Come with a Bear-like Appetite to Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ – Hartford, CT

Near the end of an epic Saturday with our buddies Alicia and Renato, we stopped by the newly opened Bear’s Smokehouse in Hartford. Perhaps by some divine work of Bacchus, god of gluttony, we saw a parking spot right outside the restaurant and snagged it. You know, we figured the closer the better, so we could roll ourselves out the car after we devoured ribs, pulled pork, Paw Paw’s poutine, and a ton of sides.

The cool thing here about Bear’s Smokehouse is they serve up super high-end tasting BBQ in a super low-key atmosphere—cafeteria style, in fact. You just line up, think about all the food that you can handle, order, then bring it back to a table either downstairs, upstairs, or in the summer out on the rooftop BBQ garden owner and Pit Master Jamie “The Bear” McDonald plans to open. Yeah, the same Bear who won the 21st Wing Bowl by annihilating 287 wings in just 30 minutes. To find out more about his competitive eating gastronomic victories, check out his site. And, if you feel daring, you could challenge him to an eating contest on the spot or even try to down the Bearwich for a shot at $500.