Akil Zakariya isn’t sleeping much these days. He and his wife Sarah Zakariya are putting the finishing touches on the new home of their pop-up business, Beerded BBQ. Its first brick-and-mortar location officially opens on Thursday inside Tempe Eats Food Hall and Bar, with a grand opening celebration on Saturday, Aug. 16th.
The opening represents the culmination of five years of pop-up events and collaborations, along with a good deal of hard work and sacrifice.
In addition to the requisite logistics of running a business, Akil is a father of five, and parenting duties in a large, blended family keep him busy. However, the thing keeping him burning the midnight oil, or in this case, mesquite, is brisket. It's an obsession that requires him to stay up late tending the coals. The payoff, he believes, is barbecue perfection.
Beerded BBQ beginnings
Akil and his wife started their journey during the pandemic. They had met five years prior, working together at a resort, where their personalities initially clashed.
“He drove me crazy," Sara says. "Our approaches to our work were so different, and eventually our manager forced us to work together and figure it out. His charm and kindness won me over, and we became fast friends."
Akil grew up loving barbecue and had taken up making his own as a hobby, perfecting his approach with a simple Weber Kettle grill and a small offset smoker. When the lockdown shut down much of the hospitality work in the city, Akil pitched Sarah the idea of selling his barbecue to make up some of their lost income.
“I don’t think of myself as a chef. When people call me that, I’m like, ‘who?’ I’m just a guy who likes to burn meat, and people enjoy it,” he jokes.
But the more they kicked around the idea, the more the couple felt like they could make a barbecue business a reality. Akil, who has a background working in breweries in the city, reached out to some of his connections to see if he could start hosting pop-ups.
The (now shuttered) Wayward Tap House, Wren House Brewing Co. and Trevor’s Liquor all became places for him to work out the details for his vision and get his product to hungry customers.
From there, Beerded BBQ moved into a commissary kitchen at Underbelly Meat Co. Eventually, Akil outgrew that pit and in 2023, invested in a custom-made 500-gallon Fatstack offset smoker with the goal of putting down some roots.
When a spot opened up at Tempe Eats, he knew it was the right time and location to bring his product to the public in a consistent, convenient way and to establish himself in the local barbecue scene.
"I won't talk negatively about anyone else's meat, but mine is the best," Akil says. "Best in the city, maybe even the state."
He is confident, not cocky, and he speaks more from a love of the food than ego. Judging from his approach, he may very well be right.
Arizona barbecue, not barbecue in Arizona
The smoker itself is massive. The pit is culled from a 1940s propane tank and the rig looks more akin to a tanker truck barreling through a retro-futuristic landscape than a typical smoker. But Akil is anything but your typical pit boss. Take, for instance, his judicious and delicious wood choice of mesquite and olive. The woods, which both grow abundantly in Arizona, bring out a flavor profile that celebrates the state.
“I wanted to set myself apart in the barbecue scene in Phoenix. When you go to these spots, they say, Texas-style, or St. Louis-style or Carolina-style, but they don’t say Arizona-style. They are barbecue spots in Arizona, but it’s not Arizona barbecue. I grew up here and wanted to show the influence of the region on me and my food,” Akil says.
Protein selection will also lean into regional favorites. While the popular staples of brisket, ribs, chicken and turkey will all be available as they get going, Akil wants to mix it up.
“One of my favorites is cachete, beef cheek. It’s got tons of flavor, never dry, renders great bark, just melts in your mouth. Another is carne asada. Not many people do it for barbecue, but I marinate it, then smoke it, and it’s incredible,” he says.
Wood, smoke and time
Branching out on his own, Akil has become his own boss. But the meat calls the shots, he says.“Meat has a mind of its own, and it has its own schedule, ” Akil says.
But his process adds to the time-consuming ritual. His briskets typically take 10 to 14 hours to smoke, but Akil doubles that time by letting them rest for another 10 to 14 hours. Such a long incubation period allows the meat to reabsorb its juices and reach maximum tenderness and moistness, even if it means sacrificing some sleep. Akil believes such details separate his 'cue from the rest.
The taste of the brisket is transcendent. Peppery bark with a sharp crust gives way to the tender cross-section of meat.
The same process is extended to the pork belly, giving it a crispy exterior that melts into a buttery, smoky, decadent bite that could ruin other barbecue for you. No sauce is needed, but options are offered on the side. We're partial to the Fiery Sweet Heat, which melds a porter (all the sauces have a beer base, as suggested by the name) with citrus, jalapeno, serrano, chipotle, adobo and chiltepin.
The diced chicken thighs in a mild sauce rendered from lager and citrus are excellent. Chicken enchilada sausages from Schriener’s Fine Sausage are the only protein on the menu that Akil outsources, noting that he “knows his lane, and that’s another rabbit hole." They are a perfect complement to the rest of the plate, which could also include big Dino beef ribs, although only on Saturdays.
Sides like mains
If you can judge a book by its cover, you might be able to judge a barbecue spot by its sides. Are they a filler to pad out the main event? Or are they carefully and thoughtfully designed to enhance the experience? For Akil and Sarah, sides were never an afterthought, but rather part of the process.
“For a long time, it was all about the meat, so sides weren’t really having to compete. But now, I especially don’t want someone to eat my food and not have them enjoy every aspect of the meal, so I put just as much passion and time, attention and detail into the sides and sauces as the proteins,” Akil says.
To balance things out, Sarah crafts sides that cut through the sweet and heat.
“I have always enjoyed potato salad and pickles, so marrying those two together in my Pickly Potato Salad was natural. We also incorporate Southwestern spices and techniques," she says. "You’ll get some chile powder, cumin, chile flakes in there as well."
Our favorite side is Akil’s mac and cheese. Working from his mom’s recipe, which he says is now passing down into the fourth generation of the family, the ubiquitous barbecue side goes hard with creamy cheese pulls, conchigliette or little shell pasta and a hint of spice.
“Shout out to my mom, but I tweaked it just a bit. It’s got that Southwest in there with some Hatch green chiles in that bad boy. It’s flavorful, it’s delectable, it’s made with love," Akil says.
A family affair
From inspiration for the sides to the machinations of the business itself, Beerded BBQ is a family affair.“The family is our priority. It’s why we started the business. If you’ve been to our pop-ups, you’ve seen all our children taking orders, running food, just hanging around," Sarah says. "We hope we can pass on the spirit of hard work, authenticity and community to our kids."
While blending their family and business has certainly cost them some sleep, the pair hasn’t lost an iota of passion about what they do. Akil lights up whenever he talks about the process of making his pit master dream a reality.
“When you think about barbecue, you think about the backyard, having a good time with friends and family. But it’s also primal, as humans we are naturally drawn to it, staring at the flame, watching the meat, smelling the smoke," he says. "Even if I am not cooking, I want to be close to that. I want to see what it turns into. It’s going to be something more than when it started."
Beerded BBQ at Tempe Eats
Opens Thursday. Grand opening event: Aug. 1685 E. Southern Ave., Tempe
