Welcome to the new blog feature on our website! We wanted to do something that allowed us to show you more of what TBG is all about. We hope to bring you “behind the curtain” and meet the people that are TBG, in addition we’ll share some BBQ tips and Chef Secrets, give you some great recipes, and whole lot more content that you will find fun and interesting.
We not only want to share things with you, we want to encourage you to share things with us. Give us feed-back, ask us questions, and tell us what you would like to see in the future.
Though a lot of you have known us for a while, we felt a good first post would be an introduction to where TBG started, the path over the last two years, and where we are going. Whether you’re an old friend or someone who we just met, I think this will give you an overview of who we are and what we are about.
Owners Kim and Mark met in Vail Colorado, Mark was the Chef at the Vale Marriot Mountain Resort and Kim worked as part of The Savory Group and was in charge of in-room dinning, the market, as well as part of the restaurant management team at Avondale . After they met, they both decided they really wanted to get out of the corporate restaurant business and open their own place. Kim while being cautious at first said; if we are going to do this I think we should look into Oceanside California. Kim had previously lived in Oceanside and loved the community. Shortly after that Mark was able to transfer to the Ritz Carlton at LA Live, while not exactly where they wanted to be it was close enough to do research and plan things out.
They spent a year working out a business plan and searching for the perfect location. Once finding the current space the fun began. Things were tight; most of the work was done personally by them, along with the help of family members and good friend Dewey Cardwell.
During that first year, every day was spent in the restaurant. They had two days off, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Mark spent that time working in the kitchen, perfecting the food, and training the kitchen staff. Meanwhile, Kim focused on training the front of house and ensuring that their customer service was second to none.
After twelve months all the hard work started to pay off. Kim brought on Matt, who they knew from Colorado, to run the front of house and take over their beer program. He was able to use his interest in brewing to improve and expand on their craft beer selection. This allowed Kim to spend more time on marketing and community involvement. In the kitchen Mark had developed his staff to high standards allowing him to step back a little and run the kitchen from a Chef / Owner perspective. All these things resulted in a nice increase in business allowing them to set sights on the future.
So what does the future hold? Lots of great BBQ, Mark’s signature BBQ sauces being sold online, a second location, and some renovations and additions to the current building.
Thanks again for checking out our blog and please let us know what you would love to know about or see. I think next time we are going to talk about, what else, BBQ. I mean really talk about BBQ.