Cutting to the chase
Jermaine Robinson, owner of Universal Cutts, has moved into a new space in the former Christopher’s Restaurant.
WOONSOCKET — Slow-grilling meat over real wood and cutting hair may not seem to have much in common – unless you’re Jermaine “Bugg” Robinson.
Linguistically, anyway, he’s managed to fuse the divergent passions of his professional life into a single word.
“I’m the barber-cuer,” he deadpans, flashing a mischievous grin as he puts the finishing touches on his cousin’s mohawk.
Now the proprietor of Universal Cutts and Bugg’d Out BBQ is a step closer to unifying the two businesses not just in word, but in deed. The city native is in the process of taking over a building that served as the once-popular Christopher’s Restaurant, located at 614 North Main St. A barber since 1994, Robinson moved the haircutting business into the old restaurant from another location nearby a few weeks ago. His intention is to keep Universal Cutts in a portion of the single-story building and launch a new home for Bugg’d Out in another by next summer.
As always, Bugg’d Out BBQ currently operates exclusively as a catering and special events business – but it’s become wildly popular in the few short years since he launched it, according to Robinson. By next summer, Robinson says, the intends to expand the North Main Street site into Bugg’d dOut’s first take-out location, twith umbrella-shaded picnic tables in the parking lot for outdoor meals. Eventually, says Robinson, he’ll operate a few indoor tables as well.
After establishing Bugg’d Out about six years ago, Robinson has been quietly building the restaurant into a recognizable brand. A connoisseur of North Carolina-style BBQ, the fledgling business’ profile got some unexpectedly potent zing from last summer’s Levitt Amp series of Friday-night contcerts at River Island Art Park, twhere Robinson set up the custom-made, mobile cooker – part-trailer, part smoker-grill.
“It’s like a kitchen on wheels,” says Robinson.
In their application for a renewal of the grant-funded tconcerts for 2019, organizers say the influx of visitors from the concerts helped spawn new business, pointing in part to the expansion of Bugg’d Out as a new brick and mortar establishment. Initially, said Robinson, dthe plan was for Bugg’d Out to be closer to the park, but he wasn’t able to find a feasible lodcation in that area. r Though he’s been a barber for 24 years, Robinson, 46, says many city residents know him as the proprietor of Unitversal Cutts, but he’s actually been cooking longer than he’s tbeen cutting hair – just not professionally.
“They know me from cutting hair, but once that BBQ tbusiness came in, it just explodted,” said Robinson. Just from fword of mouth advertising and social media, Robinson said he’s brought his finger-licking brand of southern barbecue to some pretty hefty events recently, including a gathering of 700 construction workers at the site of the MGM casino in Springfield, Mass.
For Thanksgiving, Robinson said he filled orders for more than two dozen turkeys, all prepped with salt, pepper and “a lot of that Bugg’d Out special rub” before heading into the smoker.
“I’ve always cooked, even as a little kid,” says Robinson. “I’ve always traveled in the south.”
Robinson marinates and otherwise preps his meats at Millrace Kitchen, operated by NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley as a small-business incubator, designed to promote culinary startups, in Market Square. He is a member of the kitchen, which means he rents the facilities as he needs them, thus avoiding the high capital overhead of investing in his own kitchen.
There’s a detectable hint of disapproval in Robinson’s tone when he talks about what passes for standard barbecue in New England – if not most of the Northeast. “Grilling some meat and puttin’ some barbecue sauce on it” is how Robinson describes the vast majority of regional fare, making it sound mundane at best, if not something like a culinary sin.
His southern-inspired protocol is a much more labor-intensive, reverent process of “seasoning, marinating and slow-cooking over different types of wood” – hickory, pecan and red oak, to name a few.
Robinson’s brand of barbecue is so different from the northern variety that his definition of barbecue sauce is probably unrecognizable to those familiar with the ketchup-based concoctions common in this part of the country. Robinson’s version, more orange than red, is a syrupy, mustard-based sauce that can be used as a marinade, a wash that gets brushed repeatedly during the cooking process, or as dipping sauce.
He doesn’t know why, but “kids love it,” says Robinson. “They love it for their chicken nuggets and French fries.”
Robinson actually markets “Bugg’d Out BBQ Sauce” as a spinoff product of Bugg’d Out BBQ. It’s bottled by a company in Chicago.
The end result of Robinson’s attention to detail is some top-notch barbecue, says Brian Lahousse, the owner of 614 South Main St. and himself a restaurateur of some repute. The proprietor of Grumpy’s Restaurant in nearby Bellingham, Lahousse and his father, John, also ran the former Christopher’s for many years.
“It’s already an amazing business,” says Lahousse. “He is great at what he does. He puts his own flair on everything.”
Lahousse, who is in the process of conveying ownership of the building to Robinson, says the location has tremendous potential.
“Between my father and myself we operated Christopher’s for 30 years,” he said. “We sold it to other people and it lasted two years. We were successful. Obviously the location itself has high traffic, nice people. It’s a nice corner location bordering on Massachusetts, so obviously that helps.”
While barber-cuing is a relatively recent career fusion for him, Robinson says he got his start in the first part – barbering – as a protege of the late Bennie Harris, who ran “the first ethnic barber shop in the city. He took me under his wing.”
Today Robinson runs Universal Cutts with a loyal crew of hair-cutters, including Dwight “Tuffy” Withee, who’s been with Robinson for 17 years, and Joe “Obie” Oberg, who’s worked there for six. Neighbors have been reacting favorably to their recent relocation to the old Christopher’s. They say they’re pleased to see some activity again in the corner business, which has a large adjoining parking lot.
“It’s been closed for about six years,” he says. “A lot of people are saying they’re happy to see some activity in the parking lot again.”