Toronto can't get enough of this Texas-style BBQ pop-up

A pop-up serving true Texas-style barbecue is heating up in Toronto, thanks to a little help from founder Ruben Silva's friends.

Ruben Silva, the founder and head cook at Toronto's Crosstown Craft BBQ, didn't have any formal experience in the culinary industry when he first began gaining online attention for his backyard barbecue, he says, nor was he necessarily looking to make a business out of it.

Six years later, though, and that's exactly what happened.

Though the name Crosstown Craft BBQ didn't come into existence until this year, Silva's journey as a pitmaster began, as so many of the city's best food stories do, in the days of COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, when he and his wife, and now business partner, Tatyana, began posting about the meals they cooked on their backyard pellet cooker on social media.

The response, Silva says, was "incredible."

"People wanted to know how they could try it, so we started offering small pickups from home," Silva says. "We fell in love with the process of smoking meats, experimenting with flavours, and sharing our food with others."

Soon, they upgraded their equipment to a custom-built 110-gallon set-up in the backyard, and started travelling to Texas every year to sample the best barbecue in the state, striving to bring their learnings back home and put them to work on their own grill.

Come December 2024, they upgraded once again to a whopping 500-gallon smoker.

"At the time, we had no idea where we would store it, where we would host pop-ups, or how the city would receive us, but with encouragement from friends and family, we decided to go for it," Silva explains.

It wasn't until April of 2025 that Silva hosted his first pop-up at Brunswick Bierworks in East York. At the time, they only had around 400 followers on Instagram and were throwing out Hail Mary DMs to a slew of businesses looking for a partner. Jen from Brunswick Bierworks, Silva says, was among the first to respond.

"She's been amazing to work with, and we've loved calling that space our pop-up home ever since, with a few other breweries in between," Silva says.

In the year since, Crosstown Craft BBQ has hosted a total of seven pop-ups and grown their following from 400 to nearly 4,000 people. They've already outgrown their 500-gallon smoker and upgraded to an even larger one.

According to Silva, the response so far has been "overwhelmingly positive," allowing him, Tatyana, and his team to refine their recipes and specials with each pop-up.

So, what is it about Crosstown's barbecue that has Toronto in a chokehold? Silva explains that his approach to barbecue always starts with traditional methods and ends with a modern touch.

"We use true offset smokers, a rarity in Toronto, and focus on central Texas-style BBQ, balanced smoke, tender meats, salt and pepper-based rubs, and our own sauces that make every bite unique," Silva explains.

Honouring the craft of barbecue is at the core of Silva's mission, and that means taking every possible step to ensure he's serving the most authentic eats possible.

So far, he says the brisket has been a best-seller at a majority of Crosstown's pop-ups ("no surprise there," he says), but a more unique offering, their tender, fatty beef cheek, has been a sleeper hit.

As for his personal favourites, Silva says that it's a toss-up between the beef cheeks and his house-made sausages, "but I think what really makes Crosstown special is the combination of flavours on a full platter: every meat, every side working together to create a complete experience," he explains.

For now, Silva and the team are content to continue along their mission of bringing genuine Texas-style barbecue to the people of Toronto through a series of pop-ups and catering, but one day, they'd love to open up a permanent location.

"One day, we'd love to have our own home base, a space where we can expand the menu, get creative, and bring even more people together over great barbecue," he says.

You can experience Crosstown Craft BBQ for yourself at their upcoming pop-up on Aug. 10 at Brunswick Bierworks, and keep an eye on their social media for more upcoming events in the future.