What Is Cleveland Style BBQ? Michael Symon’s Mabel’s BBQ, From a Regular

Cleveland style BBQ is a regional barbecue style created by chef Michael Symon at Mabel's BBQ, which opened on East 4th Street in downtown Cleveland in April 2016. It pairs meat smoked low and slow over local fruitwood with a thin, tangy sauce built on Bertman Ball Park Mustard, vinegar and Eastern European spices, and it puts rye bread, sauerkraut and kielbasa on the tray where other barbecue towns put white bread and sweet pickles. The idea is simple: Memphis, Texas, Kansas City and the Carolinas all have a barbecue that tastes like where they come from, and Symon decided Cleveland deserved one too. When this post first went up in April 2016, Mabel's had not served a single tray yet. All we had was local TV footage of the build-out and a hometown chef promising the city its own barbecue. Ten years later I can tell you how that promise held up, because Mabel's turned into my spot.

Opening Day, My Dad and a Tray of Meat

For years, Mabel's was part of the Opening Day routine with my dad. East 4th Street sits a few blocks from the ballpark, which makes it the obvious place to load up before the first pitch of the season, and once you have eaten there on a day like that, the place carries some weight. If your game day runs more parking lot than dining room, our Tailgater Lane section has you covered. There is a quiet joke in eating Mabel's before a ballgame that most out-of-towners miss. The sauce on your brisket starts with the same brown ballpark mustard Cleveland has been squeezing onto stadium hot dogs for generations. (We settled that rivalry in Stadium Mustard vs. Bertman.) Symon did not import a barbecue identity. He went into the city's pantry, found the stuff we already loved, and built the style around it. That is why it works. It does not taste like a Texas joint wearing a Cleveland jersey. It tastes like a Sunday at your grandmother's house got introduced to a smoker.

What Makes Cleveland Style BBQ Different?

Three things define the style, and you will find all three on every tray that comes out of the kitchen. The sauce. Cleveland BBQ sauce is mustard-forward and vinegar-sharp rather than sweet and thick. The base is Bertman Ball Park Mustard, a Cleveland brand going back generations, blended with vinegar and Eastern European spices. It brings tang and a little sweetness rather than heat. Symon has also been clear that he believes great barbecue does not need sauce, so the meat comes to the table naked and the sauce bottle sits there as an option, not a disguise. If you want to build your own mustard sauce at home, start with our picks for the best stone ground mustard. The smoke. When Mabel's was announced, Symon said the meat would be smoked over applewood, which grows all over Northeast Ohio. Today the restaurant describes it more broadly as local fruitwood. Either way the smoke is gentle and a little sweet, and the brisket spends roughly 18 hours getting there. The plate. Meats are ordered by the half-pound and land on a tray with Tony Packo's pickles (a Toledo institution), Cleveland Kraut from Cleveland Kitchen and a slice of Mediterra rye. Rye and kraut next to smoked meat is the whole thesis in two bites. This is a city built by Polish, Slovenian, Hungarian and Czech neighborhoods, and the sides read like a church festival menu.

Cleveland BBQ vs. the Other Regional Styles

The closest cousin is South Carolina's mustard sauce, but Cleveland's version is thinner, sharper and spiced like a kielbasa, and nobody in Columbia is putting rye bread on the tray. For the Texas side of the argument, see our run through Meat Church recipes and Texas BBQ flavors.

