(grunting)
- Just got in here. Now it's 7:00 am.
We're prepping the spare ribs.
What we're looking to do is to give the ribs
a nice shape and for them to look good
because we know that if there's anything wrong,
our friends in Texas are gonna let us know.
The L.A. barbecue scene is really at its infancy.
The type of barbecue culture that they have
in Texas, they don't have it here.
You know, there's no reason why California cannot
become its own barbecue region.
I'm gonna season them.
You go around Texas, you go around different places.
You see how a lot of people,
really are doing things the same.
We change it up. You know, we'll find some kind of a spice.
We'll introduce it. We'll try something here that we like.
You know, we're not married to one thing.
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Get these in.
They have to go in first, then get the chicken in,
and then have the brisket for the rest of the day.
We have to go in shifts.
We only have one small smoker.
That's all we can work with here.
You know, we want to get the big smokers,
but our municipality here does not allow it.
So it's either this, or no barbecue.
We gotta get a few more in.
It's about 7:30 in the morning
and we have to just keep going.
So we're ready for 11 o'clock service.
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Ribs have been on for about two and a half hours, now.
So you can already see that they're getting,
they're starting to bend.
That bend means that the rack is relaxed.
These are pretty much done.
We're just gonna sauce a little bit.
And then this is our house barbecue sauce.
Let it set. Give them a nice color.
All right. So then, we'll let them finish.
I leave the door cracked over here, a little bit
to get, get rid of some of that smoke.
Cause I want some of that humidity out, and that's it.
So now we're gonna start prepping our chicken.
So the chicken will be ready to go.
To go in, once these come out.
Now that the ribs are in the smoker,
second thing we gotta do is we gotta break down the chicken.
Rafa can show us how we do it.
Say hello to the camera. This is Rafa.
He is our prep ninja. He runs the kitchen.
- Okay?
The process is, first I need to take the back out.
Got it.
- [Burt] We use our shears to open them up.
We spatchcock them, we split them up,
season them, and they go into the smoker
For this one, we need mustard.
Yellow mustard. little bit, little bit,
little bit, little bit.
- [Burt] That's a very liberal amount of mustard.
Rafa also does massages on the side.
He does bar mitzvahs, weddings.
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So we always do the bottom side first,
and then the vanity side that's up on top.
So the rub is not disturbed.
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- [Rafa] Okay, they're ready for the smoker.
- [Burt] All right.
Our ribs are ready.
They got a nice color.
The sauce has set.
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Nice color, huh?
Sure. - It's perfect.
(Burt making kissing sounds) (Rafa laughing)
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- [Burt] What Rafa is doing now is
pulling out some sheets of foil
for us to wrap the ribs.
This is our house barbecue sauce.
It's something that started in the backyard.
It was kind of like a version of Sweet Baby Ray's
that has evolved over time.
You wanna wrap it in so it stays.
It's nice and tight in here. It won't leak, stays warm.
We add the little sauce to it.
So there's moisture in the package.
And we find that, you know people just love a messy rib.
The one thing I can tell you about spare ribs is that
when you cook them, when you eat them,
a lot of places will say like, "fall-off-the-bone ribs."
The thing is that when they fall off the bone they're
a little overcooked. You want to get technical about it,
it has to have just a perfect bite.
They go into the holding cabinet.
And, then get the chicken in.
We could smoke these whole. We don't.
This is quicker, and also the smoke penetrates it.
If I would smoke it whole, it really
wouldn't be as smokey.
It wouldn't get that flavor.
And then we finish them on the grill,
on the pickup or when there's an order.
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This is our brisket.
Prime brisket.
You can't think about barbecue, and not think about brisket.
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We're finding different uses for it,
because brisket definitely has become a lost leader.
So everything that we trim off, we use for our burgers.
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We trim it. So, my flat area is not too thin.
So it won't burn. So I have a good layer, here.
It's protected by fat.
Growing up in a Jewish household,
of course, we have a lot of brisket.
There's always a holiday that calls for it.
But that is prepared a different way. We braise it.
So when the first time I had it in Texas,
I thought these people were crazy.
But you know, there's a certain kind
of magic that happens in that smoker.
This is a trimmed brisket.
It's clean. It's got a good shape.
All this trim here is gonna go for burgers.
We'll break it down a little bit more,
before we do it, so we can separate
and control the fat ratio.
- All right. So I'm gonna start to put
the machine ready for grinding meat.
You know, this is for our burgers.
It's all the brisket. 80% of meat and 20% of fat.
(grinding sound)
It's really different than the other burgers.
I really love it because the flavor is really different.
First thing is because it's smoked.
