via Facebook
What's Minnesota barbecue? That's a question a lot of us have been asking over the last year as barbecue spot after barbecue spot opens—from Storm King to the St. Paul Revival to Handsome Hog and Q Fanatic, it's a boom. But we still don't have a definite barbecue style to call our own. Will this new Travail barbecue spin off change that?
Dunno, but I stopped by one of the pop-ups that their MN BBQ Co. is now routinely having at Northeast tap rooms including Fair State and Bauhaus, and the whole situation is very interesting.
via Facebook
The interesting person is: Kale Thome. Known as one of the cooks who opened the birdtown sensation Travail way back in 2010, Thome is the principal behind this new 'cue business, and the idea and the foods hearken back to Thome's childhood on a farm in Wichita. "I grew up with a much simpler diet than what we do at Travail of course," he told me, "once I started getting into cooking, fine dining was such a cool new avenue, with all these new ingredients coming at me and a whole new world opened up. But now I’m getting to the roots of things and getting back to the food I grew up on." Like white-oak smoked duck, chicken, and sausages—but of course since he's a Travailian now, chef-made sausages.
MN BBQ Co.
Sausage, smoked duck, a chicken leg, cole slaw and beans!
The interesting food is: Good! I tried the MN BBQ Co.'s smoked duck, chicken, and sausage a couple weeks ago at Fair State and everything had really good flavors. The duck was tender, the chicken not lost in the smoke, the sausage distinct. Thome told me that he'll be cooking his way towards a definition of what the food at the MN BBQ Co. will be. "All these new places have different styles—Storm King is Texas barbecue, Revival is its own thing. I don't want to be looped in to a different style, I don't want anybody coming through and saying: Are you Kansas City or Carolina?" I had to ask the obvious question: Wild rice? "I'll be putting wild rice in a Minnesota bratwurst. Maybe a buttered dirty wild rice? I don't know. We gotta cook everything and see what people are receptive to." Then Thome and I had a long talk about whether smoked fish is barbecue, and whether he ought to try smoking some lake trout and herring. I for one feel like the appetite for smoked fish in Minnesota is enormous, and I've always been mystified at the lack of Twin Cities fish smokehouses. On the other hand, I am often dead wrong about things—who saw the fried pizza phenomena coming? Thome said it's really all up for grabs—the Northeast customers will help create it with their demand.
Well, that will be interesting. And so will the permanent location. Thome and partners from Travail have bought a 760-square-foot space around the corner from Fair State on Lowry Avenue in Northeast. They've gutted the space completely, and are now filling it back up with a custom smoker with rotisserie racks. Thome is hoping to open as take-out only with perhaps standard delivery to nearby breweries in the spring of 2018, maybe March or April.
Break a leg—or a few hundred drumsticks.
Minnesota BBQ Co., 816 Lowry Ave. NE, Mpls. Opening spring 2018. Till then, check Facebook and Instagram for pop-ups and more.
