Brisky business? The verdict on three suburban barbecue joints

Indie’s Deli hit pause on new orders just one hour after service started on Saturday as the kitchen became overwhelmed with demand.

The pink-hued indoor-outdoor cafe had been open for only one week, but word was already out. Chef-owner Clinton Nitschke was serving house-smoked pastrami, pulled pork and brisket sandwiches worth queueing for: generously filled with tender meat, some with saucy homemade preserves from his mother, Jenny.

Nitschke knows what he’s doing: after teaching himself the art of cooking low and slow, he spent time running popular smokehouses including Two Hungry Bears in Brookvale and Narrabeen.

Luckily, I snaffled three classic sandwiches: Indie’s Reuben, Brisky Business and Mum’s ham 𝄒n𝄒 cheese. The Reuben wins hands-down, plump with rich pastrami, fragrant from a toasted coriander seed and black pepper rub, with layers of sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and pickles.

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Brisky Business was beefy, melty and filling with smoked and pulled brisket, aged cheddar, onion jam, barbecue sauce, aioli and salad. A brisk walk to nearby Narrabeen Beach allows room for the golden double-smoked ham toastie, aged cheese and tomato relish sambo on Infinity Bread sourdough. It’s excellent paired with a salted caramel oat latte with vanilla foam, one of two cold brews served from counter taps (the venue has no espresso machine).

Indie’s Deli might be a convenient spot for surfers, families and tradies alike, right between the beach and a light industrial area, but it’s the slow-cooked, smoked meats that keep people coming back.

Open Mon-Sat 10.30am-2.30pm

Shop 2/54 Garden Street, North Narrabeen, instagram.com/indies.deli

Shole’s Deli, Mount Pritchard

Chef Mata Dijon grew up in Samoa, and he’s been cooking with fire and smoke for as long as he can remember.

“I remember my grandmother in the islands getting up before sunrise to start the fire so we could have koko alaisa (coconut rice) or kopai (caramel dumplings) before going to school,” says Dijon. “Those memories of cooking, family and eating together have stayed with me.”

Shole’s is a family-owned Tex-Mex barbecue restaurant led by Dijon and his wife Julia Morris, which opened in late 2024. Its name, pronounced “sho-lay” from the Samoan word “sole”, is a casual way of saying “bro” or “man”, and it has the feeling of a New York-style community diner – walls decorated with photos of Dijon’s childhood village and a cow skull brought from Arnhem Land with the blessing of artist, hunter and Elder Uncle Tango Lane.

Each night, the kitchen whirrs as orders for brisket, lamb, birria, chorizo, tacos, wings and barbecue boxes come flying in. I can see why: the brisket is rich and saucy, the corn cobs are smoked with chipotle butter, and the Mexican black beans are hot with ancho and chile de arbol.

Dijon has an impressive resume: he used to make brisket for Burger Head, opened Gweilo Express during lockdown and co-founded Smoking Gringos in Kingswood. Now, he wants Shole’s to instil pride in his family.

“I also love that as a family running a business, we can inspire people in our western Sydney community and show them that they can do it too,” he says.

Open Tue-Wed 4-8pm; Thu-Sat noon-8pm

172 Townview Road, Mount Pritchard, instagram.com/sholesdeli

Bones & Smoke, Bondi Junction

It was a balmy Bondi evening, the air thick with bogong moths, and Bones & Smoke was sold out of its signature menu starter: the “crocquette”. Crunchy and deep-fried in butter, it’s like a Scotch egg made with slow-smoked crocodile tail and cheesy pecorino potato mash, with a quail egg at its centre.

Chef-owner Vinnie Vit offers plenty other Texas-style barbecue dishes at his small, moody bistro. He delivers a large paper-lined metal tray for sharing: there’s brisket, smoked for 48 hours, slow-cooked beef cheeks, spicy lemon peppercorn cobettes and sesame coleslaw with beef tallow aioli.

It’s easy to rhapsodise about long-cooked primal cuts of beef being melt-in-your-mouth, but I can’t think of another way to describe Vit’s brisket or his beef cheeks. Both are tender and juicy with sweet, intense sauces.

Meal sizes are not as monstrously large as some smokehouses but, along with the citrusy charred corn, we are satisfied. This is not a fatty, over-proportioned, trouser-straining experience. Vit’s way with cooking and flavour encourages you to savour each bite. It’s the same with his homemade ice tea – tangy, strong and brewed in-house with ginger and star anise.

Vit, who transferred Bones & Smoke from Terrigal to Sydney’s eastern suburbs in 2025, taught himself to smoke meats after years working in fine dining in Asian restaurants. He runs Bones & Smoke almost entirely by himself, from smoking the meat to handling catering to cooking, washing-up and serving customers.

He’s passionate about presenting variety – the menu spans dry-aged pork jowl to wild boar fillets and baby pork ribs. Beside us, diners are wiping their chins after tackling a couple of “Big Boy” hot dogs, buns stacked with brisket, kransky sausage, pulled pork and macaroni cheese.

And the crocodile croquettes?

“Crocodile can be intimidating if you haven’t tried it before,” Vit says. “I wanted to put it into something familiar. Then I thought, crocodile, croquette … the perfect way to bring everything together.”