What to Order at Mabel's BBQ

Go hungry and go with people. The menu rewards sharing more than any barbecue spot I know in Northeast Ohio. This Is Cleveland. If you only order one thing, order the dish named after the city. Classic kielbasa, pork spare ribs and pulled pork get tossed in spicy cabbage and finished with smoked mustard seed and herbs. It is the whole style in one bowl, and it is built for the middle of the table. The Polish Girl. Cleveland's iconic street sandwich is the Polish Boy: kielbasa on a bun buried under barbecue sauce, French fries and coleslaw, a sandwich that came out of the city's Black and Polish neighborhoods meeting at the same lunch counters. Mabel's version swaps the fries for pulled pork and stacks kielbasa (classic or spicy), pulled pork, slaw and Cleveland BBQ sauce on a hoagie roll. You will need both hands and you will need napkins. Fatty brisket. Ask for the fatty cut. The smoke ring is deep, the fat renders down into the meat, and this is where the 18 hours shows up. Pork belly. Served by the half-pound or on the Boss Hog sandwich with a maple and mustard glaze. Rich enough that one order covers a table. Smoked brisket pierogies. Brisket, caramelized onions, sour cream and chives. If you grew up in Parma or Slavic Village, this is the dish that makes you laugh out loud, because somebody finally did it. The supporting cast. Fried potatoes with scallions and sherry vinegar, pork cracklin' with a sour cream and chive dip, and hot greens with bacon. Order more sides than you think you need. To drink. A full bar with Ohio craft beer, a serious bourbon and whiskey list, and cocktails. A crisp local lager cuts through the mustard and fat better than anything else on the menu, and Ohio brewers have been winning medals for exactly that kind of beer (see our rundown of Ohio's 2026 GABF winners). A pour of bourbon after the meat is the right way to close it out, and if that pour has you planning a road trip, start with our guide to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Not sure what to pair with what? Ask Hops, our AI beer and BBQ sommelier.

The Room: Brick, Neon and Picnic Tables

Symon took his design cues from Cleveland's West Side Market, and you can feel it: exposed brick, arched ceilings, industrial lighting and long communal picnic tables where you will probably end up elbow to elbow with strangers. A red neon sign over the dining room says EAT MORE MEAT, which is about as clear a mission statement as a restaurant can have. The name is a story worth knowing. Mabel was Symon's bullmastiff, and by his own telling she was the slowest-moving dog alive. He named a barbecue joint after her because barbecue is slow too. In March 2022 a second Mabel's opened at Eton Chagrin Boulevard in Woodmere, in the space that used to be his B Spot burger bar (update: this location is now closed). It followed the same look as the downtown flagship and added a few things the East 4th kitchen does not do, like a smash burger and mac and cheese. (Want to make the smash burger part at home? Here is how we do the best smash burger at home.) Hours at both locations have shifted over the years, so check the Mabel's BBQ website before you drive over. Mabel's is one reason the city's food scene finally gets taken seriously. We made that case in Cleveland Just Got a Seat at the Grown-Ups' Table.

Deals at the Barbecue Table

In 2017 I hosted a Pints, Forks & Friends business meetup at Mabel's, and we ordered family style. That one decision did more for the evening than any name tag or icebreaker could have. When the trays hit the table, nobody gets to hide behind their own plate. You are passing ribs to the person next to you, asking who wants the last pierogi, arguing about fatty versus lean brisket. The conversation starts itself. By the end of that night, deals had been made at the barbecue table, and I have believed ever since that the best networking event is just a good meal where people have to share. That is the "Friends" part of what we do. Return on Relationship sounds like a slide in a conference deck until you watch two strangers become business partners over a tray of kielbasa. If you want a seat at the next one, you will have to join the free Pub Ring!

