Though there is nothing new about the timeless cooking triumvirate of wood, steel and meat, Ash Kickers Briskets & Bourbon literally smokes the category with a masterful culinary approach to traditional American BBQ cuisine enjoyed for generations at backyard cookouts and smokehouse diners.
Co-founders Gary...Stewart and Colin Stevens are credited with the house’s sterling artisanal credentials; everything on the menu is house-made the old fashioned way, including ketchup, hot mustards, all kinds of pickles, bakery items and desserts.
Head chef and chief smokesman Stevens is a formally trained chef, veteran restauranteur and experienced hotel F&B executive whose broad experience includes nearly two dozen openings spanning a 25-year career.
At the heart of the operation are a pair of closet-sized smokers where the meats are slow-cooked using an exclusive blend of hickory and local woods. The specially cured logs (no wood chips) are placed in a serpentine-shaped steel trough below the meat and ignited at one end. This lets the wood slowly smoulder like a dense wick, which produces the steady heat and aromatic fumes that cook the namesake brisket and other premium beef/pork cuts to their fall-off-the-bone perfection, with a smoky-rich flavour that tolerates no shortcut or substitution.
Having a seat in the soothingly refined, wood-and-iron dominated dining room, we were presented with tastefully plated selection of smokehouse delights. (All platters come with tangy slaw, slice of jalapeno cornbread and choice of one side dish.) First down the hatch was Beef Brisket, a succulent slab of 16-hour smoked Australian Wagyu (alternately: Black Angus) that comes apart with just a fork. The Hawaiian style Kalua Pork arrives as smoker-tenderised shoulder meat served with Hawaiian h’alua cabbage mixed in. Now, to reiterate: all condiments served here are made in-house, and the smoky-sweet-ish sauce used for the Pulled Pork is no exception; its nuanced flavour is orders of magnitude tastier than any store-bought variety could achieve. Next is a down-home southern-US favourite, the crispy Pork Belly is done exactly the way it should be: with a crunchy layer of crisp, fatty skin on top. The Hot Links are a blend of beef & pork, exquisitely seasoned and textured.
As if these sumptuous smoke-caressed viands weren’t enough, a selection of real-deal deli-style sides add an extra dimension of deliciousness, including Smoked Beans, Creamy Slaw, Potato/Macaroni salad and what we are certain is the best Jalapeno Corn Bread (150B/4 slices) we’ve ever tasted.
Being a BBQ joint, one might expect a menu dripping with in-you-face carniv-ismo, but such is not the case at Ask Kickers. In fact, vegetarians will find a cornucopia of tantalising meatless dishes including our favourite, 3 Sisters Salad with beans, corn and smoked pumpkin in a garlic-citrus dressing.
Forget about skipping dessert, the sweets here are in a class of their own, the Mud Pie being a standout with rich chocolate sauce, almond nougat, bourbon biscuit, salted caramel. with a touch of vermouth. Afters menu highlight ingredients include own-grown figs, New Caledonia vanilla, bourbon soaked fruits and candied bacon.
And don’t even get us started with the brunch menu (served til 3 PM) with omelettes, house-cured bacon, pancakes, grits and buttermilk biscuits to name just a few, while a hard-core java selection includes nitro-infused coffee & tea.More