When Australians think barbecue, we think a shirtless sunburnt dad char-grilling steaks on the Kmart four-burner; long summer afternoons cooking snags on the hot plate in the park; the charity sausage sizzle outside Bunnings. It's not often of thick slabs of meat marinating in rich sauce, of smoked brisket or short ribs.
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Wollongong chef Andy Burns is changing that, one pop-up venue at a time.
Burns is the brains behind burgeoning barbecue spots Son of a Gun (at Sifters cafe in Wollongong) and Two Smoking Barrels kitchen at the Illawarra Brewery.
The two CBD locations sprang up after the success of his earlier Illawarra venture, the Heritage Kitchen at Bulli's Heritage Hotel. In a town now obsessed with American-style street fare such as burgers, hot dogs and wings, his company - Burnsbury Hospitality - is serving up an even more classic US fare - pit-smoked hunks of meat bursting with flavour.
"I travelled in the States for a few months, ate a lot of barbecue and loved it. It's such a unique method of cooking, you can't get the same results any other way," Burns says.
"I love large cuts of meat, and breaking into the butchery side of cooking. I've been eating out my whole career, and you taste this stuff and have no idea how they make it."
Burns started his career in Mudgee, before moving to the Illawarra in 2006.
He had stints at Dagwood, Lee and Me, and Diggies before joining forces with fiancee Gen and his sister Shelley and her husband Gavin. Importing a large smoker from Kansas, the foursome began serving up barbecue at Bulli - pit-smoked pork neck and brisket, fried chicken wings, suckling pig, lamb shoulder.
"The idea for the Heritage was just to do something that nobody else really does in an Illawarra restaurant," Burns says.
The Heritage Kitchen is a much-loved northern suburbs institution, but it was when the family added a Wollongong pop-up kitchen that its reputation swelled.
Moving into the Sifters cafe on Market Street several days a week has brought pork, brisket and sandwiches to the city.
"Sifters does such an amazing job with coffee," says Burns.
"I used to go there all the time, and thought it needed food, and then the opportunity came up.
"It's pretty simple what we do there, but it was a good way to get into Wollongong, to increase day trade and do some lunches."
The Sifters experiment is paying dividends - Burns soon expanded again, taking up residence in the Illawarra Brewery with new kitchen Two Smoking Barrels. It's traditional pub fare with a trendy twist; pulled pork sliders, chicken schnitzel, soft-shell crab burgers, and fish and chips battered in the brewery's own beer.
With a huge new custom-built smoker on its way, Two Smoking Barrels will expand its offerings.
"We're just settling in, but once we get the new smoker, we'll get the big barbecue menu; brisket, wings, short ribs, the real 'down south' stuff," Burns said.
Wollongong's foodie scene has exploded recently, with a small bar and cafe culture to rival the hippest of Sydney suburbs.
Burnsbury is a new name on the block, but with Burns a veteran of the Illawarra cooking community, he knows what he's up against - and he's excited.
