If barbecue is culinary gold in East County, then Santee is
about to become the mother lode of mesquite-grilled cuisine.
<><>
 |
<><>
| Phil Pace |
Phil’s BBQ and its award-winning menu are coming to the city
of 54,000 along the San Diego River that has grown up in the shadow of Cowles
Mountain.
The popular purveyor of ribs, pulled pork and tri-tip beef
sandwiches will make its debut July 19 at the city’s Blues & BBQ concert at
Town Center Community Park.
“It’s the invasion of the killer B’s,” said Bill Maertz,
Santee’s Director of Community Services. “We’re presenting authentic blues
performances by Bill Magee and Stoney B, along with the best barbecue in the county.”
Actually, the beer garden may qualify as an additional “B.”
Last summer’s inaugural Blues & BBQ concert drew rave
reviews and an audience of more than 3,000 people to the city’s riverfront performance
stage at southeastern corner of the 55-acre park.
The concert offers
the community a chance to savor a first taste of the menu that will be offered
when owner Phil Pace opens his third restaurant later this fall in the Santee Trolley
Square Shopping Center.
Phil’s BBQ has won a stockyard full of awards, including
Best BBQ 2012 by San Diego Magazine and a Gold Medallion from the San Diego
Restaurant Assn. They’ve also accumulated an astounding 4,000-plus positive
reviews on Yelp, a business website.
Expanding to a third restaurant is necessary to ease the
long lines at Phil’s two other locations in Point Loma and San Marcos, and to
serve a large percentage of customers who have been coming from the eastern
part of the county.
“We don’t know how many people drive off every day because
the lines are too long,” said Fred Glick, Phil’s vice president of operations.
“Where else do people choose to wait in line? The Department of Motor Vehicles,
Disneyland, and here at Phil’s BBQ.”
Pace said he’s hooked on the restaurant business because
he’s a people person who views customers as a kind of extended family.
“It’s nice to have a
successful business, but it’s nice to appreciate my customers more,” said Pace.
“The biggest challenge is to accommodate people in line to keep them happy.”
The Santee location will feature double the usual number of
tap beers and a separate bar for people waiting in line.
Pace, who opened his first restaurant in San Diego’s Mission
Hills community in February 1998, has been able to grow his businesses with
little to zero advertising. His primary marketing tool is a website and word of
mouth.
“I’m most likely to go to a restaurant if it’s been
recommended to me by a friend,” he said.
However, he’s
breaking with his no-advertising policy for the Santee grand opening by paying
to “wrap” an entire Metro Transit trolley car with a Phil’s BBQ ad.
Phil’s expansion team spent three years scouting various East
County cities for the best location.
“Parking is a big issue, so we needed to find an area that
wasn’t too congested,” said Pace, noting that the search focused on commercial
retail zones.
“Even though we control smoke and odor really well now, we
didn’t want to be too close to a residential area, where folks can be sensitive
to those issues,” he said.
The completion in March 2011 of State Route 52 --a freeway
that connects to State Route 67 and State Route 125—gave Santee an edge over
other locations being considered because it ensured easy access for everyone in
East County, he said.
The new restaurant is being constructed on a 7,000-square-foot
site previously occupied by The Roadhouse Grill. Pace is investing
approximately $2 million to reconfigure the building and purchase new
equipment, such as a $60,000 blast chiller used to rapidly cool barbecued meats
for storage in the restaurant’s walk-in cooler.
“Among all the stores I’ve built, this one is our largest
investment,” said Pace. “But I’m confident it will be worth it.”
