In my review of Mel’s Craft BBQ, I casually mentioned that some of the best barbecue in the area can be found in the suburbs. It sure sounded right to me at the time. But a few days later, a nagging feeling crept in. How could I let a theory like that go untested?
What I thought would take a few days has led to a weekslong exploration of the suburban barbecue scene, where I’ve traveled as far as Crystal Lake and Plainfield. My car seems to be permanently imbued with the scent of smoked meats, and I feel like I’m suffering from a permanent case of the meat sweats.
But I’m also ready to stand by my claim. While there is still exceptional barbecue in the city limits, especially on the South Side (more on this later), if you’re looking for some phenomenal barbecue, it’s time to head to the burbs to try these five spots.
While each of these places has its own identity, one thing connecting all but one is that they are unabashedly looking to Central Texas for inspiration.
“I fell in love with Central Texas barbecue,” said Brad Hudetz of Station One Smokehouse. “I made my rounds, and the level of barbecue blew my mind. It was at the level of a three-Michelin-star restaurant.”
“Texas is the base,” said Greg Gaardbo of Chicago Culinary Kitchen. “We want the meat to be the star. We are not oversaucing. We don’t do any of that.”
Indeed, if you order food from most of these restaurants, you’ll find the meat is served plain on a tray. There’s still barbecue sauce, but it’s almost never added beforehand. While you’ll definitely find local barbecue staples like pulled pork and ribs, brisket reigns as the most popular choice.
But are these places actually serving Central Texas barbecue? The area is one of my barbecue blind spots, so I reached out to the one person who has probably eaten more barbecue in Texas than anyone else: Daniel Vaughn, the barbecue editor of Texas Monthly.
“If it’s Central Texas, you’re cooking with wood,” Vaughn said. “Meats are pretty simply seasoned. More than likely, you’re making your own sausage. And you’re serving the meat unadorned on butcher paper, with maybe a tray underneath.”
But he also said questions of authenticity get complicated quickly.
“What people call Central Texas barbecue is often a copy of a copy of Central Texas barbecue,” Vaughn said. “Generally, (visitors) aren’t going to Lockhardt to visit Kreuz Market and Smitty’s. They are going to places like Truth BBQ or Franklin Barbecue and copying that interpretation.”
If you see creative sandwiches and lots of side dish options, it’s probably inspired by some of the newer Texas barbecue spots, which are often in larger cities like Austin and Houston.
Considering Vaughn included both Truth and Franklin Barbecue in the top 10 of his list of the 50 best Texas barbecue joints, he’s definitely not against the newer style. But he also wished more Chicagoans embraced their own barbecue tradition. “I love going to Chicago for rib tips,” Vaughn said. “It would pain me to see people not embracing Lem’s Bar-B-Q or Honey 1 BBQ.”
I, too, would be upset if Chicago’s own barbecue style was completely replaced by what’s happening in Texas. (I’ll be exploring this topic more thoroughly in an upcoming article.)
But while Central Texas-style barbecue is certainly trendy, it’s also truly tough work, and we are lucky to have restaurateurs ready to make the sacrifice. Cooking with wood means someone has to tend the fire at all hours of the night. That kind of passion is infectious, and it leads directly to incredible barbecue.
Here are my top five barbecue spots in the suburbs.
Station One Smokehouse
Station One Smokehouse in Plainfield is the passion project of Brad Hudetz. After getting his culinary degree from Scottsdale Culinary Institute in Arizona, he thought he was destined for a life as a fine dining chef. And he did spend time at spots like Alinea and Les Nomades, along with the now-closed Spiaggia and Naha. But he eventually realized it wasn’t for him. “I was burning out on it,” Hudetz said.
He decided to work at his family’s butcher shop, City Meat Market in Naperville. The shop had a smoker, and he soon found himself spending much of his time experimenting with making barbecue. When his family sold the shop, he got a job working at Green Street Smoked Meats, the Texas-inspired barbecue shop in the West Loop, where he spent 3 1/2 years honing his craft.
The allure of owning his own place led him to open Station One Smokehouse inside an enormous old fire station in Plainfield back in 2018. It has an impeccable lineup of smoked meat, from astonishingly flavorful brisket to the juiciest and tenderest spare ribs I’ve tried in the suburbs. The shop uses an Oyler smoker from J&R Manufacturing, which runs solely on wood, which also means someone has to be there around midnight to tend the fire. (On the day we talked, Hudetz had just covered the night shift.)
Beyond a couple of ingredients in his rub, Hudetz said he doesn’t have any other secrets. “I bring quality brisket, usually prime or upper choice, and we smoke them with white oak or post oak when I can get it,” he said.
After spending so much time babysitting smoked meat, he said he’s confident when it’s ready to be served. “I do nothing by temperature,” he said. “It’s all by look and feel.” There are few people in Illinois I’d trust more around smoked meat than Hudetz.
