If you’ve read this blog for very long you know that good reviews of BBQ restaurants are few and far between.  As an official “BBQ Snob” I just don’t come across restaurants that warrant praise very often.  This weekend I’m in Des Moines, Iowa for the 14th Annual Niman Ranch Hog Farmer Appreciation Dinner and tonight I had the good fortune to eat at a wonderful BBQ restaurant.  Smokey D’s…

Smokey D’s has everything a good BBQ restaurant should have.  You can smell the wonderful sweet aroma of good BBQ from a block away and you can smell the wood smoke in the parking lot AND the restaurant smells like BBQ.  Everyone that knows good BBQ knows you can tell you’re going to have at least a decent dining experience before you’ve left the parking lot.

Smokey D’s has everything a good BBQ establishment should have.  Great food, a good vibe and fantastic  customer service.  It’s Thursday night and the restaurant was very, very busy.  Darren Warth, one of the owners, said it was a little slow.  This is a good sign…a packed restaurant and it’s a slow night.

I ordered the two meat dinner combo with brisket, chopped pork, mac & cheese and beans.  By the time I filled my drink cup and sat down our food was making its way to the table.  Super fast service is not always a plus in my book.  This often times means the food is sitting under heat lamps or drowning in sauce in warming pans.  It was obvious when the food arrived this was not the case.  Sauce on the side and everything freshly cut and plated.  BBQ perfection so far…

 The Food…

First and most importantly the meat was served with sauce on the side.  This is always a good sign.  When a restaurant serves it’s meats without sauce I’m always happier.  In my mind this means they aren’t trying to hide something.

The chopped pork was flavorful with little pieces of bark mixed in.  It wasn’t soggy or over cooked.  It was very good.  The brisket was good.  Nice beautiful smoke ring with just a hint of smoke (more on that later).  I prefer my brisket a little “juicier” than it’s served at Smokey D’s.  I don’t mean the brisket was dry, it wasn’t, I just like to get some of the fat cap on my brisket.  Smokey D’s serves it with almost all the fat trimmed off.  It’s not bad this way, in fact, most people probably prefer it without the fat, I just like the fat.

You can tell a lot about a BBQ restaurant by the sides they serve.  I ordered the beans and mac & cheese.  Both were excellent.  The beans weren’t cooked to mush and had great flavor.  The mac & cheese was awesome.  I loved it.  There was a little spice to it.  Not really a “heat” spice, but it did tickle the tongue on the way down.  Darren shared with me the pepper that’s in it and I can’t wait to give it a try at home.  (Since I didn’t ask if it was a “secret” I won’t share it just in case it is)

Now for some BBQ Restaurant Review hyperbole!

The cornbread is like crack.  I could sit down at Smokey D’s and eat just this stuff.  It is without a doubt the best cornbread I have ever eaten.  It’s just cornbread.  No peppers, no pieces of corn…just cornbread.   The cornbread does have a little sweet crunch on the top, but that’s just sugar sprinkled on the batter before baking.  Darren said they have their own pastry chef in-house.  Whoever this person is  should win the Nobel Cornbread Award!

And I ate a whole peach pie!  Well not really.  They don’t have peach pie at Smokey D’s, but they do have these amazing Peach Sliders.  And they tasted great too.

The restaurant is full of BBQ Championship trophys.  The gang at Smokey D’s don’t just run a first class BBQ restaurant they are amazing competition BBQ cooks.  And winning the Grand Prize on the 2nd Season of BBQ Pitmasters is proof enough these folks know their BBQ.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Larry Gaian

There’s a voice in my head that I hear when I’m thinking about eating at a BBQ restaurant.  I call it the BBQ Force.  It steers me away from horrible dining experiences.  Yesterday was one of those times when the Force spoke to me.  I should have listened.

I pulled into Smokey’s Kitchen and performed my normal “check list” inspection.

• Smoker visible –Check
• Smoke visible from smoker –Nope
• Woodpile –Nope
• Smell of BBQ –Nope

It was at this point the voice began whispering to me. “Larry!  Don’t go in that restaurant.  You’ll be sorry.   Larry…use the Force.”  I didn’t listen to my inner BBQ voice and parked the car and walked in.  And that’s when Smokey’s Kitchen in Truckee, California failed the final part of the “check list.”

