Pig-N-Out BBQ

Quest Log No 65 – Pig-N-Out BBQ
Huntsville, Madison County

Well, well, a BBQ in a gas station. I have seen stranger things, but it is certainly not the usual setting for such place. I also noticed that they have “Korean BBQ” on the menu, which is kind of no surprise given the fact that the owner is a Lady from this nice country.

The restaurant is surprisingly nice inside – not exactly what you may expect to find in a gas station. The place is impeccably clean, and the little corner where the tables and booths are situated is lovingly decorated, bright and friendly.

The BBQ though, is more like you would expect it from a place like this. The meat of the pork plate I ordered was lean but somewhat chewy, with no particular smoke aroma. It came neither chopped nor pulled, but it looked like it had been put through a blender. There are three sauces, a white one that I did not touch, a basic vinegar-pepper sauce without much pepper in it, and a thick red vinegar-tomato-pepper sauce – and that had some real nice kick to it, and was very flavorful. I scooped the sauce up with the roll that came with the pork plate at the end. Very delicious.

The sides are really almost not worth mentioning – the potato salad was bland and the baked beans were your standard supermarket variety.

The portions were not that big, and actually I was still kind of hungry when I was finished. But for not even nine bucks, including a big 32 oz drink, that is an acceptable deal. But just to fill your tank with some food that is better than a burger from one of them chains. For a real culinary experience, this place would not be my choice. 

Melvin's Place of BBQ

Quest Log No 65 – Melvin’s Place of BBQ
Huntsville, Madison County

No sign. No name. No indication that this place in a fairly run down inner-city subdivision of Huntsville next to a cemetery, is a BBQ restaurant, than the smoke that is coming from a mobile barrel smoker at the corner of the premises. You park either in one of the two parking spots on a gravel patch beside the house, or on the street. In the courtyard of the L-shaped building are some camping-canopies with well worn out leather chairs. A few orange traffic cones adorn the pavement. The entrance to the dining room is a simple red door. The dining room is surprisingly big, and not surprisingly dark. There is one camping table with six camping chairs, half a dozen of those well worn leather chairs along a three foot high wall, and a counter with an old office chair behind it that has an old shirt lumped over it that says “Melvin’s Place of BBQ”. Next to the counter stand an old TV, and some buffet gear. On the other side of the room, beyond the three foot high wall that separates this area from the dining area, and where it is really dark, there is a small stage with some musicians gear on it, several other camping tables, more buffet gear and other things. On the walls, there is one picture of a 1960s era soul band, and a framed article of the Huntsville Times about this place.

Some would call it a dive. Some would even call it a dump. Others would call it authentic. I would call it all of the above.

To be very clear – it is not a dirty place, not at all. It is just well worn, odd, eccentric, cobbled together. The owner, Melvin, is a very nice old man, with a serious passion for BBQ. When I asked him about his secret how to cook such a marvelous BBQ, I got a fifteen minute lecture. No, actually it was more like a sermon, with fire and brimstone, and preaching and praying.

Melvin does not believe in wood. He uses whatever is on hand – hickory, pecan, cherry, it doesn’t matter. The secret to get the flavor in the meat, he told me, is the rub, not the wood. He does his own rub and his own BBQ sauce – actually, he has nine different sauces, and each of them makes the chicken taste differently in combination with the rub. Melvin also does not believe in smoking the meat for hours. He has better things to do than fire up the smoker in the middle of the night, he said. Forty-five minutes is sufficient for a chicken - that is his believe. He also does not turn the meat halfway through the process, nor does he poke it with a thermometer, lest the juices would drip out. With all that, he is the most unorthodox pitmaster I ever met. But his chicken proves him right – it is divine. DIVINE!

I had heard so many good things about Melvin’s chicken that I broke with my rule to have pulled pork at each new BBQ place. The plate, rather the Styrofoam box, came loaded with two slices of regular toast (untoasted), baked beans, potato salad, and a two drumsticks and a chicken breast. The chicken was sitting in a puddle of his BBQ sauce (which of the nine different varieties, I have no idea), that apparently oozed out from the skin. The skin was a bit leathery and not crisp at all, but the meat under it was the most tender, juicy, flavorful and, yes, divine chicken I ever had. It had a very nice smoke aroma, too – something you do not necessarily expect with a smoking time of only forty-five minutes. The potato salad was top notch as well, being a mayonnaise based, fairly sour, concoction. The baked beans were okay, but nothing to write home about. They swam in a thin liquid and had some vegetables and meat in it, but the taste was really nothing special.

