Buc-ee's (Leeds, AL)

Off the I-20, Leeds, AL

 

Buc-ee’s is a chain of insanely big gas stations annex all-American food and crap stores that originated in Texas and now has more than 40 locations in the South, primarily in Texas though. It seems to cater primarily to the Average Joe, but of all racial backgrounds.

 

I get a Pulled Pork sandwich ($7.48), which is a fairly large soft bun filled with extremely tender and juicy pulled pork doused in a sweet sauce and with caramelized onions. It is very tasty but could have had more meat (particularly for that price).

 

VERDICT: 87/100

Tasty pulled pork sandwich in a carnivalesque setting.

Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint (Nashville, TN)

 Inside Nissan Stadium, 1 Titans Way, Nashville, TN

Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint is chain of bbq restaurants out of Nashville, Tennessee, with isolated locations in Alabama, Kentucky, and South Carolina. Most locations have a pretty elaborate menu of bbq classics (plus burgers), but this location, inside the football stadium, has a more limited menu and much higher prices.

 

I get a Pulled Pork Sandwich ($11.50) and Homemade BBQ Chips ($6). The pulled pork is chunky but tender, the sauce and slaw complement it well, but the bun is too big, dense, and dry. The Homemade BBQ Chips are not bad, but not really that fresh, which makes them fairly similar to those in a regular bag (except thicker).

 

VERDICT: 85/100

Pretty good (if expensive) stadium food. I would imagine it to be better in a regular location. 

Saw’s Juke Joint (Birmingham, AL)

1115 Dunston Ave, Birmingham, AL

 

Saw's BBQ is a legend in Birmingham. It has 5 locations and I go to the "Juke Joint" in Crestline. It is quite a big place in a relatively small restaurant strip in an upscale part of Birmingham. It’s packed on a Sunday noon, so I sit at the bar. The menu is fairly classic bbq. While it is busy, the wait is extremely long (ca 30 minutes after ordering), but the fantastic bartender makes it worthwhile -- just watching him rock out to 1970s rock is worth the wait!

 

I get the Saw’s Original Pulled Pork sandwich ($7.49), which comes with sauce and pickles. The soft bun is covered with rather big pieces of extremely tender smoked pork, a few pickles, and a thin but tasty sauce. Excellent! I also get a side of Fried Green Tomatoes ($3.99), which are thick, slightly battered, and very juicy (delicious). Finally, the vinegar-based Coleslaw ($2.99) is light and refreshing.

 

VERDICT: 96/100

This is prime bbq! Will be back to eat some other stuff.

Dirty Burgers & Ribs (Reykjavik, Iceland)

 

Dirty Burgers & Ribs is a local chain that offers burgers, ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, and sides. It has two regular locations in Reykjavik and at least one drive-thru at a gas station — which is the one I visit. I get a Pulled Pork Sandwich (ISK 1390 or ~$11). As the menu is only in Icelandic, I didn’t know there was cheese on it, but the thick slice is barely melted so I can peel it off. The brioche bun comes with a red cabbage slaw, some kind of sauce, and sweet and tender pulled pork. Not bad at all.

 

VERDICT: 83/100

A very decent pulled pork sandwich, particularly for a non-US fast food place.

HogsHead Cafe (Richmond, VA)

9503 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23294 

HogsHead Cafe is a relatively new and small restaurant that mainly serves bbq but actually has quite a broad menu, which includes nachos, hot dogs, burgers, salads, sandwiches (including Poboys), etc. When I get there, in the early afternoon, it is busy but the waitresses are efficient and very friendly.

I start with the half dozen wings ($12.99). They are huge, full wings, rubbed in spices and covered with a thick fiery BBQ sauce. They are insanely hot, in a peppery way, and I don't even make it past four.

Fortunately, at that time my Hog Dog ($11.99) arrives. It is the most famous dish of the restaurant and it is also huge! The bacon-wrapped huge dog is covered in pulled pork and slaw and comes on a long fresh bun. It is also very tasty, although the pork and bun are a bit dry. The slaw is uneventful.

