Just don't care for the food

Let me start off by saying I love BBQ and will generally seek out any BBQ place to try. Having said that a guy has opened a small place about a 1/4 mile from where I work, as he was getting the place ready I was really looking forward to eating there.
Now that I've eaten there probably 8-10 times trying several items on the menu I've reached the conclusion that I just don't care much for the food, to me the meats are bland and the slabs of ribs though huge are generally grisly and very fatty
The funny thing is he seems to be doing it the right way, has a huge pile of wood and big smoker that is constantly going. He has a ton of experience, learned much of his trade in Memphis and a couple of food columnist have given him good writeups.
It really a shame because I would love to support a small independent restaurant owner like him but I just can't see wasting my money on food I don't like.

Yeah, how do you tell a friend who has invested lots of time and money in a restaurant that his/her food isn't good? It may just be your personal taste and if they are staying busy and getting good writeups, keep your mouth shut. Surely you can find something there that is palatable.

You might try suggesting through casual conversation that you tried some ribs somewhere a different way, and that you thought they were good, then ask him if he knows how they may have done it....might get his curiosity up. Cooks usually like to learn others methods, tricks. Any business owner that doesn't try to learn and grow (change) is bound to failure.

Go with him to another Q place to "spy" on the competition. After eating the comp food, make comments about this being good or that being how you prefer it. Maybe he'll get the hint.

Maybe he's buying inferior grades of meat. Maybe he's using a kind of wood that has no distinct character. Maybe he doesn't season or rub his meat.
Maybe things will improve. Believe me, his customers will let him know. Sooner or later.

25% of it is up to the Hog and Steer, he must be getting bottom of the barrel from a Sysco or US Foods, since he is small. Bring it to his attention, he may well be unaware of it. Why go to all that work when no matter what you do, the product is DOA!

I agree....we had a place down on Dauphin Island Pkwy in Mobile, Johnny's Smokehouse...big lunch hang out for reservists, they had a very tasty BBQ sauce, but the meat for the beef brisket sandwiches was subpar.....fatty and the pit had a habit of making it dry..............if they had coupled that sauce with good meat, the dining experience would have increased 5 fold

It maybe since the place is just starting up,that that is what he is buying for now.With more business comes more profit so he may start buying better meats.

Unfortunately I don't know know if the place is going to make it. I drove by at lunch time and there was only one car in the parking lot. There was a writeup on the guy in the paper last week and before he opened the restaurant he had a weekend only BBQ trailer type operation in a small town closeby. I guess he has been cooking and selling BBQ for many years but this is his first restaurant.

Ces -

I share your pain, a local guy has opened a que place here in Indiana, and I have tried 5 times and finally have given up. I have talked to him, and talked to his wife, but it goes in one ear and out the other.