Texas meets Dominican Republic at new barbecue spot in Henderson

One of the most distinctive barbecue experiences in the Las Vegas Valley has recently set up smoke in Henderson. Hog & Tradition unites Texas-style barbecue with dishes and flavors from the Dominican Republic.

Hog & Tradition launched in Salt Lake City last year; Henderson is its second location.

Beef brisket, a core of Texas barbecue, anchors the menu at Hog & Tradition. The meat is rubbed simply with salt and black pepper, then smoked slowly over low temperature with a mix of hickory and mesquite, both of which are commonly used in Texas.

The pepper, wood, smoke and the stall point — the temperature at which a large cut stops cooking — all combine to create the brisket bark, that essential caramelized crust sheltering juicy meat within. Feel, not temperature, determines when a brisket is done at the restaurant. After that, it’s wrapped in butcher paper to rest, the meat becoming even more tender.

“Some things you don’t need to change, and brisket was the first meat we perfected. We keep it simple,” said Geoff Patmides, the chef-owner of Hog & Tradition, whose background seems ideally suited to a restaurant blending cultures.

He is half Greek and half Tongan, grew up with a grandmother cooking Greek food (including lamb on a spit), and is married to a Dominican woman, whose own culinary traditions he celebrates at the restaurant.

“We try and infuse every dish we can — where it makes sense — with Dominican flavors,” Patmides said.

Skin, fat and meat

That might mean sliced brisket accompanied by Dominican rice and beans made with a sofrito of tomatoes, garlic, cilantro and spices. Fried sweet plantains (maduros) or fried green plantains (savory tostones) might ride sidecar.

Chicharrón is made the Dominican way, Patmides said, which means the dish is not just fried pork skin or fried pork skin and fat.

“We actually smoke it first to tenderize the meat and render the fat, then we fry to order to crisp up the skin, so you get a well-balanced bite of tender meat, melt-in-your-mouth fat and crispy skin.”

The El Tigre sandwich layers brisket, chicharrón, Dominican-style pickled onions, sweet plantain barbecue sauce and chipotle mayonnaise: a crisp, meaty, salty communion the chef called “a beast, and the perfect balance of umami flavors we look for.”

Traditional marinades

Dominicans have a dish called pernil — pork shoulder that idles in a citrus, garlic, herb and spice marinade before roasting. For pulled pork, another essential of Texas barbecue, Patmides bathes his pork shoulder in a pernil marinade of lime, garlic, cilantro and oregano, then roasts the shoulder for about 12 to 14 hours.

The pulled pork stars in a Cubano sandwich with ham, Swiss, pickles, chipotle mayo and chimichurri mustard; in a heap of Hog fries studded with bacon, shredded cheese and pico de gallo; and in a Stacked sandwich topped with two classic barbecue sides: mac and cheese and collard greens.

Chicken, used in choice-of-meat sandwiches on Texas toast or in combination plates, draws flavor from wasakaka, a Dominican garlic herb marinade or sauce similar to chimichurri.

The birthplace of barbecue

A barbecue outing to Hog & Tradition might finish with Dominican dulce de leche, Southern bread pudding, peach blueberry cobbler or the signature ube cornbread (which fits nicely with the current Vegas mania for ube).

The restaurant is at 221 N. Stephanie St. in Henderson. The website, hogandtradition.com, includes online ordering. Hog & Tradition features a tap wall with 20-plus beers, a bar, wooden plank walls and whimsical flying pigs.

No doubt they’re headed to the Dominican Republic, one of the Caribbean islands where food scholars say the ancient Taino people developed what we now call barbecue.

Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.