SMOKIN BARREL BBQ
Hoppen Hierarchy:★★★⭑
District: Millard
Texas-Style BBQ
Perfect For: Lunch; Casual Dining; Takeout
Standout Dishes: The Texan; Brisket; Sausage; Spare Ribs
Wayne Dinges, the pitmaster behind Smokin Barrel BBQ believes in simplicity first and foremost. His rub is salt & pepper. His menu is mostly just meats by the pound. BBQ innovation, Smokin Barrel is not.
Wayne believes that sourcing great meat and treating it right allows the flavor of the protein itself to shine, and Smokin Barrel’s success shows there’s something to his philosophy.
That’s how, over the course of a decade, Smokin Barrel graduated from a food truck to a small location to nearly doubling in size with a move in 2025. And yet, even as the business has grown, two things remain the same: there will almost always be a line, and the meat (especially the brisket) will be of a very high quality.
The menu couldn’t be simpler. Smokin Barrel offers four meats—brisket, pulled pork, turkey, and sausage—that can be ordered in 1/2-lb. or 1-lb. increments. There are also half and full racks of meaty spare ribs and several sandwich combinations.
To stay update to date on the daily specials, which range from brisket meatloaf to smoked tri-tip tacos, pastrami pork belly burnt ends, and club-like beef ribs, make sure you follow Smoking Barrel on Facebook.
Orders are placed at the counter, where you’ll watch Wayne cut and portion your meal right in front of you. He’s friendly and gregarious, welcoming old friends and bantering with new ones, and if you’re undecided on a menu item, he’ll likely give you a sample.
As friendly as Wayne is, his hospitality takes a backseat to his skills with the smoker. Each meat is infused with brilliant smoky flavor and featured that beautiful, picturesque bark that adorns top-notch ‘que.
The Brisket is the headliner at Smokin Barrel, as Wayne cuts thick slices of this juicy, unctuous meat. The brisket is on the fattier side, but this isn’t a bad thing; rather, it allows the juice to seep into the meat during the cooking process as a self-marinating tactic. And the bark is both crispy and peppery, accenting the richness of the inner meat.
The Jalapeno Cheddar Sausage is no slouch, either. It has a pleasant casing that produces a nice snap upon biting. The meat itself is combined with herbs and spices to pair nicely with the fatty, meaty flavor of the pork itself, and the cheese lends a creamy element to the links.
Then there are the ribs.
Spare ribs are inherently great, as they have more meat and more marbling (hence more fat, hence more flavor) than baby back ribs. Because they come from a tougher portion of the hog, they can get chewy and less flavorful in the wrong hands.
That is not the case at Smokin Barrel.
The meat on these ribs is brilliantly tender, pulling away from the bone with a slight tug. It’s succulent and fully infused with a welcome but not overpowering smoky flavor, and the beautiful pink smoke ring is proof that Smokin Barrel has put a lot of time and energy into the slow-and-low cooking process.
The crown on the ribs is the brilliant bark Smokin Barrel establishes. It not only creates a delicious, complex crust, but it ensures that the meat inside is moist and tender. Plus, these ribs are so large, a half rack is going to demolish most people’s appetites.
And when Wayne announces the Reuben is on special (which happens every few weeks or so), get to Smokin Barrel. To be clear, a traditional Reuben this is not. But with enough hunks of salty, smoky corned beef, crunchy slaw, and a creamy garlic aioli, this is a sandwich worth seeking out.
But one of Smokin Barrel’s true triumphs is a simple but brilliant sandwich: The Texan. About 8 oz of SB’s legendary brisket are loaded inside a bun and topped with sliced jalapeno cheddar sausage. The brisket is fatty and deeply savory with a good amount of smoke, but it’s the crispy, peppery bark that stands out. The sausage has a properly snappy casing and a creaminess from the cheese. All together, this sandwich is a massive mound of salty, spicy, fatty deliciousness. I recommend adding a touch of the bourbon BBQ sauce for a little more smoke and some sugar to balance all the richness.
Though I’m of the belief that great barbecue needs no sauce and that the flavor of the meat should speak for itself—and Smokin Barrel’s certainly does—the restaurant will oblige you with three options if you desire sauce: sweet, spicy, and bourbon, the latter of which I could drink through a straw.
If Smokin Barrel falls short in one area, the sides are nothing to write home about. Potatoalad and coleslaw are all pretty run-of-the-mill, though the beans have a nice sweetness and hunk of brisket.
But that’s a small complaint, especially when it means that you just have more stomach space to fill up on meat. And, as your nose informs you as soon as your arrive, you’re going to want all the space you can find at Smokin Barrel.