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"Bucket List Barbecue in Every State"


Beau Vine

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You know you love these articles: https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/restaurantsandnews/bucket-list-barbecue-in-every-state/ss-BBUCseZ?ocid=spartanntp#image=2

 

ALABAMA: BIG BOB GIBSON BAR-B-Q

Decatur 
When you're in Alabama, you've got to get your hands on some white barbecue sauce. It's a regional specialty made from mayonnaise, spices, and vinegar, and usually goes on smoked chicken or turkey. Head to Big Bob Gibson's for a smoked chicken platter basted in white barbecue sauce and served with red skin potato salad.

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ARKANSAS: SMOKIN' BUNS

Jacksonville 
Who knew that fried catfish and barbecue make such good companions? At Smokin' Buns, get The Hoss sandwich, a massive creation of Texas toast, smoked pork, baked beans, slaw, onion rings, and smoked ribs. If you're with company, ask them to grab the cornmeal-battered, fried catfish and hushpuppies, and share all the dishes for a winning meal.

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CONNECTICUT: TAINO SMOKEHOUSE

Middletown 
Taino Smokehouse is a tiny storefront with only seven tables, but in the summer, the owners open up the patio, which can seat an additional 250 people. They'll need all that space: People line up for their food, including smoked corned beef that they turn into an amazing Reuben sandwich. They've also got a Thai twist on barbecue with drunken noodles made with chopped smoked meat and Thai basil.

 

BBUCscs.img?h=582&w=1119&m=6&q=60&u=t&o=

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BBUCseC.img?h=582&w=1119&m=6&q=60&u=t&o=

UTAH: SMOKIN BONES BARBECUE

Bountiful 
Smokin Bones Barbecue does its take on a regional Southwest specialty: the Navajo taco. Instead of taco toppings, this restaurant tops a freshly fried Utah scone (aka fry bread) with cheese, baked beans, and a huge mound of chopped smoked brisket. Pork ribs are served dry and go well with its sweet, honey butter-topped cornbread.

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8 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

BBUCseC.img?h=582&w=1119&m=6&q=60&u=t&o=

UTAH: SMOKIN BONES BARBECUE

Bountiful 
Smokin Bones Barbecue does its take on a regional Southwest specialty: the Navajo taco. Instead of taco toppings, this restaurant tops a freshly fried Utah scone (aka fry bread) with cheese, baked beans, and a huge mound of chopped smoked brisket. Pork ribs are served dry and go well with its sweet, honey butter-topped cornbread.

For some reason I actually expected worse from the Mormons. 

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Iowa one looks good, but I've never heard of it.

Des Moines has a strong BBQ scene, so I expected something from there.  Basically KC style.  I'm sure you'd all spit it out of your mouth and demand reparations if you ate it*.

 

*unless you were told it was from Central Texas

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9 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

BBUCseC.img?h=582&w=1119&m=6&q=60&u=t&o=

UTAH: SMOKIN BONES BARBECUE

Bountiful 
Smokin Bones Barbecue does its take on a regional Southwest specialty: the Navajo taco. Instead of taco toppings, this restaurant tops a freshly fried Utah scone (aka fry bread) with cheese, baked beans, and a huge mound of chopped smoked brisket. Pork ribs are served dry and go well with its sweet, honey butter-topped cornbread.

WTH is that?   And how in the world do you eat it?    With a fork?   Or do you try to pick it up and eat with a bib?   

Fricken Utah....  Please just stick with promoting Zion and Bryce Canyon and skip the BBQ.  

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8 minutes ago, ztejas said:

I would wager there aren't more than a dozen states that have a BBQ spot that should belong on anyone's "bucket list"

And a dozen might be putting it nicely. 

Maybe 20 years ago.

Any more, with the spread of information via the internet and the inherent movement of people, the techniques you guys worship have spread around the country.  Living in a place doesn't magically make you better at something, in general.  As long as you have access to good meat, and know what you're doing, you can make really good barbecue anywhere.  I realize I'm making this argument to a group of people that believe lines on a map have a magical effect on the way food tastes, but it's true.

There's a guy about 45 minutes down the road me, originally from the Hill Country, who moved to SE Minnesota with his wife in his late 30's.  He's been around CenTex bbq all his life, and he's cooking it here.  It's awesome.  The only thing native to the area is the meat.  You could very easily have this exact same situation replicated nation wide.