• Smells like smoke –Nope

My Inner BBQ voice tried once again.  “Larry!  It’s not to late to leave.  You’ve got to leave now.”  Did I listen?  No, I didn’t.  Should I have?  Yes, I should have.

I checked out the menu board and chose a two meat combination.  When I do try a BBQ restaurant I usually choose pulled pork and brisket.  By having the same meats I have some basis for comparison.  I asked the guy behind the counter if the brisket was chopped or sliced.  Since he told me it was sliced I decided to go ahead with the pulled pork and brisket.  For sides I picked cole slaw and beans.  Cornbread also came with the combo.

It was a beautiful day in Truckee so I decided to sit outside.  It was a few minutes later, when my plate appeared, that I realized I had neglected to ask a very important question.  “Is the meat already sauced?”  It was at that very second I realized my Inner BBQ Voice was correct and I should have listened.

The pulled pork and brisket came covered in sauce.  Take a look at the picture you can’t really tell where the pulled pork stops and the brisket ends.  What a mess.

The meats were cold and lacked any real BBQ flavor.  No rub…no smoke…just sauce.   And the sauce was just a sweet BBQ sauce that lacked any real spice flavor.  Not much better than the generic store bought stuff people find appealing.

The brisket was sliced.  Sliced about as thin as a brisket can be sliced.  Since the slices lacked any trace of a fat cap it appears they use a trimmed flat instead of the whole packer.  There was a little smoke ring on the brisket and some resemblance of bark on the pork but not much.

I love cole slaw!  You’ve got to really screw up to serve a cole slaw I don’t like.  The cole slaw at Smokey’s Kitchen is so full of cilantro that it’s almost inedible.  I’m not one of those cilantro haters.  I love cilantro.  But cilantro doesn’t even come close to matching the flavor profile in the meat/sauce.  It I’d ordered some nice fish tacos this slaw would have been perfect with a little chipotle sauce.  But with BBQ it failed.

The beans were good but the bar, by this point, was pretty low.  They had nice flavor and appeared to have been made fresh.  The corn bread was awesome, the best part of the meal and the only thing I completely finished.

Smokey’s Kitchen has quite an extensive menu.  And there’s a good chance some of the other dishes are good.  But whatever you do stay away from the pulled pork and brisket.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Larry Gaian

…as I drove past Sierra Smokehouse this afternoon  at lunch time I saw something that gave me hope.  First, there was the smoker on a trailer out front, a real live smoker isn’t a guarantee but it’s a good sign.  Second, there were wisps of smoke coming from a fenced off area around back (yes, I looked before I went it).  And third, there were three Placer County Sheriff’s cars in the parking lot.  I’ve come to trust the taste buds of most law enforcement officials.  So I decided this was where I should have lunch today.

Walking into Sierra Smokehouse my optimism continued to soar.  The place smelled like smoky BBQ.  The cashier area had bottles of their sauce for sale, so I knew they were proud of it.  Funny thing is though, the cashier area is as close as I got to their sauce.

Along with some of the traditional BBQ dishes the menu contained a nice selection of salads and sandwiches.  The more traditional BBQ dishes were Texas brisket, pulled pork, St. Louis cut ribs and chicken.  Sides included Sweet Potato Fries, Mac & Cheese, Cole Slaw and Baked Beans.

As I was reading over the menu I heard another good sign!  The lady behind me exclaimed to the waitress, “My parents are from Tennessee and this is the best BBQ sauce I’ve ever had.”  Now I’m always glad to hear people enjoying their food, and it’s especially good to know that having parents from Tennessee makes you a BBQ sauce expert. This just made me even more excited to try their BBQ sauce.

I ordered the Texas brisket, cole slaw and baked beans.  While I was waiting for my lunch to arrive I noticed something I had never seen in a BBQ restaurant anywhere.  There was no sauce on the table.  There wasn’t even sauce in the waitress stations.  No little side table with bottles of sauce.  This, in my mind, didn’t bode well for my brisket.  If there was no sauce to be found anywhere that must mean it was coming on the plate.  Right?  Did this mean I was getting brisket smothered in sauce?

The service was very good and I got my lunch within a couple of minutes.  And much to my surprise there was no BBQ sauce on my plate.  There was no BBQ sauce on my brisket.  Not even a little plastic cup of sauce.  Now I don’t usually sauce my brisket but I sure wanted to taste the sauce, and since I’ve never had to ask for sauce in a BBQ restaurant I decided to see what happened.   You know what happened?  Nothing.

