BBQ Review: Who is Rudy?

I want to shake his hand.  Maybe even give him a hug!  Whoever he is (or was) he knows how to run a BBQ Joint!  After a great BBQ feast from the family-run Bigham’s in Lubbock, I was giddy about making the comparison with the legendary Texas chain, “Rudy’s Country Store” (don’t worry this chain experience wasn’t a massacre).

Rudy’s is all about ambiance.  It is an experience.  We walked into this large room with long picnic-style tables.  There was a smokey haze.  Not so much to make it uncomfortable, but just enough to know that some real BBQ was close by.  The air was delicious!  I paused and just took it all in.  You may think I’m exaggerating, but I really just stood there for a minute and allowed all of my senses to have a party!  I headed toward the counter and was greeted with a simple menu board:

I wanted it all but knew I had to be realistic.  My stomach was more than willing to be stuffed silly, but my wallet was encouraging me to restrain myself (we still had four days worth of vacation to pay for).  Finally, I made my way to the counter and saw what I had read about.  The brick pits in plain view!

You order and they pull the meat right out of those beauties.  A poof of smoke billows into the air vents, angel choirs sing, flowers bloom, and, for a brief moment, peace seems possible in the middle east.  They slice up your meat, grab your sides, ask how many slices of bread you want and nestle everything into a handy basket you take to your table.  Here’s what the feast looked like:

The star of the show is at the top left of the basket: A Jumbo Smoked Baked Potato w/ Brisket (it comes with butter, sour cream, cheese and your choice of meat).  It doesn’t look appetizing, but look beyond the surface.  The potato itself is smoked and the skin turns a crusty black.  Oh, MAMA, was that thing good!  You don’t know how much I want one right now.

Now we need to take this review back down to earth.  Rounding out the basket of BBQ love was a pound of pork spare ribs, a brisket sandwich, a whole smoked sausage, corn-on-the-cob, potato salad and beans.  Everything was very good, though all of our meat selections were a tad on the dry side.  The prevailing spice is definitely black pepper, which is a great compliment to the wonderful oak wood smoke.  Their BBQ sauces are available right on the tables (“Regular”, which has that distinctive peppery bite, and “Sissy”, which lacks the bite but is plenty tasty) and there is a jalapeno, pickle and onion counter that you help yourself to. 

So, other than the Jumbo Smoked Baked Potato (which should be served at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb), nothing else was absolutely killer.  I guess it was the whole experience that made it so special and just took it over the top.  This place is just cool.  It has a gas station out front, a convenience store as you walk in, and, of course, the main event.  Rounding out the whole Rudy’s experience is this neat-o hand wash station:

It comes down to this: Hometown hero, Bigham’s, versus state legend, Rudy’s…  Man, tough one!  Considering just the food, I would have to say Bigham’s edges out the legend.  But Rudy’s definitely has the “wow” factor.  So we have the ultimate happy ending:  Great BBQ and no losers!

The BarBeQuethMinistry! Rib Rating (1 bone being awful, 5 bones being legendary):

Ambience/Service: 5 bones

Sides: 4 bones

Sauce: 3.5 bones

Meat: 3.5 bones

Overall: 4 bones

BBQ Review: Lovin’ Lubbock

The Texas BBQ Experience… I’ve read about it at Barnes and Noble.  I’ve checked out books from the public library.  I have countless hours worth of VHS recordings of food shows from PBS and Food Network.  You walk into a super casual setting, order your meats by the pound and watch them start slicing away on a wooden block.  Finally, I get the real deal in Lubbock, TX!

Bigham’s Smokehouse won’t make anyone’s list of BBQ shrines, but they’ve been doing something right since 1978 and have two locations in Lubbock.  We walked in for an early dinner just before 5:00 pm.  The place was empty.  Had it been after 6:00 pm, I would have been worried.  But what really set my mind at ease was the aroma of real smoke.  I looked up at the menu board and there it was: your choices of meat by the pound!  Sweet!  We decide on some family deal that included a pound and a half of brisket, a whole smoked sausage, two large sides (and they were definitely large–slaw and beans, of course), and six slices of texas toast.  The friendly girl behind the counter (it seems pretty much all Texans are friendly) pulled the meat out of a steam table warmer and started to slice away.  I must admit, I was a bit disheartened to see the meat come out like that.  The shrines I’ve read about supposedly pull the meat right off their brick pits and slice as ordered.  Then I took a closer look at the brisket and saw the lovely smoke ring.  I examined further and made out the unmistable shimmer of meat juices and fat glistening upon the beef.  It wasn’t dried out, as most attempts at BBQ’d beef brisket are in California.

