Texas pitmaster Brendan Lamb, from TV show ‘BBQ Brawl,’ closed Smiley’s in Roanoke

Smiley’s Craft Barbecue in Roanoke is permanently closed, says owner and pitmaster Brendan Lamb.

The restaurant last served its brisket, sausages and other grilled dishes in the Central Texas style in mid-September 2021. Lamm confirmed in late November that the restaurant will not reopen.

After operating as a pop-up in Fort Worth and Ponder, Smiley opened in Roanoke in early 2019 to be on the doorstep. When the pandemic broke out a year later, sales fell. Until 2021, Lamb appeared on a high profile food network show called BBQ Brawl with chefs Bobby Flay, Michael Symon and Eddie Jackson. Surely that kind of national attention could boost smileys, right?

“We did enough each week to pay meat and our employees, but we had nothing,” says Lamb.

“And then the meat prices went up.” It’s a common refrain among pitmasters across the country: They struggle with inflated meat prices, with some restaurants charging their customers up to $ 30 a pound for premium brisket.

Lamb says he wanted to get more creative with Smiley’s menu, but he had to be careful not to prepare dishes that were already being served by other tenants at Oak Street Food & Brew. For example, he had to stay away from burgers or tacos because other shops in the Food Hall were already selling them.

Lamb was locked out in September 2021 for not paying rent.

“We rode it into the ground,” he says. “We always thought it would get better.”

Lamb is currently advising on other barbecue areas. He plans to host backyard events teaching grilling techniques with a company called BBQxo, and he’ll be back in 2022 at For the Love of Barbecue, a festival in Roanoke.

Smileys Craft Barbecue was at 206 N. Oak St., Roanoke. It was closed in mid-September 2021.

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https://www.dallasnews.com/food/restaurant-news/2021/12/01/texas-pitmaster-brendan-lamb-from-tv-show-bbq-brawl-closed-smileys-in-roanoke/