- June 12, 2025
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The smaller details are as integral to the experience at the Twisted Pit BBQ as the two industrial-sized smokers in the kitchen.
When stepping inside, diners are transported outside to a faux backyard.
Co-owner and chef Evan Percoco spent an hour picking out the exact percentage of green and yellow paint flakes to make the concrete flooring look like grass.
He and his partner, Zach Zeller, originally wanted artificial turf to cover the floors, but cleaning barbecue sauce out of turf seemed too difficult a task.
The walls and windows are lined with fence slats. Picnic tables provide family seating.
The Texas tea and lemonade are self served from big, orange Igloo coolers. Drinks from the bar are poured into red Solo cups, and walking to the restroom mimics walking through a garage to get inside the house.
Zeller is currently looking for a freshly mowed grass scent to pair with the floors. He said pumping in aromas is a trick Disney uses all the time.
The partners spent a year remodeling the space, tweaking recipes and thinking of all the tiny details that could make a restaurant feel like home.
Zeller said dining at the Twisted Pit will affect all your senses, just like eating. Food needs to be visually appealing, smell good and taste good, so the restaurant needs to check all those boxes, too.
However, Zeller is the first one to say that the Twisted Pit isn’t for everybody.
If you want glassware, try Percoco’s Pizza & Pasta or the Peculiar Pub, two other Main Street establishments owned by Zeller and Percoco. Jay Saucier is the third partner at the pub.
Percoco and Zeller’s first foray into barbecue was a year-long popup in the Crowder Plaza, Atypical Kitchen, which opened at the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020. It was delivery only and closed a year later.
Percoco went back to cooking in kitchens owned by other people, while Zeller did consulting work. Neither had much interest in opening another restaurant until the pub went up for sale.
Only 1,200 square feet of space felt like the perfect opportunity to “dip their toes back in.” But once they did that, a goal to open three restaurants in five years quickly formed.
Two more spaces on Main Street became available, and the goal was accomplished much quicker than either of the men anticipated. The Twisted Pit marks the third restaurant in two years.
They describe themselves as barbecue connoisseurs. Anytime they travel together, they seek out barbecue.
“Everybody’s got their own style,” Zeller said. “We’ve always gravitated toward Texas style barbecue. They keep it simple — salt, pepper.”
While simple, the rubs and sauces were tweaked for a year. The turkey stays moist because it’s brined for 24 hours before being smoked over oak and cherry wood.
Classic Texas-style would use post oak, but it’s hard to find in Florida. A few other staples of Texas barbecue are piled onto each tray — white bread, pickles and pickled red onions.
Percoco noted that if there is one clear American cuisine, it’s barbecue. But how it’s served depends on where it’s being served.
In Texas, the meat is served plain, and then sauce is added. The sauces gave the connoisseurs an opportunity to bring in flavors from other regions.
The Florida sauce incorporates spices and citrus, while the white sauce is a nod to Alabama barbecue. The sweet vinegar sauce has its roots in North Carolina, and the mustard sauce is a staple of South Carolina barbecue.
Over the course of a week’s soft opening, the guys were asked a few times where they got the sauce because so many places buy it. Not Percoco, he bought a 100-quart stainless steel pot instead.
“We’re a scratch kitchen,” Zeller said. “There’s going to be days that we run out of mac and cheese or meat. We have no freezer.”