Then we got our grub on!  The brisket was very good.  Not the best I’ve had, but solid all the way around.  Decently moist and tender with great beefy flavor.  The sausage was absolutely incredible!  The BBQthDirector’s Wife is usually not really into sausage, but she agrees with her man that this is some of the best we’ve had.  Tender, juicy, succulent, and, like the brisket, boldly simple: salt, pepper, and smoke!  Maybe a hint of garlic, but they let the meat and smoke pretty much do all the talkin’.  This is some good stuff!

Slicing up the meat right before your eyes!

No gourmet fanfare needed! The brisket was wrapped up in foil and the sausage found a temporary home in some styrofoam.

Readers of BarBeQuethMinistry know that beans are one of my standard sides.  In my neck of the woods, they generally take two forms: a sweet, “Boston-style”, or smokey w/ bits of BBQ’d meat mixed in.  Once again, in Texas, they go with the “less is more” approach.  You’ll not find any sweetness or smoke in Bigham’s beans.  Other than salt, pepper and chile powder of some sort, I couldn’t describe any other flavor sensations.  But, somehow, they are very tasty.  I really, really liked the beans.  The cole slaw was nice and creamy, but I have the tendency to always compare with my absolute favorite made by Famous Dave’s.  Bigham’s just wasn’t quite there, but better than KFC (wink, wink to my youth group).

I couldn’t imagine ever going to Lubbock again.  But if I ever do, Bigham’s will be a definite stop!

The BarBeQuethMinistry! Rib Rating (1 bone = awful, 5 bones = legendary):

Ambience/Service: 4 bones

Sides: 3.5 bones

Sauce: 3.5 bones

Meat: 4.5 bones

Overall: 4 bones

BBQ Road Trip!

The BBQ Couple is so ready for another vacation! Hey, it's been more than a week and a half since our last one!

The BBQ Family will be taking a road trip to Texas for the wedding of youth group alumnus, Clint Minnick!  The BBQthDirector will be singing “The Wedding Gown” and “I Will Be Here” and the BBQ Boy, Jason, will be lookin’ all fly in a black suit, bearing the ring!  The computer will be in tow, so we’ll see about posting.  I’m looking to review two legendary BBQ Joints: Mr. Powdrell’s BBQ in Albuquerque, NM and Rudy’s Country Store in Lubbock, TX.  Foodies who like to read about BBQ shrines usually run into these names fairly quickly.  There are two other no-name joints I’ve run into while researching that we’ll try to get to.  So be looking for up to four BBQ Reviews in the coming weeks.  The BBQthDirector may also document some of our family adventures as well as our time with Clint and Maureen.  We would appreciate your prayers for traveling mercies!

And I might as well name this trip.  My big activity with the teens last month was “A Day with Jay”.  We’ll be going on an eight day vacation!  I’ve got it!  How does this sound…

“A Week with Mr. Physique!”

Anyway, in honor of “The Clint” getting hitched, I give you “Old Skewl Clinton”:

BBQ Review: Texas Chain Massacre!

The BBQ Family is not into the big national chains. Many are awful, the majority are serviceable at best, and just a handful are actually good. Still, if something looks promising, we’ll give it a try. Dickey’s Barbecue Pit is a chain that hails from the great state of Texas. You would think that fact alone would give them some type of “grill cred”.  Oh, contraire…

Let’s start with the three meat combo with slaw and beans (remember, these are the BBQthDirector’s standard sides).  I take one look at the meat and know immediately that we have become victims of false advertising.  This was no BBQ place!  Smoked meats always have a pink “smoke ring” around the outside, and there was no hint of this on the pork ribs, beef brisket or sausage.  They screamed oven baked!  The ribs were pretty tasty (though completely lacking any smoke flavor) and were actually pleasantly tender.  The sausage was your standard commercial grade stuff, not awful, but lacking any distinctive characteristics.  The brisket was gross!  Dry doesn’t begin to describe it.  Chalky is more like it.  The taste was reminiscent of liver marinated in Los Angeles Harbor water.  The slaw was just average, no different than anything you can buy at your grocery store.  The beans were… gross!  The BBQthDirector’s Wife said it tasted like someone dropped a cigarette in the beans.  I say it was a hobo who first swirled his cancer stick in L.A. Harbor then dropped it in the beans!  The best thing on the plate was the roll.  It tasted of homemade yeasty goodness.  Not bad at all.

