Tag Archives: Pulled Pork

Barbecue, Pulled Pork

Archers BBQ (Kingston Pike) – Knoxville, TN

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Archers  BBQ
5415 Kingston Pike
Knoxville, TN 37919
www.archersbbq.com

Ok this is one of my favorites for BBQ in Knoxville, TN. It doesn’t look like much…

– heck I’ve got to start taking pictures of the buildings etc –

I notice a great location across the road and up just a short piece.

This is not an easy place to spot and it is part of what might have been an old Motel? Anyway… location has nothing to do with what they offer up as barbecue.

I’ve eaten at Archers BBQ many times. many times, and I’ve had almost all of their meats on one visit or another. But on this visit, was just pulled pork. What I didn’t get this time was banana pudding. Most times I’m too late. As I was entering the place a family was leaving with the last of the banana pudding.

 

Archers BBQ Kingston Pike Knoxville, TN Pulled Pork, Green and Bake Beans
Archers BBQ Kingston Pike Knoxville, TN Pulled Pork, Green and Bake Beans

 

The Sides

The Collard Greens – I f you haven’t noticed by now, I like greens. Well I like them when they are done right. As a kid I couldn’t stand them, but now I really like them. Archers has some pretty good greens.

I was in Knoxville teaching a Programmable Logic Controller – PLC – software class. One of the students had gone in to the same Archers a little earlier. I told everyone in the class where to go for barbecue and this was one of them. He too likes greens; but he was disappointed with them not having vinegar. I told him that what I do is use the moonshine vinegar sauce that Archers has. He frowned but said next time he’d give it a try.

Bottom line here is that if you like greens, I think you’ll like these.

Barron’s BBQ Beans – Yes, another favorite of mine is BBQ or Baked beans. And these are very good. However, like most places I add some of the pork to it. I typically always get this and vary my other side

Archers BBQ Knoxville, TN Moonshine Vinegar Sauce
Archers BBQ Knoxville, TN Moonshine Vinegar Sauce

The Pulled Pork – Yes it’s pulled and it is smoked! And very important to me, it comes less sauce served over Texas toast. Some people don’t want sauce; while others may want a different style sauce. Now they have multiple sauces but I used the Moonshine Vinegar sauce; I always get a vinegar sauce for pulled pork if it is available. I prefer that vinegar sauce to have a little more kick of pepper in it than this has, but it’s pretty good. It’s close to a Piedmont North Carolina Style sauce. I LIKE this sauce.

Folks if you liked pulled pork -I certainly do -, the you’ll like this stuff. Probably some of the best stuff in Knoxville.

Barbecue, Brisket, Pulled Pork, Sausage, Smoked Turkey

City Barbeque Charlotte, NC (Ballantyne)

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City Barbeque (Ballantyne)
11212 Providence Rd W
Charlotte, NC 28277
http://www.CityBBQ.com
https://www.facebook.com/CityBarbequeBallantyne/

I’ve visited City many times, this location probably a dozen times; and another location in Garner, NC a few times which was my first experience. They’re a chain and yes, I know that you find better BBQ in the smaller places. But sometimes those smaller places are convenient, but you still want some BBQ. What I’ve found with City Barbeque is that it is a very good chain of restaurants. Management will matter if you go to a different location, and who is running the “pit”. Ok, it’s not a pit. But you know what I mean.

Because City has so many different offerings of meat, and I like them all. You’ll see additional reviews as I get around to eating there AND trying a different meat. I may also write if I attend a different location.

On this visit my wife was with me; we decided to share the City Sampler. I’m really trying hard to cut back on my quantity of input of calories; while maintain a certain level of quality input of taste! The Sampler comes with Brisket, Pulled Pork, Sausage and Turkey. The sides we selected was watermelon and Baked Beans with Brisket with Texas Toast as the side.

One of the reasons we made this visit, I wanted to give City’s Banana Pudding ONE more chance. After all Paula Deen cannot be wrong, can she? Read on for that answer.

 

City Barbque Ballantyne Charlotte, NC Brisket, Pulled Pork, Sausage, Turkey
City Barbque Ballantyne Charlotte, NC Brisket, Pulled Pork, Sausage, Turkey

The Sides

Watermellon – My wife wanted the watermelon. It was good, what are you going to say. This is probably as hit or miss as anything. All they do is buy the melons and cut them. They can try to select good melons obviously.

