A barbecue restaurant is coming to the Oakley Kitchen Food Hall this week.
BBQ High Life, which was born as a food truck serving the Milford area primarily, is opening in the former L'Oakley space inside of the Oakley Kitchen Food Hall at 3715 Madison Road on March 1.
BBQ High Life was started by Mike Kane in 2020. Kane grew up doing hog roasts with his grandfather, a welder by trade, who would make a new smoker every year and use the hog roasts as an excuse to test them. Kane said the experience inspired him to start smoking his own meats in the food truck.
"It was fun and better than a real job," he said.
The Oakley Kitchen has five main components: eight kitchen pods housing restaurant concepts, where diners can grab a meal to eat at the food hall or take home; a commissary kitchen operated by Campfire Foods, a group that helps food entrepreneurs get on the shelf at large retailers like Kroger; a market with dry and refrigerated goods for sale; a bar serving up beer, cider, wine and sake; and a 10,000-square-foot private event space that serves as food hall seating or can be rented for events like weddings.
The Oakley Kitchen Food Hall is open and seating guests.
It was through Campfire Foods that Kane got into the food hall. Kane was working for the company, and that's how he found out the former L'Oakley space was coming open. All of his own equipment was already at the Campfire Foods portion of the Oakley Kitchen Food Hall, so it made sense to set up shop selling barbecue to the public at the food hall.
BBQ High Life will sell brisket, pastrami, smoked pork, smoked turkey and ribs. Kane has been testing a McRib-style rib sandwich he plans to unveil shortly, and he wants to use the food hall to test other new menu items.
The other vendors at at Oakley Kitchen are:
- Onolicious Hawaii, which serve scratch-made Hawaiian dishes like Spam musubi and loco moco
- Jimmie Lou's, a New Orleans comfort food concept serving up po' boys, gumbo, jambalaya and etouffee
- La Petite Frite, a snack concept based around the Belgian frite, also serving dishes like Belgian stew and shrimp croquettes
- Parts & Labor, offering eclectic new-school barbecue, with dishes like smoked brisket, sweet and sticky baby back ribs and huli huli chicken
- Khana Gourmet, serving up what the owner describes as Indian barbecue
- Olive Tree, a family-driven Syrian and Middle-Eastern concept with dishes like sumac hummus, shawarma chicken, ground lamb kebab and falafel
- Padrino, an Italian kitchen with a focus on pizzas, pastas and hoagies
Oakley Kitchen is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., though hours for individual vendors can vary.