|
A few months ago I used my charcoal chimney and a small cooking grate to grill some sausages. Cooking directly on the chimney worked perfectly and I’ve used it a couple of more times to grill small amounts of meat. The thought came to me that I could use the charcoal chimney to heat the cast iron skillet and fry my catfish. I lit half a chimney of Kingsford charcoal and let it ash over. I knew the charcoal would get the cast iron skillet hot, but I wasn’t sure how long it would burn so added five or six unlit briquettes to the already hot charcoal. A couple of Canadian BBQ enthusiasts were willing to bet some BBQ sauce on the outcome of the first USA vs Canada hockey game. Ultimately Canada won the Gold but I scored too. Here’s a shot of the first package of winning arriving.
So let’s get the hyperbole out of the way. Phat Matt’s BBQ is the second best BBQ restaurant I’ve ever eaten at. I’ve eaten a lot of really bad restaurant BBQ, I’ve eaten a lot of mediocre restaurant BBQ. But only twice have I eaten great restaurant BBQ. Up until this week the only other place I have eaten great restaurant BBQ was Dinosaur BBQ in Rochester, New York. Dinosaur may remain my all time favorite BBQ restaurant but Phat Matt’s is a close second. There are a couple of things that make a BBQ restaurant great. Certainly the food is critical, and we’ll get to that in a minute, but atmosphere is important. I’ve eaten at a lot of BBQ restaurants and most of the them are decorated as you would expect a regional cuisine type restaurant to be decorated. But the staff and cooks are all pretty sterile. Phat Matt’s has a rather sterile decor but it’s more than made up by the friendliness of the staff. |
     This site is a member of The Smoke Ring
The Smoke Ring BBQ member sites     Join the BBQ ring or browse a complete list of The Smoke Ring All you need to know about BBQ A service of netRelief Consulting   |
|
Site Contents Copyright © 2010 by TheBBQGrail - All Rights Reserved |
|
