reviews

Maurice’s Piggie Park – West Columbia, SC

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Name: Maurice’s Piggie Park
Date: 10/6/13
Address: 1600 Charleston Highway, West Columbia, SC 29169
Order: #2 Little Pig – BBQ pork, Carolina Hash over rice, homemade coleslaw, hushpuppies and dinner roll (link to menu)
Price: ~$13

If you’ve ever traveled in South Carolina, you may have seen billboards for Maurice’s Piggie Park. They are kind of hard to miss, littered over the major highways in and around Columbia with a photo displaying a barbecue sandwich with an unappetizing orange-ish brown-ish portion of barbecue. While this is mostly due to some unfortunate food photography, the mustard sauce can also be to blame. It is no secret that the Barbecue Bros are no fans of mustard in our barbecue but on a Sunday afternoon driving on our way to Charleston for a mini-vacation, Mrs. Monk and I took our chances.

The West Columbia location off Charleston Highway used to be a drive-in restaurant but nowadays the covered awnings are just used for normal parking though they do add somewhat of a retro touch along with the giant sign out front. Maurice’s has a fast-casual set up – you order at the counter and the food is brought to you sometime later. I ordered the Little Pig combo, made my sweet tea, and then sat down with Mrs. Monk and took in the ambiance.

Now, I do have quite a bit of experience with SC mustard-based barbecue, having spent a few semesters in college doing an engineering co-op and living in Greenville, SC. I enjoyed it at time but have since refined my palate quite a bit barbecue-wise. So this particular Sunday, at this particular Maurice’s, what was the verdict? Yea…I’m just not that into SC barbecue anymore. In fact, I’m now firmly in the “mustard doesn’t belong near barbecue” camp. The texture and chop of the barbecue was pretty okay but it was ruined by the golden mustardy sauce.

The hush puppies were not sweet, thus they were not for me. The coleslaw was mayo-based and average. But what I really want to talk about is the barbecue hash on rice. This is apparently the classic barbecue side in South Carolina and is kind of a meat stew-slash-gravy served on white rice. What’s actually in the gravy? You probably don’t want to know. I kind of liked it at first but the more I had, the more I was convinced it was not something that should accompany barbecue. It’s just…weird.

There are 14 locations of Maurice’s Piggie Park in central SC, but if you find your taste in barbecue to be similar to the Barbecue Bros (or at least me), you really don’t need to bother.

-Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 2.5 Hogs
Pork – 2 Hogs
Sides – 2 Hogs
Overall – 2 Hogs

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Maurice's Piggie Park on Urbanspoon

Hursey’s Bar-B-Q – Burlington, NC

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Name: Hursey’s Bar-B-Q
Date: 9/5/13
Address: 1834 South Church St., Burlington, NC 27215
Order: BBQ & Chicken combo platter with slaw, hush puppies, fries (link to menu)
Price: $6.70

My latest stop on the Historic NC Barbecue Trail was Hursey’s Bar-B-Q in Burlington, NC, a town familiar to anyone who regularly drives between Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill and Greensboro or Charlotte. Not to be confused with the fast food version of this restaurant in Graham off I-85/I-40 (housed in what I believe is an old Hardee’s), this joint is off Church Street near downtown Burlington in a brick building where it has resided since 1960.

Burlington is located in the piedmont between Greensboro and Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill but Hursey’s cooks open pit eastern NC style barbecue with a slight kick to its vinegar sauce. It has a nice chop and moistness to it, but lacked a little smoke. The table side dip was nice, if not essential. I ordered the BBQ & chicken combo since it was the special of the day and lo and behold received a thigh and drum of fried chicken. Which was actually pretty good, just not exactly what I was expecting. I should have clarified with the waitress before ordering or just gotten only barbecue in the first place.

The hush puppies were little orbs cooked to golden brown perfection but what really set it off was that they were served with honey butter (!!). If you have ever had perfect hush puppies with honey butter, then you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t – well man, you just haven’t lived. The slaw was mayo based and average – not much to write about it. The fries were fries.

In keeping with the eastern NC theme, my wife got the BBQ & brunswick stew combo and found the brunswick stew to be disappointingly bad cooked with what tasted like store-bought vegetables. Which was unfortunate since for the most part we enjoyed our visit there.

Hursey’s is just a few minutes off the highway and worth checking out if you are heading from the Research Triangle towards Greensboro or Charlotte. Just don’t mess with the brunswick stew.

-Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3.5 Hogs
Pork – 3.5 Hogs
Sides – 2.5 Hogs
Overall – 3 Hogs
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Hursey's Bar-B-Q on Urbanspoon

Farmer’s BBQ – Charlotte, NC

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Name: Farmer’s BBQ
Date: 8/21/13
Address: 2700 W Mallard Creek Church, Charlotte, NC 28262
Order: Lexington tray with hush puppies and drink (link to menu)
Price: $8.10

Farmer’s BBQ is located in a Highland Creek shopping center just north of the Charlotte University Research business park. Inside, the restaurant’s utilitarian guts is in stark contrast to its brick facade. With slightly-dated booths and tables on either side, you walk up to a counter to order and the food is brought to you shortly after. Yelpers have noted the restaurant’s “dinginess” in their reviews but I wasn’t bothered by the cleanliness (or lack thereof).

