New BBQ business at a Toronto brewery is taking the city by storm

Toronto pitmaster Lucas Walker has been manning grills and smokers since he was 6 years old, but Smoking Section BBQ, his first venture into the business of barbecue, isn't child's play.

Walker tells blogTO that barbecue is virtually in his DNA. Growing up in Wiarton, he cut his teeth helping out at the annual Labour Day Firefighters' Barbecue as a kid, fostering what would become a lifelong infatuation with the art of barbecue.

"Even for my high school volunteer hours, I did barbecue," Walker says.

Later, spending time in Austin, Texas, Walker tells blogTO that he was able to meet a series of great mentors who deepened his relationship with the craft. When he returned to Toronto, he began hosting pop-ups for neighbours and friends who readily encouraged him to scale his operation.

Three weeks before his wedding in 2024, he ended up purchasing an industrial-sized 330-gallon smoker, complete with a 150-gallon coal oven. Weeks after returning from his honeymoon, he put on his first official pop-up as Smoking Section Barbecue: a fundraiser for Daily Bread Food Bank at Great Lakes Brewery (GLB) in Etobicoke.

It was a smashing success, and the beginning of what would become a fruitful partnership between Walker and the team at GLB.

Pitmaster and founder Lucas Walker wraps a brisket.

For the summer of 2026, GLB and Walker made things a little more permanent. Walker moved his smoked and firetruck-red food truck into the parking lot at the brewery, and is now serving a smoky selection of "experimental barbecue" every Thursday through Sunday.

To say that the partnership has been a success would be a major understatement.

Each day of the week that Smoking Section is open corresponds to a different food theme, and Burger Thursdays have already proven one of the pop-ups most popular.

A gloriously thick patty made with custom ground beef from Nosso Talho Butcher Shop is slathered generously with Walker's own mustard and house slaw, topped with provolone and a brioche bun from the Cheese Boutique. It sells out nearly every Thursday, and for good reason.

Though Walker admits he's a fan of a good smash burger, he argues that, when it comes to a barbecue business, the thicker the patty, the better. Though I am a documented supporter of the thick patty burger already, one bite into this goliath nearly made me forget about the mere concept of smash burgers entirely.

The big feast comes on Fridays, when Smoking Section offers its platters. Loaded with some of the most tender brisket this side of the Lone Star State, juicy smoked turkey, pulled pork, house-made sausage, dinosaur-sized ribs and pulled pork, it's not for the faint of heart, nor anyone who fears the meat sweats.

It is, on the other hand, some of — if not the — best barbecue in the city, and scores of smoke snobs online agree with me on that.

"Some of the best bbq I have had (and I lived in Texas for 12 years)," one commenter on a Dished Toronto Instagram post wrote: an endorsement that, knowing how opinionated Texan barbecue fans can be, should not be taken lightly.

The sides, too, are not to be overlooked. Fluffy potato salad is generously loaded with dill and mustard, while the house slaw is at once sweet and tangy, sauced just enough to maintain the crisp and snappy properties of the shredded cabbage.

It all, of course, begs to be washed down with a pint of something cold from GLB, be it their house Premium Lager, the new Superlite Lager (clocking in at just over 3% ABV) or non-alcoholic Hop Pop.

Where so many burgeoning restaurateurs use the pop-up model as a launching pad to an eventual brick-and-mortar, Walker tells blogTO that, for the time being, at least, he has no interest in locking down a permanent location.

"I'm just having way too much fun as a pop-up," he says, plus, "the best barbecue in the world comes out of a food truck at a brewery."

Even if Smoking Section Barbecue were all the evidence available to support that claim, I'd be convinced: the best barbecue in the world, it appears, sure does come out of a food truck at a brewery.

You can check out Smoking Section Barbecue for yourself Thursday through Sunday at 30 Queen Elizabeth Blvd.