The Smoke Shop

Where did you learn to cook?

Andy Husbands is the award-winning chef, author, and Pitmaster behind The Smoke Shop, Boston’s acclaimed barbecue restaurant and winner of Boston Magazine’s 2018 & 2019 “Best Barbecue Restaurant,” and “Best Barbecue 2018” by The Improper Bostonian. With locations in Kendall Square, the Seaport District, Somerville’s Assembly Row, and Harvard Square, Husbands is “smoking” the competition. After nearly 30 years in the restaurant industry, Pitmaster Andy Husbands serves as one of the city’s most celebrated culinary leaders and foremost authority on regional Barbecue and live-fire cooking in New England. After nearly 2 decades of competing in the BBQ circuit, Husbands debuted his first Smoke Shop location in Cambridge’s Kendall Square in 2016. A long-time passion project for Husbands, The Smoke Shop culminates his years of practice, research, and continued success as a World Barbeque Champion, serving a menu that showcases his modern approach to slow-cooked, old school-style barbecue. Husbands expanded with the opening of the restaurant’s second outpost the following year in the Fort Point neighborhood of Boston’s Seaport District. In summer 2018, he introduced his third location of The Smoke Shop in Somerville’s Assembly Row, located just North of downtown Boston. In fall 2020, he introduced his fourth location in historic Harvard Square. Hailed “Boston’s Meat Maven” by The Boston Globe, Husbands first came into the national spotlight competing on Season 6 of FOX Television Network’s fiery Hell’s Kitchen, and has since appeared on CBS This Morning, The Food Network and Fox & Friends. He is the co-founder of internationally-recognized BBQ team, IQUE BBQ, which became the first New England team to win the World Champions of BBQ Title in 2009 at the Jack Daniels World Championship in Tennessee, and has co-authored six coveted cookbooks, including “Wicked Good Burgers,” “Wicked Good BBQ,” “Grill to Perfection,” “The Fearless Chef,” and “Pitmaster: Recipes, Techniques & Barbecue Wisdom,” awarded “Book of the Year” by National Barbeque News. His latest cookbook, The Smoke Shop’s Backyard BBQ, features recipes from the restaurants and much more. Deeply rooted in the community, Husbands passionately drives awareness for Share Our Strength, the nation’s leading childhood hunger relief organization, serving as honorary chair of its annual Taste of the Nation fundraiser. He is also an active board member of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, for which he was honored as MRA’s Chef of the Year in 2014, as well as a Rodman Celebration Restaurant Chair. In his spare time, Husbands enjoys volunteering at local organizations including Pine Street Inn and Rosie’s Place, and, most importantly, spending time with his wife, Rice, and their twin girls, at their home in Stoneham, MA.