Where Michael Symon's Barbecue Came From

Mabel's was not a celebrity chef's side project. It was a long time coming. Geppetto's on Warren Road. Symon's first kitchen job, at 15, was cooking ribs at Geppetto's Pizza and Ribs on Warren Road on Cleveland's west side. Slabbing ribs as a teenager is about as straight a line to a barbecue restaurant as a career can draw. From Geppetto's he went to the Culinary Institute of America, graduating in 1990. Lola and a meat-first reputation. He and his wife Liz opened Lola in Tremont in 1997, later moving it to East 4th Street, right next door to where Mabel's would eventually open. Lola, and later Roast in Detroit, built his reputation for bold, rustic, meat-forward cooking and whole-animal butchery. He won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2009. A Bourdain connection. In 2007, Anthony Bourdain brought No Reservations to Cleveland, and Symon was part of the episode. If you have ever wondered why this site keeps measuring itself against Bourdain, a lot of us in Northeast Ohio got our first look at our own city through that kind of lens: unvarnished, working class, and better fed than anyone expected. Television barbecue. Symon's TV work kept circling back to fire and smoke. Burgers, Brew & 'Que sent him across the country eating at barbecue joints and drinking craft beer, BBQ Brawl puts him alongside Bobby Flay coaching pitmasters, and Symon's Dinners Cooking Out was filmed at his own backyard grill. Building a style on purpose. All that time on the road taught him that every great barbecue city has a regional identity, and that Cleveland did not have one. He told Cleveland Magazine as much: there was no Cleveland style of barbecue. So he built one out of the city's own ingredients and opened Mabel's to prove it. If you want to try it at home, his cookbook Michael Symon's Playing with Fire (2018) is his first barbecue and live-fire book, written while he was developing Mabel's, and it covers the Cleveland style alongside the regional classics that inspired it. Before you fire up the smoker, read our breakdown of the best lump charcoal brands, our Kamado Joe vs. Big Green Egg showdown, and our notes on smoking with Traeger grills. More smokers, rubs and grill gear we actually use are in the PFF Amazon shop.

More Northeast Ohio Smoke

Mabel's is not the only smokehouse in the region worth the drive. We took our wing show, I Can Do Another 12, to Lager Heads BBQ Smokehouse in Medina, and our Field Notes series keeps adding more stops across Ohio and beyond.

Find Your Next Table

Mabel's is the kind of place we built Pints, Forks & Friends around: local, a little loud, rooted in where it comes from, and better with company. The Pub Ring is how we get more of you to those tables. Members pick up a stamp at each featured bar and restaurant, climb the leaderboard by visiting and sharing, and get first word on which three stops are up next in Northeast Ohio. Get the card and join The Pub Ring here.

From the Archive: The 2016 Sneak Peek

This is the local TV coverage that ran with the original version of this post, filmed right before Mabel's opened. Worth a watch to see the room before the first brisket ever came off the smoker. 

Frequently Asked Questions About Cleveland Style BBQ

What is Cleveland style BBQ?

Cleveland style BBQ is a regional barbecue style developed by Michael Symon at Mabel's BBQ in 2016. It combines meat smoked over local fruitwood with a mustard and vinegar sauce made from Bertman Ball Park Mustard, served with rye bread, sauerkraut and pickles that reflect Cleveland's Eastern European heritage.

What is in Mabel's BBQ sauce?

Mabel's Cleveland BBQ sauce is built on Bertman Ball Park Mustard, a Cleveland brand, mixed with vinegar and Eastern European spices. It is tangy and slightly sweet rather than spicy, and it is served on the side because the meat comes to the table unsauced.

What should I order at Mabel's BBQ for the first time?

Start with This Is Cleveland, a shareable bowl of kielbasa, pork spare ribs and pulled pork tossed in spicy cabbage. Add fatty brisket, the smoked brisket pierogies and the Polish Girl sandwich if you are with a group.

What is the difference between a Polish Boy and a Polish Girl?

A Polish Boy is Cleveland's classic sandwich of kielbasa topped with barbecue sauce, French fries and coleslaw on a bun. The Polish Girl at Mabel's replaces the fries with pulled pork and serves it on a hoagie roll with Cleveland BBQ sauce and slaw.

How many Mabel's BBQ locations are there in Ohio?

There are two Ohio locations: the original on East 4th Street in downtown Cleveland, open since April 2016, and a second at Eton Chagrin Boulevard in Woodmere, which opened in March 2022. Check the restaurant's website for current hours before visiting.

Who is Mabel's BBQ named after?

Mabel's BBQ is named after Michael Symon's bullmastiff, Mabel, who he described as an extremely slow dog. He felt the name fit, since good barbecue is slow too.