The History of David's Real Pit BBQ
David’s Real Pit BBQ began back in the 1970’s by the late David Reber. It was a small cozy restaurant off of 6th St. and 23rd. Ave in Gainesville, FL. After about ten years, David decided to move the business to its long standing location at 5121A NW 39th Ave.
At this time, my wife (Susie) and I (current owner Brian Hood) had become friendly with David and helped out occasionally with big catering jobs. During the moving process David talked to us several times about buying the business from him. As a small business owner myself I had to carefully consider this offer.
I had management experience at a busy barbeque restaurant down in Tampa and was an area supervisor for a large burger chain for a couple years. But, was Northwest Gainesville the right market for barbeque? Well, you obviously know what I decided.
With a two year old and a two month old I took everything I had and put it towards the business in 1988! What was I thinking? Fortunately, it worked out for us in the long run. As NW 39th Ave. developed over the years so did our restaurant. To be sure, we have had our fair share of ups and downs. However, over the years our attention to quality and our customers’ needs positioned us as one of Gainesville’s premier barbeque restaurants.
About two years ago, my son Jeremy, decided to rejoin the company back in Gainesville. He grew up in the restaurant and worked here through college. After getting his masters in Accounting from UF (smarty pants), he went away for a while to experience the public accounting world. A year later he’s calling me up saying “Dad, we need to expand!” No way I said to myself, did he not read the news lately? Finally, after many conversations and a lot of convincing on his end, I said why not? After all, I could get used to the idea of having a CPA working for us.
So, over the last couple years we worked tirelessly to structure the company for growth. It wasn’t easy and there were plenty of bumps in the road. Thanks to a superior management team and a very cooperative staff we are finally ready. At the perfect time too, we finally found an opportunity worth pursuing. At 521 NE 23rd Ave., it was perfect! David’s started nearby that area and we saw a need for a better restaurant in the area.
Well, that is a brief history of where we are at today. While I may not be in the restaurants as much as I would like to these days, I am still heavily involved in the business. Thank you to all of our loyal customers out there! Hopefully, there will be many more pages to write in the David’s Real Pit BBQ history books in the near future.
Brian Hood
Owner