Greater Moriches coverage is funded in part by Angels of Long Island, a charitable nonprofit. Shopping at the Angels’ Mastic and Patchogue thrift stores helps Long Island families in need. Or, click here to donate.
At Mastic Beach’s new barbecue joint, Brandon Cahill shares his grandmother’s sauce with his diners.
Last week, Smoke Shack BBQ opened in Mastic Beach, where hungry guests can get a taste of Brandon Cahill’s grandmother’s renowned barbecue sauce recipe. The sauce tops pulled pork, racks of ribs and any other dish customers douse in it at their table.
What started as an affinity for his nana Jennette Cantone’s barbecue sauce turned into Cahill and his father Michael Cahill’s franchise. After the younger Cahill studied culinary arts at Johnson & Wales University, the father-son duo, opened their first of two Smoke Shack BBQ food trucks in 2017.
Six years later, the pair opened their first brick-and-mortar Smoke Shack BBQ restaurant at 490A Mastic Road.
“My dad and I pretty much built everything here,” Brandon Cahill said. “We moved walls, we built the kitchen, I’m most proud of the kitchen.”
The joint boasts an orange and green décor, a nod to the colors of the Cahill’s two food trucks. Fans of the trucks from state fairs or their former Center Moriches home base will recognize the menu’s pulled pork sandwich topped with sauce and slaw, along with the fully-loaded porky mountain fries covered in pulled pork, barbecue sauce, nacho cheese, sour cream and scallions.
Diners can also order up burgers, dogs, chicken sandwiches and wraps, or go full-hog on the motherload: pulled pork, thin sliced marinated flank steak and a fried egg.
The restaurant also offers chicken wings slathered in signature barbecue or three Buffalo sauces of varying hotness.
“We have the ‘Go cry to your mama’ sauce,” Brandon Cahill said. “It’s a sweet Buffalo sauce, but it’s extremely hot, the hottest sauce we have. It’s a creeping sauce. You eat it, you eat three or four wings, then out of nowhere it hits you, super intense.”
“Then we have the Hot as Hell, which is a classic extremely hot Buffalo sauce,” he continued. “Then we have regular Buffalo, which is a sweeter more mild Buffalo that is everyone’s favorite, so far.”
