RazorBack Ribs

Well, in late June we purchased a new location. We started out in a BBQ trailer in January of '09. In September of '09 we took over a coffee shop on the town square and added our BBQ to the menu. We were simply renting the building and equipment at that point. The building was awesome, an old bank with a safe in it from 1893. However, it didn't have a full kitchen, our seating was limited, and it's super old so that brought it's share of issues. About 6 months ago, a 60+ year restaurant went out of business. It had changed hands a few times, fell to bad management and after they neglected to pay sales tax several months in a row, the state locked their doors. Enter Joel and Katy :).

This place USED to be a fantastic stop that everyone hung out at, but in recent years it has gotten pretty disgusting and hardly anyone went there anymore, unless they wanted ice cream. This place always had the BEST ice cream and desserts.

We purchased it for a fair price and started the most incredible renovation we've ever undertaken. The "before photos" I'll post here aren't even the true beginning. This is once all the equipment was pulled out. Trust me, it was B-A-D. We had a professional steam cleaner/pressure washer for 5 entire days work on the building. It took him a whole day just to do the vent hood above the grill. EWW. He then steam/pressure washed the entire interior. After him, our staff went in and hand scrubbed floor to ceiling. We then repainted the entire place before moving any equipment back in.

After hanging up some decorations (which we will improve upon as time allows), covering tables, having chairs reupholstered, installing a new kitchen our style, implementing a full POS computer system, and getting the place spotless, we opened this past Wednesday (the 11th). The night prior to opening day we did a "friends and family" dinner which served as a trial run for all our staff. It was a bit chaotic but all our kinks were worked out and it's now running fantastic. We are truly blessed to have 10 of the best staff members we could ever hope for. Praise God!

Here are some photos from start to finish. Like I said, it'll never be finished as we continue to add and improve things, but this got us opened...

And After:

More to come at some point... But for now we are just grateful for all the help and all the work that went into this place. We had our first health inspection Friday and the inspector said it was the first restaurant with "zero" write-ups that he has had in years. In fact, too many zero write-up inspections and the state will come audit his inspections. It's that rare. We were THRILLED to say the least. It's been a crazy past few weeks with not a lot of sleep, but it's totally worth it. People have been flocking to the new place like crazy. It hasn't stopped. Because of all this, we are able to provide 10 jobs, not counting Joel and I, to a small town hurting from a terrible economy. What a blessing!!

Joel the Baptizer

So anyone who knows Joel and I know that we try our best to be good Christians (even though we fall on our faces A LOT) but our true goal with our restaurant is to use it as a ministry tool. Well, it's working. This past week Joel has baptized 3 people into Jesus and that is just awesome. Braden was the first one. He has been in Joel's collegiate class for quite some time now, Joel baptized his sister Kortnie last summer. Braden just started working for us 2 weeks ago and he has been a huge blessing to us, and we pray that we'll be a blessing to him also. The next two ladies are Kacie and Tracy. They were eating lunch at our restaurant the other day and started talking to Joel about Christianity and decided to take the next step in their spiritual lives. Praise God!!! One of our youth kids was baptized this week also, we call her Peanut, but her name is Makala. Pray for all of these new, clean, Christians. We are so excited and honored to be a part of their lives.

I love to watch baptisms. The people are so free and clean and relieved afterwards. It truly is a transformation and God definitely is present in those moments. I get goose bumps just thinking about it!

Cute Lil Mia

Mia just LOVES the water. And this post is out of order because she actually had a swim suit that fit in at this point.

Swimming with Shana and Kids

One day early in July my friend Shana took me and Mia to a fantastic swimming hole on her family's property. Shana has 3 kids who are SUPER cute, and her niece and nephew came too. They are SO good with Mia and are very close family friends of ours too. Anyways, we had a great day together. Mia kind of resembles "Mogly" from the Jungle Book in these pictures - she grew out of her swimming suit and I haven't found another one that fits her yet...

Could these two be any more opposite in the looks department? It's pretty cute to see them together. They are actually like 3rd or 4th cousins. But who really counts that far anymore unless you live in Arkansas...

Mia will hate me one day for this picture...but it just shows how she could care less about getting dirty and playing in the sand. And what I have to go through to keep that hair remotely decent. UGH.

I think this is super cute. Mia thought it was hilarious when True would splash her with water through her Crocs. Who woulda thought?

Thank you, Shana, for a fabulous, relaxing day with the kids. It was a great distraction from the busy day to day. Since that was over a month ago, we'll have to plan another day like this...