Beach BBQ opens in Baldwin 

Beach BBQ has been flying under the radar since it opened in August, maybe due to its tucked-away location behind the Baldwin Long Island Rail Road station. But a local couple has been cooking up a storm, producing smoked meats that rival Long Island's finest barbecue houses. 

The small storefront is owned by Kareem and Sharema Beach, who hail from Brownsville, Brooklyn, but got into barbecue after moving to Hempstead about 16 years ago. The passion morphed into a business a few years back when Kareem got a barbecue trailer and started serving during events at  Crossroads Farm in Malverne, where Sharema also sold natural beauty products through her company, Beach Naturals.

"He always had a passion for cooking," Sharema said about her husband. "The barbecuing started when we got the house. Then he got into smoking."

The shop has limited hours Thursday through Sunday, as Kareem works full time as an administrator with the New York City Housing Authority. He smokes all his meats over hickory and cherry woods, using a variety of smokers on- and off-premises that he's obtained over the years. Sharema prepares the side dishes. 

The shop feels like a family affair. On a recent Friday afternoon, Sharema stood behind the counter dishing out collards and mac and cheese, while Kareem went back and forth from the kitchen. Their daughter was also set up on a laptop at one of the two tables in the small dining room.

Brisket wasn't available that day, but the pork ribs were the highlight of the meal ($25). Each flank featured a neatly trimmed cushion of rib meat, which is toothsome and topped with a thick bark. Sauce provided on the side has none of that saccharine sweetness, and wasn't too heavy on the tang either. This puts it more in the genre of Texas barbecue, which focuses more on the succulent meat than the sauce. Meats like pulled pork ($22) also arrived sauceless. Each strip was on the leaner side but full of smokey flavor and plenty of bark.

There are also turkey wings and fried whiting sandwiches, as well as some hefty mac and cheese, and succulent collard greens that are spruced with bits of smoked turkey. Fried wingettes ($10) had a thick, crackly dry rub to them and arrived piping hot straight out of the fryer. 

Sharema said customers often ask if they're from the South. They're not. Sharema's grandmother may have lived in Harlem, but today most of their immediate family still resides in Brownsville. The two learned to cook by reading and watching food videos. 

"They’re just recipes that we developed ourselves, which I think is pretty cool for the generations to come," she said. "I tweak it to how I like it. That’s how it is. I actually say it on our page. We’re creating new traditions, because that's what we did."

Beach BBQ, 2092 Grand Ave., Baldwin, 516-303-0545, beachbbqny.com. Open noon to 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

By Andi Berlin

andi.berlin@newsday.comAndiBerlin

Andi Berlin is from Arizona and does not know where she is going. But when she gets there, she’ll find something beautiful and delicious that the world needs to taste.