So it's so good.
We start doing like a ball.
And then we have a little container
to make up patties, like really, really circled.
I love this thing.
It's easier to make a patty, you know?
The sizes are really consistent.
That's the process. I make the patties,
and I give them to Rafa.
He's doing the rest and finishing.
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- We're about to start our cheese sauce
for our mac and cheese.
We've already incorporated our heavy cream, milk.
Then we're gonna start making our roux,
then we're gonna incorporate it.
This is just a traditional roux.
Here, we'll add the butter.
Start letting it melt.
Mac and cheese is one of our best
selling sides here at, at Slab.
We're at that stage where we're gonna add our flour in.
We'll let this cook down.
- [Burt] Uh, we could make mac and cheese once a week,
and make in bulk, and keep it in the walk-in.
But A, our walk-in is very small,
and B, we go through so much mac and cheese,
and we are constantly making it.
So we'll start the day with a larger batch.
But as the day goes by, we keep making more and more of it.
- [Abraham] Getting ready to incorporate the cream
into this roux, get it nice and thick.
- [Burt] And then of course, we have
this delicacy right here.
Nothing says America like a mountain of Velveeta.
- [Abraham] The roux and the cream have, have incorporated.
It's thickened up. You can see the ripples in the cream.
You can see from Joel's forearm.
He's, he has pretty good practice at it.
It's a pretty, pretty buff, buff forearm.
Some of these sides kind of complement the meat
with the acidity. So it kind of breaks the rich
in both flavors from the smoked meat.
And then for service, we go ahead and
put it into another pan and we'll add a cooked pasta
that we cooked.
So that way, when the customer gets here,
we make super fresh mac and cheese and it's not soggy pasta.
- All right. So this is some R&D stuff
that we're working on.
This is a bone-in Australian Wagyu steak.
We're doing all this barbecue,
all this Texas stuff during the day.
We're thinking, you know what can we do
with the space at night?
And that's when the idea of really maybe turning
it into some kind of a steakhouse.
I'm just gonna season it.
It's so fatty. So if you rub it a little bit,
fat starts to melt.
So I'll use that fat as my binder.
Same rub as I would do for brisket.
Take it cold. So it will sit in the smoker longer.
Versus if you were gonna grill it.
Often, you would temper it and bring it to room temperature.
I want it cold. So it'll sit in the smoker for longer time.
All right. So I'm gonna put it
in this colder side of the smoker.
Smoke it until it's about 115, 118 degrees.
Let it rest a little bit, and then finish it on a grill.
We gonna make our pepper sauce for the steak.
Steak au poivre, with a pepper sauce
is something that I always enjoy.
I always like to order when I go to different restaurants.
It's something that I enjoy.
We have so many different ideas for different things
that we wanna do. Something different that will excite
our usual guests, our neighbors, our friends.
For them to come and, and have
like a different experience.
We're gonna use this charcoal, the binchotan.
Because it gets hotter and it holds heat for a longer time.
If I would bring in the charcoal
or embers from the smoker,
that falls apart and becomes dust very quick.
This can stay hot and stay strong for four hours.
All right. So, here's our uh, steak that we smoked.
And now we will finish on the grill.
Let it sit there for a minute.
Flip it around a few times, bring it to 125.
You can see it's very soft.
All right. Steak is almost done.
Drop some fries. (clanking sound)
Take it out.
Gonna cut out, cut into the steak.
I'm excited. This is uh,
Marble score Seven Australian Wagyu.
I haven't cut a steak, into a steak this nice in so long.
And it looks like this one turned out pretty nice.
Let's get some of this pepper sauce.
So this dish over here is where we want
to see our place go move forward.
Playing with more fire. Playing with more meat.
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I guess now all we gotta do is, is try it out.
Now that I've tried it,
I'm gonna work probably with the seasoning
of this to create its own unique rub.
That'll be specific for our steaks,
and for anybody who likes this
to have a couple of friends come over,
and have this tray, I think they'll be very happy.
Burgers are coming out.
They're not fully cooked.
We'll just finish them on, on the grill.
We have a beautiful tray of burgers.
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When people come to Slab, I want them to walk away,
of course, feeling content.
Like Maya Angelo said that what matters most
is how you make people feel.
You know, for that guest to be reminded of a certain trip.
Feel good, laugh, smile.
Just have an overall good experience.
Really in some cases, to live here optimistic,
that you know what L.A. is becoming its own barbecue town.
And, we are here at Slab to just.
Again, to just be part of that game, part of that sandbox.
And it's an honor for us to do this
with all of our friends and colleagues.
We are here to have a good time.
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