September 30, 2003. Today we picked up the flyer/menu from the printer. Looks pretty neat. We got 1000 about a half page size. In in other words there are 2 menus side by side and were then cut vertically. We also got a dozen large sized...I think they are something like 17 inches long and not quite as wide. We can use these to hang up in our window for the menu instead of the hand written one a sheet of some sort of plastic that I found in the trailer. It worked but now there is no unsightly duct tape to hold it up! Tommy had to made a few stops on the way home so while he was inside a store I went to the surrounding businesses and passed out a few menus. That was actually kinda fun...I was real up feeling pushing all my charm. The store owners were very responsive and some of them stated that they had heard about us. some heard but didn't know exactly where we are. the menu has a simple map that the locals will understand. I mean I really was enjoying being a salesman! But you gotta understand to of what these folks are about being from a smaller town that still has a lot of hospitality. FYI - the population of the Habersham County, GA was 35,902 in 2000. The city of Cornelia is about one tenth of that but it is only about 3 square miles compared to the county at 278 square miles. I think that is a decent size population to support our bbq business just fine! I know one thing, they sure seem to love barbeque, a lot!

Went to Sam's Club and PFG Milton's food distributor today to prepare for this week. Saw Ronnie, the bakery manager, he gave us quite a greeting and thanked me for putting his picture on this page. He was going a mile a minute so we didn't get to visit very long. We intentionally stopped first at Sam's Club incase they were out of some of our needed items or changed brands, you may know what I mean! They had everything so we headed a short distance to Milton's where I ordered some butts and a few other items. I thought they made a mistake and only gave me one container of 3 potato potato salad a real tasty product but they said they were out of it! Arrrrg! Man you can't depend on anyone now a days. This is the 3rd time we ordered from them and now they're out of something. Well back to Sam's where the potato salad, which is very good but not as good as the 3 potato, is half the price. I may just stick with the cheaper which is what I started out with and no one complained! Oh me! So this is the food business! Again I say, arrrrg! 

Night night....

September 29, 2003. Last week wasn't quite as good as I had expected. The gross for the week was $497.00 a little lower than the week before but that doesn't really bother me. I was thinking the word of mouth worked better but I suppose not. Today we went to the printer to check out their final work for us. Looks pretty good. We did some changes to the prices. I wanted to be low and feed a good meal. Looking at everyone else's menu prices I see we are way to low. So we came up a bit but are still the lowest. I'll create a link to the menu sometime after we get them tomorrow. Tomorrow morning we'll run down to the food wholesaler for the meat and a few item that we can't get at Sam's club where we will stop also. They are about 30 miles south of here but both are within 2 miles.

Overall I am feeling pretty good about the business, getting the routine down, relaxing, actually enjoying it, learning or remembering how to hold certain foods to illuminate loses. The ribs were a scary thing at first. They were drying out and getting ugly trying to hold them. Best thing is to just keep them in the reefer and nuke them when sold. I may consider installing a small char broiler to warm the ribs instead of the microwave. They're fine out of the micro but they'll probably have a nice grill taste from the char broiler. I read of someone heating their pulled pork on a flat grill! Interesting.

The weather is cooling quite a bit this week, we're expecting lows in the high 30's with high's in the mid 60's to low 70's. At least we can save some overhead on the A/C!

September 25, 2003. I have been getting some emails from some that are concerned because I haven't written anything in several days. I'll give you a quick run down. Last week was pretty encouraging. From Wednesday through Saturday we were open 11am until about 7pm. Thursday, our best day, we ran out of pulled pork about 3pm so we went home soon after. The total was only about 50+ customers and a gross income of $565.00. Yesterday was slower than last week as was today. There was only 1 sandwich for lunch today but a few large orders in the evening both days and yesterday lunch was okay. I think we averaged about $90 each day. That is discouraging however I think I should wait a few more weeks before I worry. Tomorrow we will go to the printer to make up a flyer/menu that will be ready for Monday. This will probably help a lot. Plus JOe and June have offered their sturdy fiber picnic table. I think this will help too! 

