When award-winning Mediterranean restaurant The Aperture closed its doors in Walnut Hills at the end of last year—and then reopened as a lunch-only barbecue spot earlier this month—foodies across the Queen City were surprised. But for chef/owner Jordan Anthony-Brown, cooking barbecue feels like getting back to his roots.
“I grew up in a family where we did backyard barbecues, whether it’s in Cleveland, or down here in Cincinnati, or traveling to Texas,” Anthony-Brown said. “In the wake of The Aperture closing, I’ve been going back to what led me into cooking in the first place. And for me, that’s watching my dad and my grandpa at six in the morning with a cup of coffee in the backyard. It’s revisiting that tradition and ritual of cooking that I think I may have gotten away from a little bit.”
The new menu at The Aperture is a meld of several different styles. Anthony-Brown will be pulling from his Midwestern roots for the barbecue, of course, but also from his trips to Texas and his collegiate experience in North Carolina.
The restaurant hasn’t forgotten its Mediterranean roots, either: for example, their collard greens are made with nduja, a spicy, spreadable Calabrian sausage, instead of the traditional pork…