Old Hickory back home. The flat-out best 'cue I have ever put in my mouth. Hell, some of the flat-out best food I’ve ever put in my mouth (and you can tell by looking at me that a lot of food goes into this mouth.) Barbecue is in the Western Kentucky style, dry and smokey with a vinegar-based sauce. Their best meat is the mutton, but then mutton is the best barbecue meat anyway, so it’s not really a fair comparison.
Moonlite is the place in town that gets all the press and out of town attention, but if you come to town please don’t waste your time. Pop on across town and you’ll get much better food, cooked in a MUCH cleaner kitchen, at a lower price.
My runner-up favorite barbecue place is Stamey’s in Greensboro, NC. Lexington-style pulled pork with vinegar slaw and hush puppies. The idea of putting slaw and pups with barbecue sounded so wrong, but it tastes so right.
I’m gonna go with Dinosaur BBQ in my hometown of Syracuse, NY. Damn that’s good. Always bring a few bottles of the sauce home when we visit.
They have branched out To Rochester, and more recently, NYC but the orginal was in Syracuse. Good times. Dinosaur BBQ and the Bluesfest. Doesn’t get much better than that.
YES!! Some would say it sacrilege to put Oklahoma Joe’s ahead of Bryant’s or Gates, but I’m with you…I love them all, but Joe’s is the one that really makes me drool. EVERYTHING there is good, sides, ribs, sandwiches. MMMMMMmmmmm!
I would also give a shout out to Rosedale BBQ in KCK. They have REALLY good ribs and their sauce is very unique. It has a hint of ginger. Sounds weird but it works!
Man, where do they dig you moderaters up? Allen & Sons isn’t even the best BBQ in Chapel Hill! If you even make it back down to Chapel Hill, you’ve got to check out The Barbeque Joint, also in Chapel Hill. Best NC-Style BBQ. Ever.
Que, like movies, is an explosive topic. I almost hesitated to post. Eveyone has their own likes and dislikes. I have an old friend in Chapel Hill who I’ll email and get an answer that would probably square with mine. Back in a day or so.
PS—I’ve had Allen/Sons in the last year. Buddy brings it back to Ohio. I make my own Eastern Carolina finishing sauce.
Many people in Durham/Chapel Hill area rave about Bullock’s. I lived in Durham frolm 1967-1971. Bullock’s was OK, but I could always find better.
In Bangkok, we have a couple of branches of Tony Roma’s. There’s also the Great American Rib Company, with branches in Bangkok, Hua Hin and Pattaya. And the Roadhouse.
Tony Roma’s is good, but a little expensive. It probably has the best sauces of the three. The Great American Rib Company is the cheapest and the only one of the three that serves margaritas by the pitcher; it’s by the glass only at the other two places. But Great American seems to have only one type of sauce.
Our favorite is the Roadhouse. Its price range is in the middle of the three. The sauces run a very close second to Tony Roma’s. It also has a small cafe on the grounds of the private library we belong to, and that and the main branch are the closest to where we live. We have a 15% discount card for the place that covers alcohol, too.
My pick in Atlanta is Spiced Right Barbecue. They ain’t lyin’. It’s spiced right and delicious. Second place goes to a relatively new entrant, Fox Brothers. Really succulent meat, although I wish they had some spicier sauces available. Also delicious is Rolling Bones.
Oh, and when I need a fix of Carolina-style barbecue, I go to Dusty’s.
The best sauce in Georgia comes from Armstrong’s Barbecue in Summerville. Their meats are nothing special but the sauce sure makes up for it.
And at the risk of offending fellow 'cue lovers, I must say that Dreamland is overrated. The 'cue I got there was dry and stringy. I must also report that I searched all over Kansas City and never found anything better than mediocre. (Why does Kansas City have a barbecue rep? Convince me they deserve it.)
Bullock’s hasn’t gone uphill in the past 25 years. It’s decent, but there’s plenty better places to go, including Allen and Sons (which I agree makes some damn fine BBQ).
