What is chef-inspired barbecue, anyway?
That's what I asked the guys of UNION72 Thursday during a sneak peak of their elevated barbecuery, announced for Wesley Chapel a couple weeks back.
"We like to call it chef-inspired because it's difficult to say it's Texas barbecue or [Memphis-style, etc.]. We're kind of — it's a hybrid — kind of borrowing from all styles," says UNION72 co-owner Bharat Chhabria. "So we call it chef-inspired because at the end of the day, our menu is [pitmaster Geoff Zukosky's] inspiration."
Zukosky's lineup, which he developed from scratch (much like how he'll fashion everything from the restaurant's house-made sauces to smoked Cheddar and bacon mac), is loaded with eats most barbecue joints don't offer.
For Vietnamese flair, there's a banh mi baguette sandwich, featuring slow-smoked brisket sliced and topped with pickled veggies, cucumbers, bean sprouts and spicy aioli, as well as three kinds of tacos with Latin American influence. All four speak to how UNION72 aims to spotlight a medley of flavors from around the world, breaking the rules of conventional 'cue.
Additional menu items include Southern fried hot chicken, The Cali (slow-smoked chicken, avocado, caramelized onions, candied bacon, Cheddar, smoked tomato barbecue sauce) and The Far East (slow-smoked pork, kimchi, sticky Asian barbecue sauce, cilantro, scallions, toasted sesame seeds), plus lavender-infused lemonade made with grilled caramelized lemons.
"We have six sauces on our core menu. And then probably weekly, bi-weekly, we'll be doing new takes on different sauces — different regional American sauces as well as more global sauces, taking it to different parts of the world, and really trying to take what those cultures have done so well and let everyone else experience it," the pitmaster says.
According to co-owner Jeff Martin, he and Chhabria chose The Shops at Wiregrass for UNION72 because they're familiar with the area, which Martin says has a high concentration of chains. Their new restaurant at 2000 Piazza Ave. took over the former home of 100 Montaditos (and before that, a froyo shop) two and a half months ago, and its location next to the original Brass Tap, which Martin launched in 2008, ain't a coincidence.
Next door is where the co-owner first met Zukosky, who frequented The Brass Tap as a customer, and learned about his skills as a pitmaster. The craft beer bar also forged a relationship between Martin and Chhabria, who owns three Brass Tap franchises (one in Lakeland, two in Tallahassee). And UNION72's general manager, John Hanley, is a Brass Tap alum with almost 18 years of hospitality experience.
"Once this space became available, I knew we could do something here," Martin says of their 1,500-square-foot digs.
The 60-seat, indoor-outdoor barbecuery will be similar to other fast-casual restaurant concepts. You'll walk in, order food and drinks (Martin name-dropped Fountainhead's craft orange cream soda, but there'll be local beer and wine, too) at a counter, take a ticket number (UNION72's using recycled cattle tags from a Minnesota farm), and find a seat in the rustic, inviting dining area.
"If [patrons] want to come and hang out and drink, they can go to Brass Tap. If they're just comin' in to eat and want to get in and out, they'll come over here," Martin says, noting that The Brass Tap, where Zukosky's been giving away UNION72 food during Sunday football games, will have iPads set up for those who want to place barbecue orders at the bar.
The gang is shooting for an opening the week of Nov. 7, ahead of the mall's holiday festivities, including an ice-skating rink and huge tree lighting. Martin says they should be pretty much ready to go by next Wednesday, and that if all goes well, they'll open more UNION72 locations.
"If you look at a traditional barbecue restaurant, the menu is largely focused around meats and sides. What we wanted to do was take those meats — the flavor of the barbecue meat and the quality of the barbecue meat — but then try to push them out into other food items that may be your favorite, whether it's tacos or sandwiches," Chhabria says. "That's another reason why it's more chef-inspired because you're taking the meat and saying, yeah, you can go out and get a tray of meats and sides anywhere, but we're gonna do something different."
This article appears in Oct 20-27, 2016.