Sorry but not much in the mood to write more....thank you all for your concern and support. Just pray that we can make all our bills and be able to buy food as well before the end of the month.

One other thing off the subject. I sent and received an email from the new owners of my boat "Norrona". She was just south of the eye of Hurricane Isabelle in Oriental, NC. Norrona did what she was built for and that was to weather any storm thrown at her, and she did. Not even any water in her cabin. She was dry docked with 4.5 feet of water around her. She was just about ready to float. No other boats nearby were knocked down off their stands. That is always a fear.

September 20, 2003. It's just after 7am and I'm getting ready to go to work and open the bbq once again for the 4th day in a row. It has been going good, don't know if I have made any money yet though. But we are off to that "soft" opening I wished for. I was quite nervous on Wednesday as I prepared our food for the customers but by yesterday I quite a bit more relaxed as I have been creating a routine. We had a few visitors on Wednesday, one was Ronnie Bennett the bakery manager of our Sam's Club in Oakwood, GA. Sam's is having some sort of a customers appreciation week by the store managers. Each manager picks a customer and goes to their site and helps out doing whatever and anything requested by the customer, even washing dishes! Ronnie brought us a case of their huge frozen cookies, free! I had a wonderful time with Ronnie, he is truly a gentleman and must be an asset to Sam's Club. He was very helpful but most of all a charming and entertaining personality. I might mention that he is an avid bbq-er and found this site while reading some of my few posts on the Kansas City Bar B Q Forum that is probably what helped him to select us as his choice to visit. 

My friend JOe and his Wife June were on their way to Sam's Club and called taking an order from us should I need anything. They stopped on the way back and made our delivery. June and JOe sampled the ribs and were really pleased. (Note from JOe - We miss Peter's Q, big time!) We really had a fun time as crowded as we were.

I must get gone but I'll try to fill in all the holes since Wednesday.

Oh yeah...we have a new Internet address (URL), I think it is up and running now. Try or keep trying http://www.captainpetesbbq.com, the old www.qsl.net/w7lus will continue to work for quite a while as well. Please bookmark the first address.

September 16, 2003. Tomorrow is the real opening. Tommy is back from Honolulu and rested. I feel quite rested as well and for the first time I think I am really ready and actually kinda anxious to open. I did put Wed thru Sat on the open sign! I'll fill you in asap after we close tomorrow. 

September 12, 2003. Was ready and opened today at about 11:15. Had 3 customers that grossed income to $18. The last was a young teen that bought a Mr. Pibb! I don't remember when but I think it was probably during the lunch hour when we realized we had forgotten to change the "Open Soon" sign to "Open". We did notice that many motorists looked our way as though they may have notice the sign change. I was going to stay open tonight but I just couldn't do it. I suppose I should feel badly, but I don't, but I do feel extremely tired and somewhat relieved. After the opening I actually got to just sit and relax, look around at the inside, and found things to change or ponder with. But by 6 JOe was starting to get a bit antsy and I was too and really wanting to get home, take a shower, and get a good nights sleep. I haven't slept well for the last several days but particularly last night my mind was racing and perhaps I got a 2 hours sleep. Shortly after putting the meat on last night I inserted 3 remote thermometers at different levels in the cooker and on different sized butts. The remote is wireless and has a feature to set a desired temperature alarm. I placed it at my head with a flashlight next to it. I didn't have to but I would wake look at the temps many times thinking perhaps I wouldn't hear the alarm or maybe it was going to break! All night I thought about opening. And here I am typing to you all and not in the shower but I am headed that way right now. More tomorrow. Bye!

