As a Barbecue Week special, Eater’s Greg Morbito reached out to four major smokers to find out how much meat, wood, and sauce they move through every day. One of the smokers was Leland Avellino at Harlem’s Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in West Harlem.
Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, 700 W 125th St, New York, NY 10027
Smoker: Leland Avellino, corporate executive chef
How many pounds of brisket do you go through at one location in an average day?
Leland Avellino: Anywhere from 60 lbs. to 250 lbs., depending on the location and what we have going on.
How many pounds of wood do you go through in an average day?
LA: We use about 35 cords of wood a week as a company… that’s a LOT of wood!
Where does most of your wood come from?
LA: We source our wood direct at each location where we have relationships with local loggers and wood providers that can get us all that hickory.
How long does the brisket smoke for, on average?
LA: Average is from 10 to 14 hours, depending on the piece of meat. Each brisket is different and deserves its own attention… so we pull it from the pit when it tells us it’s done!
How many links do you sell at one location, on average?
LA: 100 to 200, a week.
What’s the item that’s likely to sell out, and at what time is it usually gone?
LA: Sometimes we run out of ribs on really busy nights. We are a pit-to-plate operation, so if more people order ribs than we expected, than we may run out until the next load is ready.
Is there anything else we should know about your operation?
LA: As mentioned earlier, we are a true blue pit-to-plate barbecue restaurant – meaning, we don’t cook and cool our barbecue and then re-heat it (as so many other restaurants do). We are loading ribs, chicken and wings every few hours, and our brisket and pork twice a day, so our guests can taste our product at its absolute best.
Read the entire story that includes the other BBQ joints here.
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