Smoke Queen Restaurant serves up Asian-style barbecue in Backyard Grove

A part of the expertise of consuming barbecue is the primary ignition of smoked meat, the faint whispers of slow-burning coals, and the sight of propane tanks turned again to show tables of beef, rooster and pork into fascinating feasts. That's the primary impression chef-owner Winnie Yee-Lakhani intends to provide smoked meat lovers who go to her Smoke Queen Barbecue restaurant, which opened in Backyard Grove on March 9.

Yee-Lakhani locations three 1,000-liter metal people who smoke (named Romulus, Sheena and Remus) proper on the restaurant's entrance. “It was at all times pure for pits to go up within the entrance yard,” he says. Smoke Queen Barbecue is the flagship restaurant of Cottage Industries, a group of small companies from developer Linda Sadeghi (LAB and Anaheim Packing District). Incoming tenants embrace an ice cream store, a matcha tea store, and a microbrewery occupying an association of buildings surrounding a colourful, mural-filled park.

Yee-Lakhani's journey from franchise proprietor to Smoke Queen started through the COVID-19 pandemic. His frequent meals drop-offs marketed on social media have attracted a big viewers in Southern California, wanting to attempt the veteran restaurateur's tackle basic American barbecue made with Chinese language and Malaysian flavors. Yee-Lakhani landed a week-long residency at Smorgasburg in downtown Los Angeles in September 2021, serving up a few of his signature dishes, together with crispy pork stomach siu yuk, pork stomach char siu and gochujang beef ribs. “Smorgasburg helped me take a look at all my recipes, practice employees, and construct a small enterprise from the bottom up. It additionally examined me, to make me understand how a lot I needed this,” mentioned Yee-Lakhani. She first introduced the Backyard Grove restaurant greater than two years in the past in November 2021.

Yee-Lakhani's distinctive barbecue model and easy-going persona have made her fashionable with the press. The New York Occasions and Eater LA featured Smoke Queen as a part of California's rising barbeque model. The pitmadam additionally appeared Meals community Barbecue BrawlMinced, and Grocery store stakeout, gaining a big social media following and establishing himself as one in all Orange County's most celebrated barbecue practitioners. “All of the accolades and media is nice for enterprise, nevertheless it additionally provides me a little bit of impostor syndrome. I get nervous as a result of I don't wish to disappoint my shoppers,” says Yee-Lakhani.

Patrons wait in a line that leads to a black-painted house that operates as a barbecue restaurant. — Patrons wait in line to order at Smoke Queen Barbecue.

Three barbecue smokers in a line with a shovel. — Three painted people who smoke named Romulus, Remus and Sheena.

Customers and servers at the counter of Smoke Queen Barbecue. — The counter in entrance of Smoke Queen Barbecue.

Smoke Queen Barbecue's menu is predicated on basic American model barbecue, with brisket smoked over a white oak, dry pulled pork, ribs and rooster quarters. Going past custom, Yee-Lakhani prepares an eight-spice glazed pork stomach char siu and pork stomach siu yuk aged in a crispy crust. The restaurant serves gochujang beef rib sauces solely on Sundays. Sides embrace jasmine rooster rice, soiled rice with Chinese language sausage, potato salad, mapo chili with minced brisket, pasta and cheese shells, slaw slaw, and simmered Sichuan pepper beans.

Additionally on the menu are brisket and pulled pork sandwiches, plus the Pitmadam, a towering meat sandwich full with brisket, pulled pork, char siu and siu yuk served between toasted brioche buns. Different specialties embrace a Panang curry topped with smoked brisket, and chili cheese fries drenched in mapo chili and a creamy cheese sauce. For dessert, Yee-Lakhani attracts on her pastry coaching and serves kaya-coated bread pudding, banana pudding and apple cobbler sprinkled with melted palm sugar.

In the mean time, seating is restricted to 4 shaded picnic tables, plus semi-shaded tables behind the restaurant. Count on extra seating scattered all through the Cottage Industries property sooner or later, however be ready to attend for a desk till then. Pitmaster Jared Ruiz helps Yee-Makhani with the weekly cooks, Chi Tran serves as basic supervisor, and Rosario Rios is on time as kitchen supervisor. Yee-Makhani credit her brother, Kevin Yee, as an important enterprise companion for the previous 14 years. Given the years of anticipation, the abundance of press protection, and the overall attraction of Yee-Mahkani's barbecue journey, the Smoke Queen is lastly prepared to ascertain her reign in Southern California.

Smoke Queen Barbecue is open at 12941 Ninth Avenue, Backyard Grove, CA, 92840. Open Friday by Sunday, midday to 4 a.m. or till bought out. Hours and days of operation will develop sooner or later.