September 11, 2003. The trailer is equipped and ready. The Sauce is cooling. potato salad ready. Mix slaw in the morning and finish the beans under the ribs catching their drippings. The butts are in the FE100 cooker, should be done at 190F by about 6:30am for the opening tomorrow at 11am! Will put the ribs on about 8am. After about $40,000 in the last 2+ months there is one hundred twenty four dollars left in one bank account, seventy five in another and fifteen dollars left in my Paypal account! Hope to make some revenue tomorrow. Exhausted as usual...will fill you all in asap. Night night!

September 10, 2003. Almost open...lotsa stress, running outa money....but....I think we'll make it! Going to probably do a soft opening Friday. Am very exhausted, been sick to my stomach, and having difficulties sleeping. I feel rather certain if I hadn't started on medication for stage 1 hypertension (high blood pressure) only about 2 weeks ago, I think I would have had a stroke or worse! I have to thank my very close friend, JOe Loewy, for driving down in his motor home from NC and  helping me these few days to open. He has had extensive restaurant training as a young man with his fathers business. JOe is my official taster. There are a few times I disagree with him, however. Because his bbq experience was primarily in south FL  he sometimes compares our real bbq to some of the bbq chains from down there. I have to remind him that there is, or was, plenty of real good bbq is south FL but not so many real southern bbq restaurants are left. But he does remember when he could get what he calls a "rib sandwich"! Do not mistake that for a McDonalds rib sandwich! The old black bbq cooks used to put out a stack of cut up ribs in a paper boat with a splash of bbq sauce, then a piece of wax paper and 2 slices of white bread on top of that and a napkin! There are still a few of those places left. Anyone else familiar with this term "rib sandwich"?

September 4, 2003. Building inspector came by first thing this morning and gave a thumbs up. So this means I get some sort of a 30 day permit to operate and to comply with some small stuff which is no big deal at all. The skirting was not completed intentionally at the rear of the trailer because we will fill with gravel and crusher run to build up the drive through about another 7+ inches higher and didn't want to destroy the skirting with its weight.

The rear door is supposed to be ready tomorrow, it has been a week today. Richard Owens, one of the ex-roadies from times past, called and is ready to drive from Atlanta this weekend to build it into place. I'll call Richard tomorrow afternoon and let him know one way or another if it has arrived.

Environmental Health was impressed with the inside of the trailer and she also gave a thumbs up and threw another untold and forgotten expense of $175 for the Food Service License! She said give that 3 days before opening for her to check us out. Meaning that I will have to be in the position and equipped to begin cooking and serving!

Had some folks stop by again today near lunch time asking when I'll be open...told them for sure on the 17th and perhaps next week for a "soft" opening. Oh yeah...even the Health inspector kinda wants me to hurry and get going because she says the "other" place has small portions and on top of that is a bit pricey! I knew that plus when I ate there the pulled pork was very dry! Hmmm...think I may be biased?!?

September 3, 2003. It's morning and I am still waiting (am getting good at that or maybe not so much anymore!) for the telephone company to make good on their promise to install the new phone which was scheduled for sometime yesterday from 8am to 5 pm. Nothing like a window of time to expect them. They never showed but after many many calls today I finally received a call from the installer himself! He doesn't know when he'll be there, not even sure if it'll be today. He says he has gotten into a tough install. The good thing was that I told him a few things of where's and what's. I was concerned that he might drive a ground rod into the incoming power which is near where I want the outside phone box. He told me that they rarely use ground rods anymore and he'll ground to the frame of the concession trailer.

My friend JOe told me about American Spices. Checked them out, registered for wholesale, need a sales tax number, and have ordered some of my spices in bulk that turned out to be much cheaper than Sam's Club! Such as granulated garlic...is $6.49 for a 16 oz container and wholesale it is $4.27 each for 10 sixteen ounce bags! I think that is a bit better than Sam's Club. I use dry mustard and it is a fortune to buy those little cans in the grocery store and Sam's has never carried it anywhere around here. American Spice carries it at a very reasonable price. Check them out!