Angel’s BBQ: Bite into heavenly brisket

JAN WADDY News Herald Features Editor @JanWaddy1

  PANAMA CITY — By 10 a.m. Friday, the Lang BBQ Smoker parked in front of Angel’s BBQ was wrapping up its night shift.

“The old Lang gives it a little Southern flare, allows me to tweak and do a little different things to it,” said Victor Hunt, who owns Angel’s BBQ & Catering with his wife, Marissa. “The Ole Hickory puts out good flavor, quality meats; lets me mass produce. I use Lang for competitions and catering, but for the majority I use Ole Hickory.”

Angel’s has been catering since September 2006 at events ranging from festivals and weddings to family reunions and school banquets. And each year around Thanksgiving, he sells turkeys and hams to raise money for children at the Children’s Advocacy Center. He credits mentor and longtime restaurant owner Roy Centanni, who retired from Saltwater Grill in April 2016, with encouraging him to get his own place.

“I like to see the expression on people’s faces when they try the food for the first time or the compliments when they come back,” Victor said.

Two months ago, Victor and his wife of 17 years opened Angel’s BBQ & Catering in a permanent location at 6034-B E. U.S. 98 in Parker. Customers honk as they drive by, just before going over the bridge toward Tyndall Air Force Base. Victor, a former military training instructor with the U.S. Air Force, smiles and waves back mid-conversation. Christian songs play on the outdoor speakers.

“There’s something about this music. With all the chaos we have, we need something peaceful in our life,” said Victor, who added he lives by the Bible verse Proverbs 16:3. “Two benches are being made, because at lunch time, people out here are standing around. We try not to make it take too long, most people have about 30 minutes.”

The award-winning barbecue beckons customers not only from Tyndall, but from Lynn Haven, Chipley, Port St. Joe, Apalachicola, Marianna and even “a couple come from the beach.”  A few picnic tables have umbrellas to shield customers from the sun, but Victor has plans for more covered seating. Others just get their meals to-go, heading across the street to sit at a table at Under the Oaks Park overlooking East Bay.

On Friday morning, the Hunts, along with Renwick Chisolm, were finishing up a catering order for Tyndall before the arrival of the lunch crowd. Victor took the Boston Butts and brisket off the smoker to pull and slice into the 8-by-20 kitchen, while Marissa poured green beans cooked with bacon from a pot into a pan. Freshly baked peach cobbler rested on the counter next to trays of freshly baked rolls.

  Angel’s regular menu includes BBQ Pulled Pork Dinner, BBQ Rib Dinner, Smoked Sausage, BBQ Chicken Dinner, Fried Fish and Brisket. If you can’t narrow it down, just go for the two- or three-meat combo. But then you have to decide on daily sides, such as baked beans, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, smoky cheddar potatoes, coleslaw, green beans, collard greens, garlic roasted potatoes, loaded smashed potatoes and corn on the cob. And then there’s a daily dessert.

Though Fried Fish is served every day, “Fry Day Friday” offers even more choices in addition to the regular menu. On June 9, these included fried chicken, fried pork chops, fried shrimp, French fries and fried okra.

Victor handles “the barbecue end,” while Renwick does the seafood. 

“He’s developed a bunch of dishes,” said Victor, who added Renwick helps around with everything.

But if you ask Renwick his role, it serves one purpose: “Keeping him in line, that’s all.”

Renwick is a native of South Carolina — known for vinegar-based barbecue — but he agrees, “Down here’s way better.”

It’s hard to beat Victor’s barbecue, which took first place in ribs and chicken Memorial Day Weekend.

“On Memorial Day, we have a big barbecue contest every year at my church, and I normally win — 3,000 members,” said Victor, a member of Hiland Park Baptist. “I also do the Glenwood BBQ Cookoff and have won there a lot, too.”

He starts with a dry rub and smokes the 10-pound briskets for nine to 10 hours and Boston Butts for 14 hours.

“For ribs, I just go low and slow till they’re right,” Victor said. “I will not serve a rib till it’s at its prime.”

He uses a pecan and hickory or oak blend — and sometimes a little apple.

“Hickory is stronger and the apple is sweet; combine it for a good combination and good flavor,” Victor said. “It was a lot of trial and error, a lot of wasted meat, going to different barbecue places, trying their barbecue.”

He also learned techniques from pitmaster Paul Kirk — known as the Kansas City Baron of Barbecue, at barbecue school in Georgia.

“He taught me different methods. Before then, I’d never cooked a brisket,” he said. Now it’s the most popular with customers and the owners.

“We go through probably three or four briskets a day,” said Victor, “A lot of people are saying they haven’t been able to find good brisket. And they ask me, ‘Are you from Texas?’ That’s my biggest compliment.”

Victor, a Panama City native and Bay High grad, is not from Texas — though I am. After I watched Victor slice up the brisket Friday morning fresh off the smoker, he handed me a piece — so worth nearly burning my hands. It had a nice salty bark, and I bit back into the juicy meat — a taste of home.

For his sweet and smoky barbecue sauce, Victor starts with a base and doctors it up, but it’s always served on the side. (But you really don’t need it.)

“I was taught if you put sauce on something, you are trying to hide something,” Victor said. “I get a lot of my meat from Sam’s; I get it from Smith’s Wholesale, some from U.S. Foods.”

My two-meat combo, $12, came with two slabs of brisket and two meaty ribs with smoky cheddar potatoes (cheese sauce, bacon, seasoning, red potatoes) and baked beans (bell pepper, onion, beans, sugar and spice) and a slice of buttery garlic toast — enough to eat on for two days’ lunches. The rib meat were some of the best I’ve had, falling off the bone with a light pull of my fork, but they still were a close second to the brisket for me. (I think I need to go back for some more research, just to be sure.)

Marissa, a native of the Philippines, incorporates her heritage into the menu with specials, available by pre-order. Dishes have included teriyaki shrimp with pasta, as well as Mediterranean fish on a bed of spaghetti with wine sauce.

“Sometimes she adds Asian flair with egg rolls, some of the Filipino dishes as well,” Victor said. “Fried rice goes well (with barbecue), and she does Asian-style wings. Everybody loves egg rolls.”

The pulled pork egg roll features spicy coleslaw in a wonton wrapper.

“It’s a hobby; we’ve done them at home and let the neighbors try ’em,” said Victor, who came up with the recipe nearly five years ago. “I’m developing one with shredded brisket and cheesy potatoes. I just try to get creative.”