Comments (2)Hidden Villa pigs
We’ve ordered a pig from Hidden Villa for the Pig Pickin’! Check out some of their fine hogs:
CSCW BBQ Tour of Savannah
Well, its been some time since we’ve posted here. The occasion for this posting is a trip to Savannah, GA for the wonderful CSCW conference. One of the best things about CSCW is that it’s full of other BBQ lovers. So we had no shortage of partners for our abbreviated tour of BBQ joints that were walkable from downtown. (I encourage all our BBQ compatriots to comment and add their own thoughts on the BBQ.) Of course, that limits us quite a bit, and I bet the very best BBQ requires a car and lives in a shack down by the river. But we found some decent spots:
Blowin’ Smoke BBQ
Our first stop was Blowin’ Smoke BBQ. We chose Blowin’ Smoke primarily because it was the only joint open on a Sunday. Georgians are god fearin’ folk after all (thankfully not all of them). So, Coye, Tamar, and I rolled over there in the mid-afternoon. We each got a plate of pulled pork, and between us sampled basically every side they had to offer. The pork was moist but not particularly flavorful, smoked over pecan wood. There was a bit of the brown in there, but it had lost a lot of its wonderful crustiness. The sauce was, I’m led to believe, pretty common for Georgia. A vinegar base, somewhat like North Carolina style, but with more tomato product. Still fairly thin, and not sticky or sweet like Memphis or Kansas City style. We all came out with the feeling the the meat was only average.
The sides were an entirely different story. All of them were excellent. Coye got crispy fried okra with a nice, nutty, and ever so slightly spicy crust. Also tasty greens with bits of pork in there. I had the standards: beans and potato salad. The beans in particular were quite good: not too sweet, obviously home made, just the right amount of celery seed (which is the key to great beans!). Tamar went for slaw, again just the right balance of mayo and vinegar, and also mac and cheese, which made us all want to cry a little bit. Seriously. Tears of cheesy joy.
So, Blowin’ Smoke was a good way to start off, but there was room for improvement. The good news is it was a nice place to sit, and I bet even nicer in warm weather when you can sit out on their large patio. They’ve got a wonderful selection of beers on tap and in bottle, and the people were nice. I’d go back, if only for that mac and cheese!
Barnes BBQ Express
As the conference began in earnest, we found many BBQ compatriots. Coye, Tamar, and I headed over to Barnes BBQ at the suggestion of Jude, who led his own crew of enthusiasts, and we basically took over the joint. Along the way we rounded up Liz and Mike (a non-pork-eater and a vegetarian!). Barnes seems to be quite new, and is a nice enough place to sit for lunch in downtown Savannah. Others had pulled or chopped pork on a bun, but I thought I’d give the ribs a try. I thought they were ok, though a little dried out and overdone. I could really crush the meat into a paste between my fingers if I’d wanted (I didn’t.) But the pink smoke ring was there and the flavor was good. I didn’t taste much of the pulled pork, but Tamar liked it better than Blowin’ Smoke. Coye had chopped instead of pulled, but I didn’t taste it – I’ll let him weigh in. Liz tried the brisket, which looked like cardboard that had been run over by a truck. But hey, it’s Georgia.
The sauce was truly bizarre – it was pink. Like pink vodka sauce on spaghetti. We decided it had to have mustard in it too, which made it some crazy hybrid between Kansas City, Georgia, and South Carolina. Sides were utterly forgettable. My slaw was fairly decent, and the beans tasted like they came from a can. Tamar ordered some grilled vegetables, but they came in a little cup, drenched in cooking liquid and butter. Mike had some hush puppies in stick-form.
So, Barnes gets an all-around “Meh” from us, but it reminds us that even Meh BBQ is better than a lot of other things.
