Hatted Big Don’s Smoked Meats celebrates this Saturday with 2500kg of … meat

Donovan Macdonald, the eponymous Big Don behind hatted Texas-style barbecue shop Big Don’s Smoked Meats, is feeling a little anxious. And understandably so.

This weekend, Macdonald and co are changing things up for Big Don’s weekly
Saturday service. Instead of the shop’s usual business model where customers pre-purchase food online, team Big Don’s is ditching the pre-orders and letting guests buy as much – or as little – as they like. You join the queue. You wait. And when you get to the front of the line, you purchase.

While there’s nothing especially groundbreaking about the customer-chooses,
customer-pays model, it will be a departure for the Big Don’s crew that rely on pre-paid orders to minimise food waste and maximise profit while keeping buy-ins fair for customers.

So why mess with a winning formula, even just for week? Reason one: This May
marks seven years since MacDonald created an Instagram account to chart his
journey into the wormhole that is Texas-style barbecue, so revisiting Big Don’s bowls club era feels like an apt way to mark the milestone. (Those pop-ups were as notorious for the quality of the cooking as they were the length of the queues.)

And reason two: the pre-order system, while good for Big Don’s, doesn’t work for
everyone. (Not least those that miss out on tickets because tickets nowadays sell out in less than a minute when they go on sale every Tuesday night.) By changing Saturday’s format, Macdonald wants to ensure more people get to eat his team’s food, even if it puts him out a little.

“I did a poll and 50 per cent of people still like walk-ups, even if it means they have to wait for a longer period of time,” says Macdonald who last ran a walk-up service two years ago at Mane Liquor.

“There’s a demographic that just wants to turn up and order exactly what they want so this is a chance for them to do that. We’ve never done a walk-up at the shop, so this Saturday is going to be a little nerve-wracking.”

Despite Macdonald’s concerns, he’ll still be applying his typical go-big-or-go-home approach to the day, starting with the amount of food being cooked.

He and his team will prepare close to 2500kg of meat for the service: roughly five times more than what Big Don’s would have sold at one of their busiest bowls club pop-ups.

The menu will also be one of the biggest and most ambitious ones the team has prepared. (It’s telling, I think, that there is a large PLEASE READ attached to the online menu for this weekend.)

In addition to the usual beef brisket, house made sausage and rib (lamb, beef, pork) offerings, the menu will also include Big Don’s benchmark-worthy birria tacos: a regional style of taco starring brisket off-cuts that have been coaxed to maximum deliciousness and richness via the magic of slow-cooking.

Cherry burnt ends – cubes of pork belly that have been marinated in a blend of maraschino cherries and Doctor Pepper Cherry soda before being given a star turn in Big Don’s off-set smokers – will also be making an appearance although Macdonald expects them to be among the first items to sell out. But cherry ends aside, Macdonald is confident that there will be enough food to last the whole five-hour service.

For those unfamiliar with the Big Don’s experience, some pointers. There will be a wait. Perhaps even more so for a walk-up service, especially as eaters make a play for limited items. You should probably bring some friends and chairs to help make your wait more enjoyable.

Some people bring board games to pass the time. Others start dipping into their
BYO early. Those that do both seem to be having the best time. Saturday May 4, incidentally, is also Star Wars day. (May the Fourth be with you.)

Donovan promises to shout a drink for anyone dressed in an appropriate George Lucas-themed outfit.

Embracing the chaos of a walk-up service, even if just for a day, feels like yet
another milestone in a year that’s shaping up to be a big one in the Big Don’s saga.

In addition to being the first Perth “restaurant” to be awarded a hat as part of Good Food’s return to WA, Macdonald is also leading the Big Don’s caravanserai over east for a takeover at Starward Whisky’s Port Melbourne distillery and bar.

The American smokers he ordered last year, meanwhile, are due to arrive any day now and, once in action, will make Big Don’s one of the planet’s largest barbecue cookers by volume.

Big Don’s Smoked Meats (18 Moojebing Street, Bayswater) will serve smoked beef brisket and other Texas-style barbecue meats from 12pm till 5pm (or until sold out) on Saturday May 4.