Saturday, October 10, 2009

Firebox BBQ Set to Open on Monday


Firebox BBQ is set to open this Monday at 347 Great Road (former location of Ufood Grill). I recently spoke with Bryan McConnaughey, one of the owners.

Bryan, a long time chef and restaurateur, has been interested in opening a BBQ restaurant for over 10 years with his college friend and fellow chef David Goldstone. They wanted to meld their extensive cooking experience across the United States and Europe in to a BBQ restaurant that people could feel at home at, enjoy great food and have fun. Recently Bryan and David decided to move forward with the restaurant and began looking for a location west of Boston. They really liked the Bedford area and thought the demographics of the residents plus the large number of people who work nearby would make it an ideal location. They also felt that the Town of Bedford was receptive to new businesses.

While most of the restaurant is new and has been redesigned, they were able to purchase some equipment leftover from Ufood Grill. The dining room seats 44. It also includes a couch and several club chairs to give the place a more laid back atmosphere where people can sit back and relax and maybe even hold a informal business meeting.

The restaurant features a contemporary design. In fact the artwork is supplied by David's wife Carolyn, a well noted photographer.

Bryan feels the keys to a successful restaurant are service, hospitality, community and or course good food. Bryan and David really want the restaurant to become part of the community and has already made donations to the Bedford VA and will be participating at The Flavors of Bedford. As far as Firebox, he describes it as 'BBQ with a twist'. Everything is made from scratch. Much of the meats and other ingredients are sourced locally including a wide selection of micro-brewed Real City Soda along with beer and wine.


The large smoker is used for much of the cooking. Bacon is featured here.


The restaurant features a wide assortment of micro brewed sodas, unsweetened ice tea, firebox and mango lemonade along with traditional beverages.


Firebox also features online ordering on it's website. This means you can view the menu from your computer, place your order and then just come in and pick it up for dine in or take out. The system has the ability to save your previous orders to save time when ordering. I think this is a very useful feature especially for workers going out for lunch. I am surprised that other Bedford restaurants are not promoting this.


The menu features traditional BBQ items along with a smattering of other cuisines such as Cuban Sandwiches, Lettuce Wraps and Fish Tacos. Please click on this image for a larger view.


Firebox BBQ is located at what previously was Ufood Grill.

According to Bryan, the restaurant employs about 10 people and is open from 11am-9pm every day. The restaurant also offers delivery and on-site catering for corporate and other events.

As far as other BBQ restaurants, the two closest ones are Lester's in Burlington and Blue Ribbon BBQ in Arlington. Based on the number of people I saw knocking on the door to get menu's, there appears to a lot of interest in BBQ in Bedford. If Firebox BBQ can attract the lunchtime crowd, I think they will be very successful.

The one thing I would like to see from Firebox BBQ and other restaurants in Town is to list their daily lunch specials on Twitter. This would be a great promotional tool in helping people decide where to go for lunch.

8 comments:

David Goldstone said...

You are fast, Adam! We really appreciate you stopping by. I'm glad you caught our bacon production. We are making everything from scratch: from the pickles to our lemonade.

My wife, Carolyn, is actually a noted photographer. We will keep the wall changing with new art shows. The current show are some of her photos from a recent trip to Southern Utah (Moab).

Daily specials..yes, once we get up and running there will be a variety of specials. We will be offering seafood specials like long-line swordfish (awesome with a cajun rub and grilled!),crab cakes and whatever else tickles our fancy. I am looking forward to making fresh lox - not exactly BBQ, but it is so good!

I am slightly computer challenged, but will do my best to get the daily specials out there for people to see. Next time you visit, maybe you can give me a brief twitter lesson?

Adam Schwartz said...

David - thanks. Corrected the note about the artwork.

Stephen Chu 朱朱 said...

Wow. Firebox sounds like an awesome place to eat! Always like BBQ and I am so glad we'll have a good one right in town.

Welcome to Bedford!

Audrey Pepper said...

FireBox sounds great! We'll be making a special trip to try it out.

Anonymous said...

My family was very disappointed. Beef was very fatty, the kids did not like the fries, and other order mixups.

Let's hope they get things worked out soon.

In-Directv said...

I was in search of BBQ in the great state of Massachusetts while visiting NE during Foliage Season. I asked around and was told about this new restaurant called The FireBox BBQ. It is located at 347 Great Rd in Bedford MA. The place is extremely clean and well laid out. We tried a sampling of their Chicken, Beef Ribs and Pork Ribs. All meats were tender and Juicy. We commented how both type ribs we sampled were very meaty with no gristle. We felt the owners used top selects of meat in their preparations. Now the Sauce…….It was a great blend of herbs and spices. Not overwhelming or biting. The FireBox BBQ allows you to later add additional sauce to make the taste as hot as you like. The Beans are Great but the most FANTASTIC MUST TRY are the Sweet Potato fries. Seasoned just right and cooked to perfection. All food has a real homemade taste and presentation. Drinks? Has cold beer on tap but I encourage you to taste the fresh lemonade or their ice tea. Firebox BBQ has 4 natural sweeteners in bottles so you can just sweeten your tea or use a sweetener with lemon, mint or vanilla. All of which are natural and you can see the whole ingredients floating in the bottle. The counter help is extremely helpful, polite and the co-owner David that I talked to at length after the meal was extremely nice. When I asked him about the meats he uses I was correct in my assumption that they use top grade meats that are from local farms. I give this place high marks. The food was excellent, prices very reasonable and you get nice size portions.

In-Directv said...

First of all I have read the other reviews and all I have to say is "Give them a Chance" When I tried the FireBox BBQ they had only been open 12 days. As any good restaurant patron knows it takes a little while for systems to fall into place and new employees to come up to speed.

Anonymous said...

All I can say is AWESOME!! Fantastic food and very competent and friendly staff. It's nice to have something new and different in Bedford. I agree with a previous poster who said, Give it a Chance! Any new business has kinks that they need to work out. I think that they have great potential and will be a fantastic addition to Bedford!!