VERDICT: 87/100

This is a quality BBQ place with many original options. It is pricey but worth it. Warning: when they say hot, they mean it!

Tommy DiNic’s (Philadelphia, PA)

51 North 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
 

 

Tommy DiNic’s is in Reading Terminal Market, a huge hall with a broad variety of food stores in downtown Philadelphia. It is one of the main attractions of the market, as Tommy DiNic’s roasted pork sandwich has been elected “Best Sandwich in America” by the Travel Network.  They serve roasted beef and pork as well as some Italian staples: meatballs and sausages. All on big “hoagies” (the local term for a long, soft, white bun).

I get the Italian Pulled Pork ($11): a huge sandwich, cut in half, with heaps of pulled pork and broccoli rabe. Everything is very fresh, the pulled pork is tender and juicy, and the rabe gives it an edge. It is very good but not as good as the hype.

VERDICT: 90/100

Really good pulled pork sandwich but definitely not one of the best sandwiches in the US.

Rotisserie St-Hubert (Montreal, Canada)

Chemin de la Côte-Des-Neiges, Montreal, QC H3T 1Y1, Canada T: 514-385-5555

 

Rotisserie St-Hubert is a chain of chicken restaurants that has 117 locations in Canada, most notably in Quebec. It looks in everything like a chain, including the pictures of the food in the menus. Its specialty is rotisserie chicken, but they also serve ribs, pulled pork, salads.

 

I am not a big fan of chicken with bones, so in the end I made an odd choice: a pulled pork sandwich, which comes with fries and coleslaw (C$11.50), and a soda (C$3.00). The pulled pork sandwich was actually quite decent, particularly for outside of the Deep South, and the vinegar-based coleslaw wasn’t bad either, but the fries were completely tasteless.

VERDICT: 75/100

Perhaps the chicken is really good, but do stay away from the fries.

The Crab Shack (Tybee Island, GA)

40 Estill Hammock Rd, Tybee Island, GA 31328, T: 912-786-9857
 

The Crab Shack is a Tybee Island institution, so we also visited during a short vacation. It is a huge, mostly outdoors, restaurant with an extremely relaxed, kind of redneck, atmosphere –official motto: “Where the elite eat in their bare feet” (this evening there were some bare feet, but definitely no elite). They serve mostly all kind of crabs, shrimp, and barbeque. They also have a rescue baby alligator pond, which is a nice idea, but it was a bit sad to see the guests annoy the little gators with empty feeding sticks.

As I don’t like seafood, I am going for the BBQ Sandwich ($5.99) with sides of Slaw ($1.99), Sausage ($2.50), and Cup of Brunswick Stew ($3.99). The sandwich is tender pulled pork with their own sauce, which is quite vinegary: tasty. The slaw is very basic, as is the sausage (which the waitress herself says is Hillshire Farm), while the Brunswick Stew is watery with a bit fishy taste. M. had the Half & Half ($21.99), snow crab and shrimp, with sides of corn and slaw. She really liked it.

VERDICT: 85/100

I guess you go to The Crab Shack for the experience first and the crab second. Don’t go for the other food.

Daddy Joe’s BBQ & Grill (Gaffney, SC)

1400 West Floyd Baker Boulevard, Gaffney, SC 29341, T: 864-487-7427

Daddy Joe's BBQ & Grill is a shack-like structure in a classic restaurant/gas station strip of motorway. While it looks like a chain, it is not. It advertises that it has been featured in Southern Living.

I get a Combination Platter with ribs & chopped Pork ($13.15), which comes with hushpuppies and two sides. The chopped pork is soggy and quite gross, the BBQ slaw is absolutely gross, the wedge fries are ok but lukewarm, the ribs meaty but quite dry, and the hushpuppies taste like fish (probably fried in same oil as fish).

