Big Al’s Smokehouse has now closed. They will be serving some of the smokehouse dishes over at their burger restaurant.
Watching Al over the last three years has been like watching a good game of cups and balls. He started off with a small burger shop on the wrong side of Sitges. Not enough tables and too many eager punters. That burger shop has moved twice and is now in one of the nicest spots in Sitges. I think vegetarians eat there just to be in a large open space, with high ceilings and to be served by big armed waiters. To address the bellyaching of Barcelona, who didn’t have their own Al’s – he opened one there.
Which left him some time to play with and an empty locale (Big Al’s location number 2). So what did Al do? He ordered a Fast Eddy’s Cookhouse smoker from the U.S., imported hickory chips, laid down new floors and had new t-shirts made.
Meat
Smoke
Time
That’s what you need for good BBQ.
More specifically 6 hours in the smoker for the spare ribs and 15 for the brisket.
There is nowhere to hide with this kind of food. A rack of pork ribs (full rack 22€, half rack 13€), glistening with bbq sauce. It’s either good or it’s not. The bbq sauce has to have a nice spice to it, a depth of flavour – it isn’t gloopier darker ketchup. Or at least it’s not supposed to be.
Portions have to be generous. My beef brisket sandwich needs to have many thick cut slices. The side that I get, smoked barbecued beans with jalapenos (3€), is a meal in itself. I can manage a few spoons but take the rest home. The Hillbilly Spring Roll is one road you don’t want to travel if you are the type of person that gets addicted easily – because crispy deep-fried pastry filled with strands of pulled pork is a delicious way to blow operation bikini.
You might not care though. You might find somewhere air-conditioned and dark- slip on a mumu and binge on Netflix while eating the full rack of ribs.
There is always summer 2017.
Big Al’s Smokehouse
Carrer de Sant Bonaventura, 5
Sitges, 08870
smokehouse.es
Hello! My name is Suzy. This blog is about discovering Barcelona through its eateries. I take it one restaurant or shop at a time and post on the blog once a week. I vary where I eat to have a have a mix of high and low end places. My goal is to find the special places, the ones worth seeking out and show and tell you all about them.
Fantastic food and service,
Always a great experience
Highly recommend for smoked bbq meat