A new restaurant with a unique concept is coming to St. Mary’s County. Mission BBQ’s uniqueness does not come from its food so much as its philosophy of giving back to the community. The San Souci Plaza location (where Cici’s Pizza was formerly located) will be the company’s third, with others in Glen Burnie and Perry Hall in the Baltimore area. The St. Mary’s Alcohol Beverage Board (liquor board) approved a Class B (Restaurant) BW (Beer and Wine) license for the new restaurant at their regular Thursday meeting.
Representatives of the company explained to the board the restaurant’s focus on first responders and veterans organizations. They will hold fundraisers for police, fire and rescue, and veterans groups and also donate a portion of their proceeds to those organizations, according to their attorney Nicholas Kallas.
Also appearing before the board were Dallas Rebmann, who will be the license holder to meet the residency requirement, and the restaurant manager William Crowell, III, who was formerly with Outback Steakhouse.
According to Kallas the restaurant will only serve beer from cans. Since there is no license for just beer they applied for the beer and wine license.
The restaurant will have indoor and outside seating in a grassy area overlooking Route 235. The outside area will be fenced in. Control of outdoor areas is always a concern of the liquor board. Crowell said there would be a manager outside controlling things. He said police officers will be encouraged to come to the restaurant, so he expected their presence would also help insuring laws are adhered to by the other patrons.
Kallas described the restaurant as family-oriented with reasonable prices. “It is truly for the family and average citizens,” he said.
According to Crowell, the restaurant will employ 30-35 people and a trailer in now set up outside for hiring. Work is underway both inside and outside to get the restaurant ready for opening. The liquor board made the approval contingent for 90- days to give time for all necessary approvals to be secured.
The food will be traditional barbeque fare but everything will be fresh, according to Kallas. “There will be no frozen food in this establishment at any time for any reason,” he said
Mission BBQ’s website says, “From Texas to Kansas City, the Carolinas to St. Louis, and all the tasty local joints on back roads nationwide, we set out to master America’s greatest contribution to culinary arts: BBQ! We grilled the Grill-Masters. Learned their secret sauces. Sampled their best again and again. (That’s called research.) Then brought it all home to share
