Charlie Staples Pitt Boss BBQ — Restaurant in Youngstown

I got here tonight and placed my order at 9:15pm. I had time to talk with other customers, go outside and smoke a cigarette, and watch 3 innings of baseball. I just now got my food and all I asked for was half a slab ribs leg thigh combo with fries and o rings sides and a fish sandwich. I got my order at 10:20pm. I also asked for the ribs with mild sauce and family style. No cut and got spicy instead. As a former employee i always talked the place up but no more. Dont know whats up with Charlies standards but they have dropped severely.

Update: Got home to see that my fries, o rings, and fish weren’t prepped crispy how I asked, and the chicken was lukewarm at best. I no longer recommend Charlie Staples unless he gets his crew some more training. I can now understand why so many employees don’t last long here. Food standards have gone down as well as employee moral.

Update

Charlie is under new management so I decided to go back and see if anything changed. In all honesty I didn't even try the food as it all smelled as if it was cooked in old oil that hasn't even been changed in a while.

The girl on the register I had to tell her twice what I wanted and she doesn't know the menu at all cuz I asked if the Staple sauce was spicy and she said they had Staple sauce, Mild Sauce, and Hot sauce. I repeated my question and she said the same thing. I asked if the Staple sauce had any spice cuz neither my mother, father, or myself can eat spicy food or sauce to which I didn't let her respond and just said "No sauce on anything" just to be safe. I also asked for the 1lb brisket and she rung me up for the lesser plate without me knowing as the screen that faces the customer was blank and not showing anything.

Once the time given of 20 minutes passed I walked up to the counter to get my families food. I'm guessing it was either a manager or the owner who was assisting me that opened the plates to show me it was what I ordered. When I asked about the coleslaw he showed me something that didn't look like coleslaw and was wrapped like a fortune cookie. I was also shown the brisket I asked if that was the 1lb brisket and he said no to which I said I let the girl know I wanted the 1lb brisket with no side and no sauce. He turned and asked the kitchen to get him a 1lb brisket plate in a manner that sounded like he just didn't wanna be there. Yes, he was talking in an ear piece to the credit card machine company about his card machine being down but that's no reason to take out your frustrations on your staff. Very unprofessional.

I didn't wanna deal with it no more and just asked for a refund but did let him know that my family had already started drinking our sodas so I'll pay for that but I want a refund on everything else. He starts doing stuff on the register and tells me that my refund is $7 and some change to which I tell him he is wrong, show him my receipt, and also tell him that I paid cash and with a $100 bill. Again, if looks could kill I would be dead but he ended up giving me a refund back in cash after I reiterated that I paid in cash and showed him the receipt.

What I could to describe this place is that it has gone downhill and worse than when it was owned by Charlie himself. I do not recommend this place at all. I could open and sliced bread stand, have better customer service, better food, and treat my staff better than what this place has going on for them. In all honesty just close your doors and don't do business at all until you learn what business and respect is. You're better off going elsewhere for really good bbq like Libby's...

I don't like making posts like this but...here we go...

3/21/25 - I frequent Youngstown every week and We were like..you know what....let's get Staples...My mother-in-law ordered 4 meals off DoorDash at approximately 6:30pm to which we waited about an hour for the Dasher to deliver the food. (I can't get mad at that, I get it...) But, when the food was delivered, we only received 2 of the 4 meals....Strike 1...order is messed up, let's call....OH wait...it's automated now...again....I get it...Busy establishment...it would be overwhelming...Cool....let's not get too upset, My wife and I will take a ride down and get it straightened out.

