A new Aurora barbecue eatery is leveraging social media to sell its traditional, smoked Texas-style fare.
While owner Ben Slan grew up around the food industry — his grandfather owned Mr. Greenjeans in the Eaton Centre in Toronto —barbecuing started as a “COVID hobby.” He taught himself smoking techniques by watching videos online and started selling some meat to neighbours out of his parents' backyard.
“Not only that but testing things out, trying this, trying that,” he said. “Then you get your own sort of flavour and rub together. Everything I cook, I like to eat it, and seems people do, too. Most of our stuff is Texas style but some is a bit on the sweeter side, to appeal to the tastes in Canada.”
He quickly went on to open a restaurant also called Benny’s BBQ, near the intersection of Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue.
Now he’s taking his food north up the 404 to Aurora, offering pre-ordered pick-up out of a commissary kitchen on Industrial Parkway South.
Slan prepares everything himself, using wood-powered smoker, boosted by gas, to cook pork, brisket, ribs, turkey breast, sausages, and a variety of traditional sides.
It’s a lengthy process. On a typical day, the meat goes into the smoker around 8 a.m., with the pork or brisket cooking until around 6 p.m. The ribs are on for less time, usually around five hours.
Now he's up and running, Slan has taken to social media to promote his pre-orders in Aurora, having seen success using social media at his Toronto location.
“If you have an Instagram video that goes viral, you’ll be busy for weeks,” he said. “We had a video in March that dropped, that went a little viral. For three months straight, we were busy every day. The power of social media is real.”
In addition to the online pre-orders, Slan has partnered with Aurora restaurant owner Tom Antonarakis, who buys Slan’s meat wholesale to serve at his sandwich shop Stack’d Deli in the St. Lawrence Market, and also out of his catering food truck Buster’s Sea Cove.
“He was looking for the best barbecue,” said Slan.
“And we found it,” chuckled Antonarakis. “Good product brings out people,” he added. “Listen, I live in Aurora, we have nothing, not since Adamson’s.”
Partnering with Antonarakis has helped avoid waste, a major pitfall for restaurants, especially when it comes to barbecue.
Currently, pickups happen once a week on Thursday, with a cut-off of Tuesday to get in that week’s orders. But Slan hopes to expand to two or three days a week in the future.
“I kind of have to control it, based on how busy we are based on wholesale,” he said. “We’ve only got good feedback so hopefully that shows something.”
Aurora pre-orders can be requested online. Benny’s BBQ is based out of 305 Industrial Parkway South.
