Spain BBQ

July 18, 2012August 1, 2014 / Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

While in Spain earlier this month, I realized that while they do love their pig they primarily focus on cured hams, such as jamon iberico or jamon serrano. However, in the Mercado de San Miguel in Madrid Mrs. Monk and I stumbled upon a stand called “BBBQ Market” – with the three B’s standing for for butifarras (a type of Catalan sausage), bellotas (the finest type of jamon iberico), and barbacoa (the term from which “barbecue” originates, standing for cooking meat over an open flame). I can’t exactly recall which three sausages or sauces we picked, although I assure you we stayed away from the green mustard sauce (even in Spain, no mustard sauce!). However, I can tell you that the sausages were split and grilled alongside a bun (except for a particularly juicy type that wasn’t cut open while grilling) and we enjoyed them with some sangria in the market. Not the typical type of barbecue we blog about here, but just thought I’d share what Spaniards consider “barbecue” and how we escaped the heat for a short bit in Madrid.

–Monk

Myron Mixon Twitter

July 17, 2012August 1, 2014 / Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Myron Mixon is following the Barbecue Bros! We are honored to have the Man in Black following our humble Twitter account.

-Monk

Smokey Mtn BBQ & Grill – Bristol, VA

July 11, 2012August 7, 2014 / Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Name: Smokey Mtn. BBQ & Grill
Date: 7/10/2012
Location: Exit 7 Linden Dr., Bristol, VA
Order: Combo platter (pulled pork, brisket, smoked chicken), ribs, okra, hushpuppies (link to menu)
Bill: ribs (1/2 rack) – $10; Combo Platter (included two sides) – $10; sides included

Speedy: Before I start this review, I just want to lay a few things out. Yes, I was eating by myself. Yes, I ordered a boatload of food. But I had to try everything for the review, right? It wouldn’t be right to just do a partial review? DON’T JUDGE ME!

Rudy: Oh we can judge… but as a barbecue blog, we ought to judge why you didn’t order more.

Speedy: Phew. I feel better. Now that that’s out of the way, on to the review. Smokey Mtn. BBQ & Grill sits just off Highway 81 on the Virginia side of the city of Bristol, which is split between Virginia and Tennessee. I’m not really sure why people would come to Bristol outside of NASCAR races, but I find myself up here quite frequently – at least until this blog gets huge and the Barbecue Bros are offered their own show on Food Network. But anyhoo, right off the highway, you’ll see a gas stations and right behind that sits Smokey Mtn. BBQ and Grill. Honestly, it kind of looks like a dump. It is in its stand-alone building, but the structure just isn’t that impressive. The inside is well lit with plenty of space and a few tables for seating. To order, you go up-front and order at the counter and take your seat and the food is brought to you. I understand that dive ‘cue shacks are often the best in terms of food, but this building just doesn’t seem like your traditional old-timey ‘cue joint.

I chose to sample all of the meats for this meal. I had eaten at Smokey Mtn BBQ before but had only had the brisket and pork. Turns out I was skipping out on the better meats. The chicken was chopped and smoked and served with sauce on the side. You could definitely taste the smoke in the chicken and it was tender and with good flavor. The sauce choices are either spicy or mild and they are tomato based sauces, similar to western-style NC sauces. I think the sauce actually works best on the chicken.

Rudy: I tend to shy away from chicken or turkey because I find most places’ are dry. I usually go with other meats that I find consistently better. Good to hear the chicken was done well here.

Speedy: Generally, I’m the same way, but like I said, I was all about variety and literally eating as much food as humanly possible.

The ribs are also quite good. My biggest complaint about the ribs is that they are actually too tender, as you could pick up a bone and lose all the meat. They’re served wet – pretty heavily covered in sauce (again – either spicy or mild). I think the ribs would’ve been better with a little less sauce, actually, and maybe a more noticeable rub prior to smoking. Overall, though, I think the ribs are definitely worth ordering.

The pork, on the other hand, is a little disappointing. It’s a little dry and absolutely has to be sauced. In my opinion, the sauce doesn’t work quite right with the pork. I think it would be a lot better if there was a vinegar or Lexington style sauce option, as the pork is tender enough and pulled nicely – it just lacking moisture and sufficient flavor.

The brisket had a little more flavor but also was a little dry – requiring the sauce, though not as badly as the pork. It also could definitely stand to be a little more tender, as it was slightly rubbery. All in all, the brisket was better than a lot of brisket I’ve had, but I won’t go out of my way to have it again.
The sides are fine – nothing great, but they have all the staples. Of course the slaw is mayo-based, but at least they have hushpuppies.

Rudy: Nothing sounds too great here. When chicken is the only thing to write home about, you don’t have a top notch barbecue place in my opinion.

Speedy: I wouldn’t write home about the chicken either. Mama Speedy would be all “SON – I RAISED YOU BETTER THAN TO ORDER CHICKEN AT A BARBECUE RESTAURANT” and I would have to go to my room next time I visited my parents. But you’re right – not a top-notch barbecue experience.

Overall, if you happen to be driving through the Tri-Cities, Tennessee area and are craving barbecue, you could do worse than stopping at Smokey Mtn BBQ, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat here.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 1.5 hogs
Pork – 2 hogs
Brisket – 2.5 hog
Chicken – 3 hogs
Ribs – 3 hogs
Sides – 2 hogs
Overall – 2.5 hogs

Queen City Q – Charlotte, NC

June 11, 2012August 1, 2014 / Barbecue Bros / 1 Comment

Name: Queen City Q
Date: 6/8/2012
Location: 225 E. 6th Street, Charlotte, NC, 28202
Order: Fire Roasted Jumbo Wings, Super Q Platter (ribs, brisket, pork, sausage), Sis Gibson’s Famous Baked Beans with Neese’s Sausage, Eastern NC BBQ Slaw (link to menu)
Bill: Smoked wings – $0 (free with Foursquare check-in), Super Q Platter (included two sides) – $26

Monk: So three Fridays in a row hitting up barbecue spots. Is this becoming our weekly date night, Speedy?

