Saltlick Smokehouse

At Saltlick Smokehouse, the meal is something the table builds. The menu hands a group three decisions — which smoked meats, which sides, and how many of each — and then sets named platters alongside as shortcuts for diners who would rather not argue. Brisket holds the centre. Pork belly nuggets and southern fried chicken sit at the next tier. Around them the sides do the connective work: brisket mac and cheese, spicy pit beans, jalapeño cheddar cornbread, popcorn grits, slaw, and roasted potatoes. The smokehouse has run this build-your-own format from James Street North since 2015.

Brisket is the kitchen's most patient piece. Local food writing has measured the cook at twelve to fifteen hours over wood and charcoal — the timing is half the recipe. Southern fried chicken comes by the piece, and the Nashville version turns up the heat when a table wants it; jerk chicken sits beside both. Pork belly nuggets land between an appetizer and a side, crisp-edged and rich enough to share. House-smoked sausage and pork ribs round the meat list out. The platter sheet then translates all of this into shorthand: This Piggy Went to Market for a pork-led table, Cluck and Oink for a mix, I Feel Like Chicken Tonight when the answer is already obvious. The Feast Platter does the broadest sweep — brisket, ribs, pulled pork, chicken, and sides — and is the order most groups end up at when they want everything.

What that menu says about the kitchen is that it has decided to serve barbecue the way Southern tables actually work — meats and sides arranged for sharing, not portioned for the single diner. The shape rewards groups and turns the meal into a small piece of choreography. A two-person decision becomes a four-person one without rewriting the order: pick another meat, add another side, scale the platter. The pricing follows the same logic, with per-pound brisket, by-the-piece chicken, and two- and four-person formats stacking up to whatever the table is. Value here is built on abundance rather than discount, and leftovers are a feature of the format, not an accident. On a Friday night the dining room runs noon to ten, and the platters come out heavy.

The smokehouse opened on James Street North under founder Shane McCartney, the pitmaster whose habits — long smokes, in-house preparation, sides built for the meat — set the kitchen's grammar. Kyle and Jennifer Ferreira took ownership in 2022 and kept the format intact, according to local reporting that covered the handoff. The Ferreiras also operate Bar Sazerac next door, which gives the block a coordinated rhythm: barbecue on one side, a bourbon-aware bar on the other, a short walk between them. A diner finishing brisket can keep going at the bar without rebooking the night. The continuity matters in this category. Smokehouses are tradition-heavy by nature, and the rebuilds that strip the recipes for a new operator's stamp are the ones that lose the room. The 2022 transfer was the other kind.

The shape of a week at Saltlick is part of the identity too. Closed Mondays, dinner-only Tuesday through Thursday, and a full midday-to-late stretch on Friday through Sunday — the hours are arranged around when groups actually gather. The heated patio extends a few months at either end of the calendar, and occasional crawfish boils turn a weekend into a louder kind of feast. The kitchen will scale a custom platter menu for a private booking when a group brings its own occasion. James North has seen its share of barbecue rooms open and close. The one that has stayed is the one that sells a table rather than a plate.