Restaurant guide

We would like to express our appreciation for the folks who agreed to take our second survey. Unfortunately, we didn't get the targeted number of volunteers. That being said, we decided to go ahead and open the survey to any who might have the time or interest in completing it. Here's the link, and thank you in advance for your time!

More experimenting in the kitchen: sweet potato corn bread. Thoughts?

Sorry for the delay, but here are some of the key results in our survey we issued last week! We were initially planning on being more of a lunch type, grab-and-go restaurant, but then we saw the results for the question, "Do you prefer to sit down at a restaurant or take your meal to go?" Astoundingly, 76% of you choose to go to places where you can stay and eat. That question started us rethinking on how we wanted to do our shop. Another interesting question was, "When you go out to eat, what types of cuisines do you normally go for?" The top 3 choices were really impressive. BBQ led all the choices with 66%, and, holy cow (pun intended), burgers and Mexican both came in second at 65%. Here are the rest of the polling data for this question: BBQ 77 65% Burgers 78 66% Cold-cut sandwiches 42 36% Hot sandwiches 38 32% Fried chicken 22 19% Sushi/Chinese 51 43% Mexican 77 65% Italian 39 33% Pizza 55 47% Thai/Indian/Vietnamese 37 31% Other 12 10% Another question that was of keen interest to us, was, "What side menu dishes do you like to have when going to a BBQ restaurant?" We've been working hard to come up with side dishes that are atypical of what you would normally find. One of the things that I have seen while traveling across this country, is that not all sides are created equally, and it seems that most sides are just there for decoration. Potato salad is a key example of this. I cannot recall a time I have ever had good potato salad at a BBQ restaurant. I've had good potato salad at German eateries, but never at a BBQ place. This is something that I aim to correct by offering something that isn't potato salad, but will still have you coming back for more. Also, prior to the results for this question, I hadn't planned on adding beans to the side items menu. However, it looks like a lot of you look forward to beans in a BBQ shop, so now it's something that we've added. Below are the results from your choices. Grilled corn on the cob 75 64% BBQ baked beans 80 68% Green bean salad 24 20% German potato salad/traditional potato salad 57 48% Green salad 49 42% Mac and cheese 46 39% Coleslaw 66 56% Hush puppies 41 35% Macaroni salad 19 16% Potato chips 34 29% Fried Okra/Pickles 36 31% Deviled eggs 20 17% Other 15 13% It's pretty reassuring to see that the majority of you polled are willing to try non-traditional BBQ sides. 84% responded that you are willing, which leads me to think that I am not alone in trying to find a place with decent BBQ side items. I am extremely hopeful that we just meet your expectations in that regard. Another key question for me was, "What are the greatest frustrations you're experiencing with restaurants?" Long wait times (56%) and poor service (55%) were the two choices that led in that polling. Having worked in various restaurants over 20 years, I can say that I hear you loud and clear on that. Those have been two items that we've been focusing on since day one. It's our hope that we will eventually become a leader in how BBQ eateries and restaurants in general work to treat their customers. As a primer, we watched an episode of 'Kitchen Nightmares' last night that featured Amy's Baking Company. Wow... Soup sandwich is probably about the nicest thing I could think of for that restaurant. Long wait time to be seated or served 66 56% Mistaken orders 34 29% Limited or no drink refills 19 16% Poor service 65 55% Location of restaurant or its parking 31 26% Lack of cleanliness from the establishment or personnel 45 38% Something that really surprised us, were the results for "Where do you go to hear about new restaurants?" 94% of you overwhelmingly go to places you have heard via word of mouth. Nothing else even came remotely close. I'm thinking I just might have to institute a reward program for those that bring in new customers for us. Something that we have running on our minds. Word of mouth from friends or family members 111 94% Internet sites and postings 46 39% Radio ads 15 13% Newspaper ads 7 6% Google or Apple recommendations 15 13% Yelp or similar sites 17 14% Other 13 11% The demographic data at the end has been really helpful for us in trying to pin down where we want to setup at. It seems that though a majority polled live in the Clearfield/Layton/Sunset area (31%), 25% of you said that you would be willing to drive around 10 miles to enjoy good food. My hope, is that will be worthy of your time and opinion when we are finally open. Thank you again, to all who helped us with our first survey. We've gotten some fantastic answers and are going to work hard to incorporate what you want and expect into our shop. We're still working on finalizing the question for our next survey, and are still looking for more volunteers. If you're interested, let us know. We'll be certain to make it worth your time come opening day. Thanks again for sticking with us and be sure to watch this page for more exciting news!

