The Dominion Post
August 13, 2013
WOODBURN SHANKS
Pit BBQ is open from 11:30 a.m. -2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Maple syrup, yeah.
But barbecue … not so much.
So went the culinary life and times a couple of years back in Vermont for Derrick Shanks, the guy who is bringing genuine, Kansas City-styled barbecue to Morgantown.
Shanks, who hails from the flatlands of Kansas — Wichita to be exact — followed his wife, Katherine Garvey, to the Green Mountain State while she was studying at Vermont Law. She’s now on the faculty of the WVU College of Law.
The guy from the Midwest found out they don’t do barbecue Down East. At least not to his liking.
And that was the rub.
“I drove 45 minutes for the worst barbecue I ever had in my life,” he said.
“After that, I bought a welder and made my own smoker. That’s what got me into all this.”
“All this,” as in his Wood-Burn Shanks Pit BBQ, the barbecue joint that opened last week in the former Hot Sam’s location at Mountaineer Mall.
If you’re a purist of the pit- and Kansas City-styled barbecue, the proprietor says WoodBurn Shanks is your place.
Pit barbecue begins its journey to your plate over oak wood for heat, with apple or hickory wood added for flavor.
The Kansas City offerings are done out with a dry rub of spices, with a sweet sauce on the side.
Everything is done without the aid of a microwave oven or a deep fryer, Shanks said. Both are nowhere to be found at WoodBurn Shanks Pit BBQ.
“We ’ll never fry anything,” he said. “Just pure barbecue.”
And pure lunchtime joy for Brady Dalton, as he dug into the $5.50 lunch special: A pulled pork or pulled chicken sandwich, with sides of coleslaw, tangy pork and beans and a cheesy corn mix with ham.
“Oh, yeah,” Dalton said. “Good barbecue. Great flavor.”
And a great addition to the Mountaineer Mall, said Jim Palmer, who works down the hall at a branch operation of Mylan Pharmaceuticals.
“The mall needed something like this,” he said. “And it you can smell the barbecue when you hit the corner.”
Friday was the second day of business for the three-person operation made up of Shanks, his manager, Tami Osburn, and Tyler Reseter, the guy who makes the wood burn.
Osburn, a Morgantown native, is an expert on Texas barbecue, having eaten a lot of when she lived in the Lone Star state, she said. After that, she managed a Texas barbecue joint in Kankakee, Ill., before moving back home.
Reseter, who calls “everywhere” home (his father was in the military), is helping lay down the law on the barbecue-smoker in the back: He’s a WVU College of Law student who recently took his bar exam to practice in southwestern Pa.
Shanks said the place has plans to expand its menu with sausage, brisket and the like. It also has a food truck that’s ready to hit the road.
Shanks grinned when he thought about how he steered into his new career. Before Vermont forced him into some Yankee ingenuity with his welder and home-crafted smoker, he was a Web designer for eBay in Kansas City.
“Everybody always liked my barbecue,” the 37-year-old said.
WOODBURN SHANKS
Pit BBQ is open from 11:30 a.m. -2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Maple syrup, yeah.
But barbecue … not so much.
So went the culinary life and times a couple of years back in Vermont for Derrick Shanks, the guy who is bringing genuine, Kansas City-styled barbecue to Morgantown.
Shanks, who hails from the flatlands of Kansas — Wichita to be exact — followed his wife, Katherine Garvey, to the Green Mountain State while she was studying at Vermont Law. She’s now on the faculty of the WVU College of Law.
The guy from the Midwest found out they don’t do barbecue Down East. At least not to his liking.
And that was the rub.
“I drove 45 minutes for the worst barbecue I ever had in my life,” he said.
“After that, I bought a welder and made my own smoker. That’s what got me into all this.”
“All this,” as in his Wood-Burn Shanks Pit BBQ, the barbecue joint that opened last week in the former Hot Sam’s location at Mountaineer Mall.
If you’re a purist of the pit- and Kansas City-styled barbecue, the proprietor says WoodBurn Shanks is your place.
Pit barbecue begins its journey to your plate over oak wood for heat, with apple or hickory wood added for flavor.
The Kansas City offerings are done out with a dry rub of spices, with a sweet sauce on the side.
Everything is done without the aid of a microwave oven or a deep fryer, Shanks said. Both are nowhere to be found at WoodBurn Shanks Pit BBQ.
“We ’ll never fry anything,” he said. “Just pure barbecue.”
And pure lunchtime joy for Brady Dalton, as he dug into the $5.50 lunch special: A pulled pork or pulled chicken sandwich, with sides of coleslaw, tangy pork and beans and a cheesy corn mix with ham.
“Oh, yeah,” Dalton said. “Good barbecue. Great flavor.”
And a great addition to the Mountaineer Mall, said Jim Palmer, who works down the hall at a branch operation of Mylan Pharmaceuticals.
“The mall needed something like this,” he said. “And it you can smell the barbecue when you hit the corner.”
Friday was the second day of business for the three-person operation made up of Shanks, his manager, Tami Osburn, and Tyler Reseter, the guy who makes the wood burn.
Osburn, a Morgantown native, is an expert on Texas barbecue, having eaten a lot of when she lived in the Lone Star state, she said. After that, she managed a Texas barbecue joint in Kankakee, Ill., before moving back home.
Reseter, who calls “everywhere” home (his father was in the military), is helping lay down the law on the barbecue-smoker in the back: He’s a WVU College of Law student who recently took his bar exam to practice in southwestern Pa.
Shanks said the place has plans to expand its menu with sausage, brisket and the like. It also has a food truck that’s ready to hit the road.
Shanks grinned when he thought about how he steered into his new career. Before Vermont forced him into some Yankee ingenuity with his welder and home-crafted smoker, he was a Web designer for eBay in Kansas City.
“Everybody always liked my barbecue,” the 37-year-old said.