Barbecue is good for us.

On a recent business trip to Atlanta, Peter and I had one solitary day to see what Atlanta BBQ is all about. Did we ever. For lunch we hit Daddy D’z. I had the pork plate lunch special, which was a nice pile of pulled pork with sides of beans and potato salad. The pork was a wonderful consistency, though not particularly smokey. What struck me most was how sweet everything on my plate was. The sauce, the beans, the cornbread, the salad – everything was sticky. Is that the Georgia style? Not sure. I’m being too critical – along with Peter’s friend Veronica we had a great meal. The consensus was that the sides were particularly great – greens, yams, slaw, and potato salad.

Not being satisfied with a 1 BBQ meal day (and, for me, not having had a rib yet), we decided to hit up the other great Atlanta BBQ institution for dinner – Fatt Matt’s Rib Shack. Holy hell was it good. Peter, Matt, and I sat for quite a while with pitchers of beer and giant plates of ribs listening to the Patrick Vining blues band. The ribs were some of the best I’ve ever had – tender and flavorful with a tasty but unobtrusively sweet sauce cooked on. Again, not much of a prominent smoke flavor, but I didn’t mind. Oh yum.

On the way out I noticed a big stack of ribs that looked as though they had been pre-baked before going in the smoker. Do I give a crap? Nope! There’s no purity in doing smoker-only in my book, not if it makes a better rib.

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