the business.
And he said, well, I'm selling my trailer.
He had this big mobile kitchen type trailer.
And so, uh,
I said, yeah, let's do it.
So I told my wife, said, let's buy this trailer.
(09:07):
I reached out to her parents who own a farm up in central Pennsylvania, which is where weare now.
And I said, hey, can we set this trailer up on your parking lot?
in the summer and just see how it goes.
So we did that.
It kind of grew.
We got into a big fair here locally and in the fall and we said, all right, I guess thisis what we're going to do.
So we enrolled our kids in school and moved up here.
(09:31):
It's about two and a half hours from where we were and just kind of started the business.
The interesting thing around here, the term barbecue has been applied to what most of theworld calls sloppy Joe.
Joe.
Yeah.
Because some people think barbecues, hamburgers, and hot dogs.
definitely have different.
(09:51):
Yeah, the term is very broad.
when I first...
married into the family, my mother-in-law said something about making barbecue and I waslike, this is great.
We're going to have brisket or ribs or whatever.
And she pulls out sloppy Joe.
And so that's where I learned this is what barbecue is.
So opening a barbecue business in this area, uh, we ever had some surprise customers that
(10:13):
that didn't expect pulled pork or brisket or ribs.
They were looking for sloppy Joe's.
so that was that we had to train our customers a little bit on what we were doing.
But that was 2013.
We grew the business in 14, 15, 16.
We continued to grow.
2018, we started realizing that we needed to expand a little bit and looked at someadditions, looked at additional property, whatever.
(10:42):
And in the place we are now, there was a, it was an old barn.
So you're, you're, you're, when did you transition off your in-laws property?
We actually bought that property.
Okay.
Yep.
Yeah.
So it was a farm, a farm market, uh, working orchards, apples, peaches, cherries,strawberries.
And so they retired in 2015.
(11:04):
My wife and I took over the farm.
And so now we operate the farm and the barbecue restaurant.
So you're not a glutton for punishment?
No, no, that's why we're seasonal.
We open middle of April and we close the end of December.
uh We just we need a few months break to plus there's not a lot going on around here.
(11:26):
We're pretty, really located.
And in the summertime, there's a big park summer and fall.
There's a big amusement park down the road that draws a lot of people.
So we get a lot of that.
tourism coming to the area, but.
January, February, March, things around here are pretty slow.
So we we take take a break, do projects that we need to do.
(11:49):
Travel a little bit and uh get back into it in the spring.
Nice.
It's nice to have a little bit of break.
I'm I'm sure you're fixing things around the farm and there's always things to be done.
But it's uh probably nice.
And do your kids work in the business with you?
They have my oldest is graduating college this year.
He's getting married in June and he's gonna be working in the finance world so my daughteris gonna be she's a sophomore in college right now and My youngest is 14 so he does work
(12:19):
in the business But the older two have worked for me while they were in high school andand here during college though Yeah
So what percentage of your business would you say is catering?
When I say catering, it could be anything from a full service event to
aluminum pans, people just want some food dropped off or picked up for backyard.
(12:40):
It's grown every year.
I think we were probably 40 % of the business this year was catering.
Wow.
been up a little bit every year.
So yeah, it's a big part of the business.
Where what's are there big employers in the area?
What's your niche?
You know, I've dealt with a lot of barbecue guys, you know, the guys in bigger cities,obviously, it's, it's blue ocean, right?
(13:03):
There's a million people you can knock on doors in a smaller community.
So what's what are your niches that you you focus on?
ah Anybody that wants barbecue around here?
It's a we have a lot of small
graduation parties, family reunions, things like that, that we do.
That's kind of the, every week we'll have a few of those just coming in.
(13:25):
Um, we do a fair amount of weddings in the area.
There's a lot of barn venues around here that the barbecue cuisine goes really well withthat format.
So we do cater a lot of weddings.
We don't personally,
no, we go to other places.
Is that so you can get more business funnel to you from those people and they don'tconsider you a competitor or I mean, is that by?
(13:50):
No, most of these are don't have their own in-house catering, their own in-house kitchens.
They're just a venue, just a building.
So people come in, rent the facility and then they'll recommend caterers to them.
And so we have good relationships with a lot of them.
And so they will recommend us and.
generally most people take it.
it.
Do you pay them a referral fee?
(14:12):
is it more?
Nope, just good relationships with them.
