Tucked behind the bright red food truck stationed outside Key Largo’s Dolphins Plus, is where chef Mike Porcari insists the “real” magic happens.
“One of my things is to be as traditional as the Texas barbecue style,” said Porcari, as he showed off his custom-built, wood-fired 500-gallon smoker.
From Texas-style brisket to Carolina-inspired pulled pork to mouthwatering ribs, this smoker churns out roughly 1,000 pounds of succulent barbecue meats weekly.
“You’re constantly having to work the fire, rearrange stuff,” said Porcari.
Over the last eight and a half years, Mike’s BBQ 101 has been satisfying locals and tourists alike. As the name suggests, the food truck is located at MM 101. But the “101” in the name has additional meaning. It is here where Porcari loves teaching his customers an introductory crash course on the power of the smoker.
“I spend hours, just hours, talking with my customers,” said Porcari.
Now the Brooklyn-born, South Florida transplant is receiving national recognition for his meats.
“Yelp was just the icing on the cake,” said Porcari. “It came out of the blue.”
Porcari was stunned to find out his barbecue food truck was ranked No. 9 on Yelp’s 2025 list of the 100 best food trucks in the country. Nationwide, a total of 58,000 trucks competed for a spot on the list. Mike’s BBQ 101 was the only Florida-based truck to make the top 10.
Porcari said it wasn’t the quantity of customer reviews that propelled him into the top 10, but rather the quality of each review, detailing unforgettable gastronomic experiences.
“The amount of verbiage used and key phrases is kind of what put us at the level we got,” he said.
Like most success stories, this one did not come without struggles and sacrifice.
“Talk about paying your dues, blood, sweat and tears, no joke,” said Porcari of the road to where he is today.
After working in the restaurant business for years, including prepping food for 2,000 cruise-ship passengers at a time, Porcari became burned out and left the business to drive a tractor-trailer across the country. Six years later, he answered a Craigslist ad for a pitmaster at a Fort Lauderdale-based barbecue joint. Eventually he became frustrated with a lack of career advancement and hopped over to a competing restaurant, where he was later fired.
“I was not where I am now after being fired. It was a stone-cold gut punch,” said Porcari, who believes being fired was probably one of the best things that could have happened to him.
Four months after he was let go in 2017, Porcari and his Brazilian wife, Aparecida de Souza, bought the red food truck he would turn into Mike’s BBQ 101.
For the first two years in business, the couple would make the daily commute from their home in Deerfield Beach to Key Largo. Eventually they were able to rent a place in Key Largo.
Besides the unwavering help and support of his wife, Porcari insists he would also be lost without his right-hand woman in the food truck, Juana Garcia. She’s worked side-by-side with Porcari for the last four and a half years.
Inside the tight space, the two operate like a finely-tuned machine.
“Once you work with somebody for a couple of years, you don’t need to talk; you just look at each other and you know what you’re supposed to do,” said Garcia.
Besides Mike’s BBQ 101, Porcari is also co-owner of Dani and Mike’s 102 smash burgers located at John’s General Store just across the street from John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.
Porcari sources his prime brisket and smash burger grind from the Meat Shop of the Florida Keys, located in Key Largo at MM 103.
On the day of our interview, Tamara Arrington, an event planner for Dolphin Point Villas, brought a soon-to-be married couple to Mike’s BBQ 101 to sample the barbecue. Porcari also caters large and small events.
“I have a vendor list that I keep,” said Arrington, who is also a chef. “It’s really hard to impress me, but Mike has consistently impressed me.”
As for what’s next for Mike’s BBQ 101, Porcari says he’s exploring the idea of eventually opening a brick-and-mortar location.
“I’d like to be able to expand the menu so people can have something different than they’ve had for the last eight or nine years,” said Porcari.
For now, this pitmaster will continue to do what he does best, delivering when it comes to customer service, consistency and quality.
“It’s my passion. I finally did it. I finally found the thing that I love to do. I don’t feel like I’m going to work.”
Mike’s BBQ 101 is located at MM 101 in front of Dolphins Plus. To phone in an order, call 954-654-5259. Mike’s sells out on most days, so calling in an order early is recommended.
