The Hill as a barbecue destination? There’s strong precedent. Way back when the J. Smugs GastroPit building was still a working service station (Google it, young ’uns), a nearby place called Galimberti’s drew ’cue fans from near and far.
In the short time since being rehabbed, the former service station has housed a pizza parlor (Rizzo’s Station Pizzeria), a casual Italian restaurant (Leonardo’s Kitchen & Wine Bar), and a gourmet burger joint (Leonardo’s Burger Kitchen). This summer, brothers Joe and John Smugala (the former from the pizza parlors of the same name) and their wives, Kerri and Linda, opened the eponymous ’cue joint in the quaint 1930s building at the intersection of Macklind and Bischoff, catty-corner from Mama Toscano’s Ravioli.
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The smoker churns out the usual suspects: ribs, pulled pork, pulled chicken, and brisket. An eclectic selection of seven sauces in squeeze bottles allows you to customize your meat with sweet, hot, smoky, mustardy, Dr. Peppery, or honeyed sauce, plus a “bianca” sauce that resembles a creamy Hill salad dressing. The ribs are firm and meaty but idiosyncratic, with a salty crust. Both the pulled pork and pulled chicken are suitably moist and appropriately smoky, but the standout is the brisket. It doesn’t have a particularly well-defined smoke ring, but the smoky flavor and balance between firmness and juiciness are right on the money. Brisket also shows up as a brisket burger, a classic thick burger of brisket meat that’s topped with a choice of cheeses (including, of course, Provel) and served on a pretzel bun.
Several sides are unusual for a barbecue shack: bacon-wrapped street corn, garbanzo beans, and pulled pork poutine, for example. The smoked meatballs aren’t quite as weird but are still a creative barbecue riff on an Italian-American staple, as is a tangy giardiniera. There’s also a respectable version of a Rich & Charlie’s salad served on a half sheet pan.
The dining space—spaces, actually—is charming, with a back room enclosed on one side by a glass-paned garage door and relics from the onetime service station, a center area with a bar and counter seating, and picnic tables outside beside a pair of original Texaco Sky Chief Ethyl gas pumps (Google that one, too, kids).
Squint a little, and you can imagine the ghosts of Marie and John Galimberti in the wisps wafting from the J. Smugs smoker.
The Bottom Line: Boffo brisket leads the way as the Smugalas reintroduce barbecue to The Hill.
Editor’s Note: This review is dining critic Joe Bonwich’s final article. He passed away on October 31, 2017, at age 58.
