[BrianL]

Why is it that BBQ restaurants think that they should run themselves during limited and sometimes even inconvenient hours for their customers? It seems especially common here in the Phoenix area. I've seen several places come and go that were only open until 6 or 7 at night on weeknights. That's just insane. What genius thought "Hey, let's cut our hours off right in the middle of dinner time" was a good idea? We had a place here in Ahwatukee that was only open until 7 and sometimes not open on weekend days. Guess what...they're out of business now. The food was great but the management was ill conceived. A couple months ago I was in Austin, Texas for a week and we were able to find numerous places open at 10 or 11 at night within close proximity to where we were staying. I realize that people may think "Well...we're slow on X day or during X times..." but that's a poor excuse. There will be some hours that you don't make profits but the lost business from pissing people off by not being open when every other restaurant, deli, and fast food joint in the area are open means you fail. Get enough people that make the trek to buy your product, only to find that you're closed, and you start a vicious cycle of people talking bad about you and suggesting that people don't go. I've seen it happen enough with enough different friends running restaurants or places I've frequented that it's clear that this is a horrible, business killing plan...

So my questions are...

Why on earth would they choose limited hours like this?

Why don't these places stay open until 8 or 9 like most normal restaurants?

Why do these places think that it's logical to be closed on weekend days when customers have the most flexibility to make the trek to their place of business?

[mustang]

.

Why is it that BBQ restaurants think that they should run themselves during limited and sometimes even inconvenient hours for their customers? It seems especially common here in the Phoenix area. I've seen several places come and go that were only open until 6 or 7 at night on weeknights. That's just insane. What genius thought "Hey, let's cut our hours off right in the middle of dinner time" was a good idea?

Brian, I agree with you and would like a response from the restaurant owners.

I can understand someone with limited staff choosing to stay open only 9 hours -- no problem with that.  But in my opinion, that 9 hour window would better suit the public from 11am to 8pm (instead of 10am to 7pm) especially if they are serving lunch and dinner type food.

Sometimes a restaurant will run out of a popular dish before scheduled closing time -- again no problem, everyone understands that can happen especially with a popular product that takes hours to produce.  But that doesn't dictate they run out of everything else at the same time and have to close early, does it?

Regardless of which schedule they ultimately choose to operate, their business hours and days should always be posted so that customers can somehow find out when they're open.  No problem customizing schedules -- just let the public know what hours and days they can expect to eat something there.

Of course, I'm not a restaurant owner so I have a lot to learn from them.

[SmoknAZ]

Are they only cooking so much and when they run out the close? Fresh everyday? No clue just guessing since I have seen this at other smaller BBQ joints.

[bucaguy]

Sounds as if the owners are very hands off.  I know I am going to be leasing a place next spring and i already to the wife.. we will be open 8am to 10-11pm every day.  I have been in the business for 20 years. Even if you are not busy you need to be open. You never want to piss anyone off by being closed when they come to your place to eat.. Most of them won't give you a second chance.

[IRONHORSE BBQ]

I agree with bucaguy you need to operate with consistent hours or people tend to forget you thinking if we go they will probably be closed so why go.  

[Crash]

I know that this may sound completely absurd....but some restaurant owners have lives....and even kids....and possibly even other obligations.  The reality is that a decent amount of BBQ restaurants are mom n pops and dont have the resources to give customers a 12 hour serving window.

[bucaguy]

I know that this may sound completely absurd....but some restaurant owners have lives....and even kids....and possibly even other obligations.  The reality is that a decent amount of BBQ restaurants are mom n pops and dont have the resources to give customers a 12 hour serving window.

Then they cannot complain when it does not work out.. If you want a family life then a restaurant is the the business to be in.

[toys4dlr]

Depends on the location. Austin is a college town and as such, I would be open longer hours too.

Here in Anthem, 2% of my business comes in after 8 pm.  Why would I spend the staffing $ to gain a couple more rings after that??  We are open 11 to 8:30 pm Tues though Saturday.   

We chose to be only open from 12:30 to 6:30 on Sunday, which covers the after church crowd and the sunday dinner crowd and guess what, I get to have dinner with my family. 

We are closed all day on Mondays.  My day off and the time to clean the line.  We are still having a blast and we have found a balance of work and life.   

Beer on tap at work helps.   

 

[BrianL]

Depends on the location. Austin is a college town and as such, I would be open longer hours too.

