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Go Hog Wild for barbecue - or BBQ

East Berlin restaurant features meats smoked on site

Created: 07/26/2009 01:24:24 PM EDT

Nine-year-old Brenton Krebs, of East Berlin, dives in to a barbecue dinner with his family at Hog Wild Catering and BBQ Carry Out in East Berlin earlier this month. (Evening Sun - Eric Drummond)

Hog Wild Catering and BBQ Carry Out in East Berlin is a restaurant that started as a hobby but grew into a full-time family business.

Owners Tina and Rick Gulan were contractors and enjoyed smoking meats and feeding their friends and family on the side, Tina Gulan said. It soon turned into a catering business, which they operated for several years.

The family then used their construction roots to boost their barbecue business. Rick Gulan converted the family's two-car garage into the restaurant that it is today.

It's a nice, cozy place on the inside, with outdoor seating on a patio. It's sort of Kansas City barbecue joint meets Parisian bistro.

"People meet here," Gulan said. "They sit outside and enjoy the nice, small town we live in."

And it's all barbecue, Tina Gulan said. For the uninitiated, like me, a true barbecue is all smoked meats.

The Gulans smoke their own meats onsite using indirect heat from burning Pennsylvania hardwoods, including hickory.

"We use strictly wood," Tina Gulan said.

That's important in the world of barbecue, she said, where lesser meats often can be cooked with propane flames and liquid smoke for flavor.

Properly smoking meat can be a time-consuming endeavor. It takes about 10 to 12 hours to do it to perfection, but the process makes the meat nice and juicy with a smoky flavor.

Meats at the restaurant are served shaved on a kaiser or hoagie roll, depending on how hungry you are. Some of Hog Wild's top items are the pit beef, pulled-pork barbecue, cheesesteak and fresh-cut fries.

They have more than 40 items on the menu, said Tina Gulan, who came up with her own recipe for the barbecue sauce served with all the meats. All the meats are barbecue but the grilled hot dogs for the kids. The restaurant also has homemade chili year-round and homemade soups in the winter.

While the restaurant is slightly off the beaten path, Tina Gulan said many of her customers come from all around for a taste uncommon in this part of the country.

I tried the pit beef, which I guess is a regional name, because I had never heard it until I came to this area. In the northwestern part of the state, they call it ox roast, an equally off-putting term for what ends up being a fantastic sandwich.

I learned a couple things about barbecue. Have lots of napkins, or perhaps a long sleeve, on hand. It's the kind of food in which you don't mind getting a little messy eating. In fact, I think it's encouraged because it's a fun, relaxed atmosphere to have a kicked-back meal with your friends and enjoy a barbecue.

Or, more informally, BBQ.

Ticket to Lunch is a weekly column featuring local restaurants' meals available during the lunch hour. Contact Steve Marroni at smarroni@eveningsun.com.