These Toronto chefs are running the city's hidden gem for Mexican barbecue from a bar's backyard

A Mexican barbecue pop-up in Toronto is making sure no one drinks on an empty stomach as they take over the backyard of a popular local bar.

It only took one collaboration between chefs Matt Bod and Mariel González to realize that they were a match made in food heaven, Matt tells Dished Toronto.

The two first met in the summer of 2024 while Matt was running pop-ups with the Slowpoke Project and Mariel was cooking up traditional Mexican eats at Catrina’s Kitchen in Scarborough. The more they worked together, the more they realized that their styles complemented each other perfectly.

“We both love bold flavours and Mexican food, and combining that with wood and charcoal cooking just brought it all together,” Matt tells Dished Toronto.

So, after a few successful collaborations, the two chefs decided to take the plunge and build something longer-term together. Thus, Cascabel BBQ was born.

Through Cascabel, Mariel and Matt churn out charcoal-grilled Mexican barbecue bursting with traditional flavours and droolworthy char, and perhaps the best part of all is you don’t have to trek all around the city to find it.

All summer long, Cascabel BBQ is holding court in the backyard of Reposado on Ossington weekly from Friday to Sunday, providing a perfect pairing for Reposado’s tequila and mezcal-exclusive cocktail menu.

Don’t expect some hum-drum carne asada, either, because Matt and Mariel are grilling up Mexican eats you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in the city.

Among their best-sellers (and, certainly, one of their dishes with the greatest visual and olfactory appeal), Matt tells Dished Toronto, is their Beef Cheek Taco.

“It spends four hours in the smoker and then four hours confit in beef tallow,” Matt explains. “It’s melt-in-your-mouth tender, smoky and has a richness that can only come from the slow, gradual breakdown of connective tissue.”

The resulting taco, Matt says, is a “full-on flavour-bomb,” finished off with grilled onions, housemade salsa verde and escabeche.

The Camarones Zarandeados, marinated tiger shrimp cooked in a traditional barbecue method from Mariel’s home state of Nayarit, Mexico, has proven another hit.

The shrimp are butterflied and grilled directly over the coals, later served with guacamole and aguachile.

“Both are personal favourites too; we feel like they’re the two dishes that really bridge what we’re trying to do by bringing together Mexican street food with wood-fired BBQ,” Matt adds.

So far, Matt tells Dished Toronto that the mission has already been received exceedingly well by their customers.