1966 - 67
Phenix City, Alabama
Owner: “Chicken” Comer, a Black gentleman of indeterminate age

Pork shoulder BBQ in a mustard based rub and a vinegar/mustard base sauce.

It was during the time of segregation in the Deep South; however, Mr. Comer cried all the way to the bank everyday!

I know that BBQ IS judged on the meat first, then the rub. - I admit mustard based cuisine is an acquired taste, but of its genre’, I really liked it!

Anyone else familiar with the style? Or even Mr. Comer?

quote:

Originally posted by tleddy:

Anyone else familiar with the style? Or even Mr. Comer?

Not familiar with Mr. Comer, but I have always associated mustard-based BBQ sauce with South Carolina. My favorite mustard-based sauce came from the Atlanta area - Loose Lip Larry's, which is sadly no longer available.

If you are ever in Houston
Please try these suggestions

For Brisket
Truth
Feges
Cork Screw
Pinkertons

For Baby Back Ribs
On Friday and Saturday Only
Tin Roof

Barbecue Chicken
Goode Company


These places in my opinion are Extraordinary
Regards

I'll add Roegel's Barbecue on Voss to your Houston list. He makes a mean brisket.

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Originally posted by ibanda:
I'll add Roegel's Barbecue on Voss to your Houston list. He makes a mean brisket.

^^ yes, he also is on Katy.
Also Killens and Blood Bros among many Houston greats.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
OK Joe's (now Joe's KC I believe) has always been the area gold-standard for KC-style que.

Depends if you're looking for fast food or gourmet. It's good fast food, but there's some "gourmet" places that I put higher like Char Bar/Meat Mitch (same place but one's MO and the other's KS).

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Q39 I think is inconsistent, same with JackStack's.

Q39 is Overpriced AF. Jack Stack is far more worthy of their prices on their fried mushrooms alone much less Prime Beef Ribs and Duroc Pork.

quote:

Arthur Bryant and Gates was woefully overrated.

Bryants and Gates are excellent sandwich places with fantastic fries. If it isn't something you can put between bread, don't order it. You'll just be disappointed.

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I'm a fan of The Woodyard despite they use a direct heat method.

Woodyard's a good one, but in that style I'm a bigger fan of Danny Edwards BBQ just west into KCK. They're only open for lunch, but they've got great smoke.

This thread is also why I prefer my hometown's bbq. People here are saying "Texas for Beef, Carolina for Pork..." and so on. We do everything at a high level and are a bit of a melting pot. You can go places for a "KC Masterpiece" style BBQ, but if that's all you're checking out, you've only scratched the surface. About the only thing we don't do that's not seafood (we're pretty far from both coasts) is Tri-Tip. I've really wanted to try some Tri-Tip, but odds are I'd have to go to a Brazilian Steakhouse for that, and I know Em Chamas doesn't have that in their rodizio.

OMG people. Green spaghetti!

Barb's in Lockhart, TX

A little utube action as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKKyefvk3rw

quote:

Originally posted by ibanda:
I'll add Roegel's Barbecue on Voss to your Houston list. He makes a mean brisket.

And the Pit Room, and Blood Brothers in Bellaire.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:

quote:

Originally posted by arabiancowboy:
<snip>
That said, if you google the best BBQ places then filter by ratings and volume you’ll find some good spots all over.

I might be wrong, but I think good google rating are bought. Or at least influenced by money.

I think you’re right in many circumstances, but I need somewhere to start in a new place so this is my go to. My method isn’t foolproof. For example just last night I found myself in downtown ft Worth and looked up a place called Riscky’s which had thousands of reviews and 4 stars. Ok, let’s try it. The meat was slightly below average, sides seemed bought at Sam’s club, and the sauce (of which there was only one choice) was so sugary sweet they must have added gobs of sugar. It was C- BBQ despite the online accolades.

And this is Texas! I can’t believe thousands of Texans rated this place so highly. Bottom line you’re likely right there are fake reviews skewing the google data. But again, new city with 10 minutes to find a place, it’s what I use.

Never been to Pinkertons but have the others and a bunch of others locally:

quote:

Originally posted by DanH:

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
OK Joe's (now Joe's KC I believe) has always been the area gold-standard for KC-style que.

Depends if you're looking for fast food or gourmet. It's good fast food, but there's some "gourmet" places that I put higher like Char Bar/Meat Mitch (same place but one's MO and the other's KS).

It's the same debate when discussing burgers: fast-food vs fast-casual vs restaurant-quality. People want to make various declarations or statements as best ever but, the reality is there's some finer distinctions between them that need to be established.

quote:

Bryants and Gates are excellent sandwich places with fantastic fries. If it isn't something you can put between bread, don't order it. You'll just be disappointed.

I found both of them using low-quality meat, and the style was on the sauce-heavy side versus basic-sauced..for them it was meat swimming-in-sauce. Good tip on the sando move, perhaps next time.

quote:

About the only thing we don't do that's not seafood (we're pretty far from both coasts) is Tri-Tip. I've really wanted to try some Tri-Tip, but odds are I'd have to go to a Brazilian Steakhouse for that, and I know Em Chamas doesn't have that in their rodizio.

I stay away from the Brazilian beef places as I find them to be a rip-off. Most of the beef served is sirloin, generally they're overcooked and over-salted; for thematic dining they're fine and much better than a hokey-Italian or, wanna-be stuffy French place. Proper tri-tip or Santa Maria style, you'd have to come out to the Central Coast of CA where it originated, there's a handful of places that grill-it correctly, most of the time you usually you find it served as a sandwich, some places will serve it as part of a meal.

quote:

Originally posted by Deqlyn:

All of KC bbq is sweet. its the sauce/style. Its like all of carolina bbq is vinegar tasting.

Not all Carolina sauce tastes like vinegar.

Eastern NC is the classic vinegar-red pepper sauce. Very thin. I love the Eastern NC sauce and there's the added bonus of no sugar.

Western NC (also called Lexington or Piedmont style) is a vinegar, tomato, and spice based sauce. It's not as vinegar forward as the Eastern.

The midlands of South Carolina has a mustard based sauce. I detest the mustard based sauces.

South Carolina also has a tomato-vinegar sauce that's really heavy on the tomato--it's closer to the consistency of ketchup. Not very vinegary at all.

Around upstate SC and Western NC, if you say you want bbq, that likely means pulled pork shoulder.

You wrote off KC BBQ after a sample size of exactly ONE BBQ Joint?