Wäller BBQ

BBQ 118 - Wäller BBQ

Wahlrod, Germany

Well, well, whaddayaknow - Facebook can actually be useful for something other than spreading harebrained conspiracy theories after all. I have no idea how the algorithm found me, but a few days ago there was this message in my feed that basically said, hey, this Friday we are serving spare ribs glazed with BBQ sauce, taters and baked beans - come get cha some! I was e-l-e-c-t-r-i-f-i-e-d! Some kind of semi-original BBQ practically in my backyard? And I only learned about this only now? Holy Moses!

Turns out there is a very small outfit in the middle of the Westerwald (think Smoky Mountains, only a third as high, but basically with the same type of country folk living there) that mainly caters festivities, family gatherings, weddings and the like. But during this ongoing pandemic, there haven't been any of those for over a year now, so they turned the business into a delivery/pick-up service for BBQ. Each Friday, they have a different specialty - pulled pork, chicken, ribs, brisket ... the usual suspects. 

Their name - Wäller BBQ - is a pun on the local dialect, in which the word "Westerwälder", as a descriptive term of a person who lives in the Westerwald (think "Montaineer" for someone who lives in the mountains ...), is shortened and becomes just "Wäller". Whatever.

So today, I drove 40 Kilometers in a raging blizzard (actually, there were some flurries ...) from my house to their little shack in the woods (actually, it is a basement room in a somewhat unfinished looking residential building ...) and picked-up my first order there - a so called "BBQ kit" for about 14 Euro, with loin ribs glazed with BBQ sauce, a baked potato with a special creme, and baked beans with some bacon and onions. It all comes in aluminum containers that you just pop in the oven and let it heat at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes. Easy enough.

So what can you expect? What did I expect? Not THAT, to be sure. I am more of a pork kind of guy, but I'll eat ribs if I have to. And those ribs I will gladly eat again. And again. And ... you get my drift. They are s-p-e-c-t-a-c-u-l-a-r! And I am not only saying this because I didn't have real BBQ for two years now (my yearly trip to Boogies in Nürnberg, as well as my yearly business trip to Georgia were both cancelled when that stupid virus decided to spread all over the world ...). I am genuinely enthusiastic, downright giddy with joy. 

At first, I was a bit skeptical - usually, when reheating stuff, the meat gets all dry and the taste is somewhat lacking. In this case, however, so my theory goes, it is that because the meat had time to absorb the sauce even more, it was actually a good thing that it was prepared a day or so ago and then heated up again. The slab of ribs came wrapped not only in aluminum foil, but inside there was a sheet of parchment paper that kept the moisture intact. Those guys are geniuses! So I did exactly as the instructions said, which was very simple indeed, and out came ... drumroll ... more drumroll ... a perfect slab of BBQ ribs.
Really. Perfect. The taste was exquisite - very smoky, with the sauce not overwhelming the meat, yet fruity and with just a hint of spice. No idea whether they are making their own sauce or whether they are using something commercial - but good choice, either way!
The meat was so tender, that it was impossible to carry it over from the aluminum to a tray without it just falling off the bones - literally. It had the perfect texture, with just a bit of fat to keep it juicy and trap the flavor, but not too much of it, so to avoid the dreaded gristle driven gag reflex.
Most delicious.
The kit also had a really big potato, which came in a tray together with the beans, which was popped in the oven as well. The tater was also very tasty, and it came with a seemingly self made kind of sour creme, too, that had some herbs, onions and stuff like that in it. The beans were a bit disappointing, though, but that is usually the case with them. Not only was it only maybe two spoonfuls of beans, but the taste was somewhat plain and nothing special. But it was acceptable as a side and didn't hurt the overall experience.

To sum it up, this was worth every cent. The portion was generous, the meat was top quality, the taste was utterly delicious and the overall experience very strongly reminded me of the trips back in Alabama, which I made every second Friday to some obscure BBQ place somewhere in the boondocks. And the best thing - come this May, the guys from Wäller BBQ will have a food truck that will serve BBQ all week long, not only on Fridays. I am so there when that starts ...

 

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.

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.

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.

Texas Roadhouse

Non-Quest BBQ No 25 – Texas Roadhouse

Huntsville, 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 ... 

Line dancing servers. Buckets of peanuts on the tables. Peanut shells all over the floor. Big screen TVs with sports programs running on the wall. Willie Nelson as spokesperson. Andy the Armadillo as mascot. Margaritas with shot glasses inside. Over 380 locations in 47 states. One restaurant in Dubai. Annual revenue of over one billion dollars.

