New Orleans BBQ can be a delicious bowl of chicken and andouille gumbo over white rice with shallots. For real.

Quick question: When someone says, “New Orleans BBQ,” what comes to mind?

If you’re like most people, you probably picture succulent pulled pork, baby back ribs, chicken and great sides cooked and seasoned to perfection with Louisiana’s unique blend of flavors, probably with some proprietary sauces made especially for the restaurant, which was founded by a pair of LSU graduates who wanted to start a fast-growing franchise system that offered the best combination possible of Southern-style barbecue and New Orleans spice and flair, and which also had an orange-and-red sign and a name with an internal rhyme.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, VooDoo BBQ & Grill is totally just like that!

OK, fine, we kind of stacked the deck there. But the point is that New Orleans BBQ is a blend of influences and flavors that make our dishes both quintessentially New Orleanian and emblematic of a wider trend in food franchising.

This is what New Orleans BBQ looks like from the outside: Our original location on St. Charles Avenue.

It’s no secret that diners in recent years have embraced relatively new food concepts such as ethnic and homestyle dishes, moving away from fast food offerings. What hasn’t been discussed as much is how folks are really beginning to go for what you might call Traditional Cuisine Reimagined: common, everyday dishes and food items given new life with unique preparation and presentation.

In the last few years, food trucks have blossomed throughout the United States. Why? Part of the reason is an old concept, the street vendor, recast as a seller of high-quality, well-prepared meals sold quickly at reasonable prices. Those trucks are still selling tacos, but now they’re filled with buffalo chicken with BBQ slaw, caramelized onions and a soy demi-glace instead of store-bought ground meat and cheese. Get the idea?

Same goes for some of the top food franchises of the last few years, which offer fresh takes on traditional burgers, burritos, yogurt, sushi, coffee and other items. People eat it up (pun intended)! Food concepts like that offer three things that almost always appeal to diners: Familiarity (but not too much); originality; and convenience. It’s something just different enough without being frou-frou haute cuisine or so radical people have to overcome their fear of eating it.

That’s just what VooDoo BBQ & Grill offers at its locations: a traditional favorite, Southern-style barbecue, but with unique sauces and dry rubs that bring out the natural flavor of the meat while adding New Orleans-style spice. And the side dishes — corn pudding, sweet potato casserole — are unlike anything you’ve ever had at a barbecue restaurant.

VooDoo BBQ & Grill is riding the crest of a number of hot trends in the food franchising industry, and if you’re interested in joining our fast-growing franchise system, now’s the time. Fill out the form on this page, download our free franchise information report and start thinking about how VooDoo BBQ can help you secure your future with a great small business and New Orleans BBQ!

The post How VooDoo BBQ Meets Public’s Craving For New Twists On Old Dishes With New Orleans BBQ appeared first on Voodoo BBQ Franchise.

VooDoo BBQ & Grill’s recently opened store in the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., area contains the colorful tables and chairs and old-style light fixtures that highlight the store design we adopted last year. (Boardroom Communications)

We wanted to accomplish some specific and hard-to-balance goals a couple of years ago when we set about a new BBQ store design at VooDoo BBQ & Grill. We wanted the new design to be functional, in keeping with the fast-casual philosophy; clean and colorful, to create an inviting atmosphere; and packed with New Orleans-themed design touches, to highlight our roots.

Well, we adopted our new design about a year ago, and it’s worked out beautifully. Everything fits. The design touches (French Quarter-style wrought iron fixtures and street signs) complements the clean and bright exterior and the Louisiana music playing on the PA.

And it works: We don’t sacrifice convenience for color. People move through our fast-casual line quickly and smoothly, grabbing drinks as they go and collecting and paying for their meals after only a brief wait. Stop into one of our new VooDoo locations in Pembroke Pines, Fla., or Harvey or Baton Rouge, La., and you’ll see.

So if you’ve ever thought it’d be all kinds of fun to open a barbecue restaurant — and you’d be right — you might be asking yourself: What makes a good BBQ store design?

A wrought-iron railing with your fried shrimp po-boy.

