Southern Style Bar-B-Q

Quest Log No 67 – Southern Style Bar-B-Q
Decatur, Morgan County

This was on my list for forever, but somehow I never got to go there – had I known how good their BBQ is, I hadn’t waited so long. Maybe it was my dislike of drive-through BBQ places that kept me away – I just hate to juggle a BBQ tray on my knees and spill sweet tea all over the seats. Well, Southern Style Bar-B-Q has some rough wooden benches to sit in front of a window for walk-up orders. But seriously, me sitting on a cool Alabama summer day in 100-degree weather outside, battling flies, heat, and the sun, I don’t think so. So I bit the bullet and ate my pork plate in the car – since it was a rental, I really did not care that much about spills and such.

The meat was very tender, lean and borderline mushy. The flavor was almost perfect, with a very pronounced but not overwhelming smoke aroma. There are huge piles of wood behind the building, so that is clearly where the flavor comes from. It is supported by a no frills basic vinegar-pepper sauce. As sides I had potato salad, which was a bit on the bland side, and baked beans, which were very reminiscent of the stuff you get out of supermarket cans. Nothing special here, but the meat was righteous BBQ pork if ever there was such a thing. All in all a typical southern BBQ place – like the name says.

Smokey C's BBQ & Wings

Quest Log No 61 – Smokey C’s BBQ & Wings
Decatur, Morgan County

Do you judge a book by its cover? I must admit, I’ve been doing this once or twice. So what do you expect how a real BBQ place with Killer-Q has to look like? A raggedy old shack with no windows on a lonely country road, a sleek brick house with neon signs in Downtown, a nondescript store with a hand-written menu on a black board in a strip mall, a wooden palace with hunting trophies on the walls on a busy highway, or a burger-chain look-alike in an industrial area? The correct answer is, of course, all of the above. Been there, ate in that. There just is no telling what kind of BBQ you might encounter when you stand before a restaurant – the only way to find out is to go in and try it. I’ve been surprised more than a couple of times, negatively as well as positively, during this quest.

So, what’s so special about Smokey C’s BBQ & Wings in Decatur? The building looks like any given fast-food-chain restaurant in the country. The patrons are mostly recruited from the workers of all those industrial plants on the west side of the town. It is situated next to a gas station at the Alabama Highway 20, which is quite a busy road in this area.  Inside the building, there is not much decoration on the walls, and the reddish-pinkish plastic furniture does not exactly qualify it for a title story in Southern Living.

You order at the counter right next to the entrance, where you have the choice between the usual selection of meats - pork, turkey, ribs, chicken, you know the drill. You can have the meat either on a sandwich, which comes in two sizes, or on a plate with two sides.

Guess what – I chose the large plate with 6 ounces of pulled pork (4 ounces would be the regular size), potato salad and spicy mustard slaw. The plate also came with a piece of cornbread, and together with a fountain drink I forked over just slightly over eight and a half dollars. Very nice price, but what kind of food can you expect for the price of a fast-food-chain burger meal?

As said before, never judge a book by its cover, always sit down and smell the roses. What can I say? I am a fan now.

The meat looked like Killer-Q, with a wonderful pink ring and some serious bark. And the looks did not lie - its flavor was perfectly smoky, with just the right amount of burnt wood flavor to make it special. I rarely had pork that was as juicy and tender and lean all together like this one. Real exquisite stuff.

I was really reluctant to pour any sauce over it, but eventually I did – starting with the hot and spicy one. Big mistake. One bite and my mouth was numb for a minute or so. Definitely too hot for my taste, so I switched to the one labeled BBQ sauce. Oh, well, that was your garden variety sweet’n’sour concoction, thick and red and, ahem, a little sweet and mostly sour. Not bad, but I would have wished for a simple vinegar-pepper sauce to just support the smoky meat flavor without giving it a totally different direction.

