Misfitsss BBQ: What Happens When Barbecue Breaks the Rules? 🔥
Respect the Pit… Again. Just a little throwback to last year’s blog. We’re bringing this back around.
At the time, I was writing about Owens & Hull (now Owens & Co.), but really, the bigger conversation was about how we talk about food.
Because barbecue isn’t fast food.
It’s hours over smoke. Breaking down meat. Grinding sausage. Sourcing ingredients. Prep. Technique. Labor.
A whole lot happens before somebody hands you a tray & the internet decides whether it’s “worth” the price.
One of the people at the center of that original story was pitmaster Bryan Hull, who I’d actually been following since his Secret Pint pop-up days in Atlanta.
You know how you get my attention? Make a Waffle House-inspired sausage… Or Cool Ranch Doritos.
Apparently that’s my love language. 😂
But a lot has changed since I wrote that story.
Hull has since stepped away from Owens & Hull (now Owens & Co.) & teamed up with Chef Tyler Heath to create Misfitsss BBQ, the next chapter.
So naturally… I had to follow the smoke.
This time, we’re not just asking whether the barbecue is good. Instead, we’re asking what happens when you understand barbecue tradition well enough to start tinkering around with it.
Welcome back to Weighed + Measured, bb. 🤓🔥
🤓 First, a little Nerdy Transparency:
We paid for our own plates, but the Misfitsss team threw on a few extras for us to try. Nothing was sponsored & there was no requirement to post or share a positive review.As always, opinions are my own & recommendations stay weighed + measured.
🔥Respect the Pit… Again
Let’s rewind for a second.
When I wrote Respect the Pit last year, part of my frustration was with how easily barbecue gets reduced to what’s sitting on the tray.
“$8 for a sausage?”
“$26 beef cheek platters”
“Why is barbecue so expensive?”
But there’s a whole process between: animal → pit → plate
that disappears when we talk about food exclusively in terms of price.
That’s basically how Weighed + Measured was born.
Context doesn’t mean something automatically deserves a glowing review. Expensive doesn’t automatically mean good. Local doesn’t automatically mean better. Craft doesn’t excuse bad execution.
But if we’re going to decide whether something is worth our money?
I want to understand what we’re actually weighing.
& barbecue gives us a LOT to weigh.
🤘 Meet the Misfitsss
Misfitsss isn’t exactly Secret Pint 2.0… & it isn’t Owens & Hull either. This isn’t a resurrection story. That’s what makes this so interesting.
Bryan Hull has teamed up with chef Tyler Heath for something that feels a little harder to shove into a traditional barbecue box.
Yes, you’ve still got the smoked meats & rotating sausages that originally got my attention, but now they’re sharing the tray with Tyler’s restaurant experience. It’s a blending of cooking styles: smoked meats alongside unexpected flavors, playful sides & other creative dishes that go well beyond your standard BBQ lineup.
That’s where my question for this Weighed + Measured started: Do you understand the technique well enough to know when you can start breaking the rules?
Because getting weird with barbecue is fun. But first? You better know how to barbecue.
Now let’s eat.
⏰ Before We Talk Price, Let’s Talk Time
One reason I started Weighed + Measured was that I got tired of talking about food prices without talking about what actually goes into making the food, or a dish.
Barbecue might be one of the easiest places to forget that. You see a tray. A few slices of meat. A sausage link. Some sides. But you don’t see the clock.
Tick, tock…
So… I asked the Misfitsss team, & suddenly the menu looks a little different.
🐷 Pork butt: 8–10 hours
🥩 Beef cheeks: around 5 hours + an overnight rest in beef tallow
🍖 Ribs: 4–6 hours
🦃 Turkey: 3–4 hours
Oh & the sausage?
Season → grind → stuff → cure overnight → cold smoke for roughly three hours → reheat for service.
That’s before we even get to the sides. Because I asked about those, too.
“[…] It varies… & it takes a long time.”
