Dixie Barbeque Co. - Johnson City, TN

Posted By Michael Stern on March 29, 2001 1:45 PM

Here is an eatery where you really, truly can have it your way. To complement sliced pork, pulled pork, inside white meat, outside dark meat, pork ribs, or sliced beef, or smoked chicken, your waitress will present you with a choice of sauces: East Tennessee Red, North Carolina Vinegar, Devil’s Dew, South Carolina Gold, Alabama White, Texas/Oklahoma Style, Richard Petty brand, Maurice’s Gourmet Sauce, and Sauce from Hell.

What’s truly remarkable about Dixie Barbeque is not how many different things it offers, but how good the different things it offers are. Proprietor Alan Howell is a fanatic on the subject of smoked meat; and when he talks about his ribs, he scoffs at the big national chains that boil ribs to soften the meat and that, furthermore, serve wimpy baby back ribs instead of big, meaty pork ribs. Here at Dixie, the ribs cook a minimum of four hours over smoldering wood; pork shoulders go a full twelve. The result is delicious meat, the smoky flavor of which stays with you for hours after eating a meal. Our favorite among the choices is chopped pork – juicy, flavorful, and elegant in a quintessential Carolinian way. Next-best is sliced pork typical of Eastern Tennessee. And we cannot dine here without at least a quarter rack of ribs. They are crusty and chewy, smoke-flavored and delicious even without any sauce whatsoever.

On the side of whichever meat you like, available companions include barbecue-flavored baked beans, chunky fried potatoes laced with sweet onion, creamy white cole slaw, and a zesty slaw dressed with mustard-tinged barbecue sauce.

Of the various sauces, pick your poison. We would only remind you that Johnson City is East Tennessee, and Dixie’s Barbeque’s East Tennessee sauce – opaque cinnabar-red and radiant with spice – is fantastic. Unless you say otherwise, this is the sauce that comes on barbecue sandwiches.

Overall Rating

Pulled pork

spare ribs

Pork Ribs

fried potatoes

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Posted By Michael Shelley on February 10, 2008 1:25 AM

I get the feeling after our visit that Dixie Barbeque Co. is having hard times and is cutting back. The menu we saw seemed to have fewer choices than many folks have mentioned. Ribs are only available on weekends. Perhaps the best days here have past.

The atmosphere is nice enough: that back porch look, with lots of stuff on the walls, too-loud music playing, and a too-loud TV playing sports. Waitress was nice and the owner came over and described the different sauces, and talked barbeque with us; a super nice guy.

We had a BBQ sandwich and some ribs and sides, and a piece of cake. The pulled BBQ is absolutely nothing special; dry, not smoky. No wonder they have so many sauces; you'll need them to add some flavor. The ribs are also nothing special. In fact, they are particularly "white" tasting, just white meat on bones, no smoke, no juice, no flavor. The potatoes and onions raved about previously are run-of-the-mill homefries that taste WAY too salty (I imagine that if a cook had tasted them they would not have been served). The beans are also ordinary (like canned with the addition of some pulled pork) as is the slaw and cake.

In short: nothing special.

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Posted By Charlie Simpson on January 16, 2006 8:27 PM

We visited Dixie Barbeque on a recent Friday evening as a result of receiving a gift certificate. My wife had a half slab of dry-rubbed ribs and I had a small pulled pork plate. Our sides were potatoes and onions, slaw, beans and seasoned fries.

There are several sauces from which to choose. We sampled the Texas/Oklahoma sauce, the North Carolina vinegar sauce, and the East Tennessee sauce. There were a couple of sauces we didn't try, a white Alabama-style and a mustard based Carolina-style. Order the pulled pork or beef "plain" if you want to try them all. If you don't specify, it comes with the East Tennessee sauce.

The service was good and the waitress was always around to supply more iced tea. Unfortunately, I cannot rate the food highly at all. The ribs, though supposedly smoked for 12 hours, were tough and chewy, and nearly flavorless. I usually prefer just a dry rub on ribs, but these were so lacking in flavor that we used the sauces to boost the taste. The pulled pork was edible but, like the ribs, bland. There was little if any smokiness.

The Texas-style sauce was my favorite. It had a little heat, and a tangy flavor. The vinegar sauce was forgettable, and the East Tennessee sauce was sweet, with a strong taste of molasses that my wife enjoyed. The sides were all fine. The beans reminded me more of cowboy beans than barbequed or baked beans.

We will not be going back. There are better barbeque choices available.

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