March 28th 2017,

How does it feel to be still standing after being open almost a whole year ? (actually, it’ll be a year April 1st, which, if you know me, makes an odd sort of sense)

Well, to be honest there were a whole bunch of people who told me “You won’t make it a year !!!”…

Sorry to disappoint those folks who’d rather have seen us fail (which is always a possibility in the restaurant biz), but we’re still here and pumping out the food as best we can. Can’t say it hasn’t been a struggle because it’s been A HECK of a struggle !!! But enough of that, we have a bunch to tell you and I’m sad about some of it and pretty enthused by the majority of what’s coming, so sit back and read.

I like to get “bad news” out of the way as fast as possible, so here goes…

We have had to raise prices on a few things to cover our costs. In most cases just a buck and in one case we were able to lower the price of an item. I didn’t want to raise prices but I can’t keep the doors open if we continually are not able to cover the costs of our products, which keep going up. That said, yeah, I could have done the whole “cut portions AND raise prices” to try and get on the good side of the balance sheet, but we don’t wanna be “mainstream-types” (ever look at a bag of potato chips lately ? I’m sure you’ll know what I mean).

I have always said “If you leave here hungry, it ain’t our fault !!!” and, frankly, I’m not going to change that philosophy. I’ll damned well close the doors and leave town before I do the whole “cut portions and raise prices” thing… You come in here hungry, you leave full, hopefully with some leftovers for later. That’s what we consider “value”. If you ever think you aren’t getting your money’s worth, I’ll apologize. But -I- still think we are giving you tremendous “bang for your buck”. Then there’s the love and quality that we put into our food. We might not be “The BEST” or “The CHEAPEST” but I think we do a pretty damned good job at being CLOSE on both counts considering what you get…
Next up: The anniversary weekend

This week (3/30/2017 – 4/03/2017) we are going to give out 20 $25 Gift Certificates to celebrate our 1st year in biz. No purchase necessary. Just come in and write your name (for gawd’s sake please PRINT CLEARLY) and a good phone # on a Sparks and Smoke BBQ business card and throw it in the container and we’ll draw cards throughout the weekend. If you win we’ll call you and get that gift cert out to you or hold it here in your name or send it to whoever you want. Pretty simple, just like me.

Also this weekend we will be switching out the Monday Daily Special (Sourdough Slammer) for our Pork Tater Tots. We take crispy Tater Tots, sling em in a tin, cover them with Smoked Pulled Pork, cover the whole shebang with Mozzarella cheese, slide it under the broiler until it’s a hot mess then add your choice of S&S BBQ Sauce and send you on your way. The Pork Tater Tots were so popular that we decided that they need their own day, so from now until they run out of steam, we’ll be doing them every Monday.

Last thing:

We are currently working on a new “item”…

The Sparks and Smoke On A Shingle !!!

We take ground Jimmy Dean’s pork sausage, ground Sparks and Smoke Brisket, add Cheese, add secret spices and toss it on a Large toasted King’s Hawaiian Bun until it’s a hot gooey mess guaranteed to go all over the place on it’s way to yer pie hole… Gluttons Only Need Apply !!! Pictures will up on the Friday Food Coma page as soon as my camera wakes up – seems even the pictures of it sent my digital camera into a food coma…

That’s it for now, thanks for letting us be a part of your life for the past year.

Love You Long Time !!!

Troy