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On a Friday night in Brooklyn, the line at Bark BBQ snakes through long common tables, past a glass-enclosed program pit, and out onto the pathway, where the abundant fragrances of oak-smoked beef and pork fill the air. If you didn’t show up starving, you definitely are by the time you reach the order counter.
Briskets get some TLC.
Picture by Travis Rainey
As soon as you get a taste of pitmaster Ruben Santana’s 14-hour smoked brisket, with its peppery bark and butter-soft interior, you’ll forget the wait. Sour orange-kissed chicharrón– pit-smoked for 6 hours, cooled, sliced into strips, and fried to buy– supplies a crackly-chewy equivalent. Smoked carnitas, a play on Dominican carne salada made from brisket trimmings confited in their own fat, are a research study in silky-fatty goodness, splashed with hot green aji verde. Each meaty plate gets here with a little mound of intense, house-pickled bell peppers that I wished to bring home in an extra-large container.
Cerdo a la Leña goes on low-country cigarette smokers.
Image by Travis Rainey
Maybe the most special product, however, is the everyday Cerdo a la Leña, a Caribbean-style entire hog that’s marinaded in sofrito for 2 days before it reaches the low-country cigarette smokers. Instead of being pulled or shredded, the pork is quartered, its skin rendered crisp in the oven throughout the day, and after that sliced to buy by weight and dressed with a South Carolina-style vinegar sauce.
Pulling from his Dominican training in Queens, Santana has actually done what typically feels difficult in this oversaturated city– developed a fresh cooking mash-up. After studying Central Texas barbecue online and on television, Santana started instilling his traditional Southern meats with the Dominican tastes of oregano, sofrito, adobo, sour orange, molasses, honey, and achiote.
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Business started as a pandemic pop-up, which then became a Time Out Market stall, which then swelled into this 8,000-square foot meat emporium in Bushwick. Here, with assistance from 6 customized Cen-Tex cigarette smokers (4 offsets, 2 low-country) imported from Luling, Texas, Santana’s procedure starts at 5 o’clock every early morning and lasts up until the last piece of brisket comes off the cigarette smoker at 10 p.m.
Home pickles.
Picture by Travis Rainey
Arroz congrí.
Image by Travis Rainey
Torta Dominicana.
Picture by Travis Rainey
The sides, Santana states, use the most direct connection to his childhood. Earthy and fragrant arroz congrí follows a dish from his Cuban uncle. Abundant criollo BBQ beans are simmered in adobo and barbecue sauce with a little bit of pulled pork. Maduros nail that ideal fried sweet plantain texture: caramelized on the outdoors, tender on the within. For dessert, Torta Dominicana reimagines cornbread as a warm, spiced cake taken in honey butter. Bark likewise boasts a complete bar offering mixed drinks and meat-specific white wine pairings– an uncommon relocation for a barbecue joint.
Bark BBQ’s colmado shows groceries and treats that are staples in the Dominican.
And after that there’s the colmado. Imitated the traditional corner shops that function as social and cultural centers for areas in the Dominican Republic, Bark’s ode functions lit-up racks lined with timeless treats like Guarina crackers, Hojuelitas, and Princesa cookies. A collection of vintage vinyl signifies the DJ sets and live merengue efficiencies that often occur here, and a poster-sized ’80s-age photo of Santana’s late mom completely dance regalia monitors the entire scene.
Can I inform you this is the very best barbecue in New York? I’m not exactly sure I’m certified to make that declaration. I can inform you, as a born Southerner with a deep interest in such things, that it’s my preferred in New York, not to discuss a few of the most individual and tasty barbecue I’ve tasted anywhere.
The group at Bark BBQ.
Image by Travis Rainey
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