It’s not unusual for people to line up, sometimes for hours, outside Alameda’s Fikscue Craft BBQ to try owners Fik and Reka Saleh’s blending of Texas barbecue with Indonesian dishes. First launched as a pandemic pop-up, the restaurant’s popularity has only been bolstered by a steady stream of media attention, from being named one of the best new restaurants in America by Eater to a nod from the New York Times as one of the publication’s favorite places to eat in the country. The Salehs have even gone on to open an outpost in San Francisco proper.
“Indonesian food is very underrepresented here in the Bay Area. It’s a great way to introduce people to it by pairing it with something many are familiar with, so I think that’s why our restaurant has resonated with people,” Reka Saleh tells SFGATE.
Fikscue is one of several restaurants pushing the boundaries of what traditional American-style barbecue looks like in California. In Orange County, Winnie Yee-Lakhani of Smoke Queen incorporates Chinese and Malaysian flavors into her meats in Garden Grove. Moo’s Craft Barbecue and Heritage Barbecue, both in Southern California, lean heavily into Mexican and Latino flavors, crafting brisket tacos and rethinking traditional barbecue sides. Chad Phuong of the pop-up Battambong BBQ in Long Beach, meanwhile, interweaves Cambodian flavors and spices into his Texas-style offerings, earning him the nickname “the Cambodian Cowboy.”
And that’s just the beginning: Consider the Armenian American barbecue at the underground Los Angeles joint Il Mas, the often Hawaii-inspired flavors at Simi Valley’s Zef BBQ, and Smokin’ D’s in SF’s Outer Sunset, which incorporates both Mexican and Asian influences…