Take this with a grain of kosher salt, because I have not eaten at Sandmanns yet, but the "word-on-the-street" among a few barbecue aficionado is that, even though Sandmanns is good, it doesn't have that wood infused, smoky "low-and-slow" taste to it.  Which is also a common symptom of all Grand Rapids BBQ joints.  That style of BBQ is just not in our DNA. 

I suppose it is a business issue.  It is certainly not very economical to use a wood-burner with 6-18 hour cooks to produce your pulled pork and brisket.  Right?