Are you ready for some jazz & delicious bbq? Head on over to Brothers Smokehouse BBQ & Soul in Ramsey NJ. On October 8th, a friend and I finally made it to this place. I have been eyeing them since they opened and actively follow them on Instagram. Brothers Smokehouse is owned by the Farella brothers Gavin, Jamie & Chris. According to the restaurant’s website, they are the descendants of the Davis family who come from a fishing town called Beaufort, North Carolina which is the east part of the Outer Banks. The family had their own island called Davis Ridge. There, they would make everything from scratch and grow their own vegetables. Gavin, Jamie & Chris would spend their summers down in the Outer Banks. They credit their mom, Cheryll, as their biggest influence for their love of food and using fresh ingredients. Missing the comforts of food in the Outer Banks, the brothers decided to open a restaurant in Hudson valley New York in 2008. The website states as business began to grow in August of 2010 the restaurant caught fire and burnt down. Not willing to have their dreamed ruined, in 2012, they open their first 100 seat restaurant. It was time to for them to continue showing their love for BBQ to new patrons.
Now onto the food. They have a big assortment of choices. Yummy!
I started off with a glass of cabernet and my friend ordered a Long Isand Iced Tea which my friend thought was decent but in a smaller glass..
After placing our orders, delicious corn bread was brought to the table as part of our meal. This was by far the best corn bread I have ever had! It was sweet and flaky with a crusty top. When I added butter to it, it just enhanced the flavor. In discussing it with my friend her take was it was the most memorable part of the meal. It was undoubtedly the star of the show! Warm to the touch with a crunchy top and bottom layer, it tasted like Jersey sweet corn was picked and used to make this moist and delectable cornbread. If you like cornbread, we both highly recommend getting more!
For our dinners, we both ordered the two meat combo. Choose two from pulled pork, brisket, ribs, smoked chicken, chopped bbq, or sausage. It also comes with two sides. I wanted to get two that I would never consider making at home. I chose the brisket and the chopped bbq. Big Jay’s collard greens and potato salad were my side choices. The chopped bbq was fresh smoke chopped pork with eastern North Carolina vinegar based sauce. The brisket was pepper crusted and smoked. According to the menu description, it’s smoked slow and low for over 15 hours.
Let’s start with the brisket. I love pepper crusted anything. It was amazing. Tender, juicy and no fat on mine at all. So savory. Oh my God! The chopped bbq was phenomenal as well. This meat also was extremely tender with a slight tang from the vinegar sauce but not drowning in vinegar. The brothers’ home made BBQ sauce added even more appeal to the meat. Another family recipe. It was a little tangy with a slight sweetness. Some times I wonder if I am the only one who loves collard greens in my friend group. I have made them at home but never the way I had them at Brothers. So delectable. The waitress told us they were made with butter and bacon although I could taste some garlic in there. I would get them again as a side 100%. They are a must try if you like collard greens. The potato salad was just as good. I ordered it because of the reviews online. Nice thick pieces of potatoes with just enough mayo. I thought there may be a hint of vinegar in them but not an overpowering taste. If my description doesn’t say enough about how delicious the meal was, maybe the below picture will give you a bigger hint.
As stated above, my friend also ordered the two meat combo. She got hers with ribs and brisket and ordered coleslaw and baked beans as her sides.
She liked the rubs on both meats and thought they were tasty. While they each were evenly rubbed, she thought the rubs were slightly different from each other. She enjoyed the rib rub better but couldn’t pin point what exactly was different between the two. Her brisket was mostly moist except for one corner that was a little over done. Hers also had a strip of fat that didn’t fully render out and skipped eating that part. Her opinion of the the coleslaw was it under seasoned (could have definitely used a bit of salt and pepper), but she liked that it wasn’t super loaded with mayo. The baked beans had an unusual vinegary taste (She usually expects more of a bacon or brown sugar overtone for baked beans). She didn’t feel it was off-putting. It was just different. The good news is she would try both the coleslaw and beans again.
We were too full to order dessert but some of the options were banana pudding, pie of the day (ask your server), bread pudding, and a brownie sundae.
As time went on, it got a bit smokey in the dining room. It didn’t really bother us but felt it should be mentioned.
Right before we were getting ready to leave, a really entertaining jazz trio started. That is right up my alley. Next time I dine at Brothers I’m going to go right when the music starts.
If you try or have tried Brothers, leave a comment or contact me on Instagram at lisajersey0304
Brothers Smokehouse is located at
900 Route 17
Ramsey, NJ
The Food Connection 