By Mario Carr EBS CONTRIBUTOR
Yellow House Barbecue is run by Austin Brown and has been serving barbecue in Bozeman, off and on, for about 18 months.
“The fact of the matter is we don’t really cut corners. I’m using only Montana beef,” Brown said.
Pushing to serve their food two to three days a week consistently for the past six months has been a passion project for Brown and his crew, currently operating on Thursday and Friday evenings from 5 to 8 p.m., and Saturdays after 11 a.m. Brown has made his living in Bozeman running R&D catering for the past seven years, primarily catering private dinners and events in Big Sky.
“A lot of people come into this town with millions of bucks to start restaurants to invest in it, and we don’t have that. The fact that we have this 100-plus-year-old house that’s zoned commercial is kinda like the grace of god,” Brown said.
Located at 609 West Mendenhall Street, the yellow house of Yellow House Barbecue was built in the late 1800s and features a small commercial kitchen, and a small living space upstairs where Brown lives.
“We’re just learning as we go. It’s modeled after Texas barbecue. Most Texas barbecue joints are only open a couple days a week. The focus is on the meat,” Brown said.
Meat is weighed and priced per pound for each customer, and is served over the counter. Customers can take their barbecue to go, or bring their plate out back and eat at picnic tables. In the backyard, customers will see the piles of the imported wood used to smoke the meat, the smoker, and even a chicken coop.
“No wood naturally grows in Montana that’s good for smoking over long periods of time,” Brown said.
Brown uses a blend of post oak and pecan wood to provide just the right temperature and flavor for all of his meat.
“Post oak is known for central Texas barbecue. It’s a thick dense wood with a mild smoky flavor. It’s not gonna overpower the meat but you’re gonna know it’s there… Pecan is great, it’s a little bit sweeter, it’s a little less dense and it burns hotter. So we use a blend to actually manage the fire,” Brown said.
From the woods used to smoke the meat, the kind of smoker, and the cuts of meat, Brown and his team are dedicated to creating food that is a step above the rest.
“Right now it’s just in its infancy. We’re gonna start spending more time focusing on it but it’s meant to really focus on food and quality and community,” Brown said.
About a year and a half ago, EBS columnist Rachel Hergett met with Brown when Yellow House was getting started, and Brown was running his smoker in a tent, which he has since replaced with a shed.
“It’s absolutely my favorite [kind of cooking] and it’s totally a challenge… This is a Texas barbecue ideology, and that is, pain begat beauty. You have to suffer a little bit for the meat to be this good, and David’s learning that,” Brown said of his understudy, David Braun.
Brown is the Pit Master of his operation, but has enjoyed teaching Braun, his Pit Boss, how to prepare the meat.
“We can only make so much meat and we want to keep it quality,” Braun said.
The two work together with fire, thermometer and instinct.
“This is like we’re making a handmade guitar everytime we make a brisket,” Brown said.
Brown said that the private catering is becoming more competitive and saturated, so he is happy to have people coming to him for his barbecue, and hopes to continue to see his passion project grow. Currently, as they perfect their craft, Yellow House Barbecue is a “labor of love,” with minimal profits gained, Brown said.
“We live to serve… I do this to make people happy. When someone bites into something, and I know it’s perfect and I put my heart and soul into it, and their face lights up, that’s—of course to make money too, we all want to get paid—that’s the real reason,” Brown said.
Brown and his team are hoping to be open three days a week this summer, with more picnic table seating and live music.
