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!

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.