Cowboy Butter in New Milford: Hindsight BBQ's Sister Restaurant, a "Boujee" BBQ Joint + Steakhouse

Slide into a bar seat for early dinner and you can score these brisket sliders.

When CTbites last covered Hindsight BBQ in 2021, its founder, Jeff Schmidt was quoted as saying, “When you get obsessed with something, and when you get bit by the BBQ bug, once you go down that rabbit hole, you can only go further.”

In 2025, his “further” ended up being Cowboy Butter, best described as “a New England live fire cookery and boujee BBQ bistro,” in New Milford’s quaint downtown area.

How Schmidt and his girlfriend/GM at Hindsight/business partner at Cowboy Butter, Nicole Minard, came to find a spot for a sequel was after a long, but casual search. They looked in Bristol and Branford, then the closed, super popular location where The Cookhouse once occupied. When that didn’t work out, the mayor came calling.

Schmidt describes the first floor of Cowboy Butter as slightly more refined, while the downstairs is a little more rustic. And if you’re wondering about the name, the restaurant is named after compound butter, typically blended with herbs, garlic, spices, and more.

Schmidt outside of Hindsight BBQ in 2021

“Pete Bass caught wind that we were looking because we were going through a network of economic development companies and stuff, and they all talk,” Schmidt says. “He called Nicole and told her there’s a space that’s not on the market yet, in downtown, not on its own, and doesn’t have its own parking lot. They weren’t trying to sell it, it’s a lease, and belongs to Bank Street Group. We had zero expectations, but we walked through, and knew it was turnkey. We wouldn’t have to make a massive investment, wouldn’t have to build out a kitchen, nor would we have to renovate the entire space.”

Before they could take over at 59 Bank Street, the former home of Dukes Tavern and The Que, Schmidt had one major caveat to overcome…would the town let them have a smoker?

Front: The Fig & Fashion - Fig liqueur, Mine Hill Bourbon, orange bitters

Back: The Lumberjack - Smoked maple Manhattan - bourbon, sweet vermouth, bitters, smoked salt rim

Connecticut’s craft beer scene is heavily represented on the drink menu, too, especially with drafts from Transcend Beer Crafters in Plainville where Schmidt is a partner. If you hit up Transcend, you’ll be able to snag some of his smoked wings, a fan favorite at both Hindsight and Cowboy Butter.

Platterday? Korean style sticky short rib, tri-tip, blueberry-gouda sausage, honey butter maple glazed cornbread, elote creamed corn, Brunswick baked beans.

“Even though the previous place was sort of BBQ, they didn’t have one, so we had to go through the channels,” Schmidt explains. “It took four months through zoning to get a smoker outside. John (Bourdeau) at Sparrow was a great advocate for us since he knew us from Hindsight. He told the town that our BBQ is great and that we know what we’re doing. People were worried that a cloud of smoke would consume the downtown area, but it won’t. The stack goes high in the air, like you’ll smell a little smoke, that fat rendering, but there’s a diner over there and you smell bacon every morning, or if you walk by Lucia, you’ll smell garlic. It’s not much different.”

The smoker conundrum worked out, and, in fact, even though it’s a 100-gallon Offset Smoker, unless you were really looking for it, you may not otherwise know it’s there. Schmidt says it’s not too far away from the restaurant, totally enclosed in a trailer, and you’d likely just think it’s a truck body.

Now in the new digs, Schmidt sees Cowboy Butter, albeit with a similar BBQ philosophy to Hindsight, as a totally different experience and an opportunity to flex their muscles more.

Brisket queso w/tallow fried corn chips

Zucchini fritters

“I feel like we make really great BBQ and maybe not enough people get to try it being that we’re in the greater Waterbury area,” he says. “We have three food trucks, so every time we take one to an event—kinda how I started before Hindsight opened, doing pop ups and events with a food truck at breweries—we always got a great reception and people were like, ‘Too bad it’s in Waterbury, I never go there.’ Hindsight was the COVID baby, and because we couldn’t open our doors to the public, it was takeout-only at first. It’s a small space, maybe three tables and a bar, and very seasonal as there’s way more seating outside. Hindsight’s counter service, like that works, but we’ve had requests for big parties or reservations, so we were always looking for what we were missing there. Cowboy Butter is full-service, two bars, two floors, we have waitstaff and bartenders, and you can order appetizers, dinner, desserts, and craft cocktails. We sell cocktails at Hindsight, too, but you order at a counter, so it’s a big difference in the dining experience.”

As for what you might encounter at Cowboy Butter that you wouldn’t at Hindsight, live fire grilled Pat LaFrieda steaks that are, for now, a Prime New York strip, a filet, or a 24-ounce bone-in ribeye. They even do prime rib every Wednesday starting at 4 p.m., that, according to Schmidt is “straight up smoked and doesn’t hit the grill at all,” and is served with seasonal veggies, a potato either baked or mashed, or with beef tallow fries.

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Seafood, you say? Scallops wrapped in candied bacon are a current appetizer and for mains, barbecued shrimp with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and smoked, then seared Faroe Islands salmon with honey-Cajun butter, are a little bit of what’s different here.

Refined BBQ fare aside, Cowboy Butter isn’t afraid have a little fun as evidenced by pork belly burnt ends with bacon jam, Texas Twinkies (brisket and cheese stuffed jalapeños wrapped in bacon), and a recent special in a spaghetti and smoked meatballs sandwich on garlic Texas Toast, a tribute to something Schmidt saw at Elliot Moss’ Buxton Hall Barbecue.

“I thought it was badass when I first saw it,” he says. “The spaghetti is in like a blush cream sauce, some tomatoes and Cooper Sharp that we use in our cheesesteaks. The meatballs are a Prime brisket and pork blend with traditional meatball herbs and spices, and smoked.”

Tallow fries with your choice of dipping sauces that include tangy chipotle aioli, herb garlic aioli, BBQ aioli, and spicy truffle ketchup.

You might see some wild stuff on special from time to time like this spaghetti & smoked meatballs sandwich.

As for what you would see at Cowboy Butter that follows in Hindsight’s path, it’s the BBQ. Texas, southern, Carolina, Connecticut, maybe a fancier Taco Bell Crunchwrap if they see fit. Its style is no style. Spare ribs, baby back, a pile of pulled pork, brisket, all of that, sure, but maybe even a sweet-and-sour Korean style short rib, blueberry-gouda pork sausage links, and even smoked tri-tip, cut from the sirloin, that’s extremely popular out west.

“A lot of people here aren’t familiar with tri-tip, but we did a pre order for Christmas Eve, and lots of the feedback we got was from people who are from California who were happy to see that on the menu,” Schmidt says. “Our steak frites on the menu is the tri-tip with tallow fries. It’s not smoked very long, like 45 minutes towards the front of the smoker. We smoke it, then sear it. I’d actually love to do that with every steak, but with BBQ, there’s no guarantee you’ll sell a bunch of ribeyes.”

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In the near future for Cowboy Butter, it’s easier to tell you all that you can always expect something, since Schmidt’s philosophy here and at Hindsight is constant experimentation, but you’ll certainly see more seafood mixed into the menu.

“We just wanna flex more,” he says. “We had a mussels special that might go on the menu. This summer we might do smoked lobster tails. We want to take southern style craft BBQ—and hopefully people know it’s smoked well and done right—combined with a steakhouse, and the fact that we’re in New England, so what’s good in New England? Seafood. I think my tagline might be New England live fire BBQ bistro. That’s a lot to say, but yeah.”

59 Bank Street, New Milford
860.717.4416, cowboybutterbbq.com