This is Highly Recommend , a column dedicated to what we’re eating, drinking, and buying.

On a Friday night in Brooklyn, the line at Bark BBQ snakes through long communal tables, past a glass-enclosed show pit, and out onto the sidewalk, where the rich scents of oak-smoked beef and pork fill the air. If you didn’t arrive hungry, you certainly are by the time you reach the order counter.

Briskets get some TLC.

Photo by Travis Rainey

Once you get a taste of pitmaster Ruben Santana’s 14-hour smoked brisket, with its peppery bark and butter-soft interior, you’ll forget the wait. Sour orange-kissed chicharrón—pit-smoked for six hours, chilled, sliced into strips, and fried to order—provides a crackly-chewy counterpart. Smoked carnitas, a play on Dominican carne salada made from brisket trimmings confited in their own fat, are a study in silky-fatty goodness, doused with spicy green aji verde.…