Baked Beans with Brisket – Look at them in that picture. Don’t they look good? Well they are, they are very good. My favorite side at City Barbeque. And it doesn’t hurt if you drop a little meat from your plate into it. I’ve tried other sides, this is my favorite by far. One of the better baked beans you’ll get anywhere. No not the best, but pretty darn good stuff right here.

 

The Meats

City Barbeque Ballantyne Charlotte, NC Brisket up close
City Barbeque Ballantyne Charlotte, NC Brisket up close

The Brisket – Let’s get this one out of the way first.  I’ve either ordered or had some of someone elses brisket from here almost every visit. There is variance in the final product you get. Sometimes it’s excellent, sometimes it’s just very good. This visit I’d say it was only very good; it was just a little drier than what I like to give top bill. Here we had good smoke hit and a decent bark on it. The cut was a little leaner than I’d ask for; give me a little of that fat in there.

I’ve had some excellent brisket over the past month, so it’s making it harder for others to step up to that level. But understand, I am only talking about a couple of places right now having better brisket, and none of them are in Charlotte. They do have the best brisket I’ve found in Charlotte.

Verdict: you Like brisket, you’ll really like theirs.

The Pulled Pork – Pulled Pork is one of my favorites. Growing up in North Carolina, we’ve had pork all our lives. Brisket is relatively new for our area.  I like City’s Pulled Pork. It’s moist, good smoke and they have a very nice North Carolina Piedmont/Lexington Style Sauce. It does a great job complementing the Barbeque. They also have a pretty good Eastern North Carolina style sauce as well. City may not be from North Carolina, but they’ve adapted nicely I’d say.

Verdict: This is excellent Pulled Pork

The Sausage: This is something that is hard to find. It’s something you’ll not find often in the “local” barbeque places that have one location. You’ll also find people try to offer it and they just don’t get it right. OK, City Barbeque does sausage right! No, not the best. I am hopeful to have a review next week of my absolute favorite. But this is one of the better that you’ll find in Charlotte people! If you’ve not had a good Texas Smoked Sausage, then you should give this a try. These are juicy, and have a very good flavor along with a hint of smoke.

A tip, I like putting that North Carolina Piedmont/Lexington Style Sauce on it after I cut them up into slices. You may prefer the other thicker sauces, they are good too with the sausage.

Verdict: This is actually my favorite meat at City Barbeque.

 

The Turkey: Oh man, this was the first time I’ve had their turkey. My picture may not properly represent the moisture that has been retained in the meat. It had a nice light smoke hit. I played around with different sauces trying to find the right one that paired with it. They were all good.

Verdict: City has something for everyone; if you don’t like beef or pork… well there you go. A very good turkey offering!

For Dessert

City Barbeque Charlotte, NC - Ballantyne - Banana Pudding.jpg
City Barbeque Charlotte, NC – Ballantyne – Banana Pudding

The Banana Pudding: I’ve tried their banana pudding several times and… During one of my last visits a sign was up about how Paula Deen had named this to a list of “10 to try”. I’ve tried to find this list but I cannot. I’m pretty good using search engines too by the way; so it must only be available to subscribers. Paula, if you think this is a must try banana pudding… I’m sitting here shaking my head. You had something different than what I’ve been getting.

I’ve got to say this, I don’t get it; and no, it’s not the caramel that throws me off. Yes, that is different and not traditional Banana Pudding. My problem doesn’t start there, it starts with the pudding itself. It’s not that special. It isn’t horrible, it’s an OK dessert. But there is nothing about this banana pudding that puts it over the top. And those that know me, know I’m a banana pudding freak. I’m also a banana pudding snob and I admit it. You can deviate from the norm, but your deviation best be spectacular.

They put the caramel on it, they also go for a caramelized crumbled, I guess nilla wafer maybe? But really, the pudding just doesn’t get it done for me. And how about putting bananas in this thing?

I really wish they had a banana pudding here that I could say that I like and I’ll get every time. But until I hear there has been a change to how this pudding is made, it’s not for me. You might like it so you should at least try it one time.

Verdict: No more for me until there is change. I’ll save the calories for something else!

