TASTE • DINE
Food at Bryan’s Black Mountain Barbecue is served cafeteria style, but don’t let that speak for its quality. (Photo by Pablo Robles)
“I fell backward and broke my ankle,” he says. “I was in a cast for several months and I wouldn’t work in the kitchen in the hotel. It was off work for a while. Donna said, ‘Hey, you don’t want to go back, do you? You want to open that restaurant you’ve been talking about.’ We took advantage of that time that I wasn’t working—the first time in many years, 13 years—to think about it. She really pushed me just to make that decision and do it.” Donna shares, “I had him trapped in a cast, and he couldn’t do anything. I drove him around town and looked at all the vacant buildings.” A Realtor introduced the couple to the current spot in Las Tiendas off East Cave Creek Road. “My whole career was about fine dining restaurants,” he says. “But we decided we wanted to do something a little bit more family friendly with comfort food. Barbecue sauces and “Donna had the merchandise are available at Bryan’s Black Mountain ideas for the decor and Barbecue in Cave Creek. what this restaurant (Photo by Pablo Robles) was going to look like even before we started. Everything fell together relatively simply—except we opened during the recession back then.” They acknowledge that couples who work together don’t necessarily stay together, but the Dooleys make it work.
collecting hickory from the woods around his grandfather’s house. Afterward, he’d watch him slow smoke pork ribs on a red brick barbecue pit. Dooley’s grandmother created signature barbecue sauce in the kitchen. Just as important to Bryan’s Black Mountain Barbecue is Dooley’s wife, Donna.The two met in Texas, where he was a grill cook and she was the restaurant’s cashier. “The setup in the kitchen was really weird,” she recalls with a laugh. “So we stared at each other all day. We moved up here and we worked at the Fairmont Scottsdale.” The Dooleys knew it was time to open their own restaurant after he was injured ice skating with their children.
Their children, who are 21 and 23, help out around the restaurant. Bryan’s Black Mountain Barbecue survived through the pandemic because, Dooley says, “barbecue translates well for takeout.” “We did well enough to keep our head above water, and our customers were extremely generous with their gratuity,” he says. “It really helped maintain the staff.” Now that the dining room is open, tables are socially distanced at 50% capacity. “We pulled tables out,” she says. “We’ve made a waiting area so people don’t have to sit too close to each other. It’s been an interesting transition, an interesting year. “We also had the fires. That was really scary.” The Dooleys considered opening a second restaurant, but they stress they want to concentrate on this one and not spread themselves too thin. “We want to make sure that we maintain the quality of the food and the service and everything here,” she says. “We’re closed Monday and Tuesday, and that’s great. We still come in one day or so and work, but we, fortunately, like each other.” Bryan’s Black Mountain Barbecue LasTiendas 6130 E. Cave Creek Road, Suite 2, Cave Creek 480-575-7155, bryansbarbecue.com 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday
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