Alabama meets Texas
You sometimes have to wonder what possesses people to do the things they do. I mean, what would posses a person to open a Texas BBQ joint in Madison Alabama. Right in the heart of North Alabama BBQ country. Especially given that people from one BBQ region DO NOT, as a rule, like BBQ from another region. But....there it is, Chuck Wagon BBQ not 10 minutes from the legend, Big Bob Gibson's. It's a recipe, no pun intended, for disaster.
But what if I told you that at lunch time, you can't get near this place. That lineups start before the doors open. That ya, it's that good.
Owner Mike Holley, a genuine transplanted Texan is churning out what could very well be the best Texas Q East of the Pecos. Using recipes handed down from his Grandfather, George Washington Gray he's found enough room in the BBQ saturated landscape of Madison and Limestone Counties. While he toiled in the oil fields of Texas for many years, Mike had cooking in his blood. His Great Grandfather was a chuck wagon cook on the Goodnight-Loving Trail.
Located just off I-565 Chuckwagon BBQ is a sight to behold. An honest to goodness joint. Decked out in weathered barn board with a bright red roof and big BBQ spelled out it's a stand out. Smoke stacks and catering pits pop up like mushrooms in a damp forest.
Inside it mirrors the outside with more barn board and is decorated with many things Texas. You enter around back and go through the outdoor dining area. Food is served to you cafeteria style from a large serving station inside and the cramped main dining room seems to accommodate many more than you'd think.
So let's get a look at what's got Alabamians betraying their roots shall we??
The Beans were much better but seemed to be lacking something. It seemed to be an acid of some sort. I added a bit of BBQ sauce and that seemed to brighten things up a bit. So I added more. I found that there was a level that was perfect and one that was too much. So easy does it.
I quite liked the Tater Salad. Nothing special about it, it’s just good old solid tuber goodness. Nothing wrong with that.
A 2 Meat combo of Brisket and Sausage is a nice match. Smoked pork sausage and Texas style brisket are as ubiquitous in Texas as cows it seems. While both were terrific, they both lacked that great smoked flavour that I love. Otherwise, the sausage was incredibly tasty and perfectly cooked. When smoking sausage the casing can become rather rubbery and downright unappetizing. This wasn't the case here. The brisket also hit all the appropriate buttons but the smokey one as I mentioned. The meat was fork tender, juicy and great tasting. Gven that these are the two house specialties, they’d better be good.
They do actually do pork products as well. This horrible photo is of ribs. Given that we showed up 5 minutes before close and I got the last order of ribs they were needless to say, not very photogenic. Not to worry, the taste was pretty much everything you’d want. As you can tell by the pink in the meat, the smoke flavour was spot on.
For dessert there are some options but Mrs. Sippi was all over the Fried Pies. The apple was terrific but the peach was just slightly better.
So there you have it folks, terrific Texas BBQ in the Heart of Dixie.
You can find Chuck Wagon BBQ at 8982 Madison Blvd. in Madison, Al.
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You can also find them on facebook.
Well that's all for now folks, see ya next time in the food court.
Follow the Smell of Hickory
Kelly and Libby Webb were born to cook. Kelly grew up at his fathers side, tending the smoker for family gatherings. Libby meanwhile was in the kitchen cooking for the large family in which she was raised. These skills meshed perfectly when the couple, since met and married, took over New Market BBQ in, conveniently enough, New Market, Alabama.
Opened in 1995 by Virginia and Darrell Day, the business would find a “For Sale” sign in the window a little over a decade later.
It had been Kelly’s dream to own his own BBQ joint and when a co-worker of his at Boeing (yes the airplane people) informed him of it’s availability, the couple pounced. Leaving the corporate world would be more than just a change of jobs. It would be a radical change of life for the couple as the restaurant came with a house (where they now live) and property as well.
