A new thread for 2024, now that barbecue season is upon us.
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@ElsieDee posted this as the last entry on the 2023 thread so it seems fitting for the first post of the new year.
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I’m glad to see this discussion and broadening of the conversation of barbecue-- I served Smoked Pork Dan Dan Noodles and Burnt End Ramen (homemade alkaline noodles) in my restaurant more than 10 years ago. And it’s nice to see how this process has evolved around the country-- even in places that have been very doctrinaire historically about barbecue.
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Tell us about your latest bbq adventures!
I have actually been on a bbq hiatus but now that the weather has changed, I am itchy to sit by the pit and poke at a fire for a day. In the late summer hoping to take a drive from Memphis to Muscle Shoals and detour to Big Bob’s and Dreamland and a few other places I need to get back to. I cooked bbq professionally for 23 years. It was time for a break.
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We were at big bob’s about two years ago, I love Chris Lilly’s book and have made their white sauce chicken forever but it didn’t quite live up to my admittedly inflated expectations.
Sounds like an amazing trip! I haven’t been to kc in a long, long time, would like to get back at some point.
Every place has an off day and I suppose some variation from location to location and I imagine I will be focusing mostly on the pie by the time I get to Big Bob’s… LOL
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I’m not much of a bbqing or grilling person, but I’d be thrilled to consume any/all of these:
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A little crumbled bacon will take these dishes to the next level!
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I have to say that I think most of the photos in the Yelp article look unappealing. Too much sauce, melted cheese, onion rings, or sometimes all three. Apparently underneath all that there is some bbq.
And the picture of the shredded bbq makes it look dry as dust.
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I agree. Yelp seems like the worst option to search for barbecue.
I am smoking another version of sous vide pastrami today.
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Rubbed with pastrami rub and vacuum sealed overnight, sous vide at 155 f for about 14 hours, then smoked about 90 minutes (it was about 195 f) at 225 f.
Looks and smells better than it tastes. I love the texture, and the flavor is okay, but I guess it can’t be any better than the corned beef you start with!
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I used to detour there on my way to the airport in Huntsville!
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There are some major flaws with this Yelp list:
(1) Yelp reviews are, by and large, based on customers’ comparisons of the particular restaurant with other local restaurants. So (to take a random example from the list), while idk BBQ in Tropic, Utah, may stand head and shoulders above other restaurants in southern Utah, it is just silly to say their high reviews mean that idk BBQ is the 36th best barbecue place in the US.
(2) Yelp ratings are not comparing barbecue places to barbecue places, but to all restaurants. Since an above average barbecue place is inherently going to be way better than, say a top hamburger or French restaurant, this list tends to overvalue barbecue places in areas that don’t have many barbecue places.
(3) Most Yelp raters just don’t have the experience with enough barbecue restaurants to make informed judgments about which barbecue places nationwide are the best. And, like all readers’ favorites lists, the rating of a customer who eats out three times a year gets exactly the same weight as a connoisseur with a discerning palate who has traveled the world eating and thinking about the food he eats.
I spend a lot of time maintaining a large spreadsheet of the barbecue places that are highly thought of by food critics (1000-plus restaurants are included). But I resolutely exclude from the sources for this spreadsheet all “reader favorites” list, such as the annual Yelp list and the annual list by Southern Living readers.
If anyone is interested in the kind-of-obsessive spreadsheet, it can be found here on Google Docs:
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Is there still good barbecue in Muscle Shoals?
I’m retired now, but one of my proudest accomplishments of a 40-plus year career came on a three-day business trip to the Muscle Shoals/Florence area in about 1982. On that trip, I managed to convince the fifty-something law firm partner from NYC who I was traveling with to eat barbecue for every single meal except breakfast on that trip.
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Agree with all your points.
And thanks for that Google doc.
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