Sandi Schoendienst has a mission: to offer people good smoked meats and sides made with care and skill. Schoendienst, who just opened Sassy Pigs in St. Louis Hills, has cooked in tony country club kitchens and in diverse South Side places, such as the Carondelet Diner and Grove East Provisions, but her cooking mojo really rocks when there’s smoke and fire.
“Sassy Pigs’ menu is short and easy,” she says. “There’s nothing here a vegan would want. I’m serving carnivores that eat yummy barbecue on Sundays and still eat meatless on Mondays, when I’m closed. I’m all about smoking meats: ribs, chicken, pork, and beef.
“My flavor profile is strongly influenced by my parents,” she continues. “I grew up with Mom and Dad’s good backyard barbecue made with Maull’s and good with beer.” (Sassy Pig doesn’t serve alcohol, however.) “My recipe for mustard potato salad comes from my grandmother, Marie McFarland. You won’t find any sides coming from a plastic tub here. Everything is made in house, by hand.”
Smoked beans contain plenty of meat
Schoendienst’s BBQ sauces are “blends of sauces, jellies, and special additions. I’ve got a blueberry-serrano sauce, a regular sauce, and a mustard-and-vinegar sauce I’ve come to like a lot. I’m not the biggest fan of Carolina-style sauce, but I like what I’ve mixed up.”
Sassy Pigs isn’t a sit-down kind of place, although there are two tables and a small bench inside (in total, the restaurant can accommodate 12 people). Schoendienst serves customers in-house on cafeteria trays and packages everything in recyclable containers. “I’m putting smoke in the air,” she says, “so I’ve got to think about balancing karma in the universe. I’m going green when I can.”
Sassy Pigs offers a full complement of sandwiches, including a sausage grilled with fennel and garlic and a little heat. The five sides include two potato salads and pit beans smoked long and slow.
“This neighborhood begins and ends with families, so I’ve got big platters,” she says, “and good old barbecue hamburgers kids like.”
You Bought the Farm, Sassy’s full-meal paean for barbecue junkies, includes one rack of ribs, a pound each of brisket and pulled pork, an entire chicken, three house sausages, and three one-pound sides of your choice. Smaller meal offerings include All Swine All the Time and The Yard Bird, featuring a whole grilled chicken. These carry-out dinners are all yuuuge.
Schoendienst has also been known to whip up a few special items, like pulled-pork nachos, as whim and time dictate: “I do a few things I call Off the Cuff, like my Brisket Benedict. I make a patty of my loaded potato salad, smash and grill it lightly on each side, and top it with some brisket and a fried egg. My friends lost it over that one.”
Stop by Sassy Pigs, opening this week. “I’ve got the inspector coming on Monday, so I’m planning to open on Tuesday,” Schoendienst says. “It makes me really happy to feed people.”