Fair enough. 😂
But that’s the point. Longer doesn’t automatically mean better. Eight hours on a smoker doesn’t give you immunity from criticism.
The food still has to be good.
But time, labor & technique are part of what we’re evaluating when we eventually get to that price on the menu. Or, as we’ve already established around here: Your BBQ didn’t start when you ordered it, bb.
🪵 First, Let’s Nerd Out About Smoke
Misfitsss primarily cooks with a mixture of white oak + red oak, occasionally adding fruit wood depending on what’s available from their wood supplier.
That’s another little detail that’s easy to overlook.
Smoke isn’t just smoke. The wood is an ingredient, too. When I’m eating barbecue, I don’t just want something that tastes vaguely “smoky.” I want the smoke to work with the meat.
Can I still taste the beef?
The pork?
The seasoning?
Does the smoke add depth without bulldozing everything else happening on the plate? Because if we’re going to nerd out about technique, eventually that technique has to show up in the bite.
🥩 BBQ Is More Than Brisket
Before somebody asks where the brisket is…
We get it, you’re the grill daddy of the neighborhood.
Misfitsss doesn’t regularly serve it. Brisket is generally reserved for special occasions, like catering & preorders.
Frankly? Good.
Because now I have to actually pay attention to everything else coming out of the smoker. Beef cheeks are a pretty damn interesting place to start, but I’m also a Carolina girl, so the pork is also a must.
Remember: the beef cheeks cook for around five hours, followed by an overnight rest in beef tallow. That sounds impressive on paper.
But Weighed + Measured isn’t about being impressed by the process alone. Now I want to know what happened to that process when it hit my plate.
🤓 Nerdy Note: My meals for this review were from Misfitsss’ 2025 menu, so some of the dishes + prices you’ll see below have changed since I first started eating my way through this story. Because apparently Misfitsss refuses to sit still.Since then, Bryan + Tyler have pared down the menu, simplified pricing & shifted the current lineup. I’m keeping the original dishes & prices below because that’s the food I actually ate & reviewed, but I’ve added their current menu at the end so you know what to expect now.🌭 Somehow, It Always Comes Back to Sausage
Funny enough, sausage is how I ended up here in the first place.
Back in the Secret Pint days, Bryan was making things like Waffle House-inspired & Cool Ranch Doritos sausages, which was apparently all it took to earn my attention.
Years later, sausage is still one of the most interesting parts.
The flavor changes every week or two, but the process doesn’t become any less ridiculous:
Seasoned.
Ground.
Stuffed.
Cured overnight
Cold-smoked for around three hours.
Reheated for service.
So yeah. We’re ordering the sausage.
🌭 Rotating sausages — $8.00 ea
My last orders were the Texas Hot Gut & Canadiana.
Is it actually delicious… or is it just interesting? Because those are two VERY different things.
Give me the snap.
The grind.
The fat.
The seasoning.
Sometimes the oozing cheese.
The smoke.
Then tell me whether whatever chaos they put inside the casing actually makes sense — & that’s why I keep ordering them. The weirdness isn’t doing the heavy lifting. There’s still an actual damn good sausage underneath it.
🍖 The Rest of the Tray
Misfitsss menus have included things like Thai hash & rice made with barbecue trim, Thai tea-glazed ribs, fried pork belly ends with salsa macha, Khao soi (my personal fave) & even lemon-pepper-wet turkey.
So yeah… this isn’t exactly your standard meat & three situation.
🍖Little Smoke Platter — $80
1/2 lb ea Pork & brisket
1/3 lb Turkey
1/3 Rack of ribs
Hot Gut sausage
8 oz sides: Thai hash & rice, chili ranch slaw
Bread
Bread & butter pickles
Yes, eagle-eyed nerds, there was brisket on this particular platter.
“[…] we don’t cook brisket except for special occasions, caterings, & preorders.”
Consider this dealer’s choice. 😂 Yes, it’s a lot of food, but more importantly, it gives you a chance to taste how the technique translates across completely different proteins.
