Memphis Fire Barbeque Company

Memphis Fire was a barbecue rub before it was a restaurant. The name rode a spice line — the Jet Set Spice Company — before it hung over a dining room on King's Highway 8 in Winona, and that order of operations still shows in the cooking. Stoney Creek sits along the highway between Hamilton and the Niagara fruit belt, and the smokehouse pulls from both directions. The kitchen runs an Ole Hickory pit, and the brisket, baby back ribs, pulled pork, and jumbo chicken wings that come off it are smoked low and slow rather than rushed to the pass.

The order usually starts with one of three plates. The Beef Brisket Entree is the cleanest read on the beef — a half-pound of hickory-smoked brisket with a choice of the Traditional Smokehouse Sauce or the house Tales of the Silk Road sauce. The Full Rack of Baby Back Ribs runs to two pounds. The Pulled Pork Entree comes with White Apple Slaw and two scratch sides. The house makes its own sauces and dressings, which is why the same brisket reads differently under the Smokehouse sauce than under the Silk Road. Diners who want the whole pit in one sitting order The Memphis Tour — pulled pork, brisket, and baby back ribs together — or The Smoke & Fire Combo for a shorter version. The smoked wings come by the pound, sauced anywhere from Smokehouse Mild to Mo Bay Jerk to the Alabama White, and the brisket turns up again, stacked cold, on The All-American Sandwich under a layer of house-smoked Sneaky Cheese.