It seems like you can’t throw a rock in Central New York without hitting a Mexican or Italian restaurant. Lately, bbq has been making a major rise in Syracuse as a whole and it’s beginning to compete with Mexican in terms of quantity over quality. That’s not gonna stop me from wanting to try the BBQ joints as they pop up, however. So when Fire Pit Barbecue and Saloon magically appeared in the old Roadhouse 48 on Route 48 in Fulton, we pushed it right up to the top of the list for new places to try.
Admittedly, we have not tried EVERY bbq joint in CNY, but we have absolutely been to a few. Some where great, others an utter disappointment. Ray Bros and Piggy Pat’s are the number one contenders for us, but they are quite a hike outside of Syracuse. You’ve got your local Staples like Dinosaur BBQ and Limp Lizard that have almost cult-like followings but are also extremely polarizing. Angry Smokehouse threw their hat into the mix and made quite the splash upon arrival and we did enjoy several things on their menu. But all of them are now up against the newcomer in the arena that is barbecue and the smattering of styles available. Fire Pit Barbecue and Saloon wants you to take everything you know about barbecue and throw it clean out the window, because they have their own style that takes Carolina, Texas, Kansas City and deep south methods and rolls them all into one. And they do it beautifully.
We got there at 4:30 with a party of four adults and one child and from the moment we walked in the door we were greeted by people excited that we were there. The dining room is beautiful with natural woods everywhere just like Roadhouse 48 had, so it was nice to see that the beautiful design of the original place wasn’t gutted and replaced with tin roofing and slabs of sheet metal like you see slathered all over most barbecue places. One of the major draws to barbecue is the fact that you can take five or six core proteins and serve them hundreds of ways, just like what makes Italian and Chinese restaurants have such expansive menus. Fire Pit doesn’t hold back, featuring all of the classic smoked meats plus fried chicken, hand-breaded mozzarella sticks, shareable dips and even burgers and grilled cheese. The kicker is that almost everything shares one core ingredient in the appropriate places: their house barbecue rub. A good rub is hard to find. Even harder to make. I’m a pretty big fan of my own, but I’m obviously biased. Trust me when I say the owner, Jon, has perfected his rub and it just absolutely works in every application we tried.
There’s a smorgasbord of sauces to try and each one of them is different from the rest. There’s the staples like classic, Carolina mustard and chipotle, but they also have cherry jalapeño, honey garlic, blackberry sriracha, pineapple chili, orange cranberry, bayou, cajun, caribbean jerk and even more than I can remember right now. The standouts for us were the caribbean jerk and cherry jalapeño. The jerk takes a classic barbecue sauce and adds that zest and kick that caribbean jerk seasoning is known for, pairing the sweet and savory Kansas City style sauce with a punch of thyme and coriander. Cherry jalapeño was my absolute favorite and I would drink that sauce if it wouldn’t ruin me. You get the beautiful tartness of cherries coupled with the heat of jalapeño peppers folded nicely into their house barbecue in a way that adds layers to the flavor as you eat it. That cherry jalapeño goes great on everything. I could talk about these sauces all day, but I already know that this is going to be long so I’ll just leave it at those two for now.
For appetizers we got the mozzarella logs and Buffalo chicken wing dip. The mozzarella sticks were something else to say the least. Fresh mozzarella hand-breaded, they were creamy and cheesy and will make you never want to eat another frozen mozz stick ever again. The breading had crunch and perfect seasoning, the cheese had pull, the marinara added some sweetness. This was a unique appetizer that sets the bar for mozzarella sticks moving forward. Buffalo chicken wing dip is a standard, but this version had the right level of heat to be able to be enjoyed by people who can’t handle true Buffalo but still great for those who want to feel the burn a bit.
We ordered a kid’s mac n cheese for the youngin’ amongst us so he didn’t have to wait for us to eat and it came out quick. From what he said, it was delicious and creamy and the fries were great. Amanda ordered the brisket platter with salt potatoes and tomato cucumber salad, Scott had the Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich with mac salad, Chelsea went with Brisket Grilled Cheese and mac salad, and I landed on a two meat platter with smoked turkey, brisket, salt potatoes, smoked mac n cheese and corn bread.
