HOLIDAY GREETINGS, Team City Barbeque!

Gratitude and Thanks come to mind as I wish all of you a wonderful holiday season.  What you have been thru the past 21 months is extraordinary and inspiring.  We are all a cut above as we didn’t back down or give up and continued to use our gifts of service. 

Your influence on not just your fellow teammates, but every person you serve is immeasurable.  It is more than a great meal. You are making peoples’ lives a little brighter.  You have purpose and create positive impact.

I am proud of you, I appreciate you.  God Bless as we continue to Serve and Create Happiness.  

Rick 

Four Pillars

TEAM

December’s New Joint Opening Training Team: What an amazing opportunity to bring together our Regional Training Managers, new Opening Coordinator, and 24 of our New Joint Opening Trainers! With support from several departments, we held a 2-day Train-the-Trainer Boot Camp to prepare these teammates for the very big job in front of them: opening more joints in one year than ever before! We witnessed such energy from this team! What can we say, besides “truly inspirational!” These teammates are dedicated to the opening process, and will travel throughout 2022 to support our company as we embark on this super-great journey.

Thank You trainers, for what you have done and what you will do. Your work and time are very much appreciated!

Guest

Both our Harrodsburg and Eastgate locations scored a CSI score of 95 or above in November! One Eastgate customer said that their food was “excellently prepared and delicious. The staff is friendly and very efficient. If you like smoked beef, pork, or chicken, City Barbeque is an excellent choice.” Great job, teams!

Process

City Barbeque has introduced the Joint Portal this holiday season.  The first functionality in the Joint Portal is the holiday meat countdown.  This tool is helping to minimize manual efforts of tracking how many holiday meats have sold!  The holiday tracker is not only utilized by the joints, but since it’s a browser-based application, can be used by the call centers and restaurant leadership! 

Financial

We had a great November! Our sales are up 20% compared to 2019 (pre-COVID numbers)! Catering is also excelling and showing comps of over 2% compared to 2019. November put the YTD comp to the positive for the first time all year - What a great comeback! COVID who?

RAVING FANS

arlington

Just wanted to thank you for the excellent service, that as a customer, you always receive at the Henderson Rd City BBQ. I have been ordering food from this location for several years and have never been disappointed. All of the employees are extremely hard working and are happy to do what they can to help you. Recently Nathan and Tessa went out of their way to help me when I was having scheduling problems with my Thanksgiving turkey. I really appreciated their kindness and efforts. On any given day, no matter how busy, the staff is always smiling, moving fast, and working hard to provide delicious food. Thank you for the excellent customer service and for hiring such wonderful employees.

CENTERVILLE

We had placed a large catering order ahead of time for a funeral wake. I picked up the order and was told everything was there. Got home and 3 items were missing. Had to leave the wake to go back for the missing items. The manager, Kyle, was incredible. He genuinely cared about my frustration and quickly jumped in. He gathered our missing items, threw in a free dessert, and offered a gift card. He even offered condolences for my deceased uncle. Kyle went above and beyond to fix my issue. He knocked it out of the park and I left feeling so good about City Barbecue. Because of his thoughtful actions, I'll be back time and time again and will share this story with others. I can't say enough about what a great employee Kyle is. Please, give him some recognition for a job well done!

FLORENCE

This shout out is long overdue. I live in the Greater Cincinnati area and am a regular customer (2 to 3 times a week). I have access to the several City BBQ locations but as far as top notch friendly customer service goes, the members of the Florence KY location attitudes and overall customer service surpasses the other City BBQ locations. In addition to that, the quality of the food and cleaniness of the dining room, drinking stations, etc etc also surpass the other locations. The list goes on and on as to how well operated this location, again especially its employee crew members, surpasses the other locations. I hope Rick has some time where he can personally commend the employees at this location. Best regards, Corey P.S. Other City BBQ locations should take their training from the exact crew members at Florence KY!

MILLER LANE

Our drive through experience today was great thanks to Brittany who was working drive thru & Kaitlyn who prepared our order. Brittany was friendly, upbeat & greeted us at the window with an enthusiastic smile! While taking orders she was also running orders to cars keeping things moving in the drive thru line. When she brought our food to our car we again saw the big smile! When we complimented her & asked for her name, she also gave us Kaitlyn’s name. What great teamwork & team attitude. We always have good service at this store but everything today was exceptional! Brittany is a gem for an employee!

