The Colosimo family’s Momento Hospitality has expanded its successful Hillside Hotel, with an impressive on-trend low-and-slow BBQ and bourbon bar now open.
Strategizing on how to better activate the upper level of the Hotel, with its retractable rooftop and underutilised kitchen, management discussed the idea of an American-style soul food barbeque, inspired by new GM Brodie Parish’s visit to Enmore restaurant Bovine and Swine.
“I could see it as being the perfect kind of offer for the space at Hillside Hotel, and we all agreed the Hills District could use a great BBQ joint,” says Parish.
A research trip to the States and tweak to the interior later, the area was transformed into an authentic-looking barbeque joint and bar. American barbeque is based in cooking large amounts of meat slowly in a timber-burning ‘smoker’, producing mouth-watering results and lashings of theatre.
“We’ve had the smoker in place for around five months now, waiting to find the right bloke to run it,” explains Parish. “We needed a pit-master who could master the huge 1.5-tonne Angry Beard offset smoker, and present the prefect product for each service – without pre-cooking or regeneration.
“We found that in Brad Shorten. I’m confident that Fire & Brimstone Barbeque will not only be popular, but be a significant contributor to the venue’s revenue and bottom line.”
The kitchen will offer the likes of 12-hour slow-cooked brisket and pork belly, alongside soul food classics such as homestyle mac & cheese, crispy garlic dill pickles, jalapeno cheese hot links, and delicious, crunchy house-made slaw.
The marketing relays that Fire & Brimstone is “the place to satiate your carnivorous appetite, in a relaxed environment”.
The new offering officially opens tonight (16 March), to the tune of live music from Americana Band, Grizzlee Train.
Low-and-slow barbeque is immensely popular in the US, and involves cooking for often eight hours or longer, as opposed to conventional barbeque in Australia, known there as ‘grilling’. But recent figures show Australia has exploded to outrank the US per head of population for serious low-and-slow barbeque competitions.
Was there the other night. Great tasting meat and extras, so glad to see this in the Hills. Great venue with friendly staff.