Saw another round of menu updates from the big chains this week. Starbucks rolling out some new cold foam situation. Panera adding another bowl with grains nobody asked for. Domino's tweaking their crust again. And every time I see these announcements, I think about Danny Wilcox over in Beaumont.
Danny called me maybe four years back, panicked. His restaurant was doing fine — not great, fine — and he'd gotten it in his head that he needed to add Nashville hot chicken to his menu because that's what everybody else was doing. Wanted to know if we had any fryer recommendations.
I told him no. Not because we couldn't help him source equipment. Because it was a bad idea.
Danny runs a BBQ joint. Has for eleven years. His brisket is solid. His ribs move. His pulled pork sandwich has a following. Why in the world would he chase a trend that has nothing to do with what he built?
The Chain Problem We Don't Have
Here's what those menu tracker announcements really tell you: national chains live and die by novelty. They have to. When you're operating thousands of locations with product that tastes the same in Tulsa as it does in Tampa, the only way to generate excitement is constant reinvention. New limited-time offers. Seasonal flavors. Collaborations with whatever celebrity is trending.
That's not a business model. That's a treadmill.
And it works for them — sort of — because their customers aren't there for craft. They're there for convenience and consistency of a certain kind. The consistency of knowing exactly what they'll get, even if what they get is average.
We don't have that problem. Or we shouldn't.
The operators I work with, the ones running real BBQ programs out of restaurants and catering operations, they're not competing on novelty. They're competing on quality. On smoke. On meat that took twelve hours and real attention to produce.
That's a completely different game.
What Danny Did Instead
He didn't add Nashville hot chicken. What he did do — and this is the part that matters — is he got serious about his process.
Danny had been running an older Cookshack unit that was giving him trouble. Temperature swings, mostly. The kind where you'd set it for 250 and wake up to find it running 275 for who knows how long. His results were inconsistent, and inconsistency is death in this business. Not fast death. Slow death. The kind where customers just stop showing up and you can't figure out why.
We got him into an SP-700 and the difference was immediate. Not because it's magic — there's no magic in this business — but because he could finally trust his equipment to hold where he set it. Rotisserie system on those units just runs. I've got customers with ten, twelve years on their Southern Pride rotisseries without major service. Try getting that kind of lifespan out of an import unit with parts shipping from overseas.
Danny's consistency went up. His waste went down. His brisket got better because he wasn't compensating for equipment anymore. He was just cooking.
That's the move. Not chasing what Starbucks is doing.
The Real Trend Worth Watching
Now, there is one thing in these industry reports that I've been paying attention to. Menu prices keep climbing, outpacing general inflation. That's real. That affects everybody.
And what it means for BBQ operators is this: your customers are paying more than ever. They're aware of it. They're deciding, consciously or not, whether what they're getting is worth what they're spending.
If you're serving inconsistent product — brisket that's great Tuesday and dry Thursday — they'll notice. They're not going to complain. They'll just go somewhere else.
This is where equipment investment actually matters. I know, I know. Coming from a guy who sells smokers, what else am I going to say. But stick with me.
The operators who are winning right now, the ones growing in a tough pricing environment, they're the ones who've eliminated variables. They're not fighting their equipment. They're not babysitting temp controllers that drift. They're cooking.
I was out at a competition last fall — not cooking, just watching some old circuit friends — and got to talking with a guy running three BBQ restaurants in the Houston area. He'd just upgraded all three locations to SP-1000 units. Said his labor costs dropped because his overnight guy could actually sleep instead of checking temps every ninety minutes. His yield improved because he wasn't pulling product early to avoid overcooking on equipment he didn't trust.
That's the math that matters. Not whether you can add a trendy menu item.
A Word About Wood
Can't help myself here. Gets me going every time.
One thing I've noticed with operators who come from other equipment — Ole Hickory, some of the cheaper rotisserie units — is they've developed bad wood management habits because they had to. When your firebox doesn't maintain consistent airflow, you end up either oversmoke or undersmoke, and you compensate by fiddling with your wood constantly. More chunks. Fewer chunks. Different timing.
With a well-designed system, you shouldn't have to do that. The Southern Pride units use a water pan system that regulates smoke application — you're not guessing. You're not adjusting every forty-five minutes because something smells off.
I run pecan in about 70% of what I do. Oak for beef, usually. Mesquite I've cooled off on over the years — too easy to go bitter if you're not careful, and frankly, I think the mesquite trend peaked a while back. But that's me. Point is, whatever wood you're running, you need equipment that lets the wood do its job without babysitting.
Talked to a catering operator last month who was burning through twice the wood he should've been because his cheap rotisserie unit leaked so much heat he had to keep feeding it. That's not a wood problem. That's an equipment problem dressed up as a wood problem.
Why the Chains Will Keep Chasing
Starbucks doesn't have the option of just making great coffee and letting that speak. They're a publicly traded company with shareholders who want growth, and growth at their scale means constant novelty. Same with Panera, Domino's, all of them.
You're not that.
Whether you're running a single restaurant, a catering operation like mine, or building toward something bigger, you have something they don't: the ability to be genuinely good at one thing.
I'm seeing Mo' Bettahs expanding their Hawaiian barbecue concept into new markets — Phoenix, Indianapolis, Minneapolis. That's a chain, sure, but it's a focused one. They're not adding tacos because tacos are trending. They're doing one thing and expanding geographically. That's a different strategy than constant menu reinvention.
For independent operators, the lesson is even clearer. Your competitive advantage isn't variety. It's quality. It's the thing the chains can never replicate because they can't put a twelve-hour brisket on a truck and ship it to 8,000 locations.
What Actually Matters This Quarter
If you're running a commercial BBQ operation right now, here's what I'd focus on instead of whatever Panera just added to their menu:
Get your equipment dialed. If you're fighting your smoker, you're losing money you don't see — in waste, in labor, in inconsistency that drives customers away quietly. The Southern Pride lineup exists because commercial operators need equipment that works every single shift. SP-500 if you're mid-volume. SP-700 if you're pushing higher capacity or running multiple units. The MLR series if you're mobile like me.
Tighten your menu. Not add to it. If you've got items that aren't moving, cut them. Every item on your menu should be something you're proud to serve and something that makes sense for your operation. Danny didn't need Nashville hot chicken. He needed better brisket. He got better brisket.
Focus on execution. Every plate. Every service. The operators who survive high-price environments are the ones customers trust to deliver consistently. That's it. No secret.
The Starbucks menu update will come and go. There'll be another one in three months. And another. Meanwhile, the operators who stay focused on doing BBQ right — who invest in proper equipment, who master their process, who don't chase — they'll still be here.
That's the play. Always has been.
Resources: Southern Pride of Texas | Southern Pride | National Barbecue & Grilling Association
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Photo by Luis Becerra Fotógrafo on Pexels.
About the Author: Earl has been competing in sanctioned BBQ events since the early 1990s and operates a commercial catering operation in Southeast Texas.