# starting a food booth



## matthews131 (Feb 17, 2013)

hi everyone i have been smoking for a few years now and i built my first bbq last spring . It worked pritty good but the more i got into smoking i knew it wasn't the right bbq for what i wanted to do. so i sold it this winter and am in the middle of building a doubble barrel  reverse flow smoker. me and a friend love smoking so much that we have decided to try selling pulled pork and brisket and all the sides at big events. im just wondering if there is any money to be made doing this. being here in canada i have not noticed to many people selling this type of food . there is mostly just hamburgers poutine and sausages. we were also concidering doing catering for weadings and stuff like that. we were going to try to cook all our meat fresh but we are not sure how many people to cook for. if we cook 5 pork butts and only sell 2 then we arn't making any money so if anyone has any advice i would appreciate it thanks!!!













bbq2.jpg



__ matthews131
__ Jan 29, 2013






this is the old smoker i got some great plans for the new one!!!


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## michael ark (Feb 19, 2013)

Dude one picture ? Tease!


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## matthews131 (Feb 23, 2013)

ohhh just wait im in the middle of a doubble barrel reverse flow smoker bbq build!!!! when im done ill show some good pics


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## matthews131 (Apr 19, 2013)

well there it is finally done!!!! i haven't had any replies so I'm not sure how this will work lol guess I'm kind of a loner in here ha ha oh well... anyways ill be doing some cooking on Sunday and will be sure to show some pictures of how it works . if you have any great side recipes or main dishes that would be great we are lining up some events and festivals now. so far we will be serving 

Sides:                       smoked mac and cheese , baked beans and slaw.

Main dishes:             pulled pork or brisket on a bun

optional:                   bacon wrapped poppers or sausage or water chestnuts asparagus , kabobs, and foot longs

What do you think????? i could use some opinions . if you have any better ideas or advice that would be great.


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## mikedixon (Apr 22, 2013)

That's a nice looking smoker guy. I too have been wondering the same thing except maybe a roadside stand. I live on a high traffic highway and good food in my area is kind of scarce. I do quite a bit of catering but there seems to be very little money in catering to me. I would like to have a roadside BBQ shack on Friday's and Saturdays. I have almost all the equipment I need. I need to check with the health department to see if any specific regulations apply to such a set up and I need the nerve to get started. I have a portable propane powered steam table that holds 5 hotel pans, a portable fryer, several smokers and a propane powered flat grill. I really need a generator and some good refrigeration. I have plenty of good coolers though. I also have a really nice easy up 10X10 tent with screens all around. I would like/hope to earn enough to buy myself a nice BBQ trailer. I have several recipes that i get very good reviews about. PM me and i will share them with you. Some I got off here, some are my own and some are old family recipes.


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## daveomak (Apr 22, 2013)

Matt..... evening.... beautiful build.... I really like the design....   Question about air inlets to the firebox....  are there some I can't see ??

Looks a little lacking on fresh air inlets....    Dave













doubble barrel 2.png



__ daveomak
__ Apr 22, 2013


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## mikedixon (Apr 22, 2013)

Dave, it looks to me like there are some under the doors. The pic is kind of small and my eyesight ain't what it used to be from years of welding but it looks like it to me.


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## matthews131 (May 2, 2013)

ya i have a 3 inch air inlet just underneath the doors.we tried it out last weekend and it seemed to work well i have some food pics ill post soon. it works well but we are entering an event that has 10000 people plus and its 3 days long. wow I'm scared ha ha we are the only BBQ style food. but we cant get in until 8 am and it took like 10 hrs to cook a pork butt  so the food wont be ready by 10 or 11 so I'm just not sure how I'm going to pull that off. I'm thinking of wrapping it up in foil right off the bat to speed up the cooking and I'm trying to talk the event planner into letting us in around 5 am so that should help. if i could get a 8 lb pork but done and pulled in 6 hrs i would be happy. and ya Mike i would be happy to share some of the advise i have got and recipes. i cant for the life of me find a good BBQ sauce recipe. and one thing i did find out is you need 3 sinks and water and some kind of hot water. I'm in the same boat as you bro . I'm just going for it i herd of people making up to 12000 bucks at events just selling burgers and fries. I'm not sure how true that is but screw it you just have to grow some balls and fallow your dream!!!! ha ha


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## cooknhogz (May 8, 2013)

Matt, I have done pulled pork for large crowds many times and the way I do it is. Smoke @ 275-300 for 2-3hrs then foil with 3 quarters apple juice, 1 quarter apple cider vinegar till IT is around 205 pull and let rest in coolers for min of 1 hr before pulling (the longer the better). This way will cut down your cook time a lot and still have great product._  _


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## sqwib (May 8, 2013)

Awesome smoker


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## bigblue (May 8, 2013)

can you cook a couple buts and packers the day before and reheat for the lunch crowd ?

they will see and smell the meat you put on in the morning and wont know the difference 

GREAT LOOKING RIG


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## fishwrestler (Jun 2, 2013)

Before you get to far into your venture check with your local health department. SOme states and countys have many regulations surrounding vending or selling food.

