Kojak's House of Ribs

Guest Review by Erik Pena:

Kojak's House of Ribs in Tampa, FL.

This place is an oasis of old Florida in the midst of 1980's strip malls and sprawl. The environment itself is great which is a nice to have when looking for good BBQ. It's an old rambling shack with lots of rooms and a fantastic wrap around porch. There are live oak trees shading the property so the porch is the place I ate.

The ribs came right up with a side of snappy hot links. I also got the parsley potatoes. These are drenched in butter and quite good. But the ribs -- these are nice -- have not a lot of rub or smoke to them. They were super moist and unbelievably tender with a crispy outside. They have some sauce on the side, but I barely used it. Wash it down with a not-too-sweet tea.

There are no pictures here because I started tearing in to the food and thought of pictures after polishing off my last rib. Oops. Half-eaten food is none too appealing in photos.

I was adventurous (and hungry) so I also got the key lime pie. The crust on it was homemade, granular graham cracker. I could have eaten that on its own.

Good stuff. I'm ready for more!

To check them out online, go to the following URL:

http://www.kojaksbbq.com/

Williamson Bros Bar-B-Q: Marietta, GA

This guest review is from Erik Pena. This place is huge. This was just one of the rooms. There was a moose over my table.

I was cajoled into getting AUCE but really it was only $1.50 or so more than the single plate. So I overate and liked it. I got: mac-n-cheese (very cheesy but ordinary, the bottle of sauce (nice tomato, sweet, zesty, peppery, soupy consistency. very good), toast (used it to soak up some stew, Brunswick stew (very good, but a little runnier than I like) and ... pulled pork and riblets. pulled pork was great crisp with tender, not dry great with the sauce. Riblets were even better.

You can find them on the web at http://realpagessites.com/williamsonbros/

Henry's Memphis BBQ - Roanoke, VA

It has been a while since my last review, but I am going to try and use some business trips to catch up on my blogging. On the way to Philadelphia, I decided to stop in Roanoke, VA for BBQ. I got a lead to try Henry's Memphis BBQ there. Typically, when a BBQ has the name of another city or state, and you are not in that state, it is not a good sign. "Authentic Texas BBQ" in Chicago, for example. However, since I trust my source, I decided to give it a try, and I am glad I did.

The nice ladies at the front of the place (where you order) said their brisket would be their recommendation. This took me back, because that is more of a Texas thing, and I would have thought ribs would have been their specialty. I ordered a combo plate with their brisket and pork, and BBQ beans and collards on the side with a roll.

The meat already came with Hennry's regular red sauce. I should have ordered it with no sauce. I was able to pull aside some of both meats and taste it without sauce and they both had a lot of flavor. There was not a lot of smoke in either (in fact I could not get any hickory or oak smell at all), but the flavor was very good, so I am not complaining. Next it was time to try all of the sauces.

I included Louisana Hot Sauce as a sauce here just because I sometimes like only that with pulled pork. It was very tasty with that. The South Carolina sauce was a mustard based sauce, but very sweet. It went well with the pork. I don't usually like that style, but this was very good.

The North Carolina style was more of a thinner, vinegar based. It had some spices in it, including celery seed. This is another sauce I am not typically fond of, but I liked Henry's version of this type of sauce better than others I have tasted. Henry's regular sauce is a red, sweet, Memphis style sauce. There is a hot verison of this sauce, called Henry's Habenero. I really dug that sauce because it had the right amount of heat. I wanted to purchase some of their sauces but they are not bottling it right now. They may start in the near future. If they do, I would get some and use it at home. All of these sauces work well with the pork. Their brisket came with sauce, but it really does not need any, and could have stood alone on its own flavor.

The BBQ beans were not baked, but they were not stock out of a can. It was doctored up with some onions and BBQ meat and other spices. The beans were tangy and sweet, a little more than normal baked beans, but I like them. The collards were cooked right. It came with hot vinegar already mixed into it. I would not recommend that they do this. I would recommend a little more fatback or ham hock, and a touch of sugar and those greens would have been perfect. I would generally like to add the hot vinegar myself to adjust to my taste. But they were not canned greens and were good.

I enjoyed the vibe of the place, and loved the big picture of Elvis on the wall (after all, it is Memphis style). It had a run-down BBQ place feel, but it was very clean.

There is a good meny selection and take out orders are welcome. You can find them on the web at http://www.henrysmemphisbbq.com/.

