A BBQ Restaurant in an old Garden Centre?
The street food idea sounded great until we had to make it work
Mike’s first idea was to take the smoker on the road.
He would turn up somewhere with a good crowd, cook BBQ, and sell smoky meat to hungry people. Brisket, ribs, pulled pork, chicken, whatever made sense on the day.
There was only one small problem.
Finding the right spot was much harder than we thought.
A street food idea depends on people being there. Not just a few people passing by, but enough people to make the day worthwhile, however, we live in a very rural area and there is no place to put the smoker that would attract the kind of footfall we need to make it work. We could not afford to spend hours setting up, cooking, serving a small handful of customers, and then packing everything away again.
A good pitch is not just a patch of ground. It needs footfall, permission, access, parking, power or a plan without power, and a reason for people to stop. Some places looked promising but were not practical. Others might have worked, but only if the weather behaved, and that brings us to another very Scottish problem.
The weather was not on our side.
If you have ever planned a BBQ in Scotland, you will know the special kind of optimism involved. You can have blue skies at breakfast, sideways rain by lunch, and a wind strong enough to make you question every life choice by tea time.
Street food still sounded exciting, but the practical side kept getting louder. Where would we go? Would enough people come? What if it poured all day? What if the pitch was quiet? What if we smoked a load of meat and had no-one bought it?
The smoker was full of promise, but we still did not have a home for the idea.
Then came the field plan
The next idea felt bigger and, for a short while, even better.
What if we hired a field?
Live music. Smoked food. People sitting outside with plates piled high. A relaxed evening where folk could turn up, eat well, enjoy the music, and make a night of it.
We remembered a similar night whilst travelling in Queensland, it was perfect, but then we looked out the window to the very imperfect Scottish weather and thought even if we did find a field, we would need a marquee, toilets, parking, lighting, seating, music, permissions, insurance, and some kind of plan for what happened when the weather turned.
Nae Limits Cafe changed the direction completely
While we were turning all of this over in our heads, we stopped by Nae Limits Cafe one day.
As soon as we walked through the door, we knew we had found the perfect place.
It had the feeling we had been trying to create in other places. It had shelter. It had character. It had a relaxed setting. It had space. Best of all, it already felt like somewhere people would want to spend time.
Nae Limits outdoor adventure is based in an old garden centre, it has a cafe with a log burner, a very large heated glass house and plenty covered outdoor areas as well as open air seating.
We arranged a chat with Dale, who runs Nae Limits and Meiko who runs the cafe. We instantly loved how easy they were to chat too and how excited they were about using the space to host a BBQ night and we quickly started creating a plan.
The first version became more like a restaurant evening with proper table service. We wanted to serve giant meat platters on whisky barrel lids, Mike even made several platters for us to test.
Once we started talking through the details, we realised how much we would need to invest to pull it off properly. Table service sounds simple but it meant more staff more equipment, more planning, and more pressure.
Again the version we had built in our heads was beginning to ask too much of us before we had even started.
Going back to simple
We had a rethink:
The street food idea had simplicity. It was fast, easier, and focused on the food. The restaurant idea had comfort. It gave people somewhere to sit, somewhere sheltered, and a reason to stay a while.
So we merged them.
Instead of a full restaurant evening with table service, we shifted towards a simpler setup - a buffet. More relaxed. Less equipment. No need to hire extra staff. No need to buy a mountain of things before opening the doors.
People could still come to the venue, enjoy the setting, and eat proper smoked BBQ. But the service style would be closer to street food.
Its a perfectly imperfect restaurant
Once we stripped the idea back, it started to feel exciting again.
We had a smoker. We had food we wanted to make. We had a venue that suited the idea. We had people around us who were open to trying something a bit different. We did not need to dress it up beyond that.
A former garden centre is not the first place many people imagine when they think of a BBQ restaurant. That is part of the experience its a perfectly imperfect restaurant.
We are well aware that new restaurants struggle to survive, we haven't got money behind us and we can't afford to risk what we do have so this is a great way for us to get the BBQ going and see where it leads us.
Lessons learnt
The idea became real because we stopped trying to make it complicated.
We remembered the most important thing - the food.
We stuck to the budget - nobody needs fancy they need real food, good company and to leave a little happier than when they arrived. Along the way we have found lovely people who were willing to take a chance on us and we are super grateful to the whole team at Nae Limits for their ongoing support to us and our crazy plan.
It is still a little unexpected. That is why we like it.
This years season is coming to a close and we are looking forward to making plans for next year and as you probably have guessed we have plenty up our sleeve!!
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