D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
November 2010
Maverick Menu
Billy's BBQ and Wood-fired Pizza blazes its way onto the Silver City dining scene.
By Peggy Platonos
Be advised: Billy the Kid is back in Silver City, and this time the little maverick is getting people's attention not with a six-shooter but with tasty BBQ and unusual pizzas.
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Alex Ocheltree pulls a pizza out of the 700-degree wood-fired oven. (Photo
by Peggy Platonos) |
Billy's BBQ and Wood-fired Pizza opened its doors for business in mid-October with little advance notice or fanfare, and immediately attracted a crowd. Offering a decidedly creative menu designed to "fill the gaps" in the cuisine offered by restaurants already existing in the area, owner Alex Ocheltree appears to have struck gold in his first foray into the restaurant business.
"Basically, what we wanted to do here were things that nobody else was doing, and do them extremely well," Ocheltree says.
A self-proclaimed "foodie," Ocheltree has included in the menu a freewheeling mixture of barbequed ribs and brisket, freshly made pasta, Cajun catfish, seared Ahi tuna, authentic Greek gyros, and pizzas baked in a wood-fired oven and featuring a wide range of innovative toppings.
"I learned to make pasta from an Italian friend of mine about 30 years ago," Ocheltree says. "I make it with eggs and double-zero Italian flour. And we roll our pasta, which helps develop the gluten in the flour."
His quest to make the perfect pizza started nearly as long ago. "I've spent a lot of years learning to make a pizza like the ones I had in Italy while I was backpacking through Europe 30 years ago, seeing and tasting the world," he explains. "I built my own brick wood-fired oven in my backyard in Gila more than 10 years ago."
The 700-degree wood-fired pizza oven at the restaurant, however, came all the way from Italy. Both the Neapolitan crust on the 12-inch pizzas and the thinner New York-style crust on the 18-inch pizzas at Billy's BBQ are made using the traditional techniques and ingredients of "Pizza Napolitano Veritano," or true Neapolitan pizza.
"Most commercial pizza crusts are full of sugar and may have additives," Ocheltree says. "We use absolutely first-rate flour, with no preservatives."
But while the pizza crust is traditional in style, many of the toppings are not.
"We have Southwestern toppings as well as traditional ones," he points out. The Southwestern toppings include chorizo, barbecued brisket, green chile, red chile and jalapeos. The pizzas sport appropriately whimsical names like Tres Amigos, Pat Garrett, Gunslinger and Gila Monster.
"In the barbecue world, I'm kind of a newbie," Ocheltree admits. His introduction to world-class barbecue came two years ago, when he hosted the Billy the Kid BBQ Championship. He was operating a motorcycle shop at the time.
"I was interested in barbecue, but had no experience with championship barbecue until then," he says. "I learned that certain types of smoker-cookers were not legal in the competition because they are too easy to use and work too well. I decided that was just what I wanted."
He found one in North Carolina — a $17,000 wood and electric smoker that will hold up to 400 pounds of meat at one time. It's airtight and thermostatically controlled, which may be considered cheating in barbecue championships, but is perfect in a restaurant setting. The baby back ribs, St. Louis-style ribs and New Mexico beef brisket — all treated with tasty dry rubs and slow-roasted for long hours in the smoker-cooker — are moist, tender and championship quality.
"One of our principal guidelines here is that our food has to be great. Every item. If we can't do it justice, we're not going to serve it at all," Ocheltree declares. He aims to have something on the menu for everyone, including vegetarians.
He is also committed to keeping prices reasonable. Barbecue dinners range in price from $10 to $18; 12-inch pizzas cost $8 to $15 and 18-inch pizzas run from $12 to $20. Patrons can choose from 12 brands of beer on tap and more in bottles, as well as several malt beverages and a variety of wines.
Ambience has been carefully and effectively created at Billy's BBQ through the mixture of Victorian and Spanish colonial styles typical of the 1880s in the Southwest. The antique bar dates back to that era and comes from a saloon in Mogollon where Billy the Kid's stepfather, William Antrim, was said to hang out. And the Old West atmosphere is in no way diminished by the large-screen TVs offering quiet entertainment that ranges from Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson concerts to pro football games.
"Sort of Billy the Kid meets Las Vegas," quips Ocheltree.
Why spotlight Billy the Kid?
"Why not?" says Ocheltree. "I'm in favor of tourism, and ignoring Billy the Kid is stupid. He's an icon in Western history. He lived in Silver City as a teenager and his mother is buried here. But no one around here has paid much attention to Billy, so he was kind of up for grabs and I grabbed him."
Billy's BBQ and Wood-fired Pizza is located at the right-hand end of the building that houses Bealls department store on Hwy. 180 in Silver City. It is open Tuesday through Thursday from 3 to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Lunches will soon be added on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and live entertainment is also planned, with karaoke on Friday nights from 8 to 10 p.m. and open mic on Saturdays from 8 to 10 p.m. The restaurant is closed on Mondays.
But the main live entertainment will undoubtedly continue to happen behind the serving counter, as thin slices of meat come off the vertical gyro rotisserie, pizza dough is tossed in the air and finished pizzas are slid into the glowing mouth of the wood-fired pizza oven on long-handled wooden paddles — all within view of the customers.
For more information, call Billy's BBQ at (575) 388-1367.
Send Mimbres freelance writer Peggy Platonos tips for restaurant reviews at platonos@gilanet.com or call (575) 536-2997.