The short answer? Whatever works. How do you know if your design works? If nobody says a word about it. The only people who might complement you on your store design are commercial architects who have stopped in for a bite. Everybody else will just get their meal, enjoy it and not think about the design — and that’s what you want.

The longer answer? Ideally, it’s a design that’s simple, with a minimum of corners and obstructions between guest and meal. Whatever conduit gets guest to register and food is the one to go with. That’s true for any restaurant, especially in the fast-casual sphere.

Now, for a barbecue restaurant, you need something with a little more character than the typical fast-casual joint. Barbecue isn’t like fried chicken or burgers. It requires some panache. The typical southern BBQ joint is usually what you might call Dilapidated American Rustic: a clapboard shack with rickety picnic tables, a darkened interior and a smoker that looks like a steam locomotive from 1889 spewing aromatic hickory smoke. We love those authentic barbecue joints. But that’s not we were after at VooDoo BBQ.

So we gave our stores plenty of color and character, with the signs, old-fashioned ceiling-suspended light fixtures and wooden chairs and tables, but kept things clean and inviting. That way, we promised to offer something for everyone — guys who want barbecue during or after a dudes’ night or dads or moms who want someplace fun and clean to take the kids.

We thought as carefully about our BBQ store design as we did about our menu and franchise system because we understand that our franchise’s success depends on attention to every aspect of our operation. Our franchise owners deserve nothing less.

So if you’re looking for a small business opportunity in a growing niche with plenty of potential for both profit and fun, come pay a visit to a VooDoo and get in touch with us at the main office. Fill out the form on this site, download our free franchise information report and start thinking about how you can reinvigorate your career and future with ownership of a VooDoo BBQ!

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Fast-casual dining allows guests, like these at VooDoo BBQ’s restaurant in Pembroke Pines, Fla., to get good meals quickly and affordably. (Boardroom Communications)

Great news for us! VooDoo BBQ & Grill has made its first appearance on FastCasual.com’s annual (and influential) Movers & Shakers list, which names the top franchises, people, trends and technological advances among fast-casual restaurants.

Why is this important? A few reasons. Mainly, fast-casual is the fastest-growing segment in the restaurant industry and has been for the last few years. Eight of the 10 fastest-growing restaurant chains with sales of more than $2 million are fast-casual chains, according to research this year by the Chicago restaurant consulting and research firm Technomic.

Second, we’ve committed to the fast casual franchise concept, which allows us to serve our guests high-quality barbecue quickly and at affordable prices while keeping overhead down for our franchise owners. They don’t have to hire wait staff, and since plates and utensils are disposable, they can do without dishwashers — and those savings get passed on to our guests.

Those factors — plus the natural appeal of Louisiana cuisine and barbecue, which everybody loves — has led to our rapid expansion over the last two years, from a modest 12 locations in south Louisiana to a planned 57 in six states. Going full-bore with the fast casual franchise concept has helped make us one of the hottest food franchisors around.

Just about everybody in the segment looks regularly at FastCasual.com, an online trade publication for fast-casual operators that’s compiled its Movers & Shakers list for the last eight years. The 2012 list named Smashburger; Zoës Kitchen; Firehouse Subs; Zoup! and Freebirds World Burrito as its top five concepts. FastCasual.com will reveal the final rankings for the 2013 list at its banquet May 19.

Needless to say, we look forward to the banquet and to finding out where we are on the list. Even more, we look forward to years of success as a top-ranked fast-casual franchise system with unique food and fun in a fast-casual atmosphere.

Momentum is clearly on our side. Interested in jumping on board and tasting some of our magic? Fill out the form on this site, download our free franchise report, and let’s start a conversation — and go ahead and check out our Facebook page while you’re at it!

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The French Quarter’s distinctive street signs. From Wikimedia Commons.

In a city that has more top-hatted residents per capita than anywhere else in the world, where they drink in the face of hurricanes and festoon their trees with Mardi Gras beads all year around, you’d think they’d be a little less discriminating about their food. You’d be mistaken, however. In fact, the residents of New Orleans are more demanding than most about what ends up on their dinner plates, even at a fast-casual barbecue franchise like VooDoo BBQ.

