This is Part 1 in a series of interviews looking into the decadent BBQ dishes being served here in St. Pete.  The ‘Burg Rub looks to expose the story behind the sauce of the best BBQ joints around the ‘Burg.  

Just a crosswalk away from Haslam’s Bookstore is the place serving craft beer with craft BBQ. Urban Brew And BBQ, located in the Grand Central District of downtown sticks to the craftsman spirit and soul St. Pete is made of.  It’s a small place sweating sweet apple-honey perfume and hums with the chitter chatter music of the regulars and their cathartic indulgence in tender, fall-off-the-bone "meat candy."  

Stubborn, specific and ambitious, Andy Saylard (owner) and Urban Brew are on their way to becoming staples in the St. Pete community. From the penny floors, to the hand cut back patio, to a rotating dessert menu of sweet potato souflee, apple crisp and an indescribable chocolate brownie that very well make you unlearn your body’s normative capacity for consumption, we at iLovetheBurg.com couldn’t help but satisfy our curiosities about the new joint in town.  

What brought you to St. Petersburg and the BBQ industry?

My wife was accepted into a dermatology residency in Largo so we moved from Southern California. As far as BBQ, I’ve always loved it and when I started looking into businesses to purchase or start I noticed a need in the market for a BBQ restaurant in the area I’m currently in.

Has this style of cooking and creating been with you throughout your life?

I wouldn’t say so much with me, more with my grandmothers. They didn’t cut corners and they made simple things into memorable meals. Whenever I try and make something, I compare it their cooking and whether I think they’d like it.

You’ve done a lot of work on the restaurant yourself. Is putting your own sweat into the restaurant something you were expecting?

"It definitely was something I was expecting. Partly from necessity because I didn’t have the money to pay someone to do everything I did, and partly because I didn’t want it to be perfect. To me though, mistakes show character and most importantly soul. I didn’t want to have a soulless establishment. I wanted to have something that held an impression of the people that worked and visited there."

On that note, do you feel that creating a very communal atmosphere in the restaurant itself is sort of an inevitability in the BBQ business?

"At one point in the early stages we didn’t know if we would serve food. The main goal was to be a throwback, a communal place where people could gather and see familiar faces. One of the highest compliments we can receive is when someone comments that it looks like the place has been here forever."

Andy is an entrepreneur, a chef, a business owner and above all else a St. Pete resident. His cooking reflects the affectations that make this city such an enigma.  Whether it’s brisket, ribs, a slab of chicken, some baton rouge mac ‘n cheese, tender pulled pork or a local brew from the always rotating chalkboard, Urban Brew and BBQ has a flavor to satisfy all of your famished inclinations.  

Urban Brew and BBQ is located at 1939 Central Ave.  If you get lost on your way there just follow the scent of crackling pork belly and ignited caramel or the sound of a saw breaking through brick.  

*Photography by Urban Brew and BBQ & Cait Duffy, Journalist
Article by Andrew Harlan, writer/editor for iLovetheBurg.com

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