Nice looking Rig

Robert


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## chef jimmyj (Jun 2, 2013)

That is one Fine Smoker. Best of Luck...I am going to assume our Canadian brethren like their Q Sweet like us East Coast Yankee's...BUT...To cover all your bases, I would use a Tangy Finishing Sauce mixed " in " the Pork and a Sweet BBQ Sauce to Top the Sandwich or Plate of Meat. Here is what I use, the two compliment each other...

BTW...Don't over look the POWER of introducing the New with the Familiar...Pulled Pork or Chopped Brisket POUTINE will Sell...JJ

*JJ's Finishing Sauce (Tangy)*

2C Apple Cider Vinegar

2T Worcestershire Sauce or more to taste

1/4C Brown Sugar

1T Smoked Paprika

2 tsp Granulated Garlic

2 tsp Granulated Onion

2 tsp Fine Grind Black Pepper

1 tsp Celery Salt

1 tsp Cayenne Pepper or Chipotle powder. Add more if you like Heat.

1/2 tsp Grnd Allspice

Combine all and whisk well. Let rest, at room temp, 30 minutes for the flavors to meld together.

*KC Bubba Q Juice*

2C Ketchup

1/2C Brown Mustard (Gulden's)

1/4C Apple Cider Vinegar

1/2C Molasses

2C Dark Brn Sugar

1T Tomato Paste

1T Your Rub

1-2tsp Liquid Smoke

1tsp Worcestershire Sauce

Combine all and warm over low heat just until it starts to bubble. Simmer about 5 minutes, stirring very frequently, to combine flavors and to thicken slightly.

Use or pour into a sterile jar and refrigerate for up to 4 weeks.

Makes 3 1/2 Cups.


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## oldschoolbbq (Jun 3, 2013)

Nice, you may wamt to makea few small holes above the fire at the level of the Throay (opening going into the Smoke Chamber. This will alow more constant movement of heat and smoke through the Smoker.

Q-view as you proceed...


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## matthews131 (Jun 22, 2013)

hey thanks for all the help guys. we did our first event. it was a rhubarb festival. and Friday night it was open for like 3 hours so we got some food ready and ended up breaking even because the crowed wasn't as big as we thought. being a bit bummed out we decided to cut back on the amount of meat to sell on Saturday so we didn't have to trough any meat out. well SE sold out at like 11 am and had to turn people away until we got more meat cooked. but Sunday we nailed it right on just enough food . we thought we could handle the work load with 3 of us and really we needed 4 or 5 . we had to get up at 2 am to get the smoker going and put the meat on and I'm telling you i was a tired boy by the end of the weekend . I'm not sure what the heck i can do to speed up the process and still have a great product??? has anyone ever used a pressure smoker?/ so in the end we made enough money to try a few more events. i seen lots of potential. our next one is on July 27 Th


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## keystonesmoke13 (Jul 28, 2013)

I kno of a guy who would smoke his product then freeze it until the event then just bring it back up to temp day of. I'm excited for you and hope it works out. I want to do the same thing but lack a big enough smoker to do the events. Best of luck to you

KS13.


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## tlzimmerman (Aug 2, 2013)

I think your key is having some done and frozen on site and ready, and then try to cook perfect and if you run short boom you have more in 10-15 minutes.  I have been looking into doing this for awhile now and getting a business plan together, but having some extra frozen and vacuum sealed that can be reheated in hot water is key.  Also, I wouldn't see the need to throw meat out, if you know you are going to run long package it and get it cooled within the health departments regs and use it next time.


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## tlzimmerman (Aug 2, 2013)

Oh and killer double barrel!  Would love to see more pics of the build.