Because this is where all that talk about time, smoke & process actually has to deliver.
🔥 Hot tip: If you also ordered the beef cheeks, do not start with them. 😂 I repeat. STEP AWAY FROM THE BEEF CHEEKS!
They’re so rich that everything afterward has to compete with them. Save those bad boys for later & work your way through the platter first.
For me, this is where I’m looking at the fundamentals: Bark. Render. Smoke. Seasoning. Texture. Balance.
The pork tells me what those 8–10 hours accomplished. It’s juicy, tender, & fatty without crossing over into greasy.
Then there’s the turkey, which might actually be one of the sneakiest tests of a pitmaster. There’s nowhere for dry turkey to hide.
Listen, I’m not the biggest turkey fan, but somehow? This has become one of my go-to orders.
It’s juicy, practically dripping when you pull it apart, with more smoke than I expect from turkey. Basically, if you’re going to convince me to voluntarily order turkey when it’s not Thanksgiving, this is how you do it.
The ribs hit another thing I care about with barbecue: texture.
Personally, I don’t need ribs disintegrating the second I look at them. Give me tenderness, but let the meat keep a little integrity. These still have that slight pull I want from a rib.
… & somewhere in all this is the Hot Gut sausage, because apparently every chapter of my Bryan Hull barbecue journey requires a sausage. 😂
But what I really like about ordering a platter like this is that you can taste the range.
Different cuts.
Different cook times.
Different textures.
Same pit.
That’s where consistency gets interesting. Because telling me something spent eight hours over smoke is context. Tasting what those eight hours accomplished? That’s the review; across the platter, the technique isn’t hiding behind the more playful Misfitsss stuff.
It holds up on its own.
🥬 Sides Aren’t Backup Dancers
This is where Misfitsss starts coloring outside the traditional BBQ plate.
The Thai hash & rice + chili ranch slaw deserve more than an obligatory “sides were good,” because they’re doing actual work next to all that smoked meat.
The Thai hash is probably my favorite.
With a tray this rich, I want something that pushes back a little, & that spicy kick does exactly that. It’s soft, savory & brings enough heat to wake your palate back up between bites of fatty meat.
Then you’ve got the chili ranch slaw bringing the crunch. It’s crisp. But just enough acid to cut through the richness without becoming a bowl of vinegar.
This is where the sides start making the bigger Misfitsss idea click for me. They’re not trying to distract you from the barbecue.
They’re responding to it.
Rich meat gets heat. Fat gets acid. Soft textures get crunch. That’s the kind of “weird” I’m interested in. Not throwing something unexpected on a plate just because it’ll get attention. Creativity with a job to do.
Again, I’ve watched Misfitsss menus bounce from Thai hash & rice made with barbecue trim to Thai tea-glazed ribs, fried pork belly ends with salsa macha, Khao soi & lemon-pepper-wet turkey.
It’s barbecue that knows what it is.
🍖 Okay, But What Can You Order Now?
Since my original visits, Misfitsss has pared down the menu & unified its pricing, so consider everything above a snapshot of what I ate in 2025.
The current menu looks a little different today. It still refuses to behave.
🍽️ Plates — $24
Choose from chopped beef cheek, lemon pepper wet turkey or Saturday-only spare ribs. Plates come with hash, slaw, pickles + bread.
🥪 Sandwiches — $17
Chopped beef cheek, lemon pepper wet turkey or pulled pork, served with green chile ranch slaw.
🍴& on Saturdays, there’s The Deep Cut — $45, their limited-quantity signature three-meat platter:
🥩 Sliced beef cheek medallions
🐷 Texas-style pork steak
🌭 Rotating house sausage
Served with hash, green chile slaw, mac & cheese, bread + pickles.
They’re keeping the sliced beef cheek & pork steak exclusive to The Deep Cut, while the sausage rotates through flavors like Hot Gut, jalapeño cheese & black pepper garlic.
