‘Billy’s Smokehouse is a no-frills, barbecue joint that actually delivers,’ reviews TOM PARKER BOWLES
Billy’s Smokehouse, on Hammersmith’s Goldhawk Road, certainly looks the part. The walls may be bare and the ventilation ducts exposed, but worry not: this is no Shoreditch-style Industrial Modernist makeover. Nope, it’s only been open for five days and the pictures for the walls have yet to arrive. But who needs interior design when you have the Leviathan Pits Arcadian live fire cage? The vast asador-style beauty dominates the back wall of the room, where coals glow, sauces bubble and smoked meat (links, brisket etc) hang down from great steel hooks and chains. Jet black and mighty, it looks like the sort of thing that Thor might use to grill his lunch. Above, an extractor unit so powerful it rips the words right out of your mouth.
The Leviathan Pits Arcadian: ‘The sort of thing Thor might grill his lunch on’
And that is just what you can see. Downstairs is a monster US ’cue meat smoker, fuelled by oak chips and the sweat of chef Tiberius Tudor, who was born in Romania, but forged in the hickory-scented inferno of the Texas barbecue scene. Billy’s used to be an Indian restaurant, until it ceased trading in 2007, and sat derelict for nearly two decades. But Cash, the son of the original owner, always dreamed of a proper US-style barbecue place. ‘I want you to taste that wood,’ he says as I order at the counter. I can’t wait.
Smoked beef link sausages (all the meat here is halal) have a tight, finely minced texture with a whisper of chilli and a waft of smoke. I like them. While the pulled-beef ‘Briskwich’ sees a huge mound of soft meat jammed between two slices of charred brioche ‘Texas Toast’. It’s decent, and a cut above the usual over-sweetened, mass-produced muck. But really, Billy’s is all about the sliced brisket (smoked in the Central Texas style), a great, monolithic slab of gently scented brilliance. Veins of fat, winsome and wobbling, run through the meat, while a pink smoke ring (a sign things are done properly) sits beneath a dark, beautiful, intensely savoury bark (or outer layer). The smoke is elegant, but never overpowering, each mouthful an expertly seasoned paean to the barbecue art. Seriously, it sits with Smokestak as great London brisket.
Billy’s Smokehouse is a no-frills, West London ’cue joint that actually delivers. Give it time, and things could get very interesting indeed.
About £20 per head. 100 Goldhawk Rd, London W12; instagram.com/billysmokehouse
