Toronto’s Best Sandwiches: the southern-style beef brisket at Leslieville Pumps
By Karolyne Ellacott
Southern-style beef brisket (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
Stepping into Leslieville Pumps General Store & Kitchen is akin to setting foot inside a Kawartha cottage. With a duo of Adirondack chairs out front, countrified knickknacks peering down from shelves and gingham aplenty, this project from brothers Greg and Judson Flom is at once a convenience store, indie gas station and barbecue sandwich joint.
While Greg studiously researched barbecue during a southern U.S. road trip, Judson tended to his smoker up north. A hybrid of different U.S. barbecue styles, the southern-style beef brisket ($7.74) is our pick — and the most popular choice on the menu (along with the pulled pork, $7.74).
Smoked with a blend of hickory and cherry hardwood, the brisket is slow-cooked for 14-16 hours, then cubed until it’s ready to fall to pieces. Joined by onion-ring-like crispy sweet onions, the meat is topped with a mix of grainy and Dijon mustards and the house barbecue sauce.
“I know Torontonians like their sauce,” Jusdon says. “Ours is very dark and smoky, but has the sweetness and boldness of the Kansas City style.”
The whole shebang is set inside a soft ACE Bakery bun. Beef revelers can indulge in the goods indoors — while examining the old newspaper clippings that make up the tabletops — or settle down in a chair out front and check out the pump-side action.
Leslieville Pumps General Store & Kitchen, 929 Queen St. E., 416-465-1313
More of Toronto’s best sandwiches:
The prosciutto sandwich at Peter’s Cajun Creole Pizza
The pulled pork sandwich at Black Camel
The Shrimp’wich at Fuel House
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