For this week’s close-to-home road trip, the destination is the Dominican Republic by way of Bushwick.<\/p>\n
A new location of Bark Barbeque is serving up smoked meats and Dominican-inspired flavors, creating a dining experience that blends Caribbean culture with traditional barbecue techniques.<\/p>\n
The restaurant pays tribute to the Dominican Republic through its decor, drinks and menu. Guests can enjoy everything from cafecito to carnitas in a space designed to celebrate Dominican culture.<\/p>\n
Owner and pitmaster Ruben Santana says his approach to barbecue comes down to experience and instinct.<\/p>\n
“People want to use thermometers. I don’t use thermometers. It’s all feel, and it’s a skill that comes with time,” Santana said.<\/p>\n
Santana says the project took over two years, with many iterations, settling on the perfect smoker, coffee machines and open design layout, with everything facing the customer. <\/p>\n
He says much like his BBQ, it was a slow process, with a big payoff. <\/p>\n
“That’s why I took the time building up the business, the customer base. Slow simmer, but 100% worth it,” he said.<\/p>\n
The restaurant’s flavors are driven by locally sourced wood that is chopped and used for smoking in-house. Santana oversees the process himself, including the brisket, which spends 14 hours in the smoker before it is ready to serve.<\/p>\n
“It goes for 14 hours. Once you see that bark, you go, ‘OK, now I can get the foil on to tenderize the meat and get it to the finish line,'” Santana said.<\/p>\n
Customers can watch as meats are sliced and plated in full view of the dining room, highlighting the work that goes into each order.<\/p>\n
For Santana, the restaurant is about more than food.<\/p>\n
“To me, Dominican culture is sharing. It’s generosity. We want a place where you can come, relax and feel like home,” he said.<\/p>\n
One standout item on the menu is the Tres Golpes Sandwich, inspired by the classic Dominican breakfast. The sandwich features fried cheese, plantains, and carnitas. <\/p>\n
“Everything goes well together, and it was exciting for us to have these in sandwich form, in a place where we have the to-go customer too,” Santana said. <\/p>\n
With brisket requiring more than half a day to prepare, Santana encourages customers not to wait too long to stop by.<\/p>\n
When the day’s brisket is gone, the next batch is still 14 hours away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For this week’s close-to-home road trip, the destination is the Dominican Republic by way of Bushwick. A new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-303479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}