Photography by Thanin Viriyaki
Located in Fort Worth but carrying influences from thousands of miles away, Smokey Beards Q feels like a case study in what happens when Texas barbecue leaves home, sees the world and returns with new ideas.
Owner “Tony” Ramadani’s journey to the pit was anything but conventional. An Albanian immigrant who arrived in the United States in the 1990s, Ramadani built his career in the restaurant industry from the ground up, working his way from dishwasher to restaurateur. Longtime Fort Worth diners may recognize him as the original owner of Mama Mia, the beloved Italian restaurant that helped anchor the historic McAdams building and earned preservation accolades after the structure was rescued from the brink of demolition…