(Courtesy of The Pit Barrel Poultry Company)
Zev Zalman “Z.Z.” Ludwick is used to crafting and repairing violins, but the Kemp Mill luthier also has a lifelong passion for cooking.
“[It] started out when I was a little kid, and I was enamored by the family barbecues,” he said.
A fish allergy kept Ludwick from pursuing culinary school, so he began barbecuing as a hobby, serving up meals for friends and family.
“I just turned 62, so it’s been a long time I’ve been cooking for people,” Ludwick said. “I just took my barbecuing to the next level.”
(Courtesy of The Pit Barrel Poultry Company)
This “next level” is The Pit Barrel Poultry Company, a business Ludwick recently founded and owns in the Kemp Mill area. He said he expects its grand opening to be Sept. 21: the day before Rosh Hashanah.
The business currently partners with University of Maryland Hillel for catering and is available for catering and private parties in addition to its pop-up takeout restaurant in Kemp Mill.
Chicken hangs from stainless steel hooks in the Pit Barrel Cooker. (Courtesy of Z.Z. Ludwick)
Ludwick’s journey began when he discovered a product known as the Pit Barrel Cooker, reminiscent of a “55-gallon oil drum” with fire inside the barrel, heating the meat that hangs from stainless steel hooks at the top. Though the Pit Barrel Cooker works with most any grilling needs, Ludwick has found the most success with chicken.
“It was the juiciest chicken I’ve ever had,” he said.
What sets Ludwick’s chicken apart from that of other barbecuers? As the chicken drips down onto the fire below, steam rises and moistens the meat: “It’s like self-basting.”
The Pit Barrel Cooker’s closed lid ensures that the chicken is cooked from all 360 degrees at a temperature regulated by a damper on the bottom. Ludwick learned how to strategically open and close the damper to either increase or decrease the flame.
“So it was a learning curve, but once I got it dialed in, I was repeatedly just cooking the most amazing chicken, and I was sharing it with my neighbors and my friends and family,” he said.
It was one of Ludwick’s neighbors who, in May, floated the idea of starting a business.
“He said, ‘This is phenomenal. Everybody is raving about it. Why don’t you think of selling your chicken?’” Ludwick said.
The first step for Ludwick was to contact the Vaad HaRabanim of Greater Washington, which he expected at time of writing to provide the business with a kosher certification on Sept. 9.
“It was important for this to be strictly kosher,” said Ludwick, who is a Breslov Hasidic Jew. “I’ve gone to a lot of kosher restaurants in the last 24 years, and there’s no one doing a pit-style barbecue, so it was important for me to fulfill a need for the community.”
Right now, the business is Ludwick and a full-time working mashgiach who helps with the cooking.
Their menu is in its early stages with two food items: an applewood-smoked pulled chicken sandwich and an applewood-smoked chicken carcass, the latter used to make soup. The sandwich comes with homemade coleslaw, a bag of chips and bottled water.
Applewood smoked pulled chicken sandwich (Courtesy of The Pit Barrel Poultry Company)
The hours of preparation paired with the cost of kosher meat makes the $20 cost of the sandwich more than worth it, according to Ludwick.
“It’s very time consuming to produce the meat itself, then we’re putting a large amount on a challah roll with homemade coleslaw, coming with a bag of chips and something to drink,” he said.
Ludwick hopes to add other menu items once his business gets off the ground, but for now, he’ll stick to the basics.
Ludwick described his approach as “old-school, cowboy style.”
“I’m a traditionalist, and that comes from the way I run my violin shop,” said Ludwick, the owner of Ludwick’s House of Violin in Silver Spring. “I do it the same way they did it back in the 1500s, 1600s. … That’s part of my persona. So I wanted to carry that over to my cooking, to have a really authentic barbecue experience.”
The Pit Barrel Poultry Company is a way for Ludwick to give back to the community, as well. Having worked for 18 years at Nut House Pizza in Silver Spring, then Goldberg’s Bagels, Ludwick said he experienced the kindness of the Jewish community.
“I was a hippie heavy metal rocker working at the kosher pizza shop, and the observant community really … embraced me as one of their own,” he said. “I had long hair and earrings, and I didn’t look like one of them and I didn’t act like one of them.”
He plans to donate at least 10% of his profit to Yad Yehuda of Greater Washington, a volunteer organization that serves as the local Jewish community’s “financial safety net,” according to its website.
Though religion plays a deep role in what Ludwick does — “I believe this is God’s company. He just allows me to run it” — his goal is to show people that “anyone can eat kosher.”
“If food is good, that’s all people care about,” he said.