Demetri's BBQ

1901 28th Avenue South, Homewood, AL - (205) 871-1581

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Posted By Mike Stroud on 1/30/2010 3:26:00 PM

Barbecue aficionados do not normally consider Birmingham a mecca; those honors usually go to the likes of Memphis, Kansas City, and Lexington, N.C. But what the pork pundits overlook is that the city, and its suburban environs, are liberally sprinkled with BBQ joints; one is hardly a five minutes’ drive from any of them. From shabby inner-city storefronts to squeaky-clean strip mall franchises, you can find it all in Birmingham. In between those extremes is a gem. Demetri’s was founded about 40 years ago by one of the numerous Greek émigrés who settled in Birmingham on the heel of countrymen who originally came to work in the steel industry in the early 20th century. Located in Homewood, the first bedroom community over Red Mountain, several unusual delights await the hungry patron.

Plenteous sweetened iced tea comes to your table in a jiffy. There's a surprisingly large menu of pork, beef, ribs, chicken, and turkey, or if you come for breakfast, traditional Southern favorites like grits or even French toast, the specialty of the house.

Traditionalist that I am, I ordered the pork shoulder platter. Perhaps most notable was the side of slaw. In most of the South, you get a very finely chopped mass of cabbage, carrots, and other produce shavings dressed in either a tart mixture of vinegar and sugar or a sweet compound of mayonnaise and sugar. At Demetri's, the waitress brings out a full SALAD PLATE of shredded veggies with a dollop of Greek dressing atop! Unlike most coleslaws, this is decidedly crunchy and plentiful, not simply an afterthought to garnish the side of the plate or the top of a sandwich. Further culinary delights arrived on a school-cafeteria-type green melamine plate, in the form of sliced pork shoulder and baked beans with slivers of pork throughout.

Birmingham barbecue sauces are typically spicier and sweeter (sometimes with a ketchup base) than the sauces of their country cousins, where vinegar sharpness is more typical. Demetri’s Greek heritage shows up in a perfect urban balance of down-home flavor and European nuance. In most of Alabama, pork shoulder gets the fine-chop treatment. You can have it that way if you insist, but I recommend you take the sliced option, to fully experience the chewiness or “bite” usually missing with most Deep South pulverized pork.

Chocolate cream pie: Birmingham folks like their sweets as much as folks out in the country, but where you will find egg white meringue out in the provinces, in the big city they top their pies with whipped cream (enough to make Soupy Sales or The Three Stooges proud!). Beneath that is a dense, flavorful pudding with a true taste of Hershey’s cocoa.

People of all kinds keep Demetri's busy most of the time. What draws them out is exemplary food and service.

Scorecard

Overall: Legendary - Worth driving from anyplace

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Reviewers Photos [Upload Your Photos]

"This was maybe the densest and fudgiest chocolate cream pie I have ever encountered."
Cliff Strutz

"The chopped pork on the pork platter comes in large chunks, covered in the sweet sauce."
Cliff Strutz

""Slaw in the Raw" - instead of on the side, at Demetri's, you get your slaw on a full salad plate, with a slather of Greek dressing atop. It comes to you BEFORE the meal, like a salad, too."
Mike Stroud

"Ah, one of the best things about the Deep South. A mighty good helping of sliced pork and a cup of BBQ beans; could you ask for anything better? Also, note the burger buns BESIDE the meat; in central Alabama, many barbecue joints let their customers decide whether they want to make sandwiches or not."
Mike Stroud

"A sign of a true Roadfood place--the old Formica counters and malt-shop stools have been left intact after all the years. And the service is quite old fashioned, too--generous drink refills, orders served up rapidly. These two staffers show the way."
Mike Stroud

"One of the neatest things to this reviewer about barbecue places in the Birmingham area is that you can actually see your meat being cooked on an open pit, in full view of the dining area. Here, the cook gets a handful of pork shoulder, while his co-worker wraps up utensils in a napkin, an old Southern restaurant custom. The tea pitcher beside her is full of a favorite local brand, Red Diamond."
Mike Stroud

"Going over Red Mountain into suburban Birmingham, you don't have to go far to get good barbecue. The locals in the know have patronized Demetri's since the 1960s. Even the day after Thanksgiving, the faithful show up in droves."
Mike Stroud