This is a terrible time to open a barbecue restaurant. Making consistently good commercial barbecue and making money at it is a notoriously difficult endeavor in the first place. But whether by coincidence or kismet, some half-dozen smoke joints have opened up this summer, making the odds of any individual one’s success all that much worse. I’ll be surprised if more than half are still open by this time next year.
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But despite all the set dressing, the air inside and out seems scrubbed of the telltale alluring aromas of smoking flesh, and likewise a few of the crucial meats lack a proper smoke infusion. This is particularly true of the pulled chicken and pulled pork, respectively the most unforgiving and forgiving of meats when it comes to barbecue. Chicken cooks quickly and dries out easily. Pulled pork (the category in which McKenna triumphed at 2007’s Memphis in May barbecue competition) is just the opposite, yet here it’s mined of all the wonderful fat and connective tissue a low, slow smoking should render into glistening porky goodness. It’s puzzling that both are so overexhausted and in need of the lubricating effects of Grandma Lillie’s sauces. And these, from the Carolina to the Hot Smoky, are hobbled by excessive sweetness—with the exception of the mayo-based Ivory, which one server recommended for the fries, no doubt to counter the liberal sprinkling of barbecue rub.
The nonbarbecued items, too, are showily cloaked in “southernness” (which surely must annoy the folks at the Southern a few doors down). Take the list of moonshine-based cocktails served in canning jars. Unaged whiskey is only slightly more useless as a cocktail base than vodka, contributing little more than booze power and a light corn flavor that’s obliterated by more characterful elements such as lemonade or, ridiculously, Maker’s Mark. (Why drink corn liquor when you already have bourbon? Because it allows you to pretend you bought it from a hillbilly?)
Pork Shoppe
2755 W. Belmont, 773-961-7654porkshoppechicago.com
Rub BBQ Company
2407 W. Lunt, 773-675-1410rubbbqcompany.com
