Sweet Baby Ray's restaurant

They've just opened two of these near me in the Chicago area. www.sbrbbq.com The menu looks good so we'll have to check it out.

Sounds real good to me but lets see how they are judged.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

The sauce came before the restaurant?

Long before! The sauce has been around since the late 1980s. The restaurants have only been around for the last couple of years at most. It should also be noted that Sweet Baby Ray's sauces are no longer owned by the Raymond family (the "Ray" in "Sweet Baby Ray" is based on their last name, not a first name). They sold the business a few years ago to the Massachusetts company that makes Kens' Salad Dressings.

This is not a unique situation. Rich Davis, the creator and founder of KC Masterpiece sold his sauces to Kingsford/Clorox before he and his sons opened the KC Masterpiece restaurants, only one of which still exists.

Anything else you'd like to know, just ask.

Buddy

Buddy, i'm waiting for Buddy's Roadhouse restaurant. Your sauces are the best!

KC Masterpiece Clorox? Sounds great!

Although I have never owned my own place, I have been intimately involved in the restaurant business for nearly 35 years. I know how many hours and how much work goes into running a successful eatery. Based on that I can tell you it's going to be a looooong time before you see me owning my own restaurant.

I appreciate the thought though.

Buddy

quote:

Originally posted by BuddyRoadhouse

Long before! They sold the business a few years ago to the Massachusetts company that makes Kens' Salad Dressings.


Buddy

When I lived in Marlboro, Mass, I helped out at a catering company that did monthly and holiday dinners for the crew at Ken's Foods.
(bonus was getting bottles of Kens and Newmans Own dressings)
They bottle many different dressings and sauces.

I found this in a 2002 article.
"Ken's Foods Inc., which ranks right behind Kraft and Wishbone as the No.3 salad-dressing maker, was formed almost 50 years ago by the owners of the steakhouse and two friends to bottle and sell the restaurant's popular Italian-style salad dressing through retail channels. The dressing was -- and continues to be -- marketed under the Ken's Steak House brand with the image of the restaurant on the label. Today privately held Ken's Foods produces more than 400 varieties of dressings, marinades, and deli and seafood sauces, which generate annual sales of about $200 million."
"(FRAMINGHAM, MASS. -- The 61-year-old KEN'S STEAK HOUSE and salad-dressing producer KEN'S FOODS are locked in a a legal dispute that will hinge finally on who controls the rights to trademarks that both businesses have been using for decades.....The legal battle began when Ken's Foods filed a lawsuit against the restaurant operator in U.S. District Court in Boston last November, 2001, claiming, among other things, federal trademark infringement. The Marlborough, Mass.-based company asserted that Ken's Steak House had been misrepresenting its role concerning the commercial success of the salad dressing on the Internet, in telephone ads and in the media."

I am not sure if this dispute has been resolved or not.

http://www.kensfoods.com/kf/news/kensHeritage.servlet