This new barbecue restaurant promises to turn Miami into ‘a burnt ends city’
The management at The Citadel food hall may need to post a sign at the entrance soon that reads, “We sell more than barbecue.”
Since Society BBQ opened early last month, a smoky scent has been luring diners by the nose like a cartoon cloud toward its new stall in the back.
There longtime Miami chef Richard Hales is experimenting with Texas-inspired barbecue, smoking meats and vegetables over hardwood.
Society is a restaurant more than six years in the making. Hales became interested in Texas-style smoking, which focuses on using simple salt and pepper for seasoning beef, and has traveled through Texas to taste and learn the basics. The style has found fertile ground in Miami since Hometown Bar-B-Cue opened in Allapattah, where it is arguably making the best smoked brisket in Miami.
Hales wants to expand the style to adapt to Miami’s palate: sweet, salty, fat. “This city has a particular palate and I know it,” he said during a phone interview.
Hales has proven it. He started one of the area’s first food trucks (Dim Ssam A Go Go) and introduced Nashville hot chicken (Bird & Bone), upscale Szechuan cuisine (Blackbrick Chinese) and refined Pan-Asian (Sakaya Kitchen).
But Society is monopolizing his time nowadays. He spends up to 18 hours a day at the Citadel, from prepping the meat at 10 p.m. the night before, going home to nap before returning to start the smokers at 3 a.m., and finally meditating in a quiet lounge upstairs at 7 a.m. before lunch opens. He’s looking to train a pitmaster apprentice.
“I basically live here,” he said. “It’s not sustainable. But I love it. What else am I going to do?”
He’s doing it while effectively still recovering from a series of health scares, including thyroid cancer in the fall of 2018 to having a pair of brain tumors removed in early 2019 — an event that pushed back Society’s opening.
To keep up that kind of productivity, Hales brings his family in to his restaurants. On a recent visit during the winter break, his wife, Jenny, who bakes the desserts (including one of the restaurant’s best dishes), manned the counter. His two daughters, off from school, ran dishes and operated the register.
A month in, it’s clear Hales’ clan is doing a lot of things right.
Start with beef
Texas-style barbecue is beef, first and foremost. And Society’s beef rib is the best reason to come here.
The dinosaur-sized rib is about 1.5 pounds of beef that is always prime grade. The tender, smoky set of ribs are dusted with flaked salt to bring out flavor. The rendered fat melts into the meat for a rich marrow flavor particular to bone-in beef. Hales admits sourcing prime-grade beef in South Florida has been difficult, so the rib has a limited availability.
The beef is served simply, with a side of homemade pickles and red-vinegar pickled onions.
Hales acknowledges his beef brisket is still a work in progress. (“It’s a really tricky s.o.b.,” he said.) Brisket is a cut of meat that has both a purposely fatty and lean side — a hunk of beef that acts like two separate cuts cooked as one.
Thinking back on to the day I visited, he admitted it was “rubbery” and not rested as long as he would have hoped to reach its peak tenderness. Still it is no knock to say it was a respectable interpretation.
Order the burnt ends
If there’s a crowd-pleaser of a dish at Society it’s the burnt ends.
Call these caramelized charred cuts the tadig on Persian rice, la raspita on a pot of congri. It’s the toasted ends from the tip of the brisket, cooled overnight, then cubed, braised in Hales’ own barbecue sauce and smoked again. It’s the very essence of the meat.
And the burnt ends at Society encapsulate what Hales has called the Miami palate of sweet, salty and fat.
“Miami’s going to be a burnt ends city,” he said. “I can’t make enough.”
Other meats
A chef of Hales’ skill can make smoking a pulled pork shoulder look easy — and taste memorable.
It is smoked for eight hours before he adds his sauce, wraps and rests it for another three hours, then pulls it to order so it retains its succulence.
Even the chicken gets the smoke treatment for 40 to 50 minutes before it is chopped and piled high with crispy sticks of green plantain as if it were a version of a Cuban frita hamburger. (Hales definitely knows his audience.) Both the pork and chicken are available as top-notch sandwiches.
Sides and sweets
Sweet potatoes treated with with a topping of spiced pecans and bathed in brown sugar are a crunchy, creamy and sweet fix to stand alongside the savory meats. But the dish to try is the seasonal squash which is smoked and tossed with gooey cheddar cheese and baked like a casserole — a vegetarian spin on a classic dish that he calls “a homey 1970s dish — Betty Crocker 101.”
The only way to finish is with Jenny Hales’ smoked bourbon bread pudding.
With Texas toast as the base, Hales finds different ways to put sweet into your body — bourbon maple syrup, melted white chocolate and brown sugar.
“There’s so much sugar in it that it should be illegal,” Richard Hales said.
As with the rest of the menu — and the rest of his restaurants — Hales has found a way to take what works in other places and apply it to Miami.
Miami Herald critics dine unannounced and at the newspaper’s expensee.
Editor’s note: Miami Herald dining reviews no longer include star ratings. We believe a restaurant should be judged on its merits and the nuance of the dining experience, not simply on a grade. — Carlos Frías, Miami Herald food editor
Society BBQ
Address: 8300 NE Second Ave. in The Citadel food hall, Little River
Info: TheCitadelMiami.com
Hours: Lunch – 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Dinner – 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., or until sold out
Price range: $6-$10 meats, $32 for 1.5-pound beef rib. $10-$12 sandwiches. $3-$12 sides. $6 desserts.
FYI: Alcohol available at the Citadel’s main bar. Free parking available at adjacent lot.
This story was originally published January 3, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
