Did you ever stop to think about how tough it is to be in the restaurant business? New owners have to contend with city planners, hiring issues, curious customers, meeting regulations the public never even thinks of, and finally, attracting a loyal following.
Tariff Albakry, a former Marriott executive, and his chef, Swiss-Italian Adrien Sbrana, are tackling these problems and more at Links BBQ, a mini-mall restaurant with a branch in the Boulder Highway Arizona Charlie's, but they are coming through with flying colors, so far.
This location is in a place called Eastern Promenade, already home to a handful of good eateries: Koto, a Japanese restaurant; a Chinese place called Little Dumpling; and a Jersey Mike's sub shop. But Links BBQ doesn't yet have a prominent sign, and as other businesses in this mall could corroborate, traffic on their side of Eastern Avenue is heavier during the morning, when the restaurants are not open.
That wouldn't be a problem if it were not so hard to cross Eastern during the day, when traffic is headed south. But Eastern is inevitably jammed all day, and the result is that many would-be customers pass up the chance to sample these good wares.
That's a pity, because this is a cool little place that deserves to be noticed. The two men want to do an ethnic-style barbecue that combines their eclectic backgrounds, so that is reflected in the menu, which is relatively large for a small joint like this one.
Meats are cooked fresh daily in an open kitchen, and all are nicely trimmed and properly smoky. A choice of five house-made barbecue sauces enliven them further: honey chipotle, sweet and spicy, bourbon, cinnamon, and my favorite choice, sweet chili teriyaki. The permutations seem hard to exhaust.
One of the best menu items is one of the few not made by Chef Adrien, a stuffed Maryland blue crab, served piping hot in the shell, really like a delicious crab stuffing. Fried dill pickles are definitely an indulgence—crisp, pungent and sweet—but the idea is better than the realization because you can only eat a couple before salt insanity kicks in.
Meats come with a choice of two side dishes, and all the choices are good. I especially like Sbrana's barbecued beef brisket, which is fall-apart tender and fairly straightforward in terms of spices. No cumin or other Texas-style spices here, just salt, pepper and whatever sauce is fancied.
Pulled pork is frizzled, expertly browned around the edges and served in a large heap, a thing of beauty when eaten inside a bun with the bourbon sauce and Cajun-style fries from the list of sides. Barbecued chicken is a classic version: slightly rubbery skin but a moist, juicy hit of flesh once the skin is pierced. I'd like a ramped-up version of the house hot link, but Albakry says his customers, so far at least, prefer one that's tame.
Then come ribs. Actually, ribs come in a few incarnations here: baby backs, which are the most tender of the four; big, meaty beef short ribs; St. Louis-style ribs, cut from the spare rib by removing the brisket bone and exposing the cartilage (resulting in a meatier, but not quite as tender a cut as a baby back); and kalbi, Korean-style beef ribs in a long, bone-in strip.
I've long been a kalbi fan—you can get them at any Korean barbecue house in town and cook them yourself on a brazier built into your table—but these are the best around, thanks to a healthy glaze of that wonderful sweet chili teriyaki sauce, redolent of sesame oil and other Asian flavors.
For non-carnivores, there is a nice blackened catfish, barbecued shrimp done in a wrap, and a number of salads, Greek and Caesar to name just two.
And of course, there are those side dishes, sweet potato fries, which actually are far lower in carbs than standard fries; a nicely tart coleslaw; smoky, slow-simmered ranch beans; potato salad that has cooked eggs, celery and other goodies in the mix; and a house-made mac and cheese, topped with a golden-brown crumb crust.
The chef also makes a few desserts, although I suspect the carrot cake is store-bought. Homemade bread pudding comes with a nice whiskey sauce; an eggy, melt-in-the-mouth suspension that is slumming in its Styrofoam serving dish. (But at $3.25, what do you want?) There is also something called chocolate lovin' spoon cake, which I did not try.
Links BBQ does not, because of air-quality issues, have the luxury of barbecuing in a real pit, but given the size limitations and modest location, I'd say the restaurant is doing a bang-up job.
Now, if the city would just build a small access road, all the eateries in this little mall would win—and so would we.