Farmer’s does Lexington-style trays (in addition to other meats not tasted such as chopped chicken, brisket, and baby back ribs), so naturally this is what I ordered. While I was waiting I did see the owner/manager hand-chopping the pork and the food even came in a Lexington-style tray – both positive signs. As for the pork itself, while it was moist and had a good texture it lacked smoke and was ultimately bland. I added some of the eastern NC vinegar sauce and while it was better in terms of flavor, the smoke was still missed. Curiously the eastern sauce was referred to as “dip,” a term reserved for Lexington-style table sauce, of which there was none. The red slaw was also slightly bland while the hush puppies were decent if unspectacular.

At this point in our mission to taste and rank the best barbecue joints in Charlotte, I don’t expect to find anything that will shake up the top of the rankings too much. In any case, you never know when you might be surprised. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with Farmer’s BBQ so you’ll have to go somewhere else if you are looking for great barbecue in Charlotte.

-Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 2 Hogs
Pork – 2.5 Hogs
Sides – 2.5 Hogs
Overall – 2.5 Hogs

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Farmer's BBQ on Urbanspoon

Farmer's BBQ on Foodio54

Boney’s Smokehouse – Denver, CO

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Name: Boney’s Smokehouse
Date: 8/9/13
Address: 1543 Champa St., Denver, CO 80202
Order: Monk: 2 Meat Platter (pulled pork, brisket) with collards and hush puppies; Speedy: 3 Meat Platter (pulled pork, hot links, brisket) with fried okra and hush puppies, 2 rib bones, 10 smoked wings (link to menu)
Price: $44 (yea, it was a lot of food)

Monk: Once in Denver on our aforementioned annual guys trip (Rudy, you were missed), Speedy and I insisted that the group try one barbecue restaurant despite Denver’s reputation for not having good barbecue.(*) After a quick Yelp search, we decided on Boney’s Smokehouse in the Central Business District in downtown Denver.

(*) Quick side story: the night before we ate at Billy’s Gourmet Hot Dogs – which was awesome – and asked a manager there where to find good barbecue and he noted with a straight face “Go to Texas.” That recommendation doesn’t necessarily apply to us, but point taken.

Speedy: Boney’s is located in a basement of a larger building smack in the middle of downtown Denver. However, it’s a big space, so it didn’t feel too claustrophobic, save for the low ceilings. It was a little dark, but all in all, a pleasant atmosphere. We waited in a short line to order at a cashier (where one can preview other plates being prepared) and placed our orders. We had to go to the bar separately to order beers, but there was a decent selection of local beers on draft, so this was no problem. We were given a number and picked our table where we waited for the food.

Monk: Having the small stomach that I do and knowing that we would be drinking beer the rest of the day, I went with the 2 meat platter. Curiously, both mine and Speedy’s platters came pre-sauced where everyone else’s in our party did not. The pork was moist and smoky and tender and was surprisingly good. Unfortunately, the brisket was quite dry and really just not good, more resembling roast beef.

Speedy: The ribs were served with a dry rub and no sauce. While I often like this style, I thought they really lacked flavor and needed to be sauced. And while I don’t like my ribs to literally fall off the bone, these could have been a little more tender. I wasn’t upset I got them at $2.50 a bone (and with Monk paying!), but I’m glad I didn’t get a whole order. The wings were sub-par and were the worst part of the meal (along with the brisket). They were definitely smoked, but the skin outside was too crispy – to the point that it was tough. My guess is that it was smoked at a higher heat than I’d like. Not really worth ordering. I did, however, really enjoy the sausage. While everyone who tried it in our group also enjoyed, some were saying, “well it’s tough to mess up sausage.” I couldn’t disagree more. To me, sausage can be made in so many different ways that it can be very good or very bad. This sausage had a good flavor and was smoked well, though it didn’t have the trademark juiciness that I look for in a great sausage – possibly due to being pre-cut. It probably was my favorite part of the meal.

Monk: The hush puppies and cornbread, presumably of the same cornmeal mixture, were both surprisingly good, as were the collards which did not taste as if they were taken out of a can.

Speedy: When I ordered the fried okra, the cashier told me I made a “great choice.” My guess is that people around those parts don’t eat a lot of fried okra. However, I am a seasoned expert in all things okra. As such, while I definitely enjoyed it, the okra didn’t stand out from any I’d had before. It was good, and I’d recommend that others order it, it did not exceed expectations.

Monk: After finishing our meal and talking through our thoughts on the barbecue with our buddies, we took an informal poll and none of us were that upset that we went to this barbecue establishment. The food was fine and not particularly offensive, but it just wasn’t great – not that our expectations were too high to begin with. As it turns out, Boney’s Smokehouse exactly lived up to the reputation of Denver barbecue.

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

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Boney's Barbecue on Urbanspoon