After more than a year of planning and construction, Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ has opened its anticipated 6,800-square-foot space at 25 Front St. in Hartford.
“It’s been a long process,” said owner Jamie McDonald, who first signed the lease in June 2015.
The new restaurant, which officially opened Friday next to Ted’s Montana Grill, more than doubles the space of his original Hartford location at 89 Arch St., with dining-room seating for about 180 people and another 50 in its bar. McDonald closed the Arch Street space Oct. 9 in preparation for the Front Street move.
Since its 2013 debut in greater Hartford, Bear’s has been lauded for its Kansas City-style barbecue: pulled pork, brisket, ribs, burnt ends and turkey, with sauces ranging from sweet to fiery. The new location features all the best-sellers and more, including pulled chicken. Meats are available by the pound and as entrée plates, combinations and sandwiches.
Service is a hybrid between fast-casual and full service. Diners order in a cafeteria-style service line and choose seats in the dining room, where servers take orders for drinks and additional food items and bus tables.
The biggest addition to the Front Street restaurant is the “Bear Cave,” managed by beverage director Justin Morales. Where Bear’s prior space in Hartford (and current Windsor location) served just beer and wine, the new city restaurant has a full bar with an array of cocktails, engineered to complement the flavor profiles of barbecue.
“Sweet and spicy are the flavors, primarily,” Morales said, and the list features several heat-inflected libations: a chili whiskey sour with bourbon, Ancho Reyes liqueur, sour mix and red wine; a blood orange margarita with jalapeño moonshine and the Fuzzy Honey Bear Bite Manhattan, with local Waypoint Spirits honey habanero whiskey, sweet and dry vermouth and peach bitters.
Bear’s take on a spicy Bloody Mary is even garnished with a moink ball – a smoked meatball wrapped in bacon – and an olive stuffed with Sriracha-infused blue cheese. Two batch drinks are served on draft: a Doc Holliday with huckleberry vodka, lemonade and ginger ale and a Front Porch Cooler, Morales’ take on an Arnold Palmer with nectarine vodka, lychee liqueur, lemonade and iced tea. Cocktails are $8 to $10.
Bear’s also offers a dozen draft beers, with one tap dedicated to Boulevard Beer, based in Kansas City (McDonald’s hometown), a “guest coast” tap with a West Coast offering and brews from Connecticut and the Northeast rounding out the rest of the list. A weekday happy hour, running Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m., features drink specials.
The bar features additional appetizers: buffalo chicken “Paw Paw’s Poutine” with sriracha BBQ pulled chicken and cheese sauce, deep-fried macaroni and cheese “Bear Balls” with pulled pork, seasoned and deep-fried pork rinds, loaded cornbread and sliders with pulled pork and Texas sausage.
Sampling plates encourage sharing, like the “Pig Pan” with ribs, a mini Mac Attack (macaroni and cheese topped with pork) and jalapeño cheddar sausage slices, and the “Animal Farm” with three wings, three moink balls and three ribs. Items are $4 to $14, and are also available in the dining room.
“We want it to be fun, not pretentious,” Morales said. “Food on a tray, fun cocktails, fun beer.”
Bear’s Smokehouse first launched in June 2013, occupying space within Bart’s Drive-In and The Beanery Bistro on Palisado Avenue in Windsor. Within months, McDonald was looking for a larger space, and opened the Arch Street location in the city in July 2014, followed months later in December by a new Windsor location in the former Dale Drug Store on Poquonock Avenue.
A “Bear’s Express” location opened in South Windsor in May 2016, with a streamlined menu of meats, sandwiches, salads and sides intended for takeout. The Bear’s brand has continued to grow through catering and other outside opportunities, recently serving as a vendor at the Big E fair in West Springfield, Mass.
McDonald is slated to complete three more projects by year’s end. He recently announced plans to convert the vacated Arch Street space into a pizzeria with a Marra Forni wood-fired oven, producing 12-inch pies with both traditional and barbecue-inspired toppings. The pizzeria should be open by early November, McDonald estimates.
He and business partner Tyler Anderson, chef-owner of Millwright’s in Simsbury, are in the process of opening Cook & The Bear in West Hartford’s Blue Back Square, with cuisine they call “craft barbecue.” Cook & The Bear has a projected late November opening.
The two are also partners in a project at Hartford’s Union Station, where they will open the Chango Rosa Taco Shop, taking over vacated kiosks at the venue. They have been previewing some of the taco creations at recent restaurant pop-up events, presenting twists on traditional fillings, including barbecue meats. Chango Rosa is also expected to open by early November.
Information: bearsbbq.com.