I prefer my brisket sliced and “juicy” with a little of the fat cap left on.  As you can see the brisket came out sort of chopped and sort of chunked.  This is normally a sign of leftover, warmed over brisket.  But since it didn’t have the texture of warmed over brisket I’m not really sure if it was or not.  The brisket had a nice smoke ring, but not much bark.

The brisket had a nice texture and tasted pretty good.  It tasted of smoke, but lacked the typical brisket “rub” flavor.  It’s  obvious they don’t use much seasoning on their brisket.  It’s kind of a shame because if they had seasoned the brisket it would have been pretty good.  Instead I had a plate of brisket with a little plastic container of  au jus.  Yes, you read that right AU JUS.   And because the au jus didn’t have any smoke taste chances are it didn’t come from the brisket juices.

Often times in a BBQ restaurant the beans are one of the biggest disappointment.  Usually when beans are bad it’s because the pitmaster has taken canned beans and tried to doctor them up.  Canned beans can be doctored in a suitable manner but a great deal of care and thought needs to used.  In the case of Sierra Smokehouse the beans weren’t canned, if they were they need a new source for them, because these beans were raw.  I’m not talking al dente, I’m talking crunchy.  There’s no excuse for serving under cooked beans.  The flavor was okay, but they were not edible.

The slaw was just plain boring.  Mayo based with no seasoning.  Just a splash of vinegar would have punched this slaw up to an acceptable level, and some salt wouldn’t have hurt either.  The slaw turned into raisin salad by the time I got to the bottom of the dish.

The sad thing about my lunch at Sierra Smokehouse was that all the food was close to good.  If just a little more detail had been paid to the food it could have been elevated to a nice place.  But it appears to me that they are just going through the motions.  I gather from the comments I heard from the other tables that I was probably the only person in the place that didn’t like the food.  And this fact just re-enforces my theory that most people just don’t understand real BBQ.  Because this wasn’t good BBQ, it wasn’t all bad, but it wasn’t good either.

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.

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.

Charlotte and Matt Gonzales, the owners, are the perfect BBQ hosts.  They took the time to explain everything to my lunch companion (The famous LandarcBBQ of Twitter fame) and basically made us feel at home.  A BBQ restaurant can have great food, but if it doesn’t have that backyard, family type atmosphere then it just can’t be considered great.  And Charlotte and Matt have insured that atmosphere with their friendly, outgoing nature.

But what about the food…

I rarely eat a a BBQ restaurant more than once.  For this reason I like to try a couple of different meats.  At Phat Matt’s they have have single meat plates, 2 ways, 3 ways and a 4 way.  LandarcBBQ and I each ordered the 3 way with brisket, pulled pork and pork spare ribs.  Our two sides were collard greens and beans.  Toss in some plain sliced bread and we had a complete meal.

As you can see from the picture above this was a serious plate of meat.  Normally in restaurants when you order a combination plate you get smaller portions of each of the meat, but not at Phat Matt’s.  When you order a combo plate you get a full order of each meat.  We got three large, thick slices of brisket, four rib bones and a huge portion of pulled pork.  It was unbelievable how much meat we got.

Okay the atmosphere was great and the portions were extreme but best of all the food was outstanding.  Because of some dietary restrictions of one of the owners they use no salt in their cooking.  I know this sounds really stupid.  Salt in BBQ rubs is thought by most everybody to be essential to getting the best flavor out of the meat, especially brisket.  But without a doubt you couldn’t tell there was no salt.

The pulled pork was seasoned with a light vinegar sauce that enhanced the flavor to a point where you just wanted to gobble down a whole plate full.  The pork spare ribs were done the right way.  No “fall off the bone” meat at Phat Matt’s.  The meat came off the bone with just a light tug of the teeth.  The ribs were just a tab undercooked for my preference.  Don’t get me wrong they weren’t raw, I just like them a little “doner.”  Lightly sauced the ribs had a flavor that was again superb.

The brisket!  Look at the bark on this brisket.  Not only do they not trim all the fat (flavor) of their brisket but they also rub it with a secret rub (we make a token effort to find out what it was) that gives the brisket the most outstanding bark I’ve ever seen in restaurant brisket.  Next time I’m at Phat Matt’s I’m eating a plate of brisket.  It was that good.

We also had a taste of the deserts.  It wouldn’t be BBQ without some peach cobbler.  The peach cobbler was good enough that you might just want to go there just for the desert.  We also split a slice of the best pecan pie I’ve ever eaten.  I’m not a pecan pie expert but I do know I liked this one.  It’s make with no corn syrup.  It had a nice sweet flavor that didn’t overpower the pecans on the top.  All the deserts are made at Phat Matt’s by Charlotte.  No store bought, already made stuff at Phat Matt’s.

Phat Matt’s is open six days a week (closed on Monday) and is located at 3415 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, California (510) 879-7294.  You can follow them on Twitter.

Usually I keep the brisket liquid and inject the next brisket with it.  This time out I decided to give making risotto with the brisket liquid.  The brisket juice is very concentrated so you need to add a water to it.  Just add enough water to the brisket juice to give you enough broth for whatever  risotto recipe you use.

After you saute the onions and mushrooms you need to brown the rice a little. Once the rice has been browned you add a ladle or two to the rice and start stirring.

Keep adding liquid and stirring as the rice cooks and absorbs the brisket broth.

When it's almost done added the mushrooms into the risotto.

Okay, I know it's not the most attractive but it sure did taste good.

When you first walk into Pat’s you know this is a legit BBQ restaurant.  The smell of smoke and meat greets you as soon as you walk in the front door.  It just smells like BBQ.  To many times over the years I’ve walked into BBQ restaurants and there is no indication they serve BBQ.  That’s not the case with Pat’s.  It’s BBQ through and through.  From the pictures on the walls to the picnic tables with buckets of plastic silverware and rolls of paper towels.

I ordered, as did my wife and guests, the three meat combos.  Between the four of us we had most of the meats and sides covered.  I was a little disappointed they were out of the mustard greens I ordered.

Three meat combo. Pork spares, brisket and pulled pork.

Since the sauce was in squeeze bottles on the table I was confident Pat’s would not make the cardinal mistake of a lousy BBQ restaurants, meat that comes to the table sauced.  And sure enough the meat came naked.  No sauce.  The pulled pork was juicy without being mushy from overcooking or warming.  It had a nice flavor in addition to a smoke ring and real honest to goodness “bark” on the meat.

The brisket was good.  It was tender and had a very mild smoke flavor.  Again, a smoke ring and nice bark told me this was really smoked brisket.  I like my brisket a little more fatty than served at Pat’s.  But, the brisket served was far from dry.

Of the three meats the ribs were my least favorite.  Pat’s serves untrimmed, full pork spare ribs.  The flavor was excellent.  Just like everything else the flavor was just meat, seasonings and smoke.  But they were just a tad undercooked.  Not raw, mind you, they just came off the smoker a little to soon.  The meat was a little chewy and didn’t come off the bones as clean as it should.  I’m not a fan of “fall of the bone” overcooked ribs, but on a properly cooked rib the meat should come off the bone with a little tug of the teeth.

Two sauces are served at Pat’s.  Mild and a “Sweet & Hot” sauce.  The “Sweet & Hot” was fantastic.  The sweet hit the front of the tongue immediately while there was just a little heat on the back of the tongue.  Great sauce that complimented all three meats.  The “mild” sauce was very, very mild.  Almost void of flavor.  But that is probably just because of my palate.  My wife and guests enjoyed it.  Oh, and the corn bread was good too!

Cole Slaw and Red Beans & Rice

Close up of the cole slaw

Between us we had cole slaw, red beans & rice, mash potatoes & gravy and bbq beans.  The sides were awesome.  The cole slaw had a great deal of flavor and was not drowned like most slaws in liquid.  The flavor would have been perfect on top of a pulled pork sammie.  The red beans & rice were good, but did lack the kick normally in the dish.  The mash potatoes were fresh and covered with brown gravy that must have been made with brisket drippings.  I don’t normally associate mash potatoes with BBQ but these worked quite nice.  The BBQ Beans had the appearance of “doctored” canned beans but didn’t have the normal mushy consistency canned beans get.  They were flavorful and loaded with meat.

You can follow Pat’s BBQ on Facebook.  Don’t let their Facebook page fool you though.  They are proud of their food, even though the five night a week entertainment seems to get top billing over the food.   You can read more about Pat’s BBQ at www.patsbbq.com.

How good was Pat’s?  Well, I’ve eaten at a lot of BBQ restaurants and I’d only return to a handful.  And Pat’s is one of those I would go back to.