Here we are, a month later.  I have been to Smokin’ BBQ several times.  I have NEVER been disappointed or has my order ever been wrong!  Art and Jeff, the two owners of Smokin’ BBQ are great guys and work hard to ensure that each customer is taken care of.  They make their own sauces and smoke the meat all on premises.

With their sauces, I personally have settled on my two favorites; Memphis Love and Whiskey Jack.  I have yet to be disappointed with anything.  One VERY important thing to remember, this is not a “Fast Food” restaruant.  This is a sit down place so if you expect to walk in the door and be served in 2 minutes or less, you will be disappointed.  I like to call my order in and then hit the pick-up window or walk in to speak with Art and/or Jeff.

As for my favorites, St. Louis style ribs, half rack!   YUM!.  Also as I posted in my last review the bark on the Beef Brisket is to die for!

My darling wife turned me on to a fantastic side dish; so good we get this for lunch at least once (often more) per week.  It is a quart of the Smokin’ Chilli with two ounces of the Memphis Love BBQ sauce.  OH MY GOD!  This is the best.  Thanks Anita for turning me on to this.

If you haven’t tried Smokin’ BBQ you need to get there NOW!

Now I did set my expectations and my opinions accordingly.  There has not been a big media blitz or mailings to say “Hey We’re Open!” only an Open sign in the window and the street sign saying “Now Open”.  I know that in any soft opening such as this the service hasn’t yet been established.  This is a privately owned establishment, the first of possibly more, and there is no large corporately sponsored training program yet in place.  As a result I wasn’t upset it took over a half hour to get our food.

Smokin’ BarBQ offers a nice array of items on the menu.  They offer pulled pork, chopped beef brisket, pulled chicken, ribs, wings, sides, desserts and drinks.  No beer, wine or alcohol.  The restaurant seats about 38 people between tables for two, four, or a counter seat on a high bar style chair by the window.  The decor is nice, and clean.  It should be as they just opened.  Two large flat panel screens are on display.

We ordered our food via the phone and were politely greeted.  Our order was taken, confirmed and a total provided in a very timely manner.  I was told it would be ready in about 15 minutes.

After 10 minutes I got in the car and drove the less than a mile to this location.  Being that I love to cook BBQ and I love to eat it more, I really wanted to review what they had.

I will admit that the service was slow, and there seemed some level of confusion regarding the counter and who did which jobs.  A little cross training will resolve this.   As for the food preparation the kitchen staff is visible via an opening.  It was apparent that this is the slow down.  The staff, again being new and this is a soft opening, were trying to do too many things at one time.  They need to work one order at a time, work down that list, move the order to the next station.  It seemed they were staffed enough, just not enough experience.  Again, this will come in time.

The owner was there working in the front helping get orders straight and ready.   They offer a variety of different sauces which are included when you order.  They are called Carolina Tang, Memphis Love, Michigan Cherry Apple, Smokin Heat, and Whiskey Jack. These are provided on the side in little cups with lids.  Putting these in a separate bag might be good as one of mine opened up during transport home.

Our order was ready 35 minutes after I ordered it on the phone.  What did we order?  Well, here we go:
Anita ordered “The Boss Hog” a Pulled Pork topped with melted pepperjack cheese and coleslaw.  The sandwiches say they come with coleslaw and 1 side as well.  She ordered a side of BarBQ Beans.
I ordered the “Smokin’ Two” combo plate.  This is two meats, two sides and a corn bread. As for my two meats, I choose the Chopped Beef Brisket and the Pulled Pork.  My sides were the Mac and Cheese and the BarBQ beans as well.

My Choice in sauces:

1. Memphis Love
2. Michigan Cherry Apple
3. Whiskey Jack

Anita enjoyed hers however the Coleslaw on the sandwich must have been the only coleslaw provided.  It did not come with a side of it.  She found that the meat was very flavorful, tender and good.  In her personal opinion the pork could have been shredded a little finer for a sandwich.  As she would take bites, large chunks would come out with the bite she took.  Anita choose the Memphis Love for her sauce.  A nice thick dark sauce that is quite sweet and has a unique flavor.

As for my meal the serving portions of the meat could have been about 50% bigger for the cost of the meal. ($13.99).  With that being said, the pork was very tender with a nice hint of smokey flavor.  I personally like my pork smoked a little stronger but this was very nice for a restaurant.  The chopped beef brisket stopped me.  It was incredibly tender.  I was very impressed with the bark on it too.  Many times the bark on a brisket can be dry and crisp, this wasn’t.  And I was pleasantly surprised by the sweetness of it.  There is a lot of brown sugar in their rub.  My meal was missing a corn bread.

The sides were good.  There are black, kidney and brown beans in the BarBQ Beans, with bacon, onions and some nicely pulled pork.  (just the right size).  The Mac and Cheese was creamy and home made using spiral noodles for the macaroni.  Again nice job.  Personally I love to cook both of these, however I add green pepper to my beans and I usually smoke both dishes in my electric smoker for a good 2 hours.

