Eclectic barbecue in eclectic Portland
As the spirit and technique of Texas barbecue spreads far and wide across the U.S., great barbecue has become easier to find for the expatriate Texan traveling for work or pleasure. Almost every big city has at least one good-to-excellent outlet: Lewis Barbecue in Charleston, S.C.; Little Miss BBQ in Phoenix; and Hometown Bar-B-Que in Brooklyn, N.Y., are a few examples.
The West Coast is an exception. Cities such as San Diego and San Francisco are mostly wastelands if you’re looking for world-class barbecue. Los Angeles has a couple of bright spots in BigMista’s Barbecue and Ray’s BBQ, and Seattle’s Jack’s BBQ is, in my opinion, the best in the West. Otherwise, it’s slim pickings.
Still, I wasn’t ready to give up on finding great Texas-style barbecue on the West Coast. My last, best hope was in Portland, Ore., the quirky, eccentric city that inspired its own TV show (“Portlandia”) and is known for its plethora of funky food trucks.
This past week, in a quick two-day tour of Portland’s smoked-meat offerings, I found a barbecue scene as eclectic as the city’s residents and reputation.
I started out at People’s Pig, which specializes in smoked pork dishes. It has a tiny storefront with a collection of vault-style smokers in a side yard. Big chunks of pork shoulder were exquisitely smoked, if a little dry, and dusted with a spicy dry rub. Pork ribs were crisply overcooked. Side dishes shined — vinegary collard greens and a perfectly crumbly and bitter-sweet triangle of cornbread stole the show.
From there, I couldn’t resist a visit to Homegrown Smoker Vegan BBQ. “Vegan barbecue” may seem like an oxymoron, but using smoke to flavor proteins other than meat is a legitimate technique. In this case, the protein includes various permutations of soybean products. “Tempeh ribs” were nothing more than caked soybean formed into the shape of a pork rib, cooked until a crust is formed on the outside and drizzled with barbecue sauce.
“Soy curls” are a typical vegan replacement for meat; in this case, strips of a soybean product substitute for chopped beef or pulled pork. Here, they’re redolent of smoke and appear to be crisped on a flat top to add some caramelized flavor.
Though made with skill and care, I can’t recommend the offerings here to Texas barbecue aficionados. The menu is aimed at a very specific audience, and the typical meat lover is emphatically not that audience. That said, vegans deserve good barbecue, too, or at least some simulacrum thereof. In that case, Homegrown Smoker Vegan BBQ delivers.
After stops at porkcentric and vegan outlets, I set my sights on more traditional Texas-style ’cue.
Botto Barbecue is a trailer improbably located in a hard-to-find sliver of parking lot between warehouses in an industrial neighborhood. There’s a barrel smoker in the back that uses the rare central firebox configuration — instead of the firebox on one end and flue on the other so the smoke flows in one direction, the firebox is in the middle of the barrel with flues on each end. I’ve never figured out the benefit of this layout, but some pitmasters swear by it.
The brisket here is proficiently smoked and rendered with a saltand-pepper crust. Botto has become known for another Texas specialty: sausage-and-cheese kolaches (though they were not available the day I visited). Meanwhile, the Slabtown sandwich is a meal in itself, featuring a huge dollop of pulled pork topped with thick slabs of locally made bacon and a smear of pimento cheese.
I found the best barbecue in Portland at Matt’s BBQ, a small food trailer paired with a traditional offset barrel smoker. Matt’s brisket is strictly Texas style, its crusty, smoky bark shrouding well-rendered, highquality beef. The joint’s hand-made jalapeño-and-cheese sausage is some of the best I’ve had anywhere — including in Texas.
Matt’s will definitely challenge Jack’s BBQ in Seattle for the best Texasstyle barbecue on the West Coast. J.C. REID