What to know about West Asheville's new barbecue joint, Smoked! BBQ
ASHEVILLE - A new barbecue restaurant made its debut with the objective of feeding lunch crowds across West Asheville. It’s a concept that arose from the owner of a catering company who discovered the joy of cooking after years of grueling work as a corporate attorney.
More than 25 years ago, Tony Franco graduated from law school in New York before working at law firms in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles as a legal professional specializing in mergers, acquisitions, hostile takeovers and leveraged buyouts.
After a decade, Franco retreated to Asheville, where his father often traveled from New York for his sales job.
He left his career in law for one that fed his soul and the souls of others ― cooking.
“It was always like my dream as a kid. I dreamed of it as like nirvana," Franco said. "I’d lived in the city. I always wanted to live in the country. When I decided to bail on my career, I knew this is where I wanted to come.”
Franco began cooking for himself, eventually advancing to a professional self-taught chef with a catering company.
In 2007, Franco co-founded Food Experience, which launched as a boutique and corporate caterer.
“I grew up in an Italian household ― my mother was Italian, and my father was Italian-American, so I grew up with this amazing food, and it was always the focus of my life,” Franco said. “I love gardening ― I’m kind of like a repressed farmer. And after I got some age on me, I found out I could actually do what I wanted with my life.”
Eight years ago, upon moving the Food Experience kitchen from Weaverville to West Asheville, the executive chef pivoted the business to fine dining and custom food services with a farm-to-table philosophy. And, occasionally, the flowers and herbs from Franco’s garden work their way onto plates.
“I consistently enjoy trying new recipes and seeing people’s reaction to our food and local food ― food that they’re going to eat and it’s not going to give them any kind of stomach issue," he said. "It doesn’t have any chemicals in it. I just really have derived this joy of getting people ― whether it’s one person or two people ― together and feeding them.”
Throughout the year, the local caterer provides meals to local organizations, like Asheville Poverty Initiative's 12 Baskets Café, a nonprofit that serves unhoused and underserved individuals and brings community members together to dine at the same time.
Food Experience chefs stay busiest during wedding season as Western North Carolina sets the ideal backdrop for nuptials. This summer, the company introduced another way for the public to taste their food.
Now, Food Experience’s commissary kitchen serves a dual purpose as the home of Smoked! BBQ, a takeout restaurant that opened in August at 1501 Patton Ave., Suite 2.
“In the course of all of our catering in this area, we were doing a lot of smoked barbecue for our private customers,” Franco said. “My former business partner, Matthew Macon, and I were looking out at an empty Patton Avenue and looking up the street at Rocky’s (Hot Chicken Shack) and seeing the kind of takeout they were doing, and we thought, ‘We smoke everything, we do great barbecue ― why don’t we do it out of the side of the building?’”
Dining at Smoked! BBQ
Food Experience and Smoked! BBQ's kitchen staff is the Catering and Barbecue manager and Franco’s sister Lisa Franco, Head Chef Nick Noren and Chef Ben Malone.
Smoked! BBQ allows Franco and his team to offer full barbecue meals to individuals on a weekly regular basis.
Smoked! BBQ is open from 12-4 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday.
The venue doesn’t offer a dining room, but customers may order ahead or place orders at the kitchen for pickup. The patio welcomes guests to stay to dine.
Smoked! BBQ’s menu features meat, meat substitutes, traditional sides, beverages and desserts.
Hickory Nut Gap Meats and other local and regional non-GMO and organic ingredients are sourced by the business.
“You really can’t get any better than that for barbecue in terms of their pork, their brisket, their ribs and it’s gone over really well with our customers. We focus on quality,” Franco said. “If you’re in North Carolina and you’re going to start with barbecue you have to start with the pork.”
On the menu
Smoked! BBQ’s meat offerings, which are prepared on-site in a smoker to enhance its flavors, continue with brisket, ribs and chicken wings and turkey breast, available in meal plates with two sides and cornbread or as a sandwich.
Gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian-friendly dishes are available, too.
Cauliflower steak topped with a raisin pesto and portobello mushroom served with avocado chimichurri have been popular with catering clients and added to the barbecue menu.
The collard greens are prepared with garlic, salt and pepper, olive oil, and a chili crisp sriracha to add a kick of heat. In North Georgia style, the greens are braised as opposed to cooked in water. No meat is added.
“They have a spice to them, they’re salty and they’re vegan. A lot of times we go right to vegan because we have so many vegan and vegetarian customers so we can satisfy everyone,” Franco said.
Other hits are garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole with candied pecans, and creamy mac-and-cheese pan-cooked with three cheeses.
The assortment of sauces is made in-house or sourced locally. Options include traditional South Carolina-style Carolina Gold, Eastern North Carolina-style spicy vinegar, Cheerwine and the sweet and mildly spicy Korean BBQ.
Desserts on deck are the chocolate chip cookie and banana pudding and a “guilt-free” pot de crème that’s gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan.
“It’s a pretty diverse menu and it’s something for everyone on there. That’s important to us,” Franco said.
Stories you may have missed:
Answer Woman: What's opening in the old UpCountry Brewing building on Haywood Road?
Gourmet café, market opens in West Asheville. Here's what's on the menu, shelves.
Exclusive: Burial Beer's Eulogy music venue, Good Hot Fish restaurant opening details
Smoked! BBQ
Where: 1501 Patton Avenue, suite 2, Asheville.
Hours: 12-4 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday.
Info: To order online, visit myfoodexperience.com or call 828-687-0233.
Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Smoked! BBQ serves lunch crowds meat-loaded plates, plant-based dishes
