Sliced & Stacked at Summer’s End Smokeout
Sliced & Stacked at Summer’s End Smokeout: Brent Told MJ to Mix It Up, So She Did
If there is one thing we learned while F’nAround at Summer’s End Smokeout, it’s that some of the best festival food doesn’t need a permanent dining room.
Sometimes it just needs a smoker, a food truck, a ridiculous amount of meat, and an owner who actively encourages you to start mixing everything on the plate together.
Enter Sliced & Stacked LLC.
Based in Kingsford in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Sliced & Stacked is a mobile barbecue and catering operation serving the Kingsford and Iron Mountain area. The business has also become a familiar sight at local events and festivals throughout the U.P.
Their lineup stretches well beyond basic barbecue, with smoked meats, gyros, sandwiches and plenty of the kind of sides that make you reconsider whether they’re actually supposed to remain sides.
That last part became important very quickly.
Meet Brent And Bring an Appetite
We caught up with owner Brent at Summer’s End Smokeout, where he put together a spread for F’nAround featuring:
Pulled chicken
Pulled pork
Mac and cheese
Coleslaw
A gyro served without the pita
But instead of Mike handling this tasting alone, he grabbed MJ from Midwest Extracts to come over and help him work through the pile of food.
That turned out to be a very good decision.
MJ is apparently a food mixer.
You know the type.
Why eat chicken and mac and cheese separately when God gave us forks specifically capable of putting both on them at the same time?
And rather than watching in horror as the structural integrity of his carefully prepared food disappeared, Brent encouraged it.
So MJ mixed.
Chicken + Mac & Cheese = “Fire”
The combination that immediately got MJ’s attention was the pulled chicken with the mac and cheese.
Her assessment was wonderfully uncomplicated:
“Fire combo.”
Sometimes food criticism does not require 1,500 words discussing mouthfeel, acidity and the philosophical implications of smoked poultry.
Sometimes it’s just fire.
And if the person who made the food is standing there encouraging you to start combining things, you might as well see how far the experiment can go.
Pulled pork? Check.
Coleslaw? Check.
Mac and cheese? Absolutely.
This was quickly becoming less of a traditional tasting and more of a barbecue laboratory.
Then Came the Gyro Without the Pita
Sliced & Stacked isn’t limited to pulled meats, either.
Gyros are part of the operation’s broader food lineup, which is one of the things that makes the truck interesting. Instead of staying entirely inside one barbecue lane, Brent has built a menu that gives people plenty of different directions to go.
For our tasting, the gyro came without the pita, leaving the meat and sauce to do all the talking.
MJ’s verdict?
“Nice and juicy.”
And the gyro sauce helped bring the whole thing together.
Between the barbecue, mac and cheese, coleslaw and gyro, this wasn’t exactly a tasting designed for someone trying to delicately nibble their way through a music festival.
This was food designed to eat.
Sliced, Stacked and Worth Finding in the U.P.
Sliced & Stacked operates around Kingsford and Iron Mountain, Michigan, with its Facebook page listing 700 East Blvd., Kingsford, MI 49802. Because it’s a mobile operation that appears at events and changing locations, checking its current schedule before heading out is the smart move.
And the festival circuit is clearly part of the equation. Sliced & Stacked has appeared as a food vendor at Upper Peninsula community events in addition to showing up at Summer’s End Smokeout.
For F’nAround, though, the best part wasn’t simply getting another plate of festival food.
It was getting Brent there with us, talking about what he makes, encouraging MJ to completely disregard any imaginary rules about keeping her food separated, and watching someone from another SESO vendor jump into the tasting.
That is exactly the kind of random community crossover we kept finding at Summer’s End Smokeout.
Mike grabs MJ from Midwest Extracts.
Brent starts handing over barbecue.
MJ starts mixing everything.
Chicken meets mac and cheese.
The gyro loses its pita.
And somewhere along the way, we get another reminder that some of the best parts of a festival happen when you stop planning the content and just start F’nAround.
F’nAround verdict: If you find Sliced & Stacked somewhere around Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, show up hungry.
And apparently don’t be afraid to mix your food.
Brent approves.
Watch the review here:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcTVltAod1P/?igsi=MXlnZXB5c2pmNWlj
