Ready to take your passion for BBQ to the culinary scene? We’re here for it.
As you prepare to open your BBQ joint, you’ll want to be sure you design an effective commercial kitchen that meets health and safety requirements, maximizes space and allows you to create a top-tier back of house (BOH) workflow. Here are our top 3 things to consider as you get ready to bring the heat.
Smoker Set Up
Different cities have different regulations for outdoor commercial smokers. Check local municipality health codes to see if you can smoke outdoors to serve food in a commercial setting. If city regulations allow for it, you can set up your smokers outside and use the internal kitchen space for prep and side service. This will help free up space in your indoor kitchen and allow for more flexibility in the design.
If outdoor smoking is not allowed in your area, you’ll need to invest in a proper ventilation system. BBQ cooking produces more heat and smoke than other types of cooking, so installing a heavy-duty vent hood designed to handle to excess smoke will help keep you in the clear. Designing your kitchen around your smoker will help you make the most of your kitchen, especially since commercial smokers tend to be large and require a decent amount of space.
Sanitation and Storage
Between the large quantities of raw meat required for a BBQ operation and the need to keep prepared items hot throughout the day, investing in proper sanitation and storage is a major consideration.
Large walk-in freezers with stacked shelving will allow you to store proteins safely. To meet sanitation requirements, all raw proteins must be stored below other products to avoid cross-contamination.
Insulated hot boxes can be used to hold prepared items at food-safe temperatures. Both digital and analog hot boxes are available, and you can set them to specific temperatures, depending on the items you need to keep warm.
Service Design
Whether you’re going with a closed or open kitchen will make a big impact on the way you approach kitchen layout.
If you’re opting for the BBQ pitmaster experience where the process is on full display, you’ll likely have a more customized design driven by efficiency and aesthetics. For example, you may want to have a custom fabricated butcher block on display and will need easy, streamlined access to the hot boxes holding all the prepared meat.
On the other hand, a closed kitchen design saves space and allows for more flexibility in layout and service design. While you might not get to show off your chef’s BBQ skills in real time, you’ll be able to maximize your kitchen’s floor plan to keep the BOH workflow moving so you can get food to customers quickly and efficiently.
The Texas Metal Equipment team has the kitchen design expertise to keep your BBQ dream from going up in smoke. Learn more about our design-build and custom fabrication services.