I wasn’t sure what I’d find on my first visit to the VooDoo on St. Charles Avenue, but I was pleasantly surprised. Aside from the system of ordering your food at the counter before you grab a table, VooDoo BBQ walks and talks like a casual dining joint. The staff was attentive, friendly and swift. The interior might best be described as “urban-barbecue-rustic,” if that’s a thing, with colorful mismatched chairs, a floor emulating brick tile and tables that had the look and feel of reclaimed wood.

Our orders arrived at our table unbelievably quickly. Guess that’s the “fast” part of “fast-casual.” Although, to be fair, we were the first ones there because we had to catch a bus for a Hurricane Katrina tour, so we weren’t competing with a lot of other diners.

Now, I admit it: I felt the tiniest bit sheepish to be dining at a franchise in one of the best food cities in the world. Until I tasted the food. Wow.

Photo by Ellen Margulies

I’m a bit of a barbecue aficionado, with a bent toward North Carolina-style pulled pork in a vinegar-based sauce. So, of course, I ordered the Carolina-style pulled pork sandwich with two sides: a creamy, bacon-laden sour-cream based potato salad and some seriously cheesy mac-and-cheese. My companion ordered the steamed vegetables, which makes him a spoilsport, but he redeemed himself with a side of corn pudding to go with his half-rack of baby back ribs. The veggies, it turned out, were fresh and well-cooked — not what you’d expect at a fast-casual joint. And the corn pudding, we both agreed, was to die for.

I added some dill pickle chips to my slaw-topped sandwich and experimented with the sauces on different bites. What I ended up fashioning for bite after bite of good, tender pork was a layered combo of the tangy vinegar sauce with the traditional barbecue sauce. My companion favored the medium-sized kick that came with a sprinkling of the mango-habanero sauce, but he’s a heat freak anyway. His ribs came competition-style with a nice bit of bark on them and were fall-off-the-bone tender. Did he like them? Take a look at the bones in the photo — you tell me.

Photos by Ellen Margulies

I would have eaten every smack-dab bite of my meal if not for the fact that I had to save room for dessert. White chocolate bread pudding did not disappoint. They even brought it to the table after we had finished our plates, which they cleared away for us. A healthy-sized square was drizzled in white chocolate sauce and came with a bit of delicious cinnamon-sugar bark of its own caramelized on top. New Orleans-style bread pudding tends to be a bit more soufflé-like than I’m used to, but the VooDoo version had a tiny bit of texture to it that I really enjoyed.

I’ll definitely go back, and I’ll definitely order the pulled pork and corn pudding. And potato salad. And mac and cheese. But wait, I didn’t get to try the brisket or the beans yet … Never mind. That’s what second visits are for.

The post Customer Review: Fast-Casual Barbecue Franchise Surprises with Quality in Foodie City appeared first on Voodoo BBQ Franchise.

You don’t find chicken and andouille sausage gumbo at your average barbecue restaurant.

Want to take a guess at some of the hottest trends in food franchising?

Fast-casual dining? Oh, yeah. Definitely.

Regional cuisine? You bet!

Is there a BBQ trend? No doubt.

VooDoo BBQ & Grill is committed to all three, but not because they’re trendy — because that’s just the way we do things. Here’s how:

Fast-casual dining: We’re planning 57 restaurants total in six states and looking to expand to even more markets, and almost all of our stores from here on out will be fast-casual. There are just too many advantages.

The fast-casual restaurant sector is the fastest-growing in the industry because it offers fresh, well-made dishes that are generally healthier than fast food; allows guests to maximize their time by ordering to go or taking no more than 45 minutes to sit down and eat, which allows restaurant owners to do a higher volume; and lets owners run a dynamic small business without having to hire servers or spend on expensive cutlery, plates, bowls and glasses. Overhead can be a killer in the restaurant business, and fast-casual dining keeps overhead minimal.

Fast-casual dining lets guests cycle in and out quickly, making the most of their time and letting owners achieve a higher customer volume.

Regional cuisine: American diners are growing more sophisticated. Once, they craved uniformity in their food. That’s what made the fast food sector. Now they want more diversity, and they gravitate toward regional concepts that offer a taste of something different.

