Smoke & Rye, Stone

Smoke & Rye restaurant and bar is a meat lover’s paradise. Serving up authentic, American classics like pulled pork, burgers and dogs, ribs and aged steaks, this is bold food. On my first visit, the place was packed. Read on to find out why.

I’d heard a couple of bar and restaurant owners bemoaning January as a difficult month. Nobody’s got any money and everyone’s on a health kick. But I reckon they should take a look at Smoke & Rye. When I visited one early January evening, it was chockablock with groups of twenty-somethings, families and couples. Evidence that, if you get it right, the punters will come flocking whatever the month.

SMOKE &  RYE

Smoke & Rye describes itself as an American restaurant and saloon. Opened in the Staffordshire market town of Stone in 2015, it moved to its current home on Stafford Street towards the end of last year.

While many are falling over themselves to accommodate the current trend for vegan food, Smoke & Rye is unashamedly for meat lovers. Yes, there’s a few concessions to vegetarians such as the Grilled Eggplant Burger (grilled aubergine, melted buffalo mozzarella, grilled tomato, pesto, white truffle oil, £11.95). But it’s really all about the meat. Pulled pork. Chicken. Ribs. Burgers and Dogs. Steaks of aged Staffordshire beef.

To drink, there’s craft beers (many imported from the USA) as well as wines and an impressive cocktail menu. There’s a range of premium bourbons which, were it not for Dry January, no doubt I’d have had a sample of.

Instead, I chose the alcohol-free Designated Driver cocktail (£4.95). This was a refreshing combination of strawberry puree, plenty of lime juice, mint and soda water. Combined with the bottle of tap water brought to the table, this big glass saw me through the entire meal.

CHICKEN & WAFFLE

I was in a bit of a dilemma about my starter. After becoming a fan of buttermilk chicken when I ate it at  Little Seeds Bar & Kitchen (also in Stone), I really fancied Smoke & Rye’s Buttermilk Fried Chicken Tenders, Belgian Waffle, Canadian Maple Syrup, Butter, Chipotle Sour Cream & Scallions (£5.95).

I loved the idea of waffle in a savoury dish. It brought to mind a certain brand of frozen potato waffle I used to enjoy with fried eggs. But it was that maple syrup that had me hesitating. I adore maple syrup and know it’s an American classic with things like bacon and pancakes. I’d even seen ‘clean eating’ US bloggers dolloping loads of it in things like tahini dressing. But maple’s just not a flavour I see sitting well with savoury stuff. Nevertheless, ‘Oh, what the hell’, I thought. Give it a go. You never know.

The buttermilk fried chicken was superb. Good and crunchy on the outside, soft and just-cooked in the middle. I loved the smoky chipotle soured cream too (chipotle literally means ‘smoked chilli’). The spring onion and chive garnish brought a touch of welcome freshness.

And the maple syrup? Sorry, but I’m not a convert. The waffle was crispily good, but I’d have loved a salty bite to it instead of the sweetness. It did remind me of a childhood favourite, except it was seaside doughnuts rather than potato waffles. Maybe I’m just too doggoned British.

ID made short work of this tasty dish. He did say (and I tasted them, so can agree) that the beans, nestled beneath the nachos and gooey loveliness, were more like barbecue beans rather than chilli beans.

For our taste, more heat was needed for this dish to warrant its name. With our main courses, an array of homemade sauces, including a nicely hot ‘Devil’s Spit’ was brought to the table. On a future visit, if we want a bit more of the fiery stuff then at least we now know we can ask for that.

Perfectly cooked, the meat barely needed to be touched with a fork before it fell off the bone. Soft and gelatinous, the moist beef was deeply flavoured. The rich barbecue sauce that cloaked without overpowering it had, for me, just the right balance between sweet and savoury.

The tasty bone marrow fries also brought to mind a dish of my own: potatoes sautéed in beef fat I made to go with Rabo de Toro, a tapa using oxtail. It’s great to see more places using and celebrating the parts of the animal much of Britain is childishly squeamish about.

The collard greens (a staple in the Southern states and which make me think of Polk Salad Annie and the fantastic lyric ‘all her brothers were fit for, was stealing watermelons out of my truck’), sat among a prodigous amount of rich sauce with little pieces of ham or bacon nicely studding it. Nevertheless the greens still retained their pleasant bitterness and iron-y nature.

After polishing off the meaty rib I sat back saying, ‘mmm… I could eat another one of those’. In truth, I probably couldn’t. Maybe just half a one. Or perhaps three quarters. Ok, four-fifths. Actually, no. I really could’ve eaten two of those whoppers, and hang the consequences. It was so good.

Nevertheless, the flavour was good and every morsel was eaten. His favourite thing on the plate was actually the slaw. In my book, that makes him a bit of a weirdo, but each to their own. It appeared to contain Savoy-type cabbage rather than the usual hard white found in slaws and was very fresh. He also liked that the well-flavoured, light dressing wasn’t mayo-based.

‘I could’ve had more of everything’, was his final conclusion. So I guess he was ultimately pretty happy with his choice.

OREO CHEESECAKE

There’s a fairly short dessert menu at Smoke & Rye, but that’s fine with me. I’m here for meat and ‘all the fixins’, not puds. I do usually like a sweet finish to a restaurant meal though, and I was perfectly happy with this creamy Oreo Cheesecake (£5.50). It came in a generous slab with a scoop of good chocolate ice cream. A blob of squirty cream plus chocolate sauce and buttons fancied things up.

KEY LIME SLICE

ID’s Key Lime Slice (£5.50) was good and tangy, sitting on a ginger biscuit base. It came with strawberry ice cream and was similarly dressed with choccie adornments.  He was a little miffed about that as they weren’t mentioned on the menu. He does love chocolate but wasn’t in the mood for it, one of the reasons he chose this dessert.

But he still ate the lot, scraping the chocolate bits off and eating them first. I told you he’s a bit of a weirdo.

RECOMMENDED

I enjoyed my first visit to Smoke & Rye and I’ll be back to sample more of their take on American food. Next time I’ll try some of their craft beers and maybe a snifter or two of bourbon as well.

Smoke & Rye is one of those restaurants where everyone’s head turns and eyes follow the servers as they come through with orders for other tables. Seeing the impressive plates of loaded burgers or fat ribs perched on a heap of fries only increases the anticipation for when your turn comes.

Most of this is not delicate food, nor for those light of appetite. But there’s some quality, knowledgeable and interesting cooking going on here and I loved the boldness. Front of house staff were friendly and on the ball too.

The food bill came to £54.65. Not bad at a little over £27 a head. We also paid an optional 99p which means that, via the Carbon Free Dining initiative, a tree is planted to help counterbalance the carbon footprint of the meal you’ve just eaten. It’d be great to see this offered in more restaurants.

I noticed an extra slip of paper attached to menus explaining that, having only recently moved to the new premises, things might not yet be running as smoothly as they’d like. But there’s really no need to be so modest. I think they’re doing pretty darned good.