Southern Pride of Texas
Restaurant & Catering Industry News
253 articles on smoker care, BBQ tips, industry news, and more.
Catering Keeps Showing Up on the Balance Sheets That Actually Matter
How Top 500 chains are using catering revenue to outpace unit growth, and what that means for your equipment decisions.
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What I'm Actually Looking For at the 2026 NRA Show in Chicago
Earl breaks down what commercial BBQ operators should pay attention to at the 2026 National Restaurant Association Sh...
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What Your Health Inspector Actually Cares About (And What They Don't)
22 years of service calls taught me what gets BBQ operations shut down. Here's how to pass inspections without the pa...
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What Competition BBQ Is Teaching Us About Where Restaurant Menus Are Headed
NBBQA trends reveal shifting consumer preferences that smart operators can translate into menu decisions and equipmen...
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Your Smoked Brisket Travels 8 Miles in a Driver's Backseat — Now What?
How BBQ operators protect quality between the smoker and the customer's door. Holding equipment, packaging decisions,...
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Ghost Kitchen BBQ: What Actually Works When You Don't Have a Dining Room
Real talk on ghost kitchen BBQ operations — what equipment makes sense, what doesn't, and why most fail within 18 mon...
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What Fast-Casual Menu Moves Mean for Your Smoker Schedule
New menu items at major chains signal shifts in protein demand. Here's what operators running production smokers shou...
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Food Costs Are Brutal Right Now — Here's How Operators Are Actually Fighting Back
Real strategies BBQ restaurants are using to survive 2024's inflation without gutting quality or alienating regulars.
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Ghost Kitchen BBQ: The Equipment Choices That Actually Make This Model Work
Ghost kitchen BBQ operations need specific equipment decisions to hit margins. Here's what's working and what's faili...
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Kitchen Tech Integration and Commercial Smokers: What Actually Works and What's Just Noise
Earl breaks down which smoker-to-kitchen tech integrations matter for real operators and which ones are expensive dis...
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Your Smoked Brisket Survived 14 Hours in the Smoker—Don't Ruin It in the Last 14 Minutes
How BBQ operators protect quality from holding cabinet to customer doorstep. Packaging choices, hold temps, and the d...
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What Defined Hospitality Gets Right About Building a Restaurant Group That Actually Lasts
Philadelphia's Defined Hospitality builds spaces people remember. Here's what commercial operators can learn from the...
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