LITTLE RICHARDS SMOKEHOUSE & BBQ

Family owned Little Richard’s BBQ, a long-time local favorite notorious for its smoked meats, selection of sauces and five locations, fared well throughout the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. Months of pandemicrelated restrictions temporarily made life a bit harder for the Little Richard’s team, but Owner Stephen Karagiorgis, alongside his father Nick Karagiorgis (founders) and his partners Greg Karagiorgis and Harry Gallins, are thankful that the Little Richard’s Family came out of COVID’s challenges unscathed.

Although there were countless sleepless nights throughout the years 2020 and 2021, Stephen, Nick and the Little Richard’s management team had faith in their ability to weather the storm and roll with the pandemic’s punches. In fact, a large portion of Little Richard’s success can be attributed to its employees’ close-knit ties and thoughtful management techniques in order to keep morale boosted, compensation adequate and business booming.

COVID bringing life to a screeching halt for most did not stop the Little Richard’s BBQ team from keeping the ball rolling as safely and efficiently as possible. Take-out business rose sharply and has hardly declined since the lifting of state-wide restrictions and mandates. Long-standing Little Richard’s customers can still count on participating in each location’s Meal For Meal Mondays, where a meal is donated to a starving child for every meal purchased. Additionally, customers will be excited to see new “Mexicue” items on the menu for a Mexican twist on classic North Carolina barbecue. Order pulled pork tacos, brisket tacos and taquitos if you’re in the mood for southern eats with a southwestern flair. As many other local restaurants and businesses are struggling with staffing shortages, the scarcity of employees has also had an impact on the team at Little Richard’s. Employees are currently working much harder to meet their customers’ needs than pre-COVID shifts of the past. While the restaurants’ kitchen and waitstaff might be spread a bit thin at the present time, Little Richard’s stands by the idea that management is key in maintaining a positive employee morale and preventing employees from experiencing burnout.

According to Stephen, “Little Richard’s is like a football team, where everyone plays a role and each position holds equal value. Our team is only successful if every position is performing at its highest potential.”

With indoor gathering restrictions lifted throughout the state, local event planners and families frequently take advantage of Little Richard’s catering and bulk ordering menus to keep wedding and party guests happy. By taking advantage of Little Richard’s full-service catering, event hosts benefit from on-site staff and serving options. Choose from a wide variety of meats, sides, desserts and beverages that will suit your event and satisfy attendees. To create this atmosphere, management leads by example and shows mutual respect to everyone – a necessity in times of higher stress, when emotions are often flying high from customers and the crew. With inflation skyrocketing, an increased demand for new

help and supply chain issues continuing to soar, the restaurant industry has been directly impacted by the pandemic’s many aftershocks. To guide the team throughout these trying times, managers at every location are willing to cover events for staff members unable to work, cross-train employees on multiple tasks and always keep an eye out for new help.

While the unexpected turn of events in early 2020 shook restaurant owners throughout the country to their core, management at Little Richard’s used all available avenues to provide for their team through forced restaurant closures. Leaders at Little Richard’s determined that it was most important to take their own needs out of the equation and focus on the greater good of their employees to ensure the longevity of their business, as well as team members’ physical and emotional wellbeing. Stephen finds perpetuating his father’s business to be rewarding, and employees reap the benefits of working for a business built upon a strong foundation of trust, respect and integrity.

Philanthropy and giving back to the community are also strong principles which Little Richard’s BBQ believes in. Stephen notes that these values had been long instilled by his father when he handled daily operations. In April, the Little Richard’s team worked alongside volunteers from the community and West Forsyth High School’s Key Club to participate in a meal packing event for the nonprofit organization Feed My Starving Children. Together, volunteers successfully donated 101,688 packed meals to hungry children worldwide, including those impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Learning to pivot and adjust business practices taught the Little Richard’s BBQ team valuable lessons and has only prepared them for life’s challenges in the future. As a resilient father-son business, Little Richard’s BBQ is excited to see life in the Triad finally back to normal, and is elated to welcome back old and new faces to experience its much-loved dining experience.

Interested in joining the Little Richard’s BBQ team? All locations are currently accepting applications. Email resumes to stephen@ littlerichardsbarbeque.com, or stop by one of the store’s locations in person to apply.

It’s possible that much of the staff at Little Richard’s BBQ feels so supported and cared for due to the business’s authentic family roots. Although many business owners shy away from the idea of working with family, Nick and Stephen embrace the opportunity to work together. Browse each location’s menu at www.littlerichardsbarbeque.com, check out the team’s Facebook page and follow @littlerichardsbbq on Instagram to learn more.

Saying

BY MICHAEL JOHNSON

“Saying ‘yes’ to life, even in its strangest and hardest problems.” ~ Frederick Nietzsche

“One of the most effective means for transcending the ordinary and moving into the realm of the extraordinary is saying ‘yes’ more frequently and eliminating ‘no’ almost completely. I call it, saying ‘yes’ to life.” ~ Wayne Dyer

Harken back to the carefree days of elementary school. You sit nervously in class and tap your pencil at your chin. You are not trying to work out the latest arithmetic problem. But instead, you are trying to excavate and craft the right words to ask your unsuspecting crush if they like you. While you try to work out the correct balance of enthusiasm and cool that you can inject into your words, you settle upon the following:

“What’s up? Do you like me? Circle YES, No, maybe.”