And as culinary regions go, it’s tough to beat south Louisiana. The spices and textures of Creole and Cajun culture make Louisiana cuisine a perennial favorite, regardless of where it’s offered. There are Louisiana-themed restaurants all over the world!

BBQ trend: Barbecue is one of the great underexplored concepts in American food franchising. Unlike Chinese, Mexican, burgers and other popular concepts, it’s far from built out. That’s surprising — who do you know who doesn’t love barbecue? — until you realize that serving good barbecue takes a little more effort, time and expertise than serving a good burger. But if you do it right and hit the sweet spot in the market, there’s no telling what kind of success you can have with the right concept.

And there’s no doubt VooDoo BBQ has found the right concept for our time: Great New Orleans-style barbecue and unique sides and sauces served in a fun fast-casual environment at affordable price points. Doesn’t it sound like the right small business opportunity to you?

If it does, we want to hear from you! Fill out the form on our site, download our free franchise report packed with details about our history, culture and people, then let’s start a conversation about how you can realize your business goals with VooDoo BBQ — and have a heck of a lot of fun while doing it.

The post How VooDoo BBQ Rides the Latest BBQ Trend Out of New Orleans appeared first on Voodoo BBQ Franchise.

The line at Friends and Family Day.

We’re rockin’ and rollin’ with our brand-new VooDoo BBQ location at the Perkins Rowe complex in Baton Rouge! Owners Brad Smith and Joe Scardino kicked things off with a friends-and-family night on the 10th, followed the next day by the formal opening, which drew a steady stream of guests throughout the day.

“We’ve had a very good turnout,” Brad says. “People are very excited to see us in the development offering a different kind of cuisine and a fast-casual environment that wasn’t offered before in Perkins Rowe.”

The store is our third in the Louisiana capital, along with our location on Drusilla Lane — which Brad and Joe also own — and our Nicholson Drive location near the LSU campus. The Perkins Rowe store is special, though, for a couple of reasons.

First, it’s right next to a 16-screen movie theater, making it unique in our system and perfect for a fast, substantial meal before or after “Olympus Has Fallen” or “42.” We’re expecting big returns from an advantageous location.

Brad Smith and Joe Scardino

Second, it’s the first store in Baton Rouge to feature VooDoo BBQ’s new menu, offering some tasty changes and some more affordable menu items for the cost-conscious guest. “Some people have come back three or four days in row to try new things,” Joe says, “so they’re really excited about the new menu.”

Another feature that’s proving popular at Perkins Rowe is an outdoor patio that seats 24 but has a roof to protect guests from those sudden south Louisiana thunderstorms. We opened at a good time — spring days and nights are perfect for outdoor dining in the Pelican State!

We expect Brad and Joe to shepherd the location through a long, prosperous and profitable life — the kind you can earn, too, through a VooDoo BBQ & Grill franchise.

We’re one of the fastest-growing food franchises in the country, with a planned 57 locations in six states, including 26 in Florida alone. VooDoo BBQ combines New Orleans-style food and fun in a fast-casual setting with plenty of delicious and affordable options — including some of the best and most distinctive barbecue you’ve ever tasted.

Is that the kind of small business opportunity you’re looking for? Then we want to hear from you. Fill out the form on this site, download our free franchise report and read up on how VooDoo BBQ might be the right move for you!

Meats!

The post New Orleans BBQ At the Movies: New Baton Rouge VooDoo BBQ Open For Business appeared first on Voodoo BBQ Franchise.

Joe Scardino and Brad Smith

We’re thrilled to announce that we’re opening our latest store Thursday, our third in Louisiana’s capital city, Baton Rouge! And we think it’ll be a tremendously successful venture, for a bunch of reasons.

For one thing, the owners are two guys with a track record of success: Brad Smith and Joe Scardino, who own and operate our Drusilla Lane location in Baton Rouge.

Second, they’ve chosen a phenomenal site. It’s Perkins Rowe, a popular mixed-use development that opened in 2008 near the busy intersection of Perkins Road and Bluebonnet Boulevard.

It’s a unique development with tremendous foot and vehicular traffic and potential for even more, and the site is perfect to draw an ideal fast-casual clientele. It’s right next to Perkins Rowe’s 16-screen Cinemark theater complex, meaning moviegoers can pop in for a quick, filling and tasty bite to eat before or after the flick in addition to the many shopping options available at Perkins Rowe.

