Matt C.
Yelp
We walked into this joint after hearing the hype from our young ones- tonight, we'd be the trendsetters and try it first.
So. The food.
We got in line, ordered our meats and sides. The barbecue (that's "pulled pork," y'all) was hand picked by the staff- like literally, picked off the butt by hand, weighed, and placed on the tray. Oddly, I watched the staff literally picked the bark off of what they pulled, and whoa, whoa, whoa- can you put that back on? I'd like to eat that. Sides were mac and cheese for the Mrs., and collards for me.
The Q: dessicated. Salty. Literally, salty like it had either been over-seasoned once the meat had been pulled, or there was some sort of competition-style rub that got plastered on prior to the cook. There was some smoke, but you just kind of missed it behind all of the seasoning. It was unpleasant to eat. The Mrs. got some coldish, dry brisket, always a risky move.
The mac and cheese was also sort of dry, with hints of velveeta poking through. Was there meant to be some sort of smoke or seasoning on the mac and cheese? Hard to tell- I was still trying to clear the salt off my palate. There's only so much sweet tea.
The greens saved the day, part of the two stars- a little sweet, a little hot, touch of vinegar. I should have gotten two of those, skipped the mac and cheese.
The service: on point. The folks behind the counter were friendly and kind of pleasantly surprised when I asked for my bark back- "Oh, you like barbecue, then." There was never a dirty table in the place- tables were cleaned and bused as quickly as people left. Kudos for that. It might have been good to grab a beer, but for some reason, I got the sense that the taps were closed that night. Still, two stars.
Like I said- I hope this place can survive on mall traffic, and enough folks who just don't have the will to drive elsewhere for better barbecue after a day of shopping. The place did go from dead to packed in the twenty minutes that we were there (around 6PM on a Friday night), so that's a good sign. It's a convenient spot to get to, close to REI and Target, so it's got that going for it, which is nice.