This BBQ spot in Niagara-on-the-Lake serves up smoky, juicy brisket
Brushfire Smoke BBQ is located at 2017 Niagara Stone Road in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
I've spent a considerable amount of my spring days exploring the Niagara region. I've always been smitten with Ontario wine country and it's been exciting to see its culinary offerings bloom over the last two years.
Great wine and beer are now complemented by a small convoy of cooks who are creating interesting things. From St. Catharines to Niagara Falls (yes even the falls), things are looking promising.
If you're a fan of Ontario beer, Oast House Brewers needs no introduction. It is one of the few breweries in Niagara-on-the-Lake, a land dominated by fantastic wineries.
Oast is a farmhouse-brewery known for its Belgian ales and seasonal craft beers created with locally grown ingredients. Since opening in 2013, the brewery has almost always featured a food program to complement its beers.
Recently, it opened a barbecue-focused shack at the back of the brewery, Brushfire Smoke BBQ, with a unique menu that combines American barbecue with Asian and Canadian ingredients.
Whitby native John Vetere is the executive chef at Brushfire Smoke BBQ, where he is trying to carve a new style of barbecue that speaks to his eating preferences.
"What I'm making here is not authentic barbecue. I would never classify it as such. It's not central Texas. There are familiar elements, but this is our own American-Canadian-Asian barbecue," he explained.
Vetere's cooking is inspired by his travels through the U.S. and Asia, married with his desire to use seasonal Niagara ingredients when possible.
"I find that Asian cooking techniques and ingredients can really brighten dishes, especially heavy dishes like barbecue."
His brisket, a staple in Central Texas barbecue, sees a deviation from the rudimentary application of a simple salt and pepper rub to meat before cooking it low and slow.
Vetere adds a generous amount of coffee to the prime cut of chest meat.
"The coffee gives it a deeper and darker note. It goes well with the fat and juicy parts of the dish."
Like in Central Texas barbecue, the brisket is cooked for hours at a controlled temperature. On the menu you can have it on its own, or thick slices slathered with salsa. There's a hint of smokiness followed by the bold coffee notes, but this is really about texture with tender, fatty chunks of meat crowned by a caramelized crust.
You can also enjoy the brisket in a sandwich, cubes of brisket nestled between two pieces of sourdough bread, pimento cheese and a generous layering of Texas hot barbecue sauce.
My favourite thing on the menu is the Sichuan Hot Chicken, a remix on the popular Nashville dish where fried chicken is bathed in a cayenne glaze. It arrives bright red, dripping with cayenne oil, with enough firepower to melt your face.
Even if you're not trying to outshine your peers by eating some of the spiciest chicken on the planet, there's something incredibly addictive about crunchy chicken seasoned with hot oil.
Vetere's version takes the Nashville dish to Asia. Chicken thighs are cooked for a few hours in a sous vide bath with Chinese black vinegar and sambal to "maintain optimal temperature" and preserve "consistency and juiciness" before each piece is generously coated in a spiced flour made of potato flour, rice flour and Vetere's own blend of spices.
"The spice mix is my spin on the colonel sanders secret mix. There are 11 spices in there which really round out the taste on the chicken."
The chicken gets two thick coatings of the spice blend which adds the signature crunch on the finished product.
"The potato flour really adds crunch rather than crisp. This is like the Japanese karaage dishes, lots of crunchy batter."
While the chicken cooks in the fryer, Vetere prepares his hot glaze, he adds a dozen ingredients: Chinese doubanjiang (a fermented paste made with Sichuan chili and broad beans), garlic, star anise, cinnamon, red chilies, dried chili powder, and two types of Sichuan peppercorns into a large pot of oil.
The red peppercorn is the base of many Sichuanese dishes, bringing that signature "mala" numbing sensation, and green peppercorns are wonderfully aromatic and punch up the flavours tenfold.
The oil is blended and then used to dunk each piece of fried chicken. Here's my case for why its better than the traditional Nashville variation, there's a lot going on.
There's a layer of notes from the umami in the doubanjiang, the aromatics from the cinnamon, to the highly addicting Sichuan flavours that slowly seduce your lips and tongue.
There are two cauliflower dishes on the menu: a tostada with smoked chunks of cauliflower served with an avocado cream and a sour Laotian sauce. The second dish is a fried cauliflower served Singapore-style with aioli and pickled chili onions.
Shishito peppers are also on the menu, and I suggest you start the meal with that. The peppers are charred and doused in a Korean gochuchang sauce, paired with smoked peanuts. Get some sourdough to mop up the sauce.
Back to the brewery. Oast House is one of my favourite craft breweries in the province. There's no shortage of great seasonal beers on the menu right now.
I recommend the watermelon gose or the verjus, a sour beer made with pressed green pinot noir grapes. Both are made for barbecue and summer.
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