The Taste Bud: Rise of Meat Box

May 2

**Meat Box.** *Meat Box photos by Kevin Gibson*

Hilltop Tavern owner Mike Skelton handed me a toothpick which had two skewered squares of smoked turkey and told me to try it. It was delicious. And then he told me about the new concept: Meat Box.

Yes. Meat Box.

(Technically, the name is Smokey’s Meat Box, but it’s way more fun to just say Meat Box, and that’s how it was first presented to me, so I’m sticking with it.)

What is Meat Box? Meat Box consists of a half pound of the smoked turkey, two smoked chicken drumsticks, a half pound of smoked Italian sausage, two sides, Texas Toast and a side of house barbecue sauce. And it all comes in a pizza box. The price $25. The value? Well, let’s just say I’m going on day three of the leftovers, and I’m not really even halfway through Meat Box.

I’d had the drumsticks before – you can usually get them on their own at a (very reasonable) price of $9 for three of them. They’re perfectly cooked, just smokey enough, crispy outside and plenty juicy inside. I’d pay three bucks a pop for those things all day.

The turkey came in the form of three big slabs, doused with barbecue sauce. Wait, or did my huge cup of sauce accidentally spill while Meat Box was being carried from the kitchen to the bar? Eh, who cares? Flavorful and hearty. I already want this stuff next Thanksgiving and it’s only May.

**Meat Box is designed for 2-3 people, but it’s also perfect for a week of leftovers.**

The sausage is tasty dunked in the sauce, but it’s lightly sweet and super savory, with a light smoke flavor, in its own right. I’m planning to cut one to size and drop it in a hot dog bun with spicy mustard, given that I was only able to get through maybe a fourth of the stuff during my tangle with Meat Box.

And while Meat Box comes stock with fries and onion rings, I opted for mac and cheese as a replacement for the fries, mostly because Hilltop’s mac and cheese is among my restaurant favorites. The onion rings are solid as well, and are a great option for Meat Box.

The good news is, the smoker at Hilltop Tavern is back in action after being dormant for a couple of years during and after the Covid-19 pandemic fallout. What spurred the rebirth of smoking at the Clifton tavern? Skelton told me someone offered to buy the smoker and, well, he wasn’t going to sell. And because of this encounter, we have Meat Box.

God bless Meat Box.

That said, it was a limited run this past weekend for Meat Box; Skelton said it likely won’t be a regular feature of the menu and probably will be a rotating weekend-only special going forward. So, if it’s Meat Box you crave, you may want to follow the Hilltop Tavern Facebook page to find out when Meat Box might be available to those who missed out. Missed out, you know, on mighty, mighty Meat Box.

And in case you were wondering, including this sentence, the headline and captions, this post contains the phrase “Meat Box” a total of 24 times. There, saved you from having to count yourself.