A NEW SIGN CALLS OUT TO DRIVERS on Rt. 44/55 in Modena: BARBEQUE. JOHN FAZIO FARM MARKET and the words RIBS. DUCK. CHICKEN. RABBIT hover near a row of flames. John Fazio, known for raising free-range poultry for some of the best restaurants in the Hudson Valley and New York City, says he wanted something more: “I wanted to be able to offer what I deliver to restaurants to the people around here.”
The farmstand, near one of his favorite spots next to a scenic lake about a mile from the farm, opened last year and Fazio says it did so well he was inspired to add a BBQ shack. “I really like being by the lake and barbecuing, so I thought, why not try cooking up a little rabbit, or maybe duck or pulled pork?” (Admittedly, what Fazio really wanted was to match the pastrami he finds in the City. He cures his pastrami for 21 days, then, he says, “I put the pastrami in the smoker for 20 hours—when it’s done, it’s what pastrami is supposed to taste like.”)
The BBQ menu boasts duck, rabbit (done Baja-style) and pulled pork tacos, barbecued pulled rabbit and baby-back ribs. Fazio credits Frank Labriola of Paddy’s Beach Club in Westerly, RI, for teaching him the way with tacos, dry rubs and slow-cooking. What hormone- and antibiotic-free meat Fazio doesn’t raise on his own farm he sources locally. “People don’t expect this level of food in a roadside stand,” he says. “The pulled rabbit taco—lightly smoked—that’s a wow factor.”
Open daily, 11am–8pm.