Third Wave BBQ

Third Wave's Ascot Vale room, on Mt Alexander Road, runs on the same conviction as the rest: barbecue is a thing you cannot hurry. Beef brisket takes twelve to sixteen hours over hickory, emerging with a dark, peppery bark and fat rendered soft — Central Texas in spirit, Melbourne in postcode.

The rest of the board travels the American South and Midwest: pork ribs finished with a dry spice rub, pulled pork, and house rubs built thick and flavor-forward in the Kansas City manner, with maple and applewood folded into the smoke.

And the Thor's Hammer holds court — an outsized smoked beef shank, bone and all, carved at the table. It is the sort of dish you order once and talk about long after.