We've been working with them for a while.
And I think for them, most of these places are, you know, small businesses, they don'twant the headaches of having to deal with all of the food stuff.
So if they're happy to refer to somebody else, you know, and they'll have a list, they'llhave five or six people that they refer.
(14:34):
If you want barbecue, go with these guys.
If you want, you know, Italian, go with these people or whatever.
if anybody wants barbecue, generally they're referring them to us.
So there's other places around, but we get a lot of those referrals.
And then we also have quite a few, uh, big businesses around warehouses.
facilities, things like that.
(14:56):
And we've actually done...
quite a few multiple shift caterings where we'll do a larger group for lunch, medium sizedgroup for dinner, and then like a small drop-off group at like third shift midnight or
something like that.
So.
So yeah, we used to do a lot of that.
We would drive up to two hours for a big group.
(15:16):
Yeah, because it was worth it.
And you know, the same thing, you know, the graveyard shift, you'd have 20 people, and yousort of take it on the chin, but you pick up 1000 people, you're happy to not be
profitable.
at 3am.
Yeah, we've had a lot of companies that have reached out to us for that reason.
They say most people don't want to take care of our third shift people.
(15:37):
And we said, we'll do it.
And you like you said, it's you're losing a little bit on that.
A little bit of sleep, probably breaking even on everything else.
But you're making it on the lunch and dinner shift.
So yeah, you more than make up.
What's the biggest event you've ever done?
One time, like a one single shift, I think it's about five or six hundred, five fifty,something like that.
(15:59):
That was a group from a local hospital here, like an IT group that we did.
There's a local business that's closer to eight fifty, but that was split out overmultiple shifts in a couple of days.
So it wasn't near as much at one time.
time.
Yeah, that's I mean, that's pretty good size for coming from a small town.
(16:21):
Yeah.
Now, you proactively go after business, or do you just wait for the phone to ring?
Both.
Well, yeah, a lot of our stuff just comes from referrals.
People, had it at a wedding or a graduation party or at their business or something.
(16:42):
And so then they end up coming in, and we give them a catering menu.
the next event they have, uh they'll use us.
But over the past couple of years, we've done something we call it executive sampling.
So we'll go reach out to a local business and say, Hey.
hey, get 10 or 12 of your decision makers together.
We'll bring lunch for you guys on us.
(17:05):
And we'll leave them information about catering, what we can do.
And uh typically, that has yielded pretty good results, maybe not immediately.
but they'll come back in six months or nine months and go, hey, we are this big companywide thing.
Let's reach out to these guys because their stuff was really good.
good.
So, yeah.
So a lot of these bigger companies and I'm sure, you know, for manufacturing, we would doa lot of safety luncheons.
(17:31):
That was a big thing for us and picnics and holiday parties.
So there's, there's definitely a lot of opportunity out there.
Are you the, I guess, chief revenue officer, the guy that goes out there and the face inthe public?
Well, we had a catering manager up and he left taking up a different job at the end ofthis year.
But over the past few years, he was the one who was kind of out.
(17:52):
He had a sales background and so he was very comfortable with doing that.
so moving forward until we replace him, it'll be me out doing that stuff.
stuff.
Did you notice a big bump in sales bringing him on?
Well, he came on right as we opened the restaurant.
So we switched from that roadside trailer to a restaurant in 2021.
(18:14):
And so he came on right as that happened.
So there was a natural increase in sales just from being open more and being inside andnot being weather dependent.
But he also definitely did push our catering business quite a bit.
Do you all do a lot of drop off catering?
A lot?
Yeah.
Is that mostly a weekend thing?
(18:35):
A weekday thing?
uh
Probably split pretty evenly.
We have a lot of local businesses that maybe they're doing a safety luncheon for 20 or 30people that they don't want a departmental lunch, that they don't want to do a full
service catering.
So we'll just drop off food for them.
(18:55):
And then on weekends, you know, it might be a graduation party or a...
baby shower or something that will drop food off.
We have a lot of pickups too.
People just want to come by and pick up four or five trays of food and that works outgreat too.
too.
Yeah, absolutely.
So coming from manufacturing and getting in a whole other industry, so to speak.
(19:15):
What were like if you were going to advise anybody else?
Because I think everybody has a dream of opening a restaurant.
A lot of people want to open a barbecue restaurant.