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## matthews131 (Aug 5, 2013)

ya so i have done 2 events now and the first to were awesome and we made money its just hard because i put in 3 times the hours and money into food cost then the guy buying a 3 dollar bag of potatoes and selling pouting for 6 bucks a piece. we sell pork on a bun 6 bucks brisket on a bun 7 bucks and half rack 8 bucks. are our prices OK???  and another thing we dint have a food truck so we have to lug everything around and try to rub the meat in our 10 x 20 tent and it just doesn't look good. but then again we sold 300 lbs of meat in 1 day and had nothing but good reviews!!!! 2Nd event and we made the news paper!!!! woo hoo . everyone thinks it is so easy to do what we are doing but im telling you its a lot of work. we are up at 3 am putting food on for noon hour then having to stay up to keep the fire going and work till midnight and do it all over again for a 3 day event. and i work a full time job durring the week. its crazy but i have a Passion for this and am not going to give up. i see so much potential to make money doing what i love to do.


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## daveomak (Aug 5, 2013)

matthews, evening......  I ran a charter business and I loved it.....  It wasn't work....  Same deal selling BBQ.... Sell good food, get great reviews and it ain't work......  
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





Dave


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## matthews131 (Aug 7, 2013)

hey i have been cooking ribs and they are ready after 4 hours and then i leave them wrapped in foil untill people buy them . some times another 4 hours. they seem to get to tender and fall off the bone. well i was just talking to a buddy that went to rib fest and he said all the big wigs just pull them out of a cooler cooked and put them on a bbq under open flames for 3 min and serve??? is that something i shoud try??? do they have them cooked the day before??


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## chef jimmyj (Aug 7, 2013)

matthews131 said:


> ya so i have done 2 events now and the first to were awesome and we made money its just hard because i put in 3 times the hours and money into food cost then the guy buying a 3 dollar bag of potatoes and selling pouting for 6 bucks a piece. *we sell pork on a bun 6 bucks brisket on a bun 7 bucks and half rack 8 bucks. are our prices OK???*   and another thing we dint have a food truck so we have to lug everything around and try to rub the meat in our 10 x 20 tent and it just doesn't look good. but then again we sold 300 lbs of meat in 1 day and had nothing but good reviews!!!! 2Nd event and we made the news paper!!!! woo hoo . everyone thinks it is so easy to do what we are doing but im telling you its a lot of work. we are up at 3 am putting food on for noon hour then having to stay up to keep the fire going and work till midnight and do it all over again for a 3 day event. and i work a full time job durring the week. its crazy but i have a Passion for this and am not going to give up. i see so much potential to make money doing what i love to do.


If your Selling Price is at least 3 Times what the plate cost to make...You are doing well. The Plate cost must include, meat, sauce, sides, plates, forks, napkins, condiments and fuel plus anything else you spend money on to put it together. Leave any of these off and it comes out of profit. Can't say for Canada but at events in the States there are always more guys selling French Fries, Pizza and Beer Battered something or other, than BBQ, Burgers/Sausage or Seafood stands. A 6-7 Dollar large cup of Fries costs around a $1 to make. Plenty of Profit!...JJ


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## eman (Sep 22, 2013)

Like others have said ,Pre smoke at least one days sales. freeze it and thaw the night before. have the smoker going for the next days meat.

 Even if you have all the meat you need pre cooked ,have the smoker going just for the smoke and the smell.


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## flyboys (Nov 23, 2013)

Just curious to see how you made out through the rest of the summer...


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## matthews131 (Dec 26, 2013)

ya we did pretty good we both work full time and do this on the side. we made all our money back to pay for everything we bought and the bbq and still had 2000 bucks left over to buy more equipment for the next year. we also have people asking us to do weddings and buck and does so i think we are getting a name. we did the santa parade in your village and people seemed to like that. we have big pland but we are taking it slow we dont want to have tyo barrow any money from the bank to do this so it will take a few years to get were we want


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## flyboys (Jan 9, 2014)

Sounds like your approaching it very wisely.  I'm glad to hear you made out well and aren't getting in over your head.  Thanks for answering my question and I wish you guys the best of luck.  I'll be watching if you decide to keep this post updated.


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## amigo4182 (Jan 15, 2014)

hello im Hoping you take the time to read this, me and my friends are wanting to try our hand at having a food booth this year at our local town festival we have been getting our things together but have run into a few snags, if its not to much trouble im hope that someone can educate me about my problem
we were thinking of using 2 roaster ovens as food warmers and an electric fryer for some fries, as well as a real small fridge to keep things cool,
 so my question is this when going to the local events and paying my fees to have electric and booth space will most places provide enuff power to run everything i have or are most places set up to give out some little extension cord that will barley power my roaster ovens, next questions what is a good way to heat up my water so i follow food safety regulations,i hope you can give me some insight on our issues


