Blaine Christian

Review of Smoq Pitt

If I could give a 2.5 I would, because I don't wan...

If I could give a 2.5 I would, because I don't want to give the impression the food was bad. It wasn't... it just really didn't work for me.

Ordering the pulled pork, brisket, mac and onion rings to go. Food was ready as soon as I walked in, staff was very friendly, seemed like a really nice place. I hope Smoq Pitt stays open forever, because it's great to see Brookline emerging. Seems like a really cool place to bring a 6-pack into after a long day.

Regarding the food, what turned out to be a big problem was the first thing I noticed. The pulled pork had an acrid taste to it. I couldn't put my finger on what it is. May have been the wood that was used. I definitely wouldn't chalk it up to the meat, it was either the rub or the smoke... there was some flavor that didn't seem appealing - it wasn't hickory, it wasn't mesquite and it wasn't any fruit wood I recognize. Eating the whole order of pork just trying to determine what that flavor was, the closest I could come up with was... Burnt cloves?

Moving onto the brisket, I really couldn't taste much flavor in the beef. I later discovered this is likely due to eating the pork first. Texture-wise the brisket was pretty firm, which is not necessarily a bad thing. You don't want brisket cooked until it turns to saw dust. But without the connective tissue breaking down, it does come off a little hard to chew. In fairness, brisket is probably the single hardest item in the bbq cookbook and I've been to places in the deep south who can't get it 'right'. Overall, hard to evaluate the brisket, just my one time experience and I'd encourage anyone to take their own run at it.

One item I really can't say anything good about, unfortunately, is the sweet sauce. The first flavor to hit you is cinnamon, then there is the dark sweetness from a brown sugar or molasses and finally there's probably some apple cider. All told, it tasted like apple pie filling.

Personally, I'm all for creativity in sauces, but this might just be a case of "looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck". When the things you taste are cinnamon, brown sugar and apple and not much else, your brain can only go a few places.

It probably would have been a really good sauce exclusively for the pork, to give you some of that Bobby Brady 'pork chops and apple sauce' action, but I plowed through the pork trying pinpoint what that off-flavor was. So I had it with the beef. At that point, I didn't feel the beef had any flavor, it wasn't really a good compliment.

I was able to understand a little better what was going on with the beef, thanks to the sides.

The mac and cheese, I actually had after the pork. The sequence of events is important, because it tasted of nothing. Just nothing. I was really disappointed. Next was the the beef and onion rings (which were ok, didn't seem like they were anything special) and the journey that was the sweet sauce. Sealing up the mac, I packed everything up and headed home.

About 30 minutes, and a bottle of water later, I gave the macaroni another try and it was actually really good! Like night and day. What went from an unseasoned pile of cooked macaroni, turned into quality bbq-style mac and cheese. It didn't make sense.

Whatever it was that I didn't like on the pork had really altered my taste buds. The beef very well might have had some flavor I didn't pick up on. Because of that I can't objectively render a verdict on the beef either way.

Hopes up, I revisited the sweet sauce, but found no magical transformation - still pie.

I can't authoritatively say someone should not try Smoq Pitt. Having gone to bbq pits all over the country, I'm not holding them to a 'for Pittsburgh' standard, but I recognize food is ultimately a subjective experience. I'm unlikely to go again, but I wish them well and hope they find an fan base.