I selected the Whiskey Jack sauce.  This is a red thinner sauce that I expected to be a lot like ketchup.  MAN was I wrong.  This is very nice flavor and the hint of whiskey was an outstanding surprise.  This sauce won me.   It was perfect for the pork, and I took the last of Anita’s Memphis Love for my beef.  They complemented each meat perfectly.

For Elizabeth, we ordered the kids Mac and Cheese.  This was to come with a drink and an order of fries.  I didn’t realize this until I got home.  What I got at first was merely a side of Mac and Cheese.  This was about a half cup.  At a cost of $3.99, it was not acceptable.  Turns out they gave me the wrong thing.  They immediately corrected that, however we did not get the fries or the drink.

Other than opening day jitters with service, and the food a little cold, the taste made up for it.  We will be back.

Welcome to the neighborhood.

So why does a good BBQ cook out cause meats to stall in a temperature rise?  I’ve often wondered this and had a small fire running in my offset firebox which I then had to remove wood from to keep the temperature for rising to high.  So I came across this article and now know that it is not me doing something wrong but it is merely the meat sweating.

And who says pigs don’t sweat?

Now most people know I am not one to pick up a novel and read.  I know that John Grisham is an outstanding author as well as a prolific one.  One a Facebook posting there was an opportunity to be selected for this campaign.  I was fortunate to be chosen for it and received the book.  Being tried from a long trip home from Atlanta, I started reading the book in bed when I got home.

I felt the book slip from my hands as I fell asleep while on page 22.  That was Friday Night.  Over the next three days, I could not put this thing down.  Every free moment I had I spent enthralled with the storyline.  In this novel a career criminal watches as an innocent man is sentenced to death for his crime.  After a 6 year stint in mail and facing a short time before death by cancer, the criminal decides it is time to set the record straight and confess his situation days before the innocent man is to be executed.

The storyline is intriguing and encompassing at the same time.  If you are interested in learning about becoming a BzzAgent yourself, visit BzzAgent.com.

My first impression of walking in the door was that it was a place where you come to eat.  It isn’t a place where you have to come in with dress shoes, or upscale but it is a homey place where you can be yourself. I was greeted as soon as I walked in the door.

I was seated by myself and given a plate with three pieces of bread, and a bowl of sauce.  I inquired what the sauce was and was told it is the house BBQ sauce.  I was excited to try this.  It was thin sauce with a bold mustard taste.  This is not uncommon in the South.  What I really enjoyed about it was the hot sauce on the underside.  It could have been simply some chilli powder, or hot chilli pepper in it.

I ordered the 2 meat combo as I couldn’t decide on what I wanted.  I also ordered a Brunswick Stew.  This is a definite Southern dish that is essentially a thick and hearty vegetable soup with meat in it.  It is typically served with either pork or chicken.  In this evening’s case it was chicken.  It is a tomato based soup with corn, tomatoes, potatoes, and the meat.  Here is a picture of it.

Dreamland BBQ Brunswick Stew

While I did enjoy it, smoked chicken would have been better and knowing my affinity for smoked food, I would have stewed the whole pot and then 2 hours with apple wood in the electric smoker.  (You can never have too much smoke right?)

Next was the main course of the 2 meat combo. I went with Pork Ribs and a Quarter Chicken.  I wanted to try a couple of different things and not eat too much.  I went with 2 sides; baked beans and mac & cheese.

2 Meat Combo Plate

As you can see, nice simple presentation.  The paper on the plate was for the chain.  As for the meal, you can see that the food is prepared without applying sauce to the meat while being smoked.  The sauce is applied just before being sent to the table.  Again, the mustard sauce I’ve already mentioned.  No choice of different sauces.  The ribs were nice and juicy, separated easily from the bone.  They were dry rub smoked and the smoke flavor was minimal.  As for the chicken, the skin was crisp however the meat itself was dry.  I don’t know if was due to sitting and waiting or if they did not brine the chicken before hand.  This quarter piece was obviously cut prior to cooking over fire as the cut side was cooked.

All in all it was a good BBQ but left me wanting something a little more.  That lead me to consider Shane’s Rib Shack.  Look to my next posting on that one.

James has decided to play house hockey for his coach from last year.  A few of the kids he played with are moving forward and made the same team.  I for one get to be an assistant coach so I’ll be back on the ice passing along knowledge.  James is playing for the Great Lakes Sharks, and will be playing out of Fraser Michigan.

Be sure to wish the boys good luck.

In addition, I’ve started working out at the YMCA again and playing Racquetball with Anita a few times.  It is really making a difference.  My blood pressure and cholesterol have been high for many years.  As of this morning my blood pressure went from dangerously high to a Pre-Hypertension state.  It was officially 138/84 down from a high of 171/101.  I am impressed with this.

So what have I done differently?  Well I now cook outdoors a lot.  This means buying better cuts of meat, preparing them by trimming fat, marinating, or soaking them in brine, using a home made meat rub and cooking low and slow over fire.  The food tastes great, the fat drops away from the meat and is nice and moist.  Plus it is healthier.  Additionally we have stopped late night eating.  Nothing after 8:00 PM.  To help with this, we have gone to using a fiber drink about 15 minutes before lunch and dinner.  This helps with slowing the digestive process making us less hungry than before.

Lets see what the next few weeks bring.

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