With a can of soda, I paid eleven bucks (the lecture was priceless, yet at no cost), which is more than can be usually expected in such a location. But it is well worth it, and I can only suggest that you let the, well, ramshackle environment and the very interesting interior design of the restaurant not deter you from what would become a defining moment in your live – when you take the first bite out of Melvin’s chicken. It is just divine!

O Taste & See BBQ

Quest Log No 64 – O Taste and See BBQ
Madison, Madison County

To name a mobile BBQ stand after a Bible verse (Psalm 34:8, “O taste and see that the LORD is good”) is probably one of those things you have to expect here in the Bible belt. But that kind of commits you to serve a most righteous BBQ, too. Well, their motto “Experience Real Smoke Taste” is certainly a step in the right direction. Actually, if they would add the word “Strong” after “Real”, that statement would be the absolute truth. I never had any BBQ were there was such an intense and prominent smoke flavor in the meat. Not that this is a bad thing, not at all. But it makes you think – either the guys have found the holy grail of BBQ and developed a smoking process that is much superior over everything else, or … well, they found other means to infuse their meat with that kind of overwhelming smoke aroma. The pulled pork I had also tasted as if mixed with some BBQ sauce. All in all very flavorful, and very, very smoky. The meat was succulent, although with some big blotches of fat in it. But those were easy to spot and I could remove them right away. The pork plate I had came with two sauces, a mild one and a spicy one that was more like a more sour version of the former, instead of real hot. The thick red mild sauce was a very nicely balanced sweet’n’sour affair with a nice round aroma, and it was so good that I scooped the rest up with the slice of toast that came with the meal.

Also, the potato salad and the cole slaw I choose as the two sides were top notch. The potato salad had a very nice mustardy tang to it, and the slaw came with sour crème dressing and with just the right amount of vinegar and salt and pepper so that the cabbage aroma was still noticeable. The whole meal, with a can of soda, was not really cheap – I paid about eleven bucks for it. And although the portion size was not that big, the quality of the food kind of justified the price. My wife had the brisket plate with BBQ beans and green beans, and she had quite the same experience – the brisket had a lot of fat on it on the outside, which was easily removed, the taste of the meat was very smoky and very flavorful, it was succulent, and the sides were top notch.

The stand is really mobile, setting up at the East Madison Shopping Center on Hughes Road from Tuesday through Thursday, at Jordan Lane in front of Trees n Trends on Friday, and at the Corner of Winchester Road & Naugher in the Sunoco Parking Lot on Saturdays. That is certainly a lot of work for the really nice folks who own this business, and I hope they can establish a good customer base and make a good living with that nomadic life style. But they seem to love what they are doing, and it shows in their quality food. It is righteous BBQ, after all.

Arby's

Non-Quest BBQ No 41 – Arby's

Madison, Alabama

During my occasional travels, I try to sample BBQ at those near and far away places outside the Quest area. I just really, really like that stuff ... 

So, once in a while one or another of the national fast food chains decides to spice up their menu with a BBQ-themed item. It should go without saying that those ventures cannot be compared to our local BBQ – they are worlds, no, strike that, they are universes apart. But as an alternative to the regular menu items, it might just work.

Next in line is Arby’s, your friendly neighborhood slicer of luncheon meats. They claim that the brisket they serve now on their new Smokehouse Brisket Sandwich has been smoked for thirteen hours. Sounds good at first, but what does that really mean? That their marketing department knows how to play the numbers game? That they have a portable smoker attached to each store now? That they read a book or two about BBQ? That they are really trying their best to bring us authentic brisket?

Well, let’s give them a few breaks. First, it goes without saying that smoking the brisket each day in every store appears to be very impractical. So they smoke it elsewhere, pack it in cellophane, truck it around, and cut it fresh at the stores. I have no reason to doubt their claim smoking it for thirteen hours. But that in itself does not say anything about its tenderness and flavor. It only tells you that their marketing department indeed read a book or two about BBQ, especially the chapters about how much time it generally takes to prepare the meat for consumption. Bravo. You get an A for reading skills, now sit down and listen to the verdict about tenderness and flavor.

