Andy Husbands is a team player. His sport? Barbecue — in all forms, in all styles, from competition-grade smoked ribs to kimchi-adorned sliders. After 20 years at Tremont 647 and 15 years on the barbecue battle circuit, Husbands is getting together a whole new team to master his smoker and perfect his grill game.
Smoke Shop, Husbands’s long-awaited Kendall Square ’cue joint, opens later this spring. Before that, he’s visiting friends around the Somerville restaurant scene for a roaming takeover. First stop: Peter Ungar’s inventive supper club, Tasting Counter, where alongside the usual weekend late-night menu on March 25 and 26, Husbands will hock $5 sandwiches from 10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. In April, he’ll head over to Tony Maws’s Kirkland Tap & Trotter for another feast. Both menus will highlight the style of food to come from the Smoke Shop kitchen — the classics with a few twists.
“It’d be sacrilege to serve burnt ends with kimchi only. It’s smoked meat, it’s crunchy, it’s got a sauce, and a cabbage slaw,’’ Husbands says, calling on a Sunday afternoon. “If you have kimchi with a gochujang ranch, that’s sort of the same thing, right?’’
Husbands backs up his cheeky aplomb with countless hours of research and chats with Southern chefs. The Dorchester pitmaster regularly reaches out to connections he’s made from his IQUE days (that’s the name of his competition team — he battles it out alongside Rosebud American Kitchen’s John Delpha), as well as various sources he’s keeping to himself. He attributes much of his barbecue know-how to his fellow chefs and colleagues, who’ve offered him insight and tips going forward.
“I’m surrounded by a group of really great people who are constantly challenging each other and me. We’re kind of go-getters,’’ he says of his Smoke Shop cohorts. “My team, my whole restaurant team, loves food, breathes food.’’
After he stops hopping kitchens and settles into his new Cambridge location, Husbands will keep the honky-tonk cranked, with live bands as often as possible. He’ll serve beer from the 25-tap bar, or one of his 100 American whiskeys on the rocks. In the summer, dinner will be served on the patio — with or without kimchi. The Smoke Shop by Andy Husbands, March 25-26, 10:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. Tasting Counter, 14 Tyler St., Somerville, 617-299-6362, www.tastingcounter.com. BROOKE JACKSON-GLIDDEN
Brooke Jackson-Glidden can be reached at bjacksonglidden@gmail.com.
