The award for “Restaurant Cuisine That Presents The Most Operational Challenges” would go to barbecue hands-down.
Because the slow-and-low concept requires an immense amount of patience, every single plate served requires impeccable timing and attention to detail. Smokers need lit at 3 a.m. for a restaurant that might not start taking customers until 4 p.m.
Iron Chef Michael Symon found these things out the hard way.
You’ll know Symon as the celebrity chef who put Cleveland’s food scene on the map and then landed a gig on The Chew.
Before diving into barbecue, Symon built a mini dynasty in Cleveland. His first two restaurants, Lola and Lolita, became cornerstones of the Cleveland dining scene, and he went on to develop two fast-casual burger concepts that seemed to pop up in every suburb around Northeast Ohio.
When he announced plans two years ago for a barbecue restaurant in Cleveland, he knew in advance there were going to be skeptics. And he was prepared.
Most importantly, people wanted to know what kind of barbecue it would be. North Carolina? Kansas City? Texas?
“Cleveland-style barbecue,” Symon told Thrillist. “From the sides all the way through the meats, we made a very conscious effort to make it feel like the hometown that I grew up eating food in. Our goal was to use the knowledge that we had about barbecue and smoking techniques, and make sure that the flavor profile is distinctive to Cleveland.”
It would be the James Beard Award-winning chef’s first family-style restaurant as well as his first foray with community seating.
Symon met the challenges head on and, since opening in April, Mabel’s BBQ has been wildly successful. It almost appears as though Symon has sparked a meat revelation in Cleveland.
Several other local restaurateurs have followed in Symon’s footsteps:
Proper Pig | Lakewood, Ohio
Not that it was a race, but Shane Vidovic and Ted Dupaski opened the brick and mortar version of their barbecue food truck — the Proper Pig — the same week as Symon. Scene Magazine called it a “colorful, casual and festive 35-seat shop” that “flies through 500 pounds of barbecue, twice the amount the smoker can bear at any given time.”
The Smith | Burton, Ohio
In Burton, Art and Linda Smith opened a “contemporary smokehouse” called The Smith, described by management as an updated take on the country kitchen concept. Chefs will be smoking, canning, pickling and other traditional forms of preserving foods, many of which will be sourced locally.
Oak and Embers | Hudson, Ohio
In Hudson, Marc and Gretchen Garofoli will open a second Oak and Embers location, where they just installed their $40,000 Southern Pride smoker capable of handling 3,000 pounds of meat at a time.