Limited Edition Eats

If summertime has official flavors, barbecue and beer certainly must be in the running. Fittingly, Springfield food and beverage businesses are receiving national notice for their own tastes of summer.

For Jeremy Smith, co-owner of City Butcher and Barbecue, increased foot and Web traffic arrived with the May 20 release of Branson-born author Johnny Fugitt’s book, “The 100 Best Barbecue Restaurants in America,” where the 6-month-old company placed No. 25 out of 365 U.S. eateries.

“It kind of hit at a funny time,” Smith said, adding his store closed down Memorial Day weekend to treat employees to a float trip. “We got a lot of attention and then we decided to close down the weekend when we probably could have really killed it and made a lot of money.”

Smith said it’s rare the dining side of City Butcher doesn’t sell every last bite of 300-450 pounds of daily-cooked meats by 2 p.m., and the line for its 11 a.m. open starts around 10:30. Within two weeks of the store’s November 2014 opening in Kickapoo Corners on South Campbell Avenue, the limited-supply model was generating daily revenues three times what Smith and co-owner Cody Smith predicted.

“Neither of us expected this, definitely not within the first six months,” Jeremy Smith said, declining to disclose revenues. “We didn’t even expect this within the first two years.

“The bottom line is we’re leaving money on the table at this point.”

Limited supply is also the strategy of Copper Run Distillery owner Jim Blansit, but he’s going about it a different way.

“We’re producing more than what we’re selling, which allows us to start barrel-aging our products and therefore (increase) the value,” Blansit said.

He estimates the three-year aging process on the company’s whiskey will nearly triple its per-bottle price from around $30 for unaged product to the high $70 range.

Blansit’s goal for the Walnut Shade-based business, which in April took home a National Distiller’s Institute gold medal and best-in-category award for it’s white rum, is to produce a predetermined allotment of high-end spirits every year to drive customer demand.

“I like to remain mysterious about our growth, but from day one it’s been slow and steady,” Blansit said, declining to disclose Copper Run’s revenues. “Our feet aren’t outgrowing our head, and our head isn’t outgrowing our feet.”

Cameron Roy, owner of Buckingham’s BBQ restaurants in Nixa, Ozark and north Springfield, said his stores have felt the heat from competitors City Butcher and others, but he believes Buckingham’s menu offerings outside the barbecue genre are contributing to company growth. Keeping revenues under wraps, Roy said dining room receipts across the three restaurants are up 12 percent this year.

A recent first-place win on a Missouri-centric episode of the Travel Channel’s “Grill to Victory” is likely to increase his eateries’ profile with travelers and tourists. The grill used to create their winning recipes was modified on a $10,000 budget with help from teammates chef James Clary, Buckingham’s founder David Campbell and brother Darryl Campbell. Roy said the cooker will rotate at Buckingham’s stores.

“That’s just instant credibility,” Roy said of the publicity. “That, I think, is a long-term benefit that we’ll see.”

None of the business owners see increased exposure as a reason to change their business models.

In Blansit’s case, building his business will take on a literal meaning this fall as Copper Run prepares to construct an on-site barrel house for storing retail and wholesale products, plus that of signature barrel program members. Blansit said program customers can claim 40 to 400 bottles of their own hand-crafted whiskey for between $1,180 and $9,000 per barrel, depending on size.

“The growing trend is the whiskey connoisseur that understands how whiskey is made, knows what they like and will pay a lot of money to have it,” he said. “It’s all about the quality, not the quantity.”

Roy said he has plans to implement a small-scale, limited supply element by July, offering special menu selections in larger portions for between $20 and $30 a plate, depending on the product.

“I look at everything on our end is how much barbecue business is being had in the Ozarks,” Roy said, adding he estimates such business in the Springfield area generates between $17 million and $20 million a year.

“My goal is to see how much of that we can eat up.”

Smith said he hopes to eventually expand City Butcher into a neighboring space if one becomes vacant, but the plan has more to do with increasing cooking capacity to fill catering orders than it does to change the way business is done.

“I would like to seat a few more people, but part of the mystique for our shop is we only have 36 seats and they fill up quickly,” he said, adding the company presently turns down 75 percent of the catering requests it receives due to limited staff, equipment and product. “If I can sell it all out the front door, there is no sense in me selling it all out of the back door first.”[[In-content Ad]]