Smoking Again: Pitmaster Leland Avellino Opens Takeout-Only Avellino Family BBQ

Leland Avellino checking on pit roasted chickens. On this particular day, he offered them three ways: dry rubbed, slathered with Kansas City barbecue sauce, or glazed with Alabama white sauce.

Leland Avellino is a name that might be familiar to local BBQ enthusiasts. Even if you can’t recall, there’s a good chance you ate at the Stamford branch of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que at least once. Avellino, who was a partner, didn’t only open that location in 2012, he went on to become the company’s corporate executive chef before he transitioned away from that role to return to the BBQ pits in Stamford because as he puts it, “I met my wife, had two kids, and life on the road wasn’t good for that, so I came back.”

When Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Stamford decided to pull the plug in June 2020 due to COVID-19, Avellino got antsy. He wanted to feed people clamoring for his smoked meats and he needed to get back to work to feed his family.

Avellino uses both cherry wood and oak to create a “clean smoke” so you’re not tasting something similar to ash in the meat, and to avoid creosote. “BBQ can be dirty,” he says. “But the smoke doesn’t have to be.”

“I was sitting home, I was bored, and I wanted to feed my people,” he says. “I bought this 500-gallon converted propane tank smoker on a whim. I looked at tanks in Texas, Kansas, I talked to pit bosses all over to find a good one. I bought this one (built in Austin) locally from a guy who was going to do something in Greenwich, and he didn’t because of COVID. I bought it without telling my wife! I pulled the trigger, and boom! Here we are!”

The “here” was in the Glenbrook section of Stamford at ONTHEMARC Events where Avellino uses a commercial kitchen space and parks his smoker by the front door. But starting May 8, they’ll be moving their smoker to Commercial Kitchen Sharing at 314 Wilson Avenue in Norwalk, near the SoNo Ice House.

At Avellino Family BBQ, he’s not doing the same ‘cue he did at Dino.

Like something Fred Flintstone eats for dinner, a big, juicy, fat marbled beef rib.

“The thing about Dino that was great was I had free form to do almost whatever, but now I can REALLY do whatever,” Avellino says. “We’re buying higher end stuff; Japanese beef, wonderful Berkshire pork, seasonal produce. I’m sourcing the best I can afford that people will pay for. The goal is to charge accordingly and treat the ingredients with respect.”

Avellino has a method for pulled pork. He separates the softer pork, the spice rubbed bark, some of the good fat, and the chewier parts to different quadrants of the board. The softer pork is pulled, the rest gets chopped with a cleaver. It goes into one pile where it’s sprinkled with a salt & pepper based spice rub, a ladle of vinegar based Carolina mop sauce, and mixed together.

As for the style of BBQ he’s cranking out…well, there isn’t one.

Some of Avellino Family BBQ’s Tuesday menu drops have featured everything from Korean inspired chopped chicken thighs over dirty fried rice, pit roasted sweet chili Alaskan king salmon, and recently, Avellino slow simmered a Mexican style carne guisada stew with brisket, pork, and veggies, served with Nixtamal corn tortillas.

Prime brisket that Avellino serves with house-cured jalapeños

And there’s more familiar BBQ fare, too. Pulled pork, brisket, bone-in beef short ribs, burnt ends, spatchcock smoked chickens, and BBQ friendly sides all make regular appearances, there’s just no telling what part of the country, or which culture Avellino will draw inspiration from on a particular week.

“The plan is to not have a plan, not to be tied to anything in particular,” he says. “If I want to switch it up, I can. Right now I have Korean inspired ribs on, and Texas inspired short ribs and brisket going. We’re going everything with it. Right now, my only limit is that it has to be great. If it’s not, I won’t cook it.”

If you’re salivating—and let’s be real, you absolutely are—remember, the menu drops every Tuesday on Avellino Family BBQ’s website and on Instagram. Once you know what you want, order online before noon on Thursday, and Leland’s wife, Sarah, will get back to you with a Saturday pickup time.

As for the future of Avellino Family BBQ, Avellino is taking it day-by-day.

“I don’t want to think past the next service,” he says. “In a perfect world, I’d love to be brick-and-mortar again, but I just closed a big brick-and-mortar, so it doesn’t make sense to do that right now. If it makes sense in terms of the landlord, profitability, quality, and consistency, sure. I like buying everything fresh, smoking it fresh. For now, I’d rather do what we do, limit the number, and make great stuff.”

Avellino Family BBQ
Pickup: 314 Wilson Avenue; Norwalk
https://www.avellinofamilybbq.com/