Barbecue, Brisket, Pulled Pork, Sausage

Dickey’s Barbecue Pit – Plymouth, MI

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Dickey’s Barbecue Pit
44741 Five Mile Rd
Plymouth, MI 48170
http://www.dickeys.com

 

It’s hard to find good barbecue in Michigan folks. It’s not like North Carolina where you can probably find a great barbecue place in every county, and many counties you can find many. That doesn’t mean there isn’t good or even great que up here, you just must hunt it out. Well, I didn’t have time to go seeking out barbecue. I had to work and was able squeeze in Dickey’s which was close by where I was working.

Dickey’s is a chain and there are several in North Carolina; including one in my area. What you tend to get with most chains is consistency, but not necessarily the best end product. i have friends that poke fun at me because I’ll eat at the chains. Up here in the Northville, Plymouth area there isn’t a lot of competition I gather.

We arrived just after 12:00PM, went in and looked the menu over. I hunted for banana pudding but couldn’t find it.  I knew the probability was higher now that this would not be an awesome experience. So, I lowered my expectation to good and hopefully nothing worse. Good and I’m happy.

My buddy asks me what he should get. I suggest trying brisket or since he likes sausage he try that. He goes ahead and gets both. He’s not a big guy so great, I’ll get some sausage. I’ll trade him some pulled pork for that. He gets baked beans and green beans; I get baked beans and potato salad.

Dickey's Barbecue Pit Plymouth, MI Brisket and Sausage
Dickey’s Barbecue Pit Plymouth, MI Brisket and Sausage

Sides

The Barbecue Beans – I thought they were OK, nothing special. Threw the pork in and yes they were a bit better. Done right these can be as good as getting a dessert. These were just average. They were NOTHING like what you see on their website on the menu. Not sure why the difference.

The Potato Salad – Like the barbecue beans it was OK, a mustard based potato salad. Nothing over the top. Yes, you can get over the top potato salad. Read my other reviews.

The Green Beans – I didn’t taste them, Steve said they were alright. He didn’t seem to be excited about it.

 

Meats

The Brisket

My brisket was a bit drier than Steve’s was. He had more fat in his, and he had a little more of the bark. It had a hit of smoke but fell short here. While the meat wasn’t tough, it wasn’t the most tender brisket either. This is a hard meat to get right, overall, I’d say they did OK. They’ll get 3-stars on Yelp for the brisket. Is this normal, I cannot say. Even the places that I’ve found awesome brisket can have bad days where it is only good, not awesome.

The Pulled Pork

Again, nothing outstanding. Probably had a little more smoke hit to it. Sorry I cannot rave about it. Stacked up against all the pulled pork I’ve eaten, it falls into the good but no great category. Their sauce is similar, but not exactly like what we find in the Piedmont of North Carolina, maybe a little thicker with ketchup. I’ve read where this is a supposed to be a “Texas Style”.

The Sausage

I like sausage and was fortunate that Steve was willing to trade a little pork for a little sausage, a polish kielbasa. It is my opinion that this was the best of the meats. Not over the top, but a solid good. It would have been nice if it were a little juicier, but seems everything here today was a little drier than expected. Which of course either means higher heat or left in too long. Since we were at lunch time my guess is a higher heat.

 

Overall, I’d say it was worth the visit if you’re after barbecue. In this area, I don’t know what your other options for barbecue would be.

Banana Pudding, Barbecue, Chopped Pork, Pulled Pork

Kyle Fletchers BBQ & Catering – Lowell, NC

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Kyle Fletchers BBQ & Catering
4507 Wilkinson Blvd
Gastonia, NC 28056

No website, but they do have a Facebook page!

One of my favorites in Lowell, NC. OK, it’s a favorite in Gaston County as well. If it’s lunch time and I’m nearby, then I’ll probably stop in here. My favorite here is their banana pudding. I like their pork and I’m a huge fan of their smoked turkey.

If you arrive here at or close to lunch time, you’ll find yourself standing in a line. It’s not a large restaurant, seating is limited. Also, you need to bring cash. Also, be prepared to be hit in the face with South Point High School stuff along with UNC!

This trip I had pork, baked beans, slaw, fries and hush puppies; the standard offering. I finished with banana pudding, you didn’t think I’d leave that off, did you?

