Yeah Baby’s opens on Brooklyn Street
A new restaurant in Morrisville offers year-round barbeque.
Yeah Baby’s BBQ-N-Grill opened last week at 387 Brooklyn St., the former location of Sabrina’s Bakery & Café.
Ted Hoadley serves up breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week at the 45-seat restaurant. He and his wife, Tracy LaFrance, decided to open a restaurant after successfully running a traveling food truck this summer.
The name for the restaurant came to Hoadley as he was experimenting with his recipes.
“Every time I’d pull something out of the smoker and try it, the phrase, ‘yeah baby’ would come out,” Hoadley said.
Hoadley began working in the food service industry as a dishwasher at Stowe Mountain Resort when he was 14 years old. He studied culinary arts at the Green Mountain Technology and Career Center in Hyde Park and worked various food-related jobs before becoming a commercial truck driver.
Last summer, he and LaFrance purchased a food truck and served up barbeque meals at festivals and other events throughout north-central Vermont.
“My wife bought me a barbeque grill a few years ago to practice,” Hoadley said. “We barbequed for our family that Christmas. It was such a hit, we decided to try barbeque (as a business).”
He honed his skills by watching cooking shows on the Food Network and Internet tutorials. He also spent six months perfecting a homemade chipotle-based barbeque sauce he calls My Way Sauce, which he sells at the restaurant.
“It’s how I like it,” Hoadley said. “A little bit of spice. A little bit of sweet.”
His food truck quickly built a loyal following.
“It was phenomenal,” Hoadley said. “The feedback I got was great. People wanted to know if I had a restaurant.”
When the space on Brooklyn Street became available, he and LaFrance quickly signed a lease.
The restaurant’s breakfast menu offers the familiar: pancakes, eggs, sausage and gravy, and corned-beef hash.
The lunch and dinner menus include old standbys — hotdogs, hamburgers, ribs and smoked chicken wings — along with some unique meals.
The “sammich” is an applewood-smoked pulled pork sandwich with homemade barbeque sauce, buttermilk coleslaw, and hand-cut French fries. The “all jacked up” is a six-ounce sirloin burger stuffed with smoked pepper jack cheese with bacon, lettuce and tomato on Texas toast. “It stands six inches high,” Hoadley said.
Some specialties are big enough to share. “The sampler” includes applewood-smoked pulled pork, smoked beef brisket, bourbon barbeque ribs, hand-cut French fries and a choice of buttermilk coleslaw or homemade barbeque baked beans.
There’s also a kids’ menu and side orders are available. Customers can eat in and enjoy table service, or order takeout.
Hoadley plans to add ice cream and creamees to his menu next spring. He’s also likely to host car and motorcycle shows next summer.
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Yeah Baby’s BBQ-N-Grill is open Sunday through Tuesday, from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Wednesday through Saturday, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Phone: 888-2333.
(1) comment
First of all... I recommend you go and check it out. I visited this place yesterday and had the brisket sandwich with the maple barbecue. I'd rate the barbecue and brisket an 8 out of ten. I'm picky about details but I had no issues with the taste and texture of the meat.
The hoagie type bun they served it on was wet and soggy on the bottom. (Not from barbecue) but it was tasty enough to make me want to go back and try the ribs and pulled pork.
The buttermilk coleslaw I had was fresh and rough cut (which I like) but needed more body and flavor. I watched the server dish it up from a deep plastic tub. Perhaps all the deliciousness had drained to the bottom and it should have been tossed first.
There are some execution issues that new restaurants often have. (Napkins way too flimsy for barbecue) (Fries undercooked). I asked for extra barbecue sauce and was brought a container that equaled a teaspoon full or less.
Go visit! A restaurant like this is clearly worth fostering.
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