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Columbus’ City Barbeque opens in Fairlawn
RICHARD WEINER
Legal News Reporter
Published: May 31, 2018
Columbus-based restaurant chain City Barbeque opened its first northeast Ohio store in Fairlawn on May 19. It is the chain’s 39th store opened since its founding by Richard Malir and his partners in 1999.
“It’s been a wild ride for sure,” said Malir. “But we’ve been blessed with great guests and amazing teammates who have helped us live out our company’s purpose – to serve and create happiness – that is what it is all about. There have been ups and downs, but seeing things grow has been both humbling and inspiring.”
City Barbeque (2870 W. Market St.; https://www.citybbq.com/) features chicken, pork and beef brisket cooked in the styles of the many regions of barbecue around the country, said the company’s regional marketing manager Beth Berkemer. “Each location cooks all of its food on-site, from smoking the meats to making the sides and sauces from scratch. Every team member takes pride in that fact.”
City Barbeque offers a variety of regional tastes in both how meat and sides are prepared and its sauces—from Texas-style smoked brisket to South Carolina-style vinegar-based sauce—one of up to ten different sauces on the menu at any time. The large crowd gathered at the opening seemed to be enjoying all of it.
The results—strong regional flavors throughout the menu––are there to taste. West Akron resident and Akron bus driver Damont Cook said that the food was “different and refreshing. There aren’t too many barbecue restaurants that serve pulled pork (for instance), but my favorite thing so far is the brisket. We will be back.”
City Barbeque currently employs about 1200 people. The company changed from a slow-growth model to a faster growth model about three years ago, said Berkemer. “Rick was waiting until he had a team that could go out and train people at new locations in our techniques and company culture.” Now, she said, the planned company growth has been raised from two or three new stores a year to upwards of eight-to-ten, and has started taking on investors to make that dream a reality.
City Barbeque was a Columbus store for many years, before deciding to expand out of the area. One of the first places it expanded to was to the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina. “We wanted to see how we measured up to southern barbeque,” said Berkemer. The results surprised even the company. “They really liked us,” she said. “We were even rated the number-one barbecue restaurant in the area.” The expansion went out from there, with stores in areas as diverse as Georgia, Chicago, Kentucky, and eight stores in North Carolina.
The expansion was far from the original dream that Malir had for the restaurant. “I grew up on a farm in Kansas, raising cattle, hogs, and various crops – I have always had a deep appreciation for food and where it comes from,” Malir said. “As an agriculture major in college, my roommate introduced me to barbecue. It’s interesting how things work out in life. My wife, Bonnie, and I moved to Columbus, Ohio and it wasn’t long before I got the itch to open a barbecue restaurant – which made no sense at all to do in Columbus. As luck would have it, I stumbled into a friendship with a national award-winning barbecue team and learned the craft. I surrounded myself with great people who knew how to run restaurants, and my wife and I put all our savings into getting things started. We transformed a small donut shop in Upper Arlington, Ohio into the first City Barbeque. We didn’t have much money, so I built the tables myself and we used barn board from my wife’s family barn in Tennessee.” That hand-hewn sensibility has carried over to the country décor in the Fairlawn store.
The expansion model has also changed over time, said Berkemer. The company tried franchising, but then bought back all but one of the franchise stores and is no longer seeking franchisees. Instead, City Barbeque wants to control every facet of the food that is served in every store. “It is a culture thing,” she said. “We are very family-oriented. All of our team members and customers are treated like family. But the most important thing is that the teams are ready—we don’t grow anything faster than the teams can handle it.” The Fairlawn opening team, for instance, came from seven different locations.
The rate of expansion is both terrifying and exciting, said Berkemer. The next Northeast Ohio City Barbeque store will be in Beachwood, said Berkemer, who recommends her favorite dish on the menu—the “More Cowbell”—a brisket sandwich topped with peppers and onions, smoked Provolone cheese and creamy horseradish sauce.