It’s menu-sampling day at The Hen and The Hog Smokehouse & Cantina in Pompano Beach, and restaurateur George Abbondante has brought brisket nachos, shrimp and grits, smoked brisket melts and pulled pork sandwiches for hungry coworkers seated at a long communal table.
Except, all of a sudden, something is missing.
“Wait, where’d the brisket nachos go?” Abbondante asks, pointing to a near-empty tray of tortilla crumbs and pickled red onions. The restaurant’s marketing manager, Maddux Kintz, sheepishly raises a chimichurri-stained hand and admits to hoovering them in two minutes flat while everyone’s backs were turned. (“Haven’t had a thing all day,” he mumbles, his mouth full.)
“We should’ve done a barbecue restaurant a lot sooner, I guess,” Abbondante says with a laugh.
The concept — from Abbondante (formerly with Denise’s Kitchen in Pompano, Big Louie’s Pizzeria in Hollywood) and business partners Yardlene Tabora and David Fogel (who’s also its executive chef) — is a barbecue-centric spinoff of The Hen and The Hog, their trio of all-day bruncheries that have amassed a cult following among locals east of Interstate 95.
Smoked brisket and massive turkey legs, baby back ribs and pulled pork are the stars of platters, nachos, tacos and burritos at the new 3,000-square-foot Tex-Mex cantina, which is set to soft-open on Sept. 15 at 14 N. Federal Highway.
The partners have had the idea for years, when sales of fresh corned beef and smoked brisket Benedict started rivaling those of Belgian waffles and biscuits and gravy.
Compared with other The Hen and The Hog locations, “I’d say 80% of this menu is new,” Abbondante says.
“When this place became available, we knew it was too close to the Pompano flagship to just do brunch again, but then I realized David [Fogel] also worked in Mexican restaurants in Detroit, and people loved our smoked meats, so I thought, why not combine them?”
The Smokehouse & Cantina caps a recent expansion spree for The Hen and The Hog, which opened its Pompano Beach flagship on Federal Highway in June 2019 before branching out to Boca Raton (November 2022) and Hollywood (March 2025).
With suspended Edison bulbs, black ceilings and copper-painted ductwork, the spinoff reads more eclectic and industrial than other Hens but is no less rustic, with Davie barnwood framing walls and bar tops; tables built from converted farm tractors; vintage Coca-Cola and grocery-store signs; and old clergy pews from First Presbyterian Church of Pompano Beach.
Tabora says that Riko’s Pizza, the previous tenant, had already remodeled the space before folding last March after a year and change in business. This freed them up to splurge on cosmetic upgrades over the summer while adding quadruple-deck ovens, deep-fryers and a Southern Pride smoker to the 2,000-square-foot kitchen, she says.
With barbecue smokers at the Boca Hen already keeping up with customer demand, Abbondante initially resisted buying more, but Fogel says he made a convincing argument.
“George thought he could save money just shipping it all from Boca to here,” Fogel says. “But the appeal of barbecuing here is you can smell the smoke, you can see cooks doing it in front of you, and you feel the consistency. It’s sensory overload. And I want the brisket to be legendary. I want it to be orgasmic.”
Fogel is a fast-talking, New Jersey-raised firecracker who cut his teeth at Andiamo in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and at Mexican eateries around Detroit before working for nearly five years as a private yacht chef for a Ukrainian diplomat. These places “taught me how to use the saddle, the tenderloin and every other part of the animal,” he says.
He describes his barbecue as a marriage of “Carolinas, Alabama and Texas-style,” adding that he smokes their brisket for eight to 10 hours on hickory and mesquite staves.
“Everyone does a Taco Tuesday, but how many places do pulled pork, brisket and al pastor the proper way with fresh pico de gallo on housemade tortillas?”
The menu has three smash burgers ($11.95-$16.95) including the Smoke House Smash, with gouda cheese, brisket, onion rings and barbecue sauce on a pretzel bun.
There are also platters ($11.95-$15.95) of pulled pork, smoked chicken and turkey legs “as big as the ones at Renaissance Fairs,” paired with sides ($3-$3.95) of collard greens, coleslaw, corn on the cob, red beans and rice, mac and cheese, and caramelized sweet potato medallions. And “South of the Border” entrees include fajitas ($16.95), a smoked pork or chicken burrito ($16.95, substitute brisket for $3 extra), and a trio of steak, chicken or al pastor tacos ($12.95-$16.95).
For now, the daily specials offer a suckling pig roast on Wednesdays, $5 smash burgers on Thursdays, all-you-can-eat cod fish and chips on Fridays and prime rib on Saturdays. The restaurant also promises to cook any customer’s fresh catch to order in partnership with Ace’s Bait & Tackle, a business next door.
“I’m so excited about this barbecue because I can get really creative with it,” Fogel adds.
A 20-seat full bar also decorated in Davie barnwood completes the dining room’s far wall, where mixologist Badaweyah Zeigler (Grand Traverse Distillery in Michigan) will prepare craft cocktails. The third-generation, Kansas-born bartender says she’s half-Portuguese, half-Blackfoot Indian and that her ancestors were Prohibition bootleggers who made vermouth, whiskey and gin.
“I’ve been using their recipes ever since,” Zeigler says. “Just growing up around botanicals and spirits, I’ve gotten a feel from how sweet flavors enhance and highlight smoky dishes here.”
The Hen and the Hog Smokehouse & Cantina, at 14 N. Federal Highway, Pompano Beach, is scheduled to open on Sept. 15. Call 561-608-4824 or go TheHenandHogSmokehouse.com.
Staff writer Phillip Valys can be reached at pvalys@sunsentinel.com or Twitter/X @philvalys.