You know, I've got a big green egg in the backyard and I'm really good and I feed myfriends and family.
But, you know, there's a difference between being a hobbyist and being a professional.
And it's, you it's a business, right?
(19:37):
What are two or three big takeaways if you were going to, you know, mentor, advisesomebody today to think about or
things that you get your butt handed to you on a platter.
And man, I wish somebody had taught me that.
I think for me, simplicity is a key.
(19:59):
I have a lot of people who were friends of mine, or people I know who go, I made theseribs at my house.
they were, mean, yours are good, but mine are better.
And I go, OK, cook 40 of them.
Well, I can't do that.
Okay.
uh Or I did this whole process to my pork butt.
I soaked it and I marinated it and I injected it and then I...
then I babied it through the whole process.
(20:22):
Do that with 50 or 60 pork butts.
can't do that.
So keeping it simple, you know, simple rubs, simple process.
It makes it scalable.
And it makes it consistent.
And it makes it to where I can hand over that to somebody in the kitchen and they canhandle that.
uh We make our own sauces in-house.
(20:43):
And so we've got it all scaled out to the recipes by the gram.
gram.
And I can give that.
And it's all based on a whole whatever jar of mayonnaise or mustard or a bag of ketchup.
And then it scales from there.
And so anybody can.
make barbecue sauce.
It's consistent and doesn't require, you know, some special touch from the master to makesure that it's, it's right.
(21:07):
Um, so I'm big on simplicity so I can scale it and keep it consistent.
And then also, um,
part of the reason we're seasonal is our location, but also we work a lot during theseason and
if I did it seven days a week, year round, I wouldn't want to do it anymore.
(21:32):
I'd get burned out.
So allowing yourself to have a little bit of a break, whether it's seasonal.
or whether it's, you know, during the week, not being open seven days, or whatever, giveyourself a little bit of time off.
And even the days that were closed, I'm here, you know, I'm doing orders, I'm receivingproduct, I'm prepping stuff, I'm doing bookkeeping, you know, whatever.
(21:55):
So
So it's having a little bit of that time to take a mental break in the business.
It's not always the physical hole, it's just the mental.
It's constantly thinking, oh, I've got...
six catering pickups on Saturday, and we've got a services on Saturday, and I have stuffon Friday, and trying to think through all that and planning it.
prepping today to cook it tomorrow and serving it the next day or whatever it's there's alot of mental gymnastics that happen.
(22:22):
So taking a mental break is also important for that as well.
a good point.
You know, you definitely have to make time to enjoy the journey as you're going.
Yeah.
Life's too short.
You know, you see too many people.
They say, when, I get to this age and I retire, we're going to start enjoying life.
And then they're dead today, two years later.
(22:42):
You know, take a little bit of time every week to
enjoy something, find something you enjoy because you get burnt out and you look back andit's like where'd the time go.
Yeah I want to dovetail on two things, go back to two things you said that the first thingis about, I was sort of chuckling when he said oh great can you make 50 ribs, can you do
(23:04):
50 butts.
The guy who started Quarkies was a mentor of mine and I had a Quarkies.
out of college for 14 years.
And he used to say, anybody can make good barbecue, but can you make good barbecue for 500people?
Exactly.
And that's a very good point.
(23:24):
The other thing you talk about systems, I'm sure that ties back into your manufacturingbackground is the way your brain thinks.
Have you ever read Michael Gerber, the E-Myth?
No.
write that down.
down.
I read it years and years and years ago and basically he says whether you want to be aMcDonald's and have 10,000 units or you just want um a hair salon with one unit, treat
(23:57):
your business like it's a franchise.
Systematize everything, have checklists and have it.
Almost idiot proof, right?
And so I remember
Back when I opened my restaurant, we didn't have this at our, you know, the franchiseorge.
I made checklists of this is opening checklists.
This is a closing checklist.
We have a system to keep up with food costing every day.
(24:19):
You know, we would take all our PLUs out of the register and I created a spreadsheet thatsays, okay, based on a slab of ribs, should have used a slab of rib, a regular order
dinner, a half a slab of rib, know, barbecue sandwich, you know, four ounces.
And I had it all figured out.
And then we would count all the commodities every day.
and say, okay, how did we do compared to perfection?
(24:41):
So all those things really, really make a difference.
ah
into the earlier discussion about AI is being able to use that to make those decisionsquicker is going to be huge.
