• Persnickety Pig dishes incorporate Star Cider offerings. For instance, brisket and pork are braised in cider.
• Even the salad dressing at Persnickety Pig makes use of Star Cider’s Five Point cider.

CANANDAIGUA, NY — For someone who claims there isn’t a photo of him as a kid without him wearing an apron and holding a spatula or cooking knife, Kevin Dombrowski said he’s now pretty decent at this whole barbecue thing. 

But it took some time. 

Dombrowski has been cooking forever, almost as long as he’s been at the barbecue craft, first buying a smoker for the meat and then a chainsaw for the wood and smoke. A period of trial and error came next, but he eventually developed what he calls his own style. 

“Barbecue has been in my veins,” Dombrowski said. 

As Star Cider celebrates its sixth anniversary, Persnickety Pig is in its first year at the Canandaigua cidery, opening in January after succeeding Neno’s Gourmet Mexican Street Food. Persnickety Pig is a companion barbecue restaurant to The Rusty Pig, which he opened in Geneva in 2019,  

The decision to join Star Cider was a no-brainer when the opportunity presented itself. Apples and apple cider and brisket and pork? Talk about a match made in culinary heaven. 

“We thought that type of food would pair really well with hard cider,” Dombrowski said. “Obviously they do a really good job with that.” 

Hard cider and BBQ at Persnickety Pig

Here’s how Dombrowski describes his style: All the meat at The Rusty Pig is braised in beer; at Star, it’s hard apple cider. Then the meat is off to the smoker. 

The sauce is cooked right in. He first tried it about 10 years ago and he’s been refining ever since.

“It makes for a super tender, super flavorful piece of meat that just is so on-the-fork different than anything you’re going to find at a different barbecue place,” Dombroski said. 

On the Persnickety Pig menu 

The Star Cider menu is small by design, but the goal is to incorporate apple cider in everything, from salad to pulled pork sliders, for example. 

Speaking of the Johnny Appleseed Salad, the vinaigrette dressing is made with Star Cider’s popular Five Point hard cider. 

Sharable items such as pulled pork nachos, pretzel bites (with a side of sweet apple cinnamon glaze for dipping) and smoked brisket poutine have been doing well. The flagship Star Burger, which is braised in hard cider, includes caramelized onions, local goat cheese and roasted garlic aioli, also is a go-to item. 

The Gettin’ Piggy With It pork tacos — the only carryover from the Geneva restaurant — has a cider flair as well as apple slices. 

Shauna Janke, who most recently was chef at Geneva Country Club before taking over kitchen duties at Persnickety Pig, also is incorporating ideas. How about some homemade apple jam for the Piggyback Fries? 

“I like coming up with ideas and I like learning at the same time,” Janke said. “I think it’s going to fly here.” 

Great flavors go well together at Persnickety Pig

Over the years, Star Cider has proved to be innovative in coming up with hard apple cider flavors and cocktails, no matter the season. Would a Blue Whale Slushie, the cidery’s take on the popular Canandaigua Lake cocktail, hit the spot this summer? 

Unique cider flavors and cocktails sure do. They certainly pair well with barbeque.

“Anybody who is walking through these doors likes cider,” Dombrowski said. “They’re always creating, which for me, I like to think of myself as an innovator, and I look at them in the same way.” 

More details about Persnickety Pig

Persnickety Pig is inside Star Cider, 3365 East Lake Road, Canandaigua. Hours are 3 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and noon to 8 p.m. Fridays through Sundays. It’s closed Mondays. For details, visit https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61571941935005# or call 585-412-8785.

Mike Murphy covers Canandaigua and other communities in Ontario County and writes the Eat, Drink and Be Murphy food and drink column. Follow him on X at @MPN_MikeMurphy.