Category: Barbecue

BarbecueBernalilloClosed in 2014Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

Back-Sass BBQ – Bernalillo, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:25 PM

Every few years, the eyes of the world fixate on a tiny chimney perched on the roof of the Sistine Chapel as millions await the telltale plumes of white smoke which signify that a new pope has been elected. Since November, 2012, savvy Duke City area barbecue aficionados have been following plumes of smoke emanating from a mobile eighteen-foot grilling machine, a sign that great barbecue is imminent. Fittingly “Follow the Smoke” is the motto of the Back-Sass BBQ team which has been hauling its mother ship of barbecue all over the city. On January 29, 2014, Back-Sass BBQ put down roots in Bernalillo, launching its bodacious barbecue operation in a restaurant storefront. Located on North Camino del Pueblo less than half a mile north of heavily trafficked Highway 550, Back-Sass is easy to find if you follow the smoke which wafts into your motorized conveyance like a sweet Texas smoke signal beckoning you to try some baby backs. Back-Sass BBQ is situated in a fairly nondescript edifice which formerly housed La Bamba Grill among other businesses. Its signage is bold, sassy and inviting. Attempts to define any new barbecue restaurant’s “style” as either Kansas City, Texas, Memphis, or the…

BarbecueRating: N/R (Not Rated)South CarolinaUnited States

Melvin’s Legendary Bar-B-Q – Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

Gil Garduno8:01 PM

In a 2007 pageant, Miss South Carolina Teen became a YouTube sensation after butchering the answer to a question about U.S. geography. Within three days, the video clip had attracted nearly 3.5 million views. The befuddling question she was asked was “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the United States on a world map. Why do you think this is?” Her now famous response: “I personally believe the U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some, uh…people out there in our nation don’t have maps, and, uh, I believe that our education like such as South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as and…I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., err, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our…” When I told family and friends about my plans to vacation in Charleston, South Carolina, some of their responses may have validated Miss South Carolina’s contention that U.S. Americans don’t have maps…”Where’s South Carolina?” “Why would you visit South Carolina?” Other friends who know me very…

BarbecueClosed in 2016Gone But Not ForgottenRio Rancho

Rub-N-Wood BBQ – Rio Rancho, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno7:01 AM

“Beam me up Scotty. There is no good barbecue on this planet.” ~James T. Kirk Captain James Tiberius Kirk of the United Starship Enterprise never actually uttered those words, but had he visited Rio Rancho between June 22nd and August 2nd, 2013, he would have found NO barbecue–good or bad–in Rio Rancho. No barbecue in the City of Barbecue…er, Vision, is akin to no Subarus in Santa Fe. Rio Rancho, after all, is home to the annual Pork & Brew, the state barbecue championship sanctioned by the prestigious Kansas City Barbecue Society. Rio Rancho has also been the home–for nearly a quarter of a century—of the legendary Smokehouse. When the Smokehouse shuttered its doors on June 22nd, its loyal patrons were torn between wanting to fly the flag at half-mast or flying it upside down as a sign of distress. The Smokehouse’s affable proprietor Gary West urged calm, assuaging those of us whose blood is the color of barbecue sauce with news that we would be without barbecue for only a short while. He told us a competitive barbecue team called Rub-N-Wood would be filling the void soon. Having sampled Rub-N-Wood’s ‘cue, Gary was excited that Rio Rancho would be…

AlbuquerqueBarbecueClosed in 2017Diners Drive-Ins and DivesFood Network Eats New MexicoGone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

The Cube – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:45 AM

Timon: [singing] Luau. If you’re hungry for a hunk of fat and juicy meat Eat my buddy Pumbaa here, ’cause he’s a tasty treat Come on down and dine on this tasty swine All you gotta is get in line Are you achin’… Pumbaa: Yup, yup, yup. Timon: For some bacon? Pumbaa: Yup, yup, yup. Timon: He’s a big pig. Pumbaa: Yup, yup. Timon: You can be a big pig, too. Oy. From Disney’s Lion King Succulent swine. Porcine perfection. Bodacious baby backs. Pulchritudinous pulled pork. Every serious barbecue aficionado should go hog wild at least once in their lives and pig out in Memphis, Tennessee, indisputably one of America’s bastions of barbecue and home of the “Memphis in May World Championship BBQ Cooking Competition.” Never mind the great gridiron gala (the championship of the National Football League), the “Superbowl of Swine” is where barbecue addicts want their fill of pigskin and Memphis is where they meat. Although Memphis prides itself on the diversity of its barbecue, traditional Memphis barbecue is primarily about “low and slow” smoked pork served one of two ways: pulled into tender, melt-in-your-mouth pieces or as meaty ribs on a slab. Those righteous ribs are available…

BarbecueCaliforniaRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Phil’s BBQ Restaurant – San Diego, California

Gil Garduno9:39 AM

A few decades ago, the culinary cognoscenti anointed the best bastions of bodacious barbecue–Kansas City, Memphis, Texas and the Carolinas…and there was much rejoicing. Since then, it’s been widely accepted that this exclusive quadrumvirate is where the very best barbecue in America is to be found. Much of this acceptance is because the four regions have deployed their marketing machines to continue reenforcing the notion–some would say myth–that their barbecue is sacrosanct and evermore defines barbecue greatness. There were a number of reasons these four regions were anointed as America’s barbecue capitals. For one, barbecue is more than just another important part of the culture at these regions; it’s as close to a religion as you’ll find. Secondly, restaurants specializing in barbecue are plentiful and they seem to be clustered in close proximity to one another. The recognition that these four regions do barbecue especially well is in no way an indictment of other regions. It’s well known that there’s some superb smoking going on across the entire fruited plain, from sea to shining sea. Visit any state in the union and you’ll find eager diners queuing up for their local ‘cue. There’s often as much pride in local barbecue…

BarbecueBreakfastClosed in 2013Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoRio Rancho

The Smokehouse Barbecue Restaurant (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:38 AM

The very best restaurants–those we’re proud to call our favorites–aren’t always the swankiest and most elegant venues.  They’re not even usually the restaurants you visit on special occasions.  They’re our favorites because for the duration of our meal, all our cares dissipate and our faith that everything will be okay is restored as we’re fed comforting, delicious food by servers we know and trust.  The Smokehouse has been such a refuge to hundreds of Rio Rancho area residents for nearly two and a half decades.  The Smokehouse’s last full day of operation was Saturday, June 22nd, 2013.  Then on Sunday night, June 23rd at 6PM, owner Gary West invited guests to a farewell soiree where he  exhausted his remaining food inventory: amazing smoked turkey, ribs and so much more.  There wasn’t  a charge for the meal though Gary jokingly had a jar in which guests could contribute to his retirement.  Gary will be leaving the desert climes of New Mexico for Hawaii where he plans to lead a life of leisure.  Aloha, Gary.  You and the Smokehouse will be missed. In his headlines segment on April Fools Day 2001, Tonight Show host Jay Leno had a good laugh at the…

BarbecueMissouriRating: OutstandingUnited States

Arthur Bryant’s – Kansas City, Missouri

Gil Garduno8:13 PM

Shortly after Arthur Bryant died in 1982, the Kansas City Star published a cartoon showing St. Peter greeting Arthur at the gates of heaven and asking, “Did you bring sauce?” Perhaps not even in Heaven can such a wondrous sauce be concocted. Arthur Bryant’s is probably the most famous barbecue restaurant in the country, if not the world–an institution to which celebrity and political glitterati make pilgrimages. If Schlitz was the “beer that made Milwaukee famous,” then Arthur Bryant’s is the barbecue that made Kansas City one of America’s four pillars of barbecue (along with Memphis, Texas and the Carolinas). In a city where barbecue is exalted, Arthur Bryant’s may no longer be indisputably the one restaurant everyone mentions as their favorite, but it remains a revered institution. In 1974, renowned New Yorker magazine author Calvin Trillin declared in Playboy magazine that “the single best restaurant in the world is Arthur Bryant’s Barbecue at 18th and Brooklyn in Kansas City.” Approaching the restaurant may make you giddy with anticipation. You might not even notice that the original restaurant is situated in the seedy side of town where buildings are boarded up and surrounding streets are nearly deserted. The aroma of…

BarbecueDiners Drive-Ins and DivesFood Network Eats New MexicoKansasRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Danny Edwards Blvd. BBQ – Kansas City, Missouri