 

Kyle Fletcher's Lowell, NC Chopped Pork
Kyle Fletcher’s Lowell, NC Chopped Pork

The Pulled and Chopped Pork

This is good stuff, is it the best I’ve had? No, but it’s good stuff. Their process leaves the meat a little drier than I prefer; but it comes to you without sauce. This allows you add sauce as you like. Their sauce helps compliment the meat, and it doesn’t kill the nice smoke hit the meat took in. They do have a nice vinegar sauce and there is a thicker Eastern NC style sweet sauce. My preference is to not put the thick stuff on pulled pork.

Kyle Fletcher's Lowell, NC Bake Beans, Slaw
Kyle Fletcher’s Lowell, NC Bake Beans, Slaw

The Sides

Bake Beans

I like their baked beans. However, I also like to take some of the pork and put it into the beans. I think it makes them better.

The Slaw

The slaw is nothing special. You’ll note from the picture that it’s swimming in BBQ Sauce, I like to do that with any white slaw. I prefer doing that to getting the Barbecue Slaw.

The French fries

Really nothing special. So un-special that I don’t waste the calories on them. They’re not bad or horrible, just not special

Hush Puppies

I like their hush puppies. But then I do like hush puppies.

 

Kyle Fletcher BBQ Banana Pudding Gastonia, NC
Kyle Fletcher BBQ Banana Pudding Gastonia, NC

The banana pudding

Piece de resistance … yeah that’s right, this is good stuff. One of the better banana pudding’s you’ll find. No good barbecue place should be without this dessert! And it’s great when I find a really good banana pudding. This here folks is a really good one.

 

 

 

 

Baby Back Ribs, Banana Pudding, Barbecue, Pulled Pork

Dem 2 Brothers & A Grill – Charleston, WV

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Dem 2 Brothers & A Grill
423 Virginia Street West
Charleston, West Virginia 25302
http://www.dem2brosgrill.com

I arrived about11:30AM, there was smoke everywhere. Smoking was taking place out behind the restaurant; I was told the process started about 7:30AM. It sure did smell good.

 

I made my way inside and was I wat taken to a table. I looked the menu over and decided on my order; Ribs, Pulled Pork, Baked Bean, Sweet Potato Casserole and Banana Pudding.

 

Dem 2 Brothers and A Grill Charleston, WV Pulled Pork, Ribs Bean Sweet Potato Casserole

The Ribs

 

Ribs had good hit of smoke, the sauce used on the ribs is outstanding – kind of like sweet baby rays – but the meat was a bit overcooked thus drier than I like my ribs. It’s a fine line, and a lot of BBQ houses do this. So, don’t be too alarmed. They were still tasty ribs.

 

The Pulled Pork

 

They put their sauce on the Pulled pork before serving – note that if like me, you would prefer to add sauce as needed -. In other words, give me Pull Pork without sauce and show me the sauce(s) available for me to try. The Pork had a good hit of smoke and flavor, but is was also a bit dry. The sauce is a thick paste sauce, which while it had a good flavor and great for the ribs, isn’t my style of sauce for pulled pork. But I try things the way the guy running show likes to serve them

 

Sweet potato casserole – was pretty good stuff. I liked it.

 

The baked beans – are good, but needed something in my opinion; I added some pulled pork to the beans and that made them better.

The banana pudding – was the best thing they had. Theirs is a thicker pudding, using possibly a heavy cream? It’s a bit sweet, but those that know me know I like banana pudding. I get a thick pudding like this by using heavy cream in the pudding. I’m not sure what they did here. It was a touch sweet, but that was OK.

 

Service by everyone was great.

 

 

 

Pulled Pork, Sandwich

Ray’s Country Smokehouse & Grill Gastonia, NC

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Ray’s Country Smokehouse & Grill Gastonia, NC
219 S. Broad Street
Gastonia, NC

On Wednesday I was in Dallas, NC on business.  When it was time for Lunch I decided to try some BBQ that I’ve not had before. So, I did a quick search and found Ray’s with some good reviews; I decided to make the short trip to their location.

OK, not many people here, maybe it’s the location. I did see a smoker out front. At least that is a positive sign.

Once inside, the place reminded me more of a bar than a Barbecue house. No problem, I found a place to sit down and waited on the waitress. Looking over the menu, Barbecue didn’t pop out at me. OK they serve multiple things. Finally, I decided on a Barbecue Sandwich, I needed to get back to the job. One thing missing from the menu, banana pudding.

