Today we’d like to introduce you to James Kissamitakis and Terry Griffith.
Our Story started a year ago last March. A family trip was being planned to visit Terry’s parents in Vegas. We began brain storming about how we could earn extra money for the Vegas trip. After discussion Terry stated you know everyone loves your BBQ maybe you should sell some BBQ to earn the money. So James began selling BBQ Breakfast burritos for his coworkers, then moved on to plates and meat by the pound. Before we knew it, our trip was here and the funds had been raised. People continued to call and re order We looked at each other and said we might be on to something. From there we worked social media and gained our first event, a rehearsal dinner. From that dinner, we got two more bookings and things took off. Hard Smoke BBQ was Born!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
With any new startup company lack of investment dollars is always a challenge when doing it yourself. James and Terry both hold full time jobs while working with the BBQ company which can be difficult for anyone. But thru hard work and perseverance we were able to turn Hard Smoke into a company that we could be proud of.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Hard Smoke BBQ story. Tell us more about the business.
Hard Smoke BBQ is a family owned and operated catering company out of Frisco TX. We have a motto that we live by “Live, Laugh, Love, BBQ” we feel that life is short and you should cherish every moment with friends and loved ones. If our food can bring families and loved ones together we have done our job. We are hoping someday to grow into store front were people will be able to just drop in and enjoy one another with good conversations and relax around the dinner table again. We see our place as being a small 10 table restaurant with a country feel, good food and beverage. We see it being child friendly so the entire family can come, relax and have a great meal. Our attention to the details. We make all our rubs from scratch, which have been developed over years of trial and error. These rubs have been proven to maximize taste and tenderness. We have had 5 star restaurant chefs and restaurateur of the DFW metro plex, tell us our food is of the high standards that they would be proud to serve in their restaurants. To me that says we are doing something right! We don’t just cook something we put TLC in everything in our kitchen. So our customers will never get something that we would not eat ourselves. Everything that we make is taste tested by our chefs prior to being served. Everyone on our staff is committed to quality and excellence. When you look at a BBQ menu you will see the same items on most all of them. So to be memorable you must create a quality product that makes you head and shoulders above the rest. Hard Smoke BBQ also supplies hand crafted desserts as part of our menu. These are supplied to us by Simply Best Desserts of Frisco, TX. Chef Jen Flohr is the pastry chef. Her web site is www.simplybestdesserts.com. She is pictured with James and Terry in the photos (she is the red head 🙂 ).
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Hard Smoke BBQ was founded on luck, remember that trip to Vegas 🙂 We never thought that people would love the product so much that they would call and continue to order. In that Hard Smoke was born out of a great idea that if you supply a quality product people will seek you out. After we did our first event, which had over 50 guests, those guests started calling. So I would say that luck and quality had everything to do with Hard Smoke being where we are today.
Pricing:
- Sliced Brisket 7.50 per half pound
- Pulled Pork 6.00 per half pound
- Ribs- St louis 1/2 rack 8.00
- Smoked Chicken Whole 12.00
- All beef Sausage 2.00 per link
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hardsmokebbq.com
- Phone: 469-742-3050
- Email: james@hardsmokebbq.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hardsmokebbq/#
- Twitter: @hardsmokebbq
- Yelp: www.yelp.com/biz/hard-smoke-bbq-frisco
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Image Credit:
Cutting Board Handcrafted by Mike Shove, Surprise, AZ
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