BBQ has gotten really popular, and there's enough of a movement among millenials to get "the real thing" that people are either figuring this out pretty much everywhere, or going to the places it comes from to learn how to do it.

Edited by Al_4_ISU
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4 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Maybe 20 years ago.

Any more, with the spread of information via the internet and the inherent movement of people, the techniques you guys worship have spread around the country.  Living in a place doesn't magically make you better at something, in general.  As long as you have access to good meat, and know what you're doing, you can make really good barbecue anywhere.  I realize I'm making this argument to a group of people that believe lines on a map have a magical effect on the way food tastes, but it's true.

There's a guy about 45 minutes down the road me, originally from the Hill Country, who moved to SE Minnesota with his wife in his late 30's.  He's been around CenTex bbq all his life, and he's cooking it here.  It's awesome.  The only thing native to the area is the meat.  You could very easily have this exact same situation replicated nation wide.

I couldn't help but notice that every foreign state slide in that link that referenced "Texas-style BBQ" had sauce all over the meat.

My other counterpoint is that when I lived in Seattle, there was a Mexican restaurant that won "Best of Seattle" awards every year.  It was the worst Mexican place I've ever eaten at -- I seriously preferred Taco Bell. Then I read an article about the family that ran it -- they had immigrated from Mexico, and they talked about having to adapt their recipes because Seattleites couldn't handle the spices. 

Edited by Beau Vine
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2 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

I couldn't help but notice that every foreign state slide in that link that referenced "Texas-style BBQ" had sauce all over the meat.

Was that from the restaurant themselves, or the author of the article?

I don't think you need to know much about bbq to know that Texas style is never sauced.

Edited by Al_4_ISU
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Just now, VolenteHawk said:

Joe's suffers in these things, because the most famous thing on the menu is a gawddamn sandwich with cheese and an onion ring on it.

 

And the Z-Man is delicious, but I'll never understand why it's become Joe's claim to fame.  The meat is excellent.

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5 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Maybe 20 years ago.

Any more, with the spread of information via the internet and the inherent movement of people, the techniques you guys worship have spread around the country.  Living in a place doesn't magically make you better at something, in general.  As long as you have access to good meat, and know what you're doing, you can make really good barbecue anywhere.  I realize I'm making this argument to a group of people that believe lines on a map have a magical effect on the way food tastes, but it's true.

There's a guy about 45 minutes down the road me, originally from the Hill Country, who moved to SE Minnesota with his wife in his late 30's.  He's been around CenTex bbq all his life, and he's cooking it here.  It's awesome.  The only thing native to the area is the meat.  You could very easily have this exact same situation replicated nation wide.

BBQ has gotten really popular, and there's enough of a movement among millenials to get "the real thing" that people are either figuring this out pretty much everywhere, or going to the places it comes from to learn how to do it.

You're making a completely different argument. That's great if some dude in Minnesota is doing it up almost as well as central Texas. That doesn't mean I need to go travel up there to have my mind blown before I die. 

The best rated places in the nation are still heavily weighted towards the traditional hotbeds, Texas, Missouri, Memphis, SC etc. 

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37 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

How does Arthur Bryant's win Missouri, and Joe's not win Kansas?

And now that I've gone through them, being historic is apparently worth points in the BBQ cradles...so Arthur Bryants wins Missouri for the same reason City Market wins Texas, even though neither one is the best.

 

Edited by VolenteHawk
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5 minutes ago, ztejas said:

You're making a completely different argument. That's great if some dude in Minnesota is doing it up almost as well as central Texas. That doesn't mean I need to go travel up there to have my mind blown before I die. 

The best rated places in the nation are still heavily weighted towards the traditional hotbeds, Texas, Missouri, Memphis, SC etc. 

Yeah, I got you now.

My point is that it's becoming exponentially easier to try high quality versions of what were previously regional specialties outside of those areas.  BBQ is not alone in this phenomena.

Edited by Al_4_ISU
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9 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Was that from the restaurant themselves, or the author of the article?

I don't think you need to know much about bbq to know that Texas style is never sauced.

 

image.jpg

^^^^^
"Texas-style BBQ" from New Jersey.  Fuck you, New Jersey.

Edited by Beau Vine
Fucking link won't work.
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2 minutes ago, VolenteHawk said:

And now that I've gone through them, being historic is worth points in the BBQ cradles...so Arthur Bryants wins Missouri for the same reason City Market wins Texas, even though neither one is the best.