While Day stayed in the picture to make for a smooth transition, as the years passed, so too has the torch. NMBBQ is now completely a Webb operation. The business has stabilized and the menu has been shored up. Q standards like ribs and shoulder are bolstered by specials such as BBQ spaghetti (‘sketti). They’ve also augmented the main part of the meal with the reward for clearing your plate, dessert. All prepared on site in either the pit by Kelly or the kitchen by Libby.
NMBBQ sits at the edge of this tiny little town less than a half hour drive from Huntsville. It is that kind of town that qualifies for “Blink and you’ll miss it” status. As such, there’s just not the traffic to be a full time venture so their hours are confined to the weekend. Even with it’s proximity to the “Big” city.
The restaurant itself is a quaint little place. It has most of the trappings of a BBQ joint. Piles of hickory, obligatory pig picture, smell of wood smoke and pig fat, etc. Most of it’s footprint is dedicated to food prep. One area houses the smokers and another the kitchen. There’s a small area for expediting orders and a very nice screened in porch with about a dozen or so chairs facing outward.
There’s also a nice picnic pavilion (pictured above) across the parking lot.
So let’s get a look at what Kelly and Libby are serving.
For sides we have BBQ Beans and Tater Salad. Both are solid if unspectacular. The beans were of the doctored up canned variety with bits of smoked pork. As I've mentioned before, many competition teams do this and there is nothing wrong. So long as their good. These are. The Potato Salad is your typical mayo based style and all in all, about what you'd expect and more over, what you want.
As far as Brisket Sandwiches go, this is one of the best I've had. Brisket is not a beginners cut. It takes time and is quite easy to dry out. So to find a place that knows how to make good brisket is great. NMBBQ does it right. I ordered it sandwich style and it was excellent plain. No sauce or slaw required. It was as juicy as brisket will be, smoky, meaty and with just the right amount of the salty rub. One of the best things I had here.
Not to be out done by the brisket is the Turkey Breast. Again, not an easy cut for novices as it too is easy to dry out. Again not so here. This is moist and as flavourful a piece of breast meat I've had. Nicely smoked and served up in slices. No need for the White Sauce on this and in fact, it detracted. It's not that the sauce wasn't good, it was fine, it's just that it covered up the subtle turkey flavour.
The ribs, served dry, are pretty much perfect. Smoky, meaty, juicy and the right amount of chew. They yielded the bone when tugged on just as they should be. I can’t say these are the best ribs I’ve had however they were more than satisfactory.
There are a few options for dessert but I couldn't resist the Peanut Butter Pie. Peanut butter flake (like what's in a Crispy Crunch) topped with custard and meringue, crumble. It's baked into a standard pie shell and is absolutely fantastic. I hemmed and hawed about but in the end, I made a great choice.
So there you have it folks, one of the best examples of North/Central Alabama BBQ in a quiet little historic town.
You can find New Market BBQ at 5601 Winchester Rd, New Market, Al.
You can also find them on the web, facebook and Twitter.
Well that's all for now folks, see ya later in the food court.
For Chuck Baker, BBQ isn’t just a passion it’s his life. Almost literally. Chuck is there in there in the evening putting pork butts in the pit. I can only assume he goes to bed sometime after that. First thing the next day, the butts come off and the ribs go on. Thus begins another day for Chuck. If you’ve ever smoked at home, you know that BBQ is a painstakingly long endeavour. If you’ve ever owned a restaurant (or any business for that matter), you know that it’s life consuming job. Marry the two vocations and it pretty much is your life. Good thing Chuck loves what he does. It shows too. Chuck is cranking out some high quality Q from his little smoke shack just off the square in Lynchburg proper.
Barrel House BBQ is really two separate buildings. The big one is the restaurant. Complete with a kitchen and dining room it even has a small section for souveniers. The smaller building is the smoke house and where pigs go to become delicious.
Chuck makes everything himself. Including the restaurant. He remodeled it and even built some of the furniture. Repurposing spent barrels and such for some thematic tables and chairs. The whole restaurant, as you can imagine, is decked out as much as possible in Jack Daniels.
