“A lot of times you go by feel instead of temperature. If a temperature gauge feels like it’s going into melted butter, then I know the meat is done.” —Josh Cress
Fred Sauceman
Josh and Courtney Cress rely on hickory wood to create their barbecue at Kane Street Smokehouse in Gate City, Virginia.
Josh and Courtney Cress are the parents of three teenaged children. Courtney is a registered nurse. Josh followed his grandfather into the construction business.
In August of 2022, Josh and Courtney merged their talents and endless energy to create Kane Street Smokehouse, a barbecue restaurant in the town of Gate City, Virginia.
They stripped the carpet out of an old floral shop, covered over the purple and teal paint and converted the building into a place that speaks of the working-class character of barbecue. The black plastic tables encourage communal dining, just as the Cress family enjoyed in church fellowship halls around Lakeland, Florida, before they relocated to the Virginia mountains.
Fred Sauceman
At Kane Street, smoked brisket is chopped, not sliced.
Josh and Courtney have loved barbecue since they were children, from the racks of ribs smoked at Peebles in Auburndale, Florida, to pork shoulder sandwiches served along Florida roadsides. A move to Virginia in 2019 ultimately made it possible to turn the family’s affection for barbecue into a full-time business. That old floral shop building, which had also housed a service station, garage and tannery, was the first and only property Josh and Courtney looked at in Scott County for their restaurant.
Using skills from his days in construction, Josh has built his own smokers. There are two of them that make use of offset heat, along with a 12-foot grill for direct heat. The source of that heat is wood. Josh and Courtney mainly use hickory, since it’s so plentiful in Southwest Virginia. They employ no gas and no electricity in the creation of their barbecue. Josh even splits his own wood, by hand.
“You can do more volume on gas,” he says, “but the flavor is different. If you know barbecue, you can tell.”
Whereas even some well-established barbecue joints—in North Carolina, for example—have converted from wood to gas for convenience, Josh and Courtney are committed to making barbecue the traditional, time-honored, smoky way.
But Josh has developed his own methods, based on years of experience smoking meat for church groups and little league baseball teams.
“There’s something I do way different from most barbecue places,” he tells us. “I trim down all of my meats.”
In the case of pork shoulder, that means removing the entire fat cap, then seasoning the meat, which smokes for about 12 hours and then rests for 12. When it’s time to pull and chop the meat, Josh is careful to remove the internal fat but to keep the flavorful juice.
The process and the smoking time are similar for beef brisket. Josh says that cut of meat is gaining in popularity in Southwest Virginia. But he doesn’t serve it in slices as many barbecue restaurants do. Instead, at Kane Street, it’s chopped.
“Sliced doesn’t hold as well,” he says. “In fact, a lot of people who liked it sliced now prefer it chopped.”
At Kane Street, “long cooks” take place on Tuesdays and Fridays, meaning those are the days for pork shoulder and beef brisket. Meats that require shorter cooking times, such as chicken, ribs, turkey and sausage, are smoked on Mondays and Thursdays.
Courtesy of Kane Street
Kane Street’s barbecue sauces encompass styles from several states.
As former Floridians, Josh and Courtney know all about Cuban sandwiches and their history. At Kane Street, they have modified the Tampa version, using smoked pork shoulder instead of citrus-marinated mojo pork. But their bread comes from Tampa’s La Segunda Bakery, established in 1915.
While Josh is smoking meat, Courtney is making sauces and sides. Baked beans, coleslaw and potato salad are barbecue restaurant essentials in this region, but jalapeño corn casserole is Kane Street’s most popular smoked meat accompaniment. Expanding on their childhood love for church supper corn pudding, Josh and Courtney add fresh, seeded jalapeño peppers, and they can’t make enough of the hearty casserole.
Kane Street serves five different barbecue sauces: original, Texas sweet heat, North Carolina vinegar, Kansas City sweet and Alabama white. In an area dominated by tomato-based, slightly sweet sauces, the Alabama version gets by far the most attention and elicits the most questions.
Big Bob Gibson first served a white sauce at his Decatur, Alabama, barbecue restaurant in the 1920s. At Kane Street, the mayonnaise-based white sauce contains horseradish, making it ideal for beef brisket.
Courtesy Kane Street
Using skills from his construction background, Josh Cress built his own smokers at Kane Street.
For dessert, Courtney says barbecue and banana pudding just go together. “Ours has cream cheese, and we layer the pudding and the cookies to serve it and then cut up bananas fresh for the top so they don’t get brown and mushy.”
Another dessert that is always on the menu is patterned after one served for dinners on the ground at Kathleen Baptist Church near Lakeland, Florida. It’s called Oreo Fluff. “People at that church would run to get it first,” recalls Courtney. “My children wanted it for their birthdays.”
For Courtney, there is a clear connection between being a registered nurse and operating a successful barbecue restaurant.
“It definitely helps with cleanliness and following health department regulations. And for employees taking their first job, we teach the proper way to wash hands and explain the importance of wiping down tables.”
So many barbecue stories are laments for the death of the old ways. That’s not the case at Kane Street, where old-fashioned hard work is valued. Tradition means something there. Almost every dish on the menu is rooted in the past, yet those dishes are served by a young family with their eyes on the future.
Just recently, Josh and Courtney acquired the vacant lot next door. And they say it will be the perfect spot for an occasional whole hog dinner.
Fred and Jill Sauceman study and celebrate the foodways of Appalachia and the South from their home base in Johnson City, Tennessee.
The story above first appeared in our November / December 2023 issue. For more like it subscribe today or log in with your active BRC+ Membership. Thank you for your support!