Marc Buoniconti funds partner to open barbecue restaurant in Palmetto Bay
The first time Marc Buoniconti tasted the barbecue his lifelong friend Pat Sheehey was selling at pop-ups around South Florida he told him, “This is way too good to be limited to farmer’s markets.”
So Buoniconti did something about it. Buoniconti, son of the late Miami Dolphins great Nick and president of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami, put his money behind his grand statement and partnered to open Smokez BBQ in Palmetto Bay.
“I started tasting his food and I was just blown away,” Buoniconti said.
Sheehey traded a paycheck in information technologies, specializing in encryption for BP and the U.S. government, to follow a passion for barbecue. He has spent the last five years visiting barbecue Meccas like
Austin’s Franklin’s and Micklethwait’s, searching for his own style.
He started cultivating a following originally as Pig Floyd’s BBQ, smoking behind a FEMA bus turned food truck in at an open lot at 7271 SW 168th St. The lines were so significant that the state told him it was time to expand and build a permanent spot or start selling less to abide by Florida’s cottage foods laws.
“We got to be too big for our britches as a food truck,” Sheehey said.
Sheehey went in with Buoniconti as equal partners and doubled down. They closed the spot and built out the site over the last eight months before reopening a little over a month ago.
The former Epiphany elementary and Columbus High classmates turned the site of the Old Cutler Inn into what feels
like a barbecue pit transported from Austin to south of Miami.
“It was a ‘Field of Dreams’ kind of thing,” said Sheehey, who built it and the lines have come.
Matte black shipping containers, one with a full bar and restrooms, surround a domed tent reminiscent of EPCOT. Beneath them, barbecue lovers sit at picnic tables as James Brown jams over the speakers and NFL games play on a pair of big screen televisions. A pair of smokers, one dedicated to ribs and briskets, another to slow grilling, fill the air with the luscious scent of cherryand post-oak-smoked meat.
Brisket cooked 12 hours, pork baby back ribs smoked firm, St. Louis style, piles of pulled pork and a knockout spicy sausage are among the regular items on the menu. Three different sauces, including a vinegar mustard and lip-smacking sweet-andspicy red are optional for the heavily rubbed and spiced meats.
Weekend-only crowds await the barbecue in lines 20 people deep, drinking free beer, the way they do in Texas. Children play cornhole and throw around a football on the grassy field nearby.
And after the barbecue runs out for the day, diners nurse a meat hangover while listening to bands play live music under the dome.
SMOKEZ BBQ (FORMERLY PIG FLOYD)
7271 SW 168th St., Palmetto Bay
Hours: Thursday-Friday, 4-11 p.m. or until the food runs out. Saturday-Sunday, 2-11 p.m. or until sold out.
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