Cause I had, tried last off season, I kind of built this whole spreadsheet with my recipesand, and food costs.
(25:02):
had it tied in, had bookups from, so I could just update this spreadsheet with my pricesand it would filter into the whole thing.
And, uh, I didn't use it that much during the season because it's cumbersome.
And I'm not a tech guy.
I'm not a
science guy.
So if I could find a way to make that simpler, then it's going to be a tool that I userather than something I spend a lot of time on and refer back to it a couple of times a
(25:30):
year.
year.
Yeah.
m Can you get your PLU count out of your point of sale system?
Yeah, we use square.
So I can export whatever we have.
we have.
So I would probably start with that.
And loaded in chat GPT and say, hey, you're one of the top, you need to tell it what itis.
(25:52):
So it's in that mindset.
So you're one of the top food costs.
specialist for restaurant barbecue restaurants and caters and I'm giving you a spreadsheetof all the items we sell Feel free to ask me any questions and I need you to help me
create a food costing program Based around this because I'm gonna upload my PL use dailyor weekly or you know I'd probably do a weekly we did a week.
(26:19):
We did a We did a daily To count the meats and then weekly we did a food costing buthowever you want to do it
and then have it work backwards.
Because you should be able to take all your PLUs and throw it in a, you know, dump it in aspreadsheet.
Sure.
And then it calculates it and then you update your prices, commodities weekly and thenwhatever monthly, you know, your groceries monthly.
(26:44):
And you're going to get pretty good, you know, hey, this is our theoretical food costversus actual.
Yeah.
that makes sense.
is important because you want to know if you're being stolen from, if there's waste.
so let's just take something super simple.
All you sell is slabs of ribs, right?
(27:06):
One skew.
You open up with 20 slabs of ribs, you cook 40, and the register says 30.
Well, you should have 30 in the cooler when you close the doors, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And if you don't, where did those ribs go?
If it's one or two off, you could say, well, we had a recook.
had somebody send them back.
(27:27):
They fell on the floor.
If it's over, same thing in manufacturing.
You have a certain amount of waste or imperfection that's acceptable.
Anything after that, you start, it starts raising flags, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, that's true.
We, when, uh,
(27:48):
in 2020 when 2021, I guess, when prices just started going crazy on food costs.
We had just moved from the trailer to the restaurant and we set our prices and I waspretty happy with that.
And then food costs continue to go up.
And I said, man, I really don't want to just increase my prices again.
(28:09):
So I really don't down on
our efficiency on everything in-house, making sure that we were as efficient and low wasteas possible.
And we got through that whole season without raising our prices.
Our ingredient costs were up, but our overall food costs, cost of goods was down.
(28:33):
down.
oh
we were just more efficient and more effective and tracking things better internally.
And so we did that for a couple of years.
And then finally, I was like, all right, we have to, we're about as efficient as we canget.
I'm going to have to bump some prices here and there.
But I, I personally did not want to just pass on that price increase to a customer when Iknew that I would stop being efficient in house.
(28:58):
didn't feel like that was.
That wasn't operating with integrity.
So I wanted to make sure I was doing things right in-house before I felt the comfortablepassion that price increase on.
on.
So what can you share two or three things you did to tighten things up and, you know,reduce waste?
Well, just portioning things out using a scale when we were in the trailer.
(29:21):
It was kind of almost like that barbecue fest.
state fair concept where you're just slapping the phone in butt and sending it out.
We didn't have scales.
didn't have that kind of stuff.
So, you know, weighing out all of our portions was huge.
And it took a little while for our staff to go, that's...
that's that's what a six ounce sandwich looks like.
(29:44):
Yeah.
You were making eight ounce sandwiches or some people were only making four ounces.
So which is.
from a culinary standpoint, that's one on one, you know, but from a business standpointand coming from, uh, this trailer into a restaurant, you know, we had to straighten those
things up.
I had mentioned about our, uh, recipes with all of the, the,
(30:08):
the weights, we make coleslaw, and it was cabbage, a couple big scoops of mayonnaise, someglugs of vinegar, yeah, mix it up.
And now it's however many grams of uh
grams of uh vinegar, whatever, that we make it in-house.
Actually, we make our an Alabama white sauce and we use that as the base for our coleslaw.
(30:31):
So it's streamlined even more.