Overall, I would give Henry's a 7.5 out of 10. A few simple changes would put it to an 7.75, which as you all know is an extremely high number based on my completely subjective rating system. If you are traveling on I-81 or are near Roanoke, take a detour down 581 and find Henry's just past the downtown area. I will be back to try the ribs, probably on my way home on Friday. Henry - please bottle that habanero sauce. It's good.

-Big Daddy

Like Son, Like Father

Over the weekend, my dad FINALLY decided to use the smoker I got him for Father's day LAST YEAR!!! He had to season the smoker, and then used it to do some Boston Butts and a chicken. From what I hear it was good. Here are some photo's for you to enjoy. My dad may become part of the brotherhood yet....

Lenny Mac's BBQ - Duluth, GA

I had to make an unplanned trip to Atlanta today. What better way to celebrate an unscheduled trip than to try something new. I stayed near the Gwinnet Center Arena and right across the street from the parking lot was Lenny Mac's BBQ. So I had to succomb to temptation and do some market research.

Lenny Mac's has only been open since January of 2007 so everything is still new. I ordered take out so I cannot really say much about the service, but everyone at the front and the manager (Blaine) was very nice. Seems like a nice clean place.

Lenny's smokes the meat onsite. They use a combination of hickory, white oak, and cherry to smoke the meat. They offer brisket and smoke it for at least 12 hours. That peaked my interest. They have the Mac's Big Combo which would probably feed 2 or 3, and I simply asked if I could get it cut in half. Blaine, the owners son was happy to oblige.

The tea was good, and a little stronger than I usually get at most places. I consider this a plus. The sides I got were beans and slaw. The beans were a little thinner than what I am used to so they did not appear to be "baked" but they did have a good flavor and did not taste right out of the can. I might suggest putting some of the pulled pork in there to soak up a little of the juice. But not bad. The slaw was mayo based. It was simple and not too many ingredients. But it was not too thick or thin. It needs something to make the flavor pop, but again it was not bad.



I started on the pulled pork. You can definitely smell smoke - and for most normal people it has a good balance and is not over powering. It was not too salty and tasted good on its own without the sauce. A good amount of bark was in there too which spruced up the flavor. The ribs were a bit overcooked. The meat fell off the bones, but it was a little on the dry side. However they did have a good flavor and the rub had a good balance with the sauce. I would have liked to have tried some fresh off the smoker as I imagine it would have been much juicer. I had a chicken thigh but I was told that the chicken will not be on the menu in about a month, so I am not going to review it here. This is their least popular dish anyway. The brisket was tender and had flavor. It was a little on the greasy side and starting to dry, but I loved the outer smoke ring and bark. It could use just a touch more flavor internally, but I was happy with the tenderness of the meat.



I chose the spicy sauce, which I would characterize as somewhere between a standard red/sweet and the Dreamland sauce. It goes very well with the pork, especially the ribs. I finished it off with a little garlic bread, which was a nice touch.

Summary: While I would not put this as competition level Q, it definitely ain't bad, and I would eat here again. I would rate them about a 6.5 on the Q scale. They beat out most of the Florida based BBQ places I have eaten at (save Fat Boys in Ocala). Lenny Mac's comes across as very authentic, down home, southern BBQ for the locals and does a good job. Definitely worth checking out.

Big Daddy

Jim ' N Nick's Bar-B-Q - Murfreesboro, TN

It's been a while since we have eaten at a new place and I have been trying to cut back a bit. However, we recently tried Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q in Murfreesboro, TN and I had to tell you about my experience there.

Many times while traveling home to Nashville going north on I-24. I would see a huge billboard for this place. I always say to myself "remember to go back down there and try them" and for some reason I never do. A couple of days ago my wife and I had to go down to the "boro" and while we were there, it was the perfect chance to justify a trip over. We looked it up on a map while we were down there and found we were about a mile away. Yeehaw!





