TORONTO — Beauty Barbecue & Smokehouse by Oliver & Bonacini Hospitality (O&B) opened its doors yesterday in the south parking lot of Toronto’s Bayview Village, offering a range of barbecued and house-smoked meats, saucy sandwiches, fresh salads and down-home sides.
Spearheaded by chef Anthony Walsh, corporate executive chef of O&B, Beauty prides itself on freshness, quality and playfulness. Beauty’s meats are smoked over the course of several days using a combination of white oak, hickory, pecan and applewood. Traditional barbecue options include baby-back ribs ($9 per half rack), barbecue beef brisket ($13 per pound) and barbecue-smoked chicken ($12 per half). The menu is rounded out by Torontreal Smoked Meat ($13 per pound), inspired by Walsh’s Montreal roots.
“Barbecue seems so simple, but there’s a lot of work behind the scenes that goes into getting it right,” says Walsh. “We’re applying time-honoured and classic Southern smoking techniques to put out delicious slabs of brisket, tender ribs, juicy chicken and more.”
In addition to barbecue by the pound or bun, Beauty offers a variety of salads featuring fresh vegetables from 100km Foods, Tamarack Farms and Cookstown Greens. The menu includes a Caesar salad ($8.50), kale coleslaw ($8.50) and BBQ Roots, Grains + Seeds Bowl ($9). Guests are invited to customize their bowl by adding one or two different types of meat.
The menu also features a selection of chef-driven, grandma-style sides, such as grilled cornbread ($3.50), Beef Chuck + Burnt End Chilli ($9) and a daily rotating barbecue soup ($6). To finish on a sweet note, guests can indulge in treats such as frozen key lime pie on a stick ($5.50).
Beauty’s casual, compact space was designed by Toronto-based Solid Design Creative and features communal picnic-table seating and a small outdoor patio, accented by aged steel and a chain-link fence to create a rustic backyard feel. Beauty’s whimsical and nostalgic design features quirky light fixtures and repurposed cornhole boards. Fully licensed, guests are invited to dine in and enjoy bottled beer and canned wine, as well as craft sodas and coolers.