So rather than
than being inconsistent, we said to bag a coleslaw and however many ounces of white sauce,coleslaw is done.
So anybody can make that.
So just systematizing those things in the kitchen and then also trying to come up withways to reuse the end of the day.
(30:54):
uh I've been to a lot of restaurants, barbecue restaurants specifically where I kind ofgo, hey, this, this was reheated.
It's still good.
good.
And I can tell it was something that they reheated.
And so if I can, if I can tell
it's been reheated, I don't want to serve that to the customers.
(31:14):
So we try to streamline it.
And then if we know we're not going to use it, we'll pull it early and stick it in thefreezer.
or something like that.
Or if it's already been kind of chopped and ready for the table, we have a little bitleft, we start to accumulate that and we make chili or we'll make buffalo chicken dip with
our chicken or things like that.
(31:35):
We really don't throw away anything.
And uh it was part of the...
you're using leftover or food that didn't sell and you're cross utilizing it for otheritems.
So you've got the Buffalo chicken.
You've got the brisket chili, brisket chili.
What else are you, do you do quesadilla?
(31:56):
Do you things like quesadillas or a barbecue baked potatoes or not?
Not yet.
Um, we pretty much have, have
other thing that we'll do is we'll put stuff in the freezer in pints.
And then because we have a farm market downstairs, we will sell it frozen that way.
So people can come in if we're not here on a Monday, because we're closed or a Tuesday,we'll come in and go, where they want to barbecue?
(32:21):
Well, there's some pork, there's some brisket, there's mac and cheese, there's beans.
They can buy those things.
Absolutely.
awesome.
Do you do, have you done barbecue nachos?
Yeah, yeah, we do.
have those on our revenue all the time.
the time.
Yeah, make those at home.
Absolutely.
People love them.
People love them.
Yeah.
(32:41):
So let's transition to, you know, growing sales.
You talked about knocking on doors and, you know, doing these tastings for companies andyou talked about word of mouth and referrals, anything else that you've done, either to
get catering sales, or to get people
(33:03):
back you doing any type of regular marketing nothing specific we did renovate our websitelast year it's a good-looking website I went to it before thank you yeah it looks very
very we hired a company that does all that stuff and so they're managing it for us they'redoing all the SEO optimization
(33:29):
et cetera.
And I've noticed this year specifically, or this past year, that we had a lot more peoplecame in.
in.
We try to ask everybody, how did you find us?
know, mostly because we have a lot of people from out of town that are coming here forthat amusement park or for tourism in the area.
(33:50):
And so we always ask how'd you find us?
And
And 99 times out of 100, we were just looking for something to eat.
We Googled food near us, and you guys came right up.
And so we've got 700 and some odd reviews.
we've a 4.9 rating, which helps also.
So that pops up pretty highly.
(34:10):
I think that people underestimate that like when my fiance and I go out to eat and we'resomeplace we don't know, we're looking at that rating, right?
know, absolutely 800 people can't be wrong.
You know, you can't game for, you know, 800 4.9 star reviews.
Right.
Right.
You if you got 10 reviews, that's a whole different thing.
(34:32):
you know, when it has a lot of reviews, leave me review and it's but the longer it goes.
We were at a 4.8 for a long time.
And I told our staff I said if we can get I forget what it was 50 I did a littlespreadsheet.
Yeah, figured all out.
I said if we can get it was 50 or 60 or something more.
(34:52):
Five stars without a four or less.
that will bump our average to a 4.9.
It was like 4.85, whatever.
And so we did.
we were asking people, we put little table talkers out and, hey, if you liked us, leave usa five star.
If there was something wrong, come tell us, we'll fix it.
(35:14):
And so uh we got that.
We hit 4.9 and we've just been continuing to grow.
And also I...
I...
respond to every single one of them, even if it's just a thank you with their name, I wantto make sure that people see that not just the negatives.
Sometimes I look at reviews and then I see the people leaving these big negative reviewsand then the response.
(35:36):
So I respond to everybody and try to, if it's a legitimate thing that we did, we'll fixit.
A lot of times it's misunderstanding of something or whatever, but.
But that's awesome.
So what's next?
You know, as you look, you know,
Do you have a what's next?
you happy with what you've got and just want to keep it going?
(35:56):
ah We were not operating out of this trailer since 2013 and it has a Southern Pride SPX700, I think in it.
And then we'll be open the restaurant.