I actually am willing to dive into any plate of bbq, wet or dry, pork or beef, as long as it’s not the eastern SC mustard-based or the Alabama-mayo slathered bbq. Those two dishes are an affront to slow roasted meats everywhere.
I’d say my favorite place is Bryant’s in KC. The OG one on Brooklyn is the best. The new one out by the speedway is good too, but something about clean plates and plenty of seating and a decor and the friendly service is just strange.
I was in line at the Brooklyn street location once and the guy in front of me asked for cheese on his sandwich. Boy did the whole staff have a good laugh at that.
For those who have never been, you queue up, get your plate and silverware (don’t forget this, or you’re screwed) and when you get to the window, a surly guy will ask “Whachu want” and you damn sure better be ready to tell him because he’s not fooling around. Then, he slices up a big hunk of meat for your sandwich on two slices of cheap white bread before slathering the whole thing with sauce from a bowl with a paintbrush. The fries are great too, and I’m not much of a fry person.
As famous as ABs is, Jack Stack is probably the nicest BBQ restaurant in the world. First rate gourmet stuff. They have something called crown beef ribs that just melt in your mouth. They claim to be only one of two or three restaurants in the country that serve these. My best friend (a larger fellow) talks about the first time he had Jack Stack’s crown ribs like you would relate your first kiss. And they don’t laugh in your face if you order something they don’t have.
Actually, I kind of liked putting the pups on the sammich, too. I was a huge fan of a creation we found in a little place somewhere between home and Emerald Isle–the pig in a pup. A huge-ass hush-puppy, split open like a sammich bun and piled with pulled pig and barbecue slaw. I gave them a B for the components, but an A for the dish as a whole. Mmmmm.
In case you missed it, my previous post has a run-down of real Chicago BBQ. Except for Honey 1, they are all carry-out only. Honey 1 will probably be your best introduction to Chicago barbecue.
For more sit-down-type barbecue, prepared in a commercial Southern Pride smoker (or similar), you can also check out Smoque and Honky Tonk BBQ. You’ll also find brisket, pork shoulder, and baby backs at those joints, as well as a wide assortment of sides. These places are a little more mainstream barbecue. You can also try Calvin’s, Fat Willy’s, and Smokedaddy.
But, in my opinion, the best barbecue in the city is at Uncle John’s. Get the tips-links combo, sauce on the side (I like a mix of half-hot, half regular sauce) and prepare to be in pig heaven.
Thank you both for the Rib Shack reference. We’re spending a week in Atlanta next month, and we were looking for a good BBQ place. We had originally thought about Dreamland, but I read some horrible reviews of the one in Atlanta, so we decided to stay away. I did see some great reviews for Abdullah’s, but I’m not ready to be put in a head lock or body slammed afterwards.
We don’t go out for BBQ much, so Sonny’s is my only recommendation. I know there are some good local joints here, but options tend to be limited when you have children along.
I feel so strongly about this topic that I registered just to say this:
I love barbecue, and will eat it in pretty much any form. I celebrate styles employing vinegar-based sauce, mustard-based sauce, mayo-based sauce, ketchup-based sauce, and no sauce at all. I love ribs, pulled pork, sliced pork, brisket, you name it. If it’s smoked meat, I’m in. When I travel, I go to barbecue joints the way sane people go to museums. I have driven hundreds of miles out of my way to eat barbecue. I’ve fiddled with my own dry rub recipe and smoker technique to the point of lunacy. I have sincerely argued that barbecue is the American equivalent of French wine or cheese, with each region having it’s own distinct characteristics. I’m not a barbecue snob or connoisseur, but a hopeless, smitten, sold-out devotee. I send barbecue a card on its birthday, and leave it rambling, sloppy voicemails when I’ve had too much to drink.
Now, having said that:
The best barbecue in the world is at Ridgewood in Bluff City, Tennessee. I will brook no debate about this point. I have been in fights about this. I have had people swear I was wrong, that their local joint was far superior, only to concede my point after that first sublime bite. There is nothing in the world like it and, with apologies to Ben Franklin, no surer evidence that God loves me and wants me to be happy. It is beyond compare.
