Respect the badge.

At least that is what Paul Schutt, the owner of the Tin Star Smokehouse at 16400 South Golden Road, hopes will happen.

After 30 years in the restaurant business, including helping out his brother’s Tin Star Café in Evergreen, Paul Schutt said he definitely wanted to do his own thing — namely barbecue.

“We moved to Golden a few months ago and liked it here. And Golden was in desperate need of good barbecue,” Paul Schutt said.

The space was right, the location was far from any other barbecue restaurant and the rent was reasonable, so Schutt opened up for business March 18.

The interior, previously decorated as a gourmet burger joint, has been westernized, with reclaimed wood and metal on the walls, evoking the look of weathered barn walls and water troughs.

The menu has, of course, changed as well, offering chicken, ribs, salmon and brisket. Virtually everything on the menu is made in-house. The pickles are homemade, using grandma’s recipe. The Schutt brothers report that the hushpuppies and ribs are their biggest sellers so far.

“So far, business has been better than projected,” Paul Schutt said.

Andrew Schutt said the new Golden location would allow his Evergreen location to offer more smoked meats and ribs, as well as giving the brothers enough kitchen space to do more catering work.

The full restaurant sign includes the phrase “Colorado Bar-B-Que” at the bottom. But, what exactly is “Colorado Bar-B-Que?”

“We’re kind of defining it ourselves, blending several different barbecue cultures,” Andrew Schutt said, describing Tin Star’s menu as a mix.

The sauce is a mix of southern and KC style, while the emphasis on smoked flavor is a Texas staple. Tin Star’s dry rubs all use a little southwestern spice that Andrew Schutt said “really speaks for this area.”