Chef Geoff Patmides of Hog & Tradition and Feta & Lamb has the most diverse background of any chef I’ve ever met. Half Tongan and half Greek, he grew up watching his grandmother in the kitchen. He remembers cooking lamb outside on a spit for Greek Orthodox Easter and he was always underfoot in the kitchen. “I used to watch and help when I could, but my grandmother would never let me do anything,” he laughs. But he learned by watching, and loving others and sharing food became connected in Patmides’s mind. “I saw how people loved the way my grandmother would cook for them and how everybody came over for her food.”
Patmides learns how to cook through a mix of magical osmosis, pure grit and with a bit of infatuation. “When I want to learn to cook something, I get pretty obsessed about it.” And it doesn’t matter the cuisine. “When I see something on TV from another country, I’m like, ‘What is that?’ That looks so good. I want to try it.” If he can’t find a place to try it, he figures out how to make it. “I like to understand where the dish comes from, why they use those ingredients, and the process that they use to cook it. If you have the root knowledge of all these cooking styles around the world, you can cook anything.”
A global twist on tradition
Patmides’s ability to cook anything is his superpower. Matched by his ability to fuse flavors from around the world. The Hog & Tradition menu has a range of traditional BBQ with flashes of inspiration from different traditions. “We base our meats on mostly a Texas style,” explains Patmides. “But everything else is my own little twist on things.” You can get the pulled pork, brisket or smoked chicken served traditionally on Texas toast or non-traditionally with a Carolina gold-style sauce as one of the “twists.” There are nods to Patmides’s Tongan heritage on the menu as well. Purple yams, traditional on the islands, show up in the form of Southern-style candied yams. The sweet-style cornbread is also made with ube, served with hot honey and salted butter.
The layers of cultural fusion deepen, as Patmides’s wife is Dominican, and he has clearly fallen in love with her food traditions and grafted them into his own culinary style. On Sundays, there is a Dominican takeover. You can get a full platter starting with chicharron—pork belly with the skin attached and deep fried until the rind is crispy, the belly is tender and the fat is melty. Patmides takes it further and smokes the pork belly before making his chicharrones. No platter is complete without the arroz con habichuelas, or Dominican-style rice and beans, made with a pink bean that gets extra soft as it cooks, and, of course, the obligatory plátanos maduros (ripe plantains), sliced and fried for a sweet and savory addition to every platter.
A fusion of love, family and food
Hog & Tradition isn’t Patmides’s first foray into restaurant ownership. He opened a food truck called Chomp City in 2012. “It was a bacon-everything truck,” he says. After selling the food truck, he opened the much-beloved Local Greek in 2018 in Riverton, which moved to Taylorsville a couple of years later. But after about eight months and a bout of significant health issues, Patmides took a pause and reevaluated everything. “We ended up closing it because I didn’t want to lose time with my family. I couldn’t do it physically, mentally.”
After a lot of hard work, healing, and time to recharge, Patmides is back slinging the food he loves at Gateway’s Hallpass.
“I grew up seeing my grandparents work really hard until they died. They worked a lot of hours, a lot of days, every day,” Patmides says. “They missed out a lot on the kids and the family on a regular basis. That’s all I want to do differently. I want to have my family more involved in what I do, to have the memories of being in the kitchen…I don’t want them to feel like it’s just work that we do. I want to put good food out and keep it moving.” Together. Which isn’t just lip service. His entire family was on hand the day we talked.
As we were wrapping up our interview, my recorder caught Patmides talking to his kids, who were getting ready to leave. That snippet of conversation sums up who he is as a person, as a chef, and as a father. “I love you. Okay, I love you. I’m going to see you guys later. Okay? I’ll bring some food home.” Eating at Hog & Tradition is like walking away with a box of food and some love.
Order like a regular:
secret menu
It is well worth stalking the Hog & Tradition Instagram to find out about the secret pop-up menu items. Recent mash-up examples include:
- Pacific Island-style smoked teriyaki chicken, smoked spicy pork belly, macaroni salad and rice.
- Smoked brisket Quesabirria tacos.
- Hawaiian breakfast sandwich with smoked brisket or pulled pork, fried salami, fried cheese, fried egg, chipotle aioli, cilantro chimichurri and ruby sauce.
- Cubano sandwiches with house-smoked ham.
Check @hogtraditionbbq on specials or call ahead—they are out when they are out.
IF YOU GO
Hog & Tradition and Lamb & Feta
at Hall Pass SLC in The Gateway,
153 S. Rio Grande St., SLC
hallpassslc.com
Instagram: @hogtraditionbbq