So, eventually we now have a Texas Roadhouse in the Huntsville area, too. Hurrah. Another chain, another “family steakhouse” restaurant. With the growth of this area, it is quite inevitable that places like this spring up more frequently in the future. After all, all the new people that are transferred from Army bases in the North need something to make them feel at home – you possible can’t expect them to eat in one of them BBQ shacks around here. Some of them have flies on the window sills, you know, it’s not sanitary and who knows what kind of road kill they smoke in their backyards to serve to the unsuspecting foreigner.

And if you think, well, maybe a Texas Roadhouse would only make folks from Texas feel at home, think again. The franchise was founded in Indiana, it has its headquarters in Kentucky, and most of the locations are above the Mason-Dixon Line, in the Atlantic North-East area. So much for authenticity.

But they have some BBQ items on the menu, so I was compelled to pay them a visit. To make it clear from the beginning, amongst all those Applechilithankgoditstuesday chain restaurants, the Texas Roadhouse is my favorite. They have very good food, the service is great, and even the extreme noise level works for us – it blends out the voices of our very active and loud kids.

So, although it would not classify as a BBQ restaurant per se, the fact that they serve pulled pork, BBQ chicken and ribs qualifies them to be part of this survey.

You can have the pulled pork and the chicken either as a sandwich, or a part of a two meat combo dinner.

I chose the pulled pork and ribs combo, with steak fries and green beans. No potato salad, no baked beans, no slaw on the menu. Bummer.

The first impression of the plate – lots of food, but my gosh, why did they drown the poor pulled pork in the sauce? That really borders on animal cruelty, just leave the meat as it is and let me decide what to do with the sauce.

My choice would have been to rather take ketchup instead. The sauce is one of those supermarket Kansas City style middle of the road non specific conglomerates, a little too sweet, and a little too sticky. Not really bad, but just the sheer amount of it made the pulled pork look like some kind of a stew. That’s certainly not the way to do BBQ. And how did the pork taste? No idea. Since it swam in the sauce, there was no one tiny piece of it left uncovered. It was tender, with just a very small amount of fat. But that is all I can say about it.

The ribs also came with sauce on it, but that was baked in as a wet rub. They had a very delicious and crunchy crust, but immediately under it came a thick layer of fat. There were some real nice chunks of tender and lean meat on the ribs, but that was hidden quite well by all the fat. The ribs were of the fall-off-the-bone variety, which seems to be the expected standard in those kinds of restaurants. The taste was quite smoky and actually very delicious, but it was frustrating to leave so much of the ribs, that is all the fat, on the plate in the end.

The green beans were garnished with some crumbles of fried bacon, and they tasted very good. The steak fries were okay, too.

So, while I would not recommend the Texas Roadhouse as a BBQ place, the food there is generally top notch for a chain restaurant. And for real BBQ, we have more than enough other places here in this area.

Uncle Kenny's BBQ

Non-Quest BBQ No 24 – Uncle Kenny’s BBQ
Clermont, Florida

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 ... 

Why everybody who won a trophy at some BBQ cook-off does think opening a Restaurant is somehow a must then?

Usually, those folks win their trophy for a certain aspect of BBQ – for the meanest sauce, for the juiciest ribs, for the most succulent pork, for best garnishment, for most authentic cooking utensils, for the most crazy team name and so on.

Uncle Kenny, who “participates in BBQ competitions sanctioned under the Florida Barbeque Association (FBA) and Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS)” seems to win his prizes mostly with the sauce – according to the restaurant’s web site, “Uncle Kenny's Original Sauce is Ranked 14th In The World!!!!!!!!! But 1st in the Country!!!!!!!!!” (Note: Exact number of exclamation marks directly transferred from the web site)

14^th in the world – I wonder who did this ranking.

Alright then, this I had to check out. But first I had to find this place. The street address I entered in my GPS led me on a wild goose chase, and I almost settled with some other BBQ place along the way, after I had searched unsuccessfully for quite some time. But then I remembered that the web site said explicitly “under the Citrus Tower”. So I looked for a water tower in form of a giant lemon. There was none. The only tower in the vicinity was a garish looking concrete structure with more antennas on top than a green man from Mars.

And sure enough, there it was, Uncle Kenny’s BBQ in Clermont, Florida, under the Citrus Tower.

Well, there are certainly more appealing surroundings for a BBQ place. The little strip mall under the Citrus Tower has certainly seen better days, and the outside of the restaurant itself is also not very likely to win any style awards.

