On his many walks around San Francisco’s Fillmore District, Chef David Lawrence remembers stumbling upon an intriguing sign imprinted in the sidewalk across the street from his elegant 1300 on Fillmore restaurant.

It read: Kansas City Hickory Pit Bar-B-Cue, 1335 Fillmore.

The long-gone business hinted at the Fillmore’s past as a neighborhood where barbecue once reigned, including in spots such as at 1911 Fillmore St., the former site of Leon’s Bar-B-Q, and now home to the celebrated SPQR.

In much the same way that Lawrence and his wife Monetta White brought back a stylish jazz supper club feel with 1300 on Fillmore to this neighborhood that historically attracted black artists and musicians, they sought to return a vestige of delicious smoke and fire to the neighborhood.

In January, they did just that — opening their second restaurant, Black Bark BBQ, right in front of the old Kansas City sign that first piqued their interest.

Born in London of Jamaican heritage, the towering Lawrence did his diligent research, visiting noted barbecue institutions across the country before opening Black Bark. He also enlisted Edith Cheadle, a Texas barbecue veteran, to help him open the place.

I had a chance to check out this fast-casual concept when I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant recently. White and Lawrence hope to launch other Black Bark locations in the future. On a Saturday night, the place was full with hipsters, families with young kids, and couples — a real melting pot of ages, cultures and backgrounds, attesting to barbecue’s universal appeal.

You order at the counter, find an empty table, and take a seat to wait for your food to be delivered to you.

You can order a range of meats by the half pound (from three spare ribs for $8 to $13 for beef brisket), or by the plate with your choice of one, two or three meats plus two sides ($12 to $22), or by the small platter ($69, which serves 6) or large platter ($115, which serves 12). You can also choose to enjoy your smoked meat in a sandwich ($9 to $11) or add it to a Caesar salad ($6) for an additional $5 or $7, depending upon the type of meat. There’s a kid’s menu, as well as three desserts offered.

Everything is served piled on big stainless steel trays lined with brown paper. After all, this is barbecue, folks, not daintily arranged tweezer food.

Each order comes with a pickled okra. Three bottles of sauce — mustard-based, vinegar-based, and a sweet-savory barbecue one — are on each table for you to help yourself.

The tender brisket, smoked 10 to 12 hours, had that characteristic red ring from the long, gentle smoking. One piece was a little dry around the edges, though. The ribs were juicy and fatty, with the meat pulling easily from the bone. Mix your favorite sauce into the mountain of pulled pork and you’ll scarf it up by the forkful.

The half-pound of chicken included both dark and white meat. Both were quite tender.

The turkey legs are not behemoth in size like at the Renaissance Faire, but more manageable especially if you want to try more than one meat. The deep smoky flavor makes you wish Thanksgiving turkey could taste like this. I just wish the legs had been pulled from the smoker a little earlier, as the flesh was rather dry, so much so that it was hard to cut into with a knife.

You can’t go wrong with the triangles of corn bread ($2 each) that have a nice crisp exterior and a dense interior. It comes with honey butter and a pepper jelly that reminds me kind of a sweet-spicy Chinese sauce that would go on fried chicken. It’s so good, you’ll slather it on thick.

The baked beans are super thick and hearty with a nice molasses-like sweetness. The collard greens are cooked down with pork the Southern way. And the Portabello mushrooms, served cut into two-bite pieces, are a great alternative for vegetarians because their meaty texture gets intensified by the smoking.

For dessert, the sweet potato pie ($6) is a real winner. The flaky crust breaks into shards when a fork hits it. The filling is creamy, redolent of cinnamon, and with a slightly fluffy texture. It’s a slice that satisfies without weighing you down after all that meat that preceded it.

When diners complain so much about the high-price of dining out these days, it’s nice to see an establishment not only with a quite reasonable price point, but where people tear into their meal with fork or fingers, and just look so darn happy.

More: Dinner at 1300 on Fillmore