Bottleneck Expands with Secret Sauce Barbecue
With over 13 years of experience owning and operating brick-and-mortar restaurants, Bottleneck launches Secret Sauce Barbecue, our first “virtual brand” or “virtual kitchen.” Secret Sauce is a delivery and pickup-only barbecue concept, operating out of existing City Works* and Old Town Pour House* kitchens around the country. *Secret Sauce does not operate out of Old Town Pour House in Chicago or City Works in Disney Springs.
Pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwich
Secret Sauce is a tribute to ownership’s love for smoked meats and barbecue. The barbecue concept also lends itself to a versatile menu, large portions for families, and it travels well in a takeout format. “There are so many nuances that go into pick up or delivery, and barbecue allows us to execute the food at a high level each and every time we take an order for Secret Sauce,” says co-owner Nate Hilding. Secret Sauce prides itself on serving traditional and flavorful barbecue at a fair price, crafted with high-quality ingredients.
The Menu
Secret Sauce offers the ultimate barbecue experience with shareable appetizers such as Hot Link Queso Dip and Crispy Fried Smoked Wings with a choice of housemade BBQ sauces including Carolina Mustard BBQ, Buffalo, and Nashville Hot. A variety of meat will be served hot off the smoker, with options including Baby Back Ribs, Hot Links, Pulled Pork, and others, served with white bread and spicy bread and butter pickles and a choice of sides such as Creamy Grits, Mashed Potatoes, Creamed Corn, Chipotle Coleslaw and Maple Bacon Baked Beans. The menu will also feature a variety of entrees such as hand-pulled BBQ Pork Tacos, Southern Mac & Cheese, and our take on Country Fried Chicken and Pork.
Hot Link Queso Dip
Crispy Fried Chicken Wings
Place Your Order
Guests can order directly from the Bottleneck Rewards app (App Store or Google Play) and earn $20 when they spend $200 across any Bottleneck restaurant. Guests can also place their delivery and pickup orders directly online here by selecting their preferred location, or on Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Door Dash.
Secret Sauce operates out of existing City Works and Old Town Pour House locations, aside from City Works in Disney Springs, FL, and Old Town Pour House in Chicago, IL.
Pulled Chicken in BBQ Sauce
Bottled Sauces
We’ve bottled our “secret sauce” so you can enjoy it at home in your own recipes. It’s our hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we do! We created these sauces with the words craveable, reliable, and comforting in mind.
Original: Our traditional housemade BBQ sauce strikes a balance between sweet and spicy, complementing a range of smoked and grilled meats. Think ribs and chicken…and beer.
Carolina Mustard: Our Carolina Mustard BBQ sauce provides an ideal balance between sweet and tangy with a little heat. The flavor profile is more sour and tangier than a Midwest or Southwest-style BBQ. Great for pulled pork and chicken.
Add them to your order when ordering online.
We are available for delivery and takeout. We can be found on Instagram and Facebook, so follow us for more info and let us know what you think about ghost kitchens and virtual brands. You can also view more industry topics, recipes, tips & tricks, and food & beverage trends on our blog.
Our team worked long and hard to conceive this new barbecue brand, create a menu, work through the logistics of online ordering, and tackle many tasks involved in bringing this virtual brand to life. We’re excited to share it, and hope everyone enjoys it as much as we do. Cheers!
More About Ghost Kitchens and Virtual Brands
The restaurant landscape has changed quite a bit in recent years, especially so with the Covid-19 pandemic. Faced with what seems like a demand for restaurants to adjust their business models, we knew it was the perfect time to take a chance on a new idea that meets the needs of guests today.
A “ghost kitchen” is a professional food preparation and cooking facility set up for the preparation of delivery-only meals. It may also be referred to as a delivery-only restaurant, virtual kitchen, cloud kitchen, etc. However, a ghost kitchen differs from a virtual restaurant in that a ghost kitchen is not necessarily a restaurant brand in itself and may contain kitchen space and facilities for more than one restaurant brand. Ghost kitchens have emerged as a business model in response to the rapid growth in consumer demand for restaurant delivery meals, and the lower costs incurred by using kitchen facilities located outside of high-rent, high-foot-trafficked urban locations (source: Wikipedia). This idea supplied inspiration for our concept, which is to turn all of our existing restaurants into “ghost kitchens.”