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## matthews131 (Jun 16, 2014)

hey amigo we bought a steam table this year and its 208 volt so you might have to rent a generator or sometimes they offer 240 volt plug. if they do you can rig up a breaker panel that has 4 or 5 110 v recepticals on it then a 100 ft eqtencion cord that you can plug in to your 240 plug that you rented. we tried keeping everything cool with coolers and ice but its to expencive so now we bought a few coke coolers that we keep in our 16 ft enclosed trailer. just fyi we have done everything as cheap as we can and it was a pain in the ass and probaly cost us more in the long run.  you just need to get some decent equipment. and as for hot water we bought a 2 gallon water heater that just plugs into 110 v plug and it works well. i hope this helped!!!  oh and if you want to see more pics and how we are doing check us out on facebook  search for mike and cory's up in smoke bbq


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## matthews131 (Jun 16, 2014)

ohh flyboys an update we started to also get into a bit of catering! we just did a rib dinner for the lyons group. we cooked for 170 people it went awesome. thats were the money is. you know how much to cook and how much money your going to make so its great for making doe!


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## nerb (Jun 23, 2014)

Matthews - Sounds like you are kickin ass with your first two events.  A friend and I are also starting a small food vendor venture at a local park concert series and would love some advice.  We are doing smoked ribs and chicken drumsticks.  The ribs are traditional spicy sweet dry rub with a sweet and tangy finishing sauce, smoked for ~3 hours.  The chicken drums are the same recipe and turn out great (but really we added as a belly filler because they are fabulously cheap).  

Our first event is coming up July 27 and I'm trying to figure out the logistics of having the food pre-smoked and ready to finish on the grill upon order.  I was thinking of renting a hot box  to store ribs and drums in while I get another batch going in the smoker.  I've read that ribs can be kept hot in these things for up to a few hours and actually tenderize further as a result.  We are allowed to begin setup at 8AM and the event starts at 2PM, it's mainly a dinner crowd.  I figured if I can have a batch done by Noon and a second batch coming out at 3:30, I should be good.  What do you think of this procedure?  Do you have any general start-up tips?

Much Respect for going for the BBQ glory. I hope to get there soon.

nerb


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## matthews131 (Jun 29, 2014)

nerb i think you got it all under control. ribs are hard to do for us as well. first thing they are expencive. second if you have them under done they are chewy and if they are over done they fall off the bone to easy and kind of go dry. i have had good luck with the steam table I bought we will cook our ribs 5 hours before the event opens up. well because if the wind picks up of something it messes with the temp of our smoker. but we hold ours at 155 to 160 for 5 hours and they are still good . maybe a bit over done but people around here are used to pulling soggy ribs from a crock pot so everyone loves them. but if i were you i would cook more chicken. when we first started we always had back ribs left over  just cause we would cook so much. so now we cool less and plan to sell out. at 6 bucks a rack it really hurts to bring 10 racks home cause you cant sell them. but i dont mind bringing home 10 lbs of pulled pork at 1.75 per lb . get what im saying? so you just kind of have to think about money a bit. chicken is cheap so make lots of that and make less ribs. sell out of ribs early and have a back up plan (chicken) to keep you going for the rest of the day.  it looks good to a customer when you sell out of something because they think wow that must of been good!!!!!!! hope this helps!!!!! good luck


nerb said:


> Matthews - Sounds like you are kickin ass with your first two events.  A friend and I are also starting a small food vendor venture at a local park concert series and would love some advice.  We are doing smoked ribs and chicken drumsticks.  The ribs are traditional spicy sweet dry rub with a sweet and tangy finishing sauce, smoked for ~3 hours.  The chicken drums are the same recipe and turn out great (but really we added as a belly filler because they are fabulously cheap).
> 
> Our first event is coming up July 27 and I'm trying to figure out the logistics of having the food pre-smoked and ready to finish on the grill upon order.  I was thinking of renting a hot box  to store ribs and drums in while I get another batch going in the smoker.  I've read that ribs can be kept hot in these things for up to a few hours and actually tenderize further as a result.  We are allowed to begin setup at 8AM and the event starts at 2PM, it's mainly a dinner crowd.  I figured if I can have a batch done by Noon and a second batch coming out at 3:30, I should be good.  What do you think of this procedure?  Do you have any general start-up tips?
> 
> ...


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## flyboys (Sep 4, 2014)

matthews131 said:


> ohh flyboys an update we started to also get into a bit of catering! we just did a rib dinner for the lyons group. we cooked for 170 people it went awesome. thats were the money is. you know how much to cook and how much money your going to make so its great for making doe!


Just checked you guys out on Facebook, congrats, looks like you are really doing good!  Best of luck and I hope you guys continue!  Thanks again.


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