In the first of our monthly spotlights on the UK street food industry Jonathan Downey, the founder of The Rushmore Group and a partner in the nomadic night market Street Feast, tells us about the slow-smoked joys of Smokestak and why they’re one to watch.
Barbados-born and barbecue-reared man-mountain David Carter is the driving force behind Smokestak. A graduate in Hospitality and Tourism Management, David first came to London (via Toronto and Los Angeles) to work for the Gordon Ramsay Group (at Claridge’s and the Savoy Grill).
In summer 2014, after two years as General Manager of ROKA in Canary Wharf, David decided to jack-in the day job, buy a 4.5 tonne smoker in Houston named Bertha and embark on a barbecue odyssey from Texas to Dalston.
Armed with just a short meaty menu and a photo of his smoker-in-waiting, David came to visit me at Street Feast to pitch his plan to bring no-nonsense barbecue to the streets. A couple of meetings (and eatings) later we booked Smokestak for a six week run at Dalston Yard and 12-hour shifts in the restaurant became 16-hour shifts at the furnace.
There are no shortcuts when it comes to great barbecue and David picked up the basics moonlighting for seasoned barbecue crews while recipes were borrowed from his old Ramsay shipmates. Smokestak’s opening weekend saw Bertha stripped of her hulking 500kg payload of St. Louis cut ribs, rip tips, beef ribs and pulled pork and he has never looked back.
You won’t find better barbecue anywhere - there are never more than four items on the menu and the meat is always the hero. Pork comes from Suffolk farms but the highly marbled corn-fed beef suited to slow smoking has to be sourced from Australia and the US. 100% Kentish oak supplies the smoke and the squishy soft potato rolls are toasted and mopped with hot butter. There are just two garnishes - chopped red chillies or sharp vinegar slaw with mustard barbecue sauce. No messing.
The Smokestak family has grown to include a second workhorse smoker and a smaller travelling rig on wheels custom-built to satisfy the hungry festival-goers of Wilderness, Bestival and more. When we opened Model Market in Lewisham in June all three smokers were running round-the-clock to meet demand, racking up over 40,000 slow ’n’ low street meals in just 15 months of trading. In the dying embers of summer 2014 Smokestak had their first taste of barbecue glory, winning the annual Ribstock meat-fest with over 40% of the votes.
A busy festival season has helped David build the capital, momentum and marketing he needs to open a bricks-and-mortar premises. “Half of 2014 I was employed somewhere else and the other half I was still working everything out. 2015 is the year we actually do it.”
David plans to open at least two permanent Smokestak restaurants next year alongside a brand new rotisserie chicken street food concept. I’m behind him all the way.
