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Guests Are Not Just A
Donna and Bryan Dooley run Bryan’s Black Mountain Barbecue in Cave Creek with their family. (Photo by Pablo Robles)
Arizona blues legend Chuck Hall signed a guitar that hangs on a wall Bryan’s Black Mountain Barbecue in Cave Creek. Chef/owner Bryan Dooley and Hall are good friends. (Photo by Pablo Robles)
Bryan’s Barbecue wins awards for atmosphere and good food
By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski
Look around the airy and bright interior of Bryan’s Black Mountain Barbecue, and the wood walls are covered with awards from the eatery’s 11 years in Cave Creek.
Owner/chef Bryan Dooley chalks it up to good food and the staff ’s caring nature.
“We’ve made a conscious effort in the beginning to make sure that we take people’s names,” Dooley says.
“Guests are not just a number. We want to get to know everybody by name here. We’re a small town. We like to be part of the community. Donna and I have worked really hard to create an atmosphere—especially one that was really welcoming.”
Dooley’s talents shine on the limited
Bryan’s Black Mountain menu, which is offered in a cafeteriaBarbecue is tucked in Las style setup. Tiendas in Cave Creek. (Photo by Pablo Robles)
Sandwiches ($9.50 to $13.50)— filled with a quarter pound of pulled pork, beef brisket, pulled chicken or “I would say our ribs are our signature “pulled” squash—are served on a toasted bun dish,” Dooley says. “We have a small menu on with a choice of one 6-ounce side. purpose so we can really just concentrate on
Plates and combos are available as well with just the barbecue. a half-barbecue chicken ($14.95), half-pound “We are a traditional barbecue restaurant. beef brisket ($18.50), two-meat combo I’m the chef, but we try to have fun, with little ($17.95), rib and meat combo ($17.95), pork twists and turns on our menu. But if I had to ribs half or full slab ($17.95 or $26.95). These choose one signature dish, it would be our come with a choice of two sides—baked potato ribs, which were recently chosen as best ribs in salad, olive coleslaw, six-pack cowboy beans, Arizona by the Food Network.” French fries or black-eye brisket chili. On special this summer at Bryan’s Black
Barbecue chicken is available as a whole Mountain Barbecue is a summer tomato or half, individually, for $15.95; pork ribs are sandwich, which Dooley says is popular for a whole or half slab, $24.95 or $15.95. meat-based barbecue restaurant.
Pulled pork, beef brisket and pulled chicken “It has a huge cult following,” he says. “That’s ($16.95 to $17.95) are available by the pound kind of a fun thing.” as well. A Culinary Institute of America graduate,
Everything is homemade, and the recipes are Dooley was inspired to open a barbecue Dooley’s original recipes. restaurant by his grandfather. He remembers
Food at Bryan’s Black Mountain Barbecue is served cafeteria style, but don’t let that speak for its quality. (Photo by Pablo Robles)
collecting hickory from the woods “I fell backward and broke my ankle,” he around his grandfather’s house. says. “I was in a cast for several months and I Afterward, he’d watch him slow wouldn’t work in the kitchen in the hotel. It smoke pork ribs on a red brick was off work for a while. Donna said, ‘Hey, barbecue pit. Dooley’s grandmother you don’t want to go back, do you? You want created signature barbecue sauce in to open that restaurant you’ve been talking the kitchen. about.’ We took advantage of that time that I Just as important to Bryan’s Black wasn’t working—the first time in many years, Mountain Barbecue is Dooley’s 13 years—to think about it. She really pushed wife, Donna. The two met in Texas, me just to make that decision and do it.” where he was a grill cook and she Donna shares, “I had him trapped in a cast, was the restaurant’s cashier. and he couldn’t do anything. I drove him “The setup in the kitchen was around town and looked at all the vacant really weird,” she recalls with a buildings.” laugh. “So we stared at each other A Realtor introduced the couple to the all day. We moved up here and we current spot in Las Tiendas off East Cave worked at the Fairmont Scottsdale.” Creek Road. The Dooleys knew it was time to “My whole career was about fine dining open their own restaurant after he was injured restaurants,” he says. “But we decided we ice skating with their children. wanted to do something a little bit more family friendly with comfort food. Barbecue sauces and merchandise are available “Donna had the at Bryan’s Black Mountain ideas for the decor and Barbecue in Cave Creek. (Photo by Pablo Robles) what this restaurant 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.
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.”
