Andrew Evans is chopping smoked brisket on a midsummer Saturday afternoon. He’s in the open kitchen of the BBQ Joint, his airy yet cozy restaurant in Easton, Md. At 47, he looks a bit like Russell Crowe, dressed in a red T-shirt, jeans, apron and black baseball cap.

It is a far cry from his high-flying days as the chef-owner of one of the most highly touted restaurants in the Mid-Atlantic, the Inn at Easton. Food enthusiasts made their way to his place on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, about 11⁄2 hours’ drive from Washington, D.C., to experience Evans’ adventurous cuisine.

In 2007, The Washington Post’s Tom Sietsema awarded the restaurant three stars. In his last food piece before he died in 2006, the legendary New York Times writer and gourmand R.W. “Johnny” Apple Jr. wrote that the chef “works magic” with the inn’s Australia-meets-Asia-meets-Maryland menu.

Roasted kangaroo tenderloin, fried Chesapeake oysters and green Thai bouillabaisse existed, somehow harmoniously, on the roster of dishes — probably due to Evans’ training at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., followed by an eight-year stint at an Asian restaurant in Australia.

Evans’ acclaim attracted the likes of top toques such as Eric Ziebold, Roberto Donna, Robert Wiedmaier and Cathal Armstrong to cook a dinner as part of his 2006 Guest Chef series.

But two years later, personal matters led Evans to close the inn; he sold it the next year. He moved to his current location and opened a Thai restaurant. “It was completely open, like a night-market stall,” he says, referring to stands in Southeast Asia. “That was my baby. It didn’t work, though.”

His woes were compounded by the recession. “I was on the ropes, financially,” he says. “I went to my biggest investor, my mom. You toe the line when you go to your mom. And I said, ‘I could try barbecue,’ and she said, ‘All right, give it a try.’”

Born in New York City and raised in Ohio and New Hampshire, Evans did not grow up around barbecue. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1989 with a degree in religious studies (specializing in Zen Buddhism). He worked as a line cook at a Baltimore restaurant before attending the CIA. After graduation, he was sponsored to cook in Australia. He thought he would be there a year. He ended up staying for eight.

But Evans’ interest in barbecue had grown steadily since 2004, when he served as a judge at the prestigious Jack Daniels World Championship Invitational Barbecue in Lynchburg, Tenn.

“I don’t know why they asked me,” he says. “But it changed my perspective completely. Chefs think barbecue is redneck food and it’s beneath them. That’s how I used to think.”

When he returned from what is simply known as the Jack, Evans began experimenting with smoking meats and held backyard competitions. In 2008, he formed Walk the Swine, a competition team.

Evans had caught the barbecue bug. When the Thai restaurant didn’t work out, he saw barbecue not only as a viable business option but also as something to fulfill his relatively newfound love affair with the cuisine.

“I think barbecue plucks a primal chord in your brain and when it is plucked just right, something you don’t even realize happens, “ he says. “The crusty bark on the meat, the fire. It just goes … ping.”

He tore up the carpet in the Thai restaurant, installed two 250-pound Cookshack indoor electric smokers, and reopened the place in January 2010 as the BBQ Joint.

Rather than work all hours, as he did at the inn, Evans smokes the meats overnight and keeps them in a warmer until service. The method allows him to leave in the afternoon on most days to be at home with his daughters, ages 14 and 10, just three blocks away.

He volunteers at their schools, and he makes dinner for them, something he didn’t have time to do when he and his wife were running the inn. (The couple divorced in 2009.)

“Back then, my whole life was babysitter, babysitter, babysitter,” he says. The girls’ favorite family meals reflect their chef-dad’s pedigree: gnocchi; steamed artichokes with garlic and butter; and salmon glazed with a ginger chutney, served over sauteed bok choy with a side of jasmine rice.

His formal training has benefited his barbecue, he says. “I have the advantage of being a chef, which helps me accelerate my knowledge,” nodding toward the beans on a visitor’s plate. “We use four different beans and about 18 ingredients in those — measured to the gram.”

Low-and-Slow Smoked Meatloaf

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

21⁄4 lbs 80-20 ground beef

1⁄4 C tomato-based barbecue sauce, plus 1⁄4 C for glazing

2 lg eggs

1 C plain dried bread crumbs, such as panko

8 oz canned diced tomatoes, drained

11⁄2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Prepare the grill for indirect heat. For a charcoal grill, light the charcoal or wood briquettes; when the briquettes are ready, dump them into a mound on one side of the grill. For a medium-hot fire, you should be able to hold your hand about 6 inches above the coals for 4 to 5 seconds. For a gas grill, place the wood chunk or chips in a smoker box or a foil packet with fork holes puncturing the top to let smoke escape. Prepare the grill for indirect heat (fire up only one side). Preheat the grill to high. When smoke appears, reduce the heat to as low as it will go, about 200 degrees.

