[ acoustic country music] Hi, my name is Ryan Atzert.

I am co-owner and founder of Federal Hill Smokehouse.

[country music] I guess you could call me the pitmaster, but I'm not really one to like that term.

[upbeat music] A normal day around here is usually here, walking in between 5, 5:30.

I'm pulling the briskets off from the night before, wrapping them, temping them, making sure they're done.

Throwing the ribs on, throwing the Turkey on, you know, getting the Pinto beans started.

I head home or do some errands for a few hours, roll back in about nine o'clock.

And then, you know, I start check on the Turkey.

I check on the ribs.

I throw the sausage on and then, you know, start with sides.

Whoever's here working with me, we start doing sides, start getting ready for the day, 11 o'clock the doors open.

Hopefully there's a lot of people walking in and then we're fairly busy for the next, you know, two to three hours.

Hopefully, we sell everything we make and then, you know, out of here by four o'clock.

[upbeat music] Our most popular dishes are probably the brisket's, probably the most popular, followed by the Turkey.

We go through a ton of Mac and cheese here.

Meat wise, you know, brisket is by far the most popular thing we do.

[upbeat rock music] When Food and Wine Magazine named us Best Barbecue in Pennsylvania, it was like a complete shock, to be honest.

And I didn't even realize that, like the article came out until three or four weeks after it came out and I was just, clicked the link one day and I scrolled down to Pennsylvania and I saw it and I was like, "I can't believe this."

Like, it was, it was nuts, you know, like ran upstairs to tell my wife, and call my mom and send her the link.

And like, it was super cool, you never, you know, never expected anything like this when, you know, I opened this place up.

[rock music] A lot of people didn't think that, you know, this was a good location.

A lot of people told me not to open up here, that, you know, there's no parking, nobody's around, but it's cool that we're a destination for people, not only in Erie, but from out of town, to come here.

Everybody up here on this corner, like really works together.

And it's really cool, you know, to have that sense of community up here on 26th and Peach.

[upbeat music] Future for us, we're kind of happy with what we do and it seems to be going well.

So, you know, it's not broke, we don't really want to fix it, you know, you never know.

I could, next year I could have two food trucks and another location, but as of right now, I want to keep it pretty simple, you know.

[rock music]