Chez Biceps BBQ: Quebec City’s Pioneer of American Barbecue

In the smokehouse at Chez Biceps BBQ, the fire is fed with maple wood alone: no gas, no electricity, no charcoal. It burns slowly beneath the ribs, the house-made bacon and the Texas-style brisket, the pride of the house as it is of any barbecue spot worthy of the name. “In the world of barbecue, being able to make good brisket is the ultimate achievement,” says Vincent Chatigny, chef and sole owner.

The chef learned his rigour in top kitchens, including Laurie-Raphaël, which recruited him straight out of culinary school and where he later returned as sous-chef. There he discovered a world that was “very demanding, very tough, but at the same time ultra creative.” A stint in Italian kitchens then taught him to appreciate simplicity and the importance of quality ingredients in Italy’s rustic recipes. In search of new horizons, he became one of the faces of the TV show Bouffe en cavale for eight years, travelling across Canada and the United States, where he fell in love with Southern barbecue. After several years on the small screen, he finally decided to go all in and open his own restaurant, Chez Biceps BBQ, in December 2015.

Despite what the name might suggest, the restaurant is no hangout for bodybuilders. The name comes from Phantom of the Paradise, a Brian De Palma cult film the chef watched as a child with his father. In the French version, the rock singer Beef becomes Biceps, a name that first belonged to the bull that once adorned the restaurant’s logo.

In the Smokehouse, Good Things Take Time

Every day, six whole Certified Angus Beef briskets go into the smoker. The cut comes from the steer’s pectoral muscles. Long overlooked, it rose to the top of the barbecue world thanks to low and slow cooking. At Chez Biceps, the briskets get a Texas-inspired dry rub of salt and pepper, to which the chef adds his own touch with coriander and fennel seeds. “There’s no injection, no basting. We put it in the smoker dry and let it go,” he explains. No thermometer enters the equation: “We just go by touch, by eye.” It’s artisan know-how he’s proud to pass on to his young brigade.

Around the brisket orbit the other classics of a menu the chef wants to keep unchanged, “like those old French restaurants that have had the same menu for 30 years.” It features other barbecue staples, such as ribs, short ribs, American-style fried chicken and, of course, his own barbecue sauce recipe. Québécois culinary identity also pairs up with that of the American South. Oreilles de crisse are served year-round, and foie gras and duck appear on the menu too, notably in the mac and cheese with roasted cauliflower and duck confit. For dessert, the giant lemon tart with torched Italian meringue is deemed “legendary” by its creator, who could never take it off the menu now.

Nobody Leaves Hungry

Portions are generous. The brisket plate arrives piled high with slices of meat, alongside coleslaw and pickles made in-house. One meat plate and two or three sides are easily enough to share, and a tasting menu lets you try a bit of everything. “I want people to leave truly full,” the chef insists.

To go with it all, the bar offers a good selection of whiskies. They show up in the Bloody Biceps, a Bloody Caesar made with Quebec whisky and garnished with a slice of house-smoked bacon, and in the Extrême-onction, a whisky shot topped with the same bacon, a relic of an episode of Bouffe en cavale. The house also pours beers from Quebec microbreweries, some of them brewed especially for it. According to the chef, Chez Biceps BBQ is the only restaurant to team up with Cidrerie Au Pied de Cochon, which produces an exclusive cuvée for it every year. The two houses clearly share a certain gourmand spirit.

After more than ten years, Chez Biceps BBQ remains a restaurant with an identity all its own in Quebec, drawing food lovers from across the province. Many even leave with a cooler full of vacuum-packed meats to carry the experience on at home.

Written by Jean-Philippe Tastet
Photography by Mélanie Emond, Ludovic Gauthier et Clovis Jacob

Updated on October 22, 2026

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