Since the brisket meat is not really sliced, but rather shaved, it comes with a kind of default tenderness, for it is very tough to really chew hard on paper thin meat. As for the flavor, I have to say that there was something that resembled smoke aroma, but just for a brief moment. It was immediately overwhelmed by the extreme saltiness of the meat. As I write this, about eight hours after eating the sandwich, I still have heartburn. The sandwich comes with fried and battered onion rings, liquid Gouda cheese, mayonnaise, and Arby’s own BBQ sauce. Of the 610 calories that monster tries to stack directly on your hips, a whopping 320 are from fat. 1230 mg of Sodium more than explain the salty taste, I think. And there are more ingredients that read like an advertising brochure for a cardiologist. So, from a nutritional standpoint, you better stay away from this conglomerate of irresponsibility. But does it at least taste good, so you could order it as your last meal on death row, if you ever came into this conundrum?

Don’t bother, die hungry instead. There is no discernible influence the smoked brisket has on the taste of the sandwich. The prevailing aroma is that of cheese and BBq sauce. And salt. I need a Pepto. Now.

Hazel Green Bar-B-Q

Quest Log No 59 – Hazel Green Bar-B-Q
Hazel Green, Madison County

Although BBQ is a serious affair here in the south, usually there is also some mild eccentricity involved. Typically, the quirkiness revolves around pigs, with all kinds of statues, posters, photos, metal and neon signs displayed in the restaurant.

But if there is a ten foot long smoker in the backyard that has pig’s ears, nose and eyes out of metal attached to it - that is the definition of eccentric quirkiness.

And that is what I found outside of the Hazel Green Bar-B-Q. It actually fits very well the rustic atmosphere of the restaurant, which is built in a kind of pseudo-log cabin style. Inside, there is a big room with only four tables with two chairs each, which are metal patio furniture out of the home improvement store. The window we were sitting at had just a fly-net and no glass in it, the ceiling was covered with old tin plates, and the floor looked like the victory circle of a NASCAR speedway, with black stains all over it. Most of the business, from Friday to Sunday only, is done as carry-out, so I guess there is no need for more places to sit down, or better furniture, or a non-stained floor. So, it is very rustic, but also very clean.

As usual, I had the pork plate with three sides, potato salad, baked beans, and slaw, and my wife had the brisket with baked beans and slaw. The plates come with a slice of white untoasted toast bread, and we both had sweet tea, which comes in 16oz plastic bottles from Milos. For all that, we only paid about twenty bucks, which is a very fair deal in regards of the amount of food you get.

The quality, however, was no reason for jubilation.

They claim that all sides are home made, and I truly believe that. But that in itself is no guarantee that the taste is something special. In this case, the potato salad and the baked beans were rather pedestrian, taste-wise. Not bad, don’t get me wrong, but if it says “homemade” my expectations are a bit more demanding. The slaw, on the other hand, was kind of sweet, but with a spicy note in it. Very interesting, very tasty.

The pork was a bit oily, and had some fat in it, but it was very tender and had a deliciously smoky aroma. While one sauce comes with the plate, I allowed myself the luxury to add a second kind of sauce for a small amount of money. I chose the mustard based Sweet’n’Spicy and the tomato based Kansas City BBQ Sweet. They also have a white sauce and a vinegar based Hot and Spicy sauce.

I must admit that I have a soft spot for mustard based sauces. Mustard and pig just naturally belongs together in my culinary world, and while this variety here was not bad at all, the mustard aroma was too strong for my taste. Give the sauce a hint of mustard, make it the key note in the aroma, but don’t let it take over the show. It was just too much, almost like pure mustard. And the Kansas City style sauce was just boring, a concoction with no outstanding features besides its sweetness.

My wife’s brisket also had a very nice smoke flavor and was very tender, too. But about half of it was pure fat, and while fat certainly is a carrier of flavor, it is also not very healthy and too much of it should be avoided. She had the white sauce with it, which we will deny vehemently if the BBQ police ever get wind of this sacrilege. The sauce is a thin mayonnaise and vinegar based concoction with, again, no outstanding features.

In summation, I liked the rustic but very clean environment, and also the price was very good. The food had some highlights in the slaw and the flavor of the meat, but also had too much fat in it, and the other sides and the sauces could use some re-work. No bad BBQ here, but also certainly not one of my go-to places.

