{"id":32802,"date":"2023-02-23T16:21:33","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T16:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/?p=32802"},"modified":"2023-02-23T17:19:53","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T17:19:53","slug":"saltlick-smokehouse-is-a-smokin-hot-staple-of-hamiltons-food-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/hamilton\/saltlick-smokehouse-is-a-smokin-hot-staple-of-hamiltons-food-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"Saltlick Smokehouse is a smokin’ hot staple of Hamilton’s food scene"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you ask lovers of barbecue to name the best spot in Hamilton for all things saucy, smoked, and slow-cooked, there\u2019s little doubt that a lot of them would say Saltlick Smokehouse<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The restaurant and bar has been a fixture of James Street North since first opening eight years ago, and it\u2019s not hard to see why its popularity has held strong throughout the years. Saltlick takes staples of Southern BBQ like brisket, chicken, pork, and sausage and turns them into mouth-watering indulgences, from heaping platters to sandwiches and beyond.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saltlick Smokehouse was launched in 2015 by original owner and founder Shane McCartney, who had first turned the 282 James North restaurant space into a short-lived sandwichery and salad bar called McCartney & Son. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t long before McCartney shifted focus to Southern-style comfort food, and Saltlick Smokehouse was officially born with the goal of bringing high-quality barbecue to Downtown Hamilton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The restaurant quickly earned a reputation for its standout food, with a menu focusing on large shareable platters of expertly-prepared meats alongside house-made sides like mac \u2018n cheese, slaw, and cornbread.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A sister takeaway counter for Saltlick\u2019s popular sandwiches like pork shoulder and jerk chicken opened in the Hamilton Farmers\u2019 Market a few years later in 2019, but ended up closing with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the flagship restaurant is still going strong, albeit with some rather large changes within the past year; the most significant of which being that McCartney has departed Saltlick Smokehouse and now runs another barbecue spot \u2013 Front Porch Southern Kitchen & Blues Joint \u2013 in Langton alongside fianc\u00e9e Connie Rouble, formerly of Hamilton\u2019s Mississippi Queen Foods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fans of Saltlick need not worry, though. In May of 2022, the restaurant was left in more-than-capable hands under the sole ownership of husband-and-wife team Kyle and Jennifer Ferreira, best known for their New Orleans-style cocktail spot Bar Sazerac<\/a> just a few steps away from Saltlick on James North.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Besides their stacked experience in the hospitality industry, the Ferreiras are also no strangers to Saltlick itself. Kyle was previously the restaurant\u2019s head chef, and Jennifer served as the bar manager a few years back; and when the opportunity to take ownership of Saltlick arose, the Ferreiras simply couldn\u2019t turn it down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe jumped on the opportunity as we\u2019ve always thought that BBQ – and Saltlick Smokehouse in particular – had a special place in the restaurant mosaic of Hamilton,\u201d says Jennifer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, when a small business changes hands, it begins to shift uncomfortably far away from what locals have come to love most about it; but Kyle and Jennifer are deeply intentional about maintaining the integrity of Saltlick\u2019s foundations, some of which they even had a direct hand in building back in the early days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have maintained the style and ethic of Saltlick Smokehouse and its particular style of BBQ,\u201d Jennifer adds. \u201cMany of the meats that people have come to know and love had their recipes set back when Kyle was head chef, so we will definitely still have Texas style brisket, smoked pork side ribs, and more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If anything, Saltlick\u2019s menu will simply continue to expand above and beyond the mainstay favourites, with enticing weekend features already available such as smoked apple butter pork chops, prime rib with honey-glazed carrots and beets, popcorn grits, and pan-seared striploin with bourbon mushrooms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Kyle and Jennifer heading Saltlick and Sazerac simultaneously, there are also numerous ways the two establishments have unified; and not just because they\u2019re only two doors down from each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, the creative and thoughtful drink lineup locals have come to expect from Bar Sazerac has bled into the beverage program at Saltlick, where craft beer, wine, spirits, and cocktails have been carefully curated and paired with the restaurant\u2019s barbeque offerings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In turn, Saltlick has fed into some of Sazerac\u2019s offerings, influencing Sazerac\u2019s recently added food menu and even spilling into some of their cocktails, like using brisket fat for their Smoked Brisket Manhattan. The two businesses are now also able to be booked in tandem for joint catering at events, in a package that combines the best of both worlds.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shouldering the load of two different bustling hospitality ventures is certainly no easy task, but the Ferreiras are proud to do it in the city they call home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe love being a Hamilton business and being part of a thriving community!\u201d says Jennifer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJames Street in particular has seen a renaissance in the past five years, and everyone on the street is so supportive of each other. Kyle grew up in Hamilton and he absolutely loves being able to give back to the city that has given so much to him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While Kyle and Jennifer plan to keep playing the hits at Saltlick Smokehouse – after all, why fix what isn\u2019t broken? – it\u2019s clear that they also plan to take the restaurant and its offerings in some exciting new directions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever those directions are, they\u2019ll surely be well worth following. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Visit Saltlick Smokehouse at 282 James Street North. See more on their website<\/a>, and follow them on social media here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images by Iryna Kostichin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you ask lovers of barbecue to name the best spot in Hamilton for all things saucy, smoked, and slow-cooked, there\u2019s little doubt that a lot of them would say Saltlick Smokehouse.\u00a0 The restaurant...","protected":false},"author":258,"featured_media":32805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8069],"tags":[5058,4911,983,3049,146,278,161,19,20,2433,3056,280,373,3058],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/saltlick1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/258"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32802"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32812,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32802\/revisions\/32812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}