VERDICT: 61/100

If they are truly featured in Southern Loving, it must have been a really damaging review, as this was really poor.

Fatz Cafe (Athens, GA)

4115 Lexington Rd, Athens, GA 30605, T: 706-425-8780
 

Fatz is a regional chain with some 50 locations in the Southeast, combining regular American staples with more traditional Southern fare. They have a large menu including burgers, seafood, and chicken & pasta. On this late Saturday evening the clientele is very old and very white.

The little rolls that they start you off with are fresh and greasy. Oddly enough they taste more like zeppole than like bread. I order a combination sample ($11.99) of baby back ribs, chicken tenders and onion rings, which here are called: calabash, ribitizers and onyum straws (what?!). I choose to have the ribs grilled rather than fried. They are still quite fatty, but fall of the bone and have a decent BBQ sauce on them. The tenders are small but pretty good. The onion strings are mostly batter.

VERDICT: 83/100

Very decent experience and the little rolls will bring me back, even though it will take weeks to get all the grease of my hands.

The White Tiger Gourmet (Athens, GA)

217 Hiawassee Avenue, Athens, GA 30601, T: 706-353-6847

White Tiger Gourmet is one of Athens’ unique restaurants. It is a small BBQ joint housed in a shack in a posh residential area of town. With a cult status and erratic hours, you are often confronted with either a closed door or a significant line. As I arrive at 5.55, five minutes before opening on a Friday summer night, there are already three sets of people waiting. In the two years I’ve lived here, I have only been here once; or, more accurately, I've been here six times, but it was open only once.

I am hungry and decide to have two sandwiches and no sides. The BBQ Pork Sandwich ($6.50) is basic: smoked pork on a kaiser roll with homemade sauce. The big onion roll is packed with a chunk of tasty moist pulled pork with a relatively light and thin sauce. Definitely the best pulled pork sandwich I’ve had in Athens (which is not know for its BBQ, however). After that I started on the dish that White Tiger is best know for: the Bacon Cheddar Burger ($7.50). It is a half pound burger on a kaiser roll with bacon, field greens, tomato (normally it comes with cheddar, which undoubtedly gives it an even better flavor). While the bun and burger are a bit dry, the bacon at times chewy, and the mayo sparsely applied, the big burger tastes almost as good as it smells (which is outrageous).

VERDICT: 90/100

As is the case at all BBQ places in Athens, the best dish is not BBQ. Still, White Tiger is absolutely worth the hype and frustration. I’ll be back soon!

Harry’s Pig Shop (Athens, GA)

2425 Jefferson Road, Athens, GA 30607, T: 706-612-9219

 

Although Georgia is one of those Southern states without much of a BBQ tradition, Athens is full of BBQ places, which (like all other restaurants in the college town), come and go quickly. Harry’s Pig Shop is situated in Homewood Village Shopping Center, a strip all on the outskirts of the town. Its extensive menu includes all classic BBQ items, but also many items that are more fitting for a sports bar.

On this occasion we get six Smoked Wings ($8.99), which are huge and crispy outside, while quite juicy inside. They only come with one sauce, which is quite sweet. We also get the Pork Sliders ($6.99): three small Hawaiian roles filled with pulled pork and slaw. They are quite tasty, but unfortunately the BBQ sauces do not add much taste. The last major item was the McDowell ($6.99), a relatively small burger that is topped with their special potato salad and pickles. I know what you are thinking… I thought the same… but you are WRONG! The McDowell is one of the best burgers I had. Such a great taste! Another great item is their Sausage Philly ($5.99) and, if available, their hearty and meaty Brisket Chili. The sides are average, including the fries, with the exception of the delicious Marinated Beats ($1.99).

VERDICT: 87/100

Harry’s Pig Shop is a bit of an odd BBQ place. I really enjoy their food, but mostly the non-BBQ items. By far the best dishes are the McDowell burger and the Sausage Philly!