I got stuck on the slaw option for just a second and the waitress wanted to explain what Barbecue Slaw is. The positive, she gave me a little of both their white slaw and barbecue slaw on the side.

After a longer than expected wait, the food arrived.

 

Ray’s Country Smokehouse Grill Gastonia, NC Pulled Pork Sanwich Opened
Ray’s Country Smokehouse Grill Gastonia, NC Pulled Pork Sandwich Opened

The Pulled Pork sandwich

The highlight of my sandwich was the bun, I liked the bun and how it was toasted. The pork is pulled, not chopped; you can see that in the picture. However, it was a little on the dry side. Also, it didn’t have that hit of smoke that I like. The bark didn’t give me that extra ump that some can give.

I decided to experiment a bit with the sauce and the slaws. The sauce looked like a traditional Piedmont style sauce. I took a sip to see. First thing I thought was that I as sipping alcohol. I don’t know if this was intentional or not. I poured a little on the meat, really didn’t change things. Put some in the white slaw since I like to mix the vinegar sauce with White slaw; still wasn’t my thing. Finally but that slaw on part of the sandwich. Still didn’t find the right combination.

Their Barbecue slaw is as I stated a Mustard Barbecue Sauce so… I tried that slaw on the sandwich. That was a bit better.

Understand that I am looking for over the top experiences when it comes to BBQ. On this day, this was not over the top. It was good, but my guess is that it must be better based on all the good reviews.

 

Barbecue, Chopped Pork

The Smoke Pit – Concord, NC

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The Smoke Pit – Concord, NC
http://thesmokepitnc.com
796 Concord Pkwy N
Concord, NC 28027

 

Well I’ve heard of this place, even had a friend recommend it to me. But never got around to going to it; it was on my list of BBQ places to try. As I was driving back from the Raleigh-Durham area, I was getting hungry as I approached Salisbury. I pulled off to go to the location in Salisbury since they stayed open longer; but I couldn’t find a place to park so I went back to the interstate and decided it was probably best to try the original anyway. I could get there by 7:30, plenty of time to get my order in.

Holy cow, the line was out the door; but it only took me 12-minutes to place my order. Mainly because the woman in front of me… well I’ll say no more. I did hear that they didn’t have brisket; and since I was late and in a bit of a hurry I decided to just get the pulled pork. My order:

Hickory Smoked Pulled Pork – Regular size
Baked Beans
Texas Toast

The Smoke Pit Concord, NC Hickory Smoked Pulled pork
The Smoke Pit Concord, NC Hickory Smoked Pulled pork

The Side Baked Beans

These were great, even had some meat but I added some more! What more can I say?

Verdict: You like baked beans, you’ll really like these!

 

Hickory Smoked Pulled Pork

Yes, you can use other woods, but really in North Carolina? Sorry, I thought it was funny. You can use other woods. But in North Carolina most people use Hickory. I ordered Regular size because I’ve eaten so much BBQ this week. But the portion of meat was huge; maybe regular means only the one side. This pork had a little bit of bark chopped in, and I like that! The meat had the right hit of smoke and it was tender; I need to get here earlier in the day next time to taste it at it’s best. And their Lexington NC sauce, oh yes I like it. Very similar to mine; only mine has more kick.

I like the touch with the pickles!

Verdict: Yes I’ll get this again, and again.

 

Texas Toast

I had to throw this in, theirs is very good

Gee it’s a short review, I’ll be back

Banana Pudding, Uncategorized

Bullock’s Bar-B-Q – Durham, NC

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Bullock’s Bar-B-Q
www.bullocksbbq.com
3330 Quebec Dr
Durham, NC 27705

Wanting to try new places on this trip, I did some searching. And Bullocks came up with high rating in several travel apps. The final item that said, go to Bullocks was one of the students in a class I am teaching said I should go there. So I decided to give it a try.

I drive over to Bullocks to have a late meal (7PM). When I get out of the car I am not greeted with that nice smell of hardwood smoke; and when I step inside, it smells like a fish camp and not a BBQ restaurant! That’s OK I thought as I was lead to my booth; I’ve had good BBQ in a fish camp before.