On the inside, there is a big counter where you get your take-out stuff, and a somewhat small area with some booths and a few tables. On the walls hang Uncle Kenny’s framed accolades from various competitions. All not very cozy and special, but a nice atmosphere, nevertheless. Which is boosted considerably by the extremely friendly and attentive staff. I thought the counter would be the place to order, but instead I was seated and treated like royalty. They even refilled my drink for me, although I sat directly in front of the iced tea dispenser.

Because I was hungry and also had heard about the ribs being the best choice here, I ordered a two meat plate with pulled pork and four ribs. As sides I chose baked beans and potato salad. Two slices of Texas toast came with it additionally.

Yes, the ribs are the better choice. Very succulent and tender, dry rubbed, and with a distinctive oak aroma, the taste was wonderful. They did not fall off the bone, but were not tough at all, just a little compact. The first three ribs had a fair amount of fat with them, which could be easily avoided when pulling the meat from the bone. But the fourth rib was more fat than meat and so I the high praise from before in regards of the taste is becoming a little less enthusiastic towards the end.

The pulled pork was also tender, although somewhat dry, and it unfortunately came mixed with Uncle Kenny’s Original BBQ Sauce. So I have no idea how the pork actually tasted, but I know exactly what the flavor of the sauce is: dominantly sweet.

There are three sauces to chose from – the Original, the Spicy, and the Mustard.

As said before, the Original is overwhelmingly sweet, with nothing else worth mentioning. Sweet. That’s it. The 14^th ranked BBQ sauce on this planet is just a sweet, sticky, otherwise bland concoction. Again, I wonder who did that ranking.

The Spicy sauce on the other hand is just that – very, very spicy. And that’s it. Spicy. Like the label says.

The Mustard sauce on the other hand leaves the one dimensional flavor of the two other sauces behind - it is sweet and has a mustardy undertone. I did not dare to pour it on the pork, though, because that was already contaminated with the sweet Original sauce. My curiosity stops where I have to add sweetness to an already sweet dish.

And quite frankly, the ribs were so good that I did not even think about spoiling them with either of those sauces. But with the Texas toast, the Mustard sauce was quite excellent.

Unfortunately, that cannot be said of the sides. The potato salad tasted like something you buy in a large container at the next super market, and the beans were quite bland. I probably should have drenched them with the Original sauce to get some taste on it.

So, this restaurant has its highs and its lows. Would I pay over sixteen Dollars for that again? Guess not. From where I stand, they do not need to fix the GPS error anytime soon. There is better BBQ to be found more easily.

Southern Hickory Barbecue

Quest Log No29 – Southern Hickory Barbecue
Hartselle, Morgan County

There ain’t no inside seating, just a few old weather beaten benches in a little nook just next to the walk-up window to the side of the building. There is a big spacious drive-up lane that leads to the drive-in window, though. This place, Southern Hickory Barbecue in Hartselle, is clearly geared towards the pick-up crowd.

There are two more Southern Hickories in Arab and in Cullman, and I wonder if they have inside seating there.

But it was such a gorgeous April day that my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our lunch at the porch. Two months farther along in the year and our enthusiasm might be vanishing a bit on the prospect of having lunch under the baking Alabama summer sun.

As usual, I had a pork plate with slaw, potato salad, and baked beans, and my wife had a slab of ribs with the same sides.

The pulled pork was just great, very tender and very lean and just with the right amount of moisture, and the taste was very hickory-y. There is really no sauce needed to enhance the flavor, but it also don’t hurt if you sprinkle a bit of the peppery vinegar sauce it comes with on the meat, because the added spiciness gives the meat an additional aroma. That is how you do BBQ the right way, let the meat stand on its own merits and make the sauce optional for those of us who need an additional kick in the butt.

My wife’s ribs were also very tender, but not especially lean with some fat on it. Well, the taste was good, but certainly nothing to exchange the pulled pork for it.

We both thought that the baked beans were of the open-a-can-variety, but at least there was no cinnamon in it.

The slaw was sweet and vinegary-sour, whereas the sweetness dominated too much for both our taste. The potato salad was of the yellow-mayonnaise kind and also sweet and sour, but I found it to be deliciously on the sour side, whereas my wife was not really satisfied with the taste, which she found to be too sweet. She generally does not like sweetness in her potato salad – it’s a cultural thing, where she comes from the potato salad is tart and sour and never with even a hint of sweetness.