“We’re extremely excited to be part of the Perkins Rowe development,” Brad says. “There are a lot of new restaurants and shops opening up there, and the movie theater is right there, so it offers them an opportunity to dine before or after the movie in 30 minutes or less.”

Perkins Rowe has more than 300 condominiums and apartments, offices, space for more than 60 restaurants and shops, a book store, grocery store, pharmacy and movie complex. “It’s the only development of its type in Baton Rouge, where you can work, eat, live, play, and all of it’s right there,” Joe says.

And we anticipate Brad and Joe will soon have some more big news from another Pelican State market — they own our territorial rights in Lafayette and aim to open a VooDoo BBQ there in the next year or so.

We’re building out nicely in our home state, where people have grown to love our New Orleans BBQ. We recently opened up in Florida and on New Orleans’ West Bank, and we’re pursuing other entrepreneurs in other southeastern markets as well — folks who gravitate to our unique, New Orleans-style twist on a traditional American cuisine.

Perkins Rowe (WBRZ.com)

Want to join the party and look into buying and running your own VooDoo BBQ franchise? Just fill out the form on this site, download our detailed franchise report — and let’s start talking.

The post How a New Orleans BBQ Franchise Found the Right Spot In Booming Baton Rouge Market appeared first on Voodoo BBQ Franchise.

Proof that the New Orleans BBQ experience goes over well just about anywhere: Our recently opened VooDoo BBQ in south Florida. (Boardroom Communications)

Who doesn’t like New Orleans food?

Who doesn’t like barbecue?

How can you lose when you combine the two?

You can’t — and that’s why the Crescent City’s own VooDoo BBQ & Grill is one of the hottest food concepts going.

If you’re not familiar with us, you may be wondering, “Just what is New Orleans BBQ, anyway?”

Here’s a quick primer. VooDoo BBQ starts with meat slow-cooked over flame, the signature dish of the American South and a food that’s been around as long as people have. At VooDoo, we take pride in serving our beef, chicken and pork barbecue competition-style, which means it’s perfectly seasoned and smoked and served as is, and the guest can add sauce to taste. Our sauces aren’t the syrupy confections you find at other barbecue joints; we have three sauces (Mojo, Cane Vinegar and Mango Crystal, made with Louisiana’s famous Crystal Hot Sauce) that bring out — not cover up — the natural flavor of the meat.

There’s much more to VooDoo BBQ than just the meat. Some barbecue places serve great meat but skimp on the side dishes. For us, the sides are just as important as the barbecue, which is why we’ve developed side dishes you won’t find anywhere else.

Take our Gris Gris Greens, simmered until tender (but not mushy!) and seasoned with lean pork. Or our corn pudding, crisp kernels in sweet cornmeal. Or our sweet potato soufflé, which defies description. Or even our potato salad, made with sour cream, chives and bacon bits to create a baked potato in a bowl. (Traditionalists needn’t fret. We’ve got excellent fries, cole slaw and macaroni & cheese, too.)

Our corn pudding, one of the unique side dishes that makes VooDoo BBQ unique.

And we don’t aim for just the crowd that craves barbecue, either — we serve great po-boy sandwiches, seafood dishes and salads, too, which means VooDoo BBQ is a perfect choice for anybody who wants a great-tasting, affordable meal served quickly.

The food is only part of the VooDoo recipe. We want to give diners an experience, a combination of food, sound and ambience that amounts to a 35-to-40-minute New Orleans vacation. We make our stores bright, clean and inviting, with French Quarter interior design touches and Louisiana music — zydeco, jazz, R&B — playing over the PA system. We’re not aiming for the traditional “Bubba’s BBQ Shack” vibe; we want a fresh space that’s comfortable for everyone.

Put all those things together, and you have a winner of a food franchise concept.

Want to climb on board the VooDoo BBQ express? Just fill out the form on this site, download our free franchise report with information about our food, people, philosophy and locations, and let’s get to know each other.

The post Why New Orleans BBQ Tempts Taste Buds Like No Other BBQ appeared first on Voodoo BBQ Franchise.

