Honeyfire BBQ

A Quick Lunch at Honeyfire Barbeque Co.’s Stall in Downtown Nashville

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Name: Honeyfire Barbeque Co.
Date: 1/31/25
Address: 5055 Broadway Place, Level 2 South Stall 8, Nashville, TN 37203 (Assembly Food Hall)
Order: Pulled pork sandwich with sweet corn pudding (link to menu)
Pricing: $$

Monk: The Monk family gymnastics travels brought us to Nashville recently, and Mrs. Monk insisted on an afternoon on Broadway on our first day in town. Arriving in early afternoon, she had already scouted out Assembly Foodhall with the assumption that it would satisfy each of our tastes; I usually get a bit of a moan from the Monkettes when I announce we are going to a barbecue restaurant and I was saving that for the next day (more on that next week).

Assembly Foodhall has a prime location in downtown Nashville around the corner from Broadway and across the street from the Ryman. It features stalls from local Nashville eateries and bars like The Pharmacy Burger, Prince’s Hot Chicken, and Hattie Jane’s Creamery over two floors and like just about every other place in Nashville, regularly features live music.

The youngest Monkette (the pickiest eater among us) got a fancy grilled cheese, Mrs. Monk and the elder Monkette shared sushi rolls, and I got a lighter lunch of a pulled pork barbecue sandwich and a side at Honeyfire Barbeque Co.

The pork sandwich was dusted with a sweet rub and a squirting of their honey barbecue sauce but that was somewhat offset by the topping of a mayo-based coleslaw. All in all, this was a fairly satisfying sandwich albeit not overly smokey. My assumption is that it was smoked in a gasser at their main location in the Bellevue neighborhood and trucked into downtown.

Speaking of the Bellevue location, Speedy actually checked out Honeyfire back in 2020 and tried a 3-meat combo of pork, brisket, and ribs. His main complaint overall was a generally high level of sweetness. Though to be fair, he did add a heap of of additional sauce onto the pork thinking it was a vinegar sauce.

The small cup of corn pudding was on the sweeter end of the spectrum while not being overly sweet, and a nice complement to the sandwich.

Honeyfire Barbeque Co. was not the main barbecue joint I was looking forward to in Nashville, but I certainly did not regret visiting as it’s decent ‘cue that is served quickly (a plus in a food hall setting). And there’s better barbecue down the street at Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ at Chief’s, but in a pinch it’ll do the trick.

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

Honeyfire BBQ – Nashville, TN

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Name: Honeyfire BBQ
Date: 11/13/20
Address: 8127 Sawyer Brown Rd #304, Nashville, TN 37221
Order: Three meat combo – brisket, pork, ribs, baked apples, fries (link to menu)
Pricing: $$

Speedy: I recently heard about Honeyfire BBQ when talking to a friend about restaurants with good whiskey selections. Honeyfire sits in the Bellevue neighborhood, which is in the western part of the city. I don’t frequent this part of town too often, but I found myself with a leisurely Friday afternoon and decided to bring back one of my favorite work traditions – long lunch Friday.

Honeyfire sits in a pretty sizable shopping center, which is a bit of a red flag for me from a barbecue perspective (where do they do the smoking???), but seeing a sizable woodpile walking in made me feel better.

Monk: But is the wood pile for show or for realsies? If its all the way in the front of the restaurant then surely its not the wood they are using for smoking. My guess is they are probably using a Southern Pride (or similar gasser) and throwing in a stick or two occasionally from a similar wood stack in the back to get a little wood smoke on the meats.

Speedy: The restaurant is sleek and clean, so I walked up to the counter and placed my order. I was asked wet or dry ribs (dry, duh) and fatty, lean, or mixed brisket (mix), which I also consider to be a good sign. 

The food was brought out quickly and it was time to dig in. I’ll start with the ribs. The three bones that came were St. Louis style cut, dry with visible rub sprinkled on. They were meaty and cooked well (maybe slightly overdone), but the rub was a little challenging to me. This will be a theme of the review, but the rub was just very sweet. It seemed to be brown sugar based and mixed decently with the flavor of the ribs, but the sweetness was just too much to handle. The pulled pork was a similar story, as it was finished with a dusting of the same rub. The pork was tender, had some good bark mixed in, but was just too sweet for my liking. There was a sauce provided on the side, so I thought maybe some good vinegar sauce would offset the sweetness. Well one taste and I learned this was no vinegar sauce – it was actually a honey barbecue sauce. So what started as a little too sweet became way too sweet. 

Monk: Wonder if the folks behind Honeyfire have a competition background, where the winning flavor profile tends to be on the sweeter side. Sounds like they could stand to add a vinegar sauce alternative.

Speedy: The brisket was a different story. Rubbed with just salt and peppery, there was (thankfully) no sweetness. The bark on the brisket was tasty and the overall flavor was good. The brisket, like the ribs, was slightly overcooked, so just a touch dry, but overall, it was a pretty nice effort.

As far as sides go, mine were fine. However, one reason I like to get baked apples with barbecue meals is to have a little sweetness to go along with savory meat. In this instance, the meat gave me all the sweetness I could handle, so the apples remained unfinished.

Overall, Honeyfire BBQ is a tough one to rate. I think they actually do a pretty good job hitting the flavor profile that they want to – it’s just not the right profile for me. However, if you’ve got a sweet tooth, I’d definitely recommend checking it out.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Brisket – 3 hogs
Pork – 2.5 hogs (.5 point deduction for the sauce)
Ribs – 3 hogs
Sides – 3 hogs
Overall – 3 hogs