reviews

Live Oak Barbecue – Austin, TX

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

image

Name: Live Oak Barbecue
Date: 1/20/14
Address: 2713 East 2nd St, Austin TX 78702
Order: ¾ pound of moist brisket, tea (link to menu)
Price: $11.50

Rudy: “I hope you want brisket”

Monk: Wait, wait, wait a minute…is that really Rudy? The prodigal Barbecue Bro has returned!?!?

Rudy: …yes Monk, I’m still here. Just been a little busy. Anyways…

That was how I was greeted when I entered Live Oak, and as a matter of fact, that was exactly what I was in the mood for. Which was a good thing, because they had sold out of everything else by the time I had arrived. This was the 2nd time I had attempted to eat at Live Oak. The first time, they were sold out of everything.

Walking into Live Oak, you feel like you are in an old hole-in-the-wall barbecue joint. Picnic tables with rolls of paper towels on them, chalkboard menu, and tea and lemonade in a plastic ‘serve yourself’ stand. It feels like barbecue and it smells like barbecue, so I had high hopes for the brisket. I was sorely mistaken. The cut that I got was from the end of the brisket, which is normally the best part because of all the flavor that you get from the bark. But there was no flavor. It just tasted like burnt meat. There seemed to be no seasoning whatsoever added to the meat. Add to the blandness, much of the meat tasted dry. This was not the experience that I was expecting, especially with how often and how fast they tend to sell out.

Monk: Interesting. Normally, selling out of meat is a good sign for a joint…clearly that didn’t seem to be the case here.

Rudy: I did not get any sides, because the only one they had was baked beans, and I am not a baked bean fan. So, I’d like to say that this review is only a partial review and that I would need to go back to give a full opinion. However, with all of the great places nearby to get great barbecue, I can’t see justifying going back again after the brisket that I had.

Monk: We received a reader question a few months back asking if we go to a place three times before reviewing, and the long and short of Speedy’s answer was: “Hell naw, I ain’t got time to waste with bad barbecue.” Seems like that applies here.

Rudy: I agree. I think it depends on how much promise (if any) you see in your first visit. Do you need to put your hand on the hot stove 3 times before you realize it’s a bad idea? The best thing going for Live Oak is their atmosphere. Not just inside, but they also have plenty of outside seating on 2 patios. It would be a great place to go on a warm day with friends to enjoy barbecue. But you might want to get there early, otherwise you might get stuck with some disappointing brisket.

Ratings:
Atmosphere – 3 Hogs
Brisket – 1 Hog
Overall – 2 Hogs

image

image

image

image

image

Live Oak Barbecue on Urbanspoon

Ten Park Lanes – Charlotte, NC

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

image

Name: Ten Park Lanes
Date: 1/17/14
Address: 1700 Montford Dr., Charlotte, NC 28209
Order: Speedy: Burnt ends plate with fries and green beans; Monk: Pulled pork plate with slaw and mac and cheese (link to menu)
Price: Speedy: $13; Monk: $11

Monk: You might be asking yourself why the Barbecue Bros would bother reviewing barbecue from a bowling alley. I mean, you think of bowling alley food and you think of greasy pizza and hot dogs that have been cooking on rollers for too long and served on stale buns. Well, we assure you that is not the case here – Ten Park Lanes was actually named one of the best new restaurants in Charlotte in 2012 by Charlotte Magazine and was included in the Charlotte Observer’s Barbecue Bracket last spring, making it to the Elite 8 before being defeated by eventual winner Kyle Fletcher’s.

Speedy: Of course the atmosphere differs from most ‘cue joints, since it’s a bowling alley. Honestly, I wouldn’t go eat at Ten Park Lanes unless I was bowling, but the menu is perfectly suited for the atmosphere. Monk and I were having a guy’s night with a few buddies and the combination of bowling, beers, and barbecue was perfect for the event.

I decided to order the burnt ends, since we don’t often see them here in North Carolina. And I wasn’t disappointed. They were tender and didn’t need any additional sauce, but the flavor was lacking of any smoke or true barbecue taste. I was a little surprised that they were pulled instead of chunked, but it didn’t negatively affect the flavor. Overall, I thought my order was good – I might even order it again – but it doesn’t stack up to the burnt ends at Midwood Smokehouse, which is really the only other place I’ve had them (at least until my Kansas City trip this summer…)

Monk: The pulled pork was very moist and had decent smoke. It didn’t need it, but I did try it with some of the Piedmont Blonde housemade sauce. I mean, this was legitimately solid barbecue coming from a bowling alley (who do smoke their barbecue in house, presumably in a gas smoker). Although the slaw was mayo-based, both it and the mac and cheese were also quite good. Ten Park claims that all of the food is scratch made, and I believe it. The one thing that I do want to try next time is the Que Stacked Mason Jar, which is a jar stuffed with pulled pork, southern slaw, and BBQ baked beans.

Speedy: At the end of the day, you go to Ten Park Lanes for the bowling, but it turns out that the barbecue is a very pleasant surprise. I’m not ready to crown it king of Charlotte barbecue, but it’s a great compliment to rolling a few (in our case, very few) strikes.

Monk: Sorry Speedy, but this is not ‘Nam. This is bowling. There are rules. And you were over the line on those rolls…

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Pork – 3 hogs
Burnt Ends – 3 hogs
Sides – 4 hogs
Overall – 3 Hogs

image

image

Ten Park Lanes on Urbanspoon

Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q – Concord, NC

/ Barbecue Bros / 2 Comments

image

Name: Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q
Date: 1/3/14
Address: 7791 Gateway Ln NW, Concord, NC 28027
Order: Mr Jim’s Deluxe Combo with Carolina-style pork, beef brisket, and baby back ribs with slow-cooked collards, cole slaw, and sweet tea (link to menu)
Price: $23.50

Monk: In the reader comments to our December Big Board, a reader had a couple of Charlotte-area suggestions including Jim ‘N Nick’s (albeit the Steele Creek location instead of the Concord Mills location I visited). While we don’t do a lot of chains here on Barbecue Bros, on the first Friday after the holidays I decided to throw caution into the holiday weight gain wind and give it a try.