Biffle's Slow Smoked Barbeque

Quest Log No 58 – Biffle’s Slow Smoked Barbeque
Madison, Madison County

BBQ out of a trailer – that does not immediately garner my confidence that I will get something decent to eat. On the other hand, during the almost three years of my quest I had BBQ at some permanent locations that was also somewhat dubious, to say the least. So I guess the old saying, don’t judge a BBQ place by its cover really has some truth to it.

In Madison, on Sullivan Street just behind the train tracks, opposite the Downtown area on Main Street, stands a brand new red trailer that hosts Biffle’s Slow Smoked Barbeque. The Biffle’s are a retired couple who were looking for something to occupy their time with, so they decided on a food truck operation of sorts - only that their trailer remains stationary and does not move between locations.

There are two canopies in front of the trailer, where you can sit on a few chairs around a table or at a bench-table combination. The trailer itself is equipped with a smoker and a full kitchen. Due to the limited size of the smoker and the storage space in the kitchen, at times they sell out some items before their official closing time. As I was there, they only had some fruit punch left to drink, which was not a big deal, but don’t expect everything to be available at any given time.

As usual, I had the pork plate with potato salad and slaw. The plate also comes with either a bun or two slices of sandwich bread, and all together it cost me seven bucks.

Not a bad deal for a sizeable amount of food.

Alas, the quality was not up to par. The meat was rather oily and lacked the tenderness I would expect from slow smoked BBQ. There was no real smoky flavor, and the sauce, while apparently home made, was just a variety of the typical St.Louis-style supermarket sauces. It had some spiciness to it, but was mostly sweet. The potato salad had a mayonnaise dressing and was quite tasty, with a sour tang, but the slaw, while certainly fresh and crispy, had no taste at all.

I certainly had much worse BBQ in the last three years, but also distinctively better. So, I guess, it really is not so much the building you do it in, but how you do it that determines your BBQ. This is, of course, not really a brand new discovery, but rather a known rule. And while this peculiar style of BBQ certainly will find its audience, I do not see myself stopping by that trailer again anytime soon.

Meridianville Pit Bar-B-Q

Quest Log No 56 – Meridianville Pit Bar-B-Q
Meridianville, Madison County

A while ago, I debated the question, whether dead flies on the window sill belong to an authentic BBQ place. The conclusion was that I did not mind them and that in certain circumstances they actually could contribute to the special atmosphere of a place. Living flies, on the other hand, are still a total no-no.

And that is the problem with those places that are primary take-out restaurants, with maybe just a few folding chairs and a table outside. You are usually better off to eat in the car, unmolested by pesky insects, or take the stuff with you at home, if this is not too far away.

The Meridianville Pit Bar-B-Q in, ahem, Meridianville is one of those places. There is one table with  four chairs outside the order window under a little roof, but since the trash cans are right next to it I would suggest using this offer – unless you like sharing your meal with winged pests.

Other than that, there is the occasional spider web with insect carcasses in it to be found in some corners, and a grimy substance covers most outside surfaces. That is, of course, coming from the US Highway that runs just a few yards away from the building. The building is also wedged between two gas stations. That all, and more serious violations inside once have led to a score of 75 (of 100) at a health inspection. You must score an 85 to get off the re-inspection list. So before I tried this place, I wanted to wait until the health score was in a region where I did not have to reserve a hospital bed before eating there. Now, they have a 94 and so I went.

First of all, the meals are really inexpensive there. I paid nine bucks for a large pork plate with three sides and a large sweet tea. Well, they do not have any overhead costs for maintaining a dining area, so it should not be pricey.

My pork plate came with baked beans, potato salad and slaw, a bun and a cup of sauce.

The meat was very tender and lean, not very moist and with a very subtle smoke aroma. Together with the simple vinegar-pepper sauce it tasted great, and I would say while it was not spectacular, it was how BBQ pork should be.

The sides were also nothing special, but also very good. The potato salad came with a mildly sour yellowish mayonnaise dressing, the slaw was a bit too much on the sweet side for my taste, and the baked beans were no different from what you can buy in a can. But while not one item was something special, all harmonized very well together, and the taste was extremely pleasant when one bite of the pulled pork with sauce on it was followed immediately by the potato salad and the baked beans or the slaw.

