Everglades BBQ Smokehouse

Non-Quest BBQ No 37 – Everglades BBQ Smokehouse

St.Petersburg, 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 ... 

The Tampa Bay Rays are playing very good Baseball this year. They are locked with the Boston Red Sox in a death-match for the first place in the American League East Division. Their home games are played in a domed stadium, Tropicana Field in St.Petersburg, which has a genuine BBQ restaurant in the food court. Everglades BBQ Smokehouse is surprisingly not part of a bigger chain, but seems to be a one of a kind place that you only find at Tropicana Field. They claim to smoke their meats there fresh every (game) day, which is certainly commendable.

Well, I am certainly aware of the limitations a stadium eatery has to overcome. Cramped space, fast service, hungry masses, rent versus profit margin, and so on. So you have to cut some corners, I get that. But $9.50 for a Pulled Pork Sandwich, with only one side (slaw)? And the only other choice is BBQ Nachos (also $9.50)?! Come on!

So together with a regular sized drink, I paid $14.50 – and felt robbed. If that would have been the best BBQ sandwich ever, a revelation, nectar of the Gods, the sandwich to rule all other sandwiches, then maybe the price would not have stuck in my throat while eating it. But it wasn’t. Actually, it was only a subpar BBQ sandwich.

The pork itself was not too bad, it was tender, although a bit dry, and did not have any discernible smoke taste. That is the typical description of the strategy “Our pork does not need to have its own flavor - that is provided by the sauce”. So, they have three different sauces: Smoky Original, Carolina Gold, and Citrus Chipotle. I only tried the original concoction, which is your typical thick red sweet’n’spicy affair. Nothing you couldn’t get at any given supermarket. I had pork sandwiches that came with slaw on it, pickles, two different kinds of sauce, and maybe even an onion ring – for less than half of the price I paid for this very basic one here.

I probably could have poured the slaw over the pork, but I refrained from that because it was more of a vegetable salad then a typical slaw. Yes, there was some cabbage, but also carrots, peppers, celery, and other stuff. It tasted very sour, which I liked, but not at all like a classical slaw.

So, to sum it up – next time I watch a Tampa Bay Rays game there, I am gonna stick with the hot dogs and the burgers.

Burger King

Non-Quest BBQ No 36 – Burger King

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 ... 

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 apart. But as an alternative to the regular menu items, it might just work.

So, now Burger King, too. It is called the Memphis BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich and comes with pulled pork, Memphis BBQ sauce, sliced onion rings and a sweet southern dressing. It looks quite nice in the advertisement pictures, so I thought what the heck.

Well, the one I got did not look quite as nice. After unwrapping it, there was this squishy, slobby, moist, and chaotic mass, which looked an awful lot like road kill. I am also pretty sure that the white sticky thing on it was cheese, which was not featured in the advertisement at all. Or, if it was supposed to be the sweet southern sauce, it was one rubbery concoction of a sauce.

Of course, the advertisement promises tender hickory smoked pork, but there was no way in the world to examine that – the whole thing was drenched in this supermarket-grade Memphis BBQ sauce, which was the only flavor I could determine. Even the onions tasted like it. Which is not to say that it was all bad. Not at all, if you do not expect a real BBQ sandwich. For a fast food offering it was acceptable, even more so because the small combo with fries and a drink only sets you back about five and a half bucks. But be warned – as the picture indicates, it is a real mess to eat. Get some extra napkins.

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.

Quiznos Sub

Non-Quest BBQ No 35 – Quiznos Sub

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 apart.

But as an alternative to the regular menu items, it might work.

The latest foray into the BBQ arena comes from Quiznos – they put a so called “Southern” and a Spicy BBQ sub on the menu lately.

I tried them both, and they are quite tasty – for a sub. The Southern comes with pulled pork, coleslaw, and BBQ sauce. The Spicy comes on jalapeno cheddar bread with pulled pork, bacon, cheddar, cilantro-jalapeno slaw, and BBQ sauce.

Theoretically. Actually, the only difference between the two subs I had was the bread – plain white bread for the Southern, the jalapeno bread for the Spicy. Everything else was the same – pulled pork, ordinary slaw, and BBQ sauce.

For a BBQ-themed fast food sub, it was not bad at all. For a BBQ sandwich, it was sub-par. The slaw was rather neutral tasting, the BBQ sauce was your typical sweet’n’sour supermarket variety, and the pork was cooked, not smoked. The jalapeno bread gave the Spicy just enough spiciness to make it interesting. Otherwise, those two subs had no distinctive BBQ flavor, other than through the somewhat overbearing sauce. But that is to be expected – what does Quiznos, with their over 4000 shops across the USA, know about Q? For them, it’s a piece of pork with some generic BBQ sauce. For most of their customers outside the BBQ belt, this should be good enough. For us here in North Bama, well, we know better. 

