# Black Walnut Festival



## solaryellow (Sep 25, 2011)

24 hours later I have done a lot of reflecting on how our first vending gig went. To sum it up, it went very very well. Going through the receipts today we served 391 plates of food even with the soggy weather. We made back more than twice what we invested in the festival in hard costs.

We also were invited to participate in 3 more festivals and got a lot of inquiries about catering. Someone even told us they want us to cater their wedding. The next festival we would do is Nov. 5th and would be roughly about the same size with no competition in terms of Q. That bodes very well for us as our only competition was a group that was grilling hot dogs and hamburgers. We saw them lower their prices three times after coming over to check out our prices. Even so, at one point we had a line 20 yards beyond our area and I looked over and saw one person in line at their spot.

We got a lot of good feedback and learned quite a bit. The town's mayor actually came through the line 3 times and thanked all of us individually for coming to their event. The town operated the beer tent next to us and I found out today that their drink sales were up 250% over last year despite the weather and about the same attendance. Towards the end of the day they came over and told us to come over for some free beer on them. We reluctantly took advantage of the offer of course. Lots of folks wanted a tour of the smoker and to learn how it worked.

Next time should be even smoother if we can keep the same crew. We did manage to double the money we had invested in the festival which I think qualifies it as an ultimate success. 

Some things I learned:

While I will not foil butts for personal consumption, it will save us a bunch of time and effort when vending.

Making common sausage does not spark anyone's interest. Despite it being homemade kielbasa I think most people believe it was store bought like frozen hamburger patties and hot dogs that they are used to getting. Going forward I plan to do some of my more exotic homemade sausages in a limited quantity.

Homemade baked beans need to be completely cooked before the putting them on the smoker. It took forever for them to soften up on the smoker which was the opposite of our experience at our soft opening party.

A cash register will make a huge difference. Our choke point was the money handler who was having to add up everything in her head. A programmed cash register would have allowed us to move people through more quickly.

Home made sauces need explaining. If we were asked once, we were asked a hundred times about which sauces tasted like what. I had expected folks to try each one before applying them but most weren't willing to do that.

Do not run out of pulled pork in the South! They will forgive you for running out of everything else but not that.

Be prepared for customers to ask how your cooker works. I can't believe how many "tours" we gave yesterday explaining the principals behind the magic they ate. We almost needed one person just to do that.

A friend of mine suggested that we lower our prices when only two hours were left in the festival. We did and it was a brilliant move. We came back with far less food than we would have otherwise. The first 4 hours we moved 271 plates. The last 2 hours we moved 120 and I suspect that number would be far less if we didn't lower our prices. We didn't go below cost but we weren't far from it either.

And lastly, I learned that good friends are invaluable. Without them I think yesterday would have been a total disaster.

It was a lot of hard work to pull this first one off but we all had a good time and no friendships were lost. I look forward to what we do in the future with the knowledge we now possess. It was a very rewarding experience.


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## carson627 (Sep 25, 2011)

Congratulations!  Sounds like a rousing success.


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## fishwrestler (Sep 25, 2011)

congrats


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## teeznuts (Sep 25, 2011)

Congrats! It's great to hear a success story.


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## michael ark (Sep 25, 2011)

You ran out of pp


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## bmudd14474 (Sep 25, 2011)

congrats Joel. Thats awesome


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## alelover (Sep 26, 2011)

From what I saw it was a great success. Congratulations Joel. I hope I didn't get in everyone's way. It was pretty hectic.  I know it will get even better with some practice. Even with the on and off rain it was still a pretty good crowd. A lot of people were impressed with the smoker and especially the food. As Joel mentioned the crowd ate it all up. Joel's gang fixed me up a deluxe meat plate and everything on it was delicious. Brisket, ribs, PP, kielbasa and those pork shotz are like crack. If you haven't made them I highly suggest doing so. Hope I can make it to another one of those gigs. You don't get Q like that everyday.


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## eman (Sep 26, 2011)

WTG !!!!

 You know that it will get easier every time you do a gig.  All the little things you learn each time make time and exspense go down and profits go up.


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## roller (Sep 26, 2011)

That is just GREAT !!!!!


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## rbranstner (Sep 26, 2011)

Sounds like a HUGE Success. Congrats!


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## alelover (Sep 26, 2011)

Joel has allowed me to highjack his thread and post the pics I took at the Black Walnut Festival. So here goes.

Welcome to Bethania, NC. Population: 404













An historic place apparently.







What is that I spot off in the distance?







Let's take a closer look.







Joel tending to business.







Counterweights are around 90 # each.







Only needed one pic of the thermometer. The other one said exactly the same thing.







Leg quarters. Ones on top are about done.







Ribs, beans and Pork Shotz.







There are butts in the back I think.







From top to bottom. Warming box, wood preheater and firebox.







