Like many residents living near Bayview and Sheppard, I’ve been keeping a close eye on Beauty Barbecue and Smokehouse. Over the last month or so, when walking across the parking lot at Bayview Village Shopping Centre, I’d occasionally catch a whiff of something smokey and delicious and I’d hope that the opening date would be soon. Well, the wait is over. Beauty Barbecue and Smokehouse, a quick service concept from Oliver & Bonacini Hospitality, is now serving up their BBQ beef brisket ($13 per pound), baby back ribs ($9 per half rack), and roasted pork shoulder ($22 per pound). The restaurant shares its space with Parcheggio and the Village lofts event space (opening in September).
The playful decor at Beauty includes these wall inspired by the popular bean bag backyard game, cornhole.
The man behind the menu, industry veteran Anthony Walsh, is the corporate executive chef of Oliver & Bonacini. He’s added a few twists to the classic southern-style bbq menu, including “Torontoreal”’ smoked meat ($13 per pound), a nod to his Quebec roots. “It’s something that I’ve always loved. We made it at home when I was a little one with my father,” recalls Walsh. He says that the recipe is still in development, “We are thinking more about the actual cut of meat that we use. I want it to be different, but to use the same process as the Montreal version.”
The succulent baby back ribs come in a half ($9) or whole rack ($18).
It’s all about options at Beauty. Diners can choose from meats by the pound/per piece, or served on a bun, in all its sandwich-y glory. All the meats are painstakingly smoked over a combo of white oak, hickory, pecan and applewood over a few days for maximum flavour.
Order the cornbread. You won’t be sorry.
Sides include caesar salad ($8.50), a kale coleslaw ($8.50), and a tasty salad made of barbecued root vegetables, grains and seeds ($9). All of the veggies are sourced from 100km Foods, Tamarack Farms, and Cookstown Greens. Of course, it wouldn’t be barbecue without some cheese-covered grilled cornbread ($3.50).
All of the meats come wrapped up in colourful butcher paper.
Diners can choose to get their order wrapped up in butcher paper to go, or they can dine in on one of the picnic tables on the patio outside. The resto offers up a variety of alcoholic (beer, wine and coolers in cans) and non-alcoholic drinks (craft soda, juice etc.).
Dine in and sip a hard root beer with your BBQ.
Executive chef Andrew Piccinin enjoys a frozen key lime pie ($5.50) while chef Anthony Walsh has a s’mores cheesecake ($6) on a stick.
By Karen Stevens
Published July 31, 2018