Jim 'N Nicks is located just around the bend from the mall at Murfreesboro off of North Thompson lane. It is a newer looking place in an area that has been building up around the mall for the past couple of years. There is a good deal of traffic. There were lots of cars there. Surely a good sign. This is a "chain", but it is still small and fiesty. There are approximately 22 locations in the Southeast region, and they are home based in Alabama. There are 4 of these in Tennessee, including one in Nashville on Charlotte. It does not feel like a BBQ shack on the side of the road about to be comdemned, but I am OK with that. It's actually clean and neatly organized. For a Q-joint, it might be a little too "high class" for some of you from the boonies. Just wear a shirt and shoes and you should be able to get served... hehe

We walked in and I immediately smelled Hickory wood smoke - that alone is enough to get a Q-seeker excited. The place still looks new. It has a nice setting with brick walls and nice, light-wood booths. Very comfortable. The first thing I noticed was the sauces:




They have a regular red sauce, and hot and spicy sauce, and some Habanero pepper ground up to sprinkle on your food in case you like it REALLY hot. The sauces are made FRESH every day. They are based on a memphis style tomato based red/sweet but they are not a clone of any sauce I have had in the past. The original has a flavor in it that I can't describe, but it goes well will most things. The Hot and Spicy is my favorite. It is a bit darker (maybe some molasses in there?) and has a lot of spices in it. It is not super thick, but just right. It has just enough heat without scaring away the normal palette. The Habanero dust will take care of the serious hot heads should they wish to add more. The spicy sauce reminded me a little bit of the kind at the now out-of-business Mothership BBQ (RIP - Jim, we hardly knew ye). I liked the hot and spicy sauce so much I bought a bottle to take home. The sauces are better than Famous Daves BBQ - another chain with places in the Nashville area.

I ordered the ribs/brisket combo with beans and collard greens (YES!) - and my wife ordered the chicken with mac-n-cheese and brandied apples. I explained to our waiter Bruce that I wanted to try a very small sample of a couple of other things, and he was very helpful. He brought out a small container of pulled pork, slaw, and potato salad for me to try.




Let's get right down to it. This is some good stuff! The ribs were not over cooked like in a lot of places. It came off the bone easy and I noticed that the flavor goes deeper than just the surface. When you bite into them you taste the flavor in the meat all the way to the bone. I believe this is because they are slow cooked on a moving rotisserie style cooker/smoker and then moved over to a grill with hickory wood used to smoke and finish them off. They aren't quick cooked or quick boiled and then moved to the grill. When I was there for lunch st about 12:30 - 1 p.m., they were loading the racks up for the dinner meal indicating about a 4 to 6 hour cooking time on the ribs which is great. They do coat them with a rub but THERE IS NO MSG!!! We originally call another location who told us there was MSG in the rub but nothing else. However we were told later this is not the case. They use all natural ingredients and there is NO MSG in their food. This is a MAJOR plus in my opinion. Good Q needs no flavor enhancements.

The pulled pork had a good smoke ring and was not dry. Since I only had a sample I may need to go back and just try the pork plate - but it seemed fine to me. I would definitely like to have it memphis style on a sandwich and compare to Famous Daves BBQ - which I believe Jim 'N Nick's would win that battle. The brisket was tender, but the smoke ring was not a thick. It had some flavor but it came with sauce already over the top. This was the only negative thing I saw. According to the Texas law books and the Texas gospel, good brisket does not get sauce (even though I dip mine in it anyway). It should be cooked so long that it is almost falling apart and has flavor running through it. I think they need to cook it a little longer and a little slower. If they could use a little mesquite to give it a smokier flavor, that would be great. It should come with sauce on it only by request. I liked the chicken, and so did my wife, but she did mention there is a celery salt or something on the seasoning/rub that they use on the chicken that is just a tad strong. I did not think this was the case, but I was using quite a bit of the sauce on mine

The sweet tea was for real. Coming from Alabama, they -better- know how to make it. Some places in Nashville it's either like sugar water, wayyy too sweet, or non-existant. Here, they know how to make good sweet tea, and that is a plus.

The sides were great. This is the first BBQ place in Tennesee that not only knows it is proper to serve collard greens at a Q joint - they actually know how to cook and season them properly! This wasn't chopped up bits of saw dust from a can that taste like a school cafeteria, this was the real thing. I could have just ordered two or three bowls of that and a rack or ribs and just went into an artery clogging feeding frenzy! The mac-n-cheese was as close to home made as I have had recently. The slaw is interesting because it is a combination of vinegar and mayo based. Some places do one or the other and most only consider the slaw an afterthought so they do it badly (both kinds). This was a well balanced slaw that tasted fresh and went very well with the rest of the meal. The beans did not taste like they were out of a can - they tasted like real baked beans you might have at your own back yard BBQ cook out. Very authentic. I felt the same way about the potato salad, which reminded me a lot of my mothers. I did not taste the apples but my wife gave me the thumbs up and that is usually good enough for me. Overall, the sides were not considered an afterthought but a critical part of the meal and general experience of the meal.