Inside the warming box.







Inside the firebox.







TBS all day long.







Awesome brisket.











And we even had music too.







It was a good day. Joel and his gang were the hit of the festival in my opinion.


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## oldschoolbbq (Sep 26, 2011)

COOL!


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## rbranstner (Sep 26, 2011)

Great pictures. So what time of the day did you have to get set up and start that beast and get the meat on?


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## solaryellow (Sep 26, 2011)

rbranstner said:


> Great pictures. So what time of the day did you have to get set up and start that beast and get the meat on?




We setup in the rain on Friday morning about 9:30am. Butts hit the smoker about noon on Friday and started coming off at 7am Saturday morning. Brisket went on at 9pm Friday and came off around 9am Saturday. We staggered ribs with the first racks going on around 6am. Chicken, sausage and pork shots were also staggered starting at 8am.


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## desertlites (Sep 26, 2011)

Great work Joel-I was hopeing to hear this as the outcome.


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## solaryellow (Sep 26, 2011)

Some more pics that my wife took:


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## bmudd14474 (Sep 26, 2011)

Thats awesome Joel. Great job.


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## DanMcG (Sep 27, 2011)

Thanks for sharing all the pic's Scott!


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## africanmeat (Sep 27, 2011)

It looks great


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## solaryellow (Sep 27, 2011)

Thanks for the compliments guys!


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## tjohnson (Sep 27, 2011)

Looks like your weekends are now gonna be filled with catering

Good Luck!

Todd


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## masterofmymeat (Sep 27, 2011)

WoW Solary, awesome job. It takes an enormous amount of skill and

timing to pull that off. It's great you learned those bits of info along the

way. I had a catering co. back in the 90's and you'll see as you go along

how all those things come together for great service to your customers

and smooth sailing for your employees.

Awesome, Awesome Job...James


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## solaryellow (Sep 28, 2011)

TJohnson said:


> Looks like your weekends are now gonna be filled with catering
> 
> Good Luck!
> 
> Todd




Perhaps. I am not sure I am sold on it yet but I definitely feel good about what we did.




MasterOfMyMeat said:


> WoW Solary, awesome job. It takes an enormous amount of skill and
> 
> timing to pull that off. It's great you learned those bits of info along the
> 
> ...


Thanks James! I had done some research prior to the event but there is no substitute for OJT.


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## boykjo (Sep 28, 2011)

wish i could have made it............congrats on the success... i didnt expect anything less.................
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






joe


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## DanMcG (Sep 28, 2011)

hey Joel you website on the banner doesn't work for me


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## scarbelly (Sep 28, 2011)

Nice job Joel - congrats on the success


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## solaryellow (Sep 28, 2011)

boykjo said:


> wish i could have made it............congrats on the success... i didnt expect anything less.................
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Thanks Joe! It went surprisingly well. More importantly the smoker performed as expected.




DanMcG said:


> hey Joel you website on the banner doesn't work for me




No? It is still under development but should be accessible. http://buttbrosbbq.com/




Scarbelly said:


> Nice job Joel - congrats on the success




Thanks Gary!


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## supercenterchef (Oct 2, 2011)

Congrats!

Great post...keep the tips flowing as you continue your journey!


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## solaryellow (Oct 2, 2011)

Got a call over the weekend. One of the guys that attended last weekend's festival has his own festival coming up in a month. He had mentioned it to me last weekend but I didn't think anything of it. This week he called his usual vendor and kicked him to the curb and offered us the spot. Last year's attendance was about 25% more than the one we did last weekend and we will be the exclusive bbq vendor. :biggrin:


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## bmudd14474 (Oct 2, 2011)

So I take it your gonna do it?


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## solaryellow (Oct 2, 2011)

You bet. All but one of last week's crew is in.


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## bmudd14474 (Oct 2, 2011)

send me a plane ticket and ill help :yahoo:


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## solaryellow (Oct 2, 2011)

bmudd14474 said:


> send me a plane ticket and ill help :yahoo:



Does it matter if it is written in crayon? :biggrin: I wish I could Brian. I think you would enjoy the hell out of this.


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## desertlites (Oct 2, 2011)

I kinda figured after 1or 2 Joel that things would start rolling for u guys. I think it's just fantastic buddy.


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## solaryellow (Oct 2, 2011)

desertlites said:


> I kinda figured after 1or 2 Joel that things would start rolling for u guys. I think it's just fantastic buddy.



Scaling it up is my biggest concern Bob. Especially in this economy.


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## alelover (Oct 3, 2011)

Let me know where it's going to be.


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## solaryellow (Oct 3, 2011)

Colfax Persimmon Festival. Colfax is between Kernersville and Greensboro.

http://colfaxpersimmonfest.com/


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## alelover (Oct 3, 2011)

Thanks.


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