Eight years ago, husband-and-wife team Dave and Tina O’Bryan opened David Alan Alan’s Smokehouse & Saloon in Mukwonogo. Out of the blue last year, they were approached by the Milwaukee Public Market to open a second location inside the Market – and they immediately said yes.

“We were so honored they asked us. We were like, yes, absolutely. This sounds like a ton of fun,” says Tina.

David Alan Alan’s, located on the eastern end of the Public Market near St. Paul Fish Company, is a BBQ joint that offers diverse smoked meats as meals and appetizers, lots of sides and a full bar.

All of the meat spends 12 hours – burnt ends 15 hours – in the large smoker in the production area. “Her name is Roxanne and she works 24/7,” says Tina.

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The ribs, Korean spare ribs, brisket and burnt ends are the most popular items on the menu. The wings, fried green tomatoes, mac and cheese and sandwiches – like the green tomato BLT and Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich – are also coveted menu items. 

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During prep time, the meats are dry rubbed, and then different house-made sauces are applied depending on the recipe. Tina and Dave are from Franklin and Mukwonago, respectively, but Dave’s “mawmaw” and “pawpaw” are from the South, and they passed down many of the recipes.

Family is at the heart of David Alan Alan’s business (and yes, we will get to the story behind the name). Tina and Dave have nieces and nephews with autism who adhere to a gluten-free diet, and other friends and family members with Celiac’s disease, so providing gluten-free food is extremely important to them.

The restaurant uses all gluten-free products to make their breading, rubs and sauces, and they also have gluten-free fryers.

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“We’ve had customers (who are on a gluten-free diet) tell us it’s been years since they had fried chicken, and it makes us really happy to offer that,” says Tina. “It’s like anything else: you don’t realize how challenging it can be to keep a gluten-free diet until you or someone you care about has to.”

On the saloon side, David Alan Alan's has eight tappers of beer (soon to be 10), a strong wine selection, gluten-free cider, NA beverages and a creative craft cocktail program. During our visit, the bartender concocted a Smoked Old Fashioned made with David Alan Alan’s signature smoked Brandy. The house Bloody Mary came with a rib, cheese and veggies as garnishes, and the smokehouse sangria and “P.O.B.’s Smoking Sweet Tea” caught our attention to try on a non-working visit.

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The P.O.B.’s Smoking Sweet Tea is named in honor of Dave’s father, Pat O’Bryan, who helped with the construction of the Mukwonago restaurant. During one of his shifts helping out, Tina was working on the bar menu, and when he tried the smoked sweet tea, he was instantly smitten.

“I’m not going back on the ladder,” he told Tina after a couple of sips. “I’m done for today.”

Since opening in January of this year, the O’Bryan’s quickly learned that customer desires at the Market are different from those in Mukwonago. Many market-goers like to grab a drink at the bar and have appetizers rather than a full-blown meal.

“This has been a learning curve for us. In Mukwonago, we’re all about large, Southern hospitality portions,” says Tina. 

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Hence, David Alan Alan’s will soon offer a variety of lighter, easy-to-carry food items, including a pulled pork parfait served in a cup. More boozy shakes along with a pass-through window that will allow customers to walk up and order food and drinks from the patio are also in the works.

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Plus, David Alan Alan's patio at the Public Market is about to become even more dog-friendly – with a menu just for pups similar to the one they have at their Mukwonago restaurant. Fundraising for no-kill animal shelters is important to the O’Bryans, who have two rescue poodles, and have raised thousands of dollars for various organizations.

Tina and Dave met in 2010 in the exact location that is now their Mukwonago restaurant. They were married in 2014.

“He always loved smoking food, and I always wanted to open a restaurant,” says Tina, who started in the service industry when she was 14 years old.

“We’re working seven days a week since opening at the (Public) Market, but we knew what we were signing up for and we are good with it,” she says. “We have such great employees at both places which makes everything easier."

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So are they sick of meat yet?

“Believe it or not, we’re not,” says Tina. “But when we get a rare night off, Dave wants to go to a BBQ restaurant, and I just can’t. I need a night of something different. I say to him, ‘Babe, I have smoke coming out of my pores,'” says Tina.

OK, so why the name “David Alan Alan?” As a high school football player and an extreme snowboarder, Dave received five concussions. The last of the five was serious, and upon his arrival at the hospital, he told the staff his name was “David Alan Alan.” Although scary at the time, Dave recovered, and it became a longstanding joke between the couple.

One of Tina’s favorite aspects of being in the Milwaukee Public Market is meeting people from all over the world who are passionate about BBQ. During our visit, a couple from Texas said her Korean spare ribs were the best they'd ever tasted.

“Recently, a guy came in who took a week off from work and was traveling around the country, trying different BBQs,” says Tina. “He loved our burnt ends so much. It was a huge compliment.”

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The Milwaukee Public Market is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Follow David Alan Alan's Smokehouse and Saloon on Facebook and Instagram.