I guess word had gotten out that a "Blogger" was checking out the place. Bruce brought out the head Q-meister - Christoper Zaferis (who everyone calls "Zeke") to greet us. Zeke is a very nice guy who invited me back to see how they prepare the food. He takes a lot of pride in the attention to detail and the passion of cooking good food for customers. As you can see, he showed me the place where the mojo happens - where they cook the ribs on the grill over hickory wood.

I was impressed by the great service of Bruce (our waiter) and Zeke's willingness to spend some time with us explaining how they do things there. And that's when he mentioned PIE!!!! Zeke had a couple of slices sent out to us, one chocolate and one coconut. Zeke said he was pretty proud of the deserts and after tasting them I can see why. Most of you who know me know that by the end of the main course, I am done. But I decided to box up more Q than I normally do so I would have room for desert. I gotta tell you it was a great surprise. At several BBQ places, you might come across some decent banana pudding or something, but this was different. The pies at Jim 'N Nick's are more like the deserts you might find on a Disney cruise ship prepared by top chefs (and yes, I have had those before). The crust was flaky and awesome. The chocolate cake had a fudge flavor that was so good, but it was not too rich - you could eat more than one or two bites (which I did). My wife does not even like coconut, but ended up liking that one the best. It is not as sweet, but it is sooooo good. We saved half of them and ate the rest the following day. Most of the time I never talk about deserts because the meat is the central focus. For sure, the ribs are the star here, but the pies take a back seat to NOBODY. Make sure you try a slice when you go.

In summary, Jim 'N Nick's has what we have been looking for in a place in middle Tennessee: Good tasting Q, good sauces, good sides, sweet tea, awesome deserts, and good service. I know I must sound as giddy as a school girl, but you know by my past entries that I don't pull any punches. I would give these guys a 9 out of 10 because they have it all together in one package and that is hard to find. The only thing I would recommend is to figure out how to treat the brisket like an authentic Texas BBQ place would. Judge Beans in Nashville would be an example of how it should be prepared and served, but he has MSG injected all in it and that ruins the experience for me and several members of my family. If Jim 'N Nick's ever gets the upper hand on the brisket, they will have a knock out punch to any place that dares stand in their way. Famous Dave's would be the nearest competition style-wise in a resturaunt and the menu items, but I think they have them beat by a long shot.

Jim 'n Nicks is a GREAT place to experience a good southern BBQ meal, and I highly recommend it to my Q-brothren. Tell Zeke that Big Daddy at BBQQuest.com sent you over.

To check out their menu and find out more information, here is their web site:

http://www.jimnnicks.com/

BFD

City Barbeque - West Chester, OH

Sorry it has been so long since my last review. Since Dec 30 I have tried to stay on my Providia diet and I have been doing very well. I have not weighed yet, but I have dropped one pants size. So that's a cause for celebration. Why not take one day off for a crazy day and do a BBQ review? I plan on sticking to the diet as long as I can, but there will be times where I just need a little pork fat to balance out all the veggies!!!

So we are up in Cincinnati and just north of town in West Chester is a place one of my buddies has been bragging about. The only other place is Burbanks, which we have already done, and there is a Dickey's, which is a chain that we reviewed in Dallas last spring. So I wanted to do something new this time and City Barbecue was selected.


First off, this is in a mall area location and is in a pretty nice section of town. It sits right next to a Bonefish - which is one of my new favorite places to eat right now. But it doesn't help the authenticity. I mean, you guys already know I am looking for almost condemned buildings to eat Q in and this is just the opposite. But there is rule book that says good Q can't be found in a clean building. So if you like things like good hygiene, this is definitely the place for you. City BBQ has several locations around the Cincy area, but I was told this was one of the better ones.


The staff was friendly. When you walk in, you order at the register and then they bring out your order on the other side of the register. You then take your food to the table. Sort of the style of a subway resturant. You get your own drinks and you get free refills. One positive note: they have sweet tea and its not that bad - especially for a region where its hard to find it natively. So I'll give them that.