The waitress gives me my menu and takes my drink order. I left searching the menu to find BBQ; it was very difficult to find. I thought it would be a featured item! Afterall, Bar-B-Q is in the NAME!!! Finally, there it is. Hmm, is this a BBQ joint or what? I had already concluded that it was not. Ok time to place the order:

Spicy Pulled Pork
Baked Beans
Potato Salad
Mac and Cheese
Banana Pudding

 

Bullocks Durham, NC Spicey Pulled Pork, Baked Beans, Mac and Cheese, potato Salad
Bullocks Durham, NC Spicey Pulled Pork, Baked Beans, Mac and Cheese, potato Salad

I’ll get the sides out of the way. Nothing spectacular about them. The Mac and Cheese was cheesy and it tasted like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with some extra cheese. The Potato Salad was kind of bland. The baked beans were pretty good.

 

The Spicy Pork

What can I say? It was bit dry, and there was no sauce to wet it down with. My waitress didn’t come back by very often so I just started eating. The flavor was OK, not horrible but nothing spectacular. I really cannot say anything more. It was uninspiring.

Verdict: If I ever come back I’ll try something other than BBQ

 

Bullocks Durham, NC Banana Pudding
Bullocks Durham, NC Banana Pudding

Banana Pudding

The banana pudding was ok, again nothing that made me go WOW.

Verdict: Because I like banana pudding I might get this again if I come here. Just depends on how I feel about the extra calories.

 

 

Barbecue

Big Tiny’s BBQ – Mooresville, NC

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I’ve been eating BBQ for all my life, and I mean lots of it. This is the first review I’ve posted on WeKnowBBQ.com.

Wednesday was a busy day for me with CarolinaVarsity.com stuff. In the morning I was at West Mecklenburg High School for a 4-team 7-on-7; and then in the afternoon I made a drive up to Mooresville, NC to meet with Head Football coach Marty Paxton and see some 7-on-7 action with Mooresville and East Lincoln.

As I was leaving it was mentioned to me that there is a new BBQ place in Mooresville that must try. People that know me, know I like BBQ. I checked back at home to see if it was OK if stopped in and got some BBQ. With the green light given I threw Big Tiny’s BBQ and followed the directions and a few minutes later I had arrived.

At this point I’m going to add that normally I was to get BBQ in Mooresville, it would be at Lancasters. I’ll get around to a review of that place later.

So this is supposed to be “Texas Style”, folks don’t get hung up on style please. BBQ is done a bit differently across this country. Try it all. We might have favorite styles, but I’ve learned there are a lot of good styles. But when it comes to Texas, I always think beef BBQ. The best brisket you can get is in Texas junk. The best brisket is in Madison, AL; and it’s “Texas Style” too… but that’s another review. When it comes to BBQ, the differences are typically the type meat that is use, the woods that are used for smoking and lastly a sauce that you might use.

Enough on that, let’s get to Big Tiny’sBBQ

I want to say that I’ve been working to lose weight and have lost ~25lbs since I first started, ~20 since I got serious. This makes it hard on me to continue my life style of eating BBQ all the time. But when I go to a new place that I might not get back to for some time, I like to sample stuff. But I DON’T need all the meat, and certainly don’t need what they offer as samples. Those two, three or multiple meat offerings are typically two, three or multiple full servings!

I will ask if they can do anything for me to cut the portions down. Sometimes they will, and sometimes they will not. Here they were willing to do it. It turned out that what I ordered was still too much and had to take some of it home and eat, and there was still too much with the leftovers!

So here is what I ordered:

1 – Spare Rib

Pulled Pork 4oz, I think they gave me more

Brisket I assume 4oz

Jalapeno Sausage again I assume 4oz

Regular Sausage ditto on the 4oz

Potato Salad

Banana Pudding – I was told it is the best ever, the kid didn’t know I’m also banana pudding guy, I make it, and I eat it everywhere I can find it. –

 

Potato Salad

Let me get one item out of the way, the Potato Salad. It was average run of the mill already prepared Potato Salad. Wouldn’t you know, my luck has me picking the only side that I was told they didn’t make in house. I was really hoping for some good baked beans loaded with pieces of meats – hint, hint -. Don’t get me wrong, if you like Potato Salad this is good. Just nothing special.

