Brisket, back bacon and and more delivered by local barbecue-loving duo

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At the end of a long day at work, Peter Zukiwski brings home the bacon.

Actually, strike that; it’s the other way around. The co-founder of Alberta BBQ Collective doesn’t hoard the bacon for his family, instead he delivers burlap sacks of frozen back bacon, brisket, chicken, sausage and a few other options for those craving the slow cooked goodness only barbecue can provide.

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It all started six years ago when Zukiwski, who also owns a small construction company, decided to get into some serious backyard cooking.

“I would do an event where I would roast a whole lamb,” he recalls. “The next year I thought to myself, what should I do next? I had all of these cinder blocks lying around, so that’s when I decided to cook a whole pig using the traditional cinder block method that you’d see in a place like North Carolina.”

Zukiwski was truly hooked on slow cooking at this point. After a few years of running his own catering company and finding his way through the local barbecue scene he began regularly bumping into fellow caterer Matt Lucas of Cornerstone BBQ. The two joined forces at various events and, over the last summer, began hatching plans for a collaboration.

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“The Edmonton barbecue community is so supportive,” Zukiwski says. “Matt and I have kept in touch over the years, and when something like a contract for a whole hog cookout came up, he’d ask if I’d want to do it. We would also join forces on things like the Great Kitchen Party with Levi Biddlecombe (of Why Not Café & Bar). Eventually we decided to work together on Alberta BBQ Collective.”

There are other meat boxes to be found in Edmonton like Bessie’s Box and Hungry Herd, but the Collective is exclusively devoted to the joy of delivering barbecue. The two-man operation launched in late November and has already found a customer base, even sending a number of their meat sacks down to Calgary. It’s a business endeavour but, for Zukiwski and Lucas, it’s also a way for them to further their goal of helping to build barbecue culture in the province.

“It’s not like we have a big lineage here compared to North Carolina or Texas,” Zukiwski chuckles. “We’re working on it, though. Matt has been tweaking his brisket, I’ve been refining my pork products. We always find that when it comes to bacon and cured products the main complaint is usually that it’s too salty, or that the meat is too smokey. These are things that we’re keeping in mind with our products.”

Chinatown Dining Week 

It’ll be takeaway only for this year’s Chinatown Dining Week, running from Jan. 14 to 24 at various restaurants in the area.

The fourth installation of the yearly dead-of-winter celebration of Asian cuisine boasts a roster of nine participating restaurants, all offering $10 and $18 menu specials. Kim Fat Market has opted in on the fun, joining with eateries like Namaste India, Padmanadi, and Syphay for a wide range of fare that includes Indian, Indonesian, Szechwan, Thai, and Vietnamese. These are all local, family-owned restaurants that have suffered through the pandemic, so consider dropping a few dollars their way when you next plan to order out.

yegarts@postmedia.com