Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/996797
NORTHSHOREMAG.COM 66 JUNE + JULY 2018 e first time you pull up to the Rusty Can, a year-old barbecue joint in Byfield, you might wonder if you are in the right place. e driveway is marked by towering piles of mulch, thanks to its strip mall locale shared with a hardware store/landscaping company. e parking lot is pitted with potholes, and the eatery itself, sandwiched between a hair salon and a convenience store, looks more like a biker bar than a restaurant. And owner James "Sully" Sullivan thinks that's absolutely perfect. "I liked it from the start," Sullivan recalls. "It was a little banged up. It looks like a barbecue joint." Indeed, the whole vibe would be right at home south of the Mason-Dixon line, from the corrugated tin roof to the friendly casual service, but Sullivan's roots are pure New England. Over more than 30 years, he has worked in the kitchens of about 25 North Shore restaurants, from his first job washing dishes at Herrick House in Ipswich at age 14 to chef positions everywhere from 1640 Hart House to C.K. Pearl. "I grew up around here, where barbecue is steak tips and hamburgers," Sullivan says with / I N - D E P T H / a laugh. Nonetheless, he has loved the idea of barbecue restaurants, with their heaping piles of food and casual neighborhood clientele, ever since visiting one on a road trip down South in his 20s. So a few years back, he installed a smoker on the back of his house- boat and spent three days a week over four summers perfecting grilled meat. "You can learn anything on YouTube," Sullivan says, explaining that between studying up on the Internet and James Beard award-winning chef Aaron Franklin book, Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto, he taught himself how to make his meat taste exactly the way he wanted it. On the days he wasn't smoking meat, Sullivan was working for Patrick Shea, the owner of C.K. Pearl in Essex, simultaneously learning the business Owner James "Sully" Sullivan smokes his prime brisket for a total of 12 hours, and dozens of slabs of meat need to be checked every 20 minutes. Right, Sullivan will sometimes spritz the meat with a mixture of water and vinegar to slow the darkening.