So, what you get at the Meridianville Pit Bar-B-Q is middle-of-the-road stuff for a very reasonable price. Just try to avoid the spider-webs and you’ll be fine.

Ted's BBQ Five Points

Quest Log No 53 – Ted’s BBQ Five Points
Huntsville, Madison County

Ted is spreading his wings and going places. While the original Ted’s location on University Drive in Huntsville is a small, take-out-only hole-in-the-wall affair, the new posh Ted’s in the hip Five Points area has ample seating space, booths and a bar-like area, neon lights, flat screen TV, a Ray Charles poster on the wall, and soul and blues music coming out of the loudspeakers. Quite fancy for a BBQ joint, like a Redneck in a tux.

But do they serve food that an urban redneck like me would like? I mean, real, righteous, rapacious, rousing Q? Well …

I had my usual pork plate, which came with two sides – potato salad and cole slaw in my case, and a cornbread muffin that comes with it by default.

After visits to more than fifty BBQ restaurants in Northern Alabama and more than thirty more outside of this region, I think that I have a pretty good idea how BBQ pork should be done. Well …

The pork had an acceptable, but certainly not outstanding BBQ flavor. But it was a little chewy and definitely too dry. Without a good deal of lubricant, I had problems swallowing it down. They have two choices of lubricant there, a mild and a spicy sauce, both of the thick red variety, and both with the proud label “home made” on it. The mild sauce tasted kind of bitter (do I hear “celery” out of the audience?) and otherwise not like something I would voluntarily put on my pork, other than for lubrication purposes. The spicy sauce was not especially hot, but with a nice zesty kick and a hint of sweetness. So I chose that to drench the pork in – might have also made it a bit more tender when soaked for a few minutes.

So, the pork was merely tolerable with lots of spicy sauce on it. The cole slaw, on the other hand, was quite horrible. I will never understand the fascination some people have with celery – I can’t stand this vegetable, especially not in a cole slaw with a somewhat sweet vinaigrette. In stark contrast to that, the potato salad was a pure delight. Made with red potatoes, and a mustard-mayonnaise dressing, it had a very tasty sour flavor, just as I like it. I just hope it is home made, too, and does not come out of a can. Well, if it does, then can I have the address were to buy it?

The cornbread muffin, however, was clearly home made. It came with pieces of corn and jalapenos baked in it, which gave the natural sweetness of the cornbread a spicy counter balance. I am not a great fan of this kind of “fusion” food, especially not when it comes to BBQ. Just give me plain cornbread, and leave the fancy stuff out. I am a simple guy, with a simple taste, and do not need all that fru-fru stuff.

And for about twelve bucks with a drink, the amount of food was not that big. And since the quality was also not something to write home about (Mom, don’t read this here …), this urban redneck will go to different places when the BBQ cravings come. Places with grime on the floor, stuffed animal heads on the walls, dead flies on the window sills, and Q that has no fru-fru, but the four R’s.

Black Jack's and Thing BBQ

Quest Log No 51 – Black Jack's and Thing BBQ
Huntsville, Madison County

When a BBQ place has a somewhat special, odd, or downright weird name, it can mean either of two things: the owners have to hide their mediocre product behind a flashy name, or the owners are innovative not only in the kitchen, but also with everything else. During my travels through BBQ country, I’ve come across both varieties. There just is no telling from the outside, you have to go in and sample the Q to determine if the name is just icing on the cake, or it is all only smoke and mirrors.

Well, Black Jack's and Thing BBQ is truly some weird name – and I am sure there is a great story behind it. With that name, most people will probably imagine some kind of shack by the road side, next to the burned down grocery and the oily car repair shop. But no, you will find them in a small neat brick building next to a Papa John’s pizza delivery shop, adjacent to a gym and a gas station.

Not very exciting, and the interior is also not very electrifying. Light green walls with a few sparse decorative items, a floor that could use a serious makeover, half a dozen or so wooden tables with wooden chairs, and four of those rustic outdoor bench/table combinations. In a way, this has its own weird charm, but what energy they spent on finding a special name, they did apparently save when it came to interior design choices.

But enough of these rather nonessential things, let’s get to the core of the business – the food.

As usual, I had the pork plate, with slaw and potato salad, and my wife had half a rack of ribs with green beans and baked beans. Together with two cups of sweet tea, we paid a little over twenty-one bucks, which is a very fair deal.

