Meat: A Love Story – Midnight Menu +1 – It’s New Orleans
Chef Rob Bechtold loves his meat smoker so much he sleeps with it. Well, next to it. And gets up every half hour to tend to the flames.
Apparently you can taste the love and dedication in every bite because Chef Rob and wife Emily’s NOLA Smokehouse sells out of barbq every single day.
Rob and Emily met on that romantic boulevard, Veterans Highway in Metairie, at the short-lived take-out for foodies Mecca, Foodies. Rob was a sous chef and Emily was making her first foray into pastries. Foodies came and went, Rob and Emily bounced around the New Orleans restaurant scene till Katrina bounced them out of town.
Obsessed with coming back to New Orleans and opening a barbecue restaurant, Rob and Emily started out with a couple of pop-ups before settling on their new home on Jackson Avenue near the river. Along the way Rob found his Buddhist path and his penchant for Bonsai.
This is a true story of love, enlightenment, and smoked meat.