As I said, the staff is friendly and actually encouraged pictures. We decided to get the Deluxe sampler platter, which had the best selection. We got 1/2 lb of brisket, 1/2 lb pulled pork, 1/4 of a chicken and 1/2 slab of ribs. It came with two sides and two loaves of cornbread. We ordered baked beans and slaw, with an extra side of their corn pudding. This was for two very hungry people who have been deprived of real food for a month.....

And the food looked really good... See below...



The star of the show is the brisket, which surprised me. It was very tender and did not need any sauce. There was a lot of flavor to it. But it was missing a key ingredient - hickory or mesquite smoke. The pulled pork was the same way. It was good, but light on the smoke. The chicken and ribs were already coated with their sauce, which was a shame as I like to experiment with different sauces. They were both slathered with it. The good news is that it was a very nice and flavorful Kansas City style sweet red sauce, and I liked it. The ribs were not cooked long enough or else they were cooked too fast. Again, no real smokey flavor on them, and they were not as tender as I would like them. Because of this, the ribs had more fat on them, and I just don't like my ribs like that. The chicken was very moist, which I did enjoy (we got white meat). I believe the lack of smoke is probably due to health codes or zoning regulations dealing with smoke and how it can be used within a resturant in this area. It tasted like they are cooking the meat over coals at a closer distance, very similar to what we experiened in north carolina.

On to the sides. The slaw was crisp, but the cabbage was a little bitter and overpowered the creamy sauce. The corn pudding had a good flavor, but it was a little too oily. The beans were the best side and had pieces of brisket in it. I did not care for the corn bread. It was more like a cake. Definitely a yankee style cornbread. Some of you may like that style, but it was not to my tastes.

City offers several sauces; a regular red, a hot red, a sweet mustard sauce that taste like it has relish in it, and a clear vinegar with spices for the north carolina tourists who need that swill to make their life complete.... They also offer Texas Pete hot sauce, which is probably the best choice for the pulled pork. Of course, no sauce is needed for the brisket - which is a good sign. Since the ribs and chicken are glazed to high heaven with sauce, you really don't have another option. This is something I think needs to be addressed. Why would you offer two kinds of red if you plan on pouring it on before the customer gets it. Let me decide which sauce I want. If you are like me, then order it naked and see if they can oblige you.



All in all I would equate City Barbecue with a good chain like Famous Dave's. It is still chain Q and regulated. Smoke added to the cooking - I would suggest hickory for the ribs and brisket, and a mix of 50% pecan wood and 50% hickory for the pulled pork. This would kick this Q into high gear. I would also suggest cooking the ribs slower and on a lower heat for longer. If you don't have the time to do it longer, then move to baby back ribs.

I would give City Barbeque a 6.5 and consider it along the same lines as Famous Daves. For the casual Q eater, who might just as well hit Bonefish on Friday night - this stuff is fine and will definitely satisfy the hungry jack in you. For the die hards out there, I would probably still choose Burbanks simply because of the collard greens and the constant blues music. City - do yourself a favor and get some hickory wood burning in that place and kick it up a notch. If I can just see a bunch of smoke in the room I might be happier...

Until I break my diet again - send me some more suggestions to try out. I will be traveling more this year and I need some pointers on where to go when I am out and about.

Big Daddy

I like big butts and I cannot lie

Just a lazy Saturday. I was freezing my butt off trying to heat some butts up.

They turned out GREAT! 12 hours of love. The trick is to get the meat internally to 190 degrees. We cooked it on the smoker for 8 hours, wrapped it in foil and cooked it in the oven for about 3 hours. Then let it cool down. The bones came out by giving the slighest pull. This is how it should be.

Proof yankees don't need to be cooking BBQ

See here:

www.news10now.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=87913

well, daggum!

Big Daddy

David tries to cook a brisket...

A friend of mine from Atlanta sent me this email:

Scott -

Here are some shots of me and my rig with a nice Brisket. I cooked it last Sunday. It came out OK. I think the temp was a bit high and casued it to cook to fast.

The meat has a nice smoked look. I use regualr coal and hickory. My best meal by far is still the turkey breast!

-David




---------------------------

Yeah - brisket is a hard one. You gotta do a lot of research and have a whole weekend to baby that thing. Most briskets take about 15 to 20 hours to cook over very slow heat. At some point they are wrapped in tin foil and there are all kinds of tricks and tips you can use to make it tender. I am still working on my own way of doing it, but the three main areas are smokiness, tenderness, and flavor.

Hey - if you want to send me your pictures and BBQ story I will be happy to post it.

Big Daddy

Judge Beans BBQ: Nashville, TN

After getting back to Nashville for a length of time and getting off the road, I decided to head down to Judge Beans. I had heard about them from a friend and we decided to check them out. I wanted to give these folks a fair shake because I intend on being pretty picky about a place that claims to have authentic Texas brisket, especially in Nashville. You can read the whole story on their web site which I have a link to for this story.

I actually went there three times before I did this official review.


The first time I went I had a combination platter and the brisket was a little tough. I was told that this was very unusual and I should give it another try. The ribs to me were OK, but they were not a match for an authentic Memphis rib place. The second time I came back I decided to have just the brisket and it was tender and it had more flavor and I liked it a lot. I also noticed that I spent the rest of the day and into the evening with about the worst case of indegestion I can remember. You know the kind where it seems like there is something just at the back of your throat and you try to burp to get it out but it never really goes away? That kind.

I suspected that perhaps I ate to much or it was something else that caused it so I went back the third time. This time I had the brisket plate again. It was not as good as the second time but better than the first. So that tells me that you can't really judge this place on one particular day.


I also ordered the "Texas Sushi" which is basically a jalapeno popper wrapped in their brisket. For $3.50 (it could have been more, I can't remember), I thought this one piece was a little over priced. I would have thought at least two would have been on the plate.


Here is a picture of my buddy's plate:


Now after the third time I noticed the indigestion was back for the rest of the afternoon. I had a conversation with one of the cooks there and they told me that they cook their brisket for 24 hours using Mequite wood that they have brought in by the truck load every few day, and they put an injection in it. I figure its the injection that gives me the indigestion. Another buddy of mine had the same problem. I suspect it may be packed with MSG or some other concoction that messes me up. So if this happens to you, they you'll know why. I don't think it affects everyone that eats it though. That's why I don't like to eat at places that use MSG in their cooking. My wife is allergic and so is my father. And I can tell if I have eaten a lot of it I just feel crummy and bloated for several hours. Why people cook with it I will never understand. If you need that much help with flavor you ain't a good enough cook. Get out of the freakin kitchen. Bu sometimes (and I think it might be the case with Judge Beans) that it is one ingredient in something that they use and isn't labeled and they probably don't even know it.

The Q here does have flavor and it is one of the front runners for Nashville BBQ you will find. It also stands alone (as far as I am aware) as the closest to authentic Texas Q that you can find in Nashville so it stands out. The sauces are OK, but most people who know Texas brisket won't use a sauce on it. Its mainly for the ribs. The sides are OK. They seems authentic. Nothing to slap your grandma over, but decent. Overall it is a well put together meal. It gets a 6.5 (would have been a 7 if I did not get indigestion every time I eat it). I would love to come back and try it again but I am afraid to eat any more of it. But if you don't think you are allergic to any of those injections and you like Texas BBQ, you should head over there and give it a try.

Here are the smokers in the back that they cook on:


Here's a look at the mequite wood they get brought in for the cookin of the brisket:


I will have to give them the points for the 24 hour smoking and using real smokers and the right kind of wood. You can't get brisket that slow cooked anywhere else around here, that is for dang sure! I wish their ribs was as good as the brisket because I think they could be one of the best places in Nashville if they could change just a couple of things. The waitresses are very friendly and sometimes you will see the owner hanging out and talking to folks. I did like this place. I think I just have a strange reaction to the meat. Perhaps I could just take some Pepcid with me when I go next time and just get it over with....

Lonnie's BBQ: Nashville, TN

Last month we were eating at Blackstone Brewery on West End in Nashville. When I walked out fo the doors to leave I looked across the parking lot and saw in huge letters painted on the side of the building that said "Lonnies BBQ - WORLD FAMOUS". Well, now dadgum! I ain't ever heard of them. I asked around. No one else has ever heard of them and no one had eaten there. So I am not sure if the claim about being world famous can be backed up, or if this is just to attract the seasonal tourist who are hunting and pecking around town.

Me and the "BBQ wrecking crew" - that's me and my buddies - headed over to find out what all the fuss was about. Turn out the world famous place is a hole in the wall in an alley behind a Pizza Hut on West End Ave.


