Bear’s Smokehouse Barbecue, 89 Arch Street, Hartford, CT 06103
In June of 2013, Jamie McDonald IDP ’00 and his wife, Cheryl, opened an authentic wood-smoked, Kansas City-style barbecue take-out restaurant in Windsor, Connecticut, in a space no bigger than a bedroom. The popularity of Bear’s Smokehouse Barbecue exploded, prompting McDonald, a Kansas City native, and his wife to open a new location on Arch Street in Hartford, a short drive from Trinity’s campus. The menu offers all-American barbecue classics featuring meats from beef brisket to racks of ribs, and sides from mac ’n’ cheese to mashed potatoes. The Hartford eatery has taken off, earning a review from a New York Times writer who said the restaurant’s food was the path to “barbecue heaven.” For more information, visit www.BearsBBQ.com, and be sure to follow @ReporterAroundHartford on Instagram.