Our BBQ Journey

Hailing from Australia, where they met in kindergarten and have been best mates ever since, David Gill and Joel Romano go way back on their converging paths towards bbq destiny.

‍

David’s journey took him through the NYC borough of Brooklyn, where for six years he ran the pits at the widely renowned Hometown BBQ, mastering his methods day by day among the succulent cuts and slow-burning wood.

‍

Joel, meanwhile, honed his culinary chops in Philadelphia, plying his craft in area restaurants, most notably for the last eight years as the executive chef at The Goat’s Beard: a sustainability-focused, community-minded purveyor of jazzed-up American fare.

‍

With a mutually growing interest in restaurant entrepreneurship, David began to travel from NYC to Philly once a week, where he learned from Joel the finer details of the chef’s vocation, the two of them working together both in the kitchen and out of it, going, as they did, on catering missions far and wide. Amid this ever-fruitful partnership, Joel was lured deeper into the mythical realm of smoke and meats, and he began to incorporate barbecue into The Goat’s Beards menu as David developed his knowledge of the business and maintained his integral role at Hometown through the dark days of 2020.

‍

Having perfected their skills on too many briskets to count, David and Joel knew the time had come to strike out on their own, and together they are set to open Wildwoods BBQ in July 2021!

‍