Mable's Smokehouse: A taste of Oklahoma in Brooklyn | The Dish

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For Oklahoma-style barbecue you won't find anywhere else, there is Mable's Smokehouse in Brooklyn.

"To me it's the ultimate comfort food," says co-owner Meghan Love.

"In Oklahoma, barbecue is, it's everywhere," says co-owner Jeff Lutonsky. "You eat barbecue two, three times a week."

"We have our smoker going 24 hours a day," Lutonsky says. "We'll load in the evening and let it go all night long."

"He grew up in Oklahoma, I grew up in Kentucky, and we wanted to take our family traditions and put them together and open a place on a wing and a prayer," Love says.

"Yeah, she was going to be in charge of the bourbon, and I was going to be in charge of the barbecue," Lutonsky says.

Husband and wife team Meghan Love and Jeff Lutonsky opened the joint five years ago in an old tonic water factory on Berry Street in Williamsburg. The name of the restaurant pays tribute to Jeff's late grandma Mable and her famous recipes.

"She grew up in Oklahoma like during the dust bowl," Lutonsky says. "She had a large family, and everybody grew up eating her amazing food and she was pretty famous for a few towns around for how good her food was."

A great way to sample some of Mable's greatest hits is to try the de lux platter: three meats and three sides, good for two to three people.

The ribs are coated in Mable's secret sauce.

"We make our sauce from scratch, and it is his grandmother's recipe and it hasn't changed," Love says. "So you're not going to taste anything else that tastes exactly like it."

Then there's the brisket, smoked until it's just right.

"This is the rub that's been smoked and turns black and hardens," Lutonsky says. "And just below that is the fat cap and after 10, 12, 14 hours of smoking it starts to render and just melts. And becomes real buttery. That's where the good flavor comes from."

"We're very proud of our collards, collard greens," Love says. "They're just so delicious."

"We have our mac and cheese which is just real no frills, down home," Lutonsky says. "Mac and cheese like you had when you were a kid -- gooey, Velveeta."

"The candied yams are a really big specialty of ours too," Love says. "They've got the marshmallows and pecans and stuff. At first they were seasonal, and we were like, alright, let's change them up, and people were like where did the candied yams go!"

It was a memorable first bite. It was the best rib I've ever had in my life.

At Mable's, it's all about southern hospitality and southern pride from the name of the smoker to the taste of the food.

"We just really wanted to make a place that felt like, sort of our childhood," Love says. "There's nobody that feels uncomfortable here, and that's what I love. That's the spirit of barbecue; it's the spirit of the south a bit. We really try and do southern hospitality."

"We have a lot of people that live in the neighborhood that are from the south," Lutonsky says, "and so they'll bring their family into town and say 'hey mom look, I'm eating well here! Don't worry about me.'"