High on the Hog

The last time we wrote about the Miami Smokers - in Fall 2013 - they were peddling bacon toasted krispy treats and, frankly, excellent BLTS at the Pinecrest Gardens Farmers Market.

Even then, they were talking about their plans for a community smokehouse and world bacon domination. A year and a half later, Andres Barrientos, 31, and James Bowers, 34, are holding court in their smokehouse and sandwich shop in west Little Havana. Fans will recognize memorabilia from the events that have kept the pair busy over the past few years — the BEER marquee on the ceiling from Basel Biergarten and artwork from Daniel Fila at Krave Art — but behind the door to the back, there’s a whole warren of rooms dedicated to the work of smoking and curing pork products.

“We’re on a mission to bring timeless curing and smoking techniques to consumers, one slice of bacon at a time,” say the pair. Once home to a bait shop, this space — all 2,700 square feet of it — is where they’re growing their dream.

Before they got involved in breaking down hogs, the two Miamians took apart old cars when they were friends in high school. They went their separate ways — Barrientos went into culinary school at Johnson and Wales while Bowers studied architecture — and reconnected later at Aaron’s Catering, where Barrientos was executive chef and Bowers worked as sous chef. After a pop-up brunch series, the idea of creating a smokehouse and turning out nose-to-tail charcuterie took hold. “We wanted to give people better food,” says Barrientos. “We made a commitment to look for better pork, with the best taste, responsibly raised.” They paid a visit to Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams in Madisonville, Tennessee, where Allan Benton taught them the ins and outs of having a smokehouse.

GETTING PIGGY WITH IT

They built their own bacon smoker and started making bacon by first curing, then smoking, top quality heritage pork. Like many food artisans, the Miami Smokers started selling their products at the farmers market, luring customers with the perfume of sizzling bacon and the quick thrill of candied bacon treats. They increased their visibility at high-profile South Florida food events, including the Basel Biergarten pop-up at Art Basel; Swine and Wine and the Grand Tasting at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival; Cochon 555; and Taste of the Nation at the Eden Roc, among others. Meanwhile, they landed on a space. The pair spent last April through November building it out, doing much of the work themselves, ripping out three layers of ceiling and four kinds of flooring. Then came construction of the series of rooms for preparing, curing, cooling and smoking. “The USDA wants a flow of how your product goes through,” Bowers explains. “A new product (raw meat) doesn’t cross a finished product.” The space was ready for a Valentine’s Day grand opening.

In the back of the house, each room serves a different purpose. The kitchen area is for preparing foods served in the sandwich shop. A packaging room holds the vacuum sealer. Other rooms, cooled depending on their needs, are used for making sausage, curing meats, hanging them and smoking them. They use cold smoking for flavor, not for cooking. “That’s barbecue,” says Barrientos. “We don’t do barbecue.” Instead, their bacon and smoked sausages go into the smoker to take on the flavors of apple, hickory and maple.

MAKING BACON 

For their products, Bowers and Barrientos are committed to using the best Berkshire pork (they don’t use beef) and other tasty breeds. These include the curly-haired Mangalitsa and Georgia’s Ossabaw Island hogs, whose lineage can be traced to Spain, and listed on the Slow Food Ark of Taste. Their dark meat is similar to that of Spain’s famed jamon iberico.