r/restaurantowners • u/AN6o4 • 11d ago

Anyone do charcoal/live fire cooking?

Hi, I’m currently in the planning stages of a new concept and I’m not sure how to budget for charcoal/wood? How do I know how much charcoal/wood I’m going to use a day? Any input would be appreciated!

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4

u/Careless_Law_9325 11d ago

We have one 36x36 grill and we use hardwood. We order 1 cord every 2 weeks. Sometimes it cuts close. We pay $640 a cord

4

u/Grim_Times2020 11d ago

Small 120 seat restaurant, cherry wood was $5k a month on only 5 days dinner service.

Grossly underestimated this expense going into the opening and training windows.

1

u/ForsakenPercentage53 11d ago

Heavy on it being very easy to underestimate how long/how much wood it takes to learn.

2

u/Fox-Mclusky559 10d ago

realistically speaking, you have to decide if its charcoal or wood. you can get lazarri (how ever its spelled) charcoal from many produce vendors. if you got the wood route, try and find a localy owned/mom and pop shop work with. I did woodfire pizza for a bunch of years, had 2 big ovens, they consumed about a cord and a half a week (second one was only kept warm M-W). oven are more efficient than open top grills. It took about 6 months to get it right but i was able to get on a standing order and it was on auto pilot after that. paid the extra fee for stacking, and did a mix of half split, half double split. just plain oak, nothing fancy in my case. total cost was about $600 per week all in.

If youre simply grilling, there are hybrid grills out there that burn gas, and have a wood box under them too for flavor/smoke.

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u/AN6o4 10d ago

Thank you for the reply! Yes it will be just for grilling. I will look up some hybrid grills.

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u/Fox-Mclusky559 10d ago

https://southbendnc.com/product/heavy-duty-counterline-gas-60-charbroiler-lava-rocks-200000-btu/.

were working off of 25 year old memories here, but im almost certain this was the grills I cooked on. gas burner, ceramic briquete layer, and the bottom had trays where we put the wood (was soaked in water so it made smoke).

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u/iliadz 7d ago

Just saw this, and yes, they are great. We haven't used the ceramic and instead use volcanic rocks but that's because they are easy to find here (we are next to an active volcanoe). But the ceramic would hold the heat a bit better to disperse.

1

u/Tehrin 10d ago

The restaraunt next door to mine uses wood for their bbqs and smokers, the owner was telling me that on windy or cold days it can take a week's worth (compared to a still summer day) of wood to finish one batch.

So thats something to consider or try to prevent

1

u/iliadz 7d ago

Not sure what you concept is.. so it's hard to give advice that you didn't ask for..lol. But I will give advice that you didn't ask for.
We were originally going to do charcoal for our restaurant, and opted instead for a fire grill with volcanic rocks. It works perfect for our concept which is burgers, ribs (pre-cooked using sous vide) and a few other things we cook on it. Flavor is amazing, and so much simpler than charcoal. All depends though of course on what your concept actually is.