Creole gumbo and Dolly Parton’s favourite brisket, served in the Deep South of Wales, and voted by OFM readers as their restaurant of the year
“We call it San Fran Barry,” laughs Sam Evans, co-founder of Hang Fire Southern Kitchen, about her and her partner Shauna Guinn’s choice to open a barbecue restaurant in Barry, nine miles south of Cardiff. “Yes, it’s tongue-in-cheek,” she adds, “but there is a touch of faded Americana about the place.” For the Hang Fire duo, bringing barbecue, or “south Welsh soul food” as they call it, to this often overlooked part of the world felt like the natural fit. Their menu takes us on a riotous road trip from New Orleans to Kansas City with a side serving of Texas and Tennessee, using Welsh produce to root it firmly in the Vale of Glamorgan. “This is homely cooking. It’s food for the people,” says Evans. “We couldn’t put Hang Fire anywhere else; we wanted to show Barry some love. Here, it just fits.”
Related: OFM Awards 2018: Best Restaurant – the runners-up
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