SC

Home Team BBQ – Charleston, SC

/ Barbecue Bros / 4 Comments

image
Name: Home Team BBQ
Date: 6/16/14
Address: 1205 Ashley River Rd., Charleston, SC
Order: Three meat platter (brisket, pork, ribs) with red rice and collards (link to menu)
Price: $18.25

I had heard a lot of great things about Home Team BBQ and owner/chef Aaron Siegel, so knew I had to check it out when I went with the fam to Charleston for a week. A recent Esquire article only confirmed my desire to check it out. A lazy afternoon presented the perfect opportunity to check it out with my Dad and Bro – two guys familiar with good ‘cue.

Upon arriving, I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Home Team has both indoor and outdoor seating and also has a nice bar. You order at the counter, and both the meat and the sides are sitting in steam trays and ready to be pulled (with the exception of the ribs, which are cut in the back). I found this to be a little bit of an odd presentation, and I’m not sure it helped the quality of the meal.

Digging in, I thought the pork lacked flavor – it was definitely moist (thanks to the steam trays), but I couldn’t really taste any seasoning or smoke on the meat. A lot of places like to “let the meat speak for itself” but I think truly great ‘cue needs to have that smoke flavor and a good rub only enhances it. The brisket was similar – moist, but in need of sauce. Home Team has several sauces – I stuck with the hot red – which helps, but overall, I was a little disappointed in the pork and brisket.

I had higher expectations for the ribs and while those lofty expectations weren’t quite met, I did enjoy them. I was first surprised that they were spare ribs, as I’d expect America’s best ribs to be baby back ribs, which I generally find to be more tender. The spare ribs were presented dry, and had a fair amount of seasoning, which I enjoyed. The ribs were fairly tender, and I did enjoy them, but best ribs in America, they are not.

The sides, on the other hand, were excellent. The collards were perfect and the red rice was enjoyable. The Bro said that the baked beans (which I didn’t sample) were the best he’d ever had, so that’s high praise. There were no hush puppies on the menu, which is always a disappointment, but each platter did come with corn bread muffins, which were also very good.

Overall, the meal at Home Team was a little underwhelming. So much so that I decided to walk around the building looking for a wood pile, as I didn’t think the food tasted wood-smoked. I did find said wood pile, so I think maybe the stream tray hid the smoke flavor. I don’t know much about the Charleston BBQ scene, but I think on my next trip, I’ll check out a new place instead of a return to Home Team BBQ.

-Speedy

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 4 hogs
Pork – 2 hogs
Brisket – 2.5 hogs
Ribs – 3 hogs
Sides – 4.5 hogs
Overall – 2.5 Hogs
Home Team BBQ on Urbanspoon
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image

Linkdown: 7/16/14

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

– Our State’s latest in the barbecue profile series Carolina ‘Cue is Hursey’s Bar-B-Q in Burlington (our review here)

Hursey’s Bar-B-Q in Burlington has a tale like this to tell. In the mid-’40s, patriarch Sylvester Hursey and a good friend were engaged in a night of bacchanalian revelry — they had a little party that got out of hand — and at some point it seemed like a good idea to find a pig and cook it, so that’s what they did. I imagine them in the still heat of a Carolina summer’s night, climbing over a splintered wooden fence and into the pigpen. The moonlight broke through the limbs of the giant oak and shone on the chosen pig, as big as any pig there ever was, and the two of them wrestled with it into the night, coming this close to losing their own lives in the process, but finally emerging victorious. They had their pig, and then they dragged it halfway across Alamance County and fired up the pit and cooked it.

– Indy Week reviews Ed Mitchell’s Que, saying it “lives up to the hype”

– Durham restaurant Piedmont is hosting a whole hog barbecue dinner next Thursday (h/t bbqboard)

– Eater guide to where to eat barbecue around Atlanta

– Also, some Eater photos from Heirloom Market on a Wednesday at 11:35am

– The latest update on The Great NC BBQ Map states that the maps will mail out the week of 7/28-8/1 to all Kickstarter backers; also, they have a new logo

– Really hate that I missed the first SC-TX BBQ Invitational because it sounds like it was legendary; no seriously it looked epic

Rodney Scott we love you and your pulled pork, but we must concede the star of yesterday’s SC-TX BBQ Invitational was clearly John Lewis of Austin, Texas’ La Barbecue. The man’s beef brisket was O-face-inducingly good (I saw more than one pair of eyes roll back into eaters’ heads). And the pit master’s presence was all thanks to the members of Charleston Brown Water Society (CBWS), whose Holy City Brewing hoedown came off smokingly well, despite intermittent rain threats.

image

Linkdown: 6/18/14

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

– A review of the Mighty Quinn’s in Clifton, NJ

– Hogs for the Cause out of New Orleans has added an event in Charleston dubbed Holy City Hogs

– Ed Mitchell’s barbecue made an impression on Zagat from the Big Apple BBQ a few weeks back (via)

Whole hog from pitmaster Ed Mitchell

North Carolina-based pitmaster Ed Mitchell recently opened Durham restaurant Que with his son Ryan. At this weekend’s event he prepared whole hog which was tossed in the classic North Carolina vinegar-based sauce, resulting in some of the most interesting and complex flavors we tasted. 

– New location, new management for Hog Day, this year in Efland

– Three Salisbury men have created Little E Sauces and Marinades, a line of rubs, marinades, and sauces that has been picked up by Food Lion

– A Beer Pilgrim’s review of 12 Bones Smokehouse in Asheville

– Marie, Let’s Eat! visits Lovie’s BBQ in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, that, while isn’t a Lexington-style joint, has a thin vinegar sauce somewhat reminiscent of a Lexington dip

There is only one sauce available, and it’s as close to a Lexington-style thin vinegar-tomato mix as you’re likely to find in Atlanta. I don’t know that it went all that well with the chicken, but the pork just loved it.

– The Great NC BBQ Map should be shipping out for customers to receive maps by the end of July, and the final tally of barbecue restaurants is kind of mind-blowing

How many restaurants ended up on the map? Guess. We don’t think you’ll believe the number….

FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY FOUR!!!!

Yes, you read that right. 434. And another 42 barbecue festivals and cook-offs! So get your bellies ready.

Linkdown: 6/4/14

/ Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

– Ed Mitchell’s ‘Que is now open; now just need to plan a trip to Durham soon…

The restaurant’s hours are Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and closed Sundays. It will operate extended hours on DPAC event and Durham Bulls game nights. 

– More coverage on ‘Que in this article from the Raleigh News & Observer

– Here’s the event menu for the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party in NYC this weekend

– A Carolinian tastes her first bite of brisket at la Barbecue in Texas (via)

– To All the Armchair BBQ Critics, from Carey Bringle of Peg Leg Porker (via)

– Elliott Moss of the upcoming Buxton Hall continues to practice his whole hog barbecue technique

– A couple of barbecue festivals are represented in this North Carolina Summer Festival Spotlight list from Our State Magazine

15. Blue Ridge BBQ & Music Festival
TRYON • JUNE 13-14
One of the most popular sanctioned barbecue competitions in the U.S. celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Per usual, there will be rides, games, two entertainment stages, and barbecue “cooked low and slow.”

10 a.m.-11 p.m. Admission free on Friday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. All other times: Adults $8. Children 12 and younger free. Harmon Field, 301 North Trade Street. (828) 693-84431 or blueridgebbqfestival.com.

– Austin’s top 6 sausages, according to Fed Man Walking

– Duh: Despite What You May Have Heard, South Carolina Is (Probably) Not the Birthplace of Barbecue

– Weekly food truck locations for Boone’s Bar-B-Que Kitchen, the current #1 on our Charlotte Big Board

Our current location schedule:
Weekly
Tuesday lunch at Coliseum Center Buildings 3 & 4
Wednesday lunch at Coliseum Center Buildings 5 & 6
Thursday lunch at Parkway Plaza

Monthly
Every 3rd Friday of the month: Food Truck Friday in Southend 
Friday, June 20th
Friday, July 18th

The Ashton Southend
Friday, July 25th at 5:30