 

Makes sense, then.

For Missouri, I'd go Q39 personally.  I'm not a KC expert, but that's my favorite thus far.  

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1 minute ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Yeah, I got you now.

My point is that it's becoming exponentially easier to try high quality versions of what were previously regional specialties outside of those areas.  BBQ is not alone in this phenomena.

Oh totally. I mean shit, there are places in South Korea doing "Texas style BBQ"

Sushi is another one that has become much better across the board I think. 

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3 minutes ago, VolenteHawk said:

Huge pet peeve of mine among idiots..."how can you get great sushi in __________?"  You could hypothetically get the best sushi in the US in Lincoln or Des Moines.  Being landlocked doesn't mean shit.

 

I do tend to go out of my way for fresh seafood when near an ocean, but yeah, at this point you can get fresh ingredients almost anywhere in the US.  It's a matter of paying for it.

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20 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

I do tend to go out of my way for fresh seafood when near an ocean, but yeah, at this point you can get fresh ingredients almost anywhere in the US.  It's a matter of paying for it.

My go to place in Dallas right now for Sushi is a transplant out of Omaha. 

Maybe they get better fish in Dallas but it's probably marginal. 

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1 minute ago, ztejas said:

My go to place in Dallas right now for Sushi is a transplant out of Omaha. 

Maybe they get better fish in Dallas but it's probably marginal. 

You might be more likely to get fish off a truck, I guess, but Dallas is still a good 5-6 hours from the coast, right?

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1 hour ago, Al_4_ISU said:

I do tend to go out of my way for fresh seafood when near an ocean, but yeah, at this point you can get fresh ingredients almost anywhere in the US.  It's a matter of paying for it.

This is kinda my point.  When you're near an ocean, by all means eat fresh seafood.  But for sushi in the US, it's all frozen.

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/nyregion/sushi-fresh-from-the-deep-the-deep-freeze.html

 

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6 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

I couldn't help but notice that every foreign state slide in that link that referenced "Texas-style BBQ" had sauce all over the meat.

My other counterpoint is that when I lived in Seattle, there was a Mexican restaurant that won "Best of Seattle" awards every year.  It was the worst Mexican place I've ever eaten at -- I seriously preferred Taco Bell. Then I read an article about the family that ran it -- they had immigrated from Mexico, and they talked about having to adapt their recipes because Seattleites couldn't handle the spices. 

Reminds me of a trip to New Zealand. In-laws had friends that had opened a restaurant, and having visited Texas, decided they would serve Mexican food. "You have to try the fajitas", they said. Fajitas consisted of beef stew served in a store-bought tortilla. 

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19 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

You know you love these articles: https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/restaurantsandnews/bucket-list-barbecue-in-every-state/ss-BBUCseZ?ocid=spartanntp#image=2

 

ALABAMA: BIG BOB GIBSON BAR-B-Q

Decatur 
When you're in Alabama, you've got to get your hands on some white barbecue sauce. It's a regional specialty made from mayonnaise, spices, and vinegar, and usually goes on smoked chicken or turkey. Head to Big Bob Gibson's for a smoked chicken platter basted in white barbecue sauce and served with red skin potato salad.

BBUCEIJ.img?h=582&w=1119&m=6&q=60&u=t&o=

giphy.gif

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Reminds me of a trip to New Zealand. In-laws had friends that had opened a restaurant, and having visited Texas, decided they would serve Mexican food. "You have to try the fajitas", they said. Fajitas consisted of beef stew served in a store-bought tortilla. 

Torchy's gonna sue

 

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6 hours ago, Bone3421 said:
21 hours ago, ztejas said:
My go to place in Dallas right now for Sushi is a transplant out of Omaha. 
Maybe they get better fish in Dallas but it's probably marginal. 

You talking about blue by chance

Yep.

Helps that I can walk to it but it's good for the price point. Good drinks too.

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Yep.
Helps that I can walk to it but it's good for the price point. Good drinks too.
Yup good stuff...i guessed that because i use to live in omaha...blue is a omaha transplant but one of the owners is from ft. Worth. I was talking to on off the big bosses one day at their other concept roja ( a texmex joint) and told me that when he found out i was from there. If im remembering right it was cheaper to open up there to test concept then he brought back home to the bigger market(blue). Wont bring roja as to much established tex mex
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