Nick Prince is a Texan-born barbecuing entrepreneur with a multi-million dollar joint on Tennyson Street.
But not long ago, he was just a banker with a $99 smoker.
“I bought it on lunch break in a three-piece suit in Cherry Creek at Home Depot, and I still remember this guy’s like, ‘You want me to load that for you, buddy?’” he said.
The 44-year-old has come a long way from his 9 to 5 days. He left the corporate world in 2019 to open up Post Oak BBQ in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood. And now, he’s working on adding a second location at 1737 E. Evans Ave., just steps away from the University of Denver campus.
Prince swears this isn’t the start of a BBQ empire, though.
“The goal was always two or three,” he said. “The thing is, with legit barbecue, if you grow too much, people will get the mindset, ‘Yeah, they used to be good before they opened up 20 different shops.’”
And legit Texas barbecue is the name of the game for Prince. He gets truckloads of meat from the Lone Star state each week and swears by a simple salt, pepper and garlic rub. Brisket, ribs and wings are all smoked low and slow using post oak wood logs from, you guessed it, Texas.
“I eat the last half of my barbecue meal using sauce, but not the first,” Prince said.
A second restaurant has been in the works for a while. His existing location at 4000 Tennyson St. is performing well, hitting $5 million in revenue last year. There are 39 people on the payroll there.
Prince first tried to go to Arvada for location number two, and sought to buy a building in the town’s Olde Town neighborhood. But during the due diligence process, the plan turned out to be too expensive.
So, Prince started looking for other options. He got connected to broker Katie Martineau, of Hoff & Leigh, through his general manager. She sent the team a few different spots, like the former Little India at 32nd and Lowell, and another on South Broadway. The location near DU was the only spot Prince toured.
He fell in love immediately.
“We just want to bring influence to the bottom half of Denver, including that DU market is just, I feel like itap so perfect for us,” Prince said, noting the mix of nearby students and affluent surrounding neighborhoods.
But there was one problem. Six other restaurateurs were vying for the space too, according to the building’s broker, Solomon Stark from NAI Shames Makovsky.
“I had seven LOIs (letters of intent) on the space within a couple weeks of it being on the market. Very popular spot,” he said. “All the offers were very competitive.”
The 3,000 square-foot space was previously home to Mediterranean buffet concept Sawa, which closed there earlier this year. The existing kitchen inside made it attractive to prospective tenants.
When Prince and his broker Martineau submitted their offer, Stark notified them of the competition. So, Post Oak submitted a second “stronger offer” that same night.
“We were looking for who was going to be the best operator and the owner went over and had lunch at Post Oak and decided these guys are the ones who will be the most successful here,” Stark said.
Post Oak hopes to open up the new spot by October. The buildout will cost around $750,000, Prince said, completely self-funded.
The menu will be mostly the same, but the new location’s larger kitchen footprint means they’ll get to try some new things, like brisket burgers and giant tomahawk steaks.
But above all else, Prince, who hails from Fort Worth, said it’ll all taste like home.
“We are doing things the way that they would be done if we were open in Texas,” Prince said.