There’s also a $10 specialty sausage, with the current version shown as a Loukaniko-style sausage with leeks, orange, red wine, & feta, plus rotating desserts from Corwin Bake Shop.
So yeah… The menu changed. The experimenting did not. 😂
The smoke is still there. The technique is still there. The fundamentals are still there.
The weird stuff gets to happen because that foundation is there. So maybe the better question is: What can barbecue become once you’ve earned the room to play?
💸 Okay, But Is It Worth It?
So now we can finally talk about the numbers I paid when I originally started reviewing Misfitsss in 2025.
$80 for the Little Smoke platter.
$26 for beef cheeks.
$8 for a sausage.
🤓 Nerdy Note: Those aren’t their current prices, but they’re the prices attached to the food I’m actually reviewing, so that’s what I’m weighing here.Is that cheap? Nope. But “cheap” was never really the question.
After working my way through the tray, I know what I’m actually measuring that price against.
Hours over smoke. An overnight tallow rest. Sausages seasoned, ground, stuffed, cured & smoked in-house. Different proteins requiring completely different cook times. Sides that aren’t there just to occupy the empty corners of the tray.
But most importantly? The execution. Because none of that process matters if I don’t want another bite.
That’s the distinction I keep coming back to with Weighed + Measured.
Understanding why something costs what it costs doesn’t mean I’m required to think it’s worth it.
Context isn’t immunity from criticism. But here? The context actually shows up on the plate.
The pork is juicy & rich without becoming greasy. The turkey somehow keeps converting someone who doesn’t particularly care about turkey. The ribs have the pull I’m looking for. The sides understand their assignment. The sausages are still weird enough to keep me wondering what they’re stuffing into a casing next.
So would I spend my money here again?
I already have… That’s probably the simplest answer I can give you.
Is an $80 barbecue platter going to fit everyone’s budget? Of course not.
Worth the price ≠ affordable for everyone.
But if I’m deciding whether my money feels well spent based on technique, execution, portion, creativity & whether I actually want to eat it again?
Yeah. I’m following the smoke.
🤓 The Nerdy Take
The bones of this thing are DONE. 🦴 Last year, I told y’all to respect the pit… & I sure as hell still mean it.
But after eating my way through Misfitsss BBQ a few times, I think there’s a second half to that thought: Respect the pit. Then get weird with it.
Because Misfitsss isn’t interesting to me simply because they’re putting Thai flavors next to Texas barbecue or stuffing something unexpected into a sausage.
Weird for weird’s sake gets old fast.
What’s interesting is that underneath all that playfulness, the fundamentals are still doing the heavy lifting.
The smoke matters.
The texture matters.
The render matters.
The seasoning matters.
The hours matter.
Once those things are working?
Okayyyy. Now give me the Thai hash. Give me the lemon-pepper-wet turkey. Give me whatever questionable sausage idea they woke up thinking about that morning. 😂
That’s what changed my original question. I started this review wondering: How far can you push barbecue before it stops being barbecue?
I don’t really care anymore. Because the better question is: What can barbecue become when you understand the rules well enough to start playing with them?
Misfitsss seems pretty damn interested in finding out.
Apparently? So am I.
Respect the pit. Then get weird with it. Weighed + measured, bb. 🤓🔥
🔥 Before You Go
Misfitsss BBQ
📍 Round Trip Brewing on weekends
🗓️ Saturdays: Noon ’til sold out
🗓️ Sundays: 1 PM ’til sold out
📱 Check Instagram before you go for the current menu + specials.
🤓 Keep Nerding Out: Weighed + Measured
Like your food reviews with a little more context than “would/wouldn’t pay”? Or PR tactics? Same.
🍔 Evergreen Butcher + Baker → What actually goes into a $17 burger?
🦢 Last Dance Atlanta → Technique, sourcing, creativity & what “worth the price” actually means.
🔥 Respect the Pit → The BBQ story that helped start this whole rabbit hole.