Amce Barbecue strives for 'highest degree attainable'

About two years ago, George Logue, 26, decided to open a barbecue restaurant in Williamsport. Anticipation built in the community as the Army combat veteran, who has a bachelor's of science in culinary arts from Pennsylvania College of Technology, began hyping Acme Barbecue&Catering Co. on area billboards. Acme's Facebook page has garnered more than 700 fans who chatter online about their experiences eating Acme barbecue. Click here to check it out >>>>

 A recent Question and Answer session with the chef/pitmaster follows:

Q: What experience do you have in this field?
A: Working with world champion pitmaster Mike Mills, barbecuing with my father as a hobby

Q: Who are the most influential chefs in your life?
A: Chef Mike Ditchfield, Mike Mills, Ed Mitchell, Chef Jean Georges Vongerichten, Chef John Folse, Escoffier

Q: What items you have on the menu and why did you select them?
A: Pork, brisket, loin back ribs, turkey, sausauge, chicken, beans, mac and cheese, potato salad, cole slaw. Most of these items are items my family and I have been making for a while now.  I have also been to many different bbq regions in the US and I wanted to showcase a diverse mix of regional bbq.

Q: Where did you get the recipes for your food?
A: Most of the recipes are my own original recipes the others came from my family. Everything is made from scratch.

Q: How did you choose the name Acme?
A: We wanted a generic name and the term Acme also means "the highest degree attainable."

Q: Why did you choose this location? Did you have any choice in the building redesign?
A: This location was chosen because it was downtown.  We redesigned the whole inside of the builing, none of the layout is from the original store.

Q: Your building is small – how does the limited seating affect your business?
A: I'm not sure how it has affected the business because I haven't seen what it could be with more seating.  As far as I know,  I haven't seen anyone not order because of no seats. They just got their order to go. I look at it like a Chinese restaurant -- they are mostly take out and have a few seats. That was my whole idea in the first place, to be a take-out restaurant.

Q: What hurdles or difficulties did you encounter when you opened?
A: Predicting how much food to make is the hardest part still, after being open for a few months.  You can't just instantly make more food when you run out.  Barbecue takes a long time to cook. Our wings take the shortest amount of time and that is about 2 1/2 hours.

Q: What kinds of marketing did you employ and what do you think worked best?
A: We started with billboards even before we were opened.  I think it created kind of a mysterious buzz through out Williamsport. We still are using billboards with witty sayings and eye-catching pictures. 

Q: Is your website working for you?
A: Yes, I had a great webmaster design it.  I think that many people are using it to view the menu.

Q: Tell me about the people who work for you. Who are they and what experience do they have? 
A: I have about nine people working for me.  Some of them are family.  My brother cooks (fryers, slices brisket, saute).  My mom helps in the back, making most of the prepared salads.  I have other family helping in other areas.  Two of the managers graduated from school with me and have associate degrees in hospitality management.  Other people I hired via applications because of their prior work experience.

Q: How is Acme different than other regional barbecue restaurants?
A: We do true authentic barbecue. I've learned techniques from world champion pitmasters, and have done plenty of research, for school and my own personal use, on different regional American styles of barbecue.  We use no liquid smoke, we smoke all our meats with apple wood in a true, authentic pit that is directly from Missouri.  We don't boil any of our meats to make them tender, we employ a low and slow cooking method to make our meat tender.  We don't drown our meat in sauce, I have made up my sauces and rub recipes up to complement the apple wood and the certain types of meat we use.  

Q: Tell me about your catering business.
A: I don't just do barbecue.  I did four years of culinary school so I know many different cooking styles and can accommodate most of my clients' requests.  I am working on more of a catering staff so I can do more caterings and bigger ones, as well.

Q: What is the most important thing you have learned from experience of opening a restaurant?
A: It takes a lot of time and organization.  Don't be too ambitious with your menu.  Have a well-trained staff before you open.  

Q: What have you done to improve your business since opening?
A: I've taught my staff how to be more efficient.  We only have one cash register so it's hard to keep things going when the line is out the door. But we have got most of the kinks out now and I think that we are running more smoothly than when we first opened.

Q: Do you have plans for adding new menu items?
A: I do.  I would like to do different things on the patio once a month once I feel that we can run flawlessly.  I am also looking into beef ribs.

Acme Barbecue
445 Market Street
Williamsport, Pa 17701
Phone: (570) 327-9009
Fax (570) 567-7369
http://www.acmebarbecue.com
Hours: Wed-Sat 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Photographs by Terry Moore. On the web at http://www.TerryMoorePhoto.com

Additional Images: