I'm Singing The Blues After Lunch Today

Last week I got a tweet asking if I had ever eaten at “Baby Blues BBQ” in San Francisco.  Since I hadn’t, I figured it was as good a time as any to venture over the Bay Bridge with my BBQ Buddy “Landarc” and give it a try.  As we drove down Mission we had high hopes.  Some of the best BBQ joints are in the more colorful parts of town.  And Baby Blues BBQ is in one of the most colorful areas of one of the most colorful cities on Earth.

Upon finding the address I thought we might have a winner.  The restaurant is located in an old Rexall Drugstore.  As you can tell from the picture signage is at a minimum.  Normally this would be a good sign.  A BBQ restaurant that can make itself known without garish signs has got to be good.  Right?  Well not necessarily.  Just as you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, you shouldn’t judge a BBQ restaurant by it’s exterior.  Looks can be deceiving.

It’s interesting that “Baby Blues” is a BBQ restaurant best known, I guess, for it’s hamburger.  A hamburger they were out of, by the way.  They were also out of chicken and initially out of Memphis Style ribs.  Upon sitting down we had a chance to hear the waitress explain to one table how Memorial Day was so busy they ran out of lots of stuff.  And because of how they smoke their meat it just takes too long to get it cooked.  (Come one guys, step up.  Get up early and smoke some meat) Landarc and I just looked at each other with a dumb founded look on our faces.  These two customers finished their drinks and left without eating.  While we were eating another pair of customers left when they were informed that there was no chicken.

We both ordered the “Hound Dog” combo platter.  The platter consisted of of 1/3 rack Memphis Style ribs, brisket, cornbread and one side.  Landarc chose cole slaw and I went with the collard greens.  And this is where the fun starts…

First the collard greens.  They were undercooked in some type of bitter tomato sauce stuff.  Not a hint of salt pork or ham hock to be found.  But best of all was they served them uncut in a little bitty bowl.  Check this out:

I received three or four leaves of collards just like this in a little bowl.  Pretty funny isn’t it.

As I mentioned we were initially told they were out of Memphis Style ribs and, as was proper, we were offered baby backs at the same price.  We accepted this offer.  The “kitchen” is visible from almost every table in the place so it was pretty easy to see the ribs were kept somewhere (not a smoker) and warmed on a grill.  Not necessarily a bad thing, especially since the ribs weren’t half bad.  The flavor was good, the meat wasn’t mushy and they came without sauce like they should.  They have a Southern Pride smoker and I’d like to give the ribs a try when there were fresh off the smoker.

The cornbread was a color I’d never seen before, it had more the appearance of ginger bread.  This odd color is due to the molasses they use in their cornbread.  If it wasn’t for the whole kernels of corn in the bread it would have been hard to tell it was actually cornbread.  But even though it didn’t taste like cornbread it was good.

We also got a helping of their beer braised brisket.  And what they did to that brisket was a violation of every BBQ rule I can think of.  It’s a crime to brutalize that piece of beef like they did.  I’ve eaten crockpot beef with BBQ sauce that was better.  It was cooked, shredded and obviously keep warm in the liquid it’s braised in.  The brisket was overcooked, dry and not edible.  Here’s the picture:

Just what in world are they thinking here?

The San Francisco location is the third spot to open.  The other two are in Southern California.  Don’t be fooled by all the awards they display on their website.  It appears the vast majority of those awards were earned by the other stores.

Would I go back to Baby Blues BBQ?  Probably not.  One, who wants to risk a trip to San Francisco only to find out they were out of food.  And I’d have a hard time sitting in the same room with people that desecrated brisket like they do.