The first thing you notice is the smell — woodsmoke and rendered fat drifting out onto Washington Street before you even reach the door. Troop doesn’t announce itself with much signage, but it doesn’t need to. On a cold evening, that smell is a better advertisement than anything you could print.
Troop opened in Providence’s Downtown district a few years back and planted its flag firmly in the camp of serious American smoked meat. That’s a category people get religious about, and Providence didn’t really have a credible entry until this place showed up. The room itself is big and a little industrial — high ceilings, raw wood, long communal tables — the kind of space that fills up loud and stays that way. It’s not precious. You’re here to eat.
Start with the brisket. That’s not a suggestion you should skip over. The slices come out glossy with a proper bark, the fat rendered through rather than left raw and waxy, and they hold together just long enough before pulling apart. It’s the kind of brisket that makes you stop talking for a minute. The burnt ends, when they’re on, hit even harder — caramelized and concentrated, more candy than meat by some measures.
The sides take the job seriously too, which matters more than people admit. The collard greens have actual depth, cooked down with something smoky behind them. The cornbread is dense and barely sweet, the kind you want to drag through whatever’s pooled on your tray. Mac and cheese is rich without being gluey. These aren’t afterthoughts.
If you’re going with a group, the meat-by-the-pound approach works well. You pick what you want — brisket, pulled pork, spare ribs, smoked chicken, house sausage — and it comes out on butcher paper with pickles, raw onion, and bread. It strips out the ceremony, which is exactly right. Good smoked meat doesn’t need ceremony.
Ribs deserve a mention on their own. They’re the St. Louis cut, with a good pull and enough smoke that you can taste it without it becoming the only thing you taste. The sausage has snap and a little heat, and it pairs well with the house-made hot sauce, which is vinegar-forward in the right way.
Pricing lands where you’d expect for this kind of cooking — roughly $20–$30 per person if you’re eating a real meal, more if you’re getting deep into the pound options. It’s not cheap, but the portions are honest and nothing feels padded.
The best time to go is a weeknight when you can actually hear yourself. Weekends get rowdy, which is fine if that’s what you want, but the food reads better when you’re not shouting over it. They do takeout, and the smoked meats hold reasonably well, though the bark softens in transit. Worth knowing.
Providence has a lot of things. For a long time, a place that could smoke a brisket correctly wasn’t one of them. Troop fixed that, and they’ve been consistent about it, which is harder than it looks.