One of the neatest things at Chucks place is the "Post Cards." Chuck has flipped over some acoustic ceiling tiles and uses them as pseudo post cards. Different tiles for different countries. That’s me in the very top left obviously. As you can tell, this is the Canadian tile.
So let’s have a look at some of what Chuck has to offer.
I should start off by saying that the general feeling among locals is that the meat is top notch while the sauce leave a bit to be desired. My mileage differed as you are about to find out.
There are two house made sauces, both of which are fantastic. The vinegar sauce is really that. Vinegar. It's pumped up with BBQ flavours and hot peppers for a little bite if you like. The other, a thick, slightly chunky sweet sauce that's the complete antithesis of the vinegar sauce. Equally good IMHO. For me though, a 1:1 mix of the two proved awesome. The sweet and tart from the two performed a beautiful balancing act that when used as a dipping sauce for the ribs was perfect.
The Pulled Pork was very tasty although had a bit of a stewed flavour to me. Perhaps it was over steamed in a warming tray. That's one problem with pulled pork is it can lose a lot of it's goodness if it isn't fresh. Not that it loses so much it's not good. Far from it. All in all it's just good solid pigness.
The ribs, dry (aka Memphis Style) were good. Nothing special other than a flavour to them that I couldn't quite place. Mrs. Sippi didn't care for that flavour, I didn't have any opinion one way or another about it. It was just there. Where they did really well is with the sauce. The golden rule is "If the "Q" good, it doesn't need sauce." I'm somewhat in this camp. I can however attest, sometimes the sauce can make it better. This is one of those times. Especially since I'm a sauce guy. As I said above, the two sauces combined were magical with these ribs.
The Tater Salad and Beans were run of the mill if not very solid sides. These didn't jump off my plate as seminal additions however that doesn't mean the weren't very enjoyable. The beans were nicely balance in that they weren't sweet, savoury, spicy, BBQ'y (is that even a word??) or any thing. They were smooth and tasty and there isn't anything wrong with that. Add creamy to the description and that's what you get with the other side here. Just good old BBQ style potato salad. Well done.
So there you have it. Good food in the Mecca for Tennessee Whiskey aficionados.
You can find Barrel House BBQ at 105 Mechanic St S. Lynchburg, Tn.
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You can also find them on facebook
Well that’s all for now folks, see ya next time in the food court.
Davwud
So rumour has it that a horse farm in the Owens Cross Roads area of Alabama was owned by The King of Rock n Roll, Elvis Presley. As the story goes, he was visiting his farm one day and stopped in at the local BBQ joint for some lunch. This is what James Taylor (no not the music guy) was told when he bought the place.
The West Virginia and Pennsylvania raised James is a long way from home. His circuitous life found him living Dauphin Co. Pa on March 28, 1979. At 4am a couple of system failures followed by a stuck relief valve started a chain reaction that would forever put Three Mile Island in the US lexicon. James journey would continue and by the 90's he was working at Hampton Cove Golf and Country Club on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. It was then he decided to go it alone and bought Big Cove BBQ just down the street.
A loyal Big Cove customers would eventually join the team and soon after, Jennifer would not only marry James but his BBQ place too.
If I were to open a BBQ restaurant it’s quite possible I’d want it to look exactly like Big Cove BBQ in Huntsville, Alabama. It’s a simple wood shack with big BBQ lettering on the side. It exudes charm. It’s what a Q joint oughta look like in my opinion.
Inside Jennifer’s smiling face greets patrons at the order window. Half a dozen or so tables clutter the dining room and there’s a nice patio outside. As you can imagine, it’s pretty basic and homey inside. Wood pannel walls and what every Q shack should have, a life size stand up of Elvis.
Big Cove first crossed my path when it was named Best BBQ Restaurant in North East Alabama. How could I possibly ignore such praise?? In a region well populated with pitmasters named Gibson, such an honour would have to be well earned. So let’s see how they did.
The pulled pork was pretty good but there were some considerations here. It was slightly dry but since were were the last customers of the day, all in all, somewhat understandable. They should be lauded for not drowning it in sauce to cover that up or over steaming it to keep it moist but turning it spongy. They don’t sauce it at all which is nice and they have nice long shreds of meat so I can imagine that straight off the smoker, this is really good stuff.