POLARIS

My husband and I dined in at your Columbus location. The food was great but your employee, Joe, deserves the real recognition. My husband was recently diagnosed with celiac and we had questions about the menu. He wasn’t even the one that took our order but heard us talking. He was informative about our dietary options and even asked the employees in the back to change their gloves to avoid contamination. He was super friendly and professional. We were impressed that he went out of his way to help us and did it in such a nice way. We have found that service everywhere has declined through this pandemic and it was so refreshing to interact with him. We will definitely be going back more often to support your restaurant and employees like Joe. Please give him an atta boy! Sincerely, Holly Brewer

RALEIGH

When we visited yesterday (10/3/21), the food was TERRIFIC as usual. We've have been fans since this location opened. I can honestly say that I've never been disappointed with what was ordered. The staff is super friendly. The manager, Jojo, is truly a perfect host. The smiles and greetings are truly appreciated. I tell anyone talking GOOD BBQ, City BBQ on Falls of Neuse, Raleigh is our GO-TO place.

STRONGSVILLE

I recently picked up an online order via curbside. Not only was my order ready at the exact time promised, but it was delivered to my vehicle by one of your employees, Liam, who was very friendly and courteous. My overall experience was quite pleasant, and I will certainly visit this establishment again.

UNIVERSITY PLACE

Damarkus Shelton had great customer service! He was very pleasant to talk to and even gave me some recommendations for the next time I order as well! Give this man a raise! Very personable!!

WESTERVILLE

I stopped by City BBQ for dinner this evening. I was welcomed by Tami, Mika, and Drew. They were all pleasant and helpful. The food was delicious! I highly recommend stopping by for a great meal sometime.

ALETHA’S CORNER

Hello All,

It’s that time of year again, where we give thanks and gifts. We happily eat too much and spend time with our families and friends. I know I love this time of year, as I catch up with people I don’t get to see as often as I’d like; sharing stories, life’s journeys, and hopes for tomorrow.  I just feel better when I get to share in person, over a good meal, a delicious dessert, or even a cup of hot cocoa. These times are precious and valuable in so many ways.

This year I spent time with family I haven’t seen in a while.  Wow! What a time! The rich stories, the history of my family, and being in great company, will stay with me far after the holiday season. On my way home from this wonderful visit, I thought, “Why does this only happen at the holidays? Why can’t we do this simply because?“  So, I decided I wasn’t going to wait until next Thanksgiving or Christmas to do what warms my heart. I needed to create the culture of spending time and sharing stories because everyone benefits from it. This time of year warms hearts and minds to help us become open to what is possible. It is gratifying to know we all want many of the same things. The harder part is making it happen! A wise person once told me, “Never confuse action for results,” and I think that applies to wanting something, but not turning it into a reality. I want to spend more time with the people that matter the most to me, but the only way to ensure that is to be intentional with my actions.

This made me start thinking about what “being intentional” really means. I hear people say it often, and I wonder how it really looks. Here is what I found:

Being intentional means you have a clear purpose and are deliberate about acting on the thoughts and feelings that are most important to you.  When you have an intentional focus, you choose to live and create a life that has a clear purpose and is meaningful and exciting to you. 

Learning to be intentional means choosing to act on the things that are important to you in your personal life and at work.  Living with intention means you consciously choose to create the life you want, rather than having other people dictate your feelings and actions.

Being an intentional person means everything you do is done with a clear purpose and focus.  When you become intentional, you focus your time and energy on your strengths and the good things in your life, and you don’t let fear hold you back.

Intentional people are action-orientated, and have an unshakeable determination and strong mindset to accomplish what they’ve set out to achieve.  To become more intentional, it’s important to be self-aware, say “no” more often than you say “yes,” and practice gratitude.

With intentionality, you appreciate more and practice gratitude for the things that matter most in your life.  When you are intentional, you set better boundaries around your time and the areas of your life that are important.

After better understanding what being intentional means, and how to create an intentional life for myself, I wrote down all the things I need to focus on consciously. Now, this is all part of a journey and plan that I surely won’t complete tomorrow, but I will take joy in knowing I have a plan and the “just because” can happen with my intention.

So, my wish for you today is that you be intentionally kind and take care of yourself and others.

Have a great Holiday Season!!

~ Aletha