Attention BBQ fiends! We know how much fun you all had with our latest survey. Well, now we're looking for 20 people to take another survey. These results will again not be shared with any other entity, except for maybe the voices in my head (don't worry, they all speak Gaelic, so they won't really understand what the results are all about). I'm going to get the results from the first survey up sometime tomorrow since we've had sufficient time to go through the data (surprisingly, a lot of you don't really care for Thai/Vietnamese/Indian food). If we can get 20 volunteers, that would be absolutely fantastic. Just reply to this message here and we will contact you shortly with the survey questions. Thanks!

Experimenting in the kitchen with recipes... Always a blast.

Thanks to all those who participated in our survey. Our survey has been closed and we have received some fantastic information from you all! We're going to comb through the data and collate the results soon. Would any of you be interested to see what the results are?

Alrighty then. Here's the survey, just as we promised. We'd like to ask everyone who's following us to take this ten minute survey. We'd also like to ask you to invite your friends and family to like our page and take our survey as well. This will help us in better understanding what you guys want and what you are looking for. All answers are collected anonymously, so there is no worry about us selling your email addresses or names or anything like that. Besides, I wouldn't want to sell your info any more than I would want my info sold.

Holy cow. Has it really been that long since we last posted in here? Yep, you betcha. We've run into a few obstacles in trying to get up and running, but the important thing is, is that we are still running. We're looking at still trying to finalize a location and work with the landlord in getting it set up for us. If all goes well, we could be up and running in a couple of months. Shortly, we'll be putting up a survey on here. Those that are local are strongly encouraged to partake of the survey, but all are invited to submit their answers. Stay tuned for more info. We'll be up and running before you know it!

Been looking around for a location for the shop. Found a real promising one in Clearfield that I think we might just make a move on in the near future.

Working on trying to secure funding. Will keep y'all in the loop.

So, we're still moving forward with the shop and we decided to share some product ideas with y'all. Introducing our sauces! First up, we have our Sweet Ash BBQ sauce. The sweet, savory flavor of this sauce will please anyone looking for a good BBQ sauce that's not just made of honey, ketchup and pepper. Next is our signature Red Ash BBQ sauce. This was the very first sauce that was made in our kitchen and has been a favorite for friends and family alike. Now we have our Hot Ash BBQ sauce. This sauce is for those that feel like they need to put a little hair on their chest. Bear in mind, it's not all heat as there is an incredible flavor to be had there as well. Finally, we have our Crazy Ash BBQ sauce. This is a feisty Carolina sauce the likes of which Utah has never seen! Keep a watch on our Twitter feed and our Facebook page for more info. We'll be open before too long and we're looking forward to feeding you as much as you are looking forward to eating here!

Got a new rub recipe that has been a big success in taste test markets. New logos are also being worked on as well. Going to try and get some more samples out to spread the word that we're coming!

Deliciousness

Birthday dinners are an excuse for me to experiment with different seasonings and rubs. Happy birthday, Diane Collett!

Tell me what you guys want. Do you want me to share our menu now, or do you want to wait until opening day to see what we're going to offer?

The menu is about 90% completed. Costs are about 90% figured out. Next step is secure funding and the needed licenses. We're all just having fun over here...

MARKET RESEARCH! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Just got word that our domain name has been secured for us! One step closer to being up and running.

Things are still progressing, albeit at a slower rate than we'd like. We're still hoping to be up and running sometime soon, if we're lucky it will be sometime in April. Regardless, we'll keep you all informed when we go live and start cooking! Stay tuned!