What do you order the first time you walk into a barbecue place you’ve never been to before? At Smokestack Restaurant & Bar on West River Drive, the answer most regulars will give you is the brisket. Order the brisket, grab a seat near the windows if you can, and watch the Mississippi move while you eat. That’s the short version of how to do Smokestack right.
The longer version is worth knowing. Smokestack has been a fixture on Davenport’s west riverfront for years, occupying a brick building with enough weathered character to feel like it was always supposed to hold a wood smoker. The room is wide and comfortable without being showy — high ceilings, exposed brick, a bar that gets genuinely busy on weekend evenings. During the week it settles into something quieter, which is honestly when it’s at its best.
The brisket is the draw, and it holds up. Sliced thick, with a proper smoke ring and a bark that doesn’t crumble into nothing the second you touch it. It arrives without sauce unless you ask, which is the right call — the meat doesn’t need help. Sides here are taken seriously, which you don’t always find. The mac and cheese is dense and skips any pretense of being healthy. The baked beans have enough smoked meat worked into them that they function almost as a dish on their own.
If you’re with someone who doesn’t eat pork, the smoked chicken holds its own. It’s not the headliner, but it’s well-executed — moist through, with enough smoke that it doesn’t taste like it was finished in an oven. The pulled pork is reliably good and tends to sell out earlier in the evening than you’d expect, so if that’s your plan, arriving before 7 on a Friday is worth factoring in.
Prices land in a reasonable range for the portion size — most plates run $14 to $22, and the larger combo options can feed two people who aren’t eating aggressively. The beer list is straightforward and local-leaning without being fussy about it. They carry a few Quad Cities options on draft alongside the standard domestics, and the bartenders don’t oversell anything.
The river view is a genuine asset, not window dressing. West River Drive puts you close enough to the water that on clear evenings the light off the Mississippi does something the room couldn’t manufacture on its own. If you time it right in late spring or early fall — before it gets cold enough to push everyone inside — the effect is worth going out of your way for.
Smokestack doesn’t traffic in gimmicks. There’s no themed cocktail menu, no seasonal small plates, no concept layered on top of the actual food. It’s a barbecue restaurant that smokes its meat properly and serves it in a space that respects the building it’s in. For Davenport’s riverfront, that’s more than enough.
