Opening a barbecue restaurant may not seem like a typical backup plan for a business school graduate, but for 24-year-old Benny Slan, it was a natural fit.
After graduating from Carleton University, Slan initially hoped to work in food manufacturing or supply management. His grandfather, a silent partner at the shuttered Mr. Greenjeans, was who got him wanting to work in food. But after months of interviews that went nowhere and a pandemic that kept people at home, the avid home cook bought a smoker and watched YouTube tutorials on cooking briskets to pass the time at his parents’ house.
Benny’s Barbecue founder Benny Slan learned how to make Texas-style barbecue while at home during the beginning of the pandemic.
Nick Lachance ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Star“I just fell in love with it,” Slan said. “The (smoking process) takes so long but you’re rewarded with this great product even with this cheap smoker. I just wanted to see how good I could get at it, and I have a big family so there’s always someone to feed.”
Slan opened Benny’s Barbecue in January 2022, at 2409 Yonge St., just south from the Lawrence neighbourhood where he grew up. Housed in the former Alleycatz jazz club, Benny’s is tucked in an alley (Slan put up a giant sign on the sidewalk so that it can’t be missed). There are no windows to peek inside the restaurant, which has a bare-bones, roadside pit stop look with football on the screens, a prop Budweiser racecar bolted to the wall, and country rock on the speakers.
Slan opted for Texas-style barbecue, the style ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½nians are most familiar with, as opposed to say, the thick molasses sauces of Kansas City barbecue or the Carolinas’ preference for pork. Specifically, Central Texas barbecue, characterized by the simple salt and pepper dry rubs rather than sauces and the Texas Trinity plate of brisket, pork ribs and sausage.
The brisket is the best indicator of a BBQ joint’s quality: it must be fork-tender but not mushy; cut to about a quarter-inch thick, glossy with fat that’s rendered down to softened butter; and a deep brown, almost black crust (called the bark) that’s firmer than the meat but not crispy or burnt. The smoked pork ribs, given a salt and pepper dry rub and a light glaze of house-made barbecue sauce, strike the right balance of tenderness but not falling off the bone.
Rounding out the trio is the house-made sausage with jalapeno and cheddar for pops of heat that go well with the sides — another important part of Central Texas barbecue — such as coleslaw, macaroni with sharp melted cheddar and garlic bread crumbs, macaroni salad with a chipotle buttermilk mayo, and beans cooked with brisket chunks and topped with fried onions. To finish, customary slices of white sandwich bread to sop up the juices are added to the platter.
The brisket at Benny’s is one of the highlights.
Nick Lachance ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ StarLike most barbecue joints, it’s best enjoyed with a crowd — it starts at $50 for a two-person serving — but Benny’s also offers a platter for one for $30. Aside from the main-meat trio, he also does weekly specials like burnt ends on Thursdays and Saturdays: slow-cooked cubes of pork belly with a brown sugar glaze. Fridays are chicken wings and Saturdays are Flintstones-sized beef ribs. The menu is small, but the slow nature of barbecue keeps him and the staff too busy to add to the menu. (The meats start their 10- to 12-hour smoking process at 7 a.m. over a combination of maple, oak and cherry wood.) Slan also has a wholesale outpost in Aurora, supplying places like Stack’d Deli Kitchen in the St. Lawrence Market.
He says that after two years of operation, Benny’s has worked out the kinks of maintaining consistency and cost management. Slane credits much of that to the restaurant’s pitmaster, Jason Rego, who previously worked at places like Piano Piano and La Carnita. “The goal now is to open longer. We’re only open Wednesday to Saturday right now, and we’re on a busy strip,” he says.
While Benny’s is a relatively new kid in the barbecue landscape, there’s an ironic connection to an infamous smokehouse. “The picnic tables we’re sitting on are from Adamson’s,” says Slan, referring to the Texas barbecue restaurant that used to be just east of Benny’s in Leaside (its owner was recently found guilty of running the restaurant without a business license after it flouted pandemic lockdown restrictions).
Benny Slan’s late grandfather, Joel, was one of the owners of Mr. Greenjeans restaurant, a longstanding restaurant that was once inside the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Eaton Centre.
Nick Lachance ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ StarSlan himself has another restaurant connection. His grandfather, Joel, was a silent partner at the Mr. Greenjeans restaurant that shuttered in 2014 after 34 years inside the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Eaton Centre.
“Mr. Greenjeans sparked my interest in the (restaurant) industry,” he said. “I’d have my birthday parties there; I went there in Grade 9 for Take Our Kids to Work Day.”
Joel died months after Benny’s opened, but Slan said at least his grandfather got to try the food. The aforementioned racecar hanging on Bennys’ wall .
“I always wanted to reopen Greenjeans but the scope is way bigger, it’s a six-page menu,” Slan says. “I was 22 at the time, 24 now, I was never going to open a full-scale restaurant like that. Our whole menu here is just what you see on the board, that’s enough right now.”
To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.
Sign in or register for free to join the Conversation