Tag Archives: Ribs

Baby Back Ribs, Banana Pudding, Barbecue, Desserts

Dead End BBQ – Knoxville, TN

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Dead End BBQ
3621 Sutherland Ave
Knoxville, TN 37919
www.deadendbbq.com
 https://www.facebook.com/DeadEndBBQ/

 

I’ve been to Dead End BBQ more times than I can remember. Is it the best in Knoxville you might wonder? No, but it is very good AND one of my favorites. Another bonus is that it stays open until 9PM; most of the others close at 7- o-r8PM. I typically arrive into Knoxville in the evening time and if I want good BBQ, then this is my option. Depending on where I stay there is another option that will come up in a future review.

Arriving at the hotel at 7:30 wasn’t going to leave me many options for eating. Since I want to get stuff up on the site for the various BBQ places, I thought about my options and Dead End was the logical choice because of time and location. I’ve had most of their meats, but I’ll just talk about what I had on this trip.

Also, arriving late I will cut them some slack on the meat. Ribs this late almost everywhere will not be their best.

Dead End BBQ, Knoxville, TN Ribs Pimento Mac and Cheese, Red White and Blue Slaw
Dead End BBQ, Knoxville, TN Ribs Pimento Mac and Cheese, Red White and Blue Slaw

The Sides

The Pimento Mac and Cheese – Do you like Mac and Cheese? Do you like Pimento Cheese? Just think how great it would be to combine the two. Well, they do it here. And man is it good! A side almost worthy of being a dessert. OK, I’m stretching it there. But it is a very nice offering. I like Mac and Cheese but I don’t often get it as a side item with Barbeque. However, this is one of the expectations.

Red, White and Blue Slaw – This is a bit different than what you’ll find in most barbeque places where you’ll get a white slaw, yellow slaw or a barbeque slaw. I think it’s hard to go over the top with slaw; Dead End BBQ may have done just that. If you aren’t into slaw because it’s so plain OR even if you like slaw, give this stuff a try. It’s a mixture of cabbage, blue cheese, Tomatoes and some bacon bits. Pretty creamy, and pretty tasty for slaw.

The Texas Toast – I will complain about this. Toast should be made when ordered. I passed on the other cornbread options for Toast. Maybe it was good I didn’t eat the toast considering my calorie counting I’m doing. but come on, this stuff was cold and even hard to chew.

 

Dead End BBQ Knoxville, TN Inside the rib
Dead End BBQ Knoxville, TN Inside the rib

The Ribs

I apologize for the picture; I was tired and hungry. On this trip to Dead End BBQ I decided to get ribs. I’ve been eating so much brisket lately that I wanted a break. I thought about burnt ends but then decided it was so late that I’d pass. Ribs would be a good option; I figured that if they were too dry I could hit them with some sauce.

When they came to the table I thought they looked great. It hit me to probably rip a bone apart and let you see the inside. They didn’t look like they were too dried out, and they weren’t. They were nice, with a good smoke hit to them. You can see a little of it in the picture. I promise to do better as I move forward. They were not falling off the bone which most times indicates over-cooked. But they also were not tough. I separated them by cutting at each bone; and could bite meat off. They would have passed most judges test for that part. They aren’t the best ribs I’ve had at Dead End, but they were still very good. I was pleased considering the time I arrived.

 

Dead End BBQ Knoxville, TN Banana Pudding
Dead End BBQ Knoxville, TN Banana Pudding

The Banana Pudding

Others should take note here. Dead End BBQ’s banana pudding isn’t “traditional banana pudding” in any sense. But I like it, a lot. They use a cookie, and it goes ok with the pudding. They make a great thicker pudding. I like that. They use whipped cream; most people use that or meringue.

But Dead BBQ does fail in one area. They almost always do not provide enough bananas. They put the bananas on top which is different. I was talking with other locals and their comment was that it doesn’t have enough bananas. On that I have to agree. Remember what this is, banana pudding.