The potato salad on the other hand could have used a slight re-direction into a more distinctive aroma. It was not exactly bland, but also not very flavorful. Which cannot be said of the spicy mustard slaw – that thing gave me a kick in the pants, yessir! The mustard aroma was very prominent, and by gosh, spicy it was. But unlike the spicy BBQ sauce, it did not numb my taste buds, but left a very pleasant tingling sensation in my mouth. At the end, I used the excess sauce from the slaw for the pork, instead of the BBQ sauce. And the tiny rest, I scooped up with the cornbread, which had a very bread-like flavor with just a slight hint of sweetness. I’ve had cornbread before that was more like a sweet pound cake than real bread, but not this specimen, and actually that is how I like my cornbread.

All in all, although from the outside and also on the inside, Smokey C’s BBQ & Wings is nothing special, their food is top notch. And next time I’ll bring my wife – she is the wings expert in our family.

Hickory Stick Bar-B-Q

Quest Log No 55 – Hickory Stick Bar-B-Q
Decatur, Morgan County

On the outskirts of Decatur, there is a shop where you can buy an almost life-size metal elephant with a big red Bama-A on it. It does not get any more southern than this. Well, maybe a notch or so more when you step into the BBQ place next to it and have some pulled pork.

The Hickory Stick Bar-B-Q is in an unassuming square building, and the inside too is rather unspectacular. About a dozen or so tables in a big room with black, white, and red chairs, and red or blue tablecloths, with rolls of paper towels on them plus a bottle of vinegar BBQ sauce – the basic necessities are all there, including some BBQ and pork themed wall hangings. This is not the coziest atmosphere, but it will do if the food is good.

And good it is. I had the large pork plate with potato salad and slaw, and a side order of hushpuppies, and together with a sweet tea that set me back a little more than ten bucks.

The pulled pork was moist and lean, although not the most tender meat I ever had. It was not really chewy, but could have been a bit less resistant. The flavor, on the other hand, was beyond any doubt very articulated and had a wonderful hickory aroma. Together with the very basic vinegar-pepper sauce, which was more sour than spicy, it made for a wonderful taste experience.

The slaw was also on the sour side, with the vinegar-based dressing having just enough spices in it to produce a well rounded aroma. The potato salad was very tasty, too, but reminded me of a product I once had bought in a supermarket. No biggy here, not everybody is a potato-salad wizard, and to acknowledge one’s limitations is usually better than trying and bringing an inferior product to the table. Or, if it really was made from scratch, then kudos for achieving a well rounded middle-of-the-road taste.

But now, I have to talk about the hushpuppies. Very crunchy on the outside, just moist enough on the inside to not fall into a gazillion crumbs when cut in half, with a nice corn flavor with only a very subtle sweetness – some of the best hushpuppies I ever had.

So, if you ever drive through Decatur and see an elephant with big red Bama-A’s on its sides, stop and take a picture. And then go a few steps to the side and have some good Q at the Hickory Stick place. It does not get any more authentic then this.

Whitt's Barbecue, Decatur Spring Ave

Quest Log No 54 – Whitt’s Barbecue, Decatur, Spring Ave
Decatur, Morgan County

Now, there is only one Whitt’s Barbecue left on my list. And although they are all very similar, they are not the same. Some have a smoking unit, others have not. Some have (limited) outside seating, others have not. Some are quite picturesque, others not so much. But the quality of the BBQ is uniformly the same, and differs only by nuances.

Whitt’s Barbecue on Decatur’s Spring Ave has a very sizeable parking lot in front of the building, with two red metal benches on it. If you don’t mind to share your meal with some nasty fat black flies, you can sit down there and eat. Otherwise, park your car at the parking lot, or drive home and eat it there.

I chose to try out the fresh-air version, which meant to have one hand constantly hovering over the Styrofoam box to shush away those flies.

As usual, I had the pork plate, which comes with slaw, baked beans, and potato salad by default. With a regular drink, I paid not even nine Dollars, which is a good deal.

The meat was tasty, although not really in a smoky-kind of way. It also was a bit soggy, but tender and lean. With the simple vinegar based peppery sauce that comes with the plate, it was quite good.

The sides were good, too, without being earth-shatteringly outstanding. The rather neutral tasting potato salad and the plain tasting beans are comparable to something you could pick up in a super market. The slaw came with a quite sour vinegar dressing and was the best of the three sides.

