The Lancaster Smokehouse

The Lancaster Smokehouse cooks Southern barbecue on Ontario terms. The contradiction is the point: brisket and pork smoke overnight over local hickory and ribs ride the heat for four to five hours in the Memphis tradition, while the rest of the menu answers to Waterloo County. Quebec curds and house-smoked Montreal smoked meat turn up in croquettes and poutine, maple-cured Ontario pork loin stacks into a sandwich, and a French-Canadian onion soup arrives built on Ontario whiskey. Locals call it The Lanc, and it works the gap between those two kitchens on Kitchener's Bridgeport edge.

The barbecue board runs deep. Beef brisket arrives sliced with cornbread and two sides or stacked into a sandwich with a dirty build of crispy onions, pickled jalapenos, dilly coleslaw, and horseradish white sauce. There are full and half slabs of ribs, pulled pork, smoked chicken legs, and house maple-garlic sausages, and pig tails plated with cornbread for anyone who wants the cut most kitchens skip. The fried chicken holds its own beside the smoke — a half or whole bird, tenders, or the spiced-oil-dipped hot version in medium or hot heat, served on white bread the way the form demands. A whole fried bird runs to ten pieces with four large sides and four squares of cornbread, an order built for a table rather than a plate.