Speedy: I guess so, Monk. And with three dates in the books, that makes you my longest relationship in years. I guess good ‘cue really keeps people together. But enough with the sappy stuff – let’s talk about the food.

Monk: Queen City Q occupies the old LaVecchia’s location next to Brixx Pizza in uptown Charlotte, and has updated the interior tastefully with dark wood and rustic accoutrements while utilizing the outdoor patio that seemed to be underused for a nicer seafood/steakhouse joint such as LaVecchia’s. On some nights, they even have live music outside, and that night was a guy and a guitar who, in addition to playing original songs, delighted Speedy by playing a cover of Shawn Mullins’ “Rockabye.”

Speedy: And a fantastic cover it was. Another bonus is the free appetizer on weeknights to those who check in on Foursquare…

Monk: …Which was an awesome surprise…

Speedy: …so Monk and I took advantage by ordering some wings for the cost of on the house. We ordered two flavors – PoPo (which is the house rib sauce) and chipotle apricot. The wings had good flavor, but I feel they could have used some dry rub of some sort prior to smoking. They were big and meaty and overall a great appetizer.

Monk: The pork had some nice bark on it, but was maybe a bit dry and required the use of one of the four sauces available on each table – Eastern NC Sauce, PoPo’s Sauce, Queen City Q Sauce, and SC mustard. Once sauce was added the pork was much better. Tellingly, the SC mustard sauce was the only one of the four that either Speedy or I didn’t try. Speaking of sauce, the brisket was slathered in it and unfortunately was the consensus lowlight of the meal. While a decent mix of fatty and lean, it seemed a bit overdone.

Rudy: That can always be a sign of bad brisket. If it is done right it doesn’t need much, if any, sauce. Whenever I see a place smother their brisket with sauce, I figure they are throwing in the towel.

Speedy: The ribs, on the other hand, were cooked perfectly. Great texture and flavor, they’re done St. Louis style with the sweet PoPo sauce. While they were very good, I’ve learned over the years that I generally prefer Memphis style ribs with dry rub, as the sweetness of St. Louis style can be a little much. I think that was the case here, though it didn’t stop me from eating several bones. The only thing on the plate that Monk and I finished completely was the sausage – and with good reason. It was served split and with a mustardy sauce. I’m assuming this was their SC mustard sauce, which to me, is only appropriate on sausage. But the flavor and texture were great. It definitely ranked among the top sausage I’ve had. And thankfully, Queen City Q has actual BBQ slaw on the menu that is really well done. It’s properly chopped and has really solid flavor with just a bit of spiciness.

Monk: Perhaps I’m a bit of a nancy, but the BBQ slaw was a little too spicy for me – still a welcome menu item though. Queen City Q has an abundance of sides, and I was slightly tempted to order the “Asian slaw” but I wasn’t sure whether or not it contained mayonnaise and didn’t want to face Speedy’s wrath. In the end, I went with their baked beans with Neese’s Sausage BECAUSE HOLY HELL IT HAS NEESE’S SAUSAGE IN IT OF COURSE I’M GOING TO ORDER IT. One thing that always gets our collective goat is if a restaurant lacks hush puppies, and unfortunately this is the case for Queen City Q. Sad, really, because otherwise this is a very solid barbecue restaurant all around.

Rudy: The last few places you guys have tried have had lots of different types of barbecue. The positive is that they have several for you to try, but the negative is that they don’t really have a specialty. Do you think that a restaurant would be better served to have a single specialty that they master or to offer variety that is all above average?

Monk: Good question…I can only speculate as to the reasoning why that is the case. If you are a new barbecue spot opening up, then I’ve noticed that the tendency is to go for “barbecue fusion” and have several types of meat cooked in the style of different regions. I would welcome a restaurant focusing on one specialty *COUGHGOODLEXINGTONBARBECUEINCHARLOTTECOUGH* and executing the crap out of it but I don’t really see it happening anytime soon.

Speedy: Another nice bonus was that all NC beers were $3. The restaurant has a nice variety of brews on draft and does a really good job of supporting local brews. The restaurant itself has a couple of bars and good TVs for watching sports. That makes it a great spot to go watch a game or eat before a Bobcats game.

Monk: I agree that it is a good spot to watch sports (some folks were taking in the US vs. Antigua and Barbuda World Cup qualifier the night we stopped in), but let’s get serious Speedy – you are the only one who actually goes to Bobcats games.

Speedy: Fair point…

Monk: So I think the consensus between the two of us is that Queen City Q and Midwood Smokehouse are our two favorite barbecue spots in Charlotte, right? Which is a little odd, considering they are two of the newer places – Midwood opening in 2011 and Queen City Q just earlier this year. But I think this is more of a case of the newer places doing barbecue properly, as opposed to any riot against the old on our part.

Speedy: That’s right, Monk. Both places did a great job creating their menus to highlight several different styles of barbecue. And while I’ll always be a chopped pork kind of guy thanks to being reared on Lexington Barbecue, it’s nice to have all of these options available. Thanks to the good food and great location, Queen City Q will definitely continue to be a Charlotte staple for me.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 4 hogs
Pork – 3 hogs
Brisket – 2 hogs
Sausage – 4 hogs
Ribs – 3.5 hogs
Wings – 3.5 hogs
Sides – 2.5 hogs
Overall – 3.5 hogs