Photos by Little Outdoor Giants

If there’s one thing the past year has proven, it’s that nothing can stop the progress of barbecue. More specifically, nothing can stop Sturbridge barbecue juggernaut B.T.’s Smokehouse and its owner Brian Treitman.

Just as they were preparing to expand to new locations, Treitman and B.T.’s Smokehouse had obstacles of every kind thrown their way.

Plans to open a new Worcester restaurant in time for St. Patrick’s Day 2020 ground to a halt as COVID-19 hit. After the new location finally opened months later, the team had its first COVID case. Then a car rammed through the front window in the middle of the night.

A second new location as part of the Polar Park (Worcester Red Sox) baseball stadium was complicated by pandemic restrictions on public gatherings. And through it all, Treitman had to figure out how to keep everything going by pivoting a very lively and social business to survive during the least social time in recent history.

But great barbecue teaches that patience and taking things slow can have their rewards.

More than a year into the pandemic, takeout has become the new norm. Treitman’s team has actually grown. And, at lunchtime on a sunny Sunday in May, B.T.’s Smokehouse appears to be returning to normal—slowly.

At the Sturbridge site, a former candy shop across from the entrance to Old Sturbridge Village, outdoor picnic tables begin to fill with Harley riders who stop for a barbecue break. The parking lot fills and empties as people pick up takeout orders. The typical hour-long weekend lines and groups of people meeting to swap beer purchases after a visit to nearby Tree House Brewing Company aren’t yet in full swing.

Plywood still covers the window broken by that unexpected late-night car at the Worcester location, but things are busy. A dozen or so members of a Corvette club mix with young families and students from nearby Worcester Polytechnic Institute as the line grows for takeout fried chicken and barbecue. The restaurant is located at one of the city’s busiest intersections in a bright and updated space that had once been a fast-food sandwich shop.

About a half mile away, final preparations are underway for the upcoming opening day at Polar Park, and the first service at B.T.’s newest location. B.T.’s Smokehouse was invited to become part of the stadium’s “Taste of Worcester” culinary offerings.

The attraction for those venturing out to all B.T.’s locations on this Sunday is the same as it’s always been: getting their hands messy with some of the best slow-smoked brisket, beef ribs and pulled pork in New England. B.T.’s has been recognized on “best of” lists by Boston Magazine, the Boston Globe, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Business Insider and others. A Bon Appetit writer described B.T.’s barbecue as “astonishingly good” and some of the best they’ve ever eaten.

In 2021, the idea of finding great barbecue in New England is unremarkable. But that wasn’t necessarily the case in 2007 when Treitman decided to set up a southern-style barbecue business in small-town Sturbridge, Massachusetts.

“I remember the first couple weeks I was open and somebody came and got a rack of ribs from me. They threw it back at me, and they’re, like, ‘What is this?’ I’m, like, ‘What do you mean?’ They’re, like, ‘I have to chew on it, it’s milky.’ They were literally comparing me to Applebee’s ribs,” Treitman says.

The chef, who has a background in fine dining and attended the Culinary Institute of America, became part of the New England barbecue vanguard when he started his business out of a trailer at the bustling and gigantic Brimfield Flea Market. Initially, barbecue was Treitman’s side gig while he worked as the chef at a fine-dining restaurant at the NineZero Hotel in Boston.

“It was just supposed to be a hobby, but the first week went so well and I had so much fun doing it that I was, like, ‘I want to do this,’” Treitman says.

Over time, the side gig turned permanent, but along the way there were plenty of lessons in patience.

“When I was sitting in my trailer, there were days where I’d be watching cars drive by 60 miles an hour, and would do $200 in sales. In the winter, I’d be sitting there watching movies all day. Someone would pull up to the window and want a sandwich and I’m, like, ‘Really? You’re interrupting my movie to make you a sandwich?’” the chef remembers.

But word spread.

Initially, Treitman’s dry-rubbed, smoked meat and southern sides proved more popular with visitors to the flea market and nearby campgrounds than with locals. As B.T.’s moved from the trailer to its first permanent home, a 125-square-foot former hot dog stand in Sturbridge, Treitman started winning over locals, too.

“People that weren’t afraid to eat out of a little roadside shack would come in, and they’d sit there. I had regulars, and it was the coolest thing. When we first opened there were only 16 seats in the restaurant. We had the regulars who would come sit at the counter and we’d sit and talk with them and make them food. There’s parts of that that I miss these days. People would sit there for hours. Hang out and talk with us.”

As B.T.’s Smokehouse reputation grew, so did the restaurant’s physical presence. The dining room in Sturbridge expanded to 43 seats, with standing room for another 30. Lingering regulars learned to share the place with a steady stream of out-of-towners who make a visit to B.T.’s Smokehouse part of their road trip. Seats in the dining room regularly turn over about every 17 minutes, and some days are even busier.

As the physical location has more than doubled in size, one thing that hasn’t changed a whole lot is the amount of inside space taken up by the smokers that keep all those customers fed.

The massive smoking pits are located behind the restaurant and extend just a few inches into the kitchen. The Sturbridge kitchen is served by two J&R Oyler pit smokers that hold about 1,800 pounds of meat each, as well as a smaller Southern Pride smoker that holds about 750 pounds. On busy weekends, the Sturbridge smokers operate full-tilt to feed up to 1,500 customers a day. The Worcester location is served by its own onsite smokers.

Smoking goes on day and night, with the first employee arriving on site at about 8am and the last wrapping up at about 11pm. B.T.’s brisket smokes over apple and hickory wood for about 20 to 24 hours. The crew loads the smokers with brisket at night or halfway through the day and they start pulling it out of the smoker late morning. Other meats take less time and get added later: Pork butt takes about 16 hours, spareribs about four to six hours and chicken about two hours.

“We start pulling out the brisket that’s on the top shelf, and the ones that are on the bottom shelf come on later in the day. We’re trying to pull fresh brisket all day long,” Treitman says.

Along with smoked meats and sides, southern fried chicken is a special in Sturbridge and an important part of the regular menu in Worcester, where it takes the lead in the restaurant name: B.T.’s Fried Chicken & BBQ. B.T.’s boneless chicken pieces marinate in buttermilk brine and spices for 24 hours before they’re breaded and fried. They’re available on their own and as part of plates, with a choice of southern-style sides like collard greens, mac and cheese and black-eyed peas.

“It’s got a tangy, spicy kick to it. I describe it more as a glow than spicy. Your lips glow a little bit. One piece, you’re not going to notice it too much; two pieces, you’ll start to get a little bit more. But it’s really good,” the chef says.

Treitman’s journey to creating southern-style food in Central Massachusetts had an unlikely starting place: California wine country. After completing his culinary training at CIA, Treitman went to Napa Valley to cook with Louisiana-born chef Jan Birnbaum, who was creating a kind of elevated southern cooking that resonated immediately with the young chef.

“It was always big portions and his heart was on every plate. It’s where I discovered the way that I wanted to cook,” Treitman says.

It was in Napa that the chef also began his love affair with barbecue, in his backyard. “I had a little offset Char Broil smoker and, on my days off, we’d have friends over who were winemakers and stuff and they’d bring barrel staves and we’d smoke a pork butt or something, or some racks of ribs. It was just fun,” Treitman says.

When he found himself living in Central Massachusetts (his parents lived in Brimfield, and the chef would commute to Boston), Treitman found that this area, like Napa, provided access to farms and purveyors with great things to offer. Because of the scale of operations at B.T.’s Smokehouse, local farms are often the source for specials rather than day-to-day menu items.

“Central Mass has more farms per capita than pretty much anywhere else in the country, and they’re all doing cool stuff. It was really easy to start finding product that was inspiring to work with,” Treitman says.

As the chef looks to where things might go post-pandemic, it’s more in line with the new Worcester outposts than a return to fine dining.

“What we do is just fun. It’s fast-paced. It appeals to the masses, every walk of life, because it’s soul food.”

btsmokehouse.com

This story appeared in the Summer 2021 issue.