Angels BBQ
On Tuesday Coye, Tamar, and I got the bug at lunchtime again, and headed with Bob, Andy, and Les over to Angels BBQ. Angels is tucked in an alley side street near historic downtown Savannah. The only reason we knew it was there (aside from the fact that Andy had been there already) was that we noticed a small sign taped to the roadblock blocking access to the alley. Angels is small, two larger tables and a two top, but it’s cute. We wedged ourselves into a corner for a BBQ adventure, and found that the other corner was already occupied by the prolific Jude Yew and his group of BBQ junkies. Most of us opted for some version of their pulled pork. In my case I ordered a pulled pork sandwich with slaw on top. This was really beautiful pork. Moist and flavorful, perfectly smoked, little bits of crispy brown, far and away the best pork I tried in Savannah. The slaw was tangy and wonderful on my sandwich.
Les ordered a BBQ bologna sandwich which he didn’t say much about, but which he also polished off quickly. I take that to mean it was pretty good. Sounds good!
The pork came pre-mixed with the standard Georgia-style sauce, which was very good and similar to the sauce at Blowin’ Smoke. But there were also about 10 other bottles on the table. There was a NC vinegar sauce, a Memphis style sweet molasses sauce, a South Carolina mustard sauce, and a variety of other hot sauces. One of our unexpected favorites was a spicy mix of habanero and dill pickle juice which was great on the pork.
Angels’ sides were pretty good too. Slaw, good. Beans, good. I ordered mac and cheese, which was not quite as flavorful as Blowin’ Smoke’s, but good nonetheless. The greens, however, were weird. They’d been boiled with peanuts, which disintegrate into the liquid and take on a sweet quality. I found the spicy, peanut buttery combo was evocative of Asian sauces. It wasn’t bad, per se, but it seemed out of place. I know boiled peanuts is a Southern specialty, but this was strange. All in all, Angels gets the giant bacon BBQ crown. Sides are great, but if you can’t get the meat right, then it’s just not worth it.
I left Savannah thinking I’d just barely got a taste of what good Georgia BBQ is, despite the good stuff we had. Next time I think we’d need a car to visit the variety of places we found that were out of reach. Strip malls, car washes, gas stations – throughout the South these are some of the sites of superlative BBQ, and damnit, I want to try it!
Uncle Frank’s BBQ, Mountain View, CA
2135 Old Middlefield Way
Mountain View, CA 94043
(650) 964-4476
Hours:
Monday – Friday :
Lunch 11.30 am – 2.30 pm
Dinner 5.00 pm – 8.00 pm
Saturday :
Noon – 2.30 pm
5.00 pm – 8.00 pm
The Nutshell
Uncle Frank’s is a BBQ oasis in the parched, mega-mall wasteland that is the South Bay. The brisket was maybe the best we’ve had in the Bay Area and they give you a mountain of food. It’s hard to beat the low-key ambiance of the bar Uncle Frank’s lives inside of. Great side dishes, friendly staff. Yum.
The Place
Uncle Frank’s lives in the back room of an unassuming bar called Francesca’s. Walk right past the bar and to the left and you’ll find a run down but clean dining room next to the pool tables with a little kitchen in the back. We lorded over our meal in a big ol’ booth that could have fit 6 or 8. The staff was super friendly and the service was fast. You’ve got to go to the bar for your drinks, which was hardly a problem. It wasn’t at all crowded on a Thursday night.
The Sauce
Lately I’ve been finding a lot of sauces like this – good but not great, sweet, not particularly spicy, good with ribs and maybe not quite as good with brisket. I tend to think brisket is the harder meat to pair with sauce anyway – the Kansas City sweet thing just doesn’t cut it. If you want the heat you might be disappointed, but a sauce like this allowed the quality of the meat to come through. I had to ask for extra sauce, which they happily brought in a big cup. All in all, no complaints.
