Using premium-smoked meats as the foundation to the dining experience, Conway's customers are encouraged to sample various custom barbecue sauces that represent different flavor profiles and ingredients found throughout the country.

At Conway's BBQ, owner Doug Colson says the customer is an essential member of its sales force. "We focus on using the consumer as an extension of our business," he explains. "If he's not happy, he's not going to go down the road and speak volumes for us."

Based in Orlando, Fla., the company operates quick-service and sit-down restaurants in Florida and Pennsylvania that serve barbecued food items from across the nation. In addition, Conway's offers event-catering services for corporate groups as well as individuals.

Colson started the company in 1996, after working as a regional food broker. "I'm a sixth-generation Floridian," he says, noting that he always had a passion for Southern barbecued food.

Before opening Conway's first location in Orlando, Colson traveled across the United States for a year and a half, eating multiple types of barbecued cuisine that he could add to his restaurant's menu. "My thought process was to take bits and pieces of all the best barbecue joints in the country," he explains.

This included North Carolina pulled pork, a Texas beef brisket and St. Louis-style pork ribs. "There's a lot of food out there," he says. "We wanted people to be able to come to Orlando and get a taste of where they were from."

The company took its namesake from the neighborhood of its first location, Colson says. He notes that Conway's found success by sticking to what it did best. "We didn't take our menu and grow it every three weeks," he explains. "We pretty much stuck to the staple items on our menu."

In addition, he says, Conway's offered more to its diners than competitors. "Instead of just getting a barbecue sandwich, they had all kinds of options," Colson explains. "They were able to develop their own taste buds for our products."

Using premium-smoked meats as the foundation to the dining experience, Conway's customers are encouraged to sample various custom barbecue sauces that represent different flavor profiles and ingredients found throughout the country. Whether it is beef brisket, pulled pork, turkey, chicken or ham, the dosing of regional sauces really changes the end product.

The company's success in Orlando indicated it would catch on in other regions. According to Colson, barbecue restaurants are not prominent in central Florida. "We stayed [in Orlando] because we knew if we could make it work in a market like central Florida, we knew it would travel anywhere," he explains.

Careful Expansion
Today, Conway's has four company-owned locations and three franchised restaurants, with seven more in development in the Northeast. "That's kind of becoming our hotbed, believe it or not," Colson notes. "We're finding that the Northeast is starving for Southern barbecue.

"I think it's a pretty exciting time for us now," he continues, adding that the company has a goal of opening 30 locations in 2007. He notes, however, that the company will be conservative in its growth pattern.

"We're really going to be particular about who ends up becoming a Conway's BBQ franchisee," he explains. "We've got to have entrepreneurs and businesspeople who understand how this model works."

Catering Concentration
Although sales at its restaurants comprise 40 percent of its business, the bulk of sales are from Conway's catering service. Unlike its competitors, Colson says, the company has sought to heavily promote its catering, by posting photos of its catered events in its restaurants' interiors as well as a heavy concentration of point of sale materials that are handed out religiously.

Each individual location grows its revenue stream exponentially by developing a substantial catering component that utilizes existing fixed costs and assets.

"We cross market that as much as we possibly can when you walk in the door," he says. Colson notes that the catering business has helped the company and its franchisees develop a source of income outside of its restaurants.

"It really insulates us from bumps in the road, inherent in any business," he states. "We've seen that [the] outside component grows incrementally much quicker than the dine-in part."

One catering package Colson highlights is its BBQ In A Box, which has the entire contents of a picnic meal. "It allows people to have a picnic in the boardroom," he adds.

Staying True
Colson says Conway's constantly develops new items for its menu. Currently, the company is working on regional side dishes, including fried okra. "We're pretty careful about tweaking too much," he says, explaining that Conway's does not want to add products that will dilute its original concept.

A challenge for the company, he says, has been educating the customer about the different regional barbecue styles. He notes that the company has done a good job of explaining its sauces to customers, which can change the flavor profile of its meats.

"Barbecue predominantly has been seen east of the Mississippi [River]," Colson says. Its challenge going forward, he explains, will be to expand barbecue on the west side of the river.