The Best Heritage BBQ in America by DC's own Jim Shahin

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/best-month-ever/best-bbq-in-america

As in, joints that have been there for fifty years or more. And they're still turning out the same great food that brought people there in the first place. But feel free to debate it. (On Twitter or our Best Month Ever Facebook app, if you'd like.)

By Jim Shahin

Kansas City

Arthur Bryant's
1727 Brooklyn Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri; 816-231-1123; arthurbryantsbbq.com
EST. 1946
Step into the fluorescent light, and you walk into Kansas City barbecue history: Arthur Bryant worked for Henry Perry, who opened the city's first BBQ joint in 1908. The international destination (thanks to Calvin Trillin calling it "possibly the best restaurant in the world") hasn't changed much over the years. You still eat your hickory-and-fruitwood-smoked "burnt ends" (chunks of crisped brisket exterior), doused in a unique gritty-textured, vinegar-sour orange sauce, while sitting on red banquet chairs at a Formica-topped table. Despite its fame — visitors include Steven Spielberg, Jack Nicholson, and presidents Truman, Carter, and Reagan — some enthusiasts maintain the food is overrated. Even if that's true, you don't go to Wrigley for the baseball.

Photo Credit: ctj71081/Flickr

Gates Bar-B-Q
1221 Brooklyn, Kansas City, Missouri, 816-483-3880; gatesbbq.com
EST. 1946
It's a chain. Or a chain-ette — six of them around the city. And it is pretty corporate in its feel, with its aggressively friendly counter-folk, asking "Hi, may I help you?" when you've barely stepped through the door. But cofounder George Gates also worked for KC BBQ father Henry Perry, and all six locations still slow-cook their meats on actual pits, not in ovens. The pork ribs are meaty and juicy, but the signature here is the sauce. Whether original or extra-hot, it is a velvety-smooth elixir that sinks into the meat rather than sitting on top, creating a meat-and-sauce match made in hog heaven.

North Carolina

Skylight Inn
4618 South Lee Street, Ayden, North Carolina; 252-746-4113; skylightinnbbq.com
EST. 1947
This is a joint with chutzpah. Founder Pete Jones, who died in 2006, erected a dome atop his tiny spot and a billboard proclaiming the town of Ayden "The Bar-B-Q Capital of the World." Pete's grandson, Samuel Jones, now runs the widely acclaimed place. He traces the family's commercial barbecue history to the early 1800s, which reflects the perfection of their eastern North Carolina style of whole-hog cookery. Hogs are halved, then splayed atop a grate over oak embers overnight. A thermometer isn't used. The crisp-skinned pig's doneness is determined solely by feel. A counter-man thwacks the meat with a cleaver, brightens it with a splash of vinegar and salt, and piles it onto a hamburger bun with coleslaw or into a paper bowl with a slice of unrisen cornbread and a side of slaw. That's it. No ribs. No brisket. No pulled pork. No need.

Lexington Barbecue #1
10 Highway 29-70S, Lexington, North Carolina; 336-249-9814; no Web site
EST. 1962
You smell it before you open the door to the white barn, that aroma of wood-smoking pork shoulders. Wayne Monk opened Lexington the day before Thanksgiving in 1962, and Nathan Monk continues his grandfather's tradition. He cooks the pork shoulders for nine hours over hickory embers shoveled every 20 minutes into the bottom of two giant hand-built brick pits. Lexington #1 epitomizes western- or Piedmont-style North Carolina barbecue: pork shoulders (not hogs), a thin ketchupy vinegar sauce, and a similar ketchupy vinegar concoction (no mayonnaise) in the sandwich-topping coleslaw. The style is so iconic that in 1983, the North Carolina House of Representatives designated Lexington the "Hickory-Cooked Barbecue Capital of Piedmont, North Carolina."

Photo Credit: roadfood.com

South Carolina

Hite's Bar-B-Que House
240 Dreher Road, West Columbia, South Carolina; 803-794-4120; hitesbbq.com
EST. 1957
They call it a house, and so it is: just a simple white-walled bungalow. But if these walls could talk, they'd tell secrets of classic South Carolina barbecue. Mustard sauce is slathered on the whole hog while it cooks above smoldering hickory. Catch that? Mustard, hog, hickory. That is SC. As is fat back and pig feet and ham hocks and neck bones, all of which Hite's serves. Well, at the right time of year. They're on its "Seasonal Fresh Pork Menu" (November-Easter). Don't worry, you can get its hog skins any time.

Memphis

Charlie Vergos Rendezvous
52 South 2nd Street, Memphis, Tennessee; 901-523-2746; hogsfly.com
EST. 1948
It doesn't serve barbecue in the low-and-slow sense. Rather, barbecue in the ribs-grilled-over-charcoal sense. Not barbecue? Whatever. Fact is, even though it breaks with tradition — they also baste with a light vinegary bath and dust after cooking with an oregano-spiked spice mix — the Rendezvous has been synonymous with Memphis barbecue for generations. The restaurant became beloved when, after Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated, Vergos refused to leave his downtown location for the suburbs, as so many other businesses did. In fact, he invested in downtown development. Vergos died in 2010, the same year Nation's Restaurant News designated the Rendezvous one of America's 50 All-American Icons. His kids run it now and still cook the ribs over hardwoods, like their old man.

Illinois

Lem's Bar-B-Q
311 East 75th Street, Chicago, Illinois; 773-994-2428; lemsbarbq.com
EST. 1954
Chicago is a ribs-and-hot-links town. The two preferred types of ribs are baby backs and rib tips — those fatty, gnarly, tender morsels at the end of a rack of spare ribs. Lem's is all about the tips, which it cooks in the classic Chicago way — in a tempered-glass-enclosed, steel-bottomed smoker known as an aquarium pit. Detractors say this tiny South Side institution has lost a step since two brothers opened it more than a half-century ago. But for a bite of Chicago history, it's still worth placing an order through the bulletproof glass.

Arkansas

Jones Bar-B-Q Diner
219 West Louisiana Street, Marianna, Arkansas; 501-766-2631; no Web site
EST. 1910
One of the oldest black-family-owned restaurants in the country, this two-table eatery won an American Classic award this year from the James Beard Foundation. Owner James Jones slow-smokes pork shoulders over hickory and oak embers in closed cinder-block pits for 12 hours. He squirts a bit of homemade vinegary sauce into the smoky shreds, tops it with homemade coleslaw, and serves it between slices of white sandwich bread. Don't worry about getting anything else. It's the only item on the menu.

Photo Credit: Travis Nelson/Southernis.com

Texas

Kreuz Barbecue Market
619 N. Colorado Street, Lockhart, Texas; 512-398-2361; kreuzmarket.com
EST. 1900
Started as a meat market that sold some barbecue, Kreuz (pronounced "Krites") evolved into a barbecue joint that sells some meat. The Schmidt family bought the market from Charles Kreuz in 1948. Once famous for not offering sides, the menu has expanded to include German potato salad, sauerkraut, and beans. But it still doesn't offer sauce for its sumptuous salt-flavored brisket, oak-smoked in horizontal pits.

Photo Credit: Paul Lowry/Flickr

Louie Mueller Barbecue
206 West Second Street, Taylor, Texas; 512-352-6206; louiemuellerbarbecue.com
EST. 1949
One bite of its succulent, black-peppery, post-oak-bark-smoked brisket or juicy, coarse-ground spicy sausage, and you understand why this movie set of a place in this movie set of a town has earned both a James Beard American Classic and a Road Food Icon award. The founder's grandson, Wayne Mueller, operates the venerable Texas institution. He smokes his meats in old, well-seasoned closed pits. This is your daddy's — and granddaddy's — barbecue. Wayne vows to keep it that way.

Kentucky

Moonlite Bar-B-Q
2840 West Parrish Avenue, Owensboro, Kentucky; 270-684-8143; moonlite.com
EST. 1949
With its buffet and spacious dining room, Moonlite may not conform to your idea of a barbecue joint. But you know its pedigree is true when you learn that it keeps a parking space in its lot reserved for a forklift to move cords of hickory wood to the concrete pits. The buffet is crowded with country ham, chicken, ribs, brisket, salads, vegetables, and dessert, but make a beeline for the house specialty: mutton. The rich meat is cooked for 12 hours over hickory coals, basted throughout with a lemon-vinegar-Worcestershire sauce, then served chopped or pulled. The chopped version is a heap of toothsome meat threads. The pulled version mixes a crunchy crust with soft, rich interior meat. How often are you in Owensboro? Get both.

Photo Credit: roadfood.com

Georgia

Fresh Air Bar-B-Que
1164 Highway 42 South, Jackson, Georgia; 770-775-3182; freshairbarbecue.com
EST. 1929
Sawdust carpets the concrete floor in the weathered wood building. The tables are half-century-old two-inch pine, cut from trees in the area. Hams are the thing here, and they are cooked in pits over hickory and oak for up to 24 hours. (They used to be cooked over an open pit in the floor. Changes...) The meat is pulled, chopped, piled on a bun, and doused with a ketchup-and-vinegar sauce. Come for the sandwich. Stay for the Southern delicacy, Brunswick stew. If Fresh Air didn't exist, barbecue hounds would be forced to invent it.

Alabama

Dreamland Bar-B-Que
5535 15th Avenue, East, Tuscaloosa, Alabama; 205-758-8135; dreamlandbbq.com
EST. 1958
There are eight outlets now, but the original is still the best. Just head up Jug Factory Road, pull into the dirt parking lot, pull open the door to the low-slung joint, and order a slab of the juicy pork bones cooked fast over hardwoods and bathed in Dreamland's fantastic tart and runny tomato-vinegar-based sauce. You'll know why it's called Dreamland. John "Big Daddy" Bishop opened the place the same year Paul "Bear" Bryant arrived as coach of the Crimson Tide. The coach and the ribs both became legends.

Archibald's Bar-B-Q
1211 MLK Blvd, Northport, Alabama; 205-345-6861; no Web site
EST. 1962
When you utter the phrase "barbecue shack," this dirty-white cinderblock shed off a main road that fits maybe six patrons is very much like what you imagine. The sliced pork shoulder and meaty pork ribs, drizzled with Archibald's signature tangy and thin sauce, are slow-smoked over hickory, just as they were when former steel-mill worker George Archibald and his wife, Betty, a paper-mill worker, opened the place a half-century ago.

Photo Credit: Southern Foodways Alliance/Flickr

Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q
1715 6th Avenue, SE, Decatur, Alabama; 256-350-6969; bigbobgibson.com
EST. 1925
Don't hold the modern, comfortable look against this place. Big Bob Gibson has serious BBQ credentials. Dry-rubbed pork shoulders sweat over hickory wood in brick pits for up to 18 hours. (A Southern Pride gas-fired smoker resides on the premises, but we’re assured that it's used for catering and infrequent overflow only.) Among its many awards, the Big Bob Gibson team, led by pitmaster and cookbook author Chris Lilly, has won three pork championships at Memphis in May, a premiere barbecue contest. You'll want to get the 3-and-a-half-hour smoked whole chicken dipped in Gibson's famous tangy white barbecue sauce, a regional specialty. Oh, and the pies are made daily from scratch.

Photo Credit: Southern Foodways Alliance/Flickr

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/best-month-ever/best-bbq-in-america

Safeway National BBQ Battle (20th Anniversary!)

It's that time of the year again, the Safeway National BBQ Battle is back again! This year is the 20th Anniversary and our third year judging. We've been attending for longer and one of the great things about this competition is due to its amazing location (smack dab in the middle of Pennsylvania Ave...White House in one direction and U.S. Capitol in the other) it has the ability to bring in a lot of people that would otherwise never go to a BBQ Competition and capture the imagination of someone that just likes BBQ from time to time, and turns them into an aspiring BBQ aficionado, judge, or competition cook.

Now to be fair, there are a decent amount of people that don't come for the BBQ but come to enjoy the games, music, and general festive atmosphere. So here is a general run down of some of the highlights that we think makes it worth your while to come down June 23-24.

Food:

- Unless you are judging, know some folks on a team, or have really pretty eyes you likely won't get to try any of the competition BBQ that is being cooked up for the judges. However there is an excellent selection of BBQ to purchase on "Restaurant Row". If you are wondering what to try, we can recommend Pork Barrel BBQ, Hill Country BBQ, and Memphis BBQ. All three have local locations and Pork Barrel BBQ and Memphis BBQ are local stores (non chain), so if you get hooked they have locations you can go to for your fix.

Music:

- Throughout the weekend there will be plenty of musical acts on multiple stages to enjoy. Three to highlight include Cowboy Mouth, Soul Asylum, and the Chuck Brown Tribute Band. In all there will be 30 bands on 3 stages over the weekend.

Other:

- Also if you have kids, there are plenty of special attractions like the NBA Nation and Jump Works.

So come on down to Pennsylvania Avenue June 23rd and 24th and enjoy the 20th Safeway National BBQ Battle. We will also be live tweeting much of our experience in and out of the judging booth, so follow along @BeltwayBBQ and we hope to see you out there!

Fantastic Video By Southern Living on Famous Southern Pitmasters

First Take: Memphis BBQ - Crystal City

This week was a quick lunch time venture to the newly opened Memphis BBQ in Crystal City. Below are some pictures of the ribs as well as the sides. Full review of both Memphis BBQ and Pork Barrel BBQ to come as they both hit their grooves in the coming weeks. I will however quickly say that the ribs from both places have very different tastes, go out and try both and let us know what you think. You can also find some first impressions at twitter.com/beltwaybbq.

Opening Night at Pork Barrel BBQ - Del Ray Alexandria

Pictures of ribs, the smoker, mac and cheese, and the general festivities at the long awaited grand opening of Pork Barrel BBQ!

We will be doing an official review in the coming weeks or so.

Better late then never....an exercise in que-patience!

Back in August of 2009 the guys over at Pork Barrel BBQ and Mike Anderson ("Mango Mike") announced that they would be opening Pork Barrel's first restaurant in Del Ray Alexandria.

Flash forward to today, November 28th, 2011. Pork Barrel BBQ, after much delay and anticipation, will be opening it's doors tomorrow (November 29th) to the hungry masses. We've been counting down and keeping track with regular stops by the restaurant for what is actually years now. We can't wait to visit, and visit often.

Pork Barrel has won numerous national and local awards and the expectations for their brick and mortar establishment are no doubt high.

Once they get into their groove we will do our review, but until then a huge congratulations to the Pork Barrel team for getting it done and open. It's been a long road, with a lot of the delays being no fault of their own, but it's finally here for all of Northern Virginia and beyond to enjoy!

Review: Hill Country BBQ

In what was probably the most anticipated BBQ debut in recent D.C. history – Hill Country Barbecue, a long time NYC staple,  finally opened a few months ago. Before giving them our once over and have them endure our critical eye, we wanted to give the chefs time to get settled, prime the smokers and find their rhythm -- an all too important part of running a successful restaurant, let alone succeed with a genre of food in which the difference between juicy, dry, and inedible is just a couple of degrees and a handful of minutes.

But after giving Hill Country a couple of weeks and personally enduring the onslaught of our friends beating us to the buffet line and rubbing it in (the price we pay for being self-proclaimed BBQ aficionados), we finally decided to give Hill Country a whirl before settling in to watch a tradition like none other… Sunday at the Masters.

For this Que excursion, we were joined by our friend, and leader of the Southern BBQ Boys, Art Richey. Unlike previous reviews, we were too tempted by the line service to only eat just ribs.  However, per our tradition – this review will only deal with ribs and sauce.  (Though, since you are asking – we enjoyed the spicy sausage and the lean brisket was much better than the fatty brisket, which was too fatty for our liking.)

From the get-go you know that Hill Country is a different BBQ environment.  A huge sprawling place with ample seating and live music on a regular basis.  On our visit there was no band, but decent Texas inspired country music being played over the speakers.  Photos of individuals (we assume employees) wearing Hill Country attire adorn the walls and and BBQ theme accessories are spaced throughout.  The joint is very clean, but with a somewhat chain like feel.  It was missing that rustic, simplistic feel that most bbq places tend to favor. However we must give credit for a very impressive smoker set-up that customers can easily see while ordering, something you won't see in many BBQ joints.

But, as dedicated readers know – on our blog it is not about the décor of the place – its about the food.

Set-up as a twist on the buffet line, ribs are purchased by the bone (sausages by the link and brisket by the pound).  Sides, veggies and deserts are also ordered for an extra charge on a side buffet.  Sauces are provided on the table. Drinks are served in mason jars, a nice touch.

 

The ribs were well cooked with nice bark and a solid smoky flavor. The meat came off the bone just the way it should, with a gentle tug.  In fact, stacked up to the other things we tried the ribs stood out as our favorite.  The rub flavor profile was a touch heavy on the salt but more complex favors can easily be found.  The sauce did not really stand out to us but did give the ribs a little something extra.

Presentation/Visual: 9

Tenderness: 8
Taste/Smoke Flavor: 8

Sauce: 7

Overall Impression: 8

Recommendation: Overall, Hill Country Barbeque is a good treat, but can be overly expensive if you are not careful.  With all of the food waiting to be butchered sitting in front of you, it is easy to over order here so don’t let your eyes trick your stomach into ordering too much. Great place to take a large group and share entrées.

410 7th Street Northwest
Washington D.C., DC
www.hillcountrywdc.com/

What makes D.C. great....

Thanks to a reader for submitting this video and for letting us know about this BBQ cook that operates on the weekends in SW on the Wharf. We look forward to checking this place out:

Happy Birthday America!

What better way to celebrate our nation's independence than with fireworks and BBQ.  Its an American tradition.  Let us in on your plans for the 4th.  Are you firing up the smoker yourself or picking up from your favorite place around the area?  We are looking forward to pulled pork sliders and a view of the fireworks in our nations capital.

Is this DC's newest BBQ Chef?

Myron Mixon does Conan. The Post's Jim Shahin reported earlier this week that Myron is scouting locations in the area.

As of this morning, Myron has not replied to our requests for comment. We'll continue to track this story.

New Opportunites

Driving around the Beltway and eating our way through the region can be a difficult job, but hey someone has got to do it.  Finding time in both of our schedules to visit and write up a reviews creates some lag time.  Which is why we want to change things up a little bit.  We want to hear from you!

From our first post, we've only jokingly pretended to be the ultimate authority on BBQ.  But we have never fancied ourselves as the law on what is and what’s not good Que.  Everyone has an opinion and that is what makes this site so special to us.  We have truly appreciated hearing from others about our reviews, both good and bad, but now we want to give you a chance to get in on the action.

We are expanding BeltwayBBQ.com from a site strictly dedicated to our reviews to a BBQ community portal of sorts. 

Yes, we will still post our musings and reviews as often as we can, but we hope you will consider submitting guest posts to our site as well.  Please send us your own reviews about your favorite establishments, tips and techniques from your backyard, your grandfather’s rub recipes, and anything else Que related. 

After a quick review by our editorial team, will post your entry to BeltwayBBQ.com.  No shameless advertising for your products, no pleas for guests to visit your restaurant over others.  No PR professionals allowed.  We truly want this site to be a place for like minded bbq aficionados to talk trade and swap stories.  No minimum requirement or limit to the amount of posts you can submit.  You don’t even have to submit your name, just your voice. The more you can tie it into our local BBQ community, the better!

Please send your guest posts to guestvoices@beltwaybbq.com.

"Que" & A w/ Grilling with Rich!

We are starting a new series of "Que" & A's with local BBQ bloggers, restaurant owners, reporters, etc. We hope that this will give you a better feel for some of the personalities in the DC BBQ community and perhaps spur some ideas to get involved. So for our inaugural post we've contact Rich of Grilling w/ Rich. This weekend is Rich's one year anniversary of his site - Congrats!

BeltwayBBQ: What is your preferred style of BBQ?   

Rich: To be honest, I haven't found my preferred style of barbecue as of now, I am still exploring and I think that is what is keeping me interested and coming back for more! 

BeltwayBBQ: What is your favorite Beltway BBQ restaurant and why?

Rich: My favorite Beltway BBQ restaurant is actually a new comer to the BBQ scene and that is Hill Country. There are many reasons why I like Hill Country. Number one is that I really love the bbq atmosphere; it really feels like you are at a great barbecue restaurant in either Texas or Memphis. Another reason why I like Hill Country is because you get to choose the amount of food that you want to eat rather than just someone slapping a standard amount of food right on your plate, oh and the food is AMAZING! 

BeltwayBBQ: How did you get the idea for "Grilling with Rich"? 

Rich: It actually wasn't my idea. Last July I had a good friend from college visit me in Alexandria, and I wanted to grill something up so I did some googling to see what I can make and I decided to make Grilled Pizza. Before she came over I did some additional research on how to put together Grilled Pizza, and after researching a lot and watching a lot of videos on Youtube she was impressed that I was able to put it together with ease and she told me that I needed to write down my process on a blog and share it with others and then Grilling with Rich was born.

BeltwayBBQ: What's been your best/worst BBQ experience?  

Rich: Hmm… Great question, so far my worst bbq experience is not being able to put together a recipe successfully and it coming out horrible. When I can't do something or figure it out I really hate it. The worst thing that I have made is a duck and smoked cheese those were really bad. The best barbecue experience was attending my fist ever barbecue competition in Memphis. It was really cool to see a lot of people that I have been communicating with on twitter and over emails etc, and finally putting a face to a Twitter handle. Another reason why it is was amazing was because even though I am relatively new to the barbecue world everyone really opened their arms to me and treated me like I have been around the barbecue world for years. 

BeltwayBBQ: How would you describe Beltway BBQ?

Rich: I would describe Beltway BBQ, as an up and coming barbecue and truly is a mixture of a lot of different barbecue cultures. Being that people from all over the country come to live in here it is shown in the different barbecue restaurants and also barbecue cultures. 

BeltwayBBQ: What is your standard BBQ order?

Rich: Haha, for this Jewish boy from Long Island, New York I LOVE a standard pulled pork sandwich with little or no mayo slaw on a standard potato hamburger bun. 

BeltwayBBQ: What is your oldest BBQ memory or a memory that got you hooked?

Rich: The oldest barbecue memory that I had was when I was in college and I went to a restaurant and I got beer can chicken and as I was eating it I wondered to myself what are these amazing flavor profiles and how did they do it? And it wasn't until last summer that I really got hooked with both the atmosphere of the bbq culture and also amazing flavor profiles.

On the road again...

We interrupt this silence to bring you an important message…   DOH!!!! 

We have heard from a number of you in the last couple of days.  "Where the hell have you been?"

Rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated.  No we didn't move.  No, our stomachs haven't burst from too much Que.  We didn't grow too big for our britches nor have we grown dissatisfied with the Beltway BBQ offerings.  The truth is, we have just been lazy.  New jobs, new apartments (the loss of our smoker) and the general mishmash of life has kept us preoccupied with everything but purveying D.C.’s finest Que. 

In the days to come we will update you on a few BBQ joints we have hit over the last couple of months and have no fears we will soon be hitting the road again to try out more of the area’s plentiful offerings.

New restaurants, the addition of bbq trucks and much more. 

Jack's Old South Coming to DC?

Jim Shahin over at the Post has a great write-up of this past weekends BBQ Battle. Of note, Safeway BBQ Battle Grand Champions (Congrats) Pork Barrel BBQ are planning to open their restaurant later this summer (we hope, please).

But perhaps the biggest tidbits of information Jim provides is that the famed Myron Mixon (Jacks Old South) is scouting locations in DC to open up a restaurant.

The other piece is that the MIM Style competition might be back to the Safeway BBQ Battle next year, which would be great in our opinion. Having both KCBS and MIM style in one weekend in our nations capital makes it a very unique event that teams from around the country traveled too. This year however some of the better teams from farther away didn't make it because it was "just another KCBS event" as we've heard from some teams. We hope that the competition will be returned to previous years format!

Also check out this month's Washingtonian Best Of edition. KBQ Barbecue won "Best Ribs" and we couldn't agree more.

Rolling PORC

Check out We Love DC's brief write up on the PORC Mobile, looks delicious!

UPDATE:  Got the pulled pork the other day and have to say it was pretty tasty. Well smoked and the sauce has a nice kick to it. Worth grabbing one if the truck is in your area during lunch time!