"Smoked. Meat. Nirvana."
- Los Angeles Magazine

So what makes Ugly Drum pastrami so much better than everyone else's? It was created as a personal passion project by Erik Black as a hybridized technique, combining his homemade classic Jewish pastrami brine with Texas-style pit-smoking. That means whole USDA Prime grade briskets, brined for several days, then pit-smoked over low, indirect heat with whole logs of oak and pecan wood for at least 10 hours.