Interstate Bar-B-Q - Memphis, TN

Posted By Michael Stern on November 1, 2002 4:49 PM

Inside and out, Interstate is perfumed by smoke from slow-sizzling barbecue round the clock. That is because proprietor Jim Neely puts his pork shoulders in the pit at 5pm for the next day’s lunch and he starts the day’s ribs every morning. Mr. Neely is a master, and in the city of Memphis, to be a true pitmaster is to be a god.

His restaurant is a modest pork house serving four-star ribs, shoulder meat, sausages, and bologna with all the proper fixins, including addictive bar-b-q spaghetti (soft noodles in breathtaking sauce). You eat at a table in the simple dining room where a “Wall of Fame” boasts critics’ accolades and 8x10s from celebrity fans; or enter next door and get it to go, by the sandwich, plate, or whole slab of ribs.

When you lift a rib and merely poke it hard with a finger, the meat slides off the bone. It is chewy with a deep savor haloed by the perfume of wood smoke. Chopped pork shoulder has a few crusty outside shreds and tatters among the pillowy pile of interior meat; slices are less gooped with sauce, and not as messy … but not as succulent, either. A large chopped pork sandwich is the most Memphian dish on the menu, made as per local custom with a layer of cool cole slaw atop the well-sauced meat. It is a total mess that disintegrates as you eat it, but the most delicious mess imaginable!

Overall Rating

Pork ribs

Sampler Platter

Barbecue Spaghetti

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Posted By Donna Williams on September 11, 2011 2:19 PM

Interstate was good, but not better or best. To start with, the service was memorable: memorably bad! The place wasn't even half-full and it was nearly 20 minutes before anyone even came to take our order, then another 45 minutes before we got our food.

And the BBQ, while good, was too saucy for me. I'm a smoky meat person who doesn't want that taste drowned in sauce. That's what I felt happened with the ribs, big and meaty and tender though they were. Our son and my husband shared a sampler platter and really liked the sausage, but thought everything else was fairly forgettable.

We'd go back, but only if we had a l-o-n-g time to wait.

Overall Rating

Pork ribs

Pork Sandwich

Ribs

Barbecue Spaghetti

Sampler Platter

Potato Salad

Baked Beans

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Posted By Wayne Morris on September 6, 2011 4:27 PM

Simply the best ribs I've ever eaten. I'm from North Carolina and we know barbeque. Their pulled pig ain't bad and the BBQ spaghetti is fascinating. We drive from the coast of NC to Memphis at least once or twice a year to eat here.

Overall Rating

Pork ribs

Pork Sandwich

Barbecue Spaghetti

Potato Salad

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