Featured in · 6ix Retail
Carbon Snack Bar Activates Heritage Building in King West's Retail Evolution
Fast-casual BBQ concept represents the latest heritage-building activation in a rapidly transforming corridor.
6ix Retail visited the new Carbon Snack Bar at 460 King West — a fast-casual extension of The Carbon Bar tucked into a heritage building Yannick first looked at for the catering side of the business. The piece is about how a working operator reads a location, reverse-engineers what should live in it, and treats good barbecue with the same discipline as a tasting menu.
The conversation walks through fourteen openings of pattern recognition: humidity changes, wood selection, how much fat is in the cut — the small variables that decide whether a brisket leaves the smoker as cuisine or as filler.
I fall in love with locations and then I reverse engineer what should go there. I've done that probably every time that I've opened something, and I've done it 14 times.
— Yannick Bigourdan, in 6ix Retail
Making good barbecue is as complicated as creating a beautiful three, four, or five-course tasting menu. There's a lot to do with humidity, the type of wood, the time of day, how much fat is in the cut, and everything basically changes.
— Yannick Bigourdan, in 6ix Retail
I first looked at this space for our catering business, trying to convince the landlord to let me use that for private events in the courtyard. And then we said, well, it'd be great to also reactivate the corner.
— Yannick Bigourdan, in 6ix Retail