Billing itself “the only southern BBQ in the sub-Arctic,” Yellowknife’s Smokehouse and Grill opens on Friday, offering takeout from 356 Old Airport Road.
The launch menu, available from 4pm on Friday, includes angus brisket, pulled pork, and BBQ chicken, with sauces such as jalapeño mango BBQ and sides like smokey bacon fatty beans.
Initially offering takeout only, the establishment hopes to offer delivery soon.
Jason Robins, formerly of Stake and The Woodyard, is the smokehouse’s chef, using an industrial kitchen attached to Gastown at the uptown location.
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“We’re doing our best attempt at creating a northern version of southern BBQ,” Robins told Cabin Radio.
“I’ve been blessed with having a group of five chefs from Texas that I’ve been talking to about this idea pretty-much since August. They’ve been super fantastic in helping us to understand the culture.
“It gave us this wonderful mosaic of ideas that we were able to then kind-of attack and try to do little spins on it that would be more sensible for our northern friends.”
Takeout meats will be packaged in sous vide bags, Robins said, “which means all you have to do is cut it open and utilize it, manipulate it, without having the dry-out or the cool-down that could happen with delivering in -40C.”
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Robins said remaining exclusively a takeout and delivery service, with catering available, would allow the business to focus on customers at home during the pandemic.
More: Smokehouse and Grill website and Instagram
“The idea of things going ‘back to normal,’ I think, is a fallacy,” said Robins.
“We all agreed that we had to look to the future and see what that meant for the service industry, and what we were going to be able to provide to it.
“In a place that has such a small amount of options, we tried to bring an option that 99 percent of people love and that we do not have in this town.”