Also on our table was a pulled pork sandwich, that was quite moist, but also quite flavorless.  The BBQ sauce was served warm and was fine.  A little thin and watery, but it definitely helped all the meats.  The Macaroni and Cheese was a bit better than the stuff out of the box but didn’t taste like much.  We got a couple chicken nugget kids’ meals with waffle fries (standard out-of-the-freezer fare).  A huge plus was the free soft serve ice cream that you just help yourself to (so, of course, we helped ourselves more than once).  No toppings, but you do have your choice of a cone or styrofoam cup (which I’m sure would be remarkably similar in texture to the brisket)!

Thankfully, the BBQ Family got a great deal from Restaurant.com.  Check it out some time for some great deals.  We bought a $25 gift certificate for $10.  The catch was the $35 minimum purchase, which was still a great deal for us.  We ended up paying just under $20 for our meal.  We can hardly go to a fast food place for that much.  I would definitely choose Dickey’s over McDonald’s, but not for full price.

If you like fake “bbq” like Tony Roma’s or Chili’s, you’ll be fine here.  I would only return with a good discount like I had, but I wouldn’t go out of my way.

The BarBeQuethMinistry! Rib Rating (1 bone = awful, 5 bones = legendary):

Ambience/Service: 4 bones

Sides: 1.5 bones

Sauce: 3.5 bones

Meat: 1.5 bones

Overall: 2.75 bones

BBQ Review: North Hollywood Gem!

The best places can be the hardest to find, and Kansas City BBQ Company is one BBQ joint worth searching for!  The BBQ Family being on vacation, we just had to make a BBQ run.  We were able find a place close to our day-trip destination of Griffith Park (more on our adventures later).  What a way to close out a great day (which started with a stop at Leonidas in Pasadena)!  Here’s the play-by-play:

First and foremost, let me introduce you to Mr. Half Rack of Baby Back Pork Ribs with Cole Slaw and Beans.  The ribs were pretty close to perfectly tender with true hickory goodness in every lovin’ bite!  The distinctive feature of these ribs is the dry rub of seasonings that form a tasty crust around the outside.  These might be the best ribs I’ve ever had.  More research must be done, however, to confirm this!

In my opinion, slaw and beans are the quintessential BBQ sides.  The beans had smokey bits of meat in them (probably brisket) and were very good.  The slaw was just average at best.  I prefer a creamier slaw.  This version had kind of a strange fruitiness to it, maybe pineapple.  I won’t be ordering it again.

Also adorning our table was the “Burnt Ends Sandwich”, a delicacy not widely understood outside of Kansas City.  As unappetizing as this may sound, the most flavorful pieces of a properly smoked beef brisket are the… burnt ends!  These are chopped up, mixed with sauce and served up on a roll.  To this point in my life, I could only read about (and dream about) such BBQ lore.  Now, thanks to K.C. BBQ Company, it has become a reality *blots sentimental tears from eyes*.  This sandwich was a treat, the BBQthDirector’s Wife’s favorite part of the meal.

We also had a hot link sandwich which, while pleasantly spicy, was nothing really to write home about.  The fries were your standard steak fries, made a little more pleasant with a Lawry’s-style seasoning salt.  The BBQ sauce was very good, well balanced between sweet and tangy, and conveniently available right on the tables.  We found the service to be very friendly and helpful.

The BBQthDirector heartily recommends this place.  I’ll definitely have to update my Top 5 list of California BBQ joints!

The BarBeQuethMinistry! Rib Rating (1 bone = awful, 5 bones = legendary):

Ambience/Service: 4 bones

Sides: 3 bones

Sauce: 4 bones

Meat: 4.5 bones

Overall: 4 bones