I would rank Whitt’s Barbecue as plainly in the middle of the BBQ-road – nothing special here, but good quality Q at a very reasonable price. Or, as I already said before – a better tasting and healthier alternative to your typical burger joint.

Big Bob Gibson's Bar-B-Q (Danville Rd)

Quest Log No46 – Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q (Danville Rd)
Decatur, Morgan County

After I visited Big Bob Gibson’s main restaurant on Hwy 31 in Decatur in June 2011, I was very disappointed by the quality and taste of the food, and somewhat taken back by the in-your face display of their national notoriety, and of all the fabulous medals and prizes they have won for their sauces, which have an ingredients list that is as long as the Old Testament.

My conclusion was that we had better places for BBQ here in Northern Alabama. Lots of them.

Well, it took me one and a half years to make it to the other place Big Bob has in Decatur, on Danville Road. And I am glad to report that this visit ended in the partial redemption of this franchise.

First of all, the building does not scream “tourist attraction” from a mile away. It is a rather unassuming barn-style house, with rough wooden walls and a rather sober atmosphere inside. A few framed articles about Big Bob Gibson’s coverage in the media over the years is the only decoration, there are a couple flat screen TVs in the corners, and the rather spacious eating area has some booths and some wooden tables. Nothing fancy here, all very functional, no frills.

You order at a counter and wait there for your food to be prepared. I chose the pork and white chicken meat combo plate, with potato salad and baked beans. No slaw this time, because I still remembered vividly the train wreck that was the slaw at the other place.

My wife took the rib plate, with baked beans and slaw – a decision she regretted as soon as she spotted the alien-green heap of mushy cabbage on her plate.

We both took a small bite of the slaw and almost spit it out – disgusting. The texture was that of mushy grits and the taste was that of raw cabbage with some artificial sweetener in it.

The baked beans on the other hand were quite edible, although we both almost got into an argument out of what can they had come. The potato salad on the other hand was very creamy and had a refreshingly neutral taste. I can live with neutrality in potato salad, as long as it is not totally bland, which it wasn’t. It was creamy.

But now to the most important aspect, which led to a partial redemption of the devastating judgment from 2011.

The pulled pork was very tender and lean, and a bit on the dry side, which I don’t mind. That way, it soaks up the sauce better. And here, they had not only the famous supermarket-tested, award winning, endless ingredients list sporting red and white sauces on the table, but also a somewhat beaten plastic bottle with a simple spicy vinegar and pepper sauce. That stuff had a good kick to it, and was the perfect companion to the real nice smoky taste of the pork. And, it did not contain any of the chemical compounds of the other stuff.

The chicken, all white meat, was also a bit dry, but nevertheless very tender and receptive to the pepper-vinegar sauce. And the skin was just sublime – a heavy smoke taste with some crunch to it.

Also, the ribs my wife had tasted extremely well, with just the right amount of smoke aroma. They were not of the fall-off-the-bone variety, but firm and yet tender and succulent. My wife ranks them within the Top 5 of ribs she had in the last two years.

So, except for the just so-so or even disgusting side items, everything peachy in Big Bob’s Land?

Not quite. Please do yourself a favor and do not chose either the sweet or the unsweet tea for a drink – stick with the stuff that comes out of the soda machine. The tea has a very nasty aftertaste, especially the sweet variety. It kind of tastes as if they brewed it with water from the kitchen sink. Just nasty.

So, while this experience was clearly better than that we had in 2011 at the restaurant on Hwy 31, I still consider many other BBQ places a better choice. If they would fix the side items, and the nasty tea, this judgment might have to be revised. But until then, I think a little redemption is better than nothing.

Dirt Road BBQ & Grill

Quest Log No 38 – Dirt Road BBQ & Grill
Decatur, Morgan County

As I was driving to Dirt Road BBQ & Grill on the Beltline in Decatur today, a strange scene caught my eye. There was a pig and a blonde chick standing by the side of the street, frantically waving at the passing cars.

I stopped and asked, "Where did you get that?"