The Meat
I ordered the two-meat platter with both brisket and ribs. The waitress delivered a giant plate of both. I try not to leave BBQ behind, especially when it’s good, but I couldn’t eat it all, no way. The brisket was thick cut (which Tamar didn’t care for), but it was fork tender, smokey, and flavorful. This may be the best brisket we’ve had in the Bay Area. Tamar in particular liked that it was nice and lean – the sign of a long slow smoke. A lot of the brisket we’ve had around here is rather fatty in comparison.
The spare ribs were a bit more hit or miss. The first two I ate tasted ok, and had a beautiful pink smoke ring, but were dry almost to the point of being jerky-like. The next few, however, were quite tender, juicy, flavorful, and on par with ribs from someplace like Everett & Jones. Compared to baby-backs or gourmet baby-backs, spare ribs can be harder to cook evenly because one side of the rack is so much thicker than the other. This is why I’m such a fan of the pouch method for smoking – I think it helps to avoid the jerky problem in the short end.
A side note: Tamar wanted to branch out a bit since Uncle Frank’s is supposed to be ‘Lousiana Style’, so she ordered the cajun fried shrimp. Clearly they were frozen, but super tasty just the same, with cajun seasoning and a crispy batter. Made a nice counter-point to the BBQ.
The Sides
Great sides at Uncle Frank’s. Tamar couldn’t stop talking about the potato salad, which was pretty close to how we make it at home. I thought the beans were by far the best I’ve had. I could taste just the right amount of the seasoning that I think gives BBQ that special something: celery seed. Overdo it and it’s over-powering, but get it just right in sauces, rubs, and (apparently) beans, and it’s wonderful.
Tamar also got some slaw which was pretty mediocre. It had pineapple in it, which I object to. The only real loser of the bunch was the cornbread, which was like yellow sheet cake, except that there was some kind of effervescent, chemical after-taste. Not good at all.
In the End
I might drive down to Mountain View just to go to Uncle Frank’s again. It’s got lots of character and lots of flavor. It’s not the cheapest BBQ around, but you certainly get a lot of food for your money. The beer is cheap and plentiful too, and you can get a cocktail if you prefer and stay to drink up and play pool after the BBQ is gone.
Taste of Joy, Oakland, CA
3227A Lakeshore Ave
Oakland, CA 94610
(510) 627-0067 (was disconnected when we tried it, but hopefully it’s fixed now…)
Hours: Tue-Sat. 12:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.
The Nutshell
Taste of Joy is good, especially for the price. The brisket and especially the were tender and smoky, and fit well with the middle-of-the-road sauce. The sides were extremely good and clearly homemade. The only real knock on Taste of Joy is that we had to wait almost 30 minutes for our to-go meal, and when it came out our orders were mixed up and they had run out of corn-bread. We’re hoping it’s a fluke, and I suspect we’ll go back.
The Place
Taste of Joy is in a little cave of a storefront along Lakeshore where a crepe shop used to be. It’s dark but nice inside, although a little strangely decorated for a BBQ joint. They don’t sell alcohol and they don’t take credit cards. We rolled in at about 6:45 on a Saturday, and it wasn’t particularly crowded when we got there. But after we ordered, it took them almost 30 minutes to produce our order to-go. That’s long for any take-out place, but particularly bad for BBQ, considering there wasn’t a single thing on any of our plates that wouldn’t have been made in advance. Let’s hope it was a fluke.
The Sauce
The sauce was good, though it was a somewhat nondescript, sweet Kansas City style. Especially with the brisket, some thought it needed a bit more spice, and the addition of some hot sauce really improved the meat-sauce match. I thought it was good for ribs, but I tend to prefer that style.
The Meat
Between us we ordered both the ribs and the brisket. The ribs were quite good, not dry at all, firm, with a nice pink smoke ring. Not the best ribs around, but far from the worst. The brisket was not quite as tender as the ribs, but had a great beefy flavor and plenty of smoke.
The Sides
We were pretty impressed with the choice of sides, and they were all good. Excellent, creamy home-made mac & cheese, potato salad with a mustardy kick were the two biggest hits. Collard greens were good but maybe a little over-salted, and the black eyed peas were a little bland. Yams were sickly sweet. It’s too bad we couldn’t try the cornbread!
In the End
Taste of Joy has a bunch of things going for it. It’s decent to good BBQ in a very cool neighborhood near Lake Meritt. More than that, it’s a great value. We came away with plenty of dinner for about $40. We’ve certainly had better BBQ elsewhere in the Bay Area, but walking from Andrew’s place over there and ending up with a really nice BBQ meal was a treat.
Bo’s Barbecue – Lafayette, CA
3422 Mt Diablo Blvd
Lafayette, CA
(925) 283-7133
Hours: Tues. – Sun. 11:30 – 2:30pm, 5 – 8:30pm
The Nutshell
We arrived with high expectations based on personal recommendations. We left feeling a little like we got hoodwinked. $80+ for three mediocre (at best) meals and some (admittedly very nice) beer. Bo’s is good BBQ for people who have never really had good BBQ.
The Place
Bo’s is on the main drag in Lafayette, down towards the end with very little around. Perusing the reviews on Yelp, it seems like a lot of people like Bo’s because it’s one of the few night-spots in Lafayette where you can sit, listen to music, drink a beer. They’ve got a nice, clean, open dining room. Service is at the counter and they bring the order to your table. The night we were there, a fun 4-piece blues band was playing. We sat and listened a long time after our BBQ was done.
The Sauce
We tried both the ribs (long and short ends) and the brisket. All were served dry with sauce on the side. You get a really pitiful amount of sauce in a tiny stainless steel cup. Extra sauce will cost you $2. What?
Tiny sauce cups and highway robbery for an extra (tiny) cup would be tolerable if it were great sauce. But it’s not. It’s fine – it tastes like any one of a number of bottled sauces from Safeway. Quite sweet, not much spice or smoke or heat. They can’t have added much in the way of drippings, since there was no discernible meaty flavor. We all agreed that the sauce was equally appropriate for the beef and the pork, but mediocre on both.
The Meat
I ordered ribs (long end), Andrew ordered the short end, and Tamar ordered the brisket. Our ribs were falling off the bone, but not at all tender – almost dry, like they’d been sitting in a heating cabinet for a long, long time. Some of Andrew’s short end pieces were so dried up they were inedible. I know Bo’s touts the quality of its meat – Niman Ranch. But, honestly, we couldn’t tell. Other than falling off the bone, the ribs were not at all porky or smoky or seasoned. In fact, they were light on flavor all around. There was a small bit of the Brown, but not much. We were all surprised at how bland the ribs were considering the nice pink smoke ring.
Tamar’s brisket was marginally better. It was also falling apart, and not quite as dry as our ribs. Again, though, very little beef or smoke flavor. We began to ask each other which we liked better, the pork or the beef, and Andrew said “You know, it’s kind of hard to tell the difference.” We all agreed. If you close your eyes you wouldn’t have been able to tell beef from pork.
The Sides
You don’t go to Bo’s for the sides. There aren’t many choices. Each of our meals came with a tiny glop of potato salad (which wasn’t bad), a piece of baguette (Acme, OMG!), and a few greens. Not exactly authentic.
In the End
I can see why some people like this BBQ. It falls apart, and when you dip it in some sauce you get seemingly tender, sweet BBQ sauce flavor. Make a night of it with some beer and a band and it seems like a great spot. But don’t be fooled. This is not good BBQ, or at least it wasn’t on the night we were there. If you’ve ever eaten great ribs or brisket, you won’t be impressed with Bo’s. If you want quality ribs, we recommend KC’s (for the quality meat) or Everett & Jones (for the value and the beer). For brisket, Great American is still the best around.
Compared to almost any other place we’ve reviewed in the Bay Area, Bo’s comes out the worse. That’s especially true if you look at value for the buck. We spent more than $80 for three meals and some beer. Admittedly some of it was nice beer, and their selection is very good. Still, it’s expensive BBQ, and given that it’s not really very good, I doubt any of us will be going back.
Jones BBQ & Foot Massage
Strangely creepy. I called the number, and there’s an actual answering machine for Jones’.
(Via GorillaMask)
Update: Check out the website here.
Meat bracketology
In honor of the NCAA Final Four this weekend, we have a tournament bracket of a different sort: a competition of meats. Instead of four geographic regions, ESPN’s Paul Lukas divides the competitors into a Beef Region, a Pork Region, a Sausage Region, and a Meatscellaneous Region. BBQ fans will be disappointed to find, however, that no slow-smoked products made it into the Final Four. Oh well, there’s always next year (both for BBQ and for my Duke Blue Devils).
Too Tender Ribs?
My smoker has been dormant for too long. Far too long. This weekend I jumped at the tiniest chance to fire it up, and smoked some ribs for Tamar, Andrew, and Rachel. Once again, all I could get at the local butcher were the gourmet back ribs, which (as I’ve said many times before) aren’t my absolute favorite. These were decently meaty, though, and had a good amount of fat.
I followed the usual routine – rubbed ‘em the night before with my usual mix of salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder, paprika, brown sugar, celery seed. Into the fridge, out of the fridge, on at around 9:30, off at around 2:30. A good amount of time for ribs this size.
Everyone agreed these were the best ribs I’ve ever made. You can see from the pics below that they got a wonderful crust and the pink… well, it was all smoke ring. Booya. Flavorful, juicy, smoky, and falling off the bone. Literally. 
Actually, it was kind of a problem for me. Don’t get me wrong, I loved ‘em. But part of the rib eating experience is picking it up and gnawing it off. On a good rib, you don’t have to work hard, and the meat just slides off the bone.
With these, I couldn’t even chop up the rack without most of the meat falling off. No one else seemed to think this was a problem. If I had it to do again, though, I’d take them off 30 minutes earlier, hoping they’d basically be just as tender and wonderful, but stay on the bone.
Phat Matt’s BBQ
Saturdays, 9 am to 2 pm
Grand Lake Farmer’s Market
Oakland, CA
Sundays, 9 am to 1 pm
NewPark Mall Farmer’s Market
Newark, CA
Phat Matt’s BBQ is a catering and farmer’s market operation that serves brisket, tri-tip, pulled pork, and hot links fresh from their mobile smoking rig. I’ve had their pulled pork twice now. Usually they drench the pork in a thick, dark sauce more appropriate for brisket or ribs, but this time, when I asked, they told me that the pork already has a light vinegar sauce on it, so I ordered my pulled pork sandwich sans the incorrect sauce. (Amusingly, the guy plating the meat was in such a groove that he had to make the sandwich three times before he managed not to squirt the extra sauce on top, it was so automatic for him.)
It was a good move: their pork was tender, moist, and tasty. It had a good deal of smoke flavor, but my taste buds and the bags of charcoal I saw sitting around the smoker led me to believe that they are probably not smoking with hickory as is traditional for pork shoulders in North Carolina. (UPDATE: I guessed wrong! They do smoke with hardwood. See below.) Smoking with charcoal alone does impart flavor, but it’s harsher and less sweet than what you get from a good hardwood. When Judd and I smoke, we use a mix of charcoal (to sustain the fire) and hardwood chunks soaked in water (so they smolder nicely instead of catching fire).
Nonetheless, with the addition of a little of my homemade eastern Carolina-style vinegar sauce, my pulled pork sandwich turned into the closest thing to the real North Carolina deal that I’ve found in the Bay Area. Maybe next time I can talk them into selling it that way all the time — in the meantime, try picking up some pork from Phat Matt’s and adding your own vinegar sauce. The recipes from The Lexington Collection will steer you right. I use Dennis Rogers’ version, scaled down because I don’t go through a gallon of sauce as quickly as you might imagine.