Across the board, the brisket was wild. You could taste the rub and there was a thick smoke ring along the bark. Tender, flavorful, hand sliced and cooked to the point of barely needing a knife, this was some absolutely delicious beef brisket. It went wonderfully with every sauce except the cranberry orange, in my opinion, but the cherry jalapeño paired perfectly to bring that tart heat to go with the savory brisket. Chelsea’s sandwich was big, but not overwhelming. The sourdough bread acted as a perfect vessel for the brisket, cheddar cheese and whiskey peach barbecue sauce, bringing together textures across the board. Scott’s Nashville hot chicken had a very intense heat and the chicken was much thicker than expected and you could hear the crunch of the breading across the table. My turkey was the biggest surprise for me. Smoked with the same rub as the brisket and brought to the perfect temperature, the thick slices were so tender I never once used a knife on them. Most smoked turkeys end up a bit dryer than other meats, but this was moist and held so much flavor and held together beautifully. Caribbean jerk was my favorite sauce to go with the turkey, but the cranberry orange hit in a surprising way and left you feeling like you just ate Thanksgiving dinner.
For sides, the mac salad was absolutely outstanding. Creamy but also somehow not mayo-forward, this stuff needs to be packaged and sold by the quart. The tomato cucumber salad was marinated perfectly with the cucumber still maintaining its crunch but also having every bit of garlic, salt and oil in the marinade make it’s presence known. The salt potatoes were cooked perfectly, but the cowboy butter they were bathing in made the dish. Heavy on the garlic, the cowboy butter brought a Syracuse staple to the next level. Smoked mac n cheese was outrageous and brought a heavy smoke flavor to go with the insanely creamy sauce, but I would have to try the regular mac n cheese to really get a baseline and find the differences between the two. The corn bread was made VERY fresh and brought a tear to Chelsea’s eye as it immediately swept her out of NY and back to Alabama where her love for corn bread stems from. This ain’t your momma’s corn bread. Light, fluffy but also somehow creamy, sweet and corn forward like a corn bread should be, this was the perfect side to go with everything. The only way it could have been any better was if it had a butter sear to it from being griddled, but that’s just a matter of personal preference.
Fire Pit Barbecue and Saloon hits every single nail dead on the head. The staff were all extremely pleasant and excited to talk about the food. Chase, the Front of House manager, made it a point to check in with every table to see how everything was going and make sure everyone was happy. We had a mild hiccup with our food taking a little bit to arrive due to an error in the Point of Sale system, but Chase was sure to come by and explain what happened and ensure us that everything was on it’s way. We weren’t even remotely upset about the wait, especially considering this is the first week they are fully open and POS systems can be a fickle mistress to anyone. But the fact that the floor manager made it a priority to not only come by and check in but also explain the error and apologize without throwing a waitress under the bus and blame it on her made all the difference. Jon, the mastermind behind everything and owner of Fire Pit, was also going around and talking to tables to get their opinions. From what we overheard, every single person was thrilled with their food and their experience as a whole and we were no different. After our friends left to get the kiddo home, Chelsea and I ended spending another thirty minutes talking to Jon and not only hearing his story and methods but talking about the business and how overwhelming the support has been since their soft opening two weeks ago.
In the end, Fire Pit Barbecue and Saloon has a recipe for success in their sauces and house rub alone. Jon is extremely nice to talk to and everyone bends over backwards to make your time spent their worth every penny despite the prices being so reasonable it’s almost concerning. From the second you walk in to the moment you shuffle out the door with a food baby in your belly, you see nothing but people enjoying themselves. The food is absolutely outstanding and there wasn’t a single thing to even remotely complain about. Dinosaur and Limp Lizard better watch their backs. There’s a new heavyweight contender in town and they are, without a doubt, going to give every other barbecue joint in town a run for their money. If Jon can hold this momentum and keep the live entertainment and football specials going, he will absolutely be able to become a juggernaut in Central New York and take the title of Best Damn BBQ around. Next time, I absolutely must get my hands on some of the ribs we saw coming out of the kitchen.
264 NY-48, Fulton, NY 13069
(315) 402-2004