The Smoke Pit - Northampton

Christmas has come and gone for another year. We’ve all eaten too much, drunk too much and even I in my, lets face it, already fairly rotund state almost started the New Year with an ‘meh’ approach to meal times.

I say ‘almost’, because as some of you may know (and not just the stalker-ey ones) it is also my birthday at this time of year and so there was nothing for it but to attack the Christmas and New Year over-indulgence head on with meat, meat and more meat. I’ll worry about the details like living into my Seventies later.

This is The Smoke Pit, another in a clutch of American and BBQ joints I’ve managed to experience recently and one which Mrs P and some very good friends of mine (Hello Mr and Mrs Johnston) thought I may enjoy. It’s true, I love a good BBQ, I could hardly go to Memphis In May and not be a bit of a fan so I was really looking forward to having another local crack at BBQ.

Certainly The Smoke Pit has it’s atmosphere and ambience right, from the fantastic cleaver door handles to the pop art covered walls and the jar/mug/glass jobs that the cocktails come in, the place looks and feels great. We walked in through a little bar area with comfy seats and some bar stools which look like a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

My watermelon cocktail was really tasty and went down very quickly, perhaps a little too quickly. The following craft beer (sourced from a Scandinavian brewery for some odd reason), was also tasty and settled me down nicely, even though it wasn't served in a tulip glass. There was a round of milkshakes too which the ladies (and Mr Johnston) enjoyed immensely. Ever the cider drinking man, Mr Johnston was also tempted by a bottle of Northamptonshire's best Drink of the Year from Saxby's Cider. Yes, I've had it and yes, it's lush. 

We started, rather foolishly as it turns out, with the starters, I had nachos simply because I thought it would be good to compare with my previous nacho adventures and my dining guests were confident they could help me finish them off. Mrs P ordered off menu and asked for the crispy prawns as a starter and around the table we also asked for the half pound of buffalo wings and the scallops.

All tasted good, with the prawns being a stand out. The scallops were a little odd only by virtue of the two enormous chunks of bread that stood proudly on top. The wings were covered, quite properly, in Franks Red Hot Sauce and were very tasty indeed, although not quite up to Lone Star standard. The nachos were great with a lovely balance of cheese to guac. I liked the salsa although it was a little sweet and I would have preferred more chilli but these are little things and I am sure the majority of punters would just demolish a plate of these with no issues.

For mains I had been prepared for a meaty marathon and so it was.

A Smoke Pit platter for one had brisket, pulled pork, chicken thigh, ribs and a mahoosive sausage. Hefting the sausage alone felt a little daunting and coming off the back of those nachos I began to wonder if I had gone too hard, too fast. Never one to give up without a fight though I soldiered on. The sausage (or ‘hot link’) in fact was one of the better aspects with a warming smoky taste and the pulled pork being very soft but covered in far too much sauce for the pork to really come through. The chicken was good with some nice crispy skin and a beautiful charred flavour that told me all I needed to know about the grill. But I have to say that I didn’t really like the brisket because it was drowned in gravy and it was very difficult to uncover the soft beefiness behind, perhaps due to the lack of a rub which is a problem I believe I’ve mentioned before.

The pickled veg on the side was sweet and a great addition that cut though the heavy sauces with ease. However, most interestingly were the Louisiana style Ribs; my expectations were that they would be deep from the smoke and crusty with flavour and the best measure of that is the smoke ring, the layer of pink colour that forms as the smoke and flavour penetrates into the meat. Here we were almost as white as the driven snow.

The meat itself was soft and yielding and finished really well so I’ve got no complaints about the taste, it was all fine but for a venue that sells itself on a particular type of cooking, I would love to take a closer look at that smoker to see just how much use it's getting…!

The others went for cowpigchicken burger platters and everything was, of course, enormous. The whole table seemed perfectly happy with the various elements and the only comment came from Mrs P who complained her burger was very dry but that wasn’t too much of a problem because she dumped a load of pulled pork on it for lubrication.

We also liked the sides, the tabacco onions in particular (no cigarettes involved of course, its all about the look of the thing) but due to the immense portion sizes, we predictably struggled anything more than a forkful.

Pricing was very fair at £150 for four adults considering the portion sizes and the whole evening was really enjoyable, although to go for the true American BBQ, I would see no harm in perfecting one or two of the cuts and giving the option to cut down on the portions and prices a bit. All being said then, I would certainly talk about and point people towards the ‘Pit for those of you searching for some smoke, grill, BBQ and serious drinks to wash it all down with. It scratches a certain itch that doesn’t come round often but when it does, you need somewhere like The Smoke Pit in your life.

http://cowpigchicken.co.uk/
@the_smoke_pit

Now, that was the review and you don’t have to read the next bit if you don’t want to but the meal got me thinking about how we eat more generally. It’s really just a bit of a ramble so if you agree, let me know. If you don’t, let me know. Food, just like life, is full if different experiences and opinions but all I want is to be open and show those experiences to as many people as possible.

To finish, I would like to pause for just a moment and talk about the problem of the European-ification of non-European food styles. We in Britain and Europe more widely tend to work on a course based meal system, that is to say there are usually several courses during a meal each bringing a distinctive and different flavour or food type to the meal. At its most basic this could be a simple starter, main and pudding combo and practically every restaurant in the country follows this guideline but it is not unheard of for anyone who watches Masterchef to have several more. Have you ever thought how many other culinary cultures actually do this? I have not had world-wide eating experience, but certainly in an example most suited to this post I have visited many BBQ joints in Memphis and I saw exactly no-one ordering starters because there weren’t any starters on the menu. It’s true that families shared an obese and outrageous amount of food but these were all straight into sharing/main plates.

Similarly with Thai/other eastern food types and in discussions with people whom I hope wouldn’t mislead me on the subject, starters are a westernised influence which they don’t seem to do back at home. So why do we do it? Perhaps we feel short changed unless we can order at least three things, I don’t know, but one thing is for certain; neither I, nor any of my companions finished their dinner at The Smoke Pit and we couldn’t take a pudding either. I may be wrong, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time, and I am happy to be corrected but as the rise of BBQ grows in popularity, I hope that in adopting the excess of American cuisine, we don’t overindulge in what we think that style of food is or should be with the expectation of having such mammoth portion sizes at every step of the meal.