Smoking Kow BBQ

"Another local food truck big dreams, the new Smoking Kow is luring in locals with its self-styled barbecue. Customers camp out on the communal picnic tables, knocking back cold beers while picking apart spare ribs with expertly spiced pork that just falls off the bone. Pulled chicken is good; adding the spicy-sweet mambo sauce makes it great. Staff tends to favor the mac and cheese; creamy potato salad is a better bet for those looking to cool off." - Eater Staff

"Local food truck Smoking Kow BBQ’s new brick-and-mortar restaurant is poised to welcome smoked meat lovers this weekend. First-time restaurateur Dylan Kough tells Eater that he and his general manager, Paul Tecchio, handled much of the remodeling work themselves. The duo remade neighborhood Italian eatery Cafe Monti into a 20-seat barbecue restaurant featuring communal picnic tables, stained wood, brushed metal, and one gleaming white animal skull. 'It looks cool,' Kough says of the bony decoration hanging above the main dining room. One original piece of art featured at the restaurant is a black and white sketch of the D.C. area displayed on a chalkboard. Kough says he asked local artist Riley Sheehey to illustrate the areas serviced by his two roving Smoking Kow vehicles (black truck; white truck) while also highlighting the location of the new flagship restaurant. The remainder of the space is filled with the bare necessities required to operate a barbecue establishment: neatly stacked hickory logs to be fed into the wood-fired smoker; a self-service station stocked with assorted barbecue sauces and plenty of paper towels; light and dark colored picnic tables that Kough says he refinished by blowtorching and staining them to his liking; and the obligatory figurines showing where the smoked brisket, shredded pork, pulled chicken, and sausage served at the restaurant comes from on each respective animal. The new Smoking Kow BBQ, which is right around the corner from local barbecue chain Rocklands, is currently scheduled to open at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 14." - Warren Rojas

"Smoking Kow BBQ, the local food truck that’s fed D.C. diners smoked meat-topped mac and cheese for nearly three years, is opening its first brick-and-mortar restaurant next month in neighboring Alexandria, Virginia. Founder Dylan Kough tells Eater he is looking forward to expanding his menu beyond the smoked pork, chicken, and brisket currently served on his roving food trucks once he settles into the fully renovated restaurant still taking shape at 3250 Duke Street. Kough says the roughly 1,500-square-foot space should have seating for nearly two dozen customers — at rustic-looking picnic tables, of course — along with a dedicated kitchen for his team. Kough recently acquired a bigger smoker (he’s currently a part of food incubator Union Kitchen), and general manager Paul Tecchio says the restaurant plans to have at least a couple of beers on draft — he mentioned Alexandria-based Port City Brewing Company as one possibility — as well as other selections in cans. In writing the menu for the new restaurant Kough says he’d like to work additional meats including ribs and sausage into the regular rotation, and plans to build up the sides — currently limited to mac and cheese or coleslaw — significantly. He also said he’d like to create more “composed sandwiches,” floating an idea for a brisket-based offering with cheese and pickled chillies on a brioche bun from Lyon Bakery. The new restaurant is projected to operate from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. to start, though Kough is still mulling whether to go seven days a week or give everyone a rest on Mondays. Meanwhile, downtown workers will still be able to get their fix as well. “We’re gonna keep the trucks going,” Kough says." - Warren Rojas