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!

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.

5250 Foothill Blvd
(between Congress Ave & Fairfax Ave)
Oakland, CA
(510) 261-1299

Hours: 7am to 8pm, Mon. – Sun. (though they closed at 7pm on a Sunday when we went)

The Nutshell

Edible. Pork ribs were just ok. Sliced beef was our favorite. Sides were decent to awful. You can do better elsewhere.

The Place

Simpson’s is on a corner right on Foothill Blvd., not far from High St. It’s quite easy to get to, just down 580 to High St., left on Foothill. Simpson’s definitely has a vintage storefront, and inside it’s pretty quaint. There’s a small dining room, brightly lit, maybe 10 tables covered in red table cloths and plastic. I’d sit there gladly, but we did take out. We showed up at about 6:30 on a Sunday, shortly before closing, and were the only ones there. The folks who work there were very nice, and gave me a cup of sweet pink lemonade while I waiting about 10 minutes for my order.

The Sauce

Andrew, Rachel, and I agreed on our opinions of most things we ate, but on sauce we differed a little. I appreciated the sauce. It’s thick, deep, molasses brown, and sweet. Too sweet, but only just for me, more so for the others. It doesn’t have a lot of character beyond sweetness, unfortunately, but if you like that kind of sauce, it agreed with the pork ribs well enough.

There was some debate about whether the pork and the beef actually had different sauces. Our order of sliced beef came swimming in a pool of sauce that I think was different. It wasn’t quite as sweet and had more of a brown gravy flavor. Actually, it complemented the beef quite well, I thought. Still not much in the way of character, though.

The Meat

We tried the pork ribs and the sliced beef. We got generous portions of ribs, but the best we can say about them is that they were… diverse. Some were very chewy, dry, others fatty and thick. Several were just right – tender and moist. They’ve definitely seen some smoke – there’s a nice pink ring on some of the ribs, and a hint of the smoke flavor. Andrew commented that the meat itself seemed to be of pretty high quality, though I’m not sure I agree. Unfortunately, any pork or smoke flavors were overpowered by the sickly sweetness of the sauce. In the end, we happily ate our ribs, and admitted that there wasn’t anything overtly bad about them taken together, though that’s not much of a recommendation.

The sliced beef we liked somewhat better. The portion was slightly smaller than the ribs, and it came swimming in sauce. Again, the quality varied a bit from piece to piece. Some were thick and tough, others mostly fat, and a few tender and lean. We all agreed that the beef was better than the ribs. I took a bit home to Tamar, our expert on sliced beef, and she agreed that it was ok, but immediately noted that there was almost no smoke flavor. Actually, there wasn’t much flavor at all beyond the sauce. Again, not much of a recommendation.

I want to give Simpson’s the benefit of the doubt. It was late on a Sunday, and our food was clearly reheated after sitting around all day. Maybe if we had come at a different time we’d have gotten fresher stuff. However, I’m still skeptical. The variable quality of the meat and the lack of flavor wouldn’t have changed, and whatever flavor was there would have been overpowered by the sticky sweet sauce.

The Sides

By and large we were not fans of the sides. The potato salad was interesting – full of mustard and dill (??) – but too sweet. The greens were much too salty, and the black eyed peas were a little bland, though decent. The slaw was just plain awful – none of us could take more than one bite. It was like sugar with a little cabbage. Yuck. The baked beans might have been the star, but we were pretty sure they came from a can, so that’s not saying much.

In the End

I doubt we’ll be going back Simpson’s. We can get much better BBQ in the East Bay, without having to drive down to East Oakland. Mostly we hated the sides, and thought the whole meal didn’t have much character. That said, the people at Simpson’s were very nice, and they serve a wide variety of soul food. Looking at the reviews on Yelp, a few folks say their breakfast is good. But here we’re all about BBQ, and judging Simpson’s on BBQ alone, we’re not impressed.

630 Weaver Dairy Rd.
Chapel Hill, NC
(919) 932-7904

The Nutshell

BBQ with a gourmet twist. Good but not great pulled pork, delicious sides, delectable desserts.

The Details

The Barbecue Joint in Chapel Hill was the second BBQ stop in our recent field trip to my home state. We sneaked out of lunch at the conference we were attending (the nominal reason for this BBQ junket) with a mix of native North Carolinians and curious Californian friends to sample the fare at this unassuming spot in a strip mall on Weaver Dairy Road. (Amusingly, the place is right next a Curves fitness center. The owner told us that the Curves used to be a Weight Watchers until the frustrated members, tempted by the smell of BBQ wafting over, decided to move their franchise elsewhere.)

The first thing we noticed about the ‘Cue Joint was a decidedly unorthodox menu. Of course they serve the usual pulled pork platters and sandwiches, but they also include such non-pork delicacies as duck confit and sweet potato bread pudding with whiskey sauce. Hey, no problem there — I’m all for gourmet touches as long as the BBQ is up to snuff.

We sat in the sun on the patio and sipped sweet tea (a delicious clue that they hadn’t strayed too far from Carolina orthodoxy) while we waited for our meat to arrive. We weren’t disappointed: the pork was tender and juicy, with a nice pink smoke ring testifying to its time in the smoker. The sauce was typical eastern North Carolina vinegar-based. My only complaint about the ‘cue was that it lacked the full complement of smoky goodness — there were no visible “outside brown” bits, the chewy pieces from the outside of the shoulder that pack much of the flavor.

