Column: Chicago’s barbecue revolution is here — if only the city would remove the red tape

As I devoured a beef rib from Knox Ave Barbecue — one that rivaled rib eye in texture but with an alluring hint of sweet smoke swirling in the background — I pondered if Chicago was on the cusp of becoming the next national barbecue hotspot.

We have the talent. We have the unique regional style and the new-school disruptors. The one big thing standing in the way? City food codes.

Like a growing number of pitmasters, the owner of Knox Ave Barbecue, Joe Yim, uses an offset smoker. He learned to operate one while working at three of the most acclaimed barbecue joints in Texas. Unfortunately, Chicago makes it nearly impossible to approve offset smokers at restaurants. The only way I was able to sample Knox Ave was at a pop-up event at Ludlow Liquors organized by the Chicago Reader’s Mike Sula. (You can read more about Sula’s excellent Monday Night Foodball here.)

What makes Knox Ave so exciting is that instead of pairing the beef with common barbecue sides such as coleslaw and beans, Yim dishes out sides he grew up eating as a Korean American, including scallion salad, an array of acidic pickled vegetables, rice and ssamjang, the slightly spicy Korean sauce. “We have a pretty close-knit family, and we’d meet on weekends to make Korean barbecue pretty often,” Yim said. All those cool, crunchy, spicy and acidic sides play off the ultra savoriness of Knox Ave’s beef, while never covering it up.

Knox Ave is just one player in a growing barbecue pop-up scene in Chicago, and I’m convinced this is where you’ll find the most creative smoked meat in the city. Along with Knox Ave Barbecue, places such as Umamicue, Smoky Soul BBQ, Heffer BBQ and Shaker BBQ honor barbecue traditions while infusing elements of their own culinary ancestry. If any of them had permanent locations, they would have easily made my list of the best barbecue in Chicago.

[ The 9 best barbecue joints in Chicago ]

They also share a near obsession with offset smokers:

“It’s the hardest way to cook barbecue, but it produces the best results,” Yim said.

“Offset is best,” Umamicue’s owner Charles Wong said. “It’s just incredible. You can really tell the difference.”

“I’ve been fortunate enough to cook on a lot of equipment,” said Shawn Smith of Heffer BBQ. “I always come back to offset smokers. You can’t replicate the flavor.”

“It’s just a world apart in flavor and texture,” said Mike Shaker. “Using real wood and charcoal can’t be beat.”

Offset smokers range in size, but all feature a cylindrical chamber where the meat rests on racks, along with a separate firebox on the side where the wood burns. Smoke and heat travel from the firebox into the chamber, and then out a chimney. “The gentle, controlled cooking environment (an offset smoker) offers by way of indirect heat has become the preferred method for smoking meat, and new pitmasters are nearly unanimous in their adoption of it,” wrote Texas Monthly barbecue editor, Daniel Vaughn, in an August article.

But while offset smokers are gaining in popularity all over the country, you won’t find them in Chicago barbecue restaurants (with one known exception). While this could be mere pitmaster preference, especially considering how many kinds of smokers are available, that wasn’t universally true.

“In a dream world, we’d be using an offset smoker here,” said Dave Bonner, pitmaster at Green Street Smoked Meats. “We have one for events. I like how they cook. There’s even heat distribution.”

But as Barry Sorkin, owner of Smoque BBQ, found out the hard way, the city of Chicago doesn’t make it easy for restaurants to use them. “We were working on installing big 1,000-gallon offset smokers here because I love to cook on them,” Sorkin said. “But we couldn’t figure out the way through the city code. The city wanted the whole thing under a hood, which would have been 28 feet long and prohibitively expensive. I worked on plans for 1½ to two years, and then decided to work on the Smoque Steak project because it was such an easier route.”

[ Column: As Texas barbecue ascends in Chicago, what happens to our own South Side style? ]

Sorkin is quick to add he’s very happy with the barbecue he currently serves, which comes out of a Southern Pride smoker (the company makes gas and electric models). “You can still cook terrible barbecue on an offset smoker,” Sorkin said. “I liken it to taking a picture with an SLR camera versus an iPhone. You have much more control (with the SLR), which can be great, but you still need to know how to frame a good photo.”

