Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Bridges BBQ - Shelby, NC - VLOG!

On the way back to Nashville, we stopped by another recommendation by James Pulley. I love places that have been opened 30 years or more. I figure if they have been in business that long, something must be keeping people coming back.

This was definitely interesting. The pork was chopped, not minced as at Spoons a couple ofdays before. No vinegar sauce to be found here. Instead it was a red sauce that tasted like hot sauce, molasses, and ketchup mixed together and simmered in a pot for a while to cook it down. There are probably a lot of other spices in it too. Although in smaller doses the molasses wasn't over powering, I personally don't like molasses on anything - except maybe cookies. The beans were not touched that much with spice. They weren't baked. They tasted close to heated canned beans. The slaw was KETCHUP based. It had horseradish in it. So it was sort of like cocktail sauce with chopped cabbage in it, if you can imagine that. The hushpuppies in my opinion were a little better than Spoon's because they were not as salty and had a hint of sweetness. The tea was OVERTLY sweet. We had to add another pitcher of unsweet tea to balance it out. This wasn't an issue once we toned it down. I am not sure I liked the ketchup based slaw. It's weird to have mayonaisse based slaw one day, mustard based the next, and ketchup the next. Keeps ya thinking. We met the waitress, who keyed in on the fact that we were BBQ tasters at heart. She was very friendly, asked for the web site address, and even offered to let me take a picture of the grills in the back. She told us about the BBQ competition they have every year in Shelby for KC style BBQ. Although this is not KC style, it might be good to come back to see this. The judging is supposed to be blind so its really fair. No bribing the judges. So I would rate the service and friendliness in my top 10!!!! These folks do enter into competitions so they are part of the brotherhood. I would rate this place a 6.5 - those of you who know me know that's a good rating. The pork is what brought the score so high.

So now its on to Tennesee. Look for more reviews and vlogs in the near future! Thanks for all the emails from folks who want to join in on the fun. The more the merrier.

-Big Daddy-

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