That said, I’ll get their banana pudding every time I go. Because overall it’s still one of the better banana puddings around Knoxville.

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.

 

 

 

Banana Pudding, Barbecue, Desserts

Bobbee O’s BBQ – Charlotte, NC Review

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Bobbee O’s BBQ
9401 Statesville Rd
Charlotte, NC 28269
http://www.bobbeeosbbq.com

June 24, 2017

This was my first time to eat at Bobbee O’s BBQ. I was inspired to go after seeing tweet listing top BBQ in Charlotte, and it was listed 3rd, meaning it must be that person’s third favorite. Since I’ve already been to the other two listed, I decided to add this one to my list. I should eat every location in my home town at least, once shouldn’t I?

So Becky and I head up to Bobbee O’s, which is about a 20-25 minute trip for us. This was a Saturday evening, arriving around 8PM I figured they’d be packed; they were not. There was only one person inside.

Once inside we see that you order at the checkout counter. We take a menu and look it over to decide what we will have. About this time, I notice they have some deserts in a display case. But missing is banana pudding. Now for me, this is a yellow flag. I have always said, I maintain; all proper barbecue joints offer banana pudding.

Becky decides that she’ll get pork – which happens to be chopped pork – and her sides are slaw and sweet potato fries. Great, I don’t have to order chopped pork, I’ll get some of hers! That’s the way I like it!

I order Brisket and ribs; this allows me to knock out 3 of the main meats I always like to try. Missing was sausage. My sides were baked beans, mac and cheese.

As we go over to get our drinks filled I hear blues playing; ok that helps with the atmosphere. But this lack of banana pudding is worrying me a bit.

We sit down, I see no sauces on the table? Finally, our food is brought to us, in Styrofoam to go boxes. This isn’t a problem for me as I’ve had similar service in many BBQ joints.

I open the box up, and I see my two sides in to go containers, two slices of bread and some sauce in containers. Peel back the foil to reveal my meats.

 

The Brisket

I’m disappointed to see that the brisket is somewhat chopped – not fine – and it is covered in sauce. The brisket was overcooked, perhaps the result of arriving at 8PM, but the place advertises open until 11PM. It wasn’t horrible, I’d say average. Putting some more sauce on it made it better, but now I’m liking sauce and not brisket.

Verdict: I’ll not order brisket next time I come here.

 

The Ribs

It’s ok that the ribs had sauce on them. I eat them wet and dry. And sometimes put sauce on dry rub ribs. But, they were also overcooked; and dry. The meat was too chewy.

Verdict: I’ll not order the ribs next time I come here

 

The Chopped Pork

OK, this turns out to be the best of the three meats. The flavor reminded us of the pork that Byrum General store in Shopton – in Steele Creek – used to serve before they shut down. We liked Bryum’s and we liked this. This probably makes a great BBQ Sandwich! Although I’m not a fan of putting sticky type sauce on pork, their sauce was decent with the pork. I

Verdict: I’ll order this next time I come here.

 

The Sauce

The sauce is a thin red sauce that looks like a thin jelly when you first look at it. It is sweet, and not really hot. They say a little sweet and a little hot. probably a little less hot.

 

The Sides

Sorry I didn’t take pictures of the sides.

The best of the sides was the Mac and Cheese, it was a little bit salty but had great flavor and loaded with cheese.

The baked bean just really didn’t stand out. They were good, but were like heavily buttered pork and beans without the pork. Dropping some of the brisket and chopped pork in the beans made them much better.

The Sweet Potato Fries were, about what you’d expect

The slaw, we have is a mixed verdict on it. Becky liked it; I thought it had a fish flavor to it. Which if you aren’t expecting it…

Bobbee O’s is place I’d go to if I were local to the area and didn’t want to drive far for BBQ.  Understand that I’ve eaten at many places that I’ll never go back to, under any circumstances.

 

 

 

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.