Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Heather Chiais. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Heather , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

Having a successful BBQ restaurant outside of Central Texas has had both its advantages and disadvantages. Introducing the Central Texas BBQ style to Central Florida has been an amazing experience, and many in our small town of Vero Beach have welcomed us with open arms and nothing but love and support. Although it has been such an incredible experience since we opened our doors back in April 2022, there have been a lot of growing pains related the dining experiences that are normally found across many BBQ restaurants in Texas. From our cafeteria style of ordering/dining to only smoking a set amount of meat per day and then selling out, there have been a lot of growing pains since we first opened the doors at Pepper & Salt BBQ.

The cost of our food has been a recent topic of conversation that has come up a lot in some public Facebook forums we have seen about our restaurant over the past several weeks. As the cost of living increases, there has been a lot more scrutiny surrounding the cost of eating out at restaurants. Each week, as we place our food order through our distributors the cost of food related to the restaurant’s profitability is something that is always on the forefront of our mind. One challenge specific to the BBQ industry is the cost of meat. Unlike most other restaurants, in BBQ 80% of the menu is meat. Along with meat being the primary menu items also comes the associated cost of always serving a freshly smoked product and not something that has been cooked, refrigerated, and then reheated again for service.

The price of meat, especially beef has been the highest it’s ever been. Over the past three years the consumer price index for beef has risen from 303.22 to 409.58, with a 6% increase in cost just over the past year. These increases in the cost of meat, and other goods in general, have led to many challenges when assessing profitability. Each week, we are evaluating each of our food vendors to determine who has the best pricing on meat while still maintaining the quality needed to put out a great product.

When looking at the overall cost of a meal when dining out, I think that it is also easy to forget that there are other costs that are incurred by a restaurant other than food. As this was out very first restaurant John and I were shocked to learn about the associated costs that needed to be taken into consideration. Electricity, city water, propane, carbon dioxide for the soda machines, to-go containers, credit card processing fees, and labor costs are just some of the many hidden costs that are incurred each month. Unfortunately, as with the meat prices, the cost of everything has been on the rise.

Although maintaining profitability in a time where the cost of food and goods are at all time high has been challenging, staying ahead of increasing costs by evaluating different distributors and coming up with innovative weekly specials that help us to lower our overall food costs is a challenge that has been exciting to take on. Learning about the food industry over the past year and a half has given us a new perspective and appreciation for the time and dedication put in each day by those who own a business in the restaurant industry.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Located in the heart of Vero Beach, Florida, Pepper & Salt BBQ provides a traditional take on Central Texas style BBQ. Pepper & Salt BBQ was founded in 2021, by John and Heather Chianis, a husband and wife duo that had a passion for backyard smoking and good BBQ. Originally from Houston Texas, John and Heather moved to Vero Beach after having their first child. We were looking for a slower pace of living and having been from larger cities for our whole lives, we felt Vero Beach was the perfect place to settle down.

We are most proud of the success of our restaurant after a year and a half being open. Neither John or myself have had much restaurant experience and everything from the build out of the restaurant to creating our menu has been a learning experience. We love to treat everyone who walks in the door like family, and are so thankful for our dedicated cutomer base out here on the Treasure Coast.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Having structure and always being one step ahead of the game is something that I have always taken pride in. With the restaurant, however, I quickly learned that flexibility in life is key. New challenges arise every day when owning a business and it is important to realize that sometimes you just have to go with the flow of things that happen. Whether it be a distributor forgetting to deliver all of the ingredients needed for a dish, or employees calling out of work it is always important to still be prepared but to also be able to pivot to meet the needs of your business that day.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

For our social media, engagement is key. One of the most important factors to us when posting on social media is to be personable and engaging. John, my husband and other owner of Pepper & Salt always gives me a hard time because I sound “too professional” in my posts. You can definitely tell when he makes a post vs when I make a post. He also has crazy engagement with his posts which I attribute to him being funny and personable. I do think that our customers appreciate the relationships that we have built with them through our social media presence.

Marketing through social media has also been major for our business. We love to do giveaways and gain an audience through the giveaways. I feel that I would much rather invest money in free food for our customers than pay for ads through social media which have not always been successful for us.

The final thing for building a social media audience is to post good pictures. Invest some time in learning about Adobe Lightroom and make posts that are visually appealing to others.

Contact Info:

• Website: pepperandsaltbbq.com
• Instagram: pepperandsaltbbq
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pepperandsaltbbq
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PepperSaltBBQ
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/pepper-and-salt-bbq-vero-beach-2