The ribs were, by competition standards, over cooked. They were falling off the bone. I really don’t have a problem with that since I’m not a competition judge. So read into that that they were super tender. They tasted a bit plain but a little bit of the sauce really picked them up. That works well for me since I love sauce.
The accompanying sauce was really nice. A typical vinegar/tomato type sauce you’ll find in north Alabama and done very well here and with a hint of heat. I never did try the white sauce.
The beans were really nice. Both Mrs. Sippi and I gobbled them up. Nice chunks of pork and a good smooth taste. I got almost all the way through them when I decided that a little sauce might be nice with them. It was. The vinegar and spice opened them up even more.
The tater salad was simply amazing. Good chunks of potato, skin on and some garnish. It had a signature taste to it that I just couldn’t put my finger on. I noticed a bottle of squeezable butter flavoured margarine in the cooler and wonder if that was it. It did seem to be a bit buttery. Whatever it was, both of us concurred that it was the best restaurant potato salad we’d had.
So there you have it folks. A good meal in a cool little Q shack where Elvis once ate.
You can find Big Cove at 151 Taylor Rd. in Owens Cross Roads, Alabama.
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You can also find them on facebook
Well that’s all for now folks, see ya next time in the Food Court.
Davwud
You sometimes have to wonder what possesses people to do the things they do. I mean, what would posses a person to open a Texas BBQ joint in Madison Alabama. Right in the heart of North Alabama BBQ country. Especially given that people from one BBQ region DO NOT, as a rule, like BBQ from another region. But....there it is, Chuck Wagon BBQ not 10 minutes from the legend, Big Bob Gibson's. It's a recipe, no pun intended, for disaster.
But what if I told you that at lunch time, you can't get near this place. That lineups start before the doors open. That ya, it's that good.
Owner Mike Holley, a genuine transplanted Texan is churning out what could very well be the best Texas Q East of the Pecos. Using recipes handed down from his Grandfather, George Washington Gray he's found enough room in the BBQ saturated landscape of Madison and Limestone Counties. While he toiled in the oil fields of Texas for many years, Mike had cooking in his blood. His Great Grandfather was a chuck wagon cook on the Goodnight-Loving Trail.
Located just off I-565 Chuckwagon BBQ is a sight to behold. An honest to goodness joint. Decked out in weathered barn board with a bright red roof and big BBQ spelled out it's a stand out. Smoke stacks and catering pits pop up like mushrooms in a damp forest.
Inside it mirrors the outside with more barn board and is decorated with many things Texas. You enter around back and go through the outdoor dining area. Food is served to you cafeteria style from a large serving station inside and the cramped main dining room seems to accommodate many more than you'd think.
The Beans were much better but seemed to be lacking something. It seemed to be an acid of some sort. I added a bit of BBQ sauce and that seemed to brighten things up a bit. So I added more. I found that there was a level that was perfect and one that was too much. So easy does it.
A 2 Meat combo of Brisket and Sausage is a nice match. Smoked pork sausage and Texas style brisket are as ubiquitous in Texas as cows it seems. While both were terrific, they both lacked that great smoked flavour that I love. Otherwise, the sausage was incredibly tasty and perfectly cooked. When smoking sausage the casing can become rather rubbery and downright unappetizing. This wasn't the case here. The brisket also hit all the appropriate buttons but the smokey one as I mentioned. The meat was fork tender, juicy and great tasting. Gven that these are the two house specialties, they’d better be good.
They do actually do pork products as well. This horrible photo is of ribs. Given that we showed up 5 minutes before close and I got the last order of ribs they were needless to say, not very photogenic. Not to worry, the taste was pretty much everything you’d want. As you can tell by the pink in the meat, the smoke flavour was spot on.
For dessert there are some options but Mrs. Sippi was all over the Fried Pies. The apple was terrific but the peach was just slightly better.
