Soul and Smoke Chef D’Andre Carter says barbecue is about recreating memories through food. Now, after the Evanston City Council gave its approval, the barbecue joint will receive $650,000 in tax increment financing dollars to expand beyond its to-go and catering services to include indoor dining.
“Barbecue was always a celebration food for me and my grandma,” Carter said. “We would light up the charcoal grill and just that smell. That barbecue, wood and charcoal smell in the backyard of my grandmother’s house on the South Side of Chicago. Good barbecue is all about food memories.”
The business, at 1601 Payne Street, has been operated in Evanston by Carter and President Heather Bublick since Soul and Smoke began in 2013. There are currently three Soul and Smoke locations with the other two at Chicago’s Timeout Market and Rockwell on the River. Beyond its Chicagoland locations, the barbecuers received national attention earlier this year when Carter took Soul and Smoke to Good Morning America’s United States of Barbecue Competition.
Cooking barbecue can be tricky as it often changes with geographic region, Carter said. For instance, Kansas City, the Carolinas and Texas have its own twist on the culinary tradition, and some barbecuers try to morph these styles together for a competition-style barbecue. Carter and Bublick said Chicago isn’t an exception and the city’s old meatpacking district made rib tips a Chicago staple.
“It began with Chicago’s old meatpacking district,” Bublick said. “The rib tip is what stayed in Chicago and everything else went other places. Hence, the rib tip is very special and iconic to Chicago.”
More Top Picks Best Smart Door Locks
“A rib tip is the soft cartilage bones that are on top of the spare rib,” Carter said. “You can imagine like a whole spare rib and that top part is cut off, that would be it. Rib tips are like bite-size ribs.”
Yet, Carter said its smaller size doesn’t make the rib tip any less delicious. The rib tip cut’s cartilage factor actually helps the barbecue dish have a unique taste.
“What’s special about the rib tips is that you can eat the bones too,” Carter said. “When you smoke them nice and slow they started to breakdown and there is a little fatter, but that fat creates flavor to help create an awesome experience.”
The TIF funding will help Soul and Smoke open a dining room in 2023 where customers will likely order from a kiosk and food will be brought out to customers, Bublick said, similar to how many restaurants, such as Culvers, operate. Bublick said the new indoor dining will create 10 full-time jobs and expects staffing needs to increase over time.
Bublick and Carter said this new model wouldn’t be possible without the pandemic which helped them notice a cultural shift that made food ventures like Soul and Smoke more marketable than more high-end barbecue ventures. Bublick said the shift forced her and Carter to pivot in an effort to adapt to the times.
“During the pandemic, we really kind of shifted gears toward Soul and Smoke because people were after comfort foods and more casual things,” Bublick said. “We started doing to-go out of our catering kitchen and eventually made the takeout window and patio. We’re hoping to now build our restaurant here at our building that was purchased right before the pandemic.”
City Council approved the $650,000 in TIF funding in consent agenda at its Nov. 14 meeting. Soul and Smoke’s existing building was previously a dairy barn and then became a bus storage facility. The pair plans to use TIF funds to finance structural, HVAC and masonry projects to bring the facility up to date.
Corey Schmidt is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.