The pig said, "I won her in a raffle!"

No, this is not an entirely true story, just a very lame blonde joke, based on an actual pig-and-blonde-chick sighting. They were trying to entice drivers to stop at the restaurant for lunch. But besides me, I did not see anybody follow this siren song. Well, since I had planned to eat there anyways, so that does not count either. Bummer.

My wife and I visited the original Dirt Road BBQ in Trinity about nine months ago, and since then a small franchise was born. The newest addition to the Dirt Road BBQ family is this new restaurant on the Beltline in Decatur, which opened in August 2012. Its middle name is “Grill”, which describes the general focus of this establishment pretty well – think “Sports Bar”, and you are not far off. They even have Karaoke nights.

The restaurant is situated at the end of a strip mall, next to some optical shop. The exterior is dominated by a very large sign with the name on it. The interior is your typical family restaurant/sports bar layout, with the exception of about half a dozen booths on side that are made out of raw hewn wood planks. The original location in Trinity has more charm, but as a franchise concept I guess you have to streamline some things.

So I entered one of the booths, got my free sweet tea (they not only have Karaoke nights, but also free tea Fridays …) and ordered a Junk Yard Dog and a Turkey Sandwich.

Wow, wait a second – what happened to pork, potato salad and slaw, you might ask? Well, I invented this new rule that whenever I go to a different restaurant of the same franchise, I have to try something else then before.

Hence, the dog and the sandwich today, because last time I had the pork plate, comprende?

The Junk Yard Dog is a mess. I didn’t even try to eat it using only my hands – I would have looked totally stupid trying to tame the massive amount of stuff piled on that bun. A six inch long sausage with the diameter of a football (okay, that may be an exaggeration …), a very healthy helping of pulled pork, topped of with the special Dirt Road BBQ sauce and two handfuls of shredded cheese. Oh, and two pickle spears that were buried underneath the sausage.

I am not ashamed to testify here that I used a fork to partition this heap of meat, cheese and bread.

It says on the menu that the Junk Yard Dog is the favorite of Jason, the Pit Boss. I can understand this, because it is really good. But you have to make sure that with each bite you get all of the ingredients. The sausage alone is very mildly seasoned and kind of bland. Thankfully, it is also not fatty at all and the texture is surprisingly exquisite. The pulled pork is lean and tender and has a very nice smoke flavor. The cheese is the typical cheddar you find everywhere, and the pickles are … pickles.

The special BBQ sauce is much too sweet for my taste, without any zing to it. But together will all the other stuff, it makes for a very harmonious yet interesting taste. The sweetness of the sauce, the sourness of the pickles, the smokiness of the pork – never thought that this would work so well. Personally, I would probably exchange the cheese for some fried onions – then this Dog would possibly be sensational. As it is, I would rank it as amazing right now.

So, after this heap of food, I was surprised to not being filled up, but that I had some space left for the Turkey Sandwich.

Two thick slices of smoked Gobbler, some slaw and white sauce, all on a standard bun. The turkey was very well smoked, with a superb flavor, but unfortunately a bit on the dry side. The slaw was of the “let’s shred the cabbage into microscopic pieces” variety and has a sweet’n’sour taste, which dominated the whole sandwich, and I really didn’t taste the white sauce at all.

But don’t get me wrong – although the slaw flavor was quite overwhelming, the sandwich was tasty and at the end, when I reached some bites with only the turkey with a little slaw left on it, it was actually very good. The smoky flavor of the turkey came through quite nicely, which was overlaid by the slaw before. A little less of that, and this sandwich would actually have potential.

Well, I am no expert of the restaurant business, but I think we might see the beginning of a success story here. Yesterday Trinity, today Decatur – what’s next? I hear that Birmingham could use some good BBQ restaurant …

The Bar-B-Q Smoke House

Quest Log No25 – The Bar-B-Q Smoke House
Decatur, Morgan County

Seventeen Dollars for a BBQ lunch is a bit unusual. Even more so, if the place does not really qualify as a fancy-schmanzy gourmet temple, or does not have yet reached national celebrity status, like some other place in Decatur. No, the rusting, man-high rooster on the bottom of the sign-pole in front of the building, plus some kind of a flying pig on the sign that says “The Bar-B-Q Smoke House” surely indicates a more down to earth eating experience.

