Golden Horseshoe Barbecue

Pitmaster Andrew Golden's origin story is a fast one — pop-up brisket sales at breweries turned into a full brick-and-mortar smokehouse in under two years, landing in a restored 1929 bank building at Dupont and Christie.

The bones of the old bank are still visible in the room, but the draw is what comes out of the smoker: low-and-slow brisket, Ontario pork ribs, and a rotating cast of house-made sausages that have included jalapeño-cheddar, a Frito Pie link, and a beef boudin — the kind of menu that changes enough to keep regulars checking back.

The team

Golden teamed up with executive chef Kris Hansen, previously of the Carbon Bar, to build out a proper kitchen program around the smoker rather than treating it as a one-trick pop-up graduate. The result reads as Texas-style barbecue filtered through a Toronto chef's instincts.

The room

A 2,000-square-foot patio makes Golden Horseshoe one of the rare barbecue joints in the city built for long summer sessions — smoked meat by the pound, a cold beer list to match, and enough outdoor seating to actually use it.