Especially if you take the quality of the food into account.

The pork was very tender and lean, juicy and with a remarkable smoke flavor – very top notch. And the sauce (you have to ask for it, they only have Ketchup and some generic hot sauce on the tables) is nothing short of spectacular. Fruity and yet spicy, without being too hot – just perfectly balanced and very delicious. My wife thinks that there is Curry in it, but I think it is a mixture of different peppers. Be it as it may, I wish they would bottle that stuff and sell it to me.

The potato salad, made with sour crème, was very fresh, but I found it a bit too neutral tasting. More salt and pepper would have made it better, in my mind. My wife on the other hand loved it. I found the cole slaw, made with vinegar, very exciting. It was sour, without the slightest hint of sweetness, with just the right amount of salt and pepper, and very crunchy and fresh.

My wife’s ribs were a lot of meat, to begin with. Not overly fatty, but also not extremely lean, with an average taste. The sides she had, on the other hand, blew her away. The green beans were in her opinion the best she ever had. And the baked beans were totally without sweetness, but came with a spicy aroma instead.

So, does this place with a weird name serve some righteous BBQ? Yes, indeed, they do. And the little twist to abstain from the sweet side and venture into the sour/spicy side of Q is remarkable. As is the name.

Shane's Rib Shack

Quest Log No 50 – Shane’s Rib Shack
Huntsville, Madison County

Opening a BBQ place of your own is the dream of every backyard pit master. Very often, it is the sauce that everybody in the neighborhood just loves, which plants the seeds of the idea to go professional. Not a bad basis, but BBQ is more than that. If the meat is terrible, the best sauce in the world will not save the business. And what about the sides? Many of those restaurants of ex-backyard pit masters only concentrate on the meat and the sauce, and put rather pedestrian sides on the table.

And even worse, what can you expect from an ex-backyard pit master, who not only opened his own BBQ place, but then expanded the business into a franchise with about 70 locations in the Southeast, the Southwest, and the Northeast? Surely he had to cut corners, standardize the whole process, and rationalize the preparation of the food, so that it could be done with comparable quality everywhere.

That this does not necessarily mean adhering to the highest possible standards, but rather finding the least common denominator, should be self evident.

So, now Huntsville has been blessed with its own Shane’s Rib Shack. Hallelujah, just what we needed here to survive the BBQ shortage that plagued us all so terribly the last few decades.

It is located in a plaza with other eateries like Bonefish Grill, Subway’s, Nothing but Noodles, and Zoë’s Kitchen, so the local lunch crowd now also can have its BBQ cravings satisfied.

The fairly big inside of the restaurant is your typical sports-bar/family place, with wooden furniture and semi-booths dressed in red faux-leather.

You order at a counter in the back, put the sign with a number on your table and after a short while your meal is brought to you. The staff is very friendly and attentive, and the place is spotless clean.

The decoration mostly consists of flat screen TVs on the walls, and some framed football shirts. It was kind of odd to see a Raider’s shirt there, and no trace of a Tide or Auburn shirt, or maybe one from the Atlanta Falcons. The Raiders, really?! Not a team known for its success lately, like, oh well, some Alabama football teams. Just saying.

But it is surely a place you can go eat with the kids; they even have four different kid’s menu items.

Although the name of the name implies that they see their ribs as the main attraction, I refrained from that and had the pork plate instead, with baked beans and fries. They don’t have potato salad on the menu and I didn’t want to have chips or mac’n’cheese, and from the picture on the big menu behind the counter, the cole slaw did not look very special to me, so I deviated from what I usually order.

Big mistake, I should have taken something else. The fries were too salty, almost borderline inedible, and the baked beans were of the sweeter-than-sweet variety, and I could swear that I had very similar beans once out of a can from a supermarket.

The meat was very tender and lean, but a bit dry and with just a slight smoke flavor. Not bad, but I had better. The "Original" sauce, on the other hand, is a killer. Vinegar, tomato and pepper, with a hint of mustard, a little sweetness to it – I ate it on the toast when I was through with the meat.

But is that enough to justify a thumbs-up for this place? Well, it will find its fans, and since it is relatively kids friendly, my guess is that it will be there for a while. And what the heck, should I be ever in this part of town when a sudden BBQ craving overwhelms me, and my gas tank would only allow me to travel another mile or so, I would probably go there again. But instead of the two sides that come with each plate, I would order two additional slices of bread – for the sauce.

