A BBQ Reawakening
Fri, 06/15/07 1:33 PM
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Wanted to take this time to share a recent 'que experience I've had.
The neighborhood I live in has many eclectic and locally known restaurants. We have a pretty good burger joint (Five Guys), a great thai place (Thai Tanium), a still-relatively-new greek restaurant (Vasilis), a decent pizzeria/sub shop (Potomac Pizza), two classy seafood restaurants (O'Donnell's and Bonefish), and a locally acclaimed indian place (Tandori Knights). Overall, my neighborhood in Gaithersburg, Maryland is a place where deciding what to do for dinner could turn into a half-hour debate.
That said, our only primary BBQ place is... Famous Dave's. I remember thinking it was decent enough the first few times I went there, years back. As I've grown, however, so have my tastes. To be polite, Dave's just isn't doing it for me anymore - and I've been trying to convince myself otherwise for the past month and a half or so in the name of choosing a 'que dinner. I can't pinpoint the exact whys and hows, but the food lately has always left me feeling bloated in a very unsatisfying way. Yes, no one has ever claimed that a pulled pork sandwich with extra sauce was health food on par with broccoli florets, but eating Dave's has not given me the pleasant post-gestation feeling that other meals have in the past. Particularly good barbeque.
Yesterday after work, I was asked if I'd like to get BBQ for dinner. The difference this time, however, was that Famous Dave's was not the place in question. When I was about seven or eight, my family and I used to go to another primary barbeque place: Red, Hot, and Blue. I hadn't been there in years, for which I have no good explanation as to why other than my parents believing there was better 'que to be had. Still, I figured it couldn't be as bad as a Famous Dave's, so I agreed to it.
Red, Hot, and Blue doesn't look like anything special from the outside. This particular location is in a small outside shopping center off of Shady Grove rd. in Gaithersburg. A supermarket and a Subway are to the left of it; a chinese place to the right. It was early in the 5 pm hour when we went inside, so there weren't that many patrons; mostly older folk coming in for an 'early-bird' dinner. The walls are adorned with blues/r&b/jazz/soul musicians (and there is a difference between these four genres of music), and Otis Redding was playing on the speakers by the time we sat down. For some reason, however, a part of me was still convinced that RH&B would be another Dave's: a gentrified "theme" chain that tries to hard with fancy names for menu items and crowding their walls with pictures and other types of 'flair' (although I prefer to use the term '****').
I ordered a 22 oz glass of their original draft beer, and a jumbo pulled-pork sandwich with fries. And then something happened. Suddenly I was in a local nothing-spectacular BBQ spot; I had a glass of good cold beer to the right of me; a bite of fantastic pulled pork was in my mouth; John Lee Hooker's "Hoochie Coochie Man" was playing on the speakers. Nothing here felt overprepared or as if an exactly similar meal could be had at a different locale. Admittingly, the fries weren't anything to write home about, although the only reason I ordered them was because they didn't have hush puppies on the menu (the *true* side to any BBQ dish, for my tastes). And while the actual sandwich was good, I know I've had better - Pierce's comes to mind.
Yet here was still an experience that at least attempted to be the antithesis of the chain 'que I had experienced for the past month and a half. Red, Hot, and Blue was sobering for me: it made me realize (or perhaps remind me) that good BBQ can be found if you look hard enough, even in the mini-malls. To settle for the chain alternative a la Famous Dave's is to, in a sense, accept mediocrity. It made me realize that, for me, truly good barbeque creates an environment of ease which needs no extra features; the food speaks for itself.
I'm sorry that I don't have more of a culinary distinction between 'chain' and 'good' BBQ, and to the surprise of no one here, Red, Hot, and Blue is a chain as well. And like I said before, there is certainly better BBQ to be had. I guess that this particular experience I had that good for me and figured others here would possibly be interested. The point of all of this, and possibly of Roadfood in general: leave the major chains alone and go exploring. You'll be glad you did.