Well, down to earth is the level of comfort when you leave this Smoke House, dragging your full belly behind you after trying in vain to leave a clean three-meat combo plate with all the fixin’s – you get a lot, and I really do mean A LOT of food for seventeen bucks. I thought I was hungry enough to master this challenge, but had to admit defeat eventually.

So, what you get when you order the three meat combo plate is three meats (pork or beef, ½ chicken, ribs), slaw, beans, two slices of Texas toast, and a basket full of potato wedges.

Since I am not a big fan of chicken (too much work involved in ripping the meat off the bones – I am not here to practice my hand-eye coordination, but to dig in …), I told the very nice lady behind the counter, just give me more pork instead of the bird.

The pork was actually very nicely smoked, with a fine but distinctive smoke aroma, although it was a bit too dry for my taste. It was very tender and the size of the pulled bites was just perfect. They give you four sauces with the plate, two for the pork and two especially for the ribs. The mild pork sauce is very flavorful, with a rich (apple cider?) vinegar body. The hot variety is the same basic stuff, just with some peppers added. Both sauces do complement the pork perfectly.

The rib sauces are thicker, with a bit more sweetness to them. Also here, the hot sauce is a spiced up variety of the mild sauce. Again, both go very well with the ribs, but I also used them on the pork – with no apparent damage to my health. They also have a white sauce in their repertoire, but since I did not want the chicken, I also did not get the white sauce – tough luck.

My thought on the ribs is that their quality was not even in the same ballpark with the pork. They were kind of pale, and although the taste was actually very good, I prefer a good crust and red meat. There was a lot of real tender meat on them, but the apparent lack of a dry rub to give them a bit more kick was a small disappointment.

The sides, on the other hand, were excellent.

Especially the potato wedges were a revelation. They came fresh out of the oven, with an herb crust on them that was just wonderful. The barbeque beans were very good, as well, without the ubiquitous cinnamon, but with a very nice rounded sweet flavor. The slaw looked kind of funky, being more brownish than the usual green/white color, but it tasted very good and I guess here too the apple cider vinegar was used.

I did not really care that much for the Texas toast, which was kind of dry and uninspired.

On the other hand, the atmosphere in this place is very inspiring. They have only a handful of tables to sit in there, but each table has a nice view at the proceedings on the Point Mallard Parkway that runs directly in front of parking lot.

The furniture is wooden tables on poles with laminated regional advertisements on top of it, and metal tube chairs. No booths, no plastic, no fake fanciness.

There is a constant coming and going, and most customers are greeted with their names, and also seem to know each other, too. I guess that not many tourists like me, from, say, Madison or Limestone Counties, ever find their way to this little jewel of southern cuisine and southern hospitality in Decatur. But if you are really hungry and want to fill your belly with real quality southern food, you should maybe consider an expedition to the Smoke House once in a while – you will be rewarded richly for your boldness.

Nash BBQ on the Beltline

Quest Log No24 – Nash BBQ on the Beltline

Decatur, Morgan County

“You had the rest, now try the best”.

Proud words that they have on their web site. To make a long story short, yes, I had the rest, and quite many of them are better than Nash BBQ on the Beltline in Decatur. In fact, Nash ranks in close proximity to the very bottom of the list of places I’ve visited so far.

Well, they also claim – on their web site again - that “Hickory smoked BBQ is our specialty” and that they are “still using the same recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation”.

I’d say making bold claims is their real area of expertise.

Hickory smoked … yeah, right. My question would be what they were smoking when they put this on their web site. The meat, pulled pork, was as far removed from being hickory smoked, as I am from winning a Nobel Prize. It tasted very sour, which probably came from the fact that it was drenched in some kind of vinegar-pepper marinade. Even the strongest hickory aroma could not survive that kind of treatment. And quite frankly, I immediately thought “slow cooked” after the first few bites. It was very tender, reasonably lean, and not too mushy, but it certainly lacked every other quality I think an expertly smoked piece of meat should possess.

