Smoke Point BBQ and Provisions owner Jarad Gallagher hasn’t been too keen with the way California has turned barbecue into a high end delicacy.
The 44-year old Michelin-starred chef doesn’t have any qualms with other barbecue restaurants elevating the cuisine, but it’s just something that’s not necessarily his kick.
“It’s food that’s meant to be eaten with your hands and it’s messy, and it’s a labor of love,” he said.
Gallagher took matters into his own hands by opening up a place in San Juan Bautista where customers walk in, place an order and can eat their meal wherever they please.
Now he’s giving Hollister residents a taste of his cooking after he opened a second location at 1709 Airline Highway in May.
He mentioned how Germany brought smoked foods over to the United States and taught the method predominantly to minorities, giving the birth of smokehouse barbecue as we know it.
“This is a very humble cuisine and I like that part of it,” he said.
Gallagher said a trip through the American barbecue belt has people hanging out on grass lawns sitting on cheap picnic tables or at a gas station. The type of place that opens at 10am and sells out of food by 2pm because there’s a line down the street or it’s just a pass through.
“I’m not trying to be some authentic person here but I do believe that barbecue is America’s only real cuisine,” he said.
Smoke Point BBQ offers classics such as brisket, baby back ribs, grilled chicken, tri tip and pulled pork along with other options including smoked portobello mushrooms and jalapeño cheddar sausage.
The sides include mac and cheese, Fuji apple and ginger coleslaw, BBQ beans and elote, which is his twist on street corn sold predominantly in Latin communities. Oh, don’t forget the big chunk of cornbread with corn niblets, drizzled with honey and brushed with jalapeño butter.
Gallagher said a perfect example of upscaling food is putting Mexican cuisine into the middle tier for restaurants, yet it’ll probably be just as good if not better at a taco truck or hole in the wall taqueria.
He doesn’t want his food joint to be some over the top experience.
“The best taco I’ve ever had in Mexico was squash blossoms and avocado and in a good tortilla,” he said. “Anytime you’re trying to elevate that, or put it in a different environment, it’s cool but it’s not better than on the street.”
Speaking of street food, a new ordinance was recently passed by Hollister City Council that will allow mobile food vendors to sell on public streets.
Gallagher said he isn’t too concerned because food trucks aren’t under the same burden of brick and mortar buildings but he hopes there’s a lot of success with it.
“The reality is that there’s only so many food trucks, the city still has to give permits and those food trucks still have to be tethered to a food production facility,” he said.
Gallagher—originally from Seattle—began working professionally in a kitchen roughly 30 years ago and hasn’t stopped since then.
The San Juan Bautista resident worked at Michelin-starred restaurants like Michael Mina, One Market and Plumed Horse before becoming a Michelin-starred chef himself.
Gallagher opened Smoke Point BBQ and Provisions in San Juan Bautista in November 2020, which thrived despite the hardships of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gallagher had a monster year when the restaurant peaked in 2021, yet it rolled off substantially in 2022 and they lost about one-third of the business. He said they had a mediocre fourth quarter until the major rain storms put a damper on things.
“It’s been challenging,” he said.
Gallagher believes they’ve figured out an algorithm that works and continues to monitor for consistency such as what’s being used and what customers demand.
“We watch how people use us, watch what people are ordering and then you make adjustments, figuring out your identity,” he said.
Gallagher said Smoke Point BBQ in San Juan Bautista opened as a fast service restaurant and the food was predominantly to-go because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was a successful model but then Covid began trickling to an end. That’s when he saw San Juan Bautista turn back into the dine-in scene.
Gallagher said although it is a town that attracts several tourists on the weekends, he continues to rely on the locals during the slower periods such as the weekdays. For now, Gallagher is still alive in the restaurant industry.
“I don’t think that we’re gonna retire on what we’re doing but we’re definitely alive,” he said. “The future’s bright for us there.”
After having been to six continents, Gallagher said the world is slowly becoming the same place.
The ultimate goal for him is to have Smoke Point BBQ become another fast service, casual style food brought to people by someone from this community. Gallagher said it’s something the big chain corporations don’t do very well.
“Now it doesn’t matter where you are, there’s a Starbucks and McDonald’s…it just kind of whitewashes these communities to be all the same,” he said. “I want to have something in the stratosphere that’s another option. I don’t need to be the option, just another option.”
