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!

Meat Week 2011

A growing local tradition is once again upon us - meat week. The good folks over at Capital Spice have the details. We hope to stop by and in particular interested in seeing what Pork Barrel BBQ and PORC Mobile have to offer.

UPDATE:
Check out more details for the upcoming week.

Also at least one of us will be at Mango Mikes on Feb 1st to preview Pork Barrel BBQ. TBD about some of the other nights/days.

Stay hungry my friends.

New Developments

We have a couple reviews we will finish up soon and post, but wanted to update you all on some PORC news. Apparently there will be a new food truck rolling around DC serving up some smoked goods. The folks over at Urban Daddy have a brief write up and you can find more about PORC here.

Also we got a nice mention in the PG County Gazette you can check out here.

Washington Post's Year in BBQ

Jim Shahin of the Washington Post provides us with the BBQ year in review.

We hope you have a Happy New Year and thank you for your continued support. Can't wait for new BBQ to enjoy and review in 2011!