Eat
UpIn Smoke.
The Hopkins pit. The website is leftover.
Location
What people get wrong
28 Hopkins, not 28 Napier. Broadsheet closed June 2025. House site may still load. Not Burn City. Call (03) 9689 8188. Read the glass. We last walked this on 2026-09-21. Hours move with the week. Checking the shopfront keeps the night easy.
What is Up In Smoke known for?
Up In Smoke is known for a red double-barrel Yoder Frontiersman that burned overnight: brisket, pork shoulder, ribs, sausages, a beer garden on Hopkins, and a room that no longer promises the pit is lit.
You walk Hopkins from Footscray station toward the market. 28 is a street number, not a vibe. Older pins that say only Hopkins Street are how people overshoot to Nhu Lan at 116 or Moon Dog at 54. Read the door. If it is dark, that is the listing. Do not invent a second smoker two blocks away and call it this tray.
Rebecca O'Malley at Broadsheet, 18 November 2015, watched McCallum and Alan Sam, late of Captain Melville, turn a car park into a courtyard for about 70 and park a twenty-thousand-dollar offset smoker in the middle of it. McCallum already had 8bit on Droop. He said they did not want bullhorns and Texas plates. Concrete tables, charcoal brick, black leather, a front beer garden, craft beer, bourbon. Emilia at 3AW, 27 September 2024, still walked it as live: high ceilings, black brick, outdoor seats, ten rotating taps, an Apple Pie Sour, meat trays you share. That is the room people argue about on closed-restaurant threads. It is not a live booking.
Broadsheet filmed the lamb ribs on 22 November 2019: sticky, a parsley and almond slaw, the plate this suburb used when beef was not the only animal. Licensed. Kid-friendly on the old card. Dog-friendly on Emilia's night. Phone (03) 9689 8188. Site upinsmoke.net.au still loads a Footscray / Watergardens split. Treat the URL as leftover machinery. You came to stand at 28 and decide whether the pit has a pulse. Hotel Westwood is 28 Napier. Different 28. Different job.
What should you order at Up In Smoke?
You should not order a live tray at 28 Hopkins until the glass agrees. If the room has somehow reopened, the order is smoked meat and a side that can take the pit.
Emilia's last live card, September 2024, was trays: a little tray of burnt ends, pulled pork, half a sausage, a milk bun, pickles, mac and cheese and slaw; a rib tray of short rib and pork ribs if the table wanted bone. Potato skins deep-fried and loaded. Mozzarella sticks with house-smoked mozzarella and plum sauce. Lamb ribs if the 2019 film still meant anything to the pass. Ask what is on. Do not invent a banana-cream-pie instruction from old floor talk. Broadsheet's lasting record is the meats, the Yoder, the beer garden and the brown liquor.
If the door is closed, order somewhere live. Nhu Lan is crackling pork on a baguette at 116. Station Hotel is steak on Napier. Neither is a smoker. Moon Dog Wild West is a brewery taproom, not a substitute pit. People mash smoke and hops because both sit on the Hopkins walk. They are different buildings. Burn City Smokers is the Slice Shop pair, Kimonides and Guthrie, a different pit and a different mall. Do not send a brisket craving into a pizza cabinet and call it this garage.
Stay long enough to taste the bark on its own terms if the fire ever comes back. Eat it here, on the concrete, while the beer garden still has a job. A sealed tray walking to the station is how brisket becomes homework. Monday through Sunday this kitchen is dark on the Broadsheet line we fetched. The leftover site does not change that.
Hours, payment and queues at Up In Smoke
Quoted status from Broadsheet: permanently closed, updated 13 June 2025. Call (03) 9689 8188. Last checked 2026-09-21. Glance at the glass.
The same directory card still flashes a 12pm to 11pm widget. That is what the room used to do, not a live service. O'Malley said open daily from January 2016. Emilia still reviewed Tuesday tacos and Thursday wings in 2024. We put that fight in the hours note. The closed stamp wins until 28 says otherwise.
upinsmoke.net.au still offers bookings and a Watergardens twin. The copy still mentions restrictions and time limits. That is leftover pandemic language, not a 2026 sitting. Do not send a function enquiry into a void and wait. Cards were normal when it traded. If a new operator has taken 28 Hopkins, that is a different listing. This slug stays with the barbecue room until we see a live shopfront worth rewriting.
How do you get to Up In Smoke in Footscray?
You get to Up In Smoke by walking Hopkins from Footscray station toward the market, to 28, a street-number garage, not a nameless Hopkins pin and not Hotel Westwood at 28 Napier.
Read 28. Emilia was right about the walk: it is close enough that a city train still gets you here before the hunger invents another pit. You do not need a car for this block. Irving parking is the market deck if you drove anyway. A closed barbecue room is not a reason to circle for a park. Nhu Lan is further along at 116. Moon Dog is 54. You want the number, not the smell of hops.
At night Hopkins is the lit spine. Station Hotel is a different street: Napier, 59, French steak, not this smoker. Hotel Westwood is 28 Napier, which is how drunk searches glue two 28s together. Different pubs. Different jobs. Stay on Hopkins. A dark 28 is the answer, not a wrong turn. Do not detour through quiet Napier hunting a pit that never lived there.
What do people mix up about Up In Smoke?
They follow a website that still looks bookable, or they glue 28 Hopkins to 28 Napier, and they miss that Broadsheet already stamped this pit closed.
- 28 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011 only. Phone (03) 9689 8188.
- Broadsheet: permanently closed, updated 13 June 2025.
- Not Hotel Westwood at 28 Napier. Not Station Hotel at 59 Napier.
- Not Burn City Smokers. Not Slice Shop on the mall.
- House site may still load. The glass decides.
Questions people ask next
- Where is Up In Smoke?
- Up In Smoke is at 28 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011. Footscray station is the nearest train. It is not Hotel Westwood at 28 Napier and it is not Station Hotel.
- Is Up In Smoke still open?
- Broadsheet lists it permanently closed as of 13 June 2025. The house site can still look alive. Confirm the glass at 28 Hopkins before you send anyone. Last checked 2026-09-21.
- Is Up In Smoke the same as Burn City or Hotel Westwood?
- No. This is McCallum's Hopkins barbecue garage. Burn City is the Slice Shop pair. Hotel Westwood is 28 Napier, a closed pub. Different doors.
- What was Up In Smoke known for?
- American-ish barbecue off a Yoder Frontiersman: brisket, pork, ribs, sausages, lamb ribs, a beer garden and bourbon. Shayne McCallum's room. Treat that as history until the glass says otherwise.
Where we checked
More in Eat
Nhu Lan Bakery
The banh mi this suburb names first. The queue is the oven timer.
116 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Moon Dog Wild West
Hopkins ranch. Not Preston. Kitchen dies first.
54 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Station Hotel
Steaks at 59 Napier. The kitchen dies first.
59 Napier Street, Footscray VIC 3011