Bark City BBQ
Barbecue restaurant · Woodstock ·
Smoked meats, Southern sides, shakes, and pickled avocado
Smoked meats, Southern sides, shakes, and pickled avocado
"Many barbecue fans mourned the loss of Bark City BBQ when pitmaster Michael Keskin closed his cart and moved to Arizona in 2022. Now, Keskin has returned to Portland and is slinging his Texas-style, oak-smoked meats at Woodstock’s Heist cart pod. Whether slow-smoked brisket, pork spare ribs, or salt-and-pepper turkey strikes your fancy, meats are sliced to order for optimum freshness. The cart’s weekly specials — including a brisket-loaded spaghetti dish using pasta from Dame, available Sundays — are worth a strategically timed visit." - Eater Staff
"I saw that pitmaster Michael Keskin returned to Portland and reopened Bark City BBQ at the Heist, where he serves regional specialties like Texas brisket, Carolina-style pulled pork, and Sunday barbecue spaghetti, a Memphis-hailing dish; it reopened June 22." - Janey Wong
"After closing his Eater Award–winning Portland barbecue cart in 2022 and moving to Flagstaff, Michael Keskin spent time developing recipes—experimenting with pickles, high-elevation smoking, and his barbecue sauce—and says, “I like my barbecue sauce so much more now.” He has moved back to Portland and will reopen Bark City on SE Woodstock Boulevard at the Heist pod in late May or early June. During its initial run Bark City developed a loyal following for an eclectic range of barbecue: Texas-style brisket smoked for 16 hours using Oregon oak; pulled pork tossed with Carolina vinegar and mustard barbecue sauces; Memphis-ish ribs, dry-rubbed and available wet or dry; and specials like the brisket-packed Barky Burger. At the new Bark City devotees will still find many of the classics—prime smoked brisket, three-day cured and smoked sausages, Carolina-style pulled pork, pickled avocados—alongside a lineup of new sandwiches and weekly specials: a double brisket with both slabs of fatty brisket and chopped brisket; the Homer, which pairs slow-smoked salt-and-pepper turkey and a hot link on a bun slathered with pimento cheese; a smoked bologna sandwich with BBQ mayo and mustard vinegar, melted American, crispy jalapeños, and softened onions; and a play on a McRib with house-made pickles and onions. Weekly specials will include Keskin’s Sunday barbecue spaghetti, his take on the Memphis favorite: pasta from Dame tossed in a tomato-barbecue sauce with tallow-caramelized onions and fire-roasted peppers, loaded with fatty brisket, pulled pork, and hot links." - Brooke Jackson-Glidden
"Bark City BBQ was an excellent cart that, unfortunately, left town last year." - Eater Staff
"One of the participating restaurants, Bark City Barbecue offered between $100 and $1,000 in matched funds to support donations to the northwestern branch of the National Network of Abortion Funds as part of the Instagram-matching campaign that Jojo organized." - Alex Frane