We explain the situation to the cashier, she immediately calls the owner over...cool...BTW the owner was a great guy, he had my wife Circle the items we needed on the receipt...he said I'll have it done in 10mins. BET....about another hour later...STRIKE 2.....STILL AIN'T GOT THE FOOD...Now...I know it gets busy at the establishment...been going there for years..but the I notice in the window the entire time that there's 3 bags in the window...I mention to my wife, "I wonder if one of those bags are ours!?"....Need I mind...The cashier has not one time LOOKED at those bags....Strike 3 happens here...another worker (I believe the bartender) asked what we needed....My wife and I explained the situation...Sure enough the bartender goes to the window and grabs OUR dinners that we waited an hour for need I mind you it's now 9pm....She apologized. She offered GREAT hospitality...I don't blame her...

I'll say this...As someone who's worked in the kitchen field for over 10yrs, there's a few things I have to point out, and I am not speaking maliciously at all...just stating;

It's a business...Conduct it efficiently...Customers aren't always right, I can respect that, But let's still handle missteps and hiccups efficiently.

Lines of communication: For instances like this, You have to be able to have a means of communication besides email for a restaurant...this establishment has been around too long for people to not be able to get ahold of someone when situations on messed up orders arise.

I don't make judgement off workers, but, it seemed as if workers were really tied up on multiple orders at one time...That's Gotta be worked on, Again...The manager was cool about everything...just make it more efficient....I'm not sure how efficiently dinners are being made etc. But there needs to be a better way to put orders out in a timely manner.

This is the big one for me.....instead of having one cashier, have 2 especially if you're busy (it's Friday!) ....the lady that was out there, CLEARLY was not paying attention to anything because again....OUR ORDER PLUS 2 OTHERS WERE IN THE WINDOW FOR AN HOUR....if the bartender had not come out and spoke with us...We'd still be sitting there now...

I say all this to say, this is a WELL ESTABLISHED restaurant with a TON of history for the city of Youngstown...We talk black entrepreneurship, which I HIGHLY RESPECT and promote...but..this was not a great experience and I expected more...My Absolute ONLY gripe with the manager.....Bring the food to us...we were literally sitting at a table in front of the cashier...I'm not looking for anything in return, just make it right and correct the things that CAN be corrected...

Please...feel free to give me an email address with a number to call if you read this review....just so we can communicate what can be done better. No malicious intent at all..just correct some things!

Best...

Last night (04/05/25) I called to make a take out order, and obviously there is now no way to order over the phone so i had to do it online. When i went in, i was BARELY greeted by a very rude woman (short hair and glasses maybe about 5'8) she literally just sat my 2 bags on the counter and proceeded to tell the person behind me that they can order. I had to ask her was this my order. She said, yeah. I then told her that it was missing an entire bottle if bbq sauce, she sighed and went to the back to grab it. I of course checked my 4 dinners in the car (3 catfish dinners w/double fries and a pulled pork big bertha), the catfish that i paid extra for to have ranch seasoning on each dinner was NOT on there, and the "double" order of fries looked child-like and the big Bertha was naked, meaning no bbq sauce whatsoever. So I went back in and proceeded to let her know what the issue was. She turned around and asked the lady in the kitchen, is this double fries? The woman said, yeah i guess, but here's some more and just threw some in one container on top of the fish through the take out window. And the cashier just stood there and looked at me and I reminded her that there still needs to be barbecue sauce on the potato, and that I needed ranch seasoning put on the three catfish dinners that I paid for. She went to the back. Put a little bit of barbecue sauce on the big Bertha and then grabbed a small container and just put the dry ranch seasoning in there and just handed it to me and said here you go, as if I worked there and it was MY job to put the ranch seasoning on the dinners myself. My family and I have gotten take out many many times from this establishment and the service is usually "Ok". We'll let me rephrase that, Melissa that works the register is very nice, she even opened our boxes in front of me to make sure they we're correct. But this woman that was at the register last night, she was very rude. The 2 employees I encountered, looked like they did not care whatsoever to try and fix numerous things that were wrong. And could also care less about being even remotely polite and not rude. I feel like I could have gotten treated better at mcdonald's asking for ice cream knowing that their machine is never working. I'm extremely...