In a Pig's Eye

It's a little unnerving to be stared at by the creature that will provide your dinner...

...even if it is a rubbery Halloween mask.

At The Wood Pit in Montclair, you walk up to the counter and place your order.

Chopped smoked pork, smoked pork ribs, smoked brisket, smoked chicken, smoked beef ribs...you can smell the operative cooking technique out on the sidewalk, let alone inside the modestly furnished but clean and friendly barbecue parlor run by Lawrence Hackney and his family.

I was standing at the counter, waiting for my order to be rung up (second picture), when I glanced to my left.

There, jutting from behind a flat screen TV monitor, was the likeness of the oinker that gives barbecue its raison d'etre, as they say Down South.

Tags: Montclair | photography | Hackney, Lawrence | barbecue