As for the sides, the baked beans were spectacular, sweet and spicy with hefty chunks of ham. The slaw was light and crunchy, a perfect complement to BBQ. The thick-cut fried green tomatoes had a tasty cornmeal crust fried up right and crispy, a substantial improvement on the adequate but unremarkable version at Mama Dip’s. And in a subtle but inspired touch, the BBQ entrees came with a few apparently homemade sweet pickled cucumber slices. Usually I’m a dill pickle partisan, but these pickles made me reconsider my stance. They were crisp and lightly sweet, not soggy and cloying like store-bought sweet pickle rounds.

Just as we finished our meal, the owner came out with three desserts on the house: the sweet potato bread pudding with whiskey sauce we’d been eyeing earlier, a slice of key lime pie, and some banana pudding. (We hadn’t even dropped the bbq.isgoodfor.us name yet, so chalk it up to genuine hospitality!) The key lime pie was well-executed but perhaps the least notable of the three. The banana pudding hit the spot; it’s a North Carolina classic with chunks of banana and vanilla wafer cookies. The real superstar, though, was the bread pudding and its delightful interplay of caramelized sweet potato goodness with whiskey fire. We passed around all three plates, but the bread pudding drew the most longing stares as it made the journey around the table. (Will there be one more bite for me?)

Add the Barbecue Joint to the list of must-eats in Chapel Hill. It’s not quite the same genre as old stalwarts such as Allen and Son’s, but there’s room for both under the BBQ big tent.

The bbq.isgoodfor.us crew is on a field trip to North Carolina. For our first culinary stop, Tamar, Andrew, and I head for lunch is Mama Dip’s Country Kitchen in Chapel Hill. This restaurant is a classic for southern country cooking, and while it’s not strictly a BBQ joint, they do make BBQ, and we tried it, so we’ll review it here.

We started off with a quick hit of fried green tomatoes. We all thought they were good, but not as crispy as they could’ve been. The corn meal batter had a nice flavor, though they served the dish with a side of ranch which overpowered everything else.

For lunch, Tamar and Andrew both had fried chicken, which is the real rock star of this Chapel Hill institution. Tamar chose white meat, which was quite tender and juicy, not overdone at all the way a lot of white meat fried chicken is. Andrew’s dark meat (also my favorite) was amazing, with a perfect, dark brown, nutty, crisp crust. (Andrew says: The fried chicken at Mama Dip’s is indeed nearly perfect — but I would add that I’ve made my own fried chicken with the recipe in one of the restaurant’s cookbooks, Mama Dip’s Kitchen, and the simple coating in that recipe of flour, salt, and pepper does not fry up nearly as hefty or crunchy as what they now serve at the restaurant.)

The sides were impressive too. I had a side of fried okra, which was tasty, though I was a little confused about how each of the crispy nuggets got to be exactly the same size. Andrew and I both tried the greens, which were the tastiest I’ve ever had, nicely seasoned with little bits of pork. Tamar tried the yams, which were the disappointment of the bunch, mushy and overly sweet. Andrew had black eyed peas which were also not great, mushy, but at the same time grainy / chalky the way beans can get.

I ordered the chopped pork plate, and was reminded that just because NC is a hotspot for BBQ, not every worthwhile restaurant around here makes good BBQ. The pork was the consistency of sloppy joe, looking like it had been stewed in a steam tray for quite a while. There were no brown bits, no texture to the meat, no smoke, and little flavor. Pouring on extra sauce, which seemed to be a hybrid with vinegar and quite a bit of mustard, helped the dish quite a bit.

Still, we all agreed, if you’re in Chapel Hill go to Mama Dip’s, enjoy the classic southern dishes. Drink a gallon of sweet tea and feel the sugar buzz. Order the fried chicken. Avoid the BBQ.

Tip o’ the smokebox to BBQ aficionado and fellow North Carolinian Joseph!

What can I say? We take our BBQ seriously in North Carolina. We’ve had a link to the excellent Lexington Collection web site in our Hot Links section (on the right, below the categories) for a while now, but today I noticed they have a page of Dennis’ most quotable BBQ moments.

Here, he addresses one of my pet peeves:

“Y’all is plural, there is no such thing as one grit and barbecue — for the thousandth time — is a noun. It is not a verb or an adjective. You cook a pig and you get barbecue. You grill steaks and burgers. You do not ‘barbecue’ anything. So shut up about it.”
    (D. Rogers, The News & Observer, April 22, 1977)

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.

In short, I’m very pleased. It was a 9lb (give or take) beast that I cooked for about 8-8.5 hours. I dry rubbed it with a simple mix of salt, a lot of pepper, dried thyme and dried oregano. I followed a technique that lets the brisket smoke open for about 4 hours. The you wrap it in aluminum foil. It’s not air-tight, so you still get smoke penetrating, though probably less. The benefit is you get more of a roasting effect and it makes the thing darn tender. And tender it was – most, flavorful, nice smoke ring.

Unfortunately, a lot of the meaty joy was counteracted whe I committed a cardinal brisket sin. I sliced it the wrong way. I sliced with the grain instead of across the grain. It matters. A with-the-grain slice has more integrity since the fibers aren’t broken – it will seem tougher even though the meat is moist and tender. Cut across the grain (or on a diagonal) as every good BBQ place does, and all of a sudden it seems to fall apart, fork-tender. Oh well, live and learn.

Here’s the time lapse version of the cooking process.

Beginning:

Middle:

End:

Yum.

We looked, I realized, like hyenas at an all-you-can-eat buffet on the veldt, and I wasn’t surprised to notice other diners staring at us. … But what I saw on their faces wasn’t disgust. It was envy.