Fresh Air Bar-B-Que – Athens, GA

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Name: Fresh Air Bar-B-Que
Date: 3/5/22
Address: 1110 Hull Road, Athens, GA 30601
Order: Sandwich plate with Brunswick Stew and slaw, single rib (link to menu)
Pricing: $

Monk: Of all the regions of barbecue in the southeast, Georgia barbecue is probably the one I’m least familiar with. When I have visited the Peach State and tried barbecue restaurants (primarily in Atlanta), they are either heavily Texas-influenced (Fox Bros, DAS BBQ), a fusion-type place (Heirloom Market), or in the case of B’s Cracklin’ Barbeque, Carolinas whole hog. But, as friend of the blog Grant has passionately defended multiple times on his excellent food blog Marie, Let’s Eat!, there is certainly a Georgia style of barbecue with many sub-regions of its own. On a recent Monk family trip to Athens for a gymnastics competition, I purposefully sought out a more traditional Georgia barbecue joint in Fresh Air Bar-B-Que.

The original Fresh Air Bar-B-Que is in Jackson, about an hour’s drive south of Atlanta, and first opened in 1929. It is (according to their website) “the oldest pit-cooked barbecue restaurant in Georgia still in its original location,” and since that original location was opened by Dr. Joel Watkins they have expanded to Macon as well as a couple of locations in the Athens area.

Fresh Air has a simple menu of chopped pork, ribs, and chicken that comes in sandwich, basket, or plate form. I went with a sandwich plate with stew and slaw.

Fresh Air’s chopped pork was on the leaner and drier side (as can be the case in this part of Georgia according to the article from Grant above), so I added some vinegar sauce, slaw, and hot sauce. The sandwich was good, if a bit average.

I bought a single rib bone to try it out and it was well cooked with a slightly sweet sauce. I would have gladly had a couple more.

What really set the meal apart was the Brunswick stew, which was in the upper echelon of stews I’ve tasted. I’m by no means a connoisseur of Brunswick stew, but Fresh Air’s was a thicker stew as opposed to a runnier soup. The greenish slaw was made of finely diced cabbage but I’d take a Lexington-style red slaw over it any day of the week.

Unfortunately, a lot of the classic barbecue joints in the Athens area have closed in the past few years: Bill’s Bar-B-Q in nearby Hull, Paul’s Bar-B-Q, and Hot Thomas Barbecue. Of the ones still open, I would have loved to have also checked out Butt Hutt or Zeb’s or Bar-B-Que Shack and tried this chicken mull dish I’ve yet to have. Even after a visit to Fresh Air Bar-B-Que, it’s pretty obvious to me that I’ve barely scratched the surface of Georgia barbecue. Next time.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Pork – 3.5 hogs
Sides – 4 hogs
Overall – 3.5 hogs

Friday Find: Dave Grohl on the Beauty of Simple Barbecue Rubs

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Monk: Dave Grohl fulfills a bucket list item when he appeared on Hot Ones last month (and crushed it like a champ), and during the cedar-smoked Dawson’s Hot Sauce wing (7,000 on the Scoville heat unit scale), the question turns to his “deep and abiding” love of barbecue. When host Sean Evans asks him what the secret to a great barbecue rub is, Grohl answers “simplicity” and opines on the beauty of a simple salt and pepper rub. He also shouts out NC whole hog legend Sam Jones at 5:45.

Description: Dave Grohl is one of the most requested Hot Ones guests of all time. He’s also a 16-time Grammy Award–winning artist whose storied career in music has been immortalized in the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame on two separate occasions. He has a recently released New York Times best-selling book as well, The Storyteller – Tales Of Life And Music, and—get this!—a comedy horror movie starring the Foo Fighters is on the way: Studio 666, which is set to release in theaters on February 25th. But how is he with spicy food? Find out as the rock legend takes on the wings of death and discusses the best drummers of all time, the art of the cover song, and why doing Hot Ones has been on his bucket list.

College Barbecue – Salisbury, NC

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Name: College Barbecue
Date: 2/21/22
Address: 117 Statesville Blvd, Salisbury, NC 28144
Order: Small chopped barbecue tray, Cheerwine (link to menu)
Pricing: $

Monk: Reviving an old pastime of mine, I used a banker’s holiday as an excuse to try out a new barbecue restaurant out of town. Looking to stay within an hour or so, I realized that Salisbury had another True ‘Cue-approved joint besides Richard’s an pointed my GPS to College Barbecue.

As I parked, I exited the car and got whiffs of wood smoke in the air. Good start, to be sure. Luckily, at this lunch hour the youngest Monkette and I found the last booth and as is the case with a classic NC barbecue joint had a drink and our order with the waitress within minutes.

As we waited for our food (chopped tray for me, kid’s cut up hot dog for her), the sounds of cleavers slamming down on a wood barbecue block filled the restaurant. Great sign number two.

Unfortunately, that optimism was quite met by the barbecue itself. I ordered extra brown but even still did not detect much wood smoke on the chopped pork. Or flavor, if I’m being honest. Only after a few dashes of the table dip and Texas Pete did I feel that the pork started to come to life. Even the red slaw was a bit on the bland side. puppies

The small tray only came with two hush puppies, though they were on the larger side to the point of splitting one with the Monkette. They were fresh but more on the savory end of the savory-vs-sweet spectrum.

College Barbecue has been smoking barbecue over Hickory wood coals since 1965 just a hop-skip-and-a-jump from nearby Catawba College where they presumably get their name from. If you’re in Salisbury, you couldn’t be blamed for going to there but next time my money would be going to Richard’s.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Pork – 3 hogs
Sides – 3 hogs
Overall – 3 hogs

Friday Find: Peter Zukiwski of Pitt County BBQ stops by the NC F&B Podcast

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Monk: Peter Zukiwski is a North Carolina-obsessed pitmaster from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada who has made several pilgrimages to the state for barbecue. During his last pilgrimage in late 2021 to talk with the NC F&B guys about his Pitt County BBQ catering business (named after the NC county where Greenville and Ayden are), his love for barbecue, as well his culinary experiences in the state.

Description: Peter Zukiwski of Pitt County BBQ has been studying NC BBQ for years to understand the beauty and technique of what makes the Old North State so special. Peter traveled to NC to visit all of the best producers in the state and dropped by the studios to talk about it. Listen to a one on one interview with Max and Peter as they talk about the various styles of what makes NC unique in the scope of BBQ across the land.