Juicy Lucy BBQ Owner: How I Changed My Business to Survive
Juicy Lucy BBQ owner Richie Holmes (right) won top honors at Brisket King NYC 2019 and he spoke to NYC BBQ this week.
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As the coronavirus crisis continues, restaurants all over New York are either closing or continuing to make changes to offer takeout and delivery options to customers. One BBQ joint that has been incredibly creative in approaching this challenge has been Staten Island's Juicy Lucy BBQ.
Juicy Lucy BBQ won the 2019 Brisket King NYC competition and opened its doors officially in July 2019. It serves great Central Texas-style brisket and it has quickly become a top destination for Staten Island residents that love barbecue. The joint is currently open only on Fridays and Saturdays for takeout and delivery orders, and it's also been helping feed local hospital workers and first responders as well.
I spoke to Juicy Lucy owner Richie Holmes this week to ask him how he has approached business in the coronavirus era and what he's learned through all this.
This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Sean Ludwig: Juicy Lucy BBQ closed its dining room prior to the city saying restaurants needed to close their dining rooms. What was the thinking behind closing things down and moving to takeout and delivery only before almost everyone else thought to do so?
Richie Holmes: I'm no cutting-edge guy or someone who's ahead of the curve, but I did it more so because I really wanted to protect my employees and I wanted to protect my customers from what I had seen in Italy, South Korea, and China. God forbid someone got sick at my place, I would never be able to live with myself. Or even worse, if one of my employees got sick.
SL: That gave you room to think about how to better do delivery or takeout orders before a lot of other restaurants, right?
RH: Delivery and pickups were never really part of my platform to begin with, but I started offering it in October on a few services. I was 10 days ahead of everyone else. I wasn’t a month ahead, but it helped to steer me in the right direction.
Juicy Lucy BBQ offers up very good ribs and brisket.
SL: When you did that transition to delivery and takeout, did you have to do some layoffs?
RH: Yes, we laid off our entire bar staff and half of our servers. I still have my cooks because we are still open two days a week. And believe it or not, my servers who I laid off insisted they wanted to stay, so they are assisting in the packing of the food when we are open and the other half helping for delivery. I kept everyone kind of going even though we closed the inside service.
SL: Juicy Lucy is on all the third-party delivery platforms, but if you're a customer and want to support the restaurant, the best way is to call the joint and place an order, right?
RH: Absolutely. Anybody that wants to support the restaurant, they should just call directly. The money goes directly to the restaurant. If you go through a platform, we get paid a month out or three weeks out and they take a cut.
SL: When you closed the dining room, you were initially open six days a week for takeout and delivery. Now you are just Friday and Saturday. What was the rationale behind moving to just Friday and Saturday?
RH: I have a product that people love, so to just close altogether and not stay relevant would have been a bad move from a business perspective. But at the same time, I still wanted my staff to be able to spend time with their families five days we week. They are probably going a little stir crazy, so I give them a couple of days a week where they can make money and keep themselves sharp. I'm hoping this is all over by mid-May.
Don't forget to order some “pork candy” from Juicy Lucy BBQ.
SL: Are you able to make the business work financially right now?
RH: We are losing money right now, but we're committed to this. There's no way in the world there's any business that will be lucrative being open eight hours a day for two days a week. Between the food, the staff, the insurance, taxes, and everything that's involved, I can't cover that being open two days a week. But like I said I want to stay relevant, have some cash flow coming in, and be able to have my employees make a couple of bucks.
SL: I noticed you've done a good job posting on Facebook to the Staten Island food community, and keeping them in the loop. What's that experience been like?
RH: Social media has been a way to broaden our horizons and reach out to customers. When I decided that I was going to do two days a week, I told the Facebook community that the other five days, I'm going to prepare food for hospitals, police stations, fire departments, and all the people on the front line. No one is really taking care of them, so I've gotten a lot of contributions from people on social media and a lot of people looking to throw their time and effort into helping me do that.
SL: Have you learned a lot as a restaurateur lately?
RH: After having a 20 years of real estate career and this being my first restaurant, absolutely. I think the biggest difference is the number of people you're dealing with. I went from talking from five to six people a week to a couple thousand a week, plus the staff. And I learned a lot about customer loyalty. Staten Island is a very loyal place and they stay with you. What I'm most happy about and most surprised about is the level of loyalty and honor that these people have. ... In New York City, we rally around one another. Anyone that was here for 9/11 or here during Sandy. Disasters hit and we are there for each other. I'm proud to be an American, but I'm especially proud to be a New Yorker.
Thanks to Richie for the conversation and thank you to all the NYC restaurants helping us get through these tough times. Stay safe out there.
Sean Ludwig
Founder, NYC BBQ
EAT ALL ABOUT IT
Here are the top BBQ and related food news stories you need to know about this week:
The new grocery market in Hill Country sells more than just barbecue. (Photo via Hill Country Barbecue Market)
While its dining room is closed, Hill Country Barbecue Market has expanded on its delivery and takeout options by adding a stocked grocery section where you can buy essentials including meats, fresh produce, wine, liquor, and prepared meals, Time Out New York reports.
The new $2 trillion stimulus bill that was passed in the Senate this week and will likely pass the House soon has several ways it can help restaurants and hospitality workers. Eater NY’s Ryan Sutton explains how the bill might be able to help those who need cash and loans now.
Exclusive New York restaurants are getting into the takeout or delivery game for the first time due to coronavirus, including New York’s only Michelin-starred Korean barbecue spot Cote, which is “launching takeout and delivery through Caviar, with three percent of all sales going to the City Harvest charity.”
Mike’s BBQ, one of the top BBQ joints in Philadelphia, was mentioned in the news several times in the past week. First, they were spotlighted as an example of a restaurant trying to make new pickup and delivery options work for customers despite it not being sustainable. The restaurant was also mentioned because it is helping feed Philly-area hospital workers, along with South Philly Barbacoa and Bad Brother.
IRL BBQ
NOTE: Given the coronavirus crisis, I will be leaving this section blank for a few weeks. Some events have been canceled entirely while others have been postponed to the summer or fall. Many events during the next two to three months are now up in the air, but I’ll be doing my best to keep the website up to date with events that are confirmed.
Check out the full up-to-date NYC BBQ calendar here.
SAY HELLO (BUT 6 FEET PLEASE)
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