By Allen Cameron
Calgary Herald

There’s a familiar look in the eyes of Calgary Stampeders defensive tackle DeVone Claybrooks.

Canadian Football League offensive linemen have seen that look ever since Claybrooks arrived in the league in 2007. So have running backs and, his favourite prey, quarterbacks.

It’s a look of focus. A look of determination. A look of hunger.

The latter is particularly appropriate on this gorgeous summer afternoon as Claybrooks’ prey isn’t wearing shoulder pads and a helmet, nor is it breathing. Instead, it’s nestled, lovingly and massively, between two sides of a bun, and is swimming with flavours and scents that take Claybrooks back to his home in Virginia.

Claybrooks, a restaurant owner himself, has travelled across Canada and sampled the cuisine in all kinds of restaurants, but he’s never found a place serving barbecue like they do it back home.

Until today, that is. Today, Claybrooks is visiting Calgary’s hidden gem of a barbecue restaurant, Holy Smoke, in the southeast (a second location is about to open near 16th Ave. and Edmonton Trail).

It’s feeding time for the man they call Biscuit, and all it takes is one bite of the Manwich — which combines helpings of slow-roasted pulled pork and beef brisket — for Claybrooks to shake his head in wonder.

“By far, the best barbecue in Canada,” says Claybrooks. “Not even close. You can even taste the vinegar (which is added to the meat after it’s cooked), which is great. I’ve been to the Bar-B-Barn in Montreal, I’ve been to four or five places in Toronto, and this is the best. They take their time; good food takes time. It doesn’t take that long to eat, but it does take time to make. They put their heart and soul into the food, and you can taste it.”

>> See video

Moments earlier, Claybrooks was swapping restaurant stories with Holy Smoke co-owners Torin (T-Bone) Shuster and Andre (Billy Bob) Neulander, getting a tour of the kitchen, inspecting the smoker and discussing the kinds of challenges restaurant owners typically face.

Claybrooks knows all about it. He was a part owner of two restaurants — Cubbie’s in Greenville, N.C., and the Green Iguana in Tampa — but sold his stake in both a couple of years ago.

That’s when he decided he’d like to strike out on his own and open a new place in his home town. In February, the Wing Shack opened its doors in Collinsville, Va., and plans are in place to open two more franchises in the area later this year.

“Everywhere you go, there’s always wings,” says Claybrooks, who makes sure Calgary Stampeder games are always shown live (in fact, one of the wing sauces is named Calgary Ranch). “Everybody loves wings, everybody loves cold beer, and there was a niche for it in my hometown. So my mom (Sally Claybrooks) and I decided to venture into a restaurant on our own.

“We went into a test kitchen, and we said that we wanted a sauce that does this and this and this. The chef tries to push a little of this and a little of that, but my mom thinks she’s the southern soul-food chef of the year, so she proceeds to go back there and dabbling in the stuff. So we came up with a lot of the concepts on our own and pushed the chef out of the way. It was a fun experience.”

Claybrooks, who got his first taste of the restaurant business working at Cubbie’s, starting as a busboy, working his way up the ladder and, eventually, buying an ownership stake, is more interested in the business side of the venture, although, he says, “I can haul my way around a kitchen. And my grandmother was an extremely, extremely good cook, and I got her cookbooks and perfected a bunch of her recipes. Biscuits and gravy are definitely a specialty of mine.”

And while wings are the specialty of the house at his restaurant, barbecue always has a special place in Claybrooks’ heart — and we’re talking about traditional barbecue, where the meat is smoked for up to 16 hours (which is the standard at Holy Smoke), then chopped up and served with a variety of spicy sauces. What Canadians typically refer as a “barbecue” is considered “grilling” where Claybrooks comes from.

So, understand, the man has high standards.

“I went to school in North Carolina, where barbecue originated, and they roast everything from the rooter to the tooter on a pig. No piece is unsafe,” he says. “I’m not on that Fatkins diet for nothing, now. These tastebuds are very piggy (yes, he said piggy, not picky). The only thing I turn down is my collar, and most of the time I’m wearing a T-shirt. I’m really into food.”

But he also knows a thing or two about what makes a good restaurant, and he’s definitely on the same page with Shuster and Neulander.

“What makes for a great restaurant? It has to be the service,” says Claybrooks, who decided against opening a barbecue restaurant simply because there were already so many of them in his hometown. “Service can compensate for everything. You could be having the worst day ever, and if somebody comes up to you when you first come in and greets you nicely, that cools everything down. Service makes up for everything. And not only that, you have to have great food. You can’t have one without the other.

“And I must say that the feel of the hole-in-the-wall restaurants, you get the feeling of the genuine love and care that you don’t get with the big chains,” adds Claybrooks, moments after arriving at Holy Smoke. “It smells nice in here (the scent of the apple and cherry wood smoke hits you immediately). I like the ambience. You don’t really get the smokiness at a lot of local barbecue places. Here, it smells like I should be eating barbecue.”

So he does. The Manwich is accompanied by Holy Smoke’s trademark dry-rub ribs (served individually at a criminally bargain buck a bone), coleslaw and cornbread.

At the end of it, Claybrook pushes the tray away — clearly satisfied, and clearly full.

“Very tasty,” he nods. “You can tell that the meat is cooked properly because it’s not too tender and it’s not too chewy. And you can definitely taste the wood, which is one of the key components.”