For the past few trips as I travel south I have been in a rut hitting the same places over and over again. This time I told myself that I was stopping at different places than I normally do.
Priceville, AL
From the interstate (I-65 south) I saw a billboard for Libby's Catfish Diner and BBQ smokehouse. As I love both catfish and BBQ the place sounded perfect.
So I got off at exit 334 and sure enough right there it was. I noticed however that the cars all seemed to be parked over to another building....
Ahhhhh I see the two restaurants went together and got the billboard space. It was not a place with catfish and BBQ but two seperate places.
Libby's Catfish Diner was PACKED which is a good thing. The BBQ smokehouse had a few cars, and a few people inside.
Ok real wood that is a plus
The BBQ Smokehouse Menu
I liked their choice of table tops, the tops were laminated with the advertisements under them so you could easily wipe them clean.
After carefully going over the menu, I chose the combo plate to give me a sample of it all.
Here is a closer view of the 1/4 chicken and ribs
This is the chipped pork and sides
My thoughts about this place
The potato salad was a mashed potato salad that had a few lumps of potato in it, and was definately made in house. It was creamy with just a bit of tang to it.
The BBQ beans were canned and added to that a bit of the chipped smoked pork. I have had much better beans elsewhere.
The ribs were a bit dry and everything came presauced. They did have a nice smokey flavor to them so all in all not a total loss on the ribs.
The 1/4 chicken was good and juicy with a good bit ofsmoke flavor.
The chipped smoked pork was ok, it didn't have a strong smoke flavor, but you could tell it was there.
Their sauce was interesting. A sweet hot sauce based sauce, very thin. It had the kick of tabasco sauce but also had a sweetness to it. almost like a BBQ version of sweet & sour.
The thing that really shone through was the Nana Puddin. This stuff was recently made it was still warm and it made the nilla wafers almost dissolve in it. Lots of Banana chunks and creamy gooey homemade pudding.
Overall I would give this place a little bit above average grade with the potato salad and the banana pudding recieving high marks.
Only too soon I was back on the road heading south again.
Next Stop: Dothan, AL
I got to Dothan around 4pm, and I noticed that the place I wanted to try wasn't packed YET. So I pulled into the parking lot (in the POURING rain) and dashed for the door.
DOBBS BBQ - Dothan, AL
Dobbs claims to be Dothan's oldest restaurant at over 98 years.
I have been to this place twice before and hopefully this time would be better than the last two. I give a place 3 times and if it doesn't improve then it goes off my list of approved places.
Usually when I pass by this place it is packed, I was just lucky in my timing this trip. I got inside and there were a few people eating and several tables that needed to be cleared, I was greeted by Jennifer my server and told to sit anywhere clean
Anyone noticed the serving since and their claim??
After looking over the menu, I decided on the small combo plate, with potato salad.
Jennifer brought my unsweet tea, and it tasted rancid
so she brought me a diet coke instead, then had the owner check out the tea. He ended up throwing out several gallons of tea and quickly ordered the back of the house to make more tea.
Soon after the tea floor show my combo plate arrived
I asked for sauce on the side, because if you don't it gets drenched in sauce.
The ribs were tender and well smoked, but here is where things again go wrong. The meat was cool to the touch, NO SMOKE RING, even though there is a sign up front that says, "our meat has a pink coloring due to the smoking process, the meat is not rare"
Well I went with the sliced instead of the chipped - Mistake #1
I asked for sauce on the side - Mistake #2
The beef was not brisket, but reminded me of arbys roast beef and almost as thin sliced.
I could not really taste the smoke flavor at all in the pork or the beef.
The one bright shining star in the BBQ disaster was the homemade strawberry shortcake for dessert.
The strawberry juice had filtered down through the cake and made it extremely moist and wonderful.
All in All I would have to give Dobb's BBQ a just above failing grade. I have also removed it from my list of BBQ places to eat at.
I should have went with my first thought and went to Hunt's Seafood instead.
I arrived safely in Florida, and have wondered since "What happened to the sun??" It is warmer than home but has been overcast and rainy ever since I got here, which is a good thing cause they need the rain down here.
