Dogtown, say hello to Hogtown.
When Rico Lange was growing up in Dogtown, he’d bike past a long-shuttered corner business on Clayton Avenue at Graham, directly across the street from Forest Park Lumber Company. “The building has sat empty since the 1990s,” he says.
Courtesy Hogtown Smokehouse
Owners Rico Lange and Chris Muich
Today, Lange and his business partner, Chris Muich, have nearly finished the space for Dogtown’s latest restaurant, Hogtown Smokehouse (6301 Clayton Ave.), slated to open in mid-July.
Like Lange, Muich is from the South Side, a proud graduate of St. Stephen Promartyr grade school and a current resident of Dogtown.
Lange and Muich signed the deal in March 2018, just in time to plunge into the general folly that is Dogtown on St. Patrick’s Day. “My sister, Lori Brandhorst, manned the booth in front of our space,” Lange says.
Brandhorst helped generate the buzz about the soon-to-open barbecue spot, with a fast-casual lunch and a full-service dinner. Look for turkey, brisket, pork, ribs, and G&W sausages smoked on the back patio and served with house-made sauces and sides. “The bar will be pretty simple,” Lange says. “Beer, wine, and booze. No drafts. Domestic bottles and canned local craft beers and a curated selection of bourbons and vodkas.”
Courtesy Hogtown Smokehouse
Lange and Muich met at Southtown Pub. “I’d always worked construction until I became pitmaster at Southtown,” says Muich, who will run the kitchen while Lange oversees the front of the house.
Muich’s construction credentials helped the two partners transform the long-abandoned space. The two built the small bar, with one side for service and the other as an order window. They laid tile floors, faced the bar with white subway tile, and paneled the service hub with repurposed pallet wood, charred and stained. They uncovered original hardwood floors that were in good shape and will remain.
Photo by George Mahe
The patio, a beautiful space they restored, will seat 30 comfortably, and there will be room for an additional 30 inside. The two envision the lunch business as a split between carryout and dine-in; they’re not yet sure how the dinner business will split, because there’s a 100-unit apartment building going up across the street.