Notice that “yes” is capitalized in order to lead the witness, as it were. While the answer “maybe” at this age was almost as good as “yes,” as it indicated a cautious affirmation, you were completely thrilled by a good old- fashioned clear-cut “yes.”

Saying “yes” to life is something from which we as adults can sometimes stray. While I, myself, would like to think I am more aligned with the perky enthusiasm of a Piglet or Tigger from the Winnie the Pooh series, I have so often been told I am much more similar to Eeyore. Eeyore is the pessimistic and gloomy stuffed donkey from the pages of Winnie the Pooh. He is always quick to point out the trials and tribulations of life. But let it be known he always appreciates his friends trying to perk him up, and he is reliable. Eeyore isn’t so bad, but one could argue Eeyore isn’t living life to the fullest.

My wife recently turned to me and said, “You should say ‘yes’ more often.” What?! I have been known to say “yes” to saving money or to second helpings of coffee ice cream. How dare she!

But, in fact, what she was trying to convey, of course, was that I needed to live a little.

As parents, sometimes we rely on our favorite words, “no,” or even “maybe,” almost automatically. Let us be honest—“maybe” is ultimately a way to procrastinate a “no” when our kids ask us for something financially or emotionally or physically strenuous. “Dad, can I have a sleepover here in the living room with three of my friends?”

“Gosh, son, well...maybe...let’s have a think on that and discuss it later!”

You are convinced that will initiate a cease and desist to the plaintive cries for a sleepover. But children are like tiny elephants that never forget. They have a magical way of circling back endlessly to your “maybe,” when only a “yes” will suffice.

I was recently outnumbered when the subject of adding a dog to the family roster was raised. I seemed once again to be Eeyore on his own, listing all the reasons getting a dog was not a good idea (those reasons still are, in fact, true in my mind). Tigger and little Piglet (mother and son respectively) were relentless and ultimately convincing. We now have a new Golden Retriever named “Max.”

I tried to drag out the “maybe” as long as I could with the subject of a dog. It just didn’t work. My better two-thirds could see right through my tricks and wore me down. And now Max and I are pretty tight companions, even if I think he knows I initially did not approve.

But let us not always be at the ready with “yes.” There are times when a solid “no” is warranted. Ordering Prime Rib at the local greasy diner/pancake house is a time to say, “no.” If your 12-year-old asks if he can practice driving your car down the driveway, that is also a time to say, “no.” Answering in the negative is not always such a bad idea.

I will say that my wife was right about being more positive and going with the proverbial flow. Life’s roller coaster is excruciatingly fast and is chock full of opportunities to experience so much. There are times when prudence should win out, but there are so many occasions when being wide open to the adventures is wise.

What could possibly go wrong by saying, “yes” more often? You might end up as a new Winnie the Pooh character or get an adorable new puppy! Go ahead, give it a try.

MAGIC FEET

My happy pregnancy became worrisome.

That night my husband and I did so much research on clubfoot. Googled each thing the doctor had said and scrolled through endless diagnoses.

We prepared for the worst as we broached the day of the baby and me being poked and prodded. I stared at ultrasound screens, laid in an MRI machine for hours of worrying, laughing at my husband’s ill attempts at jokes to ease my worries. His optimism was there for me, but I could sense in his voice, in each question he asked, the worry for our unborn baby.

After a full day of testing: the diagnosis came.

A clean bill of a health. He was small but mighty. He indeed did have clubfoot, but that within itself was manageable and correctable when he was born.

Our son would lead a normal life.

I remember the day he was born, hearing his cries, and not caring about anything else. He was here, healthy and in my arms. I played with his cute little feet and held him close. My precious boy.

The road wasn’t easy. There were weekly cast changes that started at two weeks old that slowly corrected his curvedin feet.

Surgery that we weren’t allowed to go back for. I worried about him being in pain, me not being able to hold him. Comfort him. Be there for him.

Then there was a bar that helped keep the correction to his feet in place.

A Superhero in the Making

BY GENEVIEVE CONDON

My son was born with a birth defect.

I remember the day we went for our anatomy scan, anxious to see our little guy more in-depth. His face. Fingers and toes.

We sat there, chatting it up with the ultrasound tech. How cute his little nose was. His fingers and the thumb he kept putting in his mouth.

Until things got really quiet.

I tried to look at the screen and decipher what I was seeing, but as she made me roll back and forth, side to side, and our lighthearted banter grew bleak. My heart sank.

“I’ll be right back,” she said as she patted my leg.

My ever-optimistic husband told me nothing was wrong, but I knew.

The doctor came in and I tried to pay attention as best I could.

Clubfoot.

A small heart.

Oversized belly. And tears. So many tears from all of us as we paced the floors at night as he cried, trying to free himself from the casts, then bars.

Tears when we went to the doctors because he knew what was going to happen.

But now, at almost two, other than two little scars where he had the surgery, you’d never know he was born with bilateral club foot.

He runs, jumps, twirls around, just like any two-year-old boy.

Every day he stands and runs to give me a hug; sometimes I flash back to the struggles, the worry, and heartache I felt as I carried him, hoping he’d be all right. And I realize he’s more than all right.

We were referred to Boston Children’s for an MRI—a heart scan and a slew of other testing. Grayson Ty is a superhero. A boy put on this earth to do amazing things.

He was born with magic feet. And I can’t wait to see all he accomplishes in this world.