One very special item was the rib sauce. It was extremely fruity, with a good amount of spiciness and tasted not like anything we ever had in the BBQ sauce area. It seemed to have an Asian influence, and could even have such exotic aromas as Mango or Papaya in it. Anyway, whatever it is, it goes fabulously with the ribs.

A bread bun and a couple of pickle slices complete the plates.

For all this, plus two sweet teas (what else …?!) we paid about twenty one bucks. That is certainly not very cheap for a place with no inside seating, no table service and Styrofoam to-go containers as plates. But the quality of the food justifies the prices, and on a beautiful spring day, there is no better place to have your lunch in Alabama.

Mary's Pit Bar-B-Que

Quest Log No26 – Mary’s Pit Bar-B-Que
Gurley, Madison County

The building has two doors in the front. Back in 1958, when it they opened Mary’s Pit Bar-B-Que in what was then the hamlet of Maysville, you would enter through the right door if the complexion of your skin was pale, and through the left door if it was not so pale. Since then, the left door has been blocked, so everybody uses the right door now, independently of their tan lines, but not much more seems to have changed there in over fifty years.

The actual “restaurant”, and I use this term rather loosely again, is a teeny room with a window in the back where you order and receive your meal, a small narrow counter next to it with six round, worn down bar-stools on metal poles (one of the seats is missing, though), the menu on a pin-board at the opposite wall, a white board with the daily specials on the small wall of the room, a pink trash can in one corner and a very low ceiling with lots of scribblings, cartoons and what I would call “country-graffiti”, on it.

Most of the folks who get their food here do it as take-out fare. And everybody seems to know each other, judging from the conversations I overheard when I was there – it seemed to me as if this place is the “original facebook”, where people from the neighborhood come together and just chat a little with each other face to face, while waiting for their pork sandwiches.

All in all it is a very homey atmosphere, but certainly you would not find “outsiders” like me and my wife there too often. They don’t have a web site, there is no sign on the nearest Highway, US 72, which is about four miles to the west, there is only word of mouth and the locals just simply know that Mary’s is there. So if you don’t have a friend from that area who tells you were to go, you certainly would just drive by the right exit on the Highway ignorantly on your way to or from Huntsville.

This would be a real shame, because apart from the genuine and cozy atmosphere, you would miss out on great food.

As usual, I had the pork plate, which was not a real plate this time, because the supplier didn’t show that week and so they had to improvise. The pork came in a cardboard basket, and the sides in Styrofoam cups. Oh, well, from my point of view this only added to the quirky authenticity of this place. I also had a soda, which came in the original can, and my wife had a slab of ribs. Oddly enough, they had no idea what she was talking about when she ordered a “half rack of ribs”, and we were lucky that a young guy, who apparently had already seen the world despite his youth, translated it for us into the native lingo. It’s the same county we live in, but twenty-five miles apart from each other, three valleys further, we already use different terms for the same things. Amazing.

And “amazing” also describes the ribs real well. Firm and lean, with an excellent dry rub on them, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside; they had a lot of meat on them and just the right amount of fat to enhance the smoky flavor. According to my wife, there was a distinct basic pork aroma in those ribs, and she ranks them in the top three of her list. She didn’t use the accompanying sauce, because that would have just diluted the blissful taste of the pure ribs. The BBQ beans that came with the ribs were, well, very similar to the stuff you get in one of those cans from the supermarket – but the top notch can, to make that clear. The biscuits that came with it were somewhat small and unassuming.

My pork also had a nice flavor, yet it was a bit soggier as I would have liked. It was not submerged in moisture, but I usually like my meat more on the dry side of the spectrum, and this it clearly wasn’t. The sauce that came with it was your run of the mill spicy vinegar variety, which I noticed is kind of a staple on that side of the Monte Sano Mountains. On our side, to the west, the sauces are usually thicker and more fruity than vinegary, or even made with mustard in some places, but once you drive down the hills on the east side, you will find that there the thin liquid vinegary stuff rules. Interesting - you don’t even have to leave the county to be in a fairly different BBQ-world.

As for the sides, the potato salad also reminded me of the concoctions you find in a Supermarket. But the slaw was a different story – it appeared to be hand made, with a very delicious sweet-and-sour taste and with quite a crunchy bite to it.

All in all, we paid twenty-five bucks for a very good meal, where the ribs and the slaw were the two items that clearly stood out. And the atmosphere, the history of that place, the friendliness of the people, the stories you hear there, are just priceless.