One of Chicago's Best Patios is BBQ Sitting on the Chicago River in Avondale
Soul and Smoke's Avondale location is a hidden gem with a dining room worth lingering in and a summer patio that makes every other patio argument irrelevant.
Chef D'Andre Carter grew up eating his grandmother's Sunday dinners on Chicago's South Side. He went on to work at Moto, one of the city's most technically ambitious fine-dining restaurants, where he met his business partner Heather Bublick. The combination of those two things, South Side comfort food and experimental fine-dining technique, is the clearest way to understand what Soul and Smoke is doing and why it works as well as it does.
Carter and Bublick started with pop-ups and catering in 2012, pivoted to takeout during the pandemic, opened their Evanston flagship in 2020, and brought the Avondale location to Rockwell on the River in 2022. The Evanston location remains the flagship and the center of the company's community work. Soul and Smoke has provided roughly 250,000 meals through partnerships including World Central Kitchen, and the Evanston space maintains a 24-hour community refrigerator. That context is worth knowing even if Evanston is outside the scope of this guide.
The brisket is the star. Prime, with a smoke ring you can see from across the table, tender in a way that tells you the patience required to get there was not skipped. The pulled pork is close behind and will not disappoint anyone who arrives thinking the brisket is the only reason to come. Allen orders the smoked sausage every single time and has never once regretted it. The sauces are Kansas City in style, thick, not too sweet, well made. I would love one with a little more heat, but that preference is heavily influenced by having a Thai mother and should be weighed accordingly.
The sides are where Soul and Smoke separates from the category. The mac and cheese has real flavor and depth. The collard greens are smoky and dark and correct. The coleslaw carries a sweetness from apple that provides both crunch and brightness alongside the meat, especially on a sandwich. And the cornbread. Please do not skip the cornbread. It is more corn cake than cornbread, sweet and moist with compound honey butter that spreads across the top. It is genuinely one of the best versions of the thing in the city.
The Avondale location is the one to visit if you want the full experience. Counter service, then seat yourself in a dining room with Edison drop lights and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the north fork of the Chicago River. In summer, the patio opens up into one of the most expansive and genuinely spectacular outdoor dining situations in the city. The building shares space with a dock and boat rental company. Kayaks, river taxis, and electric boats launch throughout the afternoon. Rent a boat, grab a brisket sandwich and some cornbread, and let that be your Chicago summer afternoon. There is very little that beats it.
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