Combine the ground beef, sauce, eggs, bread crumbs, tomatoes, salt and pepper in a large bowl and mix well. Pack the mixture into a 5-by-9-inch loaf pan or 6-by-10-inch baking dish.

When the grill is ready, place the meatloaf pan on the cool, or indirect, side of the grill. Fill a 9-by-9-inch aluminum pan with an inch of water and place it on the other side of the grill. (If there’s not enough space for the pan, that’s okay; you can omit it.) If using a charcoal grill, add the hickory chunk or chips to the coals now. Cover the grill, and smoke the meatloaf over indirect heat as close to 200 degrees as possible until the interior temperature of the meatloaf registers 140 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. At that point, brush the remaining 1⁄4 cup of barbecue sauce on top of the meatloaf and cover the grill. The glaze will set while the meatloaf reaches its final temperature of 150 to 160 degrees. The total cooking time will depend on the heat of your fire and the size of your baking pan or dish, but 3 hours is a good estimate.

Transfer the meatloaf pan to a heatproof surface, cover it with aluminum foil and allow it to rest for 20 minutes before slicing and serving.

Nutrition information per serving (based on 8): 400 calories, 25 g protein, 11 g carbohydrates, 28 g fat, 11 g saturated fat, 145 mg cholesterol, 740 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fiber, 5 g sugar

Hillbilly Blueberry Pie

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

At his restaurant, the BBQ Joint, chef-owner Andrew Evans wanted to make a pie as a special dessert, but there wasn’t a pie dish to be found. He recruited a cast-iron skillet that was usually used for frying bacon, and Hillbilly Pie was born. The restaurant now offers deep-dish pies made in cast-iron pans every day. Evans says this one is a favorite. Serve it with vanilla bean ice cream. You’ll need a cast-iron skillet about 10 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep.

1⁄8 tsp ground allspice

1⁄8 tsp ground cinnamon

1⁄3 C cornstarch

2⁄3 C turbinado sugar, plus 1 TBS for sprinkling

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest, plus 1⁄2 tsp fresh lemon juice (from 1 med lemon)

1⁄8 tsp kosher salt

6 C blueberries, stemmed (3 pints)

2 homemade or store-bought deep-dish pie shells

2 TBS unsalted butter, cut into pea-size dice, plus 1 TBS melted unsalted butter

Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees.

Sift the allspice, cinnamon and cornstarch together into a large bowl, then add the 2/3 cup of sugar, the lemon zest and juice, and the salt; stir to combine. Add the blueberries and toss to coat.

Roll out the dough into two large rounds about 13 inches in diameter. Line the skillet with one of the dough rounds, bringing it all the way up the sides.

Toss the blueberries one last time and pour them into the skillet. Distribute the diced butter over the berries and top with the remaining round of dough, either whole or cut into strips to make a lattice. Brush the dough with the melted butter and sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of sugar. Use a small knife to cut a few slits near the center for venting.

Bake for 1 hour or until the crust is golden brown. Serve warm.

Nutrition information per serving (based 8): 490 calories, 3 g protein, 66 g carbohydrates, 25 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 10 mg cholesterol, 230 mg sodium, 4 g dietary fiber, 33 g sugar

BBQ Joint Chicken Wings

Makes 6 or more appetizer servings.

Make ahead: The wings can be cooked up to 3 days in advance and refrigerated in an airtight container. To reheat, lay them out on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until warmed through.

36 jointed chicken wings

1 C homemade or store-bought barbecue rub

4 TBS (1⁄2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1 C ranch or blue cheese dressing, for dipping

3 ribs celery, cut crosswise into 3-inch lengths (optional)

Prepare the grill for indirect heat. For a charcoal grill, light the charcoal or wood briquettes; when the briquettes are ready, dump them into a mound on one side of the grill. For a medium-hot fire, you should be able to hold your hand about 6 inches above the coals for 4 to 5 seconds. For a gas grill, place the wood chunk or chips in a smoker box or a foil packet with fork holes puncturing the top to let smoke escape. Prepare the grill for indirect heat (fire up only one side). Preheat the grill to high. When smoke appears, reduce the heat to low, 275 to 300 degrees.

Toss the wings with 1⁄2 cup of the rub in a large bowl. Transfer the wings to the cool, or indirect, side of the grill.

Fill a 9-by-9-inch aluminum pan with an inch of water and place it on the other side of the grill. (If there’s not enough space for the pan, that’s okay; you can omit it.) Smoke the wings over indirect heat at 275 to 300 degrees until an instant-read thermometer registers an internal temperature of 180 degrees.

Transfer the wings to a large, clean bowl. Add the melted butter and toss to evenly coat the wings, then use a shaker or strainer to sprinkle on the remaining 1⁄2 cup of rub, tossing to coat. Heap the wings onto a serving platter; serve with the dressing and with celery sticks, if desired.

Nutrition information per serving (not including dressing): 720 calories, 54 g protein, 0 g carbohydrates, 55 g fat, 18 g saturated fat, 245 mg cholesterol, 3900 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fiber, 0 g sugar