Gil Garduno9:49 AM

Kansas City is known as the “city of fountains.”  It’s also known as the “world’s barbecue capital.” If locals had their way, ever the twain would meet and the city’s fountains would be burbling not with water, but with barbecue sauce.  Barbecue sauce runs through the veins of local barbecue aficionados.  It’s an integral part of the city’s heritage.  More than at the other regions–the Carolinas, Texas and Memphis–in which barbecue is a religion, Kansas City pit masters know that sauce is the crowning touch to their low-and-slow handiwork. In combination with dry rub seasonings, the sauce gives smoked meats their personality.  It’s what you taste most along with the smoky flavor.  One of the very best barbecue sauces my friend Bill Resnik and I experienced during our September, 2012 barbecue tour of Kansas City comes from Danny Edwards Blvd BBQ, a  restaurant Food Network host Rahm Fama contends serves up the “best barbecue in the city.”  The best barbecue deserves the best sauce. At Danny Edwards, ketchup is the base for the sauce which also includes white and brown sugar, chili powder, mustard flour and allspice.  It’s not an overly assertive sauce, but the heat from the chili does…

BarbecueKansasRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Oklahoma Joe’s Barbecue – Kansas City, Kansas

Gil Garduno8:18 AM

You might expect that a magazine renowned for its staunch advocacy of healthy living and fitness would celebrate only healthful dining and that its food-related content would be penned only by paragons of physical fitness and health. Perhaps because it may want a broader, younger readership demographic, Men’s Health Magazine asked popular but vice-ridden sybarite Anthony Bourdain to author an article entitled “13 Places to Eat Before You Die.” Bourdain, whose seedy past includes heavy drinking, drug use, chain smoking and an addiction to pork wrote a thought-provoking “bucket list” which included restaurants and food–outstanding though they might be–which might actually accelerate your demise. What a way to go! Interspersed within Bourdain’s lucky thirteen restaurants, some of which are among the world’s most exclusive and highly regarded, is a barbecue restaurant in Kansas City, Kansas. Almost as big a surprise is that it’s not Arthur Bryant’s the world-famous 800-pound gorilla of Kansas City barbecue. Instead, one of the thirteen restaurants at which you should eat before you die is Oklahoma Joe’s which Bourdain touted as “the best BBQ in Kansas City, which makes it the best BBQ in the world.” Men’s Health Magazine’s infatuation with Oklahoma Joe’s wasn’t exclusive to…

AlbuquerqueBarbecueFood TruckRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Dudley’s Barbecue – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:07 PM

The United States Department of Agriculture defines barbecue as “any meat cooked by the direct action of heat resulting from the burning of hardwood or the hot coals therefrom for a sufficient period to assume the usual characteristics” including the formation of a brown crust and a weight loss of at least thirty percent.” To the citizens of the great state of North Carolina, that definition is heresy, an example of government ineptitude and maybe even reason enough to secede from the union. Everyone in the Tar Heel state knows barbecue is all about pork. In fact, the words “barbecue” and “pork” are synonymous…and don’t ever call pork “the other white meat.” Doing so would be to utter fighting words (similar to suggesting to a Norteño that a little bit of cumin will improve chile) and to disparage centuries of tradition. You can get away with saying that in North Carolina tobacco is a vegetable, but to suggest beef as a viable barbecue option is blasphemy. North Carolinians go especially hog wild for pulled pork that’s been slow roasted for hours over low heat rendering it so tender that it’s “pulled” from the roast with one’s fingers or forks. In…

AlbuquerqueBarbecueClosed in 2016Gone But Not Forgotten

JR’s Bar-B-Que – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:09 PM

Ryan Scott, the affable host of the enlightening and entertaining Break the Chain radio program has rapidly become the voice for Albuquerque’s mom-and-pop restaurants.  When it comes to celebrating the Duke City’s independent eateries, he’s like E.F. Hutton in that when he speaks, people listen…literally.  The Break the Chain Web site receives more than 10,000 visits per week, many visitors stopping by to catch up on programs they may have missed or more likely, listening to those they enjoyed most a second (or tenth) time. While Ryan is unabashed in his promotion of New Mexico’s non-chain restaurants, he will admit to being a snob about only one type of food.  That’s barbecue.  Ryan won’t hesitate to tell you he hasn’t found barbecue greatness anywhere in New Mexico.  He’s found good barbecue (his favorite being Josh’s in Santa Fe), but he’ll tell you if you want great barbecue, you’ve got to visit our neighbor to the east.  He should know.  His beautiful better half Kimber is from the Houston area where Ryan lived for a few years. Ryan has major street cred when it comes to barbecue.  He smokes his own meats at home–as in low and slow over fruit woods,…