All fired up for Rackshack!
Ridiculously good: At Rackshack, barbecue making is considered an art. There’s color, delicateness, and pure ecstasy involved in the process. But how you devour the generous plate of barbecue is totally up to you! Photos by Jesse Bustos
Barbecue without boundaries!
That’s what diners can expect at the newly opened Rackshack at SM Aura.
With its industrial interior design, communal wooden tables, loud music, board games, beer pong and table football setup for diners to enjoy, Rackshack gets your senses all fired up for some good barbies.
Here, barbecue making is considered an art. There’s color, delicateness, and pure ecstasy involved in the process. But how you devour the generous plate of barbecue is totally up to you!
“Barbecue is very global now,” says restaurant owner Leopoldo “Chukri” Prieto III. “I don’t want to be stuck in a certain box and we don’t want to be stuck in a specific barbecue style!”
At Rackshack, it’s totally fine to order garlic rice with a slab of pork ribs; you can douse the charred meat with five different sauces — mild, sweet, tangy, Asian- inspired or spicy — for added kick, or have fried chicken if you’re in the mood for it.
“We want to take that guesswork and shyness out of the way! There’s no proper or improper way of enjoying barbecues for as long as you’re having fun with your friends,” Chukri explains. “We want to turn barbecue into a unique social and interactive experience.”
Meet racks’ younger brother
Our table calls for a flat lay as it is laden with a generous serving of barbies — pork ribs, pulled pork, sausages — a basket of fried chicken, Creole garlic shrimp with rice, fish and chips, plus slaw, corn, and baked beans on the side.
There’s something deliciously familiar about the pork ribs — the balance of sweetness and the hint of spice, and the same fall-off-the-bone goodness of Racks that I’ve come to love over the years.
“Rackshack is Racks’ younger brother,” says Chukri. “Racks is kind of at a crossroads right now, given the influx of local and international smokehouses. We actually wanted to do something like this to the Racks brand — play loud music, change the interiors or serve beer — but we might end up intimidating our existing Racks diehards who dine there during weekends with their families, strollers in tow.”
Everything Chukri couldn’t do at Racks, he did it with a lot of fun and funk at Rackshack! It’s a lot more casual, more hip, and the food has a little bit of rock ’n’ roll to it.
The menu is pretty straightforward and you order your dish of choice in three simple steps: Choose your meats, choose your sides, and choose your sauce.
Rackshack has expanded the signature sauces Racks is known for. There’s the Mother Sauce, Rackshack’s signature house blend, which is mild and sweet; Spicy Mother sauce; the Asian-inspired hoisin sauce; Carolina Gold, which is mustard-based; and Kansas sauce, Chukri’s personal favorite, which is a sweet and spicy blend.
“Most barbecue restaurants are pushing for one or two kinds of sauces. At Rackshack, we have five and, down the road, I can totally see this place as having eight to 10! These are our own recipes, our own blends. If you’re a first-timer, you can start your first bite with something spicy, then tone it down a little bit with the hoisin sauce,” shares Chukri.
At Rackshack, there’s definitely something for everyone and every taste imaginable!
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Rackshack SM Aura is located at level 5, The Sky Park, SM Aura Premier and is open daily, from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., while Rackshack Circuit is located on the ground floor, Ayala Circuit Mall, Makati City, open on Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 12 mn.
Check Rackshack on Facebook at RACKSHACK, and on Twitter and Instagram at @rackshackph. #Rackshack #FiredUpBBQ
