Cedric Rollins stood next to his smoker on a rainy Saturday and with a long set of tongs checked whether the rib tips, ribs and chicken wings were ready.
The owner of That Guy’s Gourmet Ribs knows that you can’t rush a good thing. The meat is ready when it’s ready. The smoke, which billowed out of the heavy metal smoker, does its work slowly.
Like the cloud of smoke wafting into the fall air, the popularity of barbecue is on the rise. Nationally and regionally, #smokedmeat is trending. Local pitmasters will name a number of reasons, as they serve up rack after rack of ribs and enjoy the ride.
First of all, let’s get one thing straight. There’s a difference between smoking and grilling. Smoked meats are cooked over wood or charcoal at 225° to 275° for hours. Grilled foods are prepared on grates hovering over charcoal or gas heat at higher temperatures. “I don’t have grills. I have smokers,” says Rollins, who has been barbecuing for a dozen years and opened his restaurant in Elkhart, Indiana, in December 2020.
He learned alongside his father, John, who would cook for church events and eventually set up outside an auto parts store. When his father moved to Illinois, he left Cedric a smoker and the son started doing events. When the pandemic canceled events, Rollins cooked for those in need and eventually started working on a restaurant in the former Matterhorn/Renegade Social space.
Many pitmasters, and most of the good ones, cook meat to be sold the same day. “I can smoke the day before and never run out, but that’s not the product I want to put out there,” Rollins says.
Unlike many pitmasters, he uses charcoal (along with hickory) and the feel of the smoker as he cooks, not thermometers or probes (though he does check the temperature of chicken and brisket to assure it’s done).
His smoke is special because he uses garlic pepper to season the coals. The spice blend actually ignites the coals a bit. The smell of that smoke infuses his food; a man who smelled the smoke on him at Menards became a customer the next day.
Like Rollins, Will Lee learned from his late father, Alfred, who opened Bill’s Bar-B-Que in the mid-1980s. Seven years ago, Will landed in a former Long John Silver’s at a different location in Elkhart. He uses hickory, oak and some cherry wood to infuse his pulled pork, rib tips and other meats with smoke. Now his three sons help operate the barbecue joint that he wants to have the feel of a hole in the wall with comfort food. Half a dozen other options have joined the initial side dish offerings of fries and coleslaw.
Like many of the local places dedicated to barbecue, Bill’s sometimes runs out of a meat before closing. That’s the nature of low and slow cooking. That’s the nature of the business, Lee says, noting, “It’s a marathon, not a track meet.”
Jeremy Vohwinkle, pitmaster and co-owner of The Prized Pig in Mishawaka, says the popularity of smoked foods has prompted a broad range of restaurants to offer at least one such menu item. A smokehouse, where one or a couple pitmasters prepare the food, offers consistency that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.
When Vohwinkle started smoking meats around 2010 and then opened the first iteration of his restaurant in Niles, Michigan, in 2013, the South Bend area didn’t have many options other than Frankie’s, the barbecue restaurant on the west side that has been operating at 1621 Circle Avenue since 1968. Co-owner Alex Dawson says their food smoked over an open fire of cherry and hickory is still popular, though he doesn’t pay much attention to competition or trends. “It’s highly sought after. It’s a lover and everybody loves it,” he says.
Vohwinkle became a certified Kansas City Barbecue Society judge and began offering sauce options alongside dry-rubbed meats. “Now everyone’s doing that,” he says.
Barbecue isn’t fine dining, but “if you treat a basic piece of meat properly, it’s so good,” he says. When the wind blows right, all of downtown Mishawaka smells like oak and apple smoke kissing meat with its distinctive flavor.
Vohwinkle and others say that smoking meat has taught them patience. “The big thing with barbecue, every piece of meat is different. It’s done when it’s done. And there’s no rushing it,” he says.
The popularity of barbecue may be attributed in part to how well it travels. Fried food isn’t great for carryout, but smoked meats hold up and even reheat well at home. The pandemic put emphasis back on taking food home from a restaurant. “Getting carryout is the new dine-in,” Lee says.
Cam Snyder used the pandemic to open a new barbecue-themed restaurant in Elkhart. Smokin’ Fattys BBQ has been operating for six months in a former Applebee’s. He offered smoked meats along with sushi and fish at the well-loved Chubby Trout in 2015. When he made plans to open a third restaurant in addition to Chubby Trout and Flippin’ Cow on the north side of Elkhart, he asked his Facebook fans what they wanted and a majority said barbecue, followed closely by Mexican food.
At Smokin’ Fattys, he’s offering a fusion of flavors to keep a line out the door. Food smoked over post oak, hickory and apple is the foundation on which he’s building.
“It is a trend,” he says. It’s popular on food television with big personalities, but also with the home cook using a pellet-fed or ceramic grill. “It’s an art form and a passion that people can do at their homes,” he says, noting that on a given Sunday, seven out of 10 guys may be firing up a barbecue pit, smoker or grill.
Smoking meat is one of the oldest forms of cooking, as hunters worked to preserve freshly killed animals. Over the last decade, television shows and better equipment for the home cook have made it easier for many to undertake the practice. Yet it’s a challenge to master and takes time and commitment. Lee compares it to having a popcorn machine at home that he used a lot for a month, but less often now.
Snyder started as a home barbecuer who learned how to navigate a smoker more than 25 years ago. He now has a restaurant featuring smoked meats and believes that it will remain popular, but people will want diversity on menus.
There’s plenty of business to share, according to these pitmasters. “I love the fact that there are more,” Rollins says of the boom in barbecue spots. “You can come here and say it’s the best food you’ve ever had. If you haven’t been to other places, you can’t say it’s the best food in Michiana.”
Other places to try:
2041 Cassopolis St.
Elkhart, IN
574.322.4354
2426 Benham Ave.
Elkhart, IN
574.296.8050
1621 Circle Ave.
South Bend, IN
574.287.8993
114 Lincolnway East
Mishawaka, IN
574.387.5624
3241 Interchange Dr.
Elkhart, IN
574.333.3600
174 W. Main St.
Benton Harbor, MI
269.926.9833
mobile trailer and outdoor location
510 E. Farver St.
Shipshewana, IN
574.202.6800
mobile trailer
574.333.9488
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