I bought a whole Hickory, E-L-E-D-X.
So I've got those two and they're in two different places.
(36:18):
One of them is kind of on a porch and so it's outside.
So there's some days when it's beautiful standing out there and there's some days whenit's cold and windy.
So we're looking to um get rid of the trailer and build kind of a smokehouse thing inhouse that we can um have it all under one roof and not to be connected to the kitchen so
(36:42):
that we don't have to uh take stuff outdoors and be working when it's raining or snowy orwhatever, which would be nice.
um I've been looking at.
a piece of equipment called the game changer.
And if you've heard of that before.
it sounds interesting.
It's a pellet smoker shaped like a
(37:05):
warming cabinet or a bakery, you can roll a bakery rack into it.
But so it works off of trays, but it's a, it's a dehydrator.
It's a pellet smoker.
It's a cooker.
It's kind of everything in one.
And so I was talking to the guy who was their corporate chef.
telling me about the different things, he'd make jerky and he makes smoked cheeses and hemakes all kinds of things like that.
(37:26):
And so he smokes his herbs, dehydrates his parsley and cilantro for make him he doeseverything in house.
so I, but I don't know if I want to get to that level.
But since we're attached to this farm market down here, we've got people coming inshopping for grocery things and whatever.
So if we can do our own smoked cheeses.
(37:47):
cheeses, jerky, things like that, that we can offer for sale, both here in the restaurantand then also down there in the market on days that we're closed, that would be another
way to expand the brand a little bit.
Have you ever done smoked vinegar or smoked salt?
Smoked salt, not smoked vinegar.
Yeah, there's a uh chef in Nashville, he's got a farm to table restaurant in Hill.
(38:10):
He smokes a lot of stuff in his restaurant.
It's not a barbecue restaurant, but he likes using a smoker.
He's done smoked vinegar.
So a lot of cool things that you can probably make out of that.
This guy was telling me he makes smoked soy sauce.
Oh, yeah.
Talk about umami.
He makes smoked butter, cold smoked butter.
(38:32):
don't know if you've, if you've ever smoked butter.
I've done it in my smoker here, and essentially melts the butter, it gets all the solidsout, and it turns into a smoked, it's really more like ghee, it's clarified butter.
Great for cooking, not so much for eating.
You don't want to spread it on a bread, it doesn't have that same kind of butteryrichness.
But if you cold smoke,
(38:54):
butter, it's like cold smoke and cheese.
You keep that same richness and creaminess, but you get some smoke flavor into it as well.
So, yeah, lot of cool things to learn.
Well,
ah Any any final thoughts you want to give the listeners tips?
uh advice before we close out be kind to your customers For me, tell our I tell our staffwhen people come to either a catering event or to the restaurant they're they're choosing
(39:26):
barbecue because It's either a celebration or it's just a little more relaxed kind offamily get-together uh
Our restaurant is not a place where people go out of necessity, like, I'm out, gotta grabsomething hungry.
Let me go grab a slab of ribs.
You know, they're not doing that.
They're doing it because it's an event.
It's an occasion.
And so I want our staff to treat our customers the same way.
(39:48):
You know, just like they're coming to your house, they're coming for an event.
It's the same thing here.
uh So that's kind of the atmosphere and the ambiance that we try to create, you know.
know.
smile and talk to our customers.
We thank them for coming.
We ask them where they're from.
And it makes a difference.
I think that's part of that 4.9.
If you read through those people like, their staff is so friendly, that's by design.
(40:12):
You know, we hire friendly people and we treat people with kindness and respect.
And I think it helps people keep coming back.
So in addition to having good.
having good.
Sorry, what was that last part?
in addition to having good food.
Yeah, that's the foundation, but...
But yeah, I think I think today's day and age you get so much mediocre service that if youget great service, you definitely makes an impact.
(40:39):
You want to go back?
Well, Dan, I appreciate your time today.
And yeah, thanks for having all this.
Great.
Awesome.
And I'm going to take us out.
All right.
Thanks, Michael.
Have a great day.
You've been listening to Barbecue Catering Smarts, where we bring you the best ideas,stories, and strategies from across the barbecue catering industry.
(41:03):
We hope today's episode sparked new insights to help you refine your systems, elevate yourcustomer experience, and grow your catering profits.
For more episodes and insights, be sure to subscribe, share, and join us next time.
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