Barbecue feels like it should have this kind of honesty.
Outside, Steve Schalk — clad in a well-worn black T-shirt and leather work gloves — is loading massive timbers from a cargo container onto a forklift. He owns the place, but really doesn’t look the part. In fact, several of his new employees didn’t know he was the owner, he’s pretty unassuming working outside in the cargo container. Inside, Mike Fernandez yells “Hot food in the window!” from the kitchen into the massive dining room. It’s his handwriting on the chalkboard on the entryway in the converted Walgreen’s drug store space. Fernandez founded Moe’s Original Bar B Que in Vail more than a decade ago, and has since opened more than 25 Moe’s Original restaurants nationwide.
When Fernandez started Moe’s in Vail in 2001, he was looking to continue a flavor he learned years ago in Tuscaloosa, Ala., from his original barbecue mentor, Moe. That slow-smoked flavor, fired by fruit wood and plenty of sauce, permeates Moe’s menu. All the Southern staples are there: pulled pork (Schalk’s favorite), smoked chicken and wings (another of Schalk’s favorite), brisket and hot links are front and center on the menu. Fernandez flies in his catfish from “the same one dude in Alabama” that supplies all his restaurants, but he said he’s proud to use local flavors in his side items that are constantly rotated.
“I think people will notice that our sides are really seasonal to the produce available around here,” Fernandez said.
Aside from the traditional barbecue staples, Moe’s has evolved to include a broader range of flavors including a fried shrimp sandwich (Fernandez’s favorite), smoked turkey (Zaranski’s favorite), grilled Mahi Mahi and a smoked tofu. Fernandez said special items like a smoked meatloaf sandwich are on the way soon.
“We make it pretty easy, our food isn’t over-smoked. We try to gear it toward kids and grandmothers,” Fernandez said. “(In Colorado) I think you see a lot of Texas-style barbecue, and we’re doing a Southern style. That’s one reason we started in Vail, there was no barbecue up there,” Fernandez said.
The flavors and wood smoke permeate the food like Fernandez’s Alabama drawl. Ribs drip and shred with slow-cooked attention that only comes from hours of low-temperature work. Despite specializing in food that takes hours to prepare, Fernandez said that Moe’s secret has been making enough food for the day, and starting over again tomorrow. They don’t prepare food to sell for several days.
For Schalk, Fernandez and partner Greg Zaranski, the Aurora Moe’s is the third metro-area location for their brand of barbecue, but it’s still fairly significant.
The location on Parker Road near Havana Street is the second Moe’s with a bowling alley and arcade, a formula brought from a Moe’s Original on Broadway in Englewood that’s become so popular that parking is hard to come by on busy nights.
“That’s why parking was so key for us here,” Schalk said.
Plenty of parking on the outside and plenty of space inside. Located in what’s becoming a significant restaurant triangle in Aurora, the area at Parker Road is bustling with more than 70,000 motorists every day, Schalk said. There is a mix of high-density housing, high-density office buildings, homes and people that make the location ideal for a restaurant.
Schalk isn’t a stranger to metro area entertainment either. In addition to owning all three of the metro-area Moe’s, including the bowling Moe’s in Englewood, Schalk is the longtime owner of the Gothic Theater. Other restaurants have followed his path like Lucky Strike and Punch Bowl Social in Denver, and Schalk said he envisions many other people will like his idea for Aurora too.
“I used to tell people come for the barbecue and stay for a bowl,” Schalk said. “Maybe that’ll be good for 2014 now. ”
Despite Schalk’s acumen for entertainment, Moe’s is working for him and his partners because of the food.
“That’s how you know you have a good product, when you have people that care about the business and they’re working in it. You don’t want someone who just buys the business and hands it off,” Zaranski said.
That includes cooking every order or driving the forklift out front, it seems.
Cool screen!!