Owners D’Andre Carter and Heather Bublick created a monument to art and community with their first sit-down restaurant, opening on Tuesday, September 1
Soul & Smoke’s unique take on Chicago-style barbecue has steadily grown since it started in 2015 as a casual menu option for a fancy catering business. The operation now has multiple counter-service spots, including a seasonal concession stand at Soldier Field. Its two food trucks can often be found at events around the city. A retail line of bottled sauces and rubs bears its name, too. But on Tuesday, September 1, Soul & Smoke’s husband-and-wife team, chef D’Andre Carter and sommelier Heather Bublick, take their biggest leap yet with the opening of their highly anticipated table service restaurant inside the Evanston building at 1601 Payne Street.
“We’ve been serving thousands of people a year, which has been such a blessing, but it’s always been at festivals with a food truck or with takeout,” says Bublick, who met Carter while working at chef Homaro Cantu’s innovative Michelin-starred restaurant, Moto. “This is the first time we’re able to invite people in and give them the full version of Soul & Smoke.”
Carter’s food at the new restaurant pays respect to his time working in fine dining and his passion for barbecue that took root as a child when he would help his grandmother, the family’s pitmaster, with the grilling for Sunday suppers at her South Side home…