I had the ribs, another person had the pulled pork sandwich, and another had the brisket. I originally wanted a combination plate and offered to pay more to get a plate with a little bit of everything on it. When the manager found out who I was and what I was doing there, he would not even sell me his chicken because he said it was not his regular chicken. He had been ordering from an alternate source because his main supplier was out for a few days. So I just had the ribs by themselves.

Here is my plate:


As you can probably tell, the ribs were not cooked over a slow heat. The outside shows more of a braised look. They were harder to bite off of the bone because of this, as would be expected. Other than not being as tender, they had no real rub or bark. Because of the faster paced cooking, they were a little fattier and the flavor just wasn't there.

The sauce was basically a "Texas Pete" strength hot sauce. I did not notive anything special about the taste. It was not a thick sauce, about the consistency of regular ole hot sauce. The sides were just OK. The beans were closer to canned than baked and the slaw was a little soggy.

My friend who had the brisket said it was very tough and agreed with me on the sides. Both he and I rate Lonnies as about a 3.5 or a 4 maximum on the BBQ wrecking scale. Not something I was too impressed with, but if you don't have enough money to eat at Blackstone, the prices tend to be a lot cheaper. But don't count this as your experience with the best TN BBQ has to offer.

July 4th Ribs

Well, a lot of you think I just taste test other peoples stuff and rate it like I think I can do better. Time to put my expertise to work. On July 4th I decided to try another round of ribs, this time learning some of the tips and tricks from recent research. I prepped them the night before and we made a slightly different rub than we normally do. It turned out to be the magic trick we needed to improve the overall flavor.These were the best I have ever had. Although the picture below looks like the left front might be a little overcooked, it wasn't. These were perfect.



For two racks of spare ribs, they were cooked for 5 hours on about 220 degrees in my smoker.

JUICY!

Notice the sampled portion in the top right background. I was sampling while cutting them up. I just wish I had some of these BBQ resturant owners at the house that day to judge my Q! I would beat about 80% of them.

To top this off, I made my own sauce, and I also used some I bought from Dreamland the last time I was there. Man, this was a great independence day indeed!

Big Daddy

Swetts: Nashville, TN

Swetts opened in 1954 as a small soul-food meat-and-three café, it became a large, modern cafeteria, burnt down, and was built again.

Its not a BBQ place, but I wanted to review some of the famous meat-n-threes that are so popular in Nashville. I grew up in North Florida and South Georgia and was raised on southern cooking - REAL southern cooking. I know what it is and I know what it isn't. I know what good sweet tea is supposed to taste like and I know when Collards come from the can! I have several generations of women in my family who were and are the iron chefs of southern cuisine and this has been verified by many people outside our family. So yes, I am a self-proclaimed expert. The real fact is, about all I know how to do right is eat. I can't do much else. In fact, my job is the tear up stuff (really) so eating and tasting is about the only constructive thing I do. And therefore I am obligated to tell the truth about all this food, even if my review is less than flattering.



With that, let's move on to Swett's. A partner in crime as well as myself descended upon this place at lunch. Its a cafeteria style serving of southern food. You go down the line and tell them what you want and they ring you up at the end of the line. This is very typical for a mean-n-three in Nashville. My friend got the beef and I got the chicken (baked as I am trying to cut back). Usually I get the fried chicken but I just wasn't in the mood.




I am sure it is hard to get the "down home" flavor of good southern cooking in larger amounts. People in Nashville will go out to eat at the drop of a hat and they will go anywhere it reminds them of home. The problem is that there are a lot of people who were raised elsewhere who now make Nashville home who have no idea was southern cooking is and they will rave about a place like this because it has been opened so long and they think this is how it was in years gone by. What you actually have here is decent, but nothing special, southern style food. Its about a half a point better than something you might eat at a Shoney's buffet. I have no problem eating that kind of food. But when they rang me up for my meal it was almost $13.00, which I think is a little high to be paying for this quality of food. The tea was OK, the cornbread was OK, and the food at least had flavor. But Swetts is not a place that I am going to go out of my way to eat at again. I would not use it as a place to bring an out of towner to show off Nashville's best southern cooking. I think many of these resturants have a legacy, much like the music people here. After a while it gets blown so out of proportion that old automatically equals good. There are some examples of that (Bobby's Dairy Dip), but it ain't always so.

And while I am at it, let me take this opportunity to say the music industry sucks and I wish I could slap a few people in it.

