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Long gone are the days when a barbecue joint could get by serving great smoked meats for a few lunches a week. Thanks to the skyrocketing cost of everything from rent to smokers to meat — not to mention an insatiable demand — many barbecue restaurants are open longer hours and offering more frills to separate themselves from the crowd…

Before I became the Observer’s food critic, my beat was barbecue. I’d occasionally cover other cuisines, but if a restaurant smoked protein over fire, chances are I would write about it…

We first met Michael Lane when OAK’D BBQ opened on Greenville Avenue in November 2020. When we covered that opening of OAK’D, Lane was working behind the scenes while consulting for another restaurant, so he preferred to stay in the shadows…