The Abridged version:
- Sactown Hmong BBQ will open its brick-and-mortar location Wednesday after seven years of pop-ups and catering.
- Ger Her began selling his barbecue on his days off from working construction and went viral on social media.
- Her smokes Texas-style pork belly and ribs, but makes Hmong sausage and plans to introduce the Southeast Asian group’s dish most similar to pulled pork.
Ger Her started out selling his barbecue to strangers on Facebook Marketplace. On Wednesday, he began serving it out of Sacramento’s first Hmong barbecue restaurant.
Her opened Sactown Hmong BBQ on Wednesday at 5824 Franklin Blvd. in South Sacramento. Its soft opening will continue through Saturday, opening at noon each day and closing when the food is gone.
The Sacramento metropolitan area has the third-largest Hmong population in the U.S., following Minneapolis-St. Paul and Fresno. But few restaurants (and until now, no barbecue joints) dedicate themselves to serving the Southeast Asian ethnic group’s food, which has some overlap with Thai and Lao cuisines.
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A construction worker by trade, Her was slogging through winter (the industry’s slow season) in 2019 by honing his barbecue craft at home. He had a newborn son, and thought he could make some extra money selling ribs, pork belly and lemongrass-packed Hmong sausage on social media.
“The first day I did it, it sold out within a couple hours. I was like, ‘Oh, OK,'” Her said. “The next day that I wasn’t working, I was like ‘let me try again,’ and then it sold out. So I was like, ‘Oh man, I could I could see myself doing this.’ That’s how it started — it was a hobby, and then it just hit.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, cars lined up outside Her’s home for takeout trays of meat as Sactown Hmong BBQ blossomed into one of the city’s hottest pop-ups. He continued with catering gigs and more organized pop-ups as dining rooms reopened, and found a bit of fame on social media, spurring him to open the full restaurant.
Sactown Hmong BBQ will start out selling Texas-style ribs and pork belly, smoked over mesquite wood in an offset smoker, and grilled chicken, pork belly and Hmong sausage. It’s all meant to be eaten with kua txob, a Hmong hot sauce made with bird’s eye chilis. The initial version proved too fiery for many customers, so Her will offer a milder version as well.
The menu will be limited at first, as at many barbecue joints. But Her plans to eventually introduce more Hmong dishes, including nqaij tsaws, a rich, slow-roasted dish he likened to pulled pork with mustard greens mixed in. He also plans to introduce papaya salad, egg rolls, potato salad and a winter soup as Sactown Hmong BBQ finds its footing.
Sactown Hmong BBQ’s initial phase required customers to take their food home. At the restaurant south of Fruitridge Road, Her hopes people will stay a while in the dining room, where one mural shows the Capitol building and another exhibits his parents with sticky rice and a rack of ribs. Beer, Thai tea and taro-flavored smoothies should help with that.
“We’re hoping to give a different style. I don’t think there’s a restaurant like ours,” Her said.
Sactown Hmong BBQ
Address: 5824 Franklin Blvd., Sacramento
Hours: noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday or until sold out. Closed Sunday and Monday for now.
Instagram: @sactownhmongbbq
Vegetarian options: None to start
Drinks: Bottled and canned beer, plus sodas and Thai teas. Smoothies to come.
Reservations: No