UPDATE: Charlotte, one of the owners of Phat Matt’s, reports that they do slow-smoke their pulled pork and brisket offsite over various hardwoods and that the charcoal I saw is for grilling other meats. Also, they will provide more of their Lexington-style vinegar sauce upon request, which is great news for lovers of NC-style ‘cue. See her comment below for more details. Thanks, Charlotte!
Allen & Son Barbecue, Chapel Hill, NC
6203 Millhouse Rd.
(Google Maps is a little off, though: it’s really at the corner of Millhouse/Mt. Sinai and Highway 86.)
Chapel Hill, NC
(919) 942-7576
Hours: Sometimes variable — call ahead. Closes before dinner Monday through Thursday; usually closed for a break during the winter holidays.
The Nutshell
The best eastern North Carolina-style BBQ you’ll ever eat, smoky, tender, and flavorful. Great traditional accompaniments like hushpuppies and sweet tea.
The Place
You might recall Allen & Son from the Los Angeles Times profile of owner and pit-master Keith Allen back in 2007. This venerable destination has been a North Carolina fixture for decades, so it made a fitting final stop on our Triangle BBQ itinerary. The homey dining room sits by itself near some railroad tracks outside of Chapel Hill. Inside, they have checkered tablecloths, a motley assortment of folding metal chairs and old wooden ones, and lots of reviews and memorabilia on the walls. If you walk around out back, you can see the well-worn cinderblock smoking pits.
The Meat
Especially after our excellent meal at The Barbecue Joint, we had high expectations for Allen & Son. We weren’t disappointed: Keith Allen’s product remains the best North Carolina-style ‘cue we’ve ever had. It was full of pork flavor, with a nice balance between tender inside pork and tasty outside brown. You can order the BBQ on a platter or in a sandwich, which comes on a soft (and quickly soggy) hamburger bun with a basic but satisfying slaw on top of the meat.
(Judd says: I for one arrived at Allen & Son expecting to be disappointed, if only because of the obscenely long build up and high expectations. Then, as we were leaving The Cue Joint, Andrew proclaimed that he wasn’t sure Allen & Son would be substantially better. Anyway, all this is to say, I think of it as an even greater achievement that Allen & Son knocked our socks off. I agree with everything Andrew said, and I’d add that the texture was perfect. With long-smoked pork it’s easy for the meat to get mushy, lose its integrity, even if it still tastes good. Allen & Son was right on the edge, but didn’t go too far. I also liked that it wasn’t too uniform — there were larger pieces of pork that hadn’t been completely shredded. Tasty bites!)
Why is Allen & Son’s BBQ so good? Well, fewer and fewer pit-masters do what Keith Allen still does: chop hickory wood and slow-smoke pork shoulders starting in the wee hours of the morning. Many popular places have moved to quicker, cheaper methods like pre-cooking the meat and then popping it in the smoker for just a short time or using electric smokers that mete out smoke from processed chips. These modern techniques sometimes produce good ‘cue, but they never produce the transcendent pork that Allen & Son serves.
The Sides
The hushpuppies are excellent: crunchy, coarse cornmeal batter fried up crispy. The slaw is wet and a little creamy — I’m partial to a drier slaw — but it is well-seasoned and ultimately successful. Since the basic sides are so good, I never seem to get around to trying the others, but their menu seems less extensive than The Barbecue Joint’s. Dessert is another Allen & Son claim to fame, but I’ve never had enough room left for it after a BBQ meal there. Keith Allen makes many of the desserts himself while the meat is smoking.
In the End
Allen & Son is a mandatory stop on any North Carolina BBQ itinerary. You will be hard-pressed to find better pulled pork anywhere — it is that good. I hear you can phone in an order to have it shipped to you overnight if you must have your fix but you can’t make it to Chapel Hill. It just might be worth it.