Charlie McKenna, owner of Lillie’s Q, agrees the smoker is only part of the equation. “Would I like to use (an offset smoker)? Yes,” McKenna said. “But I can already cook awesome barbecue on the smoker I have. The talent of the pitmaster is even more important.” Plus, Chicago’s cold winters would make cooking outside with offset smokers difficult for part of the year, he added. “And if you have to put the smoker inside under a hood, that affects the airflow of the smoker,” McKenna said.

Chicago’s Department of Public Health requires smokers to be certified for indoor use, a process that can cost upward of six figures and is generally not something manufacturers bother with for offset smokers, which are primarily used — and designed for — outdoor use. For ventilation, city regulations call for an exhaust hood to span the length of an offset smoker. Chicago’s food code forbids restaurants to regularly serve food that has been prepared outside and exposed to “environmental sources of contamination,” the department noted.

[ Some of Chicago’s most exciting barbecue is made at these 5 joints in the suburbs ]

This leads to the unfortunate situation where barbecue restaurants can’t use offset smokers. Pop-up vendors have more flexibility when they’re able to prepare food off-site or during special events, but they then sacrifice the stability of a permanent space. In other cities, states and some Chicago-area suburbs, outdoor smoking and grilling is allowed.

As far as I know, Dorothy’s Bistro (formerly Flat & Point) is the only restaurant to get an offset smoker approved by the city, though co-owner Brian Bruns said the process was “one of the most complicated things I’ve ever dealt with.” Bruns persevered because he loves cooking on an offset smoker. “If I had to explain why I love them in one word: thermodynamics,” Bruns said. “You want a clean smoke flavor to be on your product evenly. That’s why you’re looking for a round tube where the smoke moves through.”

To get approval, Bruns had the whole smoker placed under a hood, albeit one rated for a wood-fired grill, which did affect the airflow in the smoker. “If you’re not careful, you will end up over-smoking stuff,” Bruns said. But after fiddling with the offset smoker’s chimney, he’s happy with how it operates.

But can you really tell a difference between barbecue cooked on an offset smoker and one from a gas-assist smoker, such as Southern Pride? For these smokers, the heat comes from gas, usually propane, while the smoke flavor comes from wood chips, pellets or chunks. I posed the question to Meathead Goldwyn, the celebrated Chicago-based cookbook author, member of the barbecue hall of fame and the owner of AmazingRibs.com, which offers detailed grill and smoker reviews.

[ Meathead Goldwyn has staked his name on scientific barbecue. Now, the Chicago-area pitmaster is in the hall of fame. ]

“(Southern Pride) does offer a different flavor profile, but it’s still a wonderful profile,” Goldwyn said. “Smoque BBQ serves brisket every bit as good as what you’ll find in Texas.”

After testing so many different kinds of smokers, Goldwyn likens smokers to different types of music. “I would say the all-wood smokers are more complex, and when done properly, it’s like a huge orchestra,” Goldwyn said. “A pellet smoker is more like a string quartet. It’s beautiful and elegant, but not as loud.”

Chicago already has a fascinating barbecue scene, so it’s not exactly true that if we don’t figure out a way to get offset smokers approved we’re doomed. All I know is that some of the people most passionate about barbecue in this city are also obsessed with offset smokers. Wouldn’t it be great if the city figured out a way to let restaurants use offset smokers in a safe and responsible manner?

In the meantime, if you want to try Chicago’s most exciting new barbecue, you should check out one of the events hosted by the five places below.

Owner Joe Yim has one of the most impressive barbecue backgrounds I’ve encountered. After years of smoking meat for friends and family in Chicago and Lincolnwood, he eventually quit his job as a teacher and moved to Texas for three years, where he worked at acclaimed barbecue joints Terry Black’s BBQ, Truth BBQ, and LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue.