VooDoo BBQ’s Gris Gris Greens seasoned with lean pork.

We’re in that golden springtime period between Carnival and JazzFest — it’s how we measure the seasons down here — when the weather’s nice and not too hot yet. In the spring, there’s nothing better than rolling or walking around New Orleans, taking in the sights and sounds and sampling the food, such as New Orleans BBQ.

We’ve been talking a lot about New Orleans BBQ lately because it’s important for people to recognize the difference between barbecue that happens to be served in New Orleans or elsewhere in south Louisiana and true New Orleans barbecue. There are plenty of places in and around town that serve barbecue, and some of it’s fine.

But most of it takes other regions’ style and tries to sell it to New Orleanians, which doesn’t fly most of the time. The folks down here don’t settle for mediocre — why go out when you can get a first-rate meal at your mama’s house? — and they shrug their shoulders at ordinary dishes, even if they’re prepared well.

Memphis-style barbecue is fine, in Memphis. Carolina pulled pork is nice, in North or South Carolina. But this is Louisiana, where the food, like the music and culture, has to have a little something extra.

So VooDoo BBQ & Grill provides it with a new twist on the signature dish of the American South — the barbecue you know and love, but with Louisiana and Caribbean accents and spices that combine to create something unique.

Like the West Indian dry rub for our baby back ribs that gives the meat an extra sweet-spicy kick.

Like the corn pudding, sweet potato casserole and gris gris greens, the last perfectly cooked and seasoned with lean pork — side dishes you won’t find at an average Southern barbecue joint.

Like our desserts, including white chocolate bread pudding, which beats any fried pie you’ll ever try.

VooDoo BBQ’s unique sauces.

Like our sauces, concocted from a mix of ingredients like Louisiana’s famous Crystal Hot Sauce and available at every VooDoo BBQ table for our guests to apply to their satisfaction (or not — our meat’s good enough to stand on its own, too!).

It’s all part of the New Orleans BBQ revolution we’re helping lead. We’re a fast-growing franchise system that’s expanded to new locations in our home state and recently planted a strong footprint in a major market in Florida.

If this sounds like a great small business opportunity to you, we want to hear from you. Fill out the form on this site and download our free franchise information report, and let’s start talking about how you can fulfill your small business dreams with VooDoo BBQ!

The post How New Orleans BBQ Comes To Life Through VooDoo BBQ appeared first on Voodoo BBQ Franchise.

The crowd lined up outside VooDoo BBQ’s Pembroke Pines location for its grand opening in January.

The BBQ Boyz are kicking butt in Florida! After only two months, the Pembroke Pines location has already won WPLG-TV Local 10’s “Best Local 10” viewer contest for barbecue restaurants, and BBQ Boyz principal Jack Flechner went on the air in-studio Saturday morning to wow the folks at the station with New Orleans BBQ.

Jack presented host Neki Mohan with some of VooDoo’s famous baby back ribs, sweet potato casserole, potato salad, a barbecue po-boy, white chocolate bread pudding and other delightful VooDoo dishes. The Pembroke Pines store is the first of 26 VooDoo locations BBQ Boyz plans to open throughout the Sunshine State, where there’s plenty of competition for the dining dollar.

Neki and her colleagues had clearly partaken of our New Orleans BBQ before. “We love the sides,” she gushed. Later, she said she was “blown away by the desserts.” Well, it’s understandable. So are we, and so is anyone who tries them. If you want to see the segment, just search for “WPLG Local 10” and enter “VooDoo” in the site’s search engine.

We’re especially proud of Jack and his partners because we know this is just the beginning, both for our presence in Florida and for the Southeast and the rest of the country. We combine New Orleans-style food and fun with a fast-casual environment and satisfying meals at affordable prices, and we’re the fastest-growing barbecue restaurant franchise around.

Want to be part of the excitement? We want to hear from you. Fill out the form on this site and download our free franchise information report, and let’s start talking about how you can fulfill your small business dreams with VooDoo BBQ!

The post How VooDoo BBQ is Helping New Orleans BBQ Win Over the Sunshine State appeared first on Voodoo BBQ Franchise.