Bill Miller Bar-B-Q Enterprises
Encyclopedia
Bill Miller Bar-B-Q is a San Antonio
-headquartered restaurant chain that focuses on barbecue
food, accompanying side dishes (such as potato salad
and coleslaw
), and baked goods.
The restaurant started as a poultry and egg business in 1950 from a $500 loan. Founder Bill Miller later expanded the business into a fried chicken
take-out restaurant. The menu eventually incorporated hamburgers, and then shifted into a barbecue restaurant. The second restaurant opened in February 1963.
From the beginning, Bill Miller Bar-B-Q was a family business. Faye Miller served as a cashier and hostess while raising their four children. The children learned how to work and were raised learning the operations of the business. They worked in the restaurant during the summers and on weekends. When Bill Miller planned a vacation to Europe between Balous Miller's junior and senior years of college, Balous ran the restaurant business that summer and then decided to make Bill Miller Bar-B-Q his career rather than pursuing his plans for teaching school. Bill Miller semi-retired upon Balous' graduation in May 1966. As his brothers, John and Douglas received their degrees, they joined him in the restaurant business. The three brothers and their brother-in-law, Louis Vance, have worked together now in excess of thirty years.
69 restaurants cover the San Antonio, Austin
, and Corpus Christi
markets. All foods served at the restaurants are produced in one facility in downtown San Antonio, and are then shipped to each location daily.
In 1992 Bill Miller bought the Fiesta Plaza, a failed mall, and planned to donate it to the University of Texas at San Antonio
.
Ila Faye died in 2008. In 2009 the company reduced the employee health care costs by 40% after it ended its PPO program and formed partnerships with area health providers. Therefore medical providers receive reimbursement on a cost-plus basis.
They used 600 thousand tea bags to brew 3 million USgals (11,356.2 m³) of tea, enough for 10 million large iced teas. It was sweetened by 2 million pounds of sugar. They sold over 100 thousand Texas Tea Buckets, a quart-size insulated drink mug.
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
-headquartered restaurant chain that focuses on barbecue
Barbecue
Barbecue or barbeque , used chiefly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, poultry and occasionally fish with the heat and hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of...
food, accompanying side dishes (such as potato salad
Potato salad
Potato salad is a dish made from boiled potatoes, the versions of which vary throughout different regions and countries of the world. Although called a salad, it is generally considered a side dish, as it generally accompanies the main course....
and coleslaw
Coleslaw
Coleslaw, sometimes simply called slaw in some American dialects, is a salad consisting primarily of shredded raw cabbage. It may also include shredded carrots and other ingredients such as fruits and vegetables, apples, onions, green onions, peppers and various spices.-History:The term "coleslaw"...
), and baked goods.
The restaurant started as a poultry and egg business in 1950 from a $500 loan. Founder Bill Miller later expanded the business into a fried chicken
Fried chicken
Fried chicken is a dish consisting of chicken pieces usually from broiler chickens which have been floured or battered and then pan fried, deep fried, or pressure fried. The breading adds a crisp coating or crust to the exterior...
take-out restaurant. The menu eventually incorporated hamburgers, and then shifted into a barbecue restaurant. The second restaurant opened in February 1963.
From the beginning, Bill Miller Bar-B-Q was a family business. Faye Miller served as a cashier and hostess while raising their four children. The children learned how to work and were raised learning the operations of the business. They worked in the restaurant during the summers and on weekends. When Bill Miller planned a vacation to Europe between Balous Miller's junior and senior years of college, Balous ran the restaurant business that summer and then decided to make Bill Miller Bar-B-Q his career rather than pursuing his plans for teaching school. Bill Miller semi-retired upon Balous' graduation in May 1966. As his brothers, John and Douglas received their degrees, they joined him in the restaurant business. The three brothers and their brother-in-law, Louis Vance, have worked together now in excess of thirty years.
69 restaurants cover the San Antonio, Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, and Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...
markets. All foods served at the restaurants are produced in one facility in downtown San Antonio, and are then shipped to each location daily.
History
William T. "Bill" Miller and Ila Faye Miller, spouses, co-founded the company in the 1950s.In 1992 Bill Miller bought the Fiesta Plaza, a failed mall, and planned to donate it to the University of Texas at San Antonio
University of Texas at San Antonio
The University of Texas at San Antonio, commonly referred to as UTSA, is a state university in San Antonio, Texas. With an enrollment of more than 30,000 students, it is the third-largest of nine universities and six health institutions in the University of Texas System and the eighth-largest in...
.
Ila Faye died in 2008. In 2009 the company reduced the employee health care costs by 40% after it ended its PPO program and formed partnerships with area health providers. Therefore medical providers receive reimbursement on a cost-plus basis.
Business model
There were few, if any, food-to-go outlets in those early years, and Bill Miller Bar-B-Q was one of the first to offer quality food-to-go and five minute service, which was unheard of at the time. Bill Miller Bar-B-Q's concept of serving barbecued meats and fresh pies and breads on a daily basis from a central commissary is unique to its industry. Bill Miller Bar-B-Q offers a quality catering service, serving groups as small as 100 to as large as 10,000. All of the barbecue is cooked with 100% hill country live oak wood in a brick pit. Natural gas or electric heat is never used to cook the barbecue. Bill Miller designed the original barbecue pits he used in the 1950s and the large industrial sized ones used today—that will cook up to 2,500 pounds of brisket at one time in 18 to 20 hours.Basic Operation
The central office of Bill Miller Bar-B-Q operates a commissary, sausage kitchen, bakery, laundry service and warehouse. The plant is built according to Federal meat-packing guidelines and is inspected by the City of San Antonio and The State of Texas. The ultra modern commissary kitchen specializes in the barbecue of USDA grade beef, cooked over Texas Hill Country Live Oak fires. The bakery specializes in baking bread and pies daily. The restaurants have dining rooms and food-to-go service. Bill Miller Bar-B-Q owns all its own real estate and buildings and operates its own distribution center.Milestones
In 2001, they sold 4.5 million pounds of brisket, enough for 4 & 1/2 lbs. for every man, woman, and child in San Antonio. They also sold 7 million pounds of chicken, 2 million links of sausage, 200 thousand slabs of pork ribs, and 9 million pounds of potatoes. They sold over 453,600 jalapeños, each one hand-sized in the field. Also, they used 1.5 million pounds of tomato paste for barbecue sauce. In 1998, they sold more chicken than beef.They used 600 thousand tea bags to brew 3 million USgals (11,356.2 m³) of tea, enough for 10 million large iced teas. It was sweetened by 2 million pounds of sugar. They sold over 100 thousand Texas Tea Buckets, a quart-size insulated drink mug.