I’m going to use this thread to post updates on my BBQ pop-up pet project that I’ve committed myself to.
Mostly I’ll just be asking for help with technical things I don’t know how to do.
@moderators, could you please move the handful of BBQ posts from the LC Thread over here, thank you.
Is your business licensing in order? If not, be careful about posting here.
No (not yet). I will eventually get all of that taken care of, assuming this idea becomes a sustained project with regular commitments and consistent revenue streams.
For now, I’m willing to take the risk. Oversight of this kinda stuff in LA county is quite low (none of the 1,000+ nightly taco stands are licensed or inspected), but obviously the bigger and more popular you become the more attention you attract.
LA County just recently allowed for home kitchens to be licensed and inspected as commercial kitchens, for like $500 in annual fees. So I’ll eventually go this route.
I should say for all you health inspectors out there reading this that I’m ServSafe certified and will be following all food safety best practices.
LC Question:
I am bootstrapping a small food business out of my home kitchen. To start, I will take orders and payment from customers on Tuesday and have the food ready for pick-up or delivery on Friday. I’m not interested in paying for a POS like Toast until I generate revenue and get past the minimum viable product stage.
Question: What can I use as a free or very cheap online platform for inputting menu offerings every week and for taking customer orders/payment? Payment feature is not mandatory, I’m willing to figure out a separate solution for that if I can solve the order placement problem first. (I’ll email or text customers and ask for Venmo payment prior to fulfilling their order)
I’d be happy to use a Google Sheet, but I don’t know how to collate all of the individual customer responses into a single document (that only I can view). I imagine I could send out a Google Spreadsheet or whatever and have customers fill it in, but then every customer would be able to see all the personal and order details of every other customer…right?!
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Have you looked at Squarespace? If the plethora of ads I hear about them is true they have almost turn-key store fronts. Plus every other podcast out there has discount codes available it seems.
You can use Google Forms and when users submit the order, it saves to Sheets. The Form is public and you would share that link, but the Sheets is private (or at least configurable). I’m not sure how complex the menu is, but it is highly customizable.
I don’t have any experience with taking payment. It looks like there are some Workspace apps that you could use that integrate well, like Payable or others that are mentioned in this guide on taking payments with Forms. You could also try linking out with a QR code or something, but that seems like a PITA to track who paid.
Thank you, this is precisely what I’m looking for.
Whats the menu?
Nontraditional BBQ. Simplified menu to start, but similar template as a normal BBQ place. I want to take the ingredients of this area (So Cal) and the techniques I learned in restaurant kitchens and create my own version of BBQ. I feel strongly that the BBQ food service (restaurant/pop-up) model is generally uncreative and boring, and also grossly heavy and unpleasant to eat. I love eating BBQ, but every time I finish I always feel like shit and need to take a nap (maybe this is a me problem).
Some examples,
Meats:
Spareribs al Pastor. Pork ribs marinated in al Pastor and then glazed with grilled pineapple BBQ sauce.
Beef Shortribs. Boneless beef short ribs cooked like brisket, but instead of wrapping in butcher paper to finish cooking I’m going to confit using beef tallow.
Sides:
Squashy Noods. Make a cream sauce with smoked kabocha squash, brown butter, miso, yuzu. Then toss with Shanghai noodles. Served cold. “pasta salad”?
Rice Pilaf with nuts, seeds, citrus, and herbs. The basis for this is a rice dish from the Ottolenghi cookbook.
As a dessert I’m going to start with a chocolate mousse with crumbled cookies and strawberry sauce.
The dream is to fulfill online orders weekly (Fridays) out of my home, and also do pop-up events like at breweries, specialty stores, farmer’s markets, and so on.
girl i get meals from at the gym i go to just has a facebook pages she updated whenever the menu changes
So you text her or send message on FB to place an order? How do you pay?
Where did you work?
Im not Californian but this one seems a tad too adventurous for most eaters. Maybe make another side thats a bit closer to traditional with a twist?
I could be completely wrong and it sounds very tasty regardless
Portland (ME), Boston, Charleston. The only paychecks I ever received were from restaurants until ~8 years ago when I transitioned into product development.
This is valid feedback, thank you. I think the secret for a lot of the menu items will be in the marketing/messaging. Most BBQ restaurants don’t even include descriptors, so I may leave those words out too. I absolutely do not want any of the food to sound too adventurous, that would be swinging the pendulum too far the other way. There’s gotta be a middle ground to find between “pasta salad” and the long-winded description that I wrote out.
Just use “California pasta salad” and people will assume it has something weird in there like mashed yeast.
You just gave me an idea. “SGV Pasta Salad”. The San Gabriel Valley is the biggest Asian community in the country. All of the ingredients were purchased at Asian markets in this area.
most bbq places ive been to (mostly in NC) had god awful sides. I guess you have to grow up on that but it was always overcooked (whether it was greens, pasta or rice), fatty and bland. But they can get away without descriptors because they serve what the customer expect. Can’t really go with Pasta Salad on your dish there. Maybe Asian Pasta Salad
I could do it.
Thank you. I’m slapping together a Google Sheet right now, if it works satisfactorily I’ll roll with it.
Maybe I’ll ask you for some help with future state, when I’m trying to get something more professional put together. Like a real website with an integrated POS. We can trade services.
You already know that I’ll work for food.