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.

Johnny's Bar-B-Q

Non-Quest BBQ No 34 – Johnny’s Bar-B-Q

Cullman, 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 ... 

What’s so great about the South is that you still find those old fashioned family businesses that are handed down from generation to generation. The pressure by those ubiquitous national chains, especially in the restaurant business, has certainly been relentless over the past few decades. But since the folks in the South are very traditional and keep loyal to something once they decided to like it, small family restaurants can still survive here. That is especially true for the area of BBQ restaurants, where the biggest competition comes from a few regional chains – no real national challenger is in sight yet. And when you drive through the South, it may occur to you that each county, each bigger city, each valley usually has their favorite BBQ place. Just ask the locals, they know what’s good.

Since 1949, Johnny’s Bar-B-Q in Cullman seems to be such an institution. The have won several prizes for their BBQ and are especially proud of the home made sauce.

The restaurant is owned by the same family since 1963, so they have reason to celebrate this year. The building is clearly of that vintage, and that is no reason for celebration. From the outside, it looks quite unassuming and dreary, and the inside looks, well, like a dungeon. It is dark as the devil’s soul in there, and without the modern flat screen TV in one corner providing a dim light, you probably won’t be able to even read the menu. Of course, I am exaggerating here, but not by much. The interior could use a serious overhaul, starting with the lighting. The rest is your standard red-faux-leather booths, metal-with-faux-red-leather chairs, with space for about forty people in the dining room, with an adjacent room for even more people, some BBQ related decoration at the walls, and a big rack with bags of chips in one corner.

So, the interior design oozes the charm of the early 1960s, which can be taken as old style, or as just plain old. But at least the food is fresh there.

Because I was very hungry, coming from a baseball game in Birmingham where I was so busy taking photographs that I didn’t find the chance to eat even a hot dog, I ordered the BBQ plate with double meat. You do not have the choice of sides, it is served with French Fries, Cole Slaw, & BBQ Beans. Oh, well, no potato salad, bummer.

When the plate came, I was shocked. The fries were piled on top of the pork, and the pork was drenched in BBQ sauce. What the heck?! Why can’t you let me decide whether I want sauce over my meat? Do you have something to hide? Does your pork taste like cardboard? I had to find out.

After I carefully removed about half of the fries from the pork, I was finally able to find a spot that had no sauce on it. One bite and I knew what was going on – the pork was tender, with a nice pink ring, and with a very pronounced smoke flavor, although rather dry. Without sauce, it might not have gone down as smoothly.

The sauce itself was a somewhat strange conglomerate of tastes. It reminded me of the sweet-and-sour sauce of your typical Chinese buffet, but then a healthy dose of peppery spiciness kicked in. Together with the very smoky flavor of the meat, it was a delightful experience.

The same can be said about the slaw, which came in a sour crème dressing with a good crunch. The flavor had a hint of spiciness, and I could imagine this slaw on pork sandwich very well – and actually, that is how they do pork sandwiches at Johnny’s.

The BBQ beans on the other hand rank a few notches below, being of the you-can-as-well-use-a-can variety. And I still consider fries with a BBQ plate as offensive to my (acquired) southern pride. I would rather eat just plain white bread instead, and thankfully that is what they serve as an additional side item.

For all this, plus an endless refill of Sweet tea, I paid just over fifteen bucks. No really cheap, but taking into consideration how much food was involved here actually, this still is a good deal. Especially when not only the quantity is satisfying, but also the quality of the food is generally top notch. So, I am looking forward to the next fifty years of Johnny’s Bar-B-Q in Cullman, Alabama.

Chief & Snoogie's Hickory Pit BBQ

Quest Log No 52 – Chief & Snoogie’s Hickory Pit BBQ
Trinity, Lawrence County

The Captain & Tennille, John & Yoko, Bonny & Clyde, Jake & Elliot, Bush & Cheney – those are partnerships everybody knows. In the culinary world, there are usually only lone wolfs, jealously guarding their precious recipes and trusting nobody with the preparation of the works of art they put on the menu.

And with BBQ, there is no real difference. It’s like in those country songs – you can take my car, my house, my job, my wife, but if you try to steal the recipe to my secret miracle rub, my killer sauce, my mother’s cole slaw, all hell will break loose.

