We had an amazing first week. With absolutely no advertising, we met our sales goal. The MLK Day holiday weekend helped, but the real plus was the incredible support and word of mouth from all the local BBQ fans.

The week began with our first official sale shortly after the doors opened. Ed had joined the Grill Club prior to our opening and came by for lunch on opening day to get a pulled pork sandwich. We had a discussion about creating low sugar BBQ which has me seriously thinking of the options. While I do not use a ton of sugar in most of my BBQ, it is there and an problem for those avoiding sugar.

The Roxbury, Contemporary Catskill Lodging is currently adding a new set of suites – which makes us extremely happy – and Greg and Joseph bought lunches for their staff and the construction crew giving us a nice little lunch rush. Also made for the first two full rack of ribs sales.

Our first repeat customer for the week was our dear friend Solange. She stopped by three days in a row making here our first regular as well.

The next major milestone occurred Friday night with the sale of the first Grand Gorge. Essentially everything on the menu for $65, I figured we’d sell MAYBE one a month or so. Dave and Jen were the first people to order a Grand Gorge in order to feed a group of seven at their house. Later in the weekend we sold another to a group of guys staying at The Roxbury and closed with weekend with a Sunday Grand Gorge sale to our friend Roger. Three – yes three! – in one weekend. Guess I need to cook up!

When we were planning the Hut, our plans were for a take out joint. Our customers apparently have other plans. While we did a great deal of take out over the first week, Saturday found the Hut’s 10 seat communal table completely full – a family of 5, a family of 3 & a party of 2 – with another group of five wanting to sit but not having any room. They decided to come another time. Unfortunately – there really is no space for additional seating during the winter. Come summer – however – we’ll be rocking a series of picnic tables along the river for the true outdoor BBQ experience.

Once we had the DOH permit in hand, we decided it was time to test out the cook house and the kitchen before actually opening for regular business. As we got approval on January 6, Saturday the 9th seemed like the perfect time for an open house. We’d take a couple of days to cook everything on the menu and then offer up a sampling plate for $15.

Rather than find ourselves overwhelmed via advertising, we chose to keep the open house event low key using only the Cha Cha Hut Facebook page, word of mouth among friends, a sign on the Hut’s door and the open flag hanging out front. We were pleased to have a turn out of 15 folks with about half being people we did not know.

The first Cha Cha Hut sale ever went to Eric, Roxbury Central School’s principal. While technically it was a take out – he had friends dining here bring it to him. Our first actual phone in take out went to Bob who called about half way through the evening.

We started the evening at 3:30 and closed at the scheduled time of 8pm. We had a great crowd and learned a lot of lessons – especially about the lack of proper take out containers. Then again – that was the point of the open house. In addition to giving people the chance to sample our menu, we were looking for issues to solve before our official opening. The evening did just that and we were better prepared for the Wednesday January 13th first official day.