Lawlers Barbeque Express #6

Quest Log No 49 – Lawler’s Barbecue Express #6 (Madison Hospital)
Madison, Madison County

Now there are six. They are growing like mushrooms. They surround us, they following the urban development in this county. Are they evil, do they strive for world domination through BBQ?

Nope, they just use a clever business idea and establish new restaurants of their chain where there is a gap in the BBQ coverage.

This newest Lawler’s is right next to the also brand new Madison Hospital, on Hwy 72 just at the west side of Madison. What a clever move – not only will they get a steady customer base from the Hospital workers, and the surrounding shops and the yet to be built hotel, but also from people who come to visit patients there have now a place to eat BBQ. That location is practically a license to print money. If the product is good …

The exterior of this newest addition to the Lawler’s empire is nothing special – it is located on a corner of a small block of shops and the style of that little mall is of the contemporary functional variety. You can spot those mini-malls in the same style dozens of times when you drive through the Huntsville-Madison area.

The inside is kept in the Lawler’s corporate style – wooden furniture, with some fishing memorabilia decorating the walls. The dining room is separated by a small wood-structure from the counter where you order and receive your meal. It has about half a dozen two-person tables at two of the outer walls, and a few more four person tables in the middle. The whole layout is very cozy and homely for such a small place – except for the ubiquitous flat screen TV above the dining room separator. Needless to say that the place is spot clean and the service is very friendly and customer-oriented.

After already visiting the other five Lawler’s Express Barbecue restaurants, the menu has no surprises for me anymore. I chose the ribs this time, with the BBQ beans and the potato salad as sides.

Well, what can I say? Everything tasted like at the other Lawler’s. The ribs were juicy and tender, with a bit too much fat around the ends for my taste. But the taste itself – very good. The beans and the potato salad were as good as always, without bringing me to any enthusiastic public declarations. No wonder, because Lawler’s has the meat and the sides prepared elsewhere in Tennessee each day and drives them down to their places here in the Tennessee Valley, which are strictly distribution centers. Well, the place in Athens on Hwy 72 seems to smoke their own chickens, but that is the big exception to the rule.

But quite frankly, I do not care, as long as they keep the quality as high and the taste as good as it is now. I rather have good BBQ that is smoked elsewhere, than bad BBQ prepared at the spot. And that actually let’s me look forward to number seven, wherever that may pop up eventually.

Lawler’s Barbecue Express #1 (Whitesburg Drive)

Quest Log No 45 – Lawler’s Barbecue Express #1 (Whitesburg Drive)
Huntsville, Madison County

The last Lawler’s on the list of BBQ places in the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area that I hadn’t visited yet is the one with the 1 as the sequence number.

It is located right next to a gas station, in a small building that it shares with the gas station’s office.

It has a drive through, and also a small but relatively cozy space to sit inside with about half a dozen tables. The furniture is wooden, the walls are decorated with some fishing related posters and plaques, and everything is in good shape and the whole place is very clean, with a health score of 99 out of 100.

Of course, after already visiting the other four Lawler’s Express Barbecue restaurants, the menu has no surprises for me anymore. The only item I did not try yet was the ham plate. And with that I chose the BBQ beans and the potato salad as sides, just because I didn’t feel like going with green beans and chips.

Unfortunately, my order was screwed up a little, and instead I got a combo plate with pork and turkey, plus a cup of ham on the side when the mistake was discovered.

Well, that was a lot of meat and really more than I had intended to eat.

And so I only ate some pork and some ham, and just a little bit of the turkey.

The ham did not taste real smoky, and it did not have even a remote BBQ aroma. It was just baked ham, very tender and kind of mushy, but also very sweet. I like the savory version of ham better, and I kind of expected the flavor to go in this direction, because of the hickory smoke it should have been smoked in.

Alas, it was just so sweet that I had to pour a mixture of the hot and the mild vinegar sauce over it to make it tolerable.

Also, the pork and the turkey seemed to have been of lesser quality than I remembered it. Here too I could not detect a real smoky aroma – I had better at other Lawler’s.

So, that concludes the Lawler’s part of the Quest – until they open Number 6 at the new Madison Hospital sometime in the next few weeks.