New partnerships, big news for Detroit’s Slows Bar BQ
Detroit’s popular grill restaurant Slows, which has been serving delicious and nationally recognized barbecue, smoked meat sandwiches, mac and cheese and more in the city for 18 years, is seeing a small ownership reshuffle and plenty of movement for the brand in the coming year.
Slow’s founding chef Brian Perrone, managing director Terry Perrone and catering director Josh Keillor founded Slows Holdings. Former partners Ron, Ryan and Philip Cooley have sold their interests in Slows Holdings but retain ownership of the restaurant building at 2138 Michigan in Corktown and Slows To Go at 4107 Cass in Midtown. Slows plans to be long-term tenants of both buildings.
The Perrones and Keillor, who have been the operating end of the Slows group for several years, have formed a new partnership with New York’s fast-casual barbecue company Mighty Quinn’s Barbecue, which has multiple locations in New York and New Jersey and one in New York York has Florida and Dubai.
The Slows boys were introduced to Mighty Quinn’s by consultant Ross Pascal, who has a background in restaurants and the food industry. They plan to “leap into” the expertise of Mighty Quinn’s team.
“They are very creative in the way they work,” said Terry Perrone of Mighty Quinn’s brand. “They have company-owned stores, they’ve been franchising, they’re doing concessions, they’ve got a retail line … so a lot of the same stuff that we do, but they’ve done a lot more of it.”
“They are looking for ways to get into markets where the Mighty Quinn brand may not resonate, but perhaps there are partnerships that can be struck with a brand that does. They came into town and we just hit it off,” he said, adding that Mighty Quinn’s storyline began with a smoker at a Brooklyn farmer’s market, while Slows began with chef Brian during the St. Patrick’s parade Cooked outside in Detroit with a smoker. “It’s pretty similar … we’ve done a lot of similar stuff.”
What this means for the Slows brand are all good things and not much that the average Metro Detroit Slows fan will notice, other than some new menu items and the addition of a second food truck, which should be ready in time for outdoor party season. Slows is now hiring for a variety of positions, including chefs, front-of-house workers, events workers, and food truck workers.
Chef Perrone plans to tweak the menu at the Corktown restaurant to better align with the community as things evolve with the Ford Motor Co. renovation at Michigan Central Depot and other developments.
“There’s a couple new appetizers I’m working on, a couple of sandwiches and we’re also looking at a couple of combos that have a few side dishes, stuff that we used to do a little bit more,” Perrone said. “It’ll look like a menu overhaul, but it’ll just be more diner-friendly with some new options.”
“We want to be as user-friendly as possible, but we also know it’s time to change things up a bit,” he said, adding that they’re also thinking of bringing back some old Slows favourites. “We’ve scaled back the menu a lot with COVID, just out of necessity, and now that we’re done with that and preparing for growth, we want to change the format a bit, freshen it up.”
This new ownership structure and partnership also puts Slows in a better position to add locations.
“This strategy comes together,” Terry said. “Yes you will be looking at other Slows locations, that’s absolutely one of the goals as we take control of the business to grow it.”
Through Slows’ catering division and food truck business, they were able to identify the Metro Detroit neighborhoods that could best benefit from a Slows restaurant.
“We know where our fans are, so we’re starting in those communities and kicking our hoops and seeing what’s available,” Terry said, adding that it’s still premature to name cities. “But yeah, we’re lucky, if you will, to have sort of a heatmap of places where people are repeatedly asking about us.”
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Twitter: @melodybaetens