So, the first and foremost feature of the pork was its sourness, which was then even kicked up a notch through the vinegar-pepper sauce that came in a little cup on the side, and which I foolishly poured over the meat without tasting it first.

That the cole slaw reminded me of a heap of shredded glass that was lying in a puddle of water is not really important here. Looks can be deceiving and actually the relative sweetness of the slaw was a nice counterpart to that vinegar orgy my pork had become. Without that, judged by itself, I fear my appreciation of this particular type of slaw would be less enthusiastic.

Which can be said without any hesitation of the potato salad – it was one of the sorriest excuses to slice a potato in a long time. Can you say “out of a can” …?! Apparently, the folks at Nash can.

Complementing this array of substandard parts was two slices of plain white toast, neatly wrapped in butcher paper.

For all that glorious failure, I paid a little over nine bucks, with a drink. Well, at least the iced tea was freshly brewed and not too sweet.

Oh, I almost forgot – the atmosphere of this place is … special. Nine tables, brown and green checkered linoleum floor, empty walls except for two tiny flat screen TVs and a black board with leaflets on it. That’s it. Frugal. Sober. Boring. Like a freakin’ Hospital cafeteria. But the folks working in there were very friendly and that reconciled me a bit with the rest of my dining experience. “Come again”, were the parting words from the kitchen, when I left. Fat chance. And I would also not recommend betting the farm on me visiting the two other locations of Nash BBQ in Decatur and Hillsboro.

Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q

Quest Log No12 – Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q
Hwy 31, Decatur, Morgan County

Frequent guests at the Today Show, winner of the 2004 Jack Daniels World Champion Barbeque Contest, Grand Champion of the 2011 Memphis in May Festival World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, numerous first places in National BBQ Association competitions for their sauces … Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur is an Alabama institution since 1925, and we are all very proud of the big success with all the medals, championships, national recognition and so on.

But is it the best BBQ in the World, as they claim on their website? Well, let’s see first if they can hold their ground against other places here in the BBQ heartland of Northern Alabama, before we let them venture out to conquer this planet.

The main restaurant in Decatur – they also have a satellite restaurant in North Carolina and another one in Decatur – is situated smack in the middle of town on US Highway 31.

It is a big, full service restaurant, and no matter when you go there, the parking lot is always at least half full. The interior is dominated by all the plaques, certificates, and medals they won over the years, and the entrance area hosts three or four humongous metal trophies made out of grill parts. The atmosphere is like in those sports-bar/family chain joints, only that there is only one big room where everybody sits.

The meals are served on plastic plates with actual metal silverware, which is quite appropriate for a place like this. They even have crayons and coloring sheets for the little ones. Needless to say that the service is efficient and the cleanliness of the whole place is impeccable.

Contrary to my typical behavior, I combined the usual pulled pork with beef brisket this time, but, of course, had sides of slaw and potato salad. At about ten bucks with a drink, the amount of food was quite satisfactorily.

But then, a few questions arose …

The first question was – what is the brisket and what is the pork? It looked all the same but fortunately the taste was different, at least somewhat, so eventually, after some trial and error, I was able to tell it apart.

Then the second question arose - can meat be fatty and dry at the same time? Go there and find out for yourself. You will be astonished what all is possible.

Although the taste was not bad, my stomach did not agree with the rather low quality of the meat at all. It felt as if I had eaten millstones.

Next question – are the sides as important as the meat? Well, I really do not wish to discuss the sides here, the memory is too painful. The slaw tasted like raw cabbage without any spices or vinegar or anything on it, and the potato salad tasted like it was scraped off the bottom of a bowl that had been forgotten in the fridge for quite some time.

Final question – are the sauces really world championship caliber? Yes, they are surely top notch, but they also have ingredients lists as long as the Old Testament. Not quite your home made, organic, one-of-a-kind-taste stuff, but more like the industrial grade sauces you can order at Amazon or buy at the next Supermarket.