Here in Anthem, 2% of my business comes in after 8 pm.  Why would I spend the staffing $ to gain a couple more rings after that??  We are open 11 to 8:30 pm Tues though Saturday.   

We chose to be only open from 12:30 to 6:30 on Sunday, which covers the after church crowd and the sunday dinner crowd and guess what, I get to have dinner with my family. 

We are closed all day on Mondays.  My day off and the time to clean the line.  We are still having a blast and we have found a balance of work and life.   

Beer on tap at work helps.   

We were actually a bit north of Austin and found places but that's true about it being a college town.

I think the hours you have are perfectly reasonable. I know quite a few places that are closed on Mondays (and make it very clear) because that works well for them. I just don't see places that are only open until 6 or 7 and not open on the weekend or not open on Sundays as being a good idea.

As far as what Crash said about having a life...owning a restaurant (especially a newer one) and having a life don't go hand in hand if you want to succeed. There are some exceptions to that rule but there are so many alternatives for getting food in Phoenix that it's just not a good place do to that.

[txbbq]

Depends on the location. Austin is a college town and as such, I would be open longer hours too.

Here in Anthem, 2% of my business comes in after 8 pm.  Why would I spend the staffing $ to gain a couple more rings after that??  We are open 11 to 8:30 pm Tues though Saturday.   

We chose to be only open from 12:30 to 6:30 on Sunday, which covers the after church crowd and the sunday dinner crowd and guess what, I get to have dinner with my family. 

We are closed all day on Mondays.  My day off and the time to clean the line.  We are still having a blast and we have found a balance of work and life.   
Dave you hit it right on you will not please everyone no matter what time you open and close. When you sell out you sell out obviously some of these guys have no clue. We have a location that is not required to stay open late and we are still in process of testing the area as far as hours. So with that being said it is what it is. Our food speaks for itself. THATS HOW WE DO IT SON!!! I was in your store couple weeks ago and the food was great, good job had the sampler platter. Thanks
Beer on tap at work helps.   

 

[bucaguy]

Depends on the location. Austin is a college town and as such, I would be open longer hours too.

Here in Anthem, 2% of my business comes in after 8 pm.  Why would I spend the staffing $ to gain a couple more rings after that??  We are open 11 to 8:30 pm Tues though Saturday.   

We chose to be only open from 12:30 to 6:30 on Sunday, which covers the after church crowd and the sunday dinner crowd and guess what, I get to have dinner with my family. 

We are closed all day on Mondays.  My day off and the time to clean the line.  We are still having a blast and we have found a balance of work and life.   

Beer on tap at work helps.   

 

is the beer for your while cleaning

[toys4dlr]

The beer is there to help count out the front, there to help me set up the night cook for the  set up for the next day and a great reward after the line is cleaned.  I love when beer is a multi tasker. 

Thanks Txbbq, I did not know you stopped by.  You Should have said hi, as I love to talk.  Sometimes the trick is to get me to shut up. 

Will try to make it down to you place soon.

David

[BBQCZAR]

Dave and Karyn do a fantastic job and their food is great,they got it going on there

[Mrs. McFrankenboo]

I have to say, majority of you good, high quality, true BBQ is only open as long as they have food, which generally means that they may not be open for the last call crowd or even the later dinner crowd.  Every place out here in St. Louis seems to operate that way and a lot of them are your mom & pop joints that have been around forever.  If you don't get there early, you're going home empty handed.  Places in AZ aren't open very long because the food isn't very good.  I would rather work around the hours of a place that sells great, true BBQ than to be able to go in later to a place that it going to be subpar at best. 

[Jackkyl]

Up here in Prescott, we haven't had a stable bbq joint in as long as I can remember.  Once, there was a pad called Porky's, but I received bad reviews.  Pony Espresso seems to do a good job, but I have yet to try their bbq.  It's only served a couple of days out of the week, so the restaurant has time to equip itself. 

My suggestion to owners would be to open either four days out of the week or so and utilize the other days to prep.  If you want success, you have to earn it, why would you NOT want your live centered on your and your family's success?  The excuse "we have lives outside of the business" is laced with "I don't wanna work the shop!!" followed by "where did I go wrong with my business" then its "Time to call Food Network's Restaurant Impossible". 

I would love to rock a bbq joint.  The learning experience would be invaluable, the clientele (usually) would be appreciative and helpful with feedback and at the end of the day, I'd be able to say I hung out at the bbq joint all flippin' day!! 

Or...  Mebbe I just don't get it.