15025 S. Des Plaines St., Suite 1A, Plainfield; 815-271-6328; stationonesmokehouse.com
Soul & Smoke
For my first restaurant review as a Tribune food critic, I wrote about this astonishing project in Evanston by D’Andre Carter and Heather Bublick. The couple spent years in Chicago’s fine dining scene, before launching an ambitious catering operation in Evanston called Feast & Imbibe. Soul & Smoke started as a more approachable catering option, but the pandemic forced the two to pivot fast and transform their barbecue side hustle into a full-time gig. It worked.
While it serves excellent brisket, Soul & Smoke is also the only one of these operations that isn’t laser-focused on Central Texas-style barbecue. They use a dry rub with loads of ingredients, and the restaurant’s sauce is thick, tangy and complex. (It’s so good, they’ve started bottling the sauce for home use.) I also love to see the restaurant honoring Chicago’s South Side barbecue history by serving rib tips.
Soul & Smoke has expanded quickly, including in the city. You can now find a Soul & Smoke stall at the Time Out Market in Fulton Market and at Rockwell on the River in Avondale. The original Evanston location is still technically a carryout operation, though it does have picnic tables indoors and outdoors.
But Carter and Bublick aren’t close to done. A full-service restaurant in Evanston is in the works. While they’ve been using Cookshack smokers, the team just purchased two new smokers from A.N. Bewley Fabrication, which should arrive soon. It’s hard to imagine Soul & Smoke getting even better, but I can’t wait to see what this couple has in store.
1601 Payne St., Evanston; 847-859-2732; soulandsmoke.com
Chicago Culinary Kitchen
Greg and Kristina Gaardbo launched Chicago Culinary Kitchen as a catering operation in 2016, but the response was so intense they decided to open a permanent restaurant. “I didn’t get into barbecue,” Greg Gaardbo said. “It got into me.”
He was particularly enthralled by how Central Texas barbecue presented the meat without smothering it in sauce. “There was a time where we didn’t have any sauce,” he said. “But we made our own sauces that are totally different and available upon request.”
They moved into a larger location in Palatine last year, where they have a huge gas-assisted smoker from Ole Hickory Pits, with smoke flavor coming exclusively from cherry wood. While Texas might have been the main inspiration, one look at the menu shows they love experimenting.
Gaardbo is particularly proud of the brisket, which is seasoned with salt, pepper and espresso powder. After smoking for hours, the beef is wrapped in peach paper and brushed with tallow. The result is absurdly tender beef with just a hint of smoke in each bite. While I also loved the meaty spare ribs, part of the appeal of Chicago Culinary Kitchen is checking out the daily special, where you’ll find everything from smoked tri-tip sandwiches to Baltimore-style pit beef.
The couple also has big plans for the upcoming year, so look out for both a pizza and a seafood concept. If they show even half of the amount of dedication as they do for barbecue, these will be worth traveling for.
2391 N. Hicks Road, Palatine; 847-701-8243; chicagoculinarykitchen.com
Mel’s Craft Barbecue
As I mentioned in my recent review, Mel Thillens started his barbecue journey as a party thrower who just needed to feed a crowd. But he quickly became hooked, traveling to Texas often to try as many barbecue spots as he could. After years of experimenting, he opened his first restaurant in Park Ridge this year, where he cooks all the meat in a smoker from M&M BBQ Co. that runs only post oak.
The brisket is flawlessly executed. Flavored with little more than salt and pepper, it’s absurdly tender but also doesn’t taste like it’s been stewed. (While dry brisket is the saddest fate this cut of beef can face, I’m also not a fan of the versions that resemble mushy pot roast.) The same care and attention is poured into the baby back ribs and pulled pork. Heck, even the smoked turkey is well done.
24 Main St., Park Ridge; 224-985-3461; melsbbq.com
Moontime Smokin’ Que
Heather and Joe Cummings knew they liked eating barbecue, but it wasn’t until they got married that they learned they loved cooking it. “We got a smoker as a wedding present in 2012, and then we realized we were using it three days a week,” Joe Cummings said. After practicing at home, Joe started smoking meat on Sundays at a bar he worked at, which started drawing big weekly crowds. The couple launched Moontime Smokin’ Que as a catering operation in 2017, before finally opening a permanent location near the Crystal Lake Metra train station last year.
I was particularly taken with the meaty ribs, which feature a juicy texture similar to steak mixed with a tantalizing smoky aroma. “I cook competition-style ribs with meat from Duroc pigs,” Cummings said. “They are smoked, wrapped and then finished on the smoker.”
All of the meat is cooked in one of two offset smokers from Primitive Pits fueled only by wood. While they wouldn’t have it any other way, this does require long days and nights. “I’m usually there at 10 p.m. or later to get things started,” Joe said. “It takes dedication.”
88 Railroad St., Unit A, Crystal Lake; 779-994-7119; moontimebbq.com
nkindelsperger@chicagotribune.com
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