1954 Bourbon & Smoke

A half-pound of smoked brisket, glossed in bourbon barbecue sauce and cut with cornbread and pickled onion: the Smoked Brisket Burnt Ends put the bar and the smoker on one plate. 1954 Bourbon & Smoke runs the two as a single idea rather than two departments sharing an address, and that starter is where they meet most plainly. The barbecue is Southern in its bones — brisket, back ribs, pulled pork, smoked chicken, house-made smoked sausage — and the bourbon program is built to stand beside it, not behind it. It opened on Saint Paul Street, in downtown St. Catharines, in 2023.

The menu is built to be shared. Beyond the burnt ends, the smoker sends out a brisket sandwich under horseradish aioli and crispy onions on a pretzel bun, and pulled pork dressed with slaw, pickles and Carolina barbecue sauce on the same pretzel bun. The larger formats carry the range. Pick 2 and Pick 3 let a couple compare cuts without committing to a full spread; the Pitmaster Platter gathers smoked chicken, back ribs, pulled pork, brisket and smoked sausage with cornbread, house sauces and two sides for two or three; and Family Style scales that same five-meat sweep, with three larger sides, to a table of four to six. The sides read Southern and specific — mac and cheese, cornbread, brisket baked beans, smoked potato salad, southern slaw, poutine, house-cut fries.

What keeps the menu from resting on brisket is everything built around it. The fried chicken is a buttermilk thigh under hot honey, secret sauce and house pickles on a brioche bun; a Nashville version swaps in hot chicken with buttermilk ranch and slaw. The deviled eggs come beet-brined, topped with pork crackling and jalapeño; the burger runs a six-ounce patty with smoked cheddar; even the Caesar arrives with a cornbread crouton and bacon. Starters lean sharp and a little playful — nachos loaded with queso, feta, charred corn and pickled jalapeño, and a house onion dip served with fried naan. These are not filler beside the barbecue. They give a table reasons to order differently on a second visit, and they let someone who did not come for a platter still eat well.

The bar is not an afterthought. Bourbon anchors the drinks program, with beer and wine alongside, and the heavier cuts — brisket, ribs, the sausage — give those pours an obvious job. Craft bourbon cocktails extend the list past neat pours, and the spirit reads as the house signature rather than a token nod. The house barbecue sauces are built on the same logic, which is why the burnt ends taste like the bar and the smoker shaking hands rather than two menus stapled together. Order a pour that can stand up to brisket, or ask for something gentler when the hot honey and pickles are already doing the work.

The rest of the operation is built for the way people actually use a downtown. Reservations hold a table when a group wants one, takeout and delivery send the smoke home when it doesn't, and a wheelchair-accessible entrance sits on the way in. A work lunch, a table of six and a solo craving for brisket can all be handled from one order rather than several. Local Niagara coverage has flagged it among the area's quieter, off-the-radar kitchens.

That is the throughline here: a smokehouse that gives its bar equal footing, and a menu built so a two-top and a party of six can each eat the way they want. The barbecue is the reason to come, but the bourbon, the Southern sides and the sharp little starters are why a second visit looks nothing like the first. Start with the burnt ends; the platters take it from there.