At his most recent event, he served a hefty beef rib, but instead of leaving it whole, Yim sliced the meat neatly off the bone, fanning it out so you could easily marvel at the dark, black-pepper crust and the bright red smoke ring underneath. This was paired with sides Yim would often have with Korean barbecue, including rice, scallion salad and ssamjang.

I’ve eaten a lot of barbecue over the past six months, and Knox Ave Barbecue is the one I think about the most. It currently has no scheduled pop-up events, but keep an eye on its Instagram for its return. instagram.com/knoxavebbq

Charles Wong, the owner of Umamicue, serves his expertly smoked meats with numerous Chinese and Vietnamese components. “My parents are ethnically Chinese, but they were born and raised in Saigon,” Wong said. “So this is what I grew up eating in Chicago, which I’ve mixed with Texas-style barbecue technique.”

Umamicue’s current menu features the kind of thickly sliced brisket you’ll find all over Central Texas, but you can also order a shaking beef sausage, which is a play on the super savory Vietnamese dish. While you can order all the meats plain on a plate, you can also get them stuffed into a crackly banh mi. Sure, you’ll find potato salad, but Wong’s version is spiked with nuoc cham, the spicy and acidic Vietnamese sauce.

Umamicue started a residency at Spilt Milk (2758 W. Fullerton Ave.), a bar in Logan Square. It will operate Tuesdays to Thursdays from 5 p.m. until the meat sells out. instagram.com/umamicue

Daniel Hammond from Smoky Soul Barbecue was also inspired by the food his parents and grandparents prepared for him in Chicago. “I have roots in the South, but also in the Caribbean,” Hammond said. Though he primarily uses cherry and apple wood for his barbecue, he has also been experimenting with pimento wood, traditionally used for jerk chicken in Jamaica.

Hammond is adamant about not drenching the meat in sauce, and hopes to broaden the meats found at South Side barbecue spots. “Usually, you’ll just find rib tips and hot links,” Hammond said. “That’s a part of Chicago barbecue, but not the full history. My goal is to put the whole history of Chicago on a plate.” So far, I’ve tried Hammond’s gorgeously glazed ribs, buttery slices of brisket with a rose-tinted smoke ring and some supreme rib tips.

Smoky Soul Barbecue accepts catering orders. Hammond also said he’s close to securing a restaurant space, though he’ll have to move to a different kind of smoker. instagram.com/smokysoulbbqchicago

Shawn Smith and Leonor Quezada, the married couple behind Heffer BBQ, serve Texas-style barbecue with Mexican influences Quezada learned from her family in Chicago. “This started as a hobby that got out of control,” Smith said. “I’ve always been interested in barbecue, and she has the cooking skills.” At their most recent event, they served ribs and brisket, along with smoked esquites, plump kernels mixed with cotjia, chile powder and lime.

On my last visit, I tried those exquisite esquites, along with the best pulled pork I’ve had in Chicago. Each strand of meat was packed with porky richness, while bits of the blackened crust heighten the smoky profile.

Heffer BBQ started a residency at Whiner Beer Co. Tap Room (1400 W. 46th St.) in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. It will operate Thursdays and Fridays, from 4 p.m. until meat sells out, and Saturdays and Sundays from 1 p.m. instagram.com/therealhefferbbq

Mike Shaker, owner of Shaker Barbeque, said his smoked meat journey began while growing up in Cleveland. “When I was 10, my dad went to Kansas City and took a bunch of classes to become a barbecue judge,” Shaker said. “I started helping him then.” But Shaker’s huge family also cooked many dishes. “My heritage is a quarter Lebanese, a quarter Cherokee and the rest European,” Shaker said. “So I grew up eating barbecue, along with a lot of tabbouleh, grape leaves and lamb.” While he mostly serves Central Texas-style barbecue at his pop-up events, he’s also dished out novelties such as smoked lamb with a pomegranate sauce. instagram.com/shakerbarbeque

nkindelsperger@chicagotribune.com

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