The first time I met and interviewed Jarad Gallagher, it was just days before he opened his Smoke Point BBQ in San Juan Bautista on Nov. 11, 2020. He was filling little takeaway cups with each of his five house-made barbecue sauces when he stopped and pulled out a huge container of Heinz ketchup to use in filling even more little cups.
Surprised at a Michelin-starred chef using the same store-bought stuff I use, a condiment that is supposed to be the bane of all serious chefs, I asked him, “You don’t make your own ketchup?” He stopped pouring, looked me in the eye, and said, “Homemade ketchup is bullshit. If you want ketchup, you get Heinz.”
It was a disarming answer, as honest and unpretentious as the restaurant that Gallagher was opening. Little did he know that much of what he had planned for the location would be stalled by circumstances beyond his control.
While the business was immediately popular with residents of the county, his renovation of the old Basque Matxain Etxea Restaurant dining room at first would go largely unnoticed as COVID restrictions meant unexpected bans or limitations on indoor dining. The off-center, Texas-style indirect smoker that he intended to install a few months after opening, one of the keys to the quality of his barbecued meats, fell into a limbo of red tape that brought over a year and a half of delays.
“We have had the smoker for just about six months,” he said. “And we are just now starting to understand it. It lets us balance heat versus smoke better so we have the ability to maintain heat consistently and how much wood we are burning. That gives us flexibility with the smoke, and smoke equals flavor.”
With things now closer to normal, Gallagher has been working to reinvent his place by opening up long-forgotten windows in the restaurant to let in more light and refining the menu to focus on dine-in customers.
The unveiling of the windows was a bit of a surprise—most locals had no idea they had been blocked up years ago.
“Everybody thinks we just did it, but we pulled the permits and everything,” Gallagher said. “It was a super easy process because we weren’t putting in non-existing windows. They literally were already there and somebody at some point just closed them off.”
Rethinking the menu was a little more complex, since Gallagher also had to change his approach to his clientele’s patterns.
“Things have changed from our COVID business model, where 80% of our orders were to go,” he said. “And that has given us a chance to focus more on a menu platform that we like. For example, we now have meat plate options and people can choose sides with their meal rather than everything being a la carte. We are able to focus more on individual plates and having more to our individual plates.”
Smoke Point still serves the wide range of sandwiches that got them through that long take-out phase, but the meat plates are increasingly popular. Customers can draw from the restaurant’s repertoire, including ribs, pulled pork, coffee-rubbed tri tip, brisket, chicken, sausages and portobello mushrooms, to create meals that are made from one to four of those options. The meals also come with two side dishes, a big change from when they were only available in larger containers intended for several servings. (Sandwiches come with one side dish.)
The biggest change, however, is the opening of a second location in Hollister which is expected, according to Gallagher, in just under three weeks on the 1700 block of Airline Highway, across the road from Target.
“One of my goals is to really bring barbecue down to kind of what it looks like in Texas,” Gallagher said. “And that is more of a fast serve model.There is no full kitchen there and we don’t have deep fryers. So all the meat will be smoked in San Juan then delivered twice a day to Hollister. The menu will have just five meat options and three sides to choose from and you’ll get pickles and Texas toast as well. We will also have all of our desserts and soft-serve ice cream.”
If things go well, Gallagher is open to creating other satellite locations locally and is hoping that the new location will be met with the same enthusiasm as the original location.
“People have different expectations of what restaurants are,” he said,” and also what they shouldn’t be. And it’s hard to fill all those holes. We can’t be everything to everybody but the community support we have had has been unbelievable.”
Selected Foods of The Smoke Point BBQ
Pulled Pork – “We smoke it in the traditional way and then we combine it with some basic stock,” Gallagher said. “So opposed to just pulling meat off, we put it into a pan, add the liquid, and braise it until it is tender all the way through.” The pulled pork is my favorite sandwich. Almost impossibly tender, it is served with South Carolina barbecue sauce and topped with a cabbage salad and pineapple salsa. If I am ordering a two-meat plate, this pulled pork is always one of the choices.
Coffee Rub Tri Tip – “We buy prime tri tips and we peel them all the way back till it is 100% usable product,” Gallagher said. “ We use an espresso blend from Vertigo and add some spices and stuff, then we smoke it to about 125 degrees. We let it rest, then we heat it up on our charcoal grill and baste it with jalapeno butter to add some good fat back in.” It is sliced very thin, making it melt-in-your-mouth tender. Describing it as smokey, juicy, and flavorful, Gallagher said he considers the tri tip to be the best thing they do.
Prime Skirt Steak – “We just started working with Joe Morris to be able to get his skirt steak and tri tip,” Gallagher said.”And that is a pretty cool thing. It is pasture raised and local, which we believe is meaningful and we are excited about it.” In my opinion, one of the best things on the menu. The steak is fork-tender and full of flavor, smoked to perfection, and topped with jalapeno butter. It is great as-is, but I usually add just a little of the Kansas City sauce. It is on the steak menu, but is occasionally available as an option on the meat plates as well.
Prime Brisket – “There is a misconception that it is always just about how long you smoke it and what temperature,” Gallagher said. “We smoke our brisket for 12 hours and then we put it in a hot box at 160 degrees and let it rest. That way all the juices get reabsorbed.” The thick slices of moist brisket have just enough fat to add to the taste and are the star of one of Smoke Point’s appetizers, the Dirty Bird Fries. Chopped brisket, cheddar cheese sauce, jalapenos, and pickles are poured over fries—I am not sure you will want to tell your doctor about these but I suspect that once you have them, you will make them a habit.
Apple Ginger Coleslaw – I pretty much order this every time I eat at Smoke Point. You just can’t beat the crunch of the cabbage and onions, the sweetness of the apple cider vinegar and grated apples, and the spicy bite of the ginger for a refreshing dish that really livens up the plate. Gallagher came up with the recipe 20 years ago for a music project in Seattle. and it has been on his menu at various places since. This dish absolutely sparkles and it is my must-try.
The Barbecue Sauces – All sauces are house-made and available by the jar. The second thing that Gallagher told me the first time I met him is that barbecue is about the meat, not the sauce. Still, all five of the Smoke Point sauces that he developed are nice additions to any of the dishes – I even add it to the baked beans. The North Carolina combines butter and vinegar with a tomato base to create a dense, rich sauce with a light spiciness. The South Carolina is based on mustard and vinegar and works well with chicken., The Kansas City is my favorite, a deep, dark tomato based sauce with a complex spiciness. The Alabama White is made with horseradish and lemon—I buy jars of this to take home to use on fish. The Central Texas is a thin vinegar-based that Smoke Point uses on the pulled pork.
Recommendations for future Eat, Drink, Savor articles can be emailed to roberteliason@benitolink.com.
BenitoLink thanks our underwriters, Hollister Super and Windmill Market, for helping to expand the Eat, Drink, Savor series and give our readers the stories that interest them. Hollister Super (two stores in Hollister) and Windmill Market (in San Juan Bautista) support reporting on the inspired and creative people behind the many delicious food and drink products made in San Benito County. All editorial decisions are made by BenitoLink.
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