 

The Spare Rib

It was very good especially having it at 8PM. They close at 8:30, 8PM is end of the day, ribs have probably been sitting for a while warming and drying. It still retained some juices in it! Also, it was not over-cooked! Beware, you’ll hear me say often that you do NOT want “fall of the bone” ribs. You want ribs that you can easily pull off the bone with your teeth but still have a bit of firmness to them. Note, I did not say toughness!

I prefer baby back ribs however, spare ribs done right are good and, these were done right. I sampled both  of the thick sauces with the ribs; their original and the sweet and spicy. I preferred the sweet and spicy. A tip for you, don’t overwhelm your rib with sauce. drizzle some on to complement the meat. If you want to eat sauce then just buy some sauce and eat that.

Verdict: If you like rib, you’ll really like these.

 

The Pulled Pork

The meat was extra moist with what I assume to be what they used for injection. Maybe the Big Tiny BBQ people can tell me what it is. It sure had had the tang of vinegar. The Pulled Pork was awesome, this is a winner here. I recommend their North Carolina Red Sauce for this. I also suggest a name change of the North Carolina Red Sauce to, North Carolina Piedmont or North Carolina Lexington Style sauce. When I hear someone say North Carolina Red Sauce I expect that thick sticky stuff they use West of us in the North Carolina mountains.

I had so much pulled pork, I had to take some home. It was a good “leftover” and even better with MY North Carolina “Red Sauce”.

Verdict:  This is a must try! Very good pork for “Texas Style” lol.

 

The Brisket

I just realized that I stuck this in the middle of the review; it should have been first or last, please forgive me. Brisket, this always seems to be the hit or miss item in a barbecue house when you can find it. Those that do brisket right, you’ve got a great tasty piece of meat. Done wrong, you might as well have made Sunday beef stew with it.

I liked every point that you would judge brisket. The meat was tender, it was still moist at 8PM, It had a good hit of smoke, there was still fat there and lastly, we had that nice burnt outer, giving us the awesomeness similar to what is known as a burnt end. I tried both the Original Sauce and the Sweet and Spicy; the Sweet and Spicy wins for me.

Like the pork, there was too much meat considering all the other food. So some of it went home. At home I did not have a thick sauce, so I tried it with my North Carolina “Red Sauce” WOW is what I say. I didn’t expect brisket to taste that good with it. So, you might try a little of their North Carolina “Red Sauce” on the brisket; just a little, this might not be for you.

Verdict: If you’re looking for Brisket not only is this the best you’ll find in Mooresville, it is some of the best you’ll find anywhere. This is one of the ten best I’ve had, maybe top five five best. BTW, I’ve eaten a lot of brisket a lot of places including Texas.

 

Jalapeno Sausage

You need to know, I love sausages. And it is very difficult to find in BBQ joints, especially in North Carolina. I order both of their sausages, the jalapeno sausage had more flavor making it the winner of the two. However, it was a bit on the dry side. But still worthwhile, just not the winner I think it could have been based on the other meats. Perhaps this was impacted by the time of day. Or maybe this is what I should have expected?

Note, it wasn’t very spicy. So don’t be alarmed by the Jalapeno part…

Verdict: if you like sausage, yes try it. While it didn’t get hit out of the park like the ribs, pulled pork and brisket did; it’s still nice.

 

The Texas sausage

This was nice and moist, however, on the flavor side it was a bit flat. Based on how well they did the other meats, I think they can do better here. But I don’t know if they make the sausage or buy it and just smoke it.

Verdict: Since it’s hard to find sausage, if you don’t want the “heat” of the jalapeno, give this a shot. It was however the least of my favorites of the five meats.

 

The Banana Pudding

I’m sorry but if people think I’m a BBQ snob, I’m worse when it comes to banana pudding; I make banana pudding; I love banana pudding.  Also, you aren’t a proper Barbecue place unless you have banana pudding. It’s the first thing I look for on the menu to help me gauge if this is going to be a good experience.

OK first it isn’t “homemade pudding”. Is that bad? No, it isn’t a bad thing. Most places that you get banana pudding it isn’t all made from scratch. I don’t know their process to what they’ve made, but they are winners here. It’s thicker, most likely from adding some heavy cream or heavy whipping cream.

It’s not the best banana pudding I’ve had in a restaurant. But it is one of the better that I’ve had. It might rank top-10 out of hundreds of different puddings.

Verdict: Buy this.

 

It’s great to know that there is another option in Mooresville for good BBQ, and in many ways a better option.