Their championship red sauce is tangy, not especially spicy, but kind of fruity and with just a hint of sweetness. The white sauce is very peppery and sour and also quite spicy, but without being really hot. Both sauces are very much agreeable to the mainstream audience, and in this area they are certainly at the top of the crop.

But can that be all – to win laurels for the sauces and rest on them, while neglecting all the other things that belong to a good BBQ?

I think not. While I certainly would pack some bottles of their sauces as gifts if I travelled to other parts of the Country, or even the World, there are numerous BBQ places here in Northern Alabama where you will get better food overall. They just don’t have the medals and trophies to prove that.

Whitt's Barbecue (Decatur)

Quest Log No9 – Whitt’s Barbecue (Decatur)
Hwy 31, Decatur, Morgan County

Besides the well known Gibson Empire of Big Bob and his family, there is another dynasty around here that could lay claim to the title “BBQ Barons of Northern Bama”.

Several branches of the extended Whitt family own restaurants in Decatur, Athens, Moulton, and Ardmore since 1966. Non-Whitt-family owned franchise-restaurants are also found nowadays in Tennessee and Kentucky, but even those are family owned, by branches of the Dean family.

All of those Whitt’s Barbecue places are drive-through only, which is kind of a novel idea for a BBQ restaurant, because this kind of cooking is not usually associated with fast food here in the south, and even all those ubiquitous Burger joints let you sit inside to eat their chow. I don’t mind eating in my car once in a while, but quite frankly this is not my preferred method of food intake.

One of the main ingredients of BBQ is the wood that is used for cooking the meat. Hickory seems to be the almost unanimous choice around here, and Whitt’s also uses it. Another very important factor is how long the meat is cooked, and here recipes vary from a few hours to several days. At Whitt’s they do it for 24 hours, and they claim that by “Using a special basting sauce, the succulent juices are cooked into the meat”.

I can vouch that at least for their turkey, this is a true statement.

The Turkey Sandwich I had was the best of that variety ever – very succulent meat, with nice hickory flavor, topped with quite sour, vinegar based slaw and some mayonnaise. Great taste, very nice texture, just awesome in one word.

It came in their just-under-seven-Dollar-with-taxes lunch box, together with a small cup of potato salad, a small cup of baked beans, a giant cookie and a large soda, which I think is a very fair deal.

As good as the Turkey Sandwich was, they lost a lot of style points for the sides. The potato salad tasted somehow moldy, and baked beans were of the rip-open-the-can-and-throw-it-in-the-microwave variety. I ate all the beans, but absolutely could not bring it over me to have more than a couple of bites of the potato salad.

The oatmeal raisin cookie on the other hand was quite good and a very completion to the meal.

Well, if I ever crave Turkey again, I now know where to go. And since they have quite a few restaurants strewn over this area, there will certainly be an opportunity in the future to try out their pork plate, too. I just hope that I can substitute the potato salad with chips, because that is the only other potato based side they have on their menu. And because I would have to eat in my car again, or drive at least 15 miles to eat it at home, I will probably only try a Whitt’s once more - unless their pork is as succulent and tasty as their turkey. 

And so it begins ...

There ain't no bad BBQ in all of Bama.
It's all good ... some more good, some less good.
A darn shame, though, that one's lifetime is too short for visiting all the BBQ places there are between Huntsville and Mobile. Job, Family, Responsibilities, Commitments, all that stuff that fills one's daily life prevents man from pursuing immortality - by becoming the first human being to have sampled a large pork plate at every BBQ joint on this Planet.
So, sadly, you have to scale down your ambition. Every place in the USA, how does that sound?
Or maybe just the Southern States. What about just one state, say Alabama? But not even that is remotely feasible for an amateur, however hungry or fanatic he might be, so then, how 'bout we scale it down even further, to a more manageable size? Like, well, all the 60+ BBQ places in the counties of Madison, Limestone, and Morgan in Northern Alabama - that is the cities of Huntsville, Madison, Athens, Decatur and the surrounding area? Sounds doable ... so let's get 'er on!
And so it begins - The Great Northern Alabama BBQ Quest. Pigs be afraid, be very afraid ...!