Back to the review, the greens needed more fatback and flavor in it. Any southern cooking resturant in South Carolina could blow these greens away. The corn, again, it'll do. I think there are probably a couple of meat-n-threes that might beat this and I aim to find them.

I'll give Swett's a 5 on my relative, self-ordained scale.

Mothership BBQ: Nashville, TN

I read about this new place that just opened up in Nashville in the Berry Hill area, from all places the Nashville Scene. I normally don't trust this liberal paper for anything except movie showtimes. However, this place peaked my interest because it is right around the corner from the music store I like to go to. So I had a good excuse for going.

Jim Reams, the owner, is big on blogging and he uses it as a marketing tool to bring people into the resturant (a great idea). I have a link to his blog on the site now. He is a very friendly guy and he strikes me as a person who is serious about what he is trying to do. When he found out I was doing reviews, he took me back to the smoker. Alright, that's 2 points right there.


I wish I had one that big. Jim cooks only baby backs, not spare ribs. He showed me that he uses authentic hickory and charcoal to do the ribs. He slow cooks them approximately 5 to 6 hours. He had started them that morning about 6 am or so. He uses a rub made of fresh home made ingredients. No MSG or other flavor enhancers. His rub and sauce are both very simple recipes. No liquid smoke or any of that other crap. Ok, more points and I have not even tasted anything. While we were waiting on our order he brought us some samples. I nearly ate the bone with th meat. Yeah, this is what I am looking for. Finally someone who gets it.

Not many people realize that even though there is this impression that TN is the place for BBQ, there are not any good places (or many) in the Nashville area. The closer you get to Memphis maybe, but not Nashvegas.

Cynthia had the rib plate:

and I had the combo (ribs and pulled pork):



Let's first talk about the sides. Not bad. The slaw was sweet, creamy, and crunchy. The beans were more of a western beans, not BBQ baked beans like I am used to. They did not have a sweet taste to them. I have not been convinced that this compliments the meat as much as some good baked beans would, but it was not a bad side and did not ruin the meal. The pulled pork is in the good category, with plenty of smoke. I think it needed a little more flavor, but not bad at all. The high point is the ribs. Very well done. The rub makes a decent bark and they stand on their own without any sauce. They come off the bone easily. I was very pleased with it. Only area of improvement was the sweet tea. It needs to be a little stronger (brewed longer perhaps) and a little sweeter. Not overtly, but a little more brewing would help a lot.

The sauce is very interesting on its own, and I like it because it has a hint of the North Carolina vinegar style - in that it has a tang and is not as thick. But it also has a sweet, tomato base that pleases the Memphis crowd. I think it is a great compromise and best of all, it does not cover the ribs taste, it compliments it very well.

Overall, I think these are probably the best you are going to get in Nashville. They are definitely the most authentic - done by the book.

About the only negative thing I can say about anything is that this place it too small. Jim is going to need to expand to a place with more parking and more seats because I have a feeling he is going to be overrun very soon. You can't get ribs in Nashville with this much attention paid to the quality and when people around here find that out, there is going to be lots of lines and cars parked all over the little nieghborhood it resides in.

I'd give Mothership an overall rating of an 8, so its in my top category for the time being. Needless to say, I'll be making more trips to the mothership soon!

Ken's Bar B-Q and Steaks: Lake City, FL

Having met my wife in Lake City, Florida back in 1991 - I am partial to this town. We've eaten here when we were dating and its been so long since I have been back I had forgotten about it. We were passing north up I-75 trying to escape tropical storm Alberto when we just had to take a break.


It brought back a few memories, but now that I am so dadgum serious about my Q, I can't eat any of it without being over-analytical about it. Sometimes I hate that.

Ken's is pretty much the standard Florida BBQ place with the standard items. Its a Sonny's copycat place. The sides are mediocre at best. The slaw needed more help than the beans. The chicken and the ribs were OK, but there is nothing here that is going to make you excited about BBQ.



The sauces are not that great either, and are on par with a Sonny's or Woody's. Ken's get a 4 on the Scott scale - boring, but it'll do in a pinch... They have multiple locations in Lake City. Perhaps there is a better one than the one we tried.

While we were in Lake City, I had to take a picture of my favorite Chines place. They have been around for as long as I can remember. How they were allowed to keep this name I will never know. This is just wrong:

Enjoy!