A new craft barbecue spot has opened its doors in Durango in the location that formerly housed T’s Smokehouse for over a decade.
SUP Craft BBQ officially began welcoming customers Dec. 18 at 3 Depot Place in Durango’s historic district – where T’s Smokehouse previously served similar eats to the community for 15 years.
T’s Smokehouse, which was founded in 2010 by chefs Chris and Sherrie Martin and Tom Hamilton, left Durango last spring and reopened in a new location – 1157 Greene St. in Silverton – on June 6.
SUP Craft BBQ owner and co-pitmaster Aya Trevino, who founded the restaurant in Taos in December 2023, is leading the charge at the new Durango location. Her partner, Jason Rodriguez, is the other half of the pitmaster team.
Trevino said SUP moved to Durango because the city’s rental market offered better prices and more space than what she could find in Taos.
SUP had a loyal following back in Taos, she said, and it was a normal occurrence for supplies to run out before the day was up.
The pair said they’ve felt welcomed to Durango by customers, the city and the business community, and that the Durango location has been popular so far – more so than they were expecting this early on.
“We’ve been open less than a month, and we already have multiple return customers,” Trevino said. “We’re getting to know people’s names, getting to know people in the neighborhood, what their preferences are.”
SUP’s menu – designed to be gluten free and celiac-friendly – offers soup, pork, ribs, smoked salmon, potatoes, slow-smoked brisket, scratch-made sides, salads and several desserts.
The most expensive food item on the menu is the two ribs and two racks platter, sold for $55. Smaller meat and combo plates range from around $15 to $30. A single rib can be purchased for $5, a 6-ounce portion of salmon for $12, and a quarter pound of smoked sausage for $6.
Sides at SUP – such as coleslaw, potato salad and elote – are offered in small and large sizes, with small portions ranging in price from $4 and $7, and large portions ranging from $6 to $10. Salad pricing ranges from around $7 to $17 dollars, depending on size and ingredients. Soup is priced in the $7 to $11 range.
SUP offers a loyalty punch card to repeat customers that offers a free pound of pulled pork or brisket for every 10 visits, and a 10% discount to veterans and first responders.
In comparison, T’s Smokehouse – which offered a similar menu to SUP, with some additional offerings like catfish, shrimp, burgers and nachos – sold four ribs for $11, a full rack of ribs for $20, a half-pound of pulled pork or barbecue beef for $7, and a whole smoked chicken for $12.
Serious Texas Bar-B-Q – which has four locations across Colorado, two of which are in Durango – offers similar eats to SUP at comparable prices.
A meat sampler from Serious Texas, which includes a quarter pound each of brisket, pulled pork, turkey and chicken, along with two sausage links and four ribs, goes for about $40.
But SUP is different, Trevino and Rodriguez said.
Trevino said the draw of SUP, and what makes it a valuable addition to the Durango food scene, is its made-from-scratch offerings, hand-picked and clean ingredients, and community-centric energy.
“We like to make it personable and personal,” she said. “We like to get to know our people. … And we don’t serve anything that comes prepared straight out of a bag. Everything is from scratch, right down to the barbecue sauce and the salad dressings, and we pride ourselves on that. We have a creative flair.”
Trevino and Rodriguez are currently the only employees at SUP – but they hope to hire at least two more by mid-March. The pair are also hoping to hire live musicians to play on the patio, and have plans in place for additional offerings and upgrades – including catering and outdoor heaters – once they get their sea legs in the new location.
In addition to more accessible rental prices than what could be found in Taos, Durango’s proximity to cattle farmers was a draw of the area, Trevino said.
SUP previously sourced its meat from markets in Albuquerque, because cattle ranches near Taos proved too small to meet weekly demand. Trevino and Rodriguez currently source their meat from the Shamrock Foodservice Warehouse in Farmington – but they’re working on finding local farmers to source from.
“With Durango being larger, and there being larger agricultural areas within the region, I am pretty confident I’m going to be able to source most of my items within the region,” Trevino said. “Obviously, I can’t get pineapples and things like that here, but for the most part, I would really, really like to be sourcing my beans, most of my produce and my meats locally.”
With beef prices on the rise for markets in Brazil, New Zealand, Uruguay and Australia, sourcing meat can be a challenge for small businesses.
Multiple tariffs resulted in a layered 76.4% total rate being in effect on imported Brazilian beef as of November, with meat prices having increased 1.6% overall since October, according to a recent article by CNBC.
The average price for ground beef skyrocketed to a record-breaking $6.32 per pound in September, according to the U.S. Consumer Price Index, reflecting an almost 13% increase from 2024 prices.
The increases have impacted SUP, the pair said – but they’ve remained committed to keeping their prices accessible.
“We’ve seen (meat) prices go up and down more than Bitcoin,” Rodriguez said. “But we lock our prices in. A lot of meat people right now are charging market price for things, and we’re trying to avoid doing that.”
The pair said they want customers at SUP to feel welcome – and full.
“We want people to feel at home,” Trevino said. “We want them to feel a sense of community the moment they walk in.”
SUP Craft BBQ is open from noon to 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday – or as supplies last.
epond@durangoherald.com
