Bear Creek Open Pit BBQ

Posted By Michael Stern on April 6, 2010 1:38 PM

Callaway is way south in Maryland; and while the Chesapeake Bay is best-known (and rightfully so) for its excellent seafood, it is also a place where you’ll find fine true-South barbecue. One of several smoke houses in the region, Bear Creek is unique for its huge open pit. You’ll see it on the left as you walk in the door. Here, pitmaster Curtis Shreve cooks pork and beef so tender that if you look at it hard, it falls apart. We are especially fond of the pork, either hand-pulled into shreds or sliced into pieces soft as velvet. It has a fine smoky flavor and a piggy richness that defies description. It is, in fact, so good that we like it without any sauce whatsoever, all the better to savor the flavor of the meat. (Mr. Shreve’s sauce, we should say, is excellent: sweet, gently spicy and mildly addictive.)

Beyond superb barbecue, you can expect Bear Creek to have interesting game on the menu. Curtis Shreve is a hunter, and while he cannot serve what he kills (health department regulations forbid it), he does have a fondness for such meats as venison, alligator, and frogs legs. When we stopped in, the day’s special was rabbit stew – a hearty meal that included big hunks of carrot and potato and easy-to-eat pieces of breaded and fried rabbit. On the side of the stew we had a block of delicious homemade cornbread.

Mr. Shreve originally hails from the Louisiana/Texas area; so his cooking reflects southwest roots, too. The kids’ menu contains corn dogs reminiscent of those at the Texas State Fair; and this is the only place in the region we know that serves the unique southwest specialty, Frito pie. That’s a bed of corn chips topped with chili, crowned with cheese and chopped onions. It is a brilliant combination of food because the chili and the corn chips don’t quite blend together. Some chips stay crisp, others become ribbons of salty cornmeal among the meat; and the cheese shreds on top melt into rivulets of bright orange dairy richness. Mr. Shreve remembered, “When I was a kid years ago, they used to take a scoop of chili and put it right in the bag of Fritos and you ate it just like that. Now the bags are made of plastic that does not withstand the heat. So we serve our Fritos pie in a dish.”

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sliced pork

Pulled Pork Platter

Rib Platter

Fritos pie

cornbread

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Posted By Dudley on October 17, 2010 10:54 AM

I love smoking meat and wanted to compare my BBQ with the meats at Bear Creek. So my wife and i took a 2 hour drive down to have a Sunday dinner at Bear Creek. I wanted to try meat so i had the pulled pork, ribs and brisket. sides of collards and baked beans. my wife had chicken, ribs and pulled pork with sides of green beans and sweet potatoe fries.I was disappointed with everything except the fries. Ribs were tough, dry and flavorless. The pulled pork was fair. the brisket I only took 2 bites out of and stopped. No smoke ring, fatty, tough and cut in 1/2 thick slices. It was bad. My wife was disappointed as well. The chicken leg was good but not great. Total cost was $35.00. I will never eat there again.

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Posted By Warren Neiderhieser on August 22, 2010 10:24 PM

By far the best pulled pork BBQ sandwich I have ever had. They do not put sauce in the pulled pork, but they do have a wide variety of sauces. I usually eat half of the sandwich without the sauces as it is so good plain. I have heard that the chili is some of the best, but I usually go with the pulled pork; I usually take a pound home with me. I have had the ribs and they too are delicious.

You have a choice: carry out the food, or dine in a decent dining area. The dining area is only a couple of years old. We usually carry out as we enjoy a beer or two with the BBQ. Bear Creek is somewhat out of the way in southern Maryland. Luckily, I have a friend who has a fishing camp/vacation home down there so I get to pass by every once in a while. This is about a two hour drive from my home, but many's the time I try to find an excuse to go there.

Definitely call ahead about the hours. We made the mistake of eating cardboard tasting pizza on a Saturday night, thinking we would go to Bear Creek on Sunday. It was not open and we were planning on bringing some home. This was in December, so the summer hours may be different. Also, cash only. They do have an ATM, but it sometimes runs out of money.

Remember to pick yourself up a T-shirt that says "I got my pork pulled at Bear Creek."

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