See also: - Best of Denver 2013 Readers' Poll: The Food & Drink finalists - Memphis BBQ is served, sauce optional, at Yazoo Barbecue Company - Get a cue: You'll like Yazoo
And soon there will be a lot more to love at the original location: Hines now owns the entire corner downtown. "Thank goodness the people finally sold me the property," he says. "I can control my own destiny."
And what will that destiny be? He's in the process of expanding Yazoo to 4,000 square feet, not including the seating on the upper deck that he'll construct on top of the building. "It's going to totally change things," he says. "Before, I had a four-topper there and could only seat sixteen; now I'll be able to seat more than seventy people, no matter what the weather is."
He'll also be able to expand hours until late in the evening and expand the menu to offer more items. For starters, he'll finally have room for a fryer, so that he can offer fried pickles and catfish. He's also thinking about adding pickled green beans and "tossing around the idea of some hash-brown baked-potato salad," which no one else in town is doing, he notes. He'll feature daily specials, things like smoked sirloin tri-tip, smoked beef and pork tacos. And he'll also be able to do catering jobs -- while he had the smoking capacity, the current space didn't have enough room to prepare the food.
When will all of this barbecue goodness start smoking? Construction is already under way; Hines anticipates that the project will be done by the end of June. In the meantime, the original spot remains open for business. And when the work is done, Hines promises that one special feature will remain unchanged: "I will still have parking in the back." A version of this story originally appeared in Cafe Bites, our weekly newsletter dedicated to the Denver drinking and dining scene that appears in e-mail inboxes every Wednesday. Find out how to subscribe to Cafe Bites here.
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