Jim ‘N Nick’s is a pretty well-respected barbecue chain restaurant out of Birmingham, Alabama with approximately 30 locations in 7 states. Owner Nick Pihakis, a James Beard nominated restaurateur for 4 years straight, is a member of the Fatback Collective, “a group of entrepreneurs and scholars who champion heritage ingredients and cooking techniques” and has also put his money where his mouth by creating a “pork-farming pipeline” of cross-bred heritage pigs with the mission to create a better quality product for their customers. Recently, their Charleston, SC location supported Rodney Scott on the first stop on his In Exile tour.

If you want a particular type of barbecue, chances are Jim ‘N Nick’s serves it. In the past, I’ve been criticized by my fellow Barbecue Bros for not trying enough when I visit a restaurant, so on this day I went for it with the three meat combo platter with Carolina-style pork, beef brisket, and baby back ribs. As for other meats, “classic pulled pork,” hot links, smoked ham, chicken, turkey breast, and spare ribs are also available.

The pork and beef came pre-sauced and topped with a pickle (weird and not ideal for me) but were plenty moist on their own. The “Carolina-style” pork was “chopped with a vinegar-pepper sauce,” however the eastern North Carolina flavor didn’t come through. The brisket was chopped and the larger pieces had a decent tug but overall it wasn’t particularly smokey and the bark lacked flavor. The three baby back ribs were slightly pinker than I’d prefer but were brushed nicely with a sweet/tangy sauce. The two table sauces were an “original concoction” as well as a “hot & spicy” sauce. Of the two, I preferred the hot & spicy used sparingly with the pork.

JNN claims all of their sides (or “trimmings” as they are referred on the menu) are made daily with fresh ingredients, and I could tell based on my meal. The table gets a complimentary basket of cheese corn muffins, which were really good and had a nice sweetness to them. Unfortunately, these muffins appeared to be in lieu of hush puppies, which are not on the menu and thus not cool with me. The slow-cooked collards had chunks of pork and certainly did not taste like they came out of the can. The slaw had a mayo/vinegar base, was sprinkled with fresh pepper, and had a nice crispness to it. Both of my sides were fantastic.

Speedy: I’ve been to Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q twice – once for lunch while working in Fort Mill, SC in 2010 and once for dinner in Birmingham, AL in 2008. Unfortunately, I don’t have any documentation around my meal, as this was BBB (Before Barbecue Bros), but the fact that I was willing to go back means I didn’t hate it. However, I don’t feel a specific need to revisit. Incidentally, I did visit Dreamland BBQ while in Birmingham and found it to be severely overrated. Bring on the hate.

Monk: For chain barbecue (with a drive-thru no less), I haven’t had too many places better than Jim ‘N Nick’s, who by the way also had excellent service. That being said, Jim ‘N Nick’s is still a chain which means they cook their barbecue in a gas smoker. They may use hickory wood during the smoking process (which did create a nice waft of smoke in the parking lot as I exited my car), but ultimately it’s still roast pork (and beef). It’s also a bit pricey – their prices could be cut by about 20-25% (maybe more) – and it won’t make you forget about real pit barbecue, but it’ll definitely do in a pinch.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Pork – 3 hogs
Brisket – 3 hogs
Ribs – 2.5 hogs
Sides – 4 hogs
Overall – 3 Hogs 

image

image

image

image

Jim 'n Nicks on Urbanspoon

JJR’s BBQ Shack – Charlotte, NC

/ Barbecue Bros / 2 Comments

image

Name: JJR’s BBQ Shack
Date: 12/22/13
Address: Bank of America Stadium, 800 S Mint St, Charlotte, NC 28202
Order: Pulled pork sandwich
Price: $8

Monk: Speedy and I are in the second year of being Carolina Panthers season ticket holders, so I figured we should at least check out the lone barbecue option at the stadium even if expectations weren’t very high going in. So for the last home game of the regular season, we decided to finally check out JJR’s BBQ Shack, named in honor of Jerry Richardson, founder/owner of the Carolina Panthers. And it came out about as expected. The pork, while it did have a good texture to it, lacked moisture and smoke, even in the bark. It absolutely required additional sauce from the condiments area of the concourse, which I neglected to add before heading to my seat. Speedy, I know you don’t have much more to add, but what say you?

Speedy: For my order, I initially asked what the “double stack” was, assuming it was a combo brisket-pork sandwich. I was told by the guy up front just to order it, only to find out that it was really just a pulled pork sandwich with extra pork, bacon, and nacho cheese. Due to my intolerance of dairy, my desire to avoid cardiac arrest, and the fact that it looked disgusting, I quickly backtracked from the order and switched to the normal pulled pork sandwich. Monk’s description above is spot on – there’s not much more to say about it. I did have a bite of Papa Speedy’s brisket sandwich, which I thought was slightly better. It came sliced and lightly sauced, which I think was the difference. Still though, I won’t be rushing back to try it again.

In fact, I think for the PLAYOFFS…

Monk: PLAYOFFS?!?!

Speedy: …Monk and I might just have to make our own ‘cue. Until then, keep pounding!

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – N/A
Pork – 2 hogs
Sides – N/A
Overall – 2 Hogs

image

image

image

image