But in Trinity there is a BBQ place where two pals are collaborating to make a righteous cue. Their very neat, clean and homey little shack is located directly on Highway 24. They have decorated the inside with all kinds of nice memorabilia, like an old gas pump, and some pig-related things. Half a dozen tables or so provide seating space for about fifteen people. There is a small porch with a few extra tables under parasols, and a drive through window. Speaking of driving, you better approach the building very slow, because the driveway is just a patch of heavily potholed gravel. But the friendliness and attentiveness of the staff makes you forget the aching shocks on your car as soon as you set foot in the restaurant.

The menu has all the usual items you expect for a complete BBQ experience. As usual, I stayed with the pork plate, with potato salad and baked beans – slaw and a bread roll, as well as a pickle spear come with it by default. Additionally to the default mild vinegar sauce that came with the meal, I had the choice between the hot vinegar sauce, the thick red sauce, and the white sauce. In a stupid attempt to appear modest, I only chose the thick red sauce – I should have taken the offer to take the hot vinegar sauce as well.

Well, the mild vinegar sauce is just what the name says – a mild vinegar-pepper sauce, which is more on the sour side than in the peppery corner. Nothing special here, but it goes very well with the pulled pork, as it should. The thick red sauce is also nothing earth shattering, just your basic Kansas City style concoction.

With really well done pulled pork, a simple vinegar-pepper sauce is all you need as a ticket to BBQ heaven. And that is absolutely the case for Chief & Snoogie’s pork – very tender and lean, yet still succulent and with a very prominent hickory flavor. Those guys apparently know what they are doing.

So, while the pork was just exceptional, the sides on the other hand where a mixed bag.

The slaw was finely chopped and very crisp, with a vinegar sauce that made it very sour – just the way I like it. The potato salad came in a creamy sour crème dressing, which gave it a more neutral, but also a more fresh taste as with mayonnaise. It could use a bit more salt and pepper to make it really pop, though.

The beans on the other hand were just beyond salvation. Those beans were so sweet that they could have served them as dessert. I did not taste cinnamon in there, but that is quite understandable, because the sweetness completely overlaid any other flavor that might have been in there. Next time I am having a bag of chips instead.

Yes, there will be a next time. The pulled pork was just too exquisite to not return. And for just under eleven bucks with a sweet tea, the large pork plate is a big heap of food. So, if quality and quantity and price are right, we have a winner. Or, in this case, two of them.

Slope's BBQ

Non-Quest BBQ No 33 – Slope’s BBQ

Cartersville, Georgia

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 ... 

Cartersville in North Georgia is not far away from either the Tennessee or the Alabama border. This should guarantee at least a loose relationship with the great BBQ tradition of those fine two states. Of course, one sample at a restaurant that belongs to a small local chain is by no means a representative sample. So before I pass any judgment on the quality of BBQ in this particular area of the Southeast, there need to be a more dedicated test series. Well, I plan to be in Atlanta again to see the Braves, and the shortest route from my home leads me through this part of Georgia. Up until I get the chance to try at least a couple of other places there, I won’t generalize my experience today. Just trying to be fair.

Slope’s BBQ is a small chain in North Georgia, with now four restaurants there. I had the dubious honor to be one of the last guests in their fifth place, in Cartersville, because four days later they would turn off the lights there for good. Suffice to say that the world is not expected to miss a turn when that happens. The food there was not especially bad, nor was it really good, it was merely acceptable.

Because of the close proximity to their closing date they had only a limited choice of items still to offer. No ribs, no potato salad, and no anything fried. So I ended up with a pork plate with BBQ beans and Mac’n’Cheese.

Did I ever mention that I absolutely hate it when they put the sauce on the meat before they serve it to you? I guess, I vented about this once or twice already. Usually it is to cover up a mediocre meat, and here it was clearly the case. I was able to salvage a couple of bites from the sauce-less bottom of the pork pile, so I can say that there was no distinct smoke aroma whatsoever. Moreover, the pork lacked tenderness, and was downright chewy. The sauce also could not convince me. It was a light orange concoction of undefined sweetness with some hint of pepper to it. There was a separate second sauce with basically the same aroma, but a little more kick to it, which was more agreeable to me. But still, not really good, only slightly better than the mild variety.

And then the sides - can you say can? The beans were bland and kind of tasteless, and the Mac’n’Cheese too. But at least the toast was quite good and the staff was real nice.

So, quite frankly, had I to judge North Georgia BBQ by only this one experience, the verdict would be clear and not very favorable. But let’s give the area a chance to redeem itself on my next tour to see the Braves in Atlanta. From what I heard, there should be better places in Cartersville and Rome. I hope so.

Pruett's Bar-B-Q

Non-Quest BBQ No 32 – Pruett’s Bar-B-Q

Gadsden, 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 ... 

In my mind, there is one cardinal sin when it comes to BBQ that I really cannot tolerate – pork that comes with the sauce already poured over it. Why do people do that? Let me decide for myself, which sauce and how much of it I put on my meat, please. Are you just merely trying to cover up the mediocre taste of your meat with it, or are you so confident that everybody will be just blown away by the awesomeness of your sauce, so that nobody objects to it being on the pork in the first place? What the heck is wrong with you?

Well, at Pruett’s in Gadsden, they do it this way, too. Fortunately, the meat was not flooded with sauce, so I could actually pull some chunks of the pure pork out of it. And what do you know – it was tender and lean, and the taste was quite exquisite, with a wonderful smoke aroma that still let the pork flavor co-exist besides it. So, no reason for a cover-up here. And actually, the sauce they put over it was extremely good, as well. A red concoction with the consistency of honey, with some vinegar induced sourness, a bit of a peppery bite, and a tiny hint of sweetness, it had such a well rounded flavor that I put it on the toast that came with the pork plate, after I was finished with the meat.

And had I had any potato salad left by that time, I would have poured the sauce over it as well. Not that the salad needed any more flavor – it was nearly perfect as it came. With a mayonnaise based sauce, and more on the sour side of the aroma scale, it tasted fresh and very delicious.

But, as with so many things, it was not all happiness and sunshine and smiles and high-fives with the meal. Yes, the toast that came with it was also very good, especially with the BBQ sauce on. But the slaw was basically a bust. Of the dreaded flat-tasting sweet’n’sour variety, I only took one bite and that was it. No reason to spoil the exquisite experience I had with the rest of meal.

And for just about twelve bucks with a cup of sweat tea, it was a fair deal, too.

As for the atmosphere in the restaurant, it is kind of special. There is just one big dining room which has space for about fifty people or more, and the tables are kind of close together, so when the room is full of people it makes for a fairly noisy ambiance. They have a sign at the counter in front of the drink station that says “Sweat tea – The Wine of the South”, which I find quite charming. Also, the staff is very nice and attentive and although there is a flat screen TV in one corner, the rest of the room is decorated with a nice assortment of Alabama and BBQ related stuff.

All in all, despite this really annoying practice of putting sauce on the meat before serving it, and the disappointing slaw, I know now where to have my BBQ when I am in the Gadsden area. And I even would take the slight detour to get there, when I am on my way to Atlanta again.

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.

Nolens Barbecue

Non-Quest BBQ No 31 – Nolens Barbecue

Columbia, Tennessee

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 ... 

Columbia is known as the Mule capital of the World. Well, perhaps the World as seen through the eyes of a Tennessee Mule owner. But nevertheless, I was able to verify that they indeed have many Mules in and around Columbia – especially during their week long Mule days each spring. During my travels through the South, I came across many of those festivals, and at most they even sell food-samples of the thing that made them the self-proclaimed capital of the World of that thing. But while I didn’t mind to try Rattlesnake in Opp, or Chicken in Moulton, I tried pork, not Mule, in Columbia.

And what can I say – the pork was good. Really good, actually, top notch with all the fixins’.

Nolens Barbecue resides in a small building, next to an insurance company, on the main road smack in the middle of Columbia. While the exterior is very unassuming and sober, the inside is quite charming, with yellow walls, some pig memorabilia, and five small tables with fourteen seats altogether. You can have pork by the pound, and some humongous thing called the party platter for about seventy-five bucks. I chose the pork plate, as usual, with cole slaw and potato salad – which I didn’t get because the lady behind the counter mixed my order up and gave me baked beans instead.

Never mind, the beans were excellent, so I didn’t complain. Savory and very non-sweet, with a lot of meat in it, as baked beans should be.

The cole slaw, too, was superb, with a fresh crunchiness and just the right amount of vinegar, salt and pepper so that the cabbage aroma was still there. Here too, no trace of any sweetness.

The meal came with two thick slices of warm cornbread, which was moist and succulent, and absolutely non-sweet.

And then the pork – nice pink ring, tender and lean, with a wonderful smoky aroma, crunchy bark … almost perfect. Almost, because it was a bit on the dry side. But actually I kind of like it that way, because dry pork usually soaks up the sauce better. And the sauce was also very, very good. Nothing special, just a medium spicy conglomerate of vinegar, peppers, salt, and something that gave it a semi-thick orange consistency. But it perfectly complemented the aroma of the pork.

All in all, I must say that this was one of the best BBQ outside of North Alabama I ever had. And for not even nine bucks, including a sweet tea, it was a lot of meat, too.

And while I was so hungry that I could have eaten a horse after my visit to the Mule days spectacularities, I was glad that they had pork at Nolens Barbecue. I really like Mules – only not on my dinner plate.