In Springfield, MO earlier this year, I sought out a place that I had read about in a local magazine on a previous visit there. This place was a combination artisan butcher shop and a Texas-style barbecue place - two of my favorite places to visit. It sounded intriguing enough for me to give City Butcher and Barbecue a try.
Jeremy Smith and Cody Smith both grew up in small towns outside of Springfield, but they weren't related, nor did they know each other growing up. Both studied at the prestigious (and now closed) Le Cordon Bleu culinary school - albeit at two different locations - and both had held positions at high-end restaurants around the U.S. before moving back to Springfield. Jeremy Smith was the sous chef at Metropolitan Farmer, a farm-to-fork organic restaurant in Springfield, while Cody Smith was the man behind Le Cochon Charcuterie, a popular artisan meat vendor at a local farmers market.
Cody Smith actually had a background working as a manager of a barbecue restaurant in his teens. After attending culinary school, Cody found himself working in Austin at actress Sandra Bullock's now-shuttered Bess Bistro. It was during his time in Austin that Cody discovered that central Texas barbecue was significantly different than the barbecue he was used to growing up in southwest Missouri. It was all about the quality of the meats and not necessarily about the sauces or rubs.
Pictured right - Jeremy Smith (left) and Cody Smith (right). Photo courtesy Feast Magazine.
Once they decided to partner in their butcher shop/barbecue joint venture, Jeremy Smith and Cody Smith traveled to Austin to visit the artisan meat shops and the famed barbecue joints of the city to learn more about the style of barbecue they wanted to bring to Springfield. They learned about the proper way to season the meat (mainly just salt and pepper), smoking techniques, and how to properly carve the meat. Cody Smith came up with a number of different types of sausages, cured meats, and unique selections such as duck pastrami to sell in their artisan butcher shop. The two found a space that housed a former restaurant in the Kickapoo Corners shopping center along S. Campbell Ave on Springfield's south side and opened City Butcher and Barbecue in December of 2014. (see map)
(In August of 2016, the Smith's opened a satellite restaurant operation - CB Social House - in downtown Springfield. It wasn't long after the place opened that Jeremy Smith sold his stake in both City Butcher and Barbecue and CB Social House to Doug Riddle who had been the brewmaster at Mother's Brewing Company in Springfield.)
It was around 1 p.m. when I pulled into the lot in front of City Butcher and Barbecue. The parking lot was full and I was having a bit of trouble finding some place to park. I thought that it must be a pretty popular place to eat. But going inside the restaurant, I found it to be less than half full and figured that people must be shopping or eating at other establishments in the shopping center.
Inside the entry way was an ordering area with the menu on a chalk board on the wall. Tubs of beer were near the counter and they also had beer on tap. City Butcher and Barbecue will stay open until the smoked meats run out for the day.
Around the corner from the ordering counter was the artisan meat counter. It was small and had exotic sausages and meats, but not a lot of them.
The dining room was on the same side as the meat counter. It was a long, narrow space with wooden booths and a long communal table in the center of the room. There were some picnic tables out in front of the place for outdoor dining, but they were empty that day.
The drill to order food was a bit confusing. With any new barbecue place that I find, I like to order a combination platter of two or three meats to try with a couple of sides. Only at City Butcher and Barbecue, they didn't offer any combo plates. They sold their smoked meats by the pound or in any increment under a pound, but I didn't want to order up a quarter pound of this and a quarter pound of that.
They had a brisket and pork belly specialty sandwich on the menu along with an option to get a couple of pork ribs. Evidently, they had sides available on the menu, but I didn't see the options. They cut the ribs, pork belly strips and brisket in front of me and placed the sandwich and the ribs on a platter. I got a beer to go along with the barbecue and took a seat in a booth along the wall of the dining area.
I pulled the brisket and pork belly - two pieces each - off the sandwich. The brisket was, in a word, heavenly. It had a great smoked flavor to it, the salt and pepper rub helped enhance the taste of the beer, it was tender and pulled apart very easily. It was some of the best brisket I'd ever had. The ribs were equally as good as the brisket. The pork meat easily pulled away from the bone on the two pieces I got. The ribs, too, had a great smoky taste to them, but it wasn't overpowering.
The disappointment was the pork belly. The pork was excessively fatty. I was able to pull some meat away from the fat, but there was a lot more fat than meat on the pieces. The meat that I had was very moist and flavorful. But it was just too fatty.
City Butcher and Barbecue does offer barbecue sauce at the tables, but quite frankly you didn't really need them. The ribs and brisket were so good with just the simple salt and pepper rub that I didn't feel the need to put any sauce on them. And nearly every barbecue pit master will tell you that the best barbecue is the kind that you don't need to sauce up.
My first visit to City Butcher and Barbecue won't be my last. The ribs and brisket that I had were outstanding, but the pork belly that I tried was just too fatty for my liking. Other than that, City Butcher and Barbecue offered some of the best barbecue I've had in the Midwest. Their philosophy of having select cuts of meat to smoke